Wai Poc, M.B.A., Founder of UnleashedLeaders and Executive Leadership Coach for Mariposa Leadership
Wai brings 20+ years of leadership experience, working with C-suite executives from Fortune 500 companies to Start-ups. Wai loves his job of 10+ years, coaching executives especially to build strategic relationships to increase their power and influence.
Wai’s sectors of expertise are High Tech and Biotech. He sparks with technical leaders, engineers, PHDs, JDs, MDs, and Product Mgmt. Having coached at Stanford’s Graduate School of Business, he is also experienced with leaders in Finance and G&A functions.
Raised in Hong Kong and Miami, Wai identifies as Chino-Latino. Crossing cultural bridges from his earliest years, Wai has traveled to 70+ countries. A sabbatical to Madagascar led Wai to MacArthur Fellow and primatologist Patricia C. Wright, with whom he has been writing a book that decodes the primate roots of human competition and collaboration, Unleashed: A Field Guide to Power and Politics at Work.
Approach + Specialties
Wai’s clients are being challenged to risk smartly and grow fast, seeking his support on:
- Strategic influence: building cross-functional allies
- Power and politics: navigating up, down and across
- Executive presence: reconnecting to ease and confidence
- Leading change: scaling by leading leaders and senior teams
- Fortifying resilience: changing habits at work and home for sustainable well-being
Clients
Wai has worked with leaders at The Federal Reserve Bank, Russell Reynolds, Genentech, Gilead Sciences, Theravance, LinkedIn / Microsoft, Jumio, AnswerLabs, Facebook / Meta, and Google. In addition, Wai coaches out of Stanford’s Graduate School of Business’s MBA and CFO Executive Education programs. Recent engagements include:
Chief Operating Officer at pre- and post-IPO biotech company
Chief Medical Officer at public biotech company
Chief Marketing Officer at public fintech company
Chief Scientific Officer post-M&A at health tech and data company
Chief Technology Officer at global cybersecurity company
- Chief Financial Officer at west coast based US bank
- Chief Financial Officer at southern based US bank
- Chief Financial Officer at SE Asia based tech start-up
- Chief Financial Officer at global industrial manufacturing company
- Chief of Staff to Founder / CEO of 150,000+ employees ERP company
- Founder / CEO at international wildlife conservation NGO
- General Counsel at public biotech company
- Partner in private equity company
- Partner in professional services company
- SVP of project leadership teams at pharma company
- VPs and Directors at 3 of the big 5 high tech companies
Education + Certifications
- M.B.A., Golden Gate University (night school)
- B.A., Stanford University
Innovation Management, certified at Caltech
Integral Coach, certified at New Ventures West
Organizational Development, certified at Columbia University
Centered
Agile
Insightful
Based in Silicon Valley, Wai cares for his family, including a dog Teddy Roosevelt and a cat Geo. His love of animals and nature led him to serve for 8+ years on a global board for conservation in Africa. He and his spouse are active in national politics, sharing a passion for civic engagement.
As a scientific leader of a team of oncologists, I am as data-oriented as they come. Wai has a way of making visible the invisible ‘data’ of interpersonal relationships and organizational dynamics. Don’t let him fool you with his humility. Wai is thoughtful, innovative, and outstanding!