Meet Laura
Laura Costain has well over 15 years of hands-on business experience in sales, marketing and government affairs. As an experienced leader, she knows how closely team effectiveness is linked with business outcomes. Her ability to listen deeply, think analytically and identify system and team level barriers helps her solve complex problems and increase organizational performance and impact.
Laura earned her MBA from Duke in Health Sector Management and is a certified Co-active Professional Coach (CPCC), Team Coach, Integrative Enneagram, and Leadership Circle Practitioner. She is known for helping leadership teams clarify their purpose and build trust, creating the environment for more efficient and effective meetings, swifter decision-making, and strategic action. Her business background enables her to get up to speed quickly, and get to work helping the team take their impact to the next level.
Laura's reputation for success with people and strategy made her a sought-after founding member of a team of Transformation Coaches tasked with driving significant organizational change across 4,000 people at Genentech. Her coaching efforts resulted in a redesigned, more customer-centric field organization, and helped teams embed effective work practices that permeated throughout the organization. From there, she went on to support Genentech’s Digital Transformation, the US Medical Affairs Leadership Team and the newly formed Health Equity Team, among a host of others.
Her passion for cross-sector collaboration led to a partnership with Leadership Council San Mateo County where she and a small team of coaches are building and delivering the leadership curriculum to leaders across the county.
Originally from the east coast, Laura lives in Oakland with her husband and two sons. She enjoys reading, and connecting with friends through the women’s group she founded several years ago. She’s an avid podcast listener, reader and a novice piano player. Having found her own purpose, she looks forward to working with leaders and their teams to unlock theirs.
“Laura and her team designed and delivered the leadership curriculum for our 10-month Emerging Leaders Program. The content was overwhelmingly well-received by the 33 public, non-profit and private sector participants. In the two years that our organization has worked with Laura, she has consistently developed meaningful, impactful content thoughtfully designed to meet our organization's unique needs. Her impact on our leaders will far outlast their time in our program.”
— Margi Power, Co-President, Leadership Council San Mateo County