WHY CATALYZE?
Kirstin Lynde founded Catalyze Associates to bring innovative, cost-effective leadership development programming to a wide variety of companies wishing to strengthen their leaders’ bench strength. Catalyze offers leadership programs which overcome the downsides to over-reliance on executive coaching (high cost) and over-reliance on traditionally-structured training (limited impact). Catalyze offers open enrollment and company-focused leadership immersion programs, coaching, and 360 feedback services.
Kirstin Lynde, Founder & Principal
Kirstin Lynde has a passion for helping people become the kind of leaders for whom others love to work: namely, leaders who have a knack for inspiring and facilitating great performance, while making work enjoyable along the way. Leaders who approach their teams with trust, respect, and an open mind.
Contrary to popular belief, the skills to become this kind of leader CAN be cultivated. Kirstin has worked to build this brand of winning leadership at Digitas, Forrester Research, Ropes & Gray, Randstad, and many other organizations.
PROFESSIONAL BACKGROUND
Early in her career, Kirstin worked in a variety of operational roles: as a strategy consultant at Bain, as an advertising VP running client accounts, as a marketer at American Express, and as director of client services operations at a large customer insight research firm. She brings real-life business experience to the table – not just an academic or “training background.”
Eventually Kirstin’s passion shifted to helping others get stronger at their work. She built a world-class learning & development function at Digitas that helped fuel the firm’s skyrocketing growth as it went from 150 to over 2000 employees during the ten years prior to the firm’s going public. She taught leadership workshops at Forrester Research. She built and facilitated the popular Leaders in Motion program for Randstad, one of the largest and most successful people placement / recruiting organizations in the world.
LIFE
Kirstin graduated magna cum laude from Williams College and has an MBA with honors from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. She resides in Naples Florida, and summers in Quechee, Vermont. When not at work she can be found walking on woodsy roads & trails, concocting healthy food, communing with her miniature goldendoodle Ginger, tapping her foot to Celtic music, and sneaking dark chocolate.
Michael Kolowich, Principal
Michael Kolowich has been creating and building businesses — and the high-performing teams to drive them — for more than 35 years. At companies large and small, Michael has recruited, developed, and inspired high-performing leaders who have transformed important aspects of many industries, including personal computing, telecommunications, consulting, online publishing, video marketing, and, most recently, unmanned aerial videography and photography.
Whether serving as CEO, partner, division president, or tech support, he relishes helping others find their footing as successful leaders.
PROFESSIONAL BACKGROUND
Educated at Harvard College in Engineering and Applied Physics, Michael began his career as an Emmy-award-winning television news producer and reporter in Boston, covering technology and business for WGBH-TV and the Public Broadcasting System. After earning an MBA with distinction from Harvard Business School, he fast-tracked to VP and Partner at Bain and Company, the global strategy consulting firm.
His career in technology began at spreadsheet pioneer Lotus Development Corporation, where he was VP, Marketing and Business Development at a time when Lotus rose to become, for a time, the world’s largest software company. As a product leader, he led the company’s early efforts to develop a new software product, Lotus Notes, that would be the core of the company when it was later acquired by IBM.
He was founding publisher and columnist for Ziff Davis’ PC/Computing magazine, and was founder and president of Ziff-Davis Interactive (now ZDNet). Later, he was president of AT&T’s New Media division, CEO of Individual Incorporated (the first internet content IPO), and co-founded another public company, NewsEdge Corporation, which was later acquired by Thomson-Reuters.
Most recently, he founded DigiNovations, an innovator in digital media production, and KnowledgeVision Systems, the technology leader in multimedia online presentations. In 2019, he merged KnowledgeVision into OpenExchange Incorporated, served as its Chief Content Officer until 2022, and continues to serve on its Board of Directors.
He holds seven U.S. patents covering innovations in video streaming, editing, and tracking.
Michael has developed a leadership style that is rooted in strategy, fast and adaptable in its approach, and supportive in its focus on team-building and leadership development. His broad and deep experience running teams across multiple industries brings an invaluable perspective to Catalyze participants.
LIFE
Michael is an avid commercial pilot, both of conventional aircraft and of unmanned aerial systems, commonly known as drones. As a former television journalist, he enjoys writing and film-making, and has raised a family of prolific writers, including his daughter Lindsay (a frequent blogger for Hubspot), and Steve (an editor at the Washington Post). He’s often seen in the stands at Gillette Stadium and Fenway Park, where he admires and studies the leadership styles that lead to sustained excellence on the field.