INICIO

About the Founders

Kimberly Kearney

Kimberly Kearney is a former covert CIA Case Officer, diplomat, and Silicon Valley-based executive coach for CEOs and senior leaders. For fifteen years, Kimberly led and operated in the kind of high-pressure environments where a single miscalculation could have life or death consequences or ignite geopolitical conflict. Now, she brings those elite lessons to leaders, teams, and organizations who find themselves in situations that can often feel impossible.

Kimberly’s deep background in clandestine human operations equipped her with valuable insights for understanding and managing complex human behavior, which she integrates to help drive key outcomes for clients in their own contexts. Across industries, decision-makers come to her for the same reason: her CIA-trained ability to help leaders thrive amid uncertainty with clarity and purpose.

As an ICF-certified coach (ACC), Kimberly blends rigorous methodologies with dynamic experiences honed tackling the most critical national security and policy challenges in pressure-packed, matrixed environments globally. Kimberly is also a sought-after facilitator and speaker who weaves best practices from her national security experiences into engaging and memorable experiences for audiences who leave with practical takeaways on high-stakes communication, executive presence, risk management, resilience, and trust-building.

Founder and Managing Director

She helps clients cut through complexity to find simple, actionable solutions to their biggest challenges. Her signature approach is a combination of deep curiosity and pragmatic problem-solving, along with an ability to bring calm to chaos. Kimberly has partnered with professionals across diverse industries including Big Tech, CIA, Special Operations, biopharma, adventure sport, entrepreneurship, and more. The through-line across engagements is her ability to bring calm to chaos and offer objective clarity in the face of ambiguous and unstructured decision points. Whether clients are preparing for high-stakes presentations, navigating transitions, capitalizing on high growth, or managing team dynamics, she meets them where they are as a committed partner in their success.

Kimberly holds B.A. in Political Science with an emphasis in international relations and a B.S. in Strategic Communication from Texas Christian University. She is a frequent guest lecturer for university undergraduate and graduate courses, a national security industry advisor for Georgetown University, an executive coach for Stanford GSB, and an alumni Fellow for a defense tech Venture Capital firm. Kimberly has professional fluency in Spanish. Personally, Kimberly is a wife and mom who enjoys exploring Northern California with her family and actively participating in her local community.

Joey Kearney

Joey Kearney is a former covert CIA Case Officer, diplomat, and global security and risk management professional with 15+ years of experience in the public and private sectors. His leadership spans fields such as insider threat, risk analysis and mitigation, physical security, counterintelligence, cyber security, and investigations in complex, high-stakes environments. He is adapt and integrating data-driven decision-making in cross-functional roles to deliver results. As INICIO’s operations lead, Joey manages all core business functions.

Joey offers rich perspectives gained through multi-year assignments in East Asia, Western Europe, and South Asia, along with strong Mandarin Chinese and Spanish fluency. In diverse organizational contexts, Joey has leveraged attention to detail, strong written and oral communication skills, and cross-cultural expertise to build security alignment between U.S. Government (USG), industry, and foreign partners. His established ability to communicate complex analyses to diverse technical and non-technical audiences has made him a versatile leader in both national security and industry.

Joey received his B.S. in Political Science from Colorado State University and his Masters in Arts in International Affairs from the Bush School at Texas A&M. Additionally, he holds Security+ and CPP certifications. In his free time, Joey can most often be found spending time with his family and volunteering in their local church and community. He also serves as a parent-coach for a local youth soccer league and as a volunteer coach for The Honor Foundation.

Co-founder

Executive Consultants

INICIO's broader team of consultants are accomplished executive leaders who bring elite experience in high-consequence environments. Our team's diverse backgrounds range from global organizations to extreme operational settings, and they deliver exceptional advisory services to INICIO's clients in organizational transformation, leadership efficacy, and sustainable performance.  INICIO uses a white-glove matching process and complimentary discovery calls to ensure optimal client-consultant fit.  

What distinguishes our team is the ability to translate complex, real-world experience into INICIO's practical frameworks that help leaders navigate critical transitions, strengthen organizational alignment, and drive meaningful results under pressure. Each consultant brings proven success and impeccable credentials that offer unparalleled value to clients.

