Steve McKinney

Executive Consultant

Steve McKinney has twenty-five years of experience leading professional services in Asia and over twelve years of leadership at global athletic footwear companies Adidas, Reebok, and Converse. In 2001, he established McKinney Consulting, an executive search and leadership consulting firm based in Seoul. McKinney Consulting is also a partner firm for Kestria, the world’s largest executive search alliance. Steve serves on Kestria’s global think tank, the Kestria Institute, which identifies emerging trends, shares innovative ideas, and provides relevant thought leadership to a diverse community of stakeholders. He is also chairman, South Korea for the Virtual Advisory Board, an organization comprising over 1,000 senior leaders worldwide, and he serves on the Asia Pacific Council of the Association of Executive Search and Leadership Consultants, a global organization with over 16,000 trusted professionals across seventy countries. Steve has authored and coauthored many articles on global leadership issues for Kestria’s and McKinney’s websites. In addition, Steve has been interviewed and featured in several major publications such as Forbes, Entrepreneur, Success, Business Insider, MSN, Yahoo! News, and others.

Steve has coached hundreds of CEOs for start-up companies and leaders for Fortune 500 and other multinational companies, and he is a keynote speaker focusing on proactive agility. He also served as the head of the Seoul Global Center for the Seoul Metropolitan Government from 2012 to 2014. In addition, Steve is a professionally trained tenor and choral conductor and holds a bachelor’s degree in music education K–12, choral and band from Mars Hill University; a leadership coaching strategies certificate from Harvard University; a master certified coach credential in behavioral coaching; and a diploma in organizational neuropsychological coaching from the Behavioral Coaching Institute in New York. Steve speaks English and Korean.