Title: Founder and Managing Principal
Company: Michael J. Leavey Coaching
Location: Phoenix, Arizona, United States
Michael James Leavey, Founder and Managing Principal at Michael J. Leavey Coaching, has been recognized by Marquis Who’s Who Top Executives for dedication, achievements, and leadership in life coaching and leadership development.
With more than 30 years of experience to his credit, Mr. Leavey has excelled as the founder and managing principal with Michael J. Leavey Coaching and a contracted global career transition coach with Careerminds since 2023. In these positions, he provides his expertise on life, leadership and parenting skills to working parents, single parents, expecting parents undergoing surgeries, and stay-at-home fathers, among many others. A single parent himself who has experienced both divorce and surrogacy firsthand, Mr. Leavey launched Michael J. Leavey Coaching at the recent Men Having Babies Surrogacy Conference in San Francisco, where he networked with expecting fathers, attorneys, insurance providers, surrogacy agencies and fertility clinics.
Prior to these positions, Mr. Leavey found success in a longstanding career with American Express, which he began as a business analyst between 1992 and 1997. He subsequently served with the aforementioned company as a senior auditor from 1997 to 2000, a manager of analytics and information management from 2000 to 2004, a project manager for platform optimization from 2004 to 2006, a manager for organizational performance from 2006 to 2007, and a senior project manager from 2008 to 2011. After working as the director of global business transformation from 2011 to 2013, he was appointed as American Express’ director of global compensation and benefits operations between 2013 and 2017, during which time he successfully implemented the first-ever global performance and compensation system to administer the year-end process for 65,000 colleagues. As part of American Express’ Colleague Experience Group until 2022, Mr. Leavey concluded his tenure as the vice president of colleague services and digital capabilities, the director of colleague privacy and operational excellence, the co-executive sponsor of the Family Dynamics Colleague Network and a member of Executive Pride.
Before embarking on his professional path, Mr. Leavey pursued an education at Centennial College, from which he earned an associate’s degree in accounting and financial management in 1991. To support his ambitions within his field, he obtained a certificate in leadership excellence from American Express and Harvard Business Publishing in 2017. Outside of his immediate circles, he contributes to his local parent-teacher organization, the Arizona Cattle Dog Rescue and a master’s division softball team with the Cactus City Softball League. In addition to his primary responsibilities, Mr. Leavey remains affiliated with various organizations in relation to his areas of expertise, including ThirdPath, City Dads Group in New York, Fathering Together, the International Coaching Federation and the Phoenix chapter of the Society for Human Resource Management.
Notably, Mr. Leavey participated in a panel discussion titled “Co-Design & Personalize the Employee Experience” alongside Mother Honestly founder Blessing Adesiyan. He has attributed his success to his resiliency, his courageousness, mentors who invested in his growth and development, and his passion for lifelong learning. Grateful to have helped his team members at American Express in their career aspirations, he is also proud to have become one of the first senior-level executives at American Express to take a full 20-week paid paternity leave and take advantage of the financial support provided by the company for surrogacy. Looking toward the future, Mr. Leavey hopes to continue building Michael J. Leavey Coaching while cementing a legacy for his son, increasing his involvement with Fathering Together, garnering his coaching certification and publishing a book based on his story.
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