Transformative Coaching for Future Shaping CEOs and Senior Executives - Led by Former Global CEOs
With decades of experience leading multinational companies and shaping the careers of senior executives, we are the trusted thinking partners for CEOs. We bring a unique perspective to executive coaching. We know what it takes to drive growth, lead diverse teams, and navigate complex business landscapes, and avoid the personal trade-offs, because we've done it ourselves. We are here to help you do the same.
Why Work With Us?
As former CEOs who’ve successfully scaled global businesses, We don’t just offer theoretical advice –we've have been in your shoes. We understand the pressures and complexities of executive roles and provide coaching that is tailored to the unique challenges you face at the highest levels of leadership.
Coaching for CEO's
The Brave CEO Coaching Program
A trusted thinking partner for CEOs who want more than the win, joy, legacy, and the confidence to be honest about what they don't know.
Do you aspire to be a CEO who's genuinely proud of the business they built, and also genuinely present at home? One who can name their legacy in one sentence, not just point at a share price? One who has one or two people they can be completely honest with, including a coach who asks the question they were too busy to ask themselves?
Our Brave CEO Coaching Program is designed to support CEOs to achieve this and joy and clarity on what's really important.
The CEO role is different from every role that came before it. There's no one above you who really gets the weight of it, and everyone below you has a stake in the answer you land on. The higher you go, the less honest feedback you get, and the more that costs you when you don't have it.
We built Brave CEO programs because we've sat in that seat ourselves. Melissa and Kelli each ran global businesses- 5,000 and 6,500 people respectively - before turning our hand to coaching and CEO Masterminds. We know what it's like to make the final call on incomplete information, to carry a decision alone until it's ready to be shared, and to need someone who won't just tell you what you want to hear.
We're not coaches who've studied leadership from the outside. We're thinking partners who've done the job - and we bring that experience directly into the room with you.
Nobody puts "the marriage," "the kids," or "your own health" on a CEO's KPI list, but they're the first things that get quietly sacrificed under sustained pressure, and the cost usually shows up years later, not in the moment.
We don't think that trade-off should be the price of the seat. Both of us built our careers while raising families and running companies, and we coach from that experience, not around it. Part of the work is the business problem in front of you. Part of it is making sure the rest of your life is still standing - and thriving - while you solve it.
Working with Melissa or Kelli as your coach wil give you:
A confidential space to think out loud without managing perception and find real joy in the CEO role
Ability to achieve the win without losing yourself or the people who matter
Accountability partner that keeps you on track between the big decisions, not just during them
insight from someone who has run the full financials, not just studied them
Sharper judgement under pressure, and clarity on what the role actually demands of you right now
A sounding board who understands the isolation of the role because they've lived it
Support that treats your life outside work -your family, health, relationships - as part of the job, not a trade-off against it
Coaching for Executives
Executive Coaching for Leadership Success
Your next leader is already in the room
We're called in to unlock talent.
To elevate how senior leaders think, and how they operate in every relationship that matters: with their teams, their peers, and the people above them.
Brave Group's Executive Coaching Program is built on the judgement of two people who have led at the highest level themselves. Founded by Melissa Hamilton and Kelli Hayes, both former CEOs who ran large global teams, the program gives your future leaders access to the kind of counsel usually reserved for CEOs: direct, experienced, and grounded in having actually done the job.
We work with senior executives on what matters most for succession; clarity on what the next role demands, sharper judgement under pressure, and the self-belief to operate at a more senior level.
Working with a Brave Group coach gives your future leaders:
Clarity on their next steps
Increased self-awareness
Sharper decision-making and judgement
Stronger relationships at every level
Greater confidence and accountability
The skills to lead with both Joy & Impact
Melissa is a former global CEO with more than 25 years' experience leading large-scale services and customer care businesses.
She served as CEO of Stellar Asia Pacific from 2010 to 2018, leading 5,000 employees across Australia, Asia and the US, with clients spanning Top 100 ASX companies and major government portfolios, transforming the organisation into a diversified, market-leading organisation recognised as Outsourcer of the Year eight times running. In 2016 she received the Deloitte Growth Companies Women in Leadership Award.
Today, Melissa sits on Boards, works closely with CEOs on complex mandates and transitions, and facilitates senior peer networks, leading peer rooms and fireside conversations that help CEOs pressure-test and unlock overlooked talent.
She's also a sought-after keynote speaker, and loves mentoring and coaching the CEOs & executives who'll shape the future.
Known for sharp questions and grounded feedback she creates space for leaders to think clearly and lead with intention.
Outside work, Melissa is married with two young adult children. Life is full & her current focus is to achieve a chin up (very much still a work in progress).
Kelli is a former global CEO with more than 30 years' experience leading large-scale businesses both in Australia and offshore, driving CX and AI strategy.
Kelli was previously CEO of Stellar, a global outsourced experience management provider, where she spent 21 years, the last three as CEO, leading 6,500 employees across four geographies and $350M in annual revenue. In her tenure she nearly doubled the company's size, led it through phase two of digital transformation incorporating AI, and successfully navigated a sale to PE in late 2020.
Kelli is passionate about executive development and supporting others to succeed. Curious about culture and developing commercially minded leaders, Kelli has worked as a Syndicate Chair for the CEO Institute Future CEO program and today she is an indpendant Director on Boards in the AI and Agtech/manufacturing sectors.
She co-writes and co-facilitates Brave Groups CEO Mastermind with Melissa.
She has an extraordinarily patient husband, Stuart, a blended family of four grown children, two grandchildren, and dotes over Chloe, their rescue greyhound.
An avid hiker, she's also passionate about American sports and could talk your ear off about the Toronto Maple Leafs.
What We Offer:
Executive Coaching & Advisory
Personalised coaching to enhance your leadership capabilities, improve decision-making, and drive impactful results.
Business Mentoring
Practical, experience-based mentoring that helps you navigate business challenges and opportunities. Areas of expertise in leading strategy, optimising sales performance, honing commercial acumen, leading culture
Business Consulting
Strategic guidance to solve complex business challenges, optimise operations, and accelerate growth.
