To read 400-word biographies of our coaches based throughout the Western United States, continue below:
MANUELLE CHARBONNEAU is a bilingual/bicultural French-American executive coach and advisor to global senior leaders and teams. She helps high potentials, particularly those from expert backgrounds, influence and succeed across boundaries and systems.
Raised in an expatriate family, by the time Manuelle was 7 years old she had lived on three continents. Her education includes a B.A. in international business from Audencia Business School (France); two masters degrees (one in clinical psychology, one in organizational psychology) and a Ph.D. in organizational psychology from Alliant International University (California). Her dissertation on the use of technology in coaching has been used as a reference worldwide. Manuelle also has completed an Executive Leadership Certificate from Cornell University (New York) as well as executive courses in cross-cultural communication and global leadership at the Thunderbird School of Global Management (Arizona). Manuelle is certified in a range of assessments including Global Competency Inventory, Team Emotional Intelligence, Entrepreneur Mindset Profile, Versatility Index Profile, PDi 360 Profilor, Thomas-Kilmann Conflict Mode Instrument, GlobeSmart, FIRO-B, and MBTI.
Manuelle began her career in international market research in Europe. After moving to the U.S., she worked as a licensed systemic psychotherapist for over a decade until she moved into change management and management consulting for a boutique firm. She then joined the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, the $1.6B wholesaler for the region responsible for the water needs of 19 million people, where she was in charge of leadership and career development. During her decade there, she implemented innovative assessment, training, and leadership solutions, built and oversaw a pool of coaches, and personally coached hundreds of leaders throughout the leadership pipeline and across divisions.
As an independent professional, Manuelle has coached leaders in organizations ranging from Fortune 500 to startups, including Hermès of Paris, Symantec, Airbus, Saks Fifth Avenue, Caltech University Tech Transfer, Sanofi, Verizon Digital Media, The American Water Works Association, Nemours Children Hospital, Lenovo, Genzyme, David Yurman, IBM’s Almaden Research Center, East West Bank, United Way, Enedis, BNP Paribas, French Accelerator, Raytheon, and the U.S. Department of Defense.
Manuelle has served as a board member of the Los Angeles Organization Development Network. She also has presented at several annual conferences of the Consulting Psychology Division of the American Psychological Association.
Manuelle is based in Los Angeles, where she lives with her international husband and two teenage daughters, who all think she drinks way too much Yunnan Imperial tea.
STEFAN MATTHIES is a trainer and executive coach who provides, in both the United States and Germany, personal and professional development in the areas of leadership, conflict management, effective communication, presentations, and team-building.
Born and raised in Germany, Stefan holds a bachelors degree in business administration and has studied applied cultural sciences at the University of Lueneburg. His first corporate position in Germany was in human resources at Babcock Textilmaschinen, after which he held marketing management positions at both RMM Marketing Research and at Springer&Lardon. As a management consultant and trainer at Fromm Management-Seminare, Stefan designed and conducted a variety of management coaching and training programs for German multinational corporations. Attending his programs over several years were executives and employees of Airbus, Allianz, Axel-Springer-Verlag, Beiersdorf, Bertelsmann, CSC Ploenzke, DaimlerChrysler, Gruner+Jahr, Hamburgische Landesbank, Nestlé, Philips, Premiere, RTL Television, Thyssen, and Volkswagen.
In 2001, Stefan relocated to Southern California and founded his own coaching and training firm there. In order to keep up with business developments in Europe as well as North America, he consults, coaches, and leads seminars in both Germany and the U.S. He has presented on cross-cultural issues at the Anderson Business School of the University of California, and on innovative leadership at the Microsoft’s Executive Briefing Center; in 2002, he spoke at the United Nations roundtable in Geneva. His personal client list includes, among others, Allianz, Avery Dennison, Bertelsmann, Ceradyne, Philips, SAP, and TimeWarner.
Stefan has been trained in global leadership systems, global executive coaching, cross-cultural training, transactional analysis for organizations, systemic neuro-linguistic programming, and the power of body language. He has enhanced his coaching skills by studying at the Newfield coaching and organizational learning program, and at the Wharton Business School’s executive coaching workshop. His interactive, results-oriented coaching and training approaches apply the personal development tool known as shadow coaching, plus Stefan’s own technique that incorporates humor, which draws on his training some years ago in the art of clowning. Stefan’s talent for humorously mirroring business situations has made it possible for previously defensive or otherwise reticent clients to become able to wholeheartedly seek innovative solutions to challenging business issues.
Although they visit Germany often, Stefan and his wife reside near the beaches of Southern California. Stefan is not only a trained clown but also a long-time actor, abilities that have proved useful in his personal life as well as in his professional services to corporations.