Phyllis Sarkaria
ABOUT ME
With more than 25 years of leadership experience, Phyllis Sarkaria is a certified coach, facilitator, and trusted adviser. Phyllis has held executive roles in government affairs and human resources and has had responsibility for functions as diverse as strategic planning, merger integration, and team effectiveness. She has led multi-million-dollar system implementation and integration initiatives and has worked closely with Commercial and R&D leaders to build capability in their functions and improve individual and organizational outcomes.

Before founding The Sarkaria Group, Phyllis served as an internal adviser and coach to C-level executives and other key employees at Quidel Corporation, a leading medical diagnostics manufacturer, in her role as head of HR where she was responsible for the company’s global HR strategy and people programs for more than a dozen years. In addition, she has held financial analysis, strategic planning, government affairs, and HR roles with large, matrixed corporations in the energy industry, and has served on the faculty of several universities. A published scholar on authentic leadership, Phyllis currently teaches ethics and HR analytics in the MA, Organizational Leadership and MA, Human Resources Management programs at Claremont Lincoln University. She has also served on several non-profit boards in both San Diego and San Francisco.

A proud Red Raider, Phyllis holds a BBA, Finance and an MBA from Texas Tech University and an MA, Ethical Leadership from Claremont Lincoln University. Her coaching certifications are from the Berkeley Executive Coaching Institute at the UC Berkeley Haas School of Business, Marshall Goldsmith’s Stakeholder Centered Coaching, and Systemic Team Coaching from Peter Hawkins through the Academy of Executive Coaching. She is also a Master Certified Corporate Coach (MCEC) through the Association of Corporate Executive Coaches. Phyllis uses the following assessments in her practice: Success Insights DISC & 12 Driving Forces, EQi 2.0 / EQ360, Judgment Index, MBTI, and Thomas Kilmann Conflict Mode Instrument (TKI). She is a certified trainer in Crucial Conversations and Crucial Accountability.