Let's Ignite your Why, Refine your What, Master your How

Hi there,

I'm Marilena Timotheou, a Transformational Leadership Coach and Change Consultant. I empower executives and teams to thrive in complexity, navigate purposeful change, and create meaningful impact. My career has been deeply rooted in startups and consulting corporate innovation units, where I specialised in aligning stakeholders, fostering collaboration, and driving innovation. These experiences shaped my unique approach to leadership development, combining systems thinking with a focus on personal and organisational transformation.

Most of my career has been spent in the fast-paced world of startups, where I developed the ability to balance visionary leadership with agile execution. As a founder and Head of Product, I learned firsthand the value of achieving stakeholder alignment and building solutions that reflect diverse needs. This experience taught me that truly transformative outcomes require active collaboration, a deep understanding of organisational dynamics, and the resilience to adapt under pressure. Building upon these experiences, I have also coached startup founders who operate in environments of constant disruption. I guide them in optimizing limited resources, mastering stakeholder buy-in, and achieving full alignment. This approach enables them to effectively leverage opportunities, accelerate progress, and realize their vision. By helping them maintain focus, organize actionable feedback, and transcend limiting paradigms, I empower these leaders to lead their organizations to sustainable success." 

In my consulting work with corporate innovation units, I helped multinational organisations such as BSH, LGE, and Infineon embrace and scale venture clients as a powerful method for innovating faster and more effectively by collaborating effectively with startups. One of the most profound challenges my clients encountered when trying to innovate was achieving stakeholder buy-in, overcoming resistance to change, and shifting their culture from a "build-it-yourself" mindset to one that embraced open innovation. Mastering the art of Stakeholder Alignment unlocked a culture that embraced innovations and created better, more scalable solutions that had long-term success.

On a personal level, I founded an impact-driven startup with a mission to create meaningful change. While this work was deeply fulfilling, it also led me to experience burnout. This pivotal moment made me see that great ambition without self-awareness, balance, and resilience has its limits and can take you so far. This journey drives my passion for helping leaders gain the critical abilities they need to persevere with their visions and drive greater impact.

Since 2020, I have been a dedicated student of the International School of Self-Awareness and have a Professional Diploma in Coaching and Mentoring, accredited by the ICF and EMCC. This journey has profoundly shaped my understanding of how the human machine operates - how we are enslaved by our own paradigms which remove our ability to listen to ourselves and others and welcome change, how we can start working to go beyond our current limits, how to start interacting with events rather than reacting to them, and how to ultimately reach higher levels of our human potential as individuals and as leaders.

• Startup and Corporate Innovation Expertise: With years of experience as a founder and Head of Product, I bring a deep understanding of how to navigate the dynamic environments of startups and the systemic challenges faced by corporates. My work has included guiding organisations in adopting venture clienting models, enabling them to collaborate effectively with startups and scale innovation.
• Stakeholder Alignment Mastery: As a Head of Product, I became adept at uniting diverse stakeholders around shared goals. I have successfully overcome cultural resistance, ensuring buy-in for transformational initiatives and embedding alignment processes that lead to sustainable success.
• Systemic Leadership Frameworks: Using the Four Quadrants of Leadership Accountability—mindset, behaviours, culture, and processes—I help leaders develop comprehensive approaches to transformational change, ensuring no critical aspect is overlooked.
• Resilience and Self-Mastery: My personal experience with burnout has taught me the importance of balancing ambition with self-awareness and resilience. I leverage these insights to help leaders build the emotional and mental strength needed to thrive in high-pressure roles.
• Conscious Leadership Development: Through my studies at the International School of Self-Awareness, I enable leaders to break free from limiting paradigms, cultivate higher levels of awareness, and lead with clarity and purpose.
• A Focus on Sustainable Impact: I empower leaders to foster cultures of innovation and adaptability, creating purposeful organisations that leave lasting legacies of meaningful change.

We live in a world defined by complexity and rapid change. Organisations and leaders are tasked with the unprecedented challenges to adapt and take greater responsibility for the impact they generate. I am deeply committed to supporting leaders who are ready to rise to these challenges—those who aspire to align their inner growth with their external impact,

lead boldly, and inspire transformative change that shapes a better future.