Amy Scharff

Background

About Amy Scharff

Amy Scharff is owner and President of both Presidents Council and its spinoff, Leadership Council, a nearly 30-year-old family-owned company that orchestrates high-level executive peer groups. Running and moderating Leadership Council’s groups and consulting with Presidents Council for nearly a decade before acquiring the companies afforded her the requisite insight and experience to become president. Leadership Council and Presidents Council conduct monthly executive peer groups of presidents, C-suite executives, VPs, and key function leaders at mid-market companies based in the Midwest. She loves helping people stretch to be their best selves, whether through coaching, teaching, or moderating groups of people who are looking to connect with each other and grow their leadership. Shortly before the acquisition, Amy collaborated with Square cofounder Jim McKelvey on his new book, The Innovation Stack, published by Penguin Random House in the untimely month of February 2020. McKelvey, who invented the original Square credit-card reader, says, “Amy was a great coach as I wrote The Innovation Stack. She helped me synthesize and clarify the ideas I wanted to convey, and was a ruthless but sensitive editor.” In previous decades, Amy worked as a business writer, editor, and marketer before returning to school mid-career for a Master’s degree in teaching. She then taught business, marketing, and English at the high-school level, using her years of training in group dynamics and communication to manage hundreds of students each year. Amy also has coached graduate and undergraduate students in academic and business writing at Webster University; taught and led workshops in group dynamics, creative writing, communication, and leadership; run teen peer groups at international leadership camps in Switzerland; and facilitated SIUE’s Family Business Council. Her role now as president and head moderator of Leadership Council and Presidents Council enlists and ignites her passions for group dynamics, personal growth, and the belief that vulnerability and strength rely on each other.