Stephen C. Wakeen ’79
Founder & CEO
Playbook Coaching, LLC

Stephen C. Wakeen, founder of Playbook Coaching, LLC, helps CEOs and executives of companies with revenue between $20 million and $2 billion. Playbook helps C-suite executives become exceptional leaders by benchmarking their leadership against thousands of others, then developing a plan to work toward their highest potential. Steve is also a Chair for Vistage International, the world’s largest membership group for CEOs and is certified in the Leadership Circle Profile, a web-based, 360–degree assessment strictly designed for the C-suite. Steve’s brand and strategy experience complement his current role as an executive coach. Working at agencies such as TBWA and Grey Advertising, he has restaged products, introduced new products, run nationally recognized brands, and has facilitated hundreds of strategic and creative workshops. He was General Manager of Emmerling Post Advertising (now Cossette, USA), an agency he helped grow from $25 million to $100 million, and President of Targetnet, a first of its kind online media solution that was later sold to a Canadian concern. He also ran the New York Office of Corbis (Bill Gates’ other company.) His clients are nationwide, and across industries, including investment banking, advertising, law, energy construction, health care, and consumer packaged goods.  Steve frequently writes on the topic of leadership and is a contributing writer for the Hartford Business Journal.

Steve is a graduate of University of Connecticut School of Liberal Arts (1979.) He and Suzanne, his wife of 36 years, have four grown children and live in Wilton, CT.