Ned is a top leadership strategy and executive coach working with firms ranging from leaders in their industry to new ventures in the technology sector. He uses a pragmatic, results-oriented approach to help top-tier executives and teams advance their most important business goals, resulting in resilient, growth minded, transformative leaders with a clear path to early & long-term success.Ned’s work is informed by over 20 years of international business experience working with clients across the Retail, Healthcare, Technology, Consumer Products, Manufacturing and Financial Services industries. Recent clients range from start-up to enterprise leaders, all navigating significant individual and organizational growth agendas. Prior to founding High Bridge Leadership, he held several people leadership roles at IBM, helping the company transformed its portfolio to nearly 50% cloud and AI/data offerings, including the launch of Watson Health, numerous PE/VC funded acquisitions, and culminating with the industry’s largest software acquisition of Red Hat. Most recently he served as the Human Resources Leader for two core professional services business, supporting the SVP of Corporate & M&A Strategy, and SVP of Legal and regulatory affairs (both reporting to IBM’s CEO). Prior to that he was an M&A Human Resource global leader supporting inbound, outbound and divested business. He was also a client services Partner with IBM’s Global Business Services (formally PWC), responsible for building enterprise-wide change management transformations.Ned has a Master’s degree in Social Organizational Psychology from Columbia University and a Bachelor’s degree in Biology and Economics from Colby College. He formalized his coaching training with the Co-Active Training Institute, an International Coach Federation certified program, and holds certification in several psychometric behavioral assessments.

HR Business Partner for Corporate Strategy and Legal & Regulatory Affairs supporting two SVPs (CEO direct reports). Led a global team of HR Business Partners; worked closely with global team of HR center of competency specialists. Groomed future leaders, seeding executives in strategic roles across the organization. Built strong leadership pipelines. Ensured talent recognized, showcased and placed. Developed career trajectories that excite and retain.

Led a team of 9 executive consultants responsible for accelerating Mergers and Acquisitions (M&A) business performance through Leadership Development, Culture Alignment and Transformational Change for firms ranging from private equity start-ups to publicly traded companies. Accelerated integration of a $1B+ portfolio by promoting executive alignment, leadership capability, operational, cultural and organization design throughout the full acquisition life-cycle, from Due Diligence to full integration.

Led global human capital management sales and delivery for major accounts, including Unilever (Strategic Outsourcing), Schwab (Global Data Office design), IBM (Sales Coverage Model Global talent redesign), IBM (SaaS global implementation), Nationwide (Culture Assessment) and Ikea (Multi-Channel org design). Responsible for Talent & Engagement practice development, with influence on 1,400 global domain experts. Sought after Change Management expert as a chief architect of the Better Change for IBM global service offering, deployed internally to 30,000 IBM managers and sold externally.