About Kari
The Leader Behind the Work
Knowing about leadership means nothing without the courage to act.
A mortar attack in Iraq taught Kari what no leadership degree ever could: knowing about leadership means nothing without the courage to act. That insight launched a 25-year pursuit — from the battlefield to the boardroom — that changed the nature of her work entirely.
Kari’s Signature Perspective
Kari has a background in philosophy, psychology, and business. She has studied the mechanisms of language, the architecture of human identity, and the way emotions carry information that leaders often suppress or misread. She has spent thousands of hours coaching executives at the highest levels of organizations. She has studied the mechanisms of language, the architecture of human identity, and the way emotions carry information that leaders often suppress or misread. She has spent thousands of hours coaching executives at the highest levels of organizations.
Kari’s Range
Her approach is a mosaic. She pulls from many different streams of thought and practice — ontological, scientific, technological, and deeply human. Her work is informed by academic rigor and delivered with practical accessibility.
That gives her an unusually wide range.
In a one-on-one coaching session, she can help a senior executive access something lodged in the body since childhood that shows up as a leadership edge they have never been able to name.
In front of 400 people, she can mobilize an entire organization through a fundamental shift in how they see themselves and their future.
She has often been described as a truth-teller. She goes to the thing that needs attending to — the uncomfortable truth, the pattern everyone can feel and no one is willing to name. She speaks it. And then she helps people do the work of moving through it.
Kari’s Background
Decorated Air Force Officer
Led a $1.2 billion aircraft fleet operation during combat deployments in Iraq and hurricane evacuations. Learned leadership under conditions where decisions had immediate, life-or-death consequences.
Master Certified Executive Coach
6,000+ hours coaching CEOs, senior executives, and leadership teams across retail, healthcare, hospitality, technology, and military operations. Taught industrial psychology and behavioral sciences at the U.S. Air Force Academy.
25+ Years of Organizational Transformation
From Fortune 100 companies to healthcare systems to government organizations. Guided leaders through turnarounds, post-merger integration, strategic pivots, and culture shifts. Contributed to the Harvard Business School Handbook on Teaching Leadership.
Founder and CEO of TGN Consulting
Built TGN from a solo practice into a leadership consultancy that achieved 500% revenue growth in 18 months and consistent 60% year-over-year expansion. 16 years advising CEOs, boards, and senior leaders of organizations from $500M to $50B.
Author
Re-placed — a philosophical leadership text exploring what it means to lead in an era when everything familiar is being displaced. Your Next Era: Leading to Win in the Age of AI is currently in progress.
Podcast Host
Kari hosts the Leadership Impact podcast — long-form conversations on the human side of leadership, transformation, and what this next era demands of the people willing to lead through it.
Kari’s Philosophy
Four ideas that ground everything Kari does.
Agency
Agency
We live in a subjective world. We experience reality through language, emotion, identity, and relationship. Most people have no idea how much authorship and agency they carry in constructing their own reality.
Care
Care
Humans have fundamental cares that animate everything they do. Belonging, safety, dignity, identity, contribution. When those cares are addressed, people move. When they are ignored, people resist.
Emotion
Emotion
Emotions are information systems. Frustration signals a thwarted intent. Anger signals injustice. Resignation signals a future someone has given up on — situations that require radically different responses.
Leadership
Leadership
Leadership is about realizing a future that was not going to happen anyway. Management keeps the trains running. Leadership changes the tracks — and that requires understanding humans at a depth most training never reaches.
Kari’s Philosophy
Four ideas that ground everything Kari does. Each one builds on the last.
Agency
We live in a subjective world. We experience reality through language, emotion, identity, and relationship. Most people have no idea how much authorship and agency they carry in constructing their own reality.
Care
Humans have fundamental cares that animate everything they do. Belonging, safety, dignity, identity, contribution. When those cares are addressed, people move. When they are ignored, people resist.
Emotion
Emotions are information systems. Frustration signals a thwarted intent. Anger signals injustice. Resignation signals a future someone has given up on — situations that require radically different responses.
Leadership
Leadership is about realizing a future that was not going to happen anyway. Management keeps the trains running. Leadership changes the tracks — and that requires understanding humans at a depth most training never reaches.
Clarity often begins with a conversation.
This is where insight turns into direction.