Why Even Top Leaders Need Coaching to Perform Better

IN THIS EPISODE: Philip Guarino speaks with Paris-based executive coach Jon Passaro about the hidden pressures leaders face in high-performance environments. They explore how self-awareness, reflection, and coaching help professionals navigate uncertainty, improve decision-making, and sustain growth over time. GUEST BIO: Jon Passaro is a Paris-based executive and team coach working with emerging and senior leaders in high-pressure, fast-paced environments, particularly in multinational law firms. A dual US/French national, he coaches in both English and French. Prior to coaching, he was a lawyer specializing in international disputes at leading global firms and later worked in-house at the OECD. Jon holds a BA from the University of Pennsylvania, an MPhil from the University of Cambridge, and a JD from Harvard Law School. He is a Professional Certified Coach (PCC) with the International Coaching Federation.

IN THIS EPISODE: Every organization begins by serving customers. Not all of them get it right — or keep it that way. So where does the customer  relationship break down? In this episode, Denise Silber speaks with HBS MBA Caroline Evans de Gantes, a transformation leader who has spent more than two decades helping companies design strategy, culture, and operations around customer love as an organizing principle. Caroline recalls arriving at Harvard Business School in 2008 just as the Lehman Brothers collapse unfolded — an experience that shaped her leadership perspective: progress comes from experimentation, learning quickly, and working closely with frontline teams. Drawing on transformations across industries known for difficult customer relationships, she shares what it takes to reconnect organizations with the people they serve. From mobile phone insurance and broadband installation to the transformation of leading real-estate marketplace SeLoger within the Aviv Group, the conversation explores how leadership culture, incentives, and technology can be realigned around customers — and how doing so improves business performance. Throughout the discussion, Caroline shows that making customer love an organizing principle starts on Day 1. GUEST BIO: Caroline Evans de Gantès, a 2010 MBA graduate of the Harvard Business School, has over 20 years experience transforming offline industries by placing the client front and center. From insurance to telecommunications  to real estate, Caroline has deployed this approach to transform culture, product, and strategy, and turn profits around. Most recently, Caroline led a transformation at SeLoger (a 30 year old French real estate marketplace) to 2X the growth rate and a great NPS (Net Promoter Score), through redesigning culture, organisation, and business model. She merged SeLoger, and other real estate companies in France, launched new services to take back market share from rivals and championed a customer-centric culture in France, Belgium, and Germany. The resulting business, Aviv, is the leading European real estate marketplace with 50M monthly active users.  Caroline is originally from the State of Mississippi and has fashioned a career as the bridge between people and technology and the US and Europe. 

IN THIS EPISODE: In this episode, Denise Silber HBS MBA welcomes Professor Daniel Elfenbein,  a triple Harvard alumnus and entrepreneurship researcher at Olin Business School. Together, they explore the delicate balance entrepreneurs must strike between confidence and overconfidence, commitment and detachment, and the hard truth of knowing when to pivot—or when to quit. Dan shares insights drawn from his own entrepreneurial journey, research experiments, and global teaching experience. From biotech boardroom standoffs to mathematical models of founder behavior, he unpacks how emotions, attachment, and overconfidence affect decision-making in startups. You'll learn why "quitting" may just be the smartest pivot of all—and how founders can better calibrate their confidence to avoid costly mistakes. GUEST BIO: Daniel Elfenbein is Professor of Strategy at Washington University in St. Louis's Olin Business School. A triple Harvard alumnus, Dan earned his Ph.D. and M.A. in Business Economics from Harvard, and graduated summa cum laude with an A.B. in Chemistry. Dan is a leading scholar at the intersection of strategy, entrepreneurship, and organizational economics. His research delves into how trust, incentives, and behavioral biases shape outcomes in entrepreneurial ventures and strategic alliances. His work has been published in top-tier journals including the Academy of Management Review, Organization Science, Strategic Management Journal, Management Science, and The Review of Economic Studies. A central theme of Dan's research is understanding the nuanced role of overconfidence in entrepreneurial decision-making. His work—spanning computational modeling, experiments, and economic theory—has provided deep insights into how different forms of overconfidence (including overestimation and overprecision) influence venture formation, pivot strategies, and exit decisions. He has demonstrated that some forms of overconfidence can impede learning and decision-making, while others may be counterbalanced by well-designed experimentation programs. Dan served as Chair of the Strategy and Entrepreneurship Area at Olin from 2020 to 2024, where he championed a culture of scholarly excellence and cross-disciplinary collaboration. He served as Academic Director and then as Associate Dean for Olin's joint Executive MBA Program with Fudan School of Management in Shanghai. Prior to academia, Dan worked as a consultant at Monitor Company—a firm founded by Harvard Business School professors and graduates, including Michael E. Porter, with whom Dan had the great privilege to work. He also served as a staff economist with the President's Council of Economic Advisers in the Clinton Administration. He has held faculty appointments at Berkeley's Haas School of Business and has delivered invited talks at Harvard Business School, MIT Sloan, and London Business School, and more than 30 other universities around the globe.  

