Debbie Plager

Debbie Plager is an organizational consultant and business executive with over 20 years of experience transforming individuals, teams, and businesses during growth, contraction, and change.

Debbie is deeply skilled in working with executives at all levels – from the C-Suite to Divisional Presidents and senior leaders. She is known as a trusted advisor and partner. She collaborates with leaders and teams to achieve marked change and sustained business results. As an executive and team coach, Debbie is known as a creative, direct, and supportive coach. Her clients experience lasting leadership impacts and feel happier and more productive. Coaching highlights include Coaching a Divisional President who turned around her poor-performing division (from -2% to 15% EBITDA growth), accelerating readiness for divisional president successors to move into their more prominent roles, and aligning a CFO and his executive team as they decreased their organizational footprint by 25% and improved retained employee engagement.

Before joining Executive Coaching Connections, Debbie was Chief Talent Officer at HUB International, where she built out the talent function and key people practices. Her actions were instrumental in HUB winning a Stevie’s Gold Award for Best Employer in 2021. Debbie also served as the first Director of Talent Engagement at Relativity (a rapidly growing technology firm) and Associate Vice President of HR at Unum Group. Before Unum, Debbie led organizational effectiveness and talent teams at Allstate Insurance.

Debbie is experienced in various business categories, including financial services, healthcare, higher education, nonprofits, and technology. She is also an adjunct faculty member with Northwestern’s Masters of Learning & Organizational Change program.

Certification

• Professional Certified Coach (PCC), International Coaching Federation (ICF)
• ITCA (Team Coaching Practitioner) with the EMCC
• Change Style Inventory
• Hogan Assessments
• Intercultural Development Inventory
• Emotional Intelligence 360 (Institute of Health & Human Potential)

Education

• Graduate Certificate, Evidence-Based Coaching, Fielding University
• MS, Learning & Organizational Change, Northwestern University
• BA, History, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Practice Areas

• 360-Degree Feedback
• Business Consulting
• Conflict Resolution & Team Intervention
• Executive Coaching
• Executive Onboarding
• Large Group Design & Facilitation
• Leadership Team Alignment
• Leadership Development
• Organizational Health & Strategy
• Design Thinking
• Program/Meeting Facilitation
• Strategic Planning & Execution
• Team Coaching