Susan Peirce has a keen understanding of business and a steadfast desire for results. As a Partner at SSCA, she has been an integral part of the growth and transformation of hundreds of businesses in her more than thirty years of working in Leadership and Organizational Development. Through her consulting and coaching, Susan offers clients an opportunity for growth and the ability to access sincere vulnerability, opening the door for them to “get out of their own way” and achieve remarkable business results.
Susan is sought-after by Fortune-500 companies, mid-sized businesses, and start-ups for her intuitive, direct approach and her expertise in the areas of organizational climate, conflict resolution, transformational change, candidate assessment and selection, executive coaching, and crisis management (just for starters). She has maintained a diverse practice over many years and brings a breadth of experience to her clients. Susan continuously offers opportunities for growth and accountability in a supportive way that invites people to redesign their destinies if they choose, revealing the true hallmark of her leadership development approach.
While Susan initially specialized in hospitality, she intentionally expanded her client portfolio to a myriad of industries including cyber security high tech, investment banking, manufacturing, packaged goods, healthcare, and non-profits. Susan’s self-imposed standards of excellence made her stand out early in her career in the restaurant business as she was quickly tapped by the Jolly Roger chain to launch new locations. Her success there led to a position with Collins Foods, where Susan developed programs to facilitate the joint venture between Collins Foods and Lettuce Entertain You, leading to innovative restaurant concepts including the revered Gino’s East of Chicago and lively, retro-themed Ed Debevic’s.
While at Collins Foods, Susan had the great fortune of working within a company that maintained a very progressive industrial psychology department where she cut her teeth conducting multiple Job Competency Assessments (JCA) and served as a primary assessor for assessment centers. Susan became intoxicated by leadership and learned everything she could about psychometrics and instruments and how they link to strengths and achievement.
Before joining SSCA, Susan took a key leadership position with IOLAB, a Johnson & Johnson company. There she led the OD function, their wellness program, and was instrumental in implementing the flagship Total Quality Management (TQM) into their manufacturing platform. Her business results earned Susan the youngest female manager within the company at that time. Susan has an earnestness that is unparalleled and she never lowers the bar. As a Partner at SSCA, her clients can attest to her generosity of expertise and time, and her loyalty has led many to consider Susan an extension of their leadership team.
Susan possesses a lifelong entrepreneurial spirit (she started her first profitable business at the age of 14) and a passion for philanthropy. She serves as President of Red Bucket Equine Rescue, an organization she founded in 2008. Since then, Red Bucket has become one of the country’s most successful non-profit equine rescues. It is not accidental that she created a model of rescue that significantly increases the probability of success, just like she has done within her executive coaching and business consulting practice at SSCA.
