Jay Coughlan Email & Phone Number

Greater Minneapolis-St. Paul Area

Chief executive and managing director of Coughlan Consulting, Jay Coughlan brings his deep leadership experience to bear, helping CEOs across the country find clarity, identify possibility, and manage complexity.Delivering practical, actionable advice, Jay’s clients have successfully developed CEO leadership skills, balanced competing interests, adapted to change, built achievement-driven executive teams, successfully navigated board/CEO relationships, and avoided bank and investor landmines—ultimately catalyzing their business growth and next level of personal success.

Greater Minneapolis-St. Paul Area

“Jay is a walking, talking paradox. He is as intense an individual as I’ve ever met, yet compassionate. He is achievement-driven, yet forgiving. He is a polished professional, yet still has the spirit of a street-wise working man. He’s able to put all of this together with a speaking and coaching style that makes everyone in the room want to reach all of their life goals — yet do it while caring for people and never missing what is most important in life. When you sit in the audience, Jay looks straight into your eyes and speaks to your heart, mind, and gut.”— Dean Hager, Chief Executive Officer, JAMF Software

As Chairman and CEO of XRS Corporation, Jay led the company’s transformation from a hardware-based business to the transportation industry leader in mobile fleet optimization. Jay successfuly positioned XRS for a successful acquisition by Omnitracs, the leader in fleet management solutions. With this acquisition Omnitracs' gains the market leader in mobile fleet optimization, and XRS customers and employees have the benefit of working with the leader in the trucking industry. The XRS acquisition by Omnitracs was a $178M all-cash transaction.Since joining the 26-year old company in 2006, Jay realized that hardware dependent, in-cab systems would not be adaptable in an industry that would soon be facing massive regulatory and performance pressures. Jay was one of the first to realize that four looming forces –information, cloud, mobile and social – would converge on the trucking industry and dramatically reshape the future. As a result, he rebuilt XRS based on a vision of having the best product and most trucks on the road. The strategy was designed around three principals: 1) Making compliance a reality through choice and simplicity, 2) Maximizing efficiency through cloud-based fleet optimization, and 3) Making trucking easier for the driver. The strategy resulted in the launch of a completely new mobile product platform in April 2013 and the transition of three older platforms into a single XRS product while continuing to meet the needs of the company’s current customer.

St. Paul, Mn

As CEO, led the successful completion of a $200 million initial public offering (IPO), Minnesota's fifth-largest. Significantly grew Lawson's revenue from $200 million to $430 million."As President, CEO and Board Member of Lawson Software, Jay guided Lawson during a period of tremendous growth and led our successful transition from a private firm to a public company," said Richard Lawson, chairman and founder, Lawson Software. "His strong business skills, management ability, leadership, and above all, his values will have a lasting impact on Lawson and our people. I am grateful for what Jay has done for our company the past 18 years and support him in this decision. He leaves behind a solid legacy of leadership and success."

St. Paul, Mn

Grew revenues from $200 million in FY98 to $320 million in FY 00. Created and launched Lawson e-business programs. Engineered a new field structure to ensure growth and predictability.

St. Paul, Mn

Led growth strategy and vision to drive market share in Lawson's first vertical market. Took the healthcare vertical to the market share leader. Ultimately represented 30% of Lawson's revenues.

St. Paul, Mn

During this time period, held positions including: Account Executive, Regional Manager, Sales Director and Area Sales Director.