Ada Lien

Ada Lien is a seasoned executive and advisor with more than 20 years of experience leading global consumer, beauty, and lifestyle businesses through growth, transformation, and complexity. She has served as a CEO and C-suite leader within multinational organizations, overseeing P&Ls ranging from $100MM to over $500MM and leading global teams of 300+ across North America, Asia, and Europe. Most recently, Ada was Chief Executive Officer of Fresh, an LVMH portfolio brand, where she partnered closely with Paris-based headquarters and global leadership to drive a multi-year turnaround across 25+ markets. Earlier in her career, she held senior leadership roles at The Estée Lauder Companies, including Global General Manager of Origins and SVP of Global Marketing at La Mer, where she helped scale the brand to $4BN+ in revenue.

Ada’s advisory and coaching work focuses on helping senior leaders operate effectively at moments of inflection - including leadership transitions, rapid scale, organizational reset, and increased board or investor engagement. She brings brings deep expertise in leadership effectiveness, organizational design, brand and growth strategy, and operating within complex, matrixed environments. Having worked extensively with PE- and VC-backed companies, as well as public and family-owned enterprises, Ada is particularly attuned to the dynamics between management teams, boards, and global stakeholders. Her 

approach blends strategic clarity with practical execution, helping leaders strengthen judgment, alignment, and decision-making under pressure.

Ada has served on advisory boards and as an executive sponsor for diversity and talent initiatives, and she regularly works with CEOs, senior executives, and founders navigating complex leadership challenges. Based in New York, Ada is known for her calm presence, direct style, and ability to help leaders stay grounded in both business realities and personal values while driving meaningful, sustainable impact.

Ada holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and a B.A. in Psychology from Smith College.

She is a certified executive coach through the Center for Executive Coaching and has completed advanced training in leadership, organizational effectiveness, and AI-enabled business strategy.

Jayson Simons-Jones

Jayson Simons-Jones is a leadership, resilience, and performance consultant with more than twenty years of experience leading teams and senior leaders in high-consequence, high- uncertainty environments. His background spans elite mountain guiding, small-businessownership, organizational leadership, and national-level risk governance.

As an IFMGA-licensed mountain guide, Jayson has led executive and high-performing clients through complex, high-exposure environments where disciplined judgment, clear communication, and trust were essential under real consequence. He has trained multiple U.S. military special operations units, supporting leadership, decision-making, and performance in demanding, real-world conditions.

Jayson specializes in helping leaders and teams operate with clarity, alignment, and resilience under pressure. His core areas of expertise include leadership development, team resilience and performance, organizational alignment and culture, decision-making in complexity, and risk-informed leadership and governance. He brings a grounded, human-centered coaching approach informed by lived experience in environments where decision quality, communication, and trust directly impact outcomes. Jayson is

particularly effective with leaders navigating ambiguity, rapid change, or high accountability, and with teams seeking improved communication, role clarity, and decision-making frameworks. His work integrates individual coaching with systems thinking, helping organizations align behaviors, structures, and workflows to support sustainable performance rather than short-term fixes.

Jayson holds a Master of Science in Organizational Leadership and is an IFMGA-licensed Mountain Guide, the highest international credential in the guiding profession. He regularly lectures on enterprise risk, human factors, and leadership decision-making at the Daniels College of Business at the University of Denver. His professional experience bridges field leadership, executive coaching, and organizational consulting, allowing him to work comfortably with executives, high-performance teams, and complex stakeholder environments.

Jayson is passionate about helping leaders develop self-awareness, presence, and sound judgment under pressure, and about building organizational systems and teams that support trust, accountability, and resilience. Based in the western United States, he brings a calm, pragmatic perspective shaped by decades of leading people through challenging, uncertain andat times unforgiving environments.

Jennifer Hoffman

Jennifer Hoffman is an executive coach and strategic facilitator who helps senior leaders navigate complexity, lead with conviction, and deliver measurable results. With nearly 30 years in the U.S. intelligence and diplomatic communities, she advised leaders at the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, and the U.S. Agency for International Development — operating at the intersection of strategy, risk, and high-consequence decision-making. Jennifer led the CIA’s analytic program on European security, served as Chief of Staff for Analysis and Director of Research in the Agency’s Counterintelligence Mission Center, and was Deputy National Intelligence Officer for Europe on the National Intelligence Council. A French speaker and former Foreign Service Officer, she has worked across Western Europe, Southern and West Africa, and Central Asia. She began her federal career as a Presidential Management Fellow.

