The Library's Creator
Leslie L. Kossoff
Confidential Executive Advisor and Coach
Internationally renowned confidential coach and advisor to executives, Boards, business owners and entrepreneurs, Leslie L. Kossoff was cited by about.com as "one of the most intelligent and perceptive voices on executive and managerial leadership today." Her clients range from Fortune 50s to start-ups in a broad range of industries and sectors in the United States, Asia and Europe. They include Fidelity Investments, Sony, TRW, Kraft Foods, Baxter Healthcare, the UK National Health Service, Caliber Collision, Seiko/Epson, 3M, Infonet and GM/Hughes.
A former executive in the aerospace/defense and pharmaceutical industries, Leslie has also provided testimony to the Parliament of the United Kingdom on manufacturing and small business procurement policies and advised senior Members of Parliament on leadership and transition strategies.
During her long-term alliance with Dr. W. Edwards Deming - the quality management expert whose teachings are the basis of kaizen and the Toyota Manufacturing System (aka, Lean) - she assisted in his client consultations and presented on implementation obstacles and strategies at his seminars. Deming declared Leslie, "Quite simply, one of the best at implementation."
Leslie is an invited voice for business, technology and finance publications worldwide. She is the author of numerous books, including the award-winning Executive Thinking: The Dream, The Vision, The Mission Achieved and has had over one hundred articles published in journals including the Financial Times, Investor's Business Daily, the Silicon Valley Business Journal and CEO magazine. She is one of the original Brain Trust members and a regular guest on the award-willing "Small Business Advocate" website and radio program. Jim Blasingame, its host, cites Leslie as "one of the top organizational thinkers for executives and business owners."
An original member of former Meta/Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg's Women of Silicon Valley group, she is a founding Board member of the Global Women's Leadership Center at the Leavey School of Business at Santa Clara University and served on the Advisory Boards of Cordville Capital Ltd. and the Enterprise Trust (UK). She is a former member of the Judge's Panel for the California Sterling Quality Award, Founder/Director of the Institute for Quality and Productivity Improvement at California State University, Long Beach and taught strategy and the capstone course for the Executive MBA program at Holy Names University.
Leslie holds Bachelor and Master of Arts degrees from San Francisco State University and a multi-disciplinary Master of Science from the University of Oregon.
A Fellow of the RSA (Royal Society for the encouragements of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce), Leslie served as Chair of its Paris (France) chapter. She is a Freeman of the City of London.