Cade Cowan has worked around the globe with some of the world's leading companies. His work in leadership development and organizational capability building has exposed him to leaders, entrepreneurs, academics and others in over 30 countries on five continents. Cade is noted by his clients for his energy and his creativity in the design and delivery of unique learning experiences that allow leaders to approach their organization's challenges in new ways. Additionally, his experience in coaching senior-most leaders provides him insight to the complexity of leadership in today's ambiguous environment. Cade has worked with leaders from Microsoft, Hewlett Packard, Walmart, Thomson Reuters, Glaxo SmithKline, Aetna, Lookout, AbbVie, PayPal, Cox Communications, Five Below, Johnson & Johnson, Sprint, and Western Digital. Along with David Dotlich and Peter Cairo, Cade coauthored The Unfinished Leader: Balancing Contradictory Answers to Unsolvable Problems, published by Jossey-Bass in 2014. 

 

Prior to entering consulting, Cade served as Director, Coca-Cola University, Bottling Investments Group (BIG), where he directed all global learning and development initiatives for the company’s wholly owned bottlers, an organization of 85,000 global associates. Though focused primarily on building BIG’s leadership development capability, he also worked with BIG’s respective bottler organizations to apply relevant training programs from Coca-Cola University’s commercial and supply chain curricula. While in this role, he completed short-term assignments with bottlers in both the Philippines and India.

 

Cade initially joined Coca-Cola in 2003 as a program manager responsible for a global leadership development program targeting the company’s middle managers. He later assumed responsibility for the global development of frontline leaders. In 2007, he was promoted to Director, Coca-Cola University, Global Leadership Development, responsible for the entire suite of the company’s leadership development offerings. 

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Before joining Coca-Cola, Cade worked at GE’s John F. Welch Leadership Development Center, GE Crotonville. There, he designed programs aimed at C-level executives and their teams. Beyond designing curricula, Cade often led sessions in the areas of change management, acquisition integration, and productivity.

 

Before moving into the world of learning and development, Cade worked within the GE finance function, graduating from the company’s Financial Management Program and later serving as Lead Financial Analyst for GE Appliances Asia, living in Hong Kong. He also gained experience during the initial dotcom era as a Customer Experience Analyst for gepower.com. He holds a master’s degree in organizational and social psychology from Columbia University and an undergraduate degree in economics and finance from the University of Tennessee at Martin. Cade lives in Atlanta, Georgia.

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