Mary Ellen Sanajko

From her childhood dream of owning a bank – yes, owning a bank – Mary Ellen has had a deep-seated love for all things business. While stock investing has satisfied that goal, her genuine curiosity for plotting, planning, and crunching lives on.

 So why would somebody so in touch with her inner CEO ever leave the corporate world?

Well. Even while enjoying a successful career in banking IT and high-tech sales and marketing, Mary Ellen sensed there was something more she needed to do … something else she was to experience.

Her epiphany about her life purpose came on a self-funded sabbatical in 2002: to softly and insistently remind herself and others “yes you can”.

She brings her humor, heart, and acumen to supporting others to bring their best. Calling her clients forward with kindness and the occasional nudge, Mary Ellen reminds them of all they can be … all that’s possible. And they get to accomplish more than they ever dreamed. Yay!

Her adventures led to helping a squabbling leadership team in Seniors Care get on track. That was back in 2006.

Since then she’s worked with thousands of leaders and teams, supporting them to create workplaces for staff (and in the case of Seniors Care, homes for residents), that are sources of joy, meaning and connection.

Of course, Mary Ellen has all the credentials with degrees and designations ranging from being a certified teacher of a mindfulness-based emotional intelligence program developed at Google (!), to certifications for coaching individuals and teams, training in adult learning principles, and teaching about soul-money for good measure.

What you’ll notice very soon after meeting Mary Ellen is she’s a bit of a geek, always tying in the latest findings to her work. She strives to keep current on what scientists are discovering because nice ideas are, well, nice.

If researchers have studied these ideas and figured out what works on large numbers of people, that’s better.

She also has a full life outside of her work. She’s a mom to two terrific daughters and a very silly black Lab, real estate investor, past board member for a $15 million nonprofit, reforming marathon runner who’s slowed down to walking a daily 10k, gardener, somewhat obsessed Christmas cookie hobbyist, and new knitter.