Why Are These Recommendations Anonymous?
The Duran Consultingsm process is entirely confidential. Confidentiality is an important component of the service, which promotes and encourages full and open discussion and a comprehensive analysis of each client’s career status, possible transitions, and the consequences of making or foregoing a transition. Neither any present or prospective client’s identity nor any information that could permit a client to be identified are ever revealed except as required by law. By adopting this simple policy, Duran Consulting avoids putting clients in the position of determining whether disclosure of their participation in the process is in their individual best interests. Except where disclosure is required by law (which in over 30 years has never arisen), it is simply never an issue. This policy precludes endorsements by identified or identifiable clients or former clients.
What Clients Say ..
“Alexandra Duran is one of those rare individuals who is able to help folks look within themselves to see who they are and who they want to be. She is the quintessential coach; she never lectures, berates or intrudes. She simply cheers you on as you peel the onion, reveal your true aspirations, and start to reap the rewards of the rest of your life.”
Practicing Attorney and award-winning Author, Racing Expert and Spokesperson, Entrepreneur, and Educator
“Alexandra's skills helped me identify my strengths and develop a strategy that enabled me to succeed.”
Business Development Executive
“I worked with Alexandra over a period of two years, during which she provided me with invaluable advice on a number of undergraduate and graduate courses that I taught. I really can’t recommend her highly enough! What makes Alexandra such a great coach is that not only is she extremely experienced in terms of understanding and handling the multiple sophisticated facets of teaching a course (from course-material preparation and in-class delivery, to day-to-day professor-student interactions), she also seeks to understand and genuinely cares about the professors/instructors whom she works with. This allows her to tailor her coaching to the specific personality of the individual instructor and brings the very best out of the instructor, rather than merely dishing out standard advice that one could easily read from self-help books. Thanks a lot, Alexandra!”
Assistant Professor, Marketing, Ivy League Business School
“Alexandra is a trusted advisor who has provided superb guidance to me for more than a decade. In addition to offering uncanny insight into the political and social dynamics of organizations, she has helped me to develop personal and professional skills needed to manage change and advance. In the world of coaching, she's at the top of the mountain.”
Communications Executive, Leading Global Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) Company
“Working with Alexandra was a transformational experience. An Ivy League business school can be very demanding. But her boundless faith in me, disciplined energy and shrewd reading of the politics of the classroom were invaluable. Thanks to our joint work, I developed the presence and leadership that are needed to excel in MBA education.”
Former Ivy League Business School Assistant Professor,
Currently Lecturer, Department of Management, London School of Economics
Currently Lecturer, Department of Management, London School of Economics
“
In 2002, following a divorce and with children launched in college, I met with Alexandra Duran to explore what possibilities could be derived from a patchwork of professional and personal accomplishments. It wasn't meant to be an open-ended discussion, but I soon realized that the kind of indepth analysis and coaching that is her trademark was not pre-packaged or formulaic. Over the years, her coaching would take several forms: the heavy-lifting of introspection, emotional support and confidence building, the reality-check of the banal in order to achieve the extraordinary. Re-discovering one's professional voice is a challenging task. It takes commitment and dogged effort and most importantly, honest, no-nonsense feedback. Alexandra's ability to help me stay focused and without fear of back-sliding was monumental as I re-entered the workforce. Her insightful counsel continues to be an indispensible resource.”
Senior Public Relations Executive, Non-Profit Sector
“Needless to say, your coaching was a huge help. Because you efficiently identified the changes that would make the biggest difference, my colleague and I were able to materially enhance the class for our students and ourselves. At the same time, you kindly, but firmly, disabused me of the notion that I could get away with anything in front of the students; all those little fluff details that I must have figured nobody would notice were, of course, always noticed by somebody. I now realize that it takes very little additional effort for someone who is otherwise prepared to also be polished. I'm certain that the dramatic bump in my student evaluations will be sustained, if not further improved, as a result of your tremendous help. Thanks again! ”
International Business Consultant; Adjunct Associate Professor, highly-ranked Graduate Business School
“Alexandra Duran has helped me better understand and adapt to a politically challenging corporate law department environment. She combines the compassionate listening skills she honed as a psychiatric social worker with the practical sensibility and political savvy she developed from her human resources and legal work experience. As a career coach, Alexandra devotes herself wholeheartedly to serving as a professional partner, understanding and analyzing the dynamics of my office and colleagues better than I can! Most importantly, her impressive skills and positive, energetic personality have helped me develop the "critical distance" to more calmly and productively evaluate my work life and better cope with its stresses and challenges. Her counsel has been invaluable in increasing my optimism, confidence and effectiveness.”
Corporate and Securities Attorney, Financial Services Law Department
“Alexandra was instrumental in building my skills as an educator. She showed me how to create classes that are engaging and thought provoking to students, allowing my expertise to be revealed while also allowing the students to discover new things through their own intelligence and talents. Alexandra's advice was both conceptual and concrete, helping me to think holistically while also providing practical tips on creating a syllabus, delivering a lecture and organizing in-class group work. My teaching is much more effective as a result of working with Alexandra and I am grateful for her guidance.”
Nonprofit Management and Global Fundraising Consultant; Visiting Lecturer
“Alexandra Duran is an invaluable business partner for anyone who actively manages their career and work relationships. I have worked with Alexandra for over eight years, and she has become an important and close personal advisor. She has an uncanny ability to understand one's skills and talents and, over the course of our eight-year relationship, she has given me valuable advice to position myself for success. Alexandra understands the individual; her approach is highly individualized and positively motivational. She also understands my industry from all perspectives. I have benefited from consulting with her at every rung on my ascent up the corporate ladder.”
Senior Investment Banking Executive, World-Leading Financial Services Company
“With very sensitive, pointed, hard-hitting workshops, she pulled the group back from the brink, got the individuals involved to examine real issues and talk openly, and helped the group begin the rebuilding of a strong leadership team. Ms. Duran has helped us with a number of difficult situations and she has delivered each and every time.”
College President
“It was vintage Alexandra Duran — knowledge, anecdotes, and humor beautifully mixed to educate, entertain, and inspire.”
Seminar Participant, Business Leader, and Academic
“Being young, with a strong foreign accent, and pure academic background, I found teaching MBAs very challenging. Working with Alexandra was fundamental to my becoming a successful professor. During the two years we worked together, I learned invaluable lessons. First, how to identify the students' needs and make the course material valuable and interesting. And second, how to deliver the material and keep a professional class environment. Alexandra never gave me a recipe of best practices, nor did she try to change my style. Quite the opposite, we worked on improving my teaching always based on my own personality. At the end of the day, the only way of being a successful professor is by enjoying teaching, which I now do. Thanks, Alexandra!”
Assistant Professor, Finance and Economics, Ivy League Graduate Business School
“After retiring from a long business career with the final 10 years as CEO of one of the largest insurance companies in the world, I thought teaching in a business school would be an easy transition. It was not. Telling stories and lecturing get you only so far.
Alexandra Duran sat in on one of my classes, met with me afterwards with her notes and made a major contribution to improving my classroom performance. Her suggestions ranged from how I presented myself personally to how to create a learning environment for exceptionally bright MBA students. Her own experience in the classroom made her credible and practical. I recommend her for anyone seeking to improve classroom performance.”
Former Chairman, President and CEO of a Leading Insurance Company;
Executive-in-Residence, highly-ranked Graduate Business School
Executive-in-Residence, highly-ranked Graduate Business School