More than a business coach.

We create great leaders through executive coaching and business strategy development.

Extend works with high-performing executives, CEOs, and business owners to help you define the future you want and create the strategy to get you there. Extend’s coaches and consultants work with you to understand your specific needs, and create a plan designed personally for you.

 

All of our coaches and consultants are certified by a governing coaching body, and all have held leadership and/or executive positions in prior roles. We bring this combination of experience and expertise to you every day.

Becca Pearce, MBA

Certified Executive Coach

I’ve been a strong-willed, no-nonsense kind of leader within the insurance market the majority of my career. I spent several years at CareFirst, BlueCross BlueShield and Kaiser Permanente before being chosen to run Maryland’s Health Benefit Exchange during the O’Malley administration in 2011. After that, I went on to work at University of Maryland Medical System Health Plans (UMMSHP) as a vice president. I understand insurance, I love defining and implementing strategy, and I excel at working with other leaders.

Then why the change, you ask? Two reasons.

Quang Le, MSOD, ICF-ACC

Change Strategist & Leadership Coach

The first thing you should know about me is that “change is in my DNA.” My first memories of significant change and upheaval occurred when I came to the United States as a Vietnamese-Korean refugee. Coming to America as a refugee has taught me that change and adversity will happen; how we respond to change and adversity allows us to overcome obstacles to chart our path forward.

As a modern breed of change consultant and coach — I leverage practical, real-world expertise in organizational strategy & effectiveness, enterprise change initiatives, executive and team coaching, digital transformation and technology, with an advanced degree in applied human behavior/psychology.

Bob Fleshner, ESQ

Certified Executive Leadership Coach

I often refer to myself as a “recovering lawyer”. After a short stint in private practice, I ran off and joined the circus as Vice President of Legal Affairs for Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey. During that time, I learned as much about business and management as I did about law. Ringling Bros. is a multi-faceted company with a broad array of issues that required nimble balancing and precise execution.

After leaving Ringling Bros., I switched to management consulting before eventually becoming CEO of United Healthcare of the Mid-Atlantic, a $300+ million division of United Health Group. Thereafter, I became East Region President for United’s Medicare Advantage business, a $1.4 billion division.

Gigi Blair

Executive Coach 

My passion is teaching clients how to – once and for all – conquer the chaos in their life so that they can focus themselves and others on work that matters.

Two professional experiences solidified my call to coaching. First, working in healthcare management at The University of Texas Southwestern Medical School allowed me to see the human spirit triumph over adversity day after day. Second, as a management consultant helping companies prepare for large-scale implementations of technology and redesigned business processes, I saw the challenges people faced while creating and sustaining the required changes.

Maryellen May

Executive Coach and Team Coach

For most of my life, I had worked in marketing and sales for large multi-national companies and was recognized as a top performer. Although things looked good from the outside, my life felt like this long, arduous uphill climb toward something that I could never seem to find. It wasn’t until my second divorce, and hours of coach and leadership training that I realized that my business and personal relationships had this consistent conversational pattern.

I “stepped over” conflict, keeping the peace at all costs. Behaviors that I thought were “noble” were toxic. Through coaching I discovered sustainable success in having those courageous conversations that I had been hiding from. 

Marijo Wright

Certified Leadership Coach

My background is different from most leadership coaches. I was an independent producer and writer of television documentaries and co-owner of a production company. I was passionate about the work and thrilled to receive a National Emmy Award in 2004 for a two-hour PBS special about the Senate Watergate Hearings. Earning an Emmy was a dream I had had since high school.

In the normal course of interviewing scores of people for various projects, I came to understand the power of personal narratives and how compelling those stories were. When I changed career direction and peeled back the layers of the work I had once found fulfilling it was learning about people and understanding them through their personal stories.

Nancy Barnes, CPCC

Certified Coach

I come to the world of coaching from that of character study. Having grown up a perfectionist in preppy Baltimore with a degree from Princeton in English and Theater, I know what it is to be driven, and to wonder simultaneously if there is something more—something on a soul level. I searched actively for that as I worked as an actor for twelve years, discerning the why for each and every character.

My first major why turning point came after I got married and started having children. Mindful of security, I became a news reporter and anchor in Connecticut.

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