Home / About
ABOUT THE FIRM
A firm built on data, experience, and a genuine belief in leaders.
Harborside Leadership Partners is a leadership development, coaching and organizational effectiveness firm: a team and a network, helping leaders and organizations perform at the next level.
We support leaders in the pivotal moments in a leader’s path: stepping into a bigger role, navigating change, and gaining clarity on what’s next. Our work brings a dual lens: the individual behavior change that helps a leader grow, and the organizational systems that determine whether that change lasts. That combination is what turns development into lasting business impact.
Harborside is led by Debra Setzer and supported by a trusted network of experienced coaches, facilitators, and subject-matter specialists. When an engagement requires additional expertise or capacity, we bring in the right partners while maintaining a consistent strategy and client experience.
LEADERSHIP
Founded and led by an experienced practitioner.
Founder & Principal
The firm is anchored by Debra Setzer, who spent her career building leadership capability inside Fortune 500 organizations: as an industrial-organizational psychologist, an ICF-credentialed coach, and an enterprise development leader. The methodology behind our work is hers; the network extends it.
Style: empathetic and highly accountable: the kind of partner who listens closely, then supports you so you achieve your goals. Insight is most valuable when it leads to meaningful action.
- Ph.D. in Industrial-Organizational Psychology — development grounded in the science of how people and organizations create meaningful change.
- ICF PCC (International Coaching Federation Professional Certified Coach) — an experienced, credentialed, and disciplined coaching practice.
- 20+ years building leadership capability inside Fortune 500 global organizations.
- 150+ leaders coached, from supervisor through C-level.
- Head of Leadership Development at two Fortune 500 Companies – led development at Franklin Templeton Investments and Raymond James Financial.
- 20 years at Franklin Templeton leading global leadership development and coaching, including frontline and senior leader programs.
- Previous HR Business Partner supporting 1500 employees in a global business unit.
HOW WE WORK
We design and deliver.
Our team acts as both architect and conductor of your leadership programs. We hold the strategy and standards, and coordinate a network of specialists around them.
Define strategy
We set program strategy, objectives, and the success criteria that matter to the business.
Design & source
We build curriculum or for bigger projects, we issue RFPs to select and manage specialist vendors and content partners.
Set criteria
We define participant selection criteria and ground the work in validated assessment data.
Oversee delivery
We manage delivery across the network so quality stays consistent throughout.
Measure impact
We measure outcomes against the program’s business goals.
This hub-and-network model is why we describe ourselves as a firm. It lets us coordinate multiple contributors on larger engagements. We bring the right specialist to the right project while a single team keeps the whole program coherent, accountable, and pointed at the outcome.
RESULTS & IMPACT
Measured in progress, not applause.
We build measurement into every engagement from the start, because the point of development is a leader who performs differently in ways that matter, and an organization that can notice the difference.
Doctorate degree in Industrial and Organizational Psychology and PCC-level certified by the International Coaching Federation
leaders coached from supervisor through EVP across two decades
years of experience in Fortune 500 companies
Let’s build something that lasts.
Tell us where you’re headed. We’ll bring the data, the experience, and the network to help you get there.