About The Corporate Refinery
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The Corporate Refinery
“As a little girl, my dad, Jamie, was a pipe fitter at the oil refineries in Long Beach, California,” shares Colleen Hauk, Founder & CEO. “He’d come home from work wearing clothes covered in stains and smelling so strongly of oil, that he had his own laundry hamper in the garage. At that age, I had no idea what an oil refinery was, but I proudly told all my friends that’s where my dad worked. So, when I was ready to choose a company name, the word ‘refinery’ meant something to me.”
“Refineries take something that’s already valuable and transform it into a more refined and usable asset. And that’s what we do at The Corporate Refinery. We work with individuals, teams, and organizations that are already top performers but are looking for that specialized refinement to accelerate and sustain success.”
Because we know that effective communication is the cornerstone to determine organizational performance, The Corporate Refinery’s mission is to refine and elevate top performers and companies by transforming their well-intentioned communications and presentations into ones that deliver maximum impact and accelerated results.
We specialize in eradicating stale perspectives and retooling systems with modern methods that enhance communication and executive presence that together drive performance and sustain excellence across the organization. This creates the shift needed to build a solid leadership pipeline, retain top-tier talent, and positively impact your bottom line.
What separates The Corporate Refinery from other learning and development consulting firms, and coaching and training organizations is how our solutions align growth strategy and leadership competency with today’s real-world factors.
We look forward to creating a partnership to transform your intentions into successful outcomes!
Colleen Hauk, Workplace Dynamics Expert
Colleen Hauk, founder and CEO of The Corporate Refinery, is a sought-after communications expert and keynote speaker with a passion for developing top talent and helping companies grow their leadership pipeline. In 15 years as a corporate executive, she learned first-hand the impact communication can have on individuals, teams and a company’s bottom line when executed well. She also saw the powerful missed opportunities when communication went poorly.
Colleen has a background in education and business development, most notably as a team leader for a shopper intelligence and media company. Today, she focuses on helping global and mid-sized organizations shift how they develop high-performers and leaders to build a solid leadership pipeline, retain top-tier talent, and sustain excellence across the organization through maximizing their skills in communication and executive presence.
Over the past two decades, Colleen has studied human behavior, elite performance, leadership, and communication. Her expansive background coupled with an inspirational approach gives her the unique skillset to produce and deliver custom-tailored programs that give leaders and teams the necessary hardcore, tactical skills along with the soft skills to maximize results.
Colleen is also an executive coach and the co-author of two books, including the bestseller, Women Who Ignite. She’s the creator of the popular LinkedIn Learning course, Improving Your Leadership Communications. She is a multiple-time contributor to Forbes and delivered her keynotes and trainings to Fortune 500 companies and organizations such as Dell, Pfizer, Panasonic, Merck, and New York Life.
Colleen recently served on the Advisory Board for University of California, Riverside Women in Leadership Program. She earned her Bachelor of Science in Human Services from California State University, Fullerton, a Multiple Subject Teaching Credential from California Polytechnic University, Pomona, and Certified Professional Coaching certificate from Success Coach Institute.
Media Appearances
NOW IS THE TIME FOR TRANSFORMATION
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WHAT OUR CLIENTS SAY
Some of the improvements noticed included the team having an improved growth mindset, performing better research before approaching their line managers for assistance, admitting where they should take responsibility for an issue, and referring back to specifics in Colleen’s workshops when discussing developmental struggles. Overall, 1:1 discussions improved as everyone was now working from the same playbook and understood their own responsibility in their personal and career development instead of looking to their manager and wondering why they weren’t getting ahead. I highly recommend reaching out to Colleen to discuss training needs or concerns as she is extremely flexible and resourceful when it comes to tailoring development programs at any level. New hires found the material as engaging and insightful as did our seasoned, director level veterans.
The Team improved its leadership, communication, and collaboration skillsets.
The Team is more engaged, productive, and highly motivated with greater personal satisfaction and helped retain our valuable employees.
The training helped me design a career development strategy in collaboration with our team members tailored to their individual talent needs and stages of their careers.
The training has provided my department to build a sustainable and adaptable approach to building a talent management strategy with an engaged workforce.