“To create a new successful and purposeful life, all you need is an open mind and the wisdom and courage to challenge the belief system that currently creates your reality.”
-Bernie Siegel
Bernie Siegel is an Leadership Development, Career Management Coach and Strategist. He is a graduate of the Institute for Professional Excellence in Coaching (IPEC), an internationally recognized professional coach training organization fully accredited by the International Coach Federation (ICF), the worldwide governing body for the profession.
Bernie coaching a couple in the Galapagos Islands
A native New Yorker, Bernie majored in accounting and finance at Queens College. For over 30 years, he held management positions in some of the most well-known, successful organizations in their respective industries.
Bernie began his career at KPMG, one of the Big Four accounting/consulting firms, where he spent six years observing and learning about what made fast growing businesses successful. He left KPMG for Wall Street and joined Discount Brokerage Corporation of America, the nation’s first discount broker, as controller. He quickly rose to the position of Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer. He helped to triple the size of the company through internal growth and an aggressive acquisition strategy that he oversaw. Bernie helped the company to navigate successfully through the stock market crash of 1987, and the company was later acquired by Fleet Financial Group. Fleet’s Chairman of the Board recognized the company as a “gem” because of its performance and well-run operations.
In 1993, Larry Waterhouse, the founder of Waterhouse Securities (now TD Ameritrade) personally asked Bernie to join his firm’s management team and be his Chief of Staff and Chief Financial Officer. For six years Bernie helped to oversee the growth and implementation of Waterhouse’s successful internet strategy. With Larry Waterhouse as his mentor, Bernie had the privilege of seeing how a company could grow successfully by keeping to its core values, “treat everyone with dignity and respect” and “always do the right thing.” TD Waterhouse grew to 40 times its size in trading volumes while Bernie was part of the management team.He headed the due diligence team during its purchase by Toronto Dominion Bank.
Bernie was then recruited as one of the founding executives of Wit Capital Group, the first online investment bank, where he helped the company to grow to over $3 billion in market value and sell a 25% stake to Goldman Sachs. Bernie worked with more than 100 start-up companies to raise funds and helped several to go public. Bernie created and oversaw the Human Resources, Operations, Finance and Compliance departments. He not only worked successfully with his own company but he also had the opportunity to work directly with many of Wit Capital’s start-up companies as a Board member.
In his last stint in corporate management, Bernie joined a start-up venture capital firm as CFO and helped the company raise over $400 million in capital and open offices around the world.Yazam was a spin-off of Jerusalem Global Ventures, the second largest VC in Israel. Bernie worked with many start-up companies and helped them achieve success. He was unanimously elected as CEO by the Board of Directors, whose members included Texas Pacific Group and The Carlyle Group, and orchestrated its company’s sale in 2001.
During his corporate career, Bernie was an active team member in all the organizations he served. Entrepreneurial by nature, he was instrumental in growing these companies, some from start-ups, to world-class successful organizations. All along the way he observed how the appropriate behaviors would help propel him and others to success.
Bernie’s belief is that organizations run best when leaders at all levels see themselves as servant leaders. As he explains, “The best leaders turn the organizational pyramid upside down so that they are at the bottom of the structure, serving their people who are at the top. The leaders provide support, remove obstacles, and act as cheerleaders. They are there to serve their people—so that their people can better serve their customers.”
Bernie’s move to the coaching profession was a natural outgrowth of his passion for helping people achieve their personally relevant goals. He is a coach, consultant, mentor, and friend to his clients. He has the wisdom and experience to understand how to help his clients succeed with goals they oftentimes never imagined.
Bernie has served as President of the award-winning New York City Chapter of the International Coach Federation, the largest urban chapter in the world. Subsequently, Bernie ran and was elected to serve on the Global Board of the International Coach Federation with over 28,000 members in more than 130 countries. During his 3 year term he served as its Treasurer one year and was elected by the Board to serve as Vice Chair.He served as a Board Member of the Village/Chelsea Chamber of Commerce. He was the co-creator and frequent guest on Coach World TV where he espoused the benefits of using a coach to achieve amazing results. He currently is the co-host of Coach Chat radio where his guests include some of the most innovative and successful coaches in the business. His clients enjoy his down-to-earth genuine style of coaching. He enjoys skiing, scuba diving and travel and approaches life with a sense of humor.
Bernie Siegel accepts the prestigious ran and Local Spirit, Global Presence award in Montreal from ICF International President Diane Brennan on behalf of his ICF-NYC Chapter.
