Erica Ishida
Erica Ishida believes in the power of resilience, intention, culture, strategy and disciplined execution, in building viable organizations and developing leaders. She has more than 15 years of experience in organization design, organization and change management, leadership development, and operational excellence, to produce business redesigns and cultural transformation. She has worked in industries spanning professional services, technology, telecommunications, venture development, and non-profit.
Erica is the founder and CEO of Yellow Cedar Group, a firm that focuses on building resilience in people and organizations, to help them meet current challenges, adapt, and move towards their desired future, activating their potential, and optimizing individual and team performance.
Erica has been a CEO and has also been a trusted advisor to CEOs both as an internal employee and as an external advisor and coach. She has worked with a diverse group of clients, from C-level leaders to high potentials, across a variety of industries. She has dedicated her career to designing scalable organizations and processes, building managed cultures, coaching high-potential leaders, building highly effective teams, and managing change. She has deep expertise in coaching, organization design, strategic planning, product and service innovation, change management, leadership as well as sales and client services.
Prior to Yellow Cedar Group, Erica was the President of Apple Growth Partners (AGP), an accounting
and advisory firm in NE Ohio. She was responsible for the operation of the organization, setting and
executing the firm strategy, and strengthening the culture. Prior to AGP, Erica was the Chief Operating
Officer at Destination Cleveland where she led the day-to-day management of the organization, and had
direct responsibility for Human Resources, Finance, Project Management and IT; CEO of Leading Edge
Alliance, the largest international Accounting Industry Association; founder and COO of LaunchVector, a
technology start-up in Cleveland, OH.; and Chief of Staff at AXS/Veritix where she led the integration
effort for the AXS and Veritix acquisition and integrations. Erica was also the National Director of
Business Development for BDO, USA, implementing the structure, process and systems for BDO's
national Business Development function.
Erica is a certified Leadership Development Coach and has had responsibilities for coaching CEOs in the
companies she has worked for, and on a consulting basis. She has experience in start-up and high
growth environments as well as Fortune 500 organizations. Erica also occasionally teaches and coaches
Leadership Development courses through Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Oh.
Central to Erica’s life are her loved ones (human and canine), using food as medicine, exercising, and
spending time in nature. She is also committed to the practices of martial arts and meditation, as well as
and conservationist efforts.
Honors BA, Psychology, The University of Michigan
Masters in Positive Organization Design (MPOD), Case Western Reserve University (CWRU)
Certified in Leadership Development, CWRU
FEMA – Certified in Disaster Recovery Planning
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