Michael Takagawa Executive Advisor & Chief Executive Officer
Michael K. Takagawa is an executive advisor and the CEO of Corporate Edge, Inc., a premier leadership coaching firm in San Francisco, California. A former company president and Fortune 500 senior executive with more than twenty years of leadership experience, Mr. Takagawa is a highly regarded executive advisor to prominent CEOs and corporate leaders. Corporate Edge clients include Adobe Systems, Cisco Systems, National Semiconductor, Cadence Design Systems, Kaiser Permanente, Planned Parenthood Golden Gate, Gump’s, Maxtor Corporation, UTStarcom and the San Francisco Chronicle. Mr. Takagawa founded Corporate Edge, Inc., in 1998, long before the mass emergence of coaching as a business trend, to help high-achieving senior executives and CEOs excel. Distinct from a traditional coach or consultant, Mr. Takagawa combines first-hand executive experience with expert communication skills to partner with corporate leaders in long-term, trusted advisor relationships. He terms his innovative client collaboration an executive partnership. Mr. Takagawa is co-author of The Executive Partnership, with Dian Harrison, CEO, Planned Parenthood Golden Gate. Written for CEOs and senior executives of both corporations and nonprofits, their book focuses on leadership practices, and introduces the executive partnership as the next evolution in leadership success. Mr. Takagawa is a contributing author of the book Leadership: Helping Others to Succeed, with co-contributors Dr. Warren Bennis and Senator George Mitchell. He is also a distinguished speaker on leadership issues including “The WOW Factor: Developing Executive Leadership, Presence and Impact” and “Leading Organizational Change.” Prior to founding Corporate Edge, Inc., Mr. Takagawa was a senior officer in several prominent organizations. As president and COO of Discovery Toys, he orchestrated a critical business turnaround resulting in a successful merger with Avon Products, Inc.; as executive vice president and COO of HQ Business Centers, he engineered a successful global expansion strategy; and as vice president of sales and marketing for Colgate Palmolive and Kikkoman International, he achieved record revenue results through new product and acquisition strategies. A native of San Francisco, Mr. Takagawa earned his MBA from Stanford University and his BS from the University of California, Berkeley.
Print Version