Erica Ishida

Erica Ishida believes in the power of resilience, intention, culture, strategy, technology, and disciplined execution, in building healthy organizations. She has more than years of experience in organization design, change management, leadership development, and operational excellence, to produce business redesigns and cultural transformations. She has worked in industries spanning professional services, technology, telecommunications, venture development, and non-profit.

Erica is a founder, owner, and CEO of AI23, a company committed to democratizing GenAI and unlocking human potential. She is also the CEO of Yellow Cedar Group, an executive coaching and strategic advisory firm that focuses on building healthy, human centered teams and organizations that are designed to outperform their competition.

Erica has been a trusted advisor to other 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 AI23 and Yellow Cedar Group, Erica was the President of Apple Growth Partners (AGP), an accounting and advisory firm in NE Ohio. Prior to AGP, Erica was the Chief Operating Officer at Destination Cleveland; 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 certified as an Executive Coach, as well as in Neuroscience for leadership and business. She has experience in start-up and high growth environments as well as Fortune 500 organizations. Erica also occasionally teaches and coaches 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 conservationist efforts.

Honors BA, Psychology, The University of Michigan
Masters in Positive Organization Design (MPOD), Case Western Reserve University (CWRU)
Certified in Coaching through Emotional Intelligence, CWRU
Certified in Neuroscience for Business, MIT
FEMA – Certified in Disaster Recovery Planning

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