Irene Öhler
Executive Coach, Author and Storyteller, Founder Lightpath Leadership, Co-Chair AmCham Vietnam’s Women in Leadership Committee
Irene is a highly experienced, certified global executive coach and international facilitator, with more than 20 years’ experience working on 4 continents with leaders from the corporate and government sectors.
She coaches senior executives and high potentials to transition successfully into new and more strategic leadership roles. Her focus is on leadership skills and intercultural competency development.
Irene was part of the 1st batch of corporate coaches certified in Mainland China in 2002.
Some of the companies she has worked with over the past 20 years include Siemens, Coca Cola (China), OMV (Oil and Gas), Heineken, SAP, Corteva (Vietnam and Cambodia), New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MFAT), Intel Vietnam.
Representative 1:1 Coaching Clients in 2020: Country Managers of multinational corporation in Vietnam and Cambodia, Partner at international law firm, foreign government representative in Vietnam, VP of University, C-level executive of Fortune 100 company.
Irene has been based in Vietnam since 2012 and has since become a sought-after expert for her work to promote Women Leadership and the Power of Storytelling.
Irene has pioneered a number of initiatives that use Storytelling to inspire, connect and lead: she co-authored a best-selling book on Vietnamese women leaders, BaTrieu’s 21st Century Daughters. Stories of Remarkable Vietnamese Women, and co-founded the Women’s Storytelling Salon, an inter-cultural and inter-generational events series for professional women, in 2014, which runs in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City.
She’s consulted to the Australian Consulate-General in Ho Chi Minh City to organise Vietnam’s first Women’s and Gender Conferences, and has been a consultant to the 10-month Women In Leadership Journey program for Vietnamese government officials sponsored by the Australian Embassy in Vietnam, implemented by Flinders University for the past 4 years.
Under her own brand Lightpath Leadership Irene created SPARK! CONNECTION, An Ecosystem
for Women Leadership Development including the two flagship programs SPARK!, a 1.5 day energiser to ignite the spark of leadership, and IGNITE!, an online coaching program with the power of a community.
Educational Background
Irene is a certified Corporate Coach by Coach University (2002) and Global Executive Coach by Advantara Global Executive Learning/Coach Training Institute (2007). She is also a certified ‘High Impact Team’ Coach.
Irene holds a Master Degree in Sinology from Vienna University, Austria, and studied Chinese language at Nanjing University, PRChina from 1996-1998.
Her most recent certificates in 2020 are ‘Diversity and Inclusion in the Workplace’ by ESSEC Business School, and the Harvard Kennedy School of Government’s executive online program: Public Narrative: Leadership, Storytelling and Action.