Mulkern Associates

While I have successfully held senior level executive positions in other firms, there is nothing like the variety that I enjoy in working with a multitude of firms and clients. Being the trusted advisor of a business owners, CEOs, and entrepreneurs carries with it huge responsibilities and potential for making significant contributions.

As a consultant and executive coach, I bring to assignments a unique combination of skills and background. As a former VPHR in major financial service firms, I have real-life executive experience, not merely text book leadership theories. However, the academic depth is also there. I have served on the faculty of numerous universities, in both undergraduate and MBA programs. My advanced degree in philosophy prepared me to ask the penetrating questions that get to the core of issues and to map out the implications of the alternative. Finally, I have over 19 years of experience as a paraprofessional psychological counselor, preparing me to help handle the sometimes very stressful and troubling issues that business owners must confront. This combination of skills and background is rare to find. My background covers a wide spectrum of industries but is concentrated in financial services--including banking, money transfer, mortgage banking, and financial planning firms-- and high tech, to include aerospace, software, hardware, and scientific instrument companies. Clients range in size from $2 million to $250 million in annual revenues, with employee count of five to 1500. No start-ups. Exceptions made only for not-for-profits.

Remote meetings through Zoom, telephone, or teleconferencing programs have become routine during the Covid-19 pandemic. Before the shutdown, however, meetings by phone were routine with clients on the other side of the country, or in the U.K., France, and India. Additionally, clients will often need to make an urgent phone call or have me respond quickly to an unscheduled text or email. These are a part of the services always available to clients.

The biggest change was from in-person meetings to meetings by Zoom or other conferencing software that the client preferred. When in-person meetings were essential, as in the case of final interviews with C-suite job candidates, all the usual protective protocols were followed, such as masks, social distancing, hand sanitizing, etc.