Evolving Strategies, LLC

Founded in 1999, Evolving Strategies helps leaders, teams and organizations learn, lead and change. Clients include Accenture, Ashland Inc., Bank of Oklahoma Financial, Blue Cross and Blue Shield, Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNSF), East West Bank, Northern Trust Corporation, PriceWaterhouseCoopers, Spencer Stuart, Thomson Reuters, United Airlines, the United States federal government, and Zebra Technologies.

Founder

Forbes Coaches Council

Forbes Coaches Council is an invitation-only organization comprised of leading business coaches and career coaches. Members are hand-selected by the Council’s selection committee.

Official Member

PepsiCo

PepsiCo, Inc. is an American multinational food, snack, and beverage corporation headquartered in New York. PepsiCo's business encompasses all aspects of the food and beverage market. It oversees the manufacturing, distribution, and marketing of its products. 

As of January 2021, the company possesses 23 brands that have over US$1 billion in sales annually. PepsiCo has operations all around the world and its products are distributed across more than 200 countries, with annual net revenues of over US$70 billion. PepsiCo is the second-largest food and beverage business in the world based on net revenue, profit, and market capitalization, behind Nestlé.

As part of the CIO transition, I led a team of employees and consultants to build the initial change management office (CMO) to enable the global technology organization to support Pepsico's digital transformation journey.

Global Information Technology | Strategy & Transformation Team | Senior Director

Northwestern University

Served as faculty for 'Executing Strategic Change,' a core, graduate level course of the Master of Science, Learning and Organizational Change program. The Master's program is grounded in concepts of cognitive science, psychology and education, and focuses on the applied areas of strategic change, performance, knowledge management, and learning.

Adjunct Faculty

Corporate Executive Board

Every year, the Corporate Executive Board (CEB) equips over 20,000 senior leaders from more than 10,000 organizations across 110 countries with the intelligence they need to respond quickly to evolving business conditions. In doing so, CEB helps them more effectively manage their talent, customers and operations to exceed business objectives.

As an Associate Director, I sold of CEB's HR-related best practices research, decision support tools, and executive education to a membership of the world's leading corporations and not-for-profit institutions.

Associate Director

Lante Corporation

Lante Corporation, a technology consulting company, customizes core extended enterprise applications to provide clients with new features to enable them to benefit from the trend toward information that is more interactive, real-time, collaborative, extended, and private.

Client Relationship Manager

Accenture

Accenture is one of the world’s leading professional services companies, providing consulting and outsourcing services through its strategy, digital, technology and operations capabilities.

Transition/Transformation Manager

CA Technologies

CA Technologies software and solutions have been powering innovation for over 35 years. Founded in 1976, CA Technologies has over 11,500 employees in 45 countries helping businesses thrive in a new world where every business is in the software business. CA Technologies has been recognized as a value leader by industry analysts and has been hailed as one of the “World’s 100 Most Innovative Companies” by Forbes, as well as one of the greenest companies in the United States by Newsweek®.

Sales and Marketing Associate (Pansophic Systems, Inc.)

Strengthen Your Change Leadership with a Coach You Can Trust |Forbes Contributor |Accenture Alum |Former NU Adjunct Faculty

Clients partner with me to address three key areas of need:

1. EXPANDING YOUR LEADERSHIP IMPACT
 	• Elevate Your Leadership Potential with Personalized Coaching
	• Foster Your Inclusivity as a Leader
	• Amplify Your Leadership Presence
	• Deepen Your Leadership Self-Awareness
	• Hone Your Coaching and Mentoring Skills

2. USING CHANGE MANAGEMENT FOR STRATEGIC EXECUTION EXCELLENCE
	• Master the Six Levers of Change Leadership
	• Develop Resilience and Adaptability as a Leader of Change
	• Build High-Performance Teams

3.  COMMUNICATING FOR IMPACT
	• Communicate Effectively and Efficiently
	• Resolve Conflicts with Courage and Confidence
	• Engage Your Stakeholders 
	
Delivery method(s) are customized based on my client's preferences and needs. This may involve a combination of one-on-one in-person or virtual coaching sessions, team workshops, assessments, and ongoing support to ensure growth and development.

About me
I coach executives for swift, successful, impactful change in themselves, teams, companies, or industries. If this describes you and you're ready to make a transformative impact and lead with more confidence, let's go.

With over two decades of experience, I've had the privilege of guiding leaders and teams from diverse industries, functions, and locations to not just navigate, but truly excel in today's ever-evolving business landscape. Helping clients develop the change leadership skills to tackle complex challenges like digital transformations, process enhancements, and customer engagement strategies is what I do.

My proven approach fuses structure and adaptability. I tailor my approach to the distinct needs and objectives of each leader or team, using proven assessments, tools, and strategies as needed. 

