Susan Thornton

Based in the Seattle area, Susan Thornton is a consultant with RHR International’s Advisory Services and Executive Bench® solutions. In her work, she helps top executives and leadership teams leverage talent to accomplish a wide range of strategic objectives. Susan is known for her emphasis on achieving business goals; providing insight into complex dynamics at the individual, group, and organizational levels; and her direct and supportive style.

Past and current clients range from large multinational Fortune 100 companies to entrepreneurial startups and span a variety of industries including technology, finance, law, biotechnology, manufacturing, retail, and insurance. Specific projects have included assessing, recommending, and coaching the new CEO of a multibillion-dollar corporation; helping the new leadership team at a manufacturing company achieve aggressive growth targets by coaching individual leaders to scale to larger roles and facilitating team sessions to improve decision making; and co-creating a customized accelerated-development program for high-potential leaders at another multibillion-dollar company.

Formerly on staff at RHR from 2015 to 2020, Susan spent five years before that as a senior consultant at another leadership-consulting firm, where she advised CEOs, developed and facilitated trainings on talent acquisition and development and conducted hundreds of assessments for selection and development.

Susan simultaneously earned her PsyD in clinical psychology and MBA from Widener University in Pennsylvania with an additional concentration in school psychology. Her dissertation explored best practices for coaching women leaders.