About Colleen Yamaguchi

Colleen is a master certified executive coach, facilitator and lawyer, who helps executives, professionals and teams to thrive. She has 25+ years of experience in high stakes environments as a trusted advisor and thought partner. Having been a partner in two global law firms, and specializing in aircraft finance, Colleen draws on extensive experience working in demanding environments. A strong collaborator, she led transaction teams with a record of driving exceptional performance across gender, culture and function, developing others, and achieving consistent win-win success. She connects well with clients who are committed to leadership practices that build capacity and create inclusive, high engagement cultures.

Colleen serves as Program Director for the Executive Development Institute, a non-profit organization that provides tailored leadership development programs for multi-ethnic, emerging and experienced leaders from Pacific Northwest companies focused on growing authentic, effective and intentional leaders. Her other affiliations include serving as executive coach for the Center for Creative Leadership (adjunct faculty) and as a consultant for The Axelrod Group.

Representative Assignments

  • Designed and facilitated two-part workshops on “Authentic Leadership for Introverts” for Amazon’s legal department, diversity series.
  • Coached individual partners of global law firm on issues ranging from growing their practices, strengthening their teams, emotional intelligence and achieving life balance.
  • Designed and facilitated Authentic Lawyer-Leader workshop series (three parts) and two group coaching sessions for Asian Bar Association of Washington.

Additional Experience and Approach

Prior to certification as an executive coach, Colleen was a partner at Perkins Coie and Sidley Austin, and served as Senior Legal Counsel at Boullioun Aviation Services (now Aviation Capital Group). 

Clients describe Colleen’s style as insightful, engaging and trust-building.  She believes that powerful learning and development taps into the wisdom and vision of her clients.  As a facilitator, she designs and delivers customized interactive workshops blending leadership practices with the experience, curiosity and talents of participants.  In her coaching and workshops, she focuses on aligning intent with impact, and developing awareness, skills and versatility for authentic and inclusive leadership. Her approach is results-oriented and balanced in challenging and supporting clients. She is committed to helping clients lead at their authentic best – cultivating a growth mindset and leveraging values and strengths, while meeting the needs of their organizations and stakeholders, current and future.

Industries

Legal & Professional Services

Aviation

Energy

Financial Services

Healthcare

Technology

Services

Leadership Development

Professional & Career Development

Diversity, Equity & Inclusion

Experience

Principal, Colleen Yamaguchi Coaching & Consulting LLC

Executive Coach (Adjunct), Center for Creative Leadership

Partner, Sidley Austin, Perkins Coie

Sr. Legal Counsel, Boullion Aviation Services

Certifications

Master Coach, Hudson Institute

Professional Certified Coach, ICF

Sample Assessments

EQ in Action Profile

Behavior Styles

WorkPlace Big 5 Personality Profile

Influence Style Indicator

Education

JD, Georgetown University Law Center

MBA and BA, University of Hawaii

Personal Interests

Giving back to the community, travel, Cuban salsa dancing and being a devoted aunt to 14-year old nephew