About Us
Gary Hirsch is a Certified Exit Planner, an Executive Coach with more than 5,000 hours spent in one on one coaching with CEO’s and senior executives, and founding Group Chair of four Peer Advisory Groups. Currently he leads one peer advisory group for the Rotary Club of Tucson, a benefit for each member of that Roundtable worth thousand of dollars per year.
Mr. Hirsch is the Vice President and Co-Founder of The Leader’s Edge, a business coaching, consulting & training firm serving clients on four continents and locally in Tucson, AZ.
As a Certified Exit Planner with NAVIX Consultants, he helps business owners prepare their businesses for sale, typically resulting in higher multiples and a better likelihood a successful transition.
As a professional certified executive coach he helps business clients become more successful, make successful transitions, overcome challenges and find more enjoyment and meaning in their work. His clients include CEO’s and managers from consulting; manufacturing; engineering; medicine; real estate; design; law; investing; show business and more. He has worked with clients on five continents, has developed business partnerships with companies in Europe, Asia, and Eastern Europe and is a “coach’s coach,” helping other coaches refine their coaching techniques and build their practices. As one client said, “Through Gary’s guidance, my business underwent a transformation that is nothing short of remarkable. In six months my sales performance went from lackluster, to my most successful year ever in 5 years of sales. As I approach the end of the first quarter, I am on track to eclipse my best year ever. While the financial success has been gratifying, more importantly, I look forward to going to work every day.”
As a Business Revisor, he works with “mature startups” and established successful companies to examine, revise, construct or scale the systems that support their orderly growth and managed risks.
Mr. Hirsch has enjoyed a variety of business successes. He served as Vice President for Macro International, a Washington DC division of the Opinion Research Corporation where he provided more than $15 million in marketing, market research and management consulting for the United States Department of Energy, Argonne National Laboratory, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory and a variety of state and local governments and non-profit agencies
He served as Vice President of Global Energy Partners, where he advised some of the largest energy companies in the United States including The Environmental Protection Agency, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, the Electric Power Research Institute, Southern Company, Consolidated Edison, the Tennessee Valley Authority to name a few.
Prior to his career in management consulting, Mr. Hirsch was the Assistant Director for an entrepreneurial 200-person state natural resources agency. While there he achieved several “firsts” including a revolving loan program to fund energy investments for more than 50 million square feet of government-owned buildings. He developed successful legislation to allow government workers to retain a portion of funds saved by reducing energy costs and when electric utilities entered the competitive era in the mid-1990’s he led the first project for which a regulated utility paid a state agency for conserved electricity.
Mr. Hirsch has advised governors, legislators, and agency directors on policy issues and has been recognized for excellence in leadership and sales in every one of his positions. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in energy policy and engineering.
Kandy Hirsch is the founding chair in Tucson and Southern Arizona for the Women President’s Organization. Kandy’s success deploying WPO in Southern Arizona resulted in an invitation to speak at the WPO Annual Chair Conference to share the methods she used in building that group. For WPO she currently chairs three groups with occasional openings. If you are a woman business owner or CEO and are interested in working with other women to grow your business one of Kandy’s groups may very well be the place for you.
Not a President? Kandy has also formed a “Second-in-Command group for executives that report to the business owner or CEO.
Kandy brings a unique combination of skills to her role as Chair. She is a certified in several tools and methods including:
- Emotional Intelligence EQI assessment
- Mental Health First Aid
- The Birkman Method
- Ericsonian Hynotherapy
- EMDR
As a Licensed Mental Health Counselor, Kandy brings a unique insight into the workings of individual leaders and team dynamics. Certified in Ericsonian Hypnotherapy, Kandy brings a whole new depth to the art of “deep listening.”
The WPO is the premier membership organization for women presidents & CEOs (and managing directors) of privately held, multi-million dollar companies. Through global, confidential and collaborative peer-learning groups, the WPO accelerates business growth, enhances competitiveness, and promotes economic security. It is the ultimate destination for successful women entrepreneurs. In chapters composed of approximately 20 accomplished women entrepreneurs, women presidents, from diverse industries and backgrounds, address business concerns in a roundtable format and function as an informal board of directors for their businesses. There are currently 90 chapters in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Peru and South Africa.
Chapters are moderated by professionally-trained facilitators, all of whom own their own businesses. Each chapter serves as a peer advisory group based on the 4 C’s of WPO:Collaboration, Confidentiality, Commitment and Connections. WPO members address both strategic and operational issues focusing on financial concerns, organizational development, hiring and firing and other issues defined by chapter members, to drive their businesses to the next level.