Meet Our Co-host: Philip Guarino An interim executive and growth consultant to technology firms, Philip Guarino has over 25 years of experience as an executive and entrepreneur, having worked in over 50 countries and traveled to more than 120.  Philip is the Chair of HarvardAE's Paris Chapter. Fluent in five languages, he is a graduate of Harvard College and holds an MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

Meet Our Co-host: Denise Silber Denise Silber, a digital health pioneer and opinion leader, is the founder of Basil Strategies consultancy, of Doctors 2.0 & You conferences, and a new venture in Virtual Reality, VRforHealth. A multi-cultural American in Paris, Denise's contributions to the development of digital health globally led her to receive France's highest civil award, the Legion of Honor. A graduate of Smith College and a Harvard MBA, Denise is also a keynote speaker, author and vice president of Harvard Club of France. In this episode of HAE Invites meet our hosts, Denise Silber and Philip Guarino. They talk about what led them to be a part of the persistent global movement to make things better through innovation. Tune in to learn more about HAE Invites, the people that will be featured on the show, and how these individuals are changing the business landscape.

IN THIS EPISODE: In this episode of the HAE Podcast, host Philip Guarino sits down with James Sutherland, Founder & CEO of Autonomo Technologies, to discuss the rise of autonomous retail, the convergence of AI and consumer behavior, and how automation is reshaping global retail economics—from labor shortages to dynamic pricing and customer experience. GUEST BIO: James Sutherland is Founder & CEO of Autonomo Technologies, Europe's leading autonomous retail company. James began his career at Mars Inc moving into large-scale food factory construction. After Harvard Business School he pivoted to AI, recognising its transformative potential across industries—especially the $3 trillion convenience retail sector - which led him to start Autonomo in 2021.

IN THIS EPISODE: In this episode, our host Denise Silber sits down with Shannon Lundgren — HBS MBA, entrepreneur, and founder of Shannon's Circle — to explore what it means to build a business in one of the most personal industries: love. Shannon's path didn't follow the usual arc. After the Business School and a pivotal chapter working directly for Warren Buffett — where what impressed her most was his extraordinary kindness, and how he brought out the best in everyone by talking about their best qualities — Shannons Lundgren transitioned from corporate strategy to executive recruiting, a field where understanding the whole person, through emotional intelligence, is essential. That same approach now drives her work in high-end matchmaking, where success is all about the fit Shannon shares how she built her client base with intention, why she only takes on clients she believes she can help, and what entrepreneurs can learn from guiding people through high-stakes first impressions. So why listen?  To be inspired by an exceptional entrepreneur — and because, let's face it, you're curious about how modern matchmaking really works. Whether you're building a business or looking for meaningful connections, this episode will leave you thinking differently about what it  takes to create lasting matches between people. GUEST BIO: Shannon Lundgren, a Harvard Business School alumna, is the CEO of Shannon's Circle, where she brings 12 years of elite matchmaking experience to helping intellectually curious and kind singles find the love of their life.As a corporate executive turned matchmaker, she applies her executive recruiting skills to serve clients in California and the West Coast. Shannon is a recognized expert on modern love, featured in The Wall Street Journal, Fortune, Forbes, Harvard Magazine, Business Insider, and Today. Before launching her matchmaking career, she was a Senior Vice President at Wells Fargo and a Strategic Marketing Consultant at Berkshire Hathaway. She serves on the board of the Harvard Business School Club of Northern California and is a respected partner of The Family Office Exchange (FOX), where she speaks about wealth being much more than net worth. Shannon also holds a B.A. in business from UC Berkeley. She resides in San Francisco with her husband of 18 years and their teenage daughter.  