Today, Jennifer partners with executives who are stepping into larger roles, managing uncertainty, or leading organizational change. Her coaching is grounded in the conviction that transformational leadership emerges when core values align with enterprise strategy. She helps leaders clarify their intent, sharpen their decision-making, and build cultures defined by humanity, candor, and continuous improvement.

As a facilitator, Jennifer guides groups through disciplined thinking exercises, such as alternative futures analysis, key assumptions checks, and scenario development, that challenge conventional wisdom and expand strategic options. Clients value her ability to create environments that are both psychologically safe and intellectually rigorous, where difficult conversations happen productively and divergent perspectives translate into actionable insight.

Jennifer is credentialed by the International Coaching Federation and holds a certification in Leadership Coaching from Georgetown University. She earned a Master of Arts in International Studies from the University of South Carolina and completed advanced study in European affairs at the Institut d’Études Politiques de Paris (Sciences Po). She earned dual Bachelor of Arts degrees in Political Science and International Affairs (Business and Economics) from Muhlenberg College, where she was a Dana Scholar. She resides in Washington, D.C., and values time outdoors, travel, and a well-curated library.

Mike Brown

Michael is a seasoned trainer and leadership development specialist with over 26 years of experience in the world’s most unforgiving environments. As a former FBI Supervisor and U.S. Air Force Security Forces NCO, he has led and trained diverse, multi-functional teams across more than 30 countries. Michael has directed sophisticated operations, managed multi-agency task forces, and protected over $1 billion in critical assets. Michael’s award winning career is defined by his keen ability to generate profound solutions, while enhancing the leadership and technical skills capacity of an elite workforce. Michael has earned dozens of accolades for outstanding performance and leadership excellence. His transition from the front lines of government service to premier executive consulting services allows him to provide a unique operational perspective to discerning private industry leaders seeking solutions and peak performance in high-pressure and uncertain environments.

For decades, Michael responded to the call to address some of the most challenging circumstances and was relied upon to discover root causes of issues, build connections from rigorous data analysis and evidence-based strategies, and devise proactive solutions to unique problems. Whether it is cultivating informants entrenched deep inside criminal

enterprises, tackling life-threatening situations in the SWAT team, or fostering an environment of trust and ownership to sustain motivation on his teams, his innovative and efficient approach always accomplished the mission. Michael has orchestrated large scale criminal conspiracy cases, discreet surveillance and undercover activities, and led critical incident command posts during intense large scale raids, crisis response, and emergency management scenarios. He has conducted internal inspections for office and enterprise processes, risk mitigation, and policy compliance reviews. Michael leverages the resilience and expertise developed from the military’s survival and high-risk capture schools, elite tactical weapons and combatives training, and world-wide deployments to austere and hostile zones to maintain order and confidence.

Representing the pinnacle of field-tested credibility, Michael brings the diligence, perspective, and integrity of complex and sophisticated FBI cases, merged with the precision, discipline, and fortitude of military operations to his industry clientele. He excels at partnering with leaders to shrink the gap between abstract concepts and real-world execution. Through his mission-centered approach, Michael cultivates high-performing teams that prioritize engaged commitment over mundane compliance. He focuses on moving clients from a management to a leadership mindset, turning individual success into organizational significance, and recalibrating competencies for intentional leadership that causes lasting and meaningful impact. Beyond leadership and strategy development, he offers a keen aptitude for security consulting, vulnerability assessments, and complex investigations. He is known for a persistent, structured, and curious style that reframes deep-seated struggles into opportunities for growth.

Michael holds a Master of Arts in Criminal Justice, graduate certificates in project and performance leadership, is an ICF-accredited certified executive coach, and served several years as an FBI adjunct faculty instructor for leadership development programs around the globe. Michael’s unique background also includes a diverse array of credentials - ranging from bartending and personal fitness training to real estate and construction management, to anti- terrorism, security, and tactical fields—reflecting his commitment to continuous learning and versatile problem-solving abilities. Based in Los Angeles, he enjoys family, travel, and real estate projects from some DIY around the house to new development construction.

