Amy Kopelan has over 30 years' experience as an ABC Television executive and independent producer. Amy is the co-author of I Didn't See It Coming, the "Bible" that teaches business professionals how to avoid being blindsided in business. She has been featured on FOX and Friends, Business Week Online, On the Money, in CEO Magazine, Business Week, Chief Learning Officer Magazine, and CNN.com.

In 2009, Amy developed and launched several coaching and professional development programs under the banner of "Producing Your Career" and "You're On the Air" in order to teach business professionals how to take more control of their careers, their leadership presence and their communication, live or virtual.

She keynotes at major leadership conferences and is a guest professor at The Institute for Career Advancement Needs. She is a member of the International Women's Forum, and sits on the Boards of Legal Momentum and Schools That Can.

Amy has worked with clients such as: Bank of Montreal, Deutsche Bank, The Estée Lauder Companies, Hertz, State Farm Insurance, Lincoln Financial, Institute for Career Advancement Needs,  Blue Cross Blue Shield of Nebraska, Newscorp, UBS, plus numerous authors and senior executives.

Amy holds a Bachelor of Science degree from Boston University and a special studies degree from the University of Grenoble, France.

1. A young but ambitious leader at the Nike Foundation was asked to give a speech at the annual ICAN Conference in Omaha, Nebraska. His subject was the “Adolescent Girls Initiative.” I was hired to be onsite for two days, pre-conference, to prep all the speakers. On day one, young “Mr. Nike” was taking the stage to rehearse and his team of PR writers was standing by to listen. So was I. He began rehearsing a 15-minute speech that I could immediately see was going to be too long, too dense with numbers and information, and too difficult for anyone to understand. As a producer, I can tell when someone is going to “lose their audience” and he was at risk. I stopped him because we needed a remedy. I asked for the PR team to assemble on stage. I gave edits for the entire speech. I reorganized his slides. We gave new cues to the program director. And he re-rehearsed his newly-created speech that evening with me. The outcome, as far as Nike was concerned, was a success. When he finished his formal presentation at the conference, he got a standing ovation (first time ever!) and the Foundation received more pledges that day than at any other conference he attended.

2. One of Fortune Magazine’s top female journalists was asked to moderate a panel at The Aspen Institute. Thrilled to be asked, but aware that she had never moderated at a large public venue before, she asked to meet with me for four consecutive sessions (over a two-week period) so she could role play as moderator and perfect her skills before heading to Aspen. As we began rehearsing, she soon realized that she was bland, her questions were not provocative, and she was uncomfortable jumping In to “cut off” any of her panelists if they veered off course. I re-wrote most of her questions, brought in “actors” who could role play the panel with her, and gave her the courage to assert herself when required with intelligent, inquisitive commentary. When she returned from Aspen, she called to say that her Senior Editor told her she “rocked” and he would be asking her to moderate at their next symposium. She had “jumped her talents” and her reputation as a skilled moderator.

3. I was recently asked to come onsite to work with a VP of Compliance at a Fortune 500 healthcare company in the Northeast. The challenge for this executive was not style or content, but arrogance. He was smart, but he made others uncomfortable at Board meetings and rumor had it that he might lose his position because he didn’t know how to manage up. The COO asked me to meet with the VP and assess if the behavior and presentation could change. At the heart of it, the company wanted to keep him because of his strong organizational knowledge and his compliance expertise. Three months later, the VP was promoted. We had met every other week for three months to work on delivery, tone, language, attitude, compassion, charm, and the ability to make others feel at ease. Most of all, he needed to gain trust. He worked hard enough to make that happen very successfully.