Ellen Verfaillie

Ellen is an experienced international executive coach and organizational consultant who supports senior executives to enhance their effectiveness as leaders and members of executive teams or boards, to succeed challenging role transitions and to lead complex organizational change. She offers a candid and grounding presence combined with a rich experience and research-based insight into global business and human behavior. 

Part of KdVI and Insead Executive Coaching, Ellen intervenes in top leadership and director programs and designs bespoke coaching engagements, team facilitations or organisational interventions for multinationals (a.o. Solvay, Reckit Benckiser, AGC) and dynamic national players. She has coached leaders from over 70+ nationalities all across the globe (a.o. China, Singapore, Malaysia, Abu Dhabi, Germany, France, UK) as well as virtually. She is fluent in English, French and Dutch, conversational in German. 

Ellen’s career reflects her dual interest in business and psychology and her passion for people development. She first joined State Street and KPMG in Boston in internal consulting after completing her Master in Applied Economics (Finance) from the University of Leuven (magna cum laude) and her Master in Intercultural Management from ICHEC. Following her MBA at Insead she took on global strategic marketing and product development roles at Vichy International in France and Germany, regularly interacting with l’Oreal top management.  

In 2007 Ellen joined Insead Executive Education as the leader for the European Company Specific Programs team and part of Insead’s Senior Management Team (Fontainebleau, France). Together with Insead faculty and C-suite stakeholders, she and her team designed 100+ innovative programs for top talent from a.o. Shell, HSBC, Microsoft, Vivendi, Heineken’s. Ellen weathered the financial crisis and led politically-charged change, gaining first-hand appreciation for the leadership challenges faced by her current clients.

Ellen founded her own coaching & consulting business based out of Singapore in 2012, after completing the psycho-dynamic ‘Executive Masters in Consulting and Coaching for Change’ (EMCCC) at Insead and certifying in key psychometric and feedback instruments (LCP, Hogan, EQi, MBTI…). Ever expanding her expertise she more recently pursued Tavistock’s system-dynamic ‘Certificate in Dynamics at Board-level’ (London) and the Insead’s IN-Board program (Brussels). Convinced of the transformational insights of neuroscience, Ellen continues to study and and integrate mindfulness and leadership embodiment in her practice.

After 20 years of living and working in the U.S.A., France, Germany and Singapore, in 2017 Ellen returned to her home country Belgium where she now lives with her 2 teenagers and her 2 Singaporean cats.