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My Why
As a passionate advocate for exceptional leadership, I aim to significantly help elevate leadership quality worldwide to create a more prosperous and equitable future for all. We find ourselves at a critical juncture in our cities, states, nations, and across the globe. Heroes and unsung heroes from every profession work tirelessly to make a positive difference.
The impact of leadership is evident in every aspect of our lives. By uplifting leadership acumen and consciousness, we can initiate a powerful shift to generate a lasting impact that resonates throughout time. I aim to contribute to this shift by cultivating and supporting high-impact, compassionate, and wise leaders who work together to enhance the lives of those they touch and inspire with grace.
Maureen Metcalf is the Founder and CEO of the Innovative Leadership Institute, an executive advisory and research organization that partners with CEOs, executive teams, and boards to design leadership systems that convert strategy into execution, enable AI-ready governance, and sustain performance through complexity and transition.
In 2025, Maureen received the Stevie® Award for Female Executive of the Year and Female Thought Leader of the Year. She holds an Honorary Doctorate in Community Leadership from Franklin University and is a Fellow of the International Leadership Association — recognized in the inaugural class of ILA Fellows. She is a Forbes Coaches Council member and regular contributor to Forbes.com, with more than 50 published articles on leadership and strategy.
Maureen is the chief author of the Innovative Leadership book series — eleven active titles in an international award-winning series adopted as curriculum in universities worldwide, covering leadership for executives, healthcare, nonprofits, physician leaders, global organizations, and the age of AI. Her published works have accumulated 95 citations in Google Scholar, reflecting academic recognition alongside practitioner adoption.
She hosts “Innovating Leadership: Co-creating Our Future,” ranked in the top 1% of podcasts globally, recognized as the FeedSpot #1 Best Innovative Leadership Podcast, and distributed through NPR One and WCBE 90.5 FM Columbus public radio. The podcast features CEOs, former heads of government, Amazon executives, and UN AI advisors, reaches listeners in 121 countries, and generates approximately 8,000 listeners per episode. It has been recognized by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
As editorial sponsor of the ILI Think Tank, Maureen leads the Decision Velocity research initiative — focused on how organizations make timely, high-quality decisions without increasing enterprise risk. Recent speaking highlights include moderating at Amazon’s Delivering the Future forum and leading sessions at Franklin University and the International Leadership Association global conference.
With more than 30 years of experience, Maureen has served organizations from Ohio small businesses to Fortune 15 companies and the U.S. Armed Forces, across technology, engineering, manufacturing, financial services, and healthcare, with an active international presence in the United Kingdom and Europe. Selected client outcomes include a 16% EBITDA increase at a FinTech firm, a 22.6% increase in Average Daily Rate at HomeTowne Studios during COVID-19, and an IT Leaders program where 30% of participants were promoted within the first four cohorts — five times the typical corporate promotion rate.
Maureen serves as Chair of the James Madison University School of Strategic Leadership Studies Advisory Board and is an active Franklin Mason Leadership Center Advisory Board member. She has taught leadership and organizational transformation at The Ohio State University, Capital University, and other universities. Before founding ILI, she held roles at Unisys, PricewaterhouseCoopers, and Accenture. She holds an MBA in Finance from Virginia Tech and a BS in Economics from James Madison University.