Karen Cantor

Karen Cantor is a Managing Consultant in the Australia New Zealand Team for YSC. She has worked with YSC for 8 years designing and implementing talent and leadership development strategies in a mix of client systems from mining and resources to retail to hospitality.

Karen enjoys partnering with clients to maximize the impact of their investment in talent and leadership work, and in measuring change in systems. She is hugely energized in working with leaders to unlock their potential and leverage their strengths for new contexts and challenges and supporting them to unlock the diversity and potential of their teams.

As a coach, Karen focuses on providing clients a psychologically safe environment to explore their challenges and challenge themselves out of their comfort zones. She encourages leaders to seize the opportunity for growth, be accountable for commitments, and provides tools and resources to support new approaches. Her coaching style is also pragmatic and reflects her 20 years ‘in house’ experience. This sees her balance exploring psychology, motivations, and beliefs with pressure testing actions are measurable, actionable and will result in the desired change.

Karen works across some of YSC’s largest global clients and brings learnings from a range of large scale program implementations. She encourages the use of insights to help evolve cultures and grow leaders in key roles.

Karen has a Master’s in Psychology of Coaching from Sydney University and earned her Bachelor’s degree in Adult Education with a focus on Human Resource Development from The University of Technology, Sydney. She has worked in leadership development for over 25 years, including time with global FMCG and Media organizations in her house roles. Outside of work, Karen lives near the beach and loves spending time in the water. She expresses her creativity with a new hobby of gardening. Here she channels her passion for retail into regular nursery visits. She also loves cooking and entertaining family and friends.