Executive Coaching
Certified Executive Coaching For Growth-Minded Leaders
Elite athletes have support teams around them to ensure they’re performing at their best. We’re the support team that brings deep experience and insights so that high-ranking executives can reach their potential and deliver maximum impact.

Who It’s For
This program is for executive-level employees or strategic leaders who understand the need to continually evolve and lead by example. Executive Coaching can help drive outstanding personal and organization-wide results when forward-thinking executives engage with the same tenacity and enthusiasm they bring to their work every day.
Whether you are looking to unleash creativity and innovation in your work or overcome personal barriers to success, you will succeed in this program if you are a highly engaged, curious, and action-oriented leader.
What You Get
Our Certified Executive Coaches are business owners located across Canada who understand what it’s like to face business decisions and challenges.
Each member of our coaching team brings a specialized skill set to help leaders uncover hidden strengths, cultivate self-awareness, breakthrough negative patterns, and collaborate more effectively.
Meet Our Executive Coaches

Karen Brownrigg, CHRL, CEC
Founder & CEO
Karen is an accomplished certified human resources leader, certified executive coach, and business strategist with more than two decades of experience leading transformational, security-sensitive, and crisis management issues and initiatives.

Karen Brownrigg
CHRL, CEC
Founder & CEO
Karen Brownrigg is a bilingual HR executive and certified executive coach with over three decades of experience who knows what it means to have her clients’ backs. Her experience spans a range of industries, including time spent with Rogers Communications, the Bank of Canada, and the Ottawa Police Service.
Karen founded iHR Advisory Services™ in 2016 with a mission to become a trusted partner and ally that her clients could call anytime they needed HR support. Nearly 10 years later, she’s still the “phone a friend” senior executives use whenever they have an HR question or challenge.
During her time spent as an emergency services phone operator, Karen was told that her calming voice and demeanour were critical during times of chaos. Business Executives still tell Karen today that while her credentials and the quality of her work are outstanding, what sets her apart is the sense of calm and steadiness she brings amid complexity.
Karen is widely considered one of the top HR practitioners in Ottawa, thanks to her deep expertise in executive coaching and helping executives navigate complex people dynamics that can escalate if handled improperly. She is regularly featured in the Ottawa Business Journal, where she shares her deep expertise in change management, medical accommodations, employee and labour relations, conflict resolution, talent management, and more.
In her personal life, Karen’s passions include running and paddleboarding. Her greatest joys include travelling with her fiancé, Scott, and enjoying quality time with her dog, Arthur. She remains optimistic that Arthur will one day learn to sit still on the paddleboard.
Professional Affiliations and Designations
- Emotional Quotient Inventory (EQ-i 2.0) Certified Practitioner
- Certified Human Resources Leader and member of the Human Resources Professionals Association of Ontario
- Certified FourSight Facilitator – Creative Problem-Solving Mindset/Toolset for individuals and teams, Buffalo State University Centre for Creative Studies
- Certified Change Management Professional, Prosci Change Management Program
- Graduate Certificate in Executive Coaching, Royal Roads University
- Professional Certificate in Human Resources Management, University of Toronto
- Certificate in Human Resources Management, Algonquin College

Lysa Appleton
Executive Coach
Based in Halifax, NS, Lysa is a seasoned career practitioner and leadership consultant who has been working in the field of coaching and consulting since 2006. Her working style is warm and intimate yet effective and strategic in supporting people through their career transition, career management and re-employment.

Lysa Appleton
Executive Coach
Lysa is passionate about branding and marketing high-achieving professionals and industry leaders, ensuring clients have a superior edge and advantage that outpaces the competition. While always focused on the big picture, Lysa also works with clients to achieve practical, relevant, and powerful goals that drive personal leadership, professional growth, and change that sticks.
Lysa earned her B.A. from the University of British Columbia and received her coach training and credentials from Coach U, one of the oldest and largest coach training institutes. She is also a Certified Career Development Practitioner and a certified Career Strategist and Employment Specialist with Career Professionals of Canada, (CPC).

Martin Castellani, CEC
Senior Executive Coach, Conflict Coach & Human Resources Specialist
Based in Victoria, B.C., Martin joined iHR Advisory Services® as a Senior Executive Coach, Conflict Resolution Coach, and Human Resources Specialist after a 21-year career in the Royal Canadian Navy.

Martin Castellani
CEC
Senior Executive Coach, Conflict Coach & Human Resources Specialist
While employed with the Department of National Defence, Martin used his Project Management and Human Resources background to become fully qualified in the recruitment, training and employment assignment for new members of the Canadian Armed Forces.
Martin dedicated 10 years as an instructor at the Department of National Defence’s Alternate Dispute Resolution Centre. He subsequently became a Certified Executive Coach.
Martin has received the South West Asian Service Medal, the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Medal and the CFB Esquimalt’s Base Commander’s Coin for his personnel management during the 2016 Duke of Cambridge’s Royal Visit.

How It Works
Executive coaching is offered in a confidential space so that you can feel free to seek clarity, awareness, and overcome personal challenges.
A Certified Executive Coach uses questions to challenge you to examine standard thinking and uncover new perspectives. These new perspectives will drive actions that can increase your performance and produce extraordinary results.

of people who receive coaching report increased self-confidence.
benefit from improved work performance, relationships, and more effective communication skills.
of companies report that they recouped their investment in coaching and more.
The iHR Difference
We are a team of seasoned professionals who take the time to understand your organization inside and out. When you work with us, you get more than advice – you get dedicated support and customized solutions, designed to build a strong HR foundation that supports your long-term business success.
Contact Us

"*" indicates required fields
Our Testimonials
Dr. Melvin Lee
Owner Dentistry @ Bank Street Professional Centre
Brian Billings
Director – Campus Safety Services Carleton University
Rosie Prud’Homme
Origins IP
Heather Lacey
Ready to Make a Change?
Take your performance and your team’s results to the next level.