About Susan Chu
I work at the intersection of performance, workforce transformation, and human-centered AI, partnering with organizations and senior leaders navigating inflection points where expectations accelerate.
For more than 25 years, I have worked inside complex organizations during moments when markets shift, technology accelerates, or businesses restructure, when the old models no longer hold and the path forward isn’t obvious. I help leaders see around corners and build what comes next.
My career began at the intersection of business and policy in Brussels during the early formation of the European Union, where I had a front-row seat to institutional integration and regulatory coordination across member states.
Later, based in Singapore with Booz Allen, I supported restructuring efforts across Asia during a period of regional economic transformation. Those early experiences shaped how I think about change: it is never purely operational — it is economic, institutional, and deeply human.
Over the course of my career, I have led teams across North America, Europe, and Asia-Pacific in both U.S.-based and multinational environments.
In executive leadership roles, including serving as Chief Administrative Officer, I led restructurings, technology implementations, M&A integrations, and large-scale workforce realignments. In global assignments, I operated in environments defined by regulatory scrutiny, cross-border coordination, financial exposure, and leadership accountability at scale.
Across these experiences, one pattern became clear: organizations do not struggle because change occurs. They struggle when leaders underestimate the human capacity required to absorb it.
That insight continues to shape my work.
What I Do Today
Today, I work closely with senior executives and leadership teams operating under sustained pressure — changing business models, tighter margins, regulatory scrutiny, board expectations, and accelerating technological change.
In many organizations, the challenge is not recognizing that change is required. It is knowing how to move the organization forward when leaders themselves are navigating uncertainty, fatigue, and shifting expectations of what leadership now demands. My work takes two primary forms:
Organizational Leadership & Workforce Strategy
I partner directly with organizations navigating performance acceleration, restructuring, and leadership transition. I am engaged when expectations intensify, including private equity-backed companies preparing for liquidity events and organizations undergoing operational or cultural recalibration.
Organizational work includes:
Executive 360 leadership assessments
Leadership transition and succession recalibration
Strategic offsites aligned to performance and workforce shifts
Workshops grounded in executive presence, narrative clarity, and change navigation
Advisory support during periods of heightened accountability
I work to strengthen leadership capacity at the system level — ensuring performance expectations and leadership capability evolve together.
Executive Coaching & Strategic Repositioning
In parallel with organizational engagements, I work 1:1 with accomplished senior leaders and executives navigating expanded scope, visibility, and identity shifts.
Our coaching focuses on:
Executive presence under performance pressure
Leadership narrative and positioning
Transition recalibration
Succession readiness and expanded scope
Decision clarity in ambiguous environments
This work is rigorous and structured — grounded in lived executive experience and refined through years of coaching conversations with high-capacity leaders.
Author: Own Your Next Move
I am the author of Own Your Next Move, a leadership framework developed from my corporate leadership experience and years of coaching senior professionals navigating transition and expanded responsibility.
The book introduces my Power of Three methodology — a structured approach that aligns past experience, present capability, and future positioning into a coherent leadership narrative.
While many individual leaders use the framework to recalibrate their direction, it also informs workshops and leadership dialogues within organizations undergoing change.
At its core, the work addresses a broader challenge:
As workforce demands evolve, leadership judgment must evolve with them.
Human-Centered AI & Leadership Judgement
As markets evolve and AI reshapes decision-making environments, leaders face a different kind of pressure.
The question is no longer simply how to adopt new tools. It is how to maintain judgment, accountability, and performance discipline while institutions modernize around them.
Much of the executive conversation centers on governance and risk — necessary conversations. Equally important are the structural realities:
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How organizations redesign leadership systems for speed and complexity
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How capable professionals remain competitive as roles evolve
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How workforce infrastructure adapts to longer careers and compressed change cycles
Clara - AI Career Navigation
Clara emerged from this work — translating decades of leadership, HR, and transformation experience into accessible infrastructure designed to support workforce navigation and executive positioning in an accelerating economy.
It is not technology for its own sake. It is structured support — designed to strengthen human judgment as workforce demands evolve.
As markets accelerate and careers extend across multiple reinventions, the challenge is not simply adapting to change. It is designing change intentionally — so performance strengthens and capable leaders remain relevant.
Speaking & Keynote Engagements
I speak to executive teams, universities, leadership conferences, and policy audiences on:
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Workforce transformation and leadership recalibration
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Performance pressure and executive capacity
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Human judgment in an AI-accelerated economy
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Women in high-visibility leadership roles
I focus on strengthening leadership judgment in environments where performance expectations are high and decisions carry consequence.
Susan holds a Master of Science in Organization Development from the Johns Hopkins University Carey Business School and a Bachelor of Arts in International Relations and French from James Madison University. She is a Certified High Performance Coach, an ICF-certified executive coach, and a member of the Forbes Coaches Council.
She previously served as Board Chair for Goodwill of Delaware & Delaware County and continues to support governance and leadership development initiatives.
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