IN THIS EPISODE: In this episode, host Denise Silber sits down with Michaela Horvathova, co-founder of Beyond Education and alumna of Harvard's Graduate School of Education, to explore how building an innovative company demands more than a great product — it requires becoming a thought leader.  Michaela's journey is as global as it is inspiring. Despite not fitting into the traditional school system in Slovakia, Michaela earned a tennis scholarship to the U.S., graduated from Harvard, advised the Prime Minister of Slovakia, and co-founded a bold edtech startup helping schools adapt to the age of AI. Her company, Beyond Education, was selected for and completed the Harvard Alumni Entrepreneurs Accelerator — a zero-equity, virtual program supporting high-potential, Harvard alumni-founded companies.  You'll hear how Michaela: Pivoted from policymaking to entrepreneurship for greater impact. Built a company focused on digital assessments and teacher development to help schools evolve with technology. Learned why even small startups must embrace thought leadership to shape their market and build demand. Turned her credibility and conviction into invitations to speak at global education events — and even organized her own summit. Whether you're an entrepreneur, investor, or advisor, this episode unpacks why communication and positioning matter just as much as product — especially when your innovation is ahead of its time. Tune in to learn how a tennis champion turned edtech entrepreneur built a mission-driven company from the ground up — and how the HAE Accelerator helped refine their vision and strategy. GUEST BIO: Michaela Horvathova is the co-founder of Beyond Education, a fast-growing edtech startup now active in over 13 countries. She holds a Master's in Education Policy and Management from Harvard University and has over 12 years of experience in global education reform. Before launching Beyond Education, Michaela worked at the OECD, partnered with organizations like IB and UNICEF, and advised ministries of education across the Czech Republic, South Africa, the Netherlands, and Brazil. As an Advisor to the Prime Minister of Slovakia, she helped shape national education strategy, focusing on competency-based learning. A regular speaker at global conferences, Michaela is passionate about reimagining how schools prepare students for the age of AI. A former professional tennis player, she brings resilience, adaptability, and a growth mindset to her work as an entrepreneur.

IN THIS EPISODE: Scaling a startup brings exciting opportunities—but also the challenge of increased complexity, slower decision-making, and the creeping risk of bureaucracy. In this episode, Artus de Longuemar joins host Philip Guarino to reveal how founders can delegate with confidence, maintain agility, and empower teams without losing control. They explore the psychological barriers to delegation, the shift from hands-on execution to strategic leadership, and how clear autonomy frameworks can drive success. Artus also highlights the power of inspiring content creation for platforms like LinkedIn and how founders can align delegation with company goals. Plus, they dive into strategies for decentralizing decision-making, fostering collective intelligence, and navigating the rise of AI in leadership. GUEST BIO: Artus de Longuemar helps startup founders scale their teams without losing speed, agility, or control. With experience across 180+ businesses—from startups to Fortune 500s—he specializes in agile, collaborative leadership. Great leadership, he believes, isn't about pushing harder but creating the right conditions for teams to thrive. After five years at Airbus, he shifted to entrepreneurship, advising startups on leadership and organizational design. He's also developing Proudly, an AI-powered virtual coach for managers. Beyond work, Artus enjoys surfing, skiing, and MMA—balancing discipline, agility, and flow.  

IN THIS EPISODE: In a change of pace, host Denise Silber delves into her professional field, digital health, as she  invites fellow Harvard alumna Dr. Ariel Dora Stern. Together they  explore Dr. Stern's extensive and unique, research-based findings on what drives successful business models in healthtech. Dr. Stern combines her Harvard PhD, insights from her decade on the HBS faculty, and her prestigious position as Alexander von Humboldt Professor at Germany's Hasso Plattner Institute to provide listeners with unparalleled expertise in the digital health business across the globe  Ariel Dora Stern provides  case learnings from Proximie, a company using augmented and virtual reality to improve surgical procedure, and shares more broadly  how startups can navigate the business challenges of healthcare. This episode brings valuable advice to entrepreneurs looking to scale their digital health solutions on both sides of the Atlantic. GUEST BIO: After completing her PhD at Harvard and spending ten years on the faculty of Harvard Business School, Ariel Dora Stern is currently the Alexander von Humboldt Professor for Digital Health, Economics and Policy at Germany's Hasso Plattner Institute. Ariel's research focuses on innovation and technology management in health care. Formerly, she served as the Director for International Health Care Economics at the Health Innovation Hub, an independent think tank of the German Ministry of Health. She is a member of several academic and industry advisory boards and advises numerous health care startups.