The Person Behind the Work

For over 25 years, Ricki Frankel has helped senior & emerging leaders, entrepreneurs, and executives step into the next level of what's possible — in their work, their leadership, and their lives.

An expert in transitions and creating change, her path to this work wasn't a straight line. She started as a computer programmer, worked in what we'd now call fintech, earned an MBA from Wharton, and spent years in product and marketing management. Along the way, she kept noticing something: people kept showing up at her door. She was the one who knew who was going through what, who could navigate the politics, who was willing to tell truth to power. When she found coaching, her reaction was immediate — I've always done this. I just didn't always get paid for it.

That background matters. Ricki brings genuine business fluency to her coaching — she's been in the room, managed the politics, led through change, and now she teaches MBA students. Combined with deep expertise across multiple coaching and organizational development modalities, and training in more forms than she could list, she works with clients at a level that's both strategically sharp and deeply human. She also brings her full self — including a sense of humor — because the work is serious, but it should also be serious fun.

Her approach is direct and her goals are clear: help clients see what’s possible, get out of their own way, and — crucially — learn to develop themselves. The measure of good coaching, in her view, isn’t dependency. It’s growth.

Ricki teaches leadership and coaching at Stanford’s Graduate School of Business, where she leads the Arbuckle Leadership Fellows program. She holds a BA from Dartmouth College and an MBA from the Wharton School of Business, with training across more coaching modalities than she could possibly list - including a PCC certification. She works with clients across the world.