Liz Marion

Liz Marion is a leadership communication strategist and executive coach with more than 12 years of experience advising leaders across corporate, startup, nonprofit, and government-adjacent sectors. Her work centers on strengthening communication in high-visibility environments where clarity directly impacts outcomes. Liz has supported executives, founders, and senior managers responsible for multimillion-dollar budgets, distributed teams, and cross-functional initiatives, helping organizations reduce communication friction and improve measurable indicators such as meeting effectiveness, role clarity, and strategic alignment. Her career spans transitions across industries — including work in national security–connected ecosystems and the entertainment industry — giving her a nuanced understanding of decision-making environments where timing, messaging, and credibility matter.

Liz’s expertise includes leadership development, executive presence, organizational communication strategy, and culture alignment. She is known for helping high-performing leaders who are “growing faster than their communication systems” develop the clarity, confidence, and influence required to lead at the next level. Her coaching focuses on equipping leaders to communicate decisively in critical moments and complex settings — boardrooms, investor briefings, crisis moments, and public-facing

environments. Drawing from research-backed communication KPIs and practical rehearsal-based methods, she helps clients deliver concise executive updates, manage up with authority, navigate difficult conversations, and lead meetings that drive decisions rather than discussion. Her background in performance and media environments also informs her coaching style: she understands how to communicate clearly when the pressure is live and there is often only one opportunity to get it right.

Earlier in her career, she worked in the entertainment industry in intense, highly visible roles where performance and mistakes were public — experience that sharpened her understanding of composure, presence, and media dynamics. Today, she integrates that background into executive coaching and media training, helping leaders communicate what matters most with clarity and authority when decisions are critical and visibility is high.

Liz holds a Master of Science in Organizational Leadership from Johns Hopkins University, where her graduate research focused on measuring effective leadership communication. She has founded and led national-level leadership initiatives supporting senior leaders across sectors, and has served as an Entrepreneur in Residence of National Security at UC-San Diego.

Case Caldwell

Case Caldwell is a credentialed executive coach (PCC) and leadership consultant with nearly two decades of experience leading high-performing teams in some of the world's most demanding environments. A former U.S. Navy SEAL officer, he directed multinational operations across multiple theaters, including joint training with more than 1,000 special operations personnel alongside eight international partner nations, and carried accountability for multi-million dollar assets and training programs under challenging legal, fiscal, and logistical constraints.

Upon leaving active duty, he joined Experian, leading global product development across six international regions to fight digital fraud. His coaching and consulting background spans Fortune 500 consulting, technology, finance, defense, and private equity portfolio companies. In coaching, his work has driven an average 30% improvement in targeted leadership behaviors across executives and senior teams. He continues to serve as a Commander in the U.S. Naval Reserves, where he remains actively connected to the Special Operations community.

Case's coaching philosophy is rooted in a conviction developed through years of leading people under pressure. He fundamentally believes that leadership progresses from the 

practical to the transformative, and ultimately to the inspirational.

The foundation of this progression is leadership by example. He works with executives, board members, and founders across three core areas: leadership development, strategic planning and execution, and team and organizational effectiveness. His client focus is on leaders who have outgrown their current approach and need to rebuild the way they lead before scale exposes the gap. His approach bridges the concrete and the conceptual, using lived operational experience to make abstract leadership principles actionable. What drives him most is watching clients pursue the best version of themselves and seeing that growth carry forward into their teams.

Case earned his Bachelor of Science in Quantitative Economics from the United States Naval Academy, where he also competed as an NCAA Division I wrestler. He holds the International Coaching Federation's Professional Certified Coach (PCC) designation and is currently advancing his academic foundation through graduate study in applied psychology — deepening the theoretical grounding behind a practice built on real-world performance.

He is an active ICF member, serves on the Veteran Advisory Council at San Diego State University, and volunteers as a transition coach for special operations leaders navigating identity and purpose in civilian life. Based in San Diego with his wife and two children, Case maintains a daily meditation practice, trains in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, and is an avid reader and consumer of science fiction: a genre he finds mirrors the leadership challenges of navigating complexity, uncertainty, and uncharted territory.