Gifford Management & Leadership Coaching

Karen Gifford founded Gifford Management and Leadership Coaching in 1987 offering outsourced sales and marketing services and providing high-caliber executive leadership on a part-time basis to emerging technology and entertainment companies. Prior to that, she held sales and marketing positions with companies including Perkin Elmer Data Systems and several divisions of the McDonnell Douglas Corporation (MDC). She was the National Industry Executive for Aerospace for a division of the McDonnell Douglas Corporation, later acquired by EDS (Electronic Data Systems), before she launched her own business.

Her business model has evolved since starting her business in 1987. Her business model included earning equity in the companies she helped as a partial exchange for talent they might not otherwise be able to afford. The success of that model and her clients allowed her to explore other methods of growing and financing companies including private equity and venture capital as well as strategic alliances and partnerships. What seemed to distinguish good companies from really great ones was leadership. That observation led her in 1994 to begin exploring and studying the role of coaching and mentoring in developing leaders - something about which she remains passionate today and ultimately led her to becoming certified as an Integral Coach through New Ventures West.

IIn 1999, she co-founded Venture Point which was the only Small Business Development Center of 1000 in the United States entirely focused on serving the entrepreneurs of high technology and growth businesses. It was a highly successful public and privately-funded partnership with the US Small Business Administration, State of California Technology, Trade and Commerce Agency and the Orange County Business Council until it closed in 2003 due to the State's budget crisis. She has worked with hundreds of entrepreneurs and developed coaching and mentoring models and services to successfully support their needs. The models were used to coach over 300 start-up and emerging companies and leveraged .5 million in funding into over million in economic impact measured by revenues and debt and equity financing in a three-year period. Additionally, clients were able to transition from their "garages to greatness" and technology commercialization via workshops, CEO roundtables, and assessment services in the areas of commercialization, funding and leadership. She has "walked the talk" or "been in the shoes" of many of her clients - from being in line positions in the corporate world to entrepreneur to board member to private investor.

Today, she works as a coach, mentor, sounding board, advisor, confidant and strategist with entrepreneurs, executives and senior teams of privately-held emerging companies, public companies, including the Fortune 1000, and non-profits. In partnership with them, she helps them:

• Identify and build competencies, skills and qualities in the leadership team to sustain long term excellence and performance
• Increase their business and personal results by creating better relationships at all levels of the business-internally and externally
• Develop and execute growth strategies for the business or key individuals within the business
• Get clarity regarding the appropriate financing strategy based upon their business or personal needs
• Develop formal processes and objective means to efficiently evaluate and source financing alternatives
• Define and source their human capital needs at the CEO, executive, advisory and board of director levels
• Transition talent into a position or a company or an investment or onto a board that better serves them

She has a growing business in working with individuals who are currently in or want to transition at all levels: executives seeking their next executive or board position, successful CEOs and business owners who have already or are about to sell their businesses, corporate executives wanting to start their own ventures and individuals who have been out-placed or down-sized due to various business decisions or simply want to try something that makes them feel more fulfilled. When required by the client engagement, she calls upon her vast network of professionals to provide the appropriate resource at the right time to deliver the requisite business results.