Susan Tardanico is CEO of the Authentic Leadership Alliance LLC where she serves as chief strategist, consultant and coach to clients. Areas of expertise include leadership development, strategy and effectiveness; organizational, corporate and personal communication; change management; executive presence and presentation coaching; and event/meeting design, production and facilitation.
Concurrently, Tardanico is Executive in Residence at the Center for Creative Leadership (CCL), ranked one of the top leadership development organizations in the world.
She is published regularly on Forbes.com and is a member of the adjunct faculties of Georgetown and New York universities. A certified professional speaker, Tardanico addresses groups all over the country and is one of a handful of coaches approved by the TED organization to help thought leaders from around the world prepare to deliver their "TED TALKS" on the big stage.
Prior to launching her own company, Tardanico enjoyed a multifaceted corporate career, most recently serving as Vice President and Corporate Officer of Textron Inc. (NYSE: TXT), a $14 billion multinational corporation with well-known brands such as Cessna Aircraft, Bell Helicopter, E-Z-GO golf cars, and Greenlee power tools. She was one of the top four female senior executives in a company of 50,000 employees.
As Chief Communications Officer, she oversaw all internal, external, brand/marketing and executive communications across the corporate entity and business units. Tardanico was a key part of the leadership team that transformed Textron from a hands-off conglomerate to an integrated operating company, requiring a complete reorientation and realignment of the organization. This large-scale change management effort spanned company culture, leadership and employee engagement, process reengineering, talent realignment and business/portfolio restructuring activities. Through her Textron tenure, Tardanico was intimately involved in the integration of more than 40 mergers and acquisitions, driving the communications across multiple stakeholder groups to help maintain and improve engagement through times of great change.
Her 20-year tenure with Textron included several senior positions at business units (aerospace, automotive and sports sectors), relocation to London, and leadership roles in creating and driving enterprise-wide strategies for globalization, diversity, employee engagement and branding.
Prior to joining Textron, Tardanico led corporate PR and Marketing Communications at EMC Corporation (NYSE:EMC), where she formed its first corporate public relations function and helped take the company public. Before that, she was a television news reporter and weekend anchor in Boston.
Tardanico graduated Phi Beta Kappa and top of her class at Boston College, delivering the commencement address. She has completed graduate work at Harvard University and the Wharton School. She is a certified facilitator, coach, Six Sigma Green Belt and Executive Champion. Tardanico also co-authored the book, Beating the Impostor Syndrome.
She is a member of the National Association of Corporate Directors, the National Speakers’ Association and the Arthur W. Page Society, comprised of chief communications officers from around the world. She was also a charter member of the Communications Executive Council. Tardanico is a 3-time judge for the Association of Management Consulting Firms’ annual awards in the Change Management category.
