Maeve Coburn

Maeve Coburn is a seasoned global executive, executive educator, and accredited executive coach who specializes in helping senior leaders build, evolve, and lead organizational cultures that enable strategy execution in times of disruption.

With over three decades of leadership experience at three Fortune 500 companies, Coburn has served in General Manager, SVP Marketing, and Global Head of Learning & Change roles at L’Oréal. She was a member of the L’Oréal U.S. Executive Committee for 16 years. Across multiple brand P&Ls and enterprise-wide transformation initiatives, she saw firsthand that culture is not a “soft” variable; it is the system that determines whether strategy succeeds or fails.

Coburn’s work focuses on equipping leaders to consciously shape culture in environments marked by rapid technological change, AI adoption, workforce anxiety, and shifting expectations of leadership. She helps executives move beyond aspirational values and engage with the real, lived culture of their organizations; the behaviors, incentives, decision rules, and power dynamics that drive outcomes every day.

As an executive coach and educator, Coburn integrates deep business acumen with systemic and human-centered approaches to leadership. Her teaching emphasizes culture as a strategic and operational capability; the role of leaders as culture carriers, system designers, and sense-makers; building trust, accountability, and adaptability at scale; and enabling performance and engagement in complex, hybrid organizations.

Coburn is an Instructor at Harvard Professional & Executive Development, where she teaches in the Agile Leadership program and designs executive learning experiences for senior leaders across industries. She is also an executive coach for MIT Sloan’s Advanced Management Program and mentors leaders in navigating enterprise transformation.

She holds an MBA from MIT Sloan School of Management, a Bachelor of Engineering in Chemical Engineering from University College Dublin, and is an accredited Professional Certified Coach (PCC) with the International Coaching Federation. She is also certified in Systemic Team Coaching and Gestalt Organization & Leadership Development.

Coburn speaks fluent French and holds dual U.S./Irish citizenship.

Programs Maeve Teaches

Agile Leadership: Transforming Mindsets and Capabilities in Your Organization