Kathy Gledhill
Working With Me
I spent 40 years inside organizations where the money was finite, the stakes were high, and someone always needed a steady hand on the numbers while the rest of the room was on fire.
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I started my career in finance at TWA & McGraw-Hill, built my own consulting practice while raising two sons, and spent eight years as CFO of a private firm through its acquisition and sale. I managed the
finances of a global professional association through a pandemic that eliminated its primary income source for two years. I have overseen $15 million investment portfolios, managed board relationships across complex governance structures, and sat in rooms where the decisions didn't stop when the meetings ended.
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I have also been the person who saw what was coming before anyone else did, and had to figure out how to say it.
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That combination -- the financial acumen, the organizational experience,
and the willingness to speak plainly -- is what I bring to the leaders I work
with now.
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In 2023, I completed a 135-hour executive coaching certification at Rutgers. I'm not a traditional coach and my clients aren't looking for one. They want someone who will engage with their actual problem, tell them what they see, and leave them with clarity rather than homework.
After 40 years inside complex organizations, that's exactly what I bring.
Why leaders come to these conversations
Senior leaders carry a particular kind of weight. You manage contex others do not see and consequences others do not bear. You are expected to project certainty while privately sitting with more questions than answers.​
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The leaders I work with are often facing:
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Decisions with significant organizational or personal consequence
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Team dynamics that keep resurfacing without resolution
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Financial, operational, or governance challenges that require discernment and, sometimes, additional hands-on attention
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Conversations they cannot safely rehearse elsewhere
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Team dynamics that keep resurfacing without resolution
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A need to move without enough bandwidth​ to do it well
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What they have in common is this: they are carrying something that is too important to ignore and too complex to solve alone.
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What changes
Working together is about creating forward progress for the challenges you're facing.​
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Leaders I work with rehearse hard conversations before they have them. They pressure-test decisions before they make them. They hear alternative perspectives about their team, their strategy, or themselves before it becomes more expensive.
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Our work together may be different everytime -- because each leader and each problem deserves it's own attention. What stays constant is this: I prepare, I show up, I engage fully, and I tell you what I see.
How I work
Engagements are time-bounded. They may be a single focused conversation, a defined project or a multi-month advisory relationship -- but they have a beginning and an end. I do not create dependence. I do not own your decisions. I leave when the work is done.
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I keep a small number of active clients. This is deliberate. The work requires my full attention and you deserve exactly that.
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My standard rate is $400/hour. For mission-driven nonprofit organizations, I work at a reduced rate at my discretion.