About the Author

Maria Wade is an executive coach, author, and the founder and head coach of Leadership Integrity Group. She holds the Master Certified Coach (MCC) credential from the International Coaching Federation, its highest level, earned through more than 3,000 hours of coaching senior leaders across industries. Drawing on her own years in executive leadership, including roles as Chief Legal Officer and Chief Financial Officer, she brings a rare blend of intellectual rigor, emotional depth, and grounded practicality to the field of leadership development.

She is known for helping leaders grow beyond old paradigms, stepping into roles that require not just better performance but greater presence, deeper purpose, and a broader perspective. Her work draws on adult development theory, interpersonal neurobiology, complexity science, and a working knowledge of organizational life earned from the inside.

Maria is the creator of the Leadership Integrity Framework® and the author of Leadership Integrity Framework: How to Stay Grounded, Build Trust, and Lead with Wholeness in Uncertain Times. The framework describes four territories of senior leadership: Purpose, Presence, Partnership, and Perspective, and the book sets out how leaders hold them together under pressure. Her writing and coaching are rooted in the belief that leadership is not a position but a practice, and that practice, done with integrity, can change everything.

Alongside her coaching and writing, Maria mentors and supervises fellow coaches, designs leadership development programs, speaks at industry gatherings, and continues her research into vertical development and neuroscience. She lives in New York’s Hudson Valley with her husband, where she bakes for friends and for her kids when they come to visit, hikes, reflects deeply, and dreams of new ways to make leadership more human.