Melanie Parish is a Master Certified Coach, author of The Experimental Leader, and founder of the Experimental Leader Academy. She helps empire builders, thought leaders, and unicorns experiment their way to clarity, confidence, and scalable impact. Known for her mix of fierce honesty and deep compassion, Melanie has coached leaders across Fortune 50 companies, FAANG, and high-growth startups. She hosts The Experimental Leader Podcast, where she unpacks leadership as a living experiment. Melanie splits her time between Ontario and New Mexico.

Mel speaks about leadership from the perspective of a transman whose first experience with leadership was a “Glass Cliff” position. In July of 2021, he became one of only a handful of transgender leaders in academia when he was appointed department chair of psychology at McMaster University. But his appointment was inherently challenging. It was a “Glass Cliff” opportunity that was available only because his department was in crisis. His approach to leadership was different from other leaders at McMaster. A champion of radically inclusive leadership, Mel embraces formal consensus decision making and values-based governance. His talks delve into the challenges he faced while doing his best to take a values-based approach to leadership, his struggles to maintain integrity in such an environment, his tapping into personal strength, community, and resilience, and the leadership lessons he learned along the way.