My work is grounded in practical experience, having served as a leader and member of multiple high-performing teams (and some low-performing teams as well) with organizations such as Accenture and PepsiCo. By delving into and applying research on leadership, learning and change as an adjunct faculty member at Northwestern University, I co-created and delivered a course on executing strategic change in the Masters level program. 

I'm honored to have earned a spot on the Forbes Coaches Council. Serving as a mentor, most recently as part of D CEO's Emerging Women Leadership Network, is also a privilege.

Sandy Schwan

Savvy Maverick LLC

CEO and Founder, Executive Coach

West Monroe

I grew our Data and Analytics practice from a revenue, people, and competency perspective, and broadened our offerings and depth in them. Additionally, I led the firm's Inclusion & Diversity Council, won The Sequoia Award (our firm's highest award for mentorship) multiple times, and received an inaugural award from Consulting Magazine's for female technology leaders.

Partner

West Monroe is a national consulting firm that was born in technology but built for business—partnering with companies in transformative industries to deliver real, measurable results. Technology is who we are, it is not something we bolted on overnight, and we believe it is one of the greatest enablers of business value. That’s why we work in diverse, multidisciplinary teams that blend industry expertise with deep operational and technology capabilities to create quantifiable, financial value for our clients.  For more info see www.wmp.com.

Director, Technology

Pariveda Solutions

A primary leader in tripling the Chicago office size during my tenure through delighting customers and growing people.   Engaged customers as partners to uncover current and emerging challenges and opportunities and help them address or achieve them. The approach was intentional team and individual development across a variety of technologies and includes people/process design and implementation solutions (e.g. Machine Learning, Data Streaming, Data Lakes, IoT, Mobility, Integration, IT Strategy).    My role also included accountability for the ongoing growth and development of our local team, certain operational leadership roles and the firm-wide ownership of Project Management practices.

Vice President

Blue Star Partners, LLC

As a partner, accountable for business development regarding identifying and delivering Program Management and Organizational Change Management services.   

Led a Content and Records Management program for a major utility in the Midwest, including development and execution of multi-year roadmap. Successfully implemented eDiscovery, Content Management, Collaboration and Records management solutions.

Partner, Consultant

iGo, Inc. (formerly Mobility Electronics, Inc.)

In Sales capacity:
Increased RadioShack account revenue by 25% in one year and doubled revenue from largest Canadian customer; Launched iGo in Canadian market, securing The Source by Circuit City, Best Buy and Wal-Mart within first year through selection of Canadian logistics and distribution partner.

In Operations capacity: 
Transitioned company from an FOB China logistics model to a U.S., Canada and EMEA-based distribution operation. Identified, selected and established local logistics partners for inventory, packaging and in-market fulfillment; Established and staffed local order management processes, metrics and reporting; Established and improved forecasting and planning tools, including collaborative forecasting process with key accounts and suppliers; Developed quarterly forecasting and bi-weekly account review processes, drove down obsolescence and increased inventory turns.

VP, Sales and Sales Operations

CNA Insurance

Accountable to CIO and indirectly to a Unit President to achieve return on technology investment for $3B Specialty Lines business unit.  

Responsibilities included: 

Create IT annual plan (with peers) to ensure appropriate mix of maintenance and support, risk mitigation and business investment prioritizaiton to maximize CNA's overall return on IT investment 
Deliver Programs and Projects
Ensure customer satisfaction  
Participate as matrix member of Business Unit executive staff

VP, Business Segment Partner

Veracity Telecom Consultants

Independent consulting firm specializing in Program Management and Operational Improvement. 

Created a Third Party Administration company and all operational processes to manage 100,000 cell phone insurance policies in the Netherlands.   

Consulted to major health insurance carrier on viability of major technology investments.

President

Managed $100+MM technology investment portfolio with staff of program managers in a matrix environment consisting of multiple project teams of up to 125 staff 

Drove technology innovation to automate processing of all wholesale service orders

Executive Director

Telcordia

Accountable for growing domestic and international clients and delivering services for $1B Company specializing in telecommunications research, professional services and software product development. 

Hired and managed 10 person global consulting team, exceeded $3M delivery goals, created follow-on sales 75% of the time, ranked in top 1% of 300-person organization

Director

After a career serving in leadership roles from start-up to Fortune 100 across telecom, insurance, consumer electronics, and professional services, I have many stories and leadership lessons. The most important lessons have to do with self-awareness.

I believe wholeheartedly in the power and potential of executive coaching.  My goal is to help leaders understand how they show up and discover those "aha" moments about themselves and use this awareness to create and achieve their boldest dreams.
  
My real-world experiences in the following areas help me understand, empathize with, and support executives in achieving their goals and their potential, as well as that of their work community.  

Business Development
Talent Development
Large Scale Program Leadership
Account Management
Technology Leadership
Organizational Change Management
Relationship Management (especially between Technology and Business Executives)
Technology & Data Strategy Development
Sales Operations

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Sandy Schwan

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