Leadership Coaching

Erika lights up when she sees people step into the next best version of themselves. She’s energized by all things business, random acts of kindness, and people who pay it forward. Equally candid and compassionate with a strong, genuine curiosity, Erika has been referred to as a “modern day renaissance woman” because of her pioneering spirit and eclectic interests.

Erika joined the Aileron community in 2019 to surround herself with like-minded leaders who share a passion for calling people, businesses, and organizations to be the best versions of themselves. Prior to Aileron, Erika spent 23 years in the automotive aftermarket and participated in four post-acquisition integrations at the executive level. Through those experiences, Erika learned why most leaders fall short, give up, or burn out. She went on to start her own coaching business in 2015.

You can find Erika in her home with her husband and kids, entertaining family and friends, and finding any excuse to gather a group for a shared meal. Carrying on her mother’s tradition, there is always a seat at her family’s table.

As Lead Leadership Coach, Lois oversees Aileron’s leadership coaching system, sourcing top talent, onboarding and training coaches, and evolving the processes that support our coaches as they deliver services to our community. She also works within the system as a Coach and Facilitator, helping Aileron clients think more positively about themselves, others, and their circumstance, and empowering them to move forward confidently.

A 21-year entrepreneurial veteran and owner of three businesses, Lois is both experienced and optimistic; she’s been told more than once that the world around her could be falling apart, and she’d still manage to find a silver lining. She’s adept at making the intangible comprehensible, leveraging metaphors and scenarios that bring big-picture ideas to life. And she has a gift for asking questions that catalyze “aha” moments and major insights, which serves her well when she’s working with both individuals and teams.

Lois is an International Coaching Federation Professional Certified Coach, holds an Emotional Intelligence Coaching Certification – a prestigious program hosted by Daniel Goleman – and is one of 113 international winners of the 2020 Enterprising Women of the Year Awards. When she’s not working on one of her three businesses, Lois spends time with her family and dines out with her husband; the two enjoy their weekend tradition of traveling through the area for breakfast on Saturday and Sunday mornings.

What’s something you’re constantly striving to get better at?

“Coaching – I’m always reading more about it and working on new certifications. On a broader scale, I’m always working to get better at understanding people, which helps me be a better coach.”

What are the values that drive you?

“Confidentiality, positivity, radical candor, and personal accountability.”

Why Aileron?

“Aileron has changed my life and my husband's life. Before Aileron, my husband was ready to quit our business and go back to working for someone else. When we were introduced to Aileron and professional management, we immediately felt relief; we weren’t alone, we had support, and we had energy to keep going. Now our relationship is better, our work is better, and our lives are better.”

As a past business owner, Joni understands the risks, rewards, and challenges that ownership and professional management bring.  She had the opportunity at Iams as a Brand Manager to live in a professionally managed organization where she saw first hand how strategy, strong leadership and culture can fuel a company to do great things.

After Iams, Joni co-founded a technology services company and became an Aileron client herself, taking the Course for Presidents, establishing an outside Board of Directors and utilizing strategic planning.  The company grew from 2 to 100 employees in five years, was a finalist for the Ernst & Young Cincinnati Entrepreneur of the Year award, and was named by the Cincinnati Business Courier as one of the 25 fastest growing companies in the region.  After selling this business, she and her husband just couldn’t stop and bought a second business in decorative packaging that they operated for seven years before successfully selling.

In her role as President, Joni oversees Aileron’s strategic direction, culture and operational activities. Her leadership and energy inspire and motivate the Aileron team and the community as we strive to raise the quality of life, one private business at a time.

Joni was honored with the “Forty Under Forty” award and received her bachelor’s degree in business from Miami University (the real one, in Ohio).  She obtained her MBA from Xavier University.  As college sweethearts, Joni and her husband Jim have been married for 27 years; they have three great children, a golden retriever and a small mutt who thinks he’s a cross between a mastiff and a pit bull.  Family time is a crucial priority for Joni and they enjoy skiing, tubing, running, fishing, sports, eating Chipotle (don’t ask Joni to cook – she can’t), family events and vacations.

Wes Gipe works with business owners and their teams as a trusted facilitator, business advisor and coach. Known for his enthusiasm and high-energy approach, Wes’s willingness to boldly approach tough issues and go the extra mile have gained him loyal clients who look to him for help with strategic planning, leadership and culture development, and conflict resolution.

Wes started his journey as an Aileron client in 2008. After applying Aileron’s Professional Management principles to build a self-managing company, he now spends much of his time helping other organizations—big and small—build a strategy that endures. Through this work, he has logged over 9,000 coaching hours with more than 500 individuals throughout North America and Europe. His work has been featured in Forbes as well as other national media outlets. Wes resides in Miami County, OH with his wife and three rambunctious boys.

As Aileron’s Chief Operating Officer, Chuck is responsible for pushing the organization’s products and business model forward through concepting, testing, and implementing new solutions. Previous to Aileron, he founded and sold two businesses, an experience that arms him with an empathy for and understanding of the community Aileron serves.

Chuck has a keen eye for identifying problems and an unrelenting passion for pioneering ideas, and spends much of his time at work experimenting. He’s naturally humble, which fuels his experimentation by freeing him from fear that his ideas will fail. And Chuck is hyper-focused on the future; every day he asks himself: “How do we prepare our clients for the future to ensure they’re thriving ten years from now?”

Chuck will tell you there’s no other way he’d rather spend the weekend than with his wife, son, and daughter. In the summer, you can find them soaking in the sun at Indian Lake, where Chuck occasionally sneaks away to enjoy his favorite hobby: bass fishing.

What’s something you’re constantly striving to get better at?

“My contribution to Aileron – I’m constantly asking myself: How can we touch more people, create more change, and improve the quality of life for the people that we touch?”

What are the values that drive you?

“I value innovation and experimentation. If I was somewhere I couldn’t do those things, that would be tough for me. I also value responsibility, which can be at odds with innovation – sometimes you have to be less responsible to innovate.”

Why Aileron?

“People ask me this a lot, because I sold my business to come here. But I did that because I can impact more people here than I could running my own business.”

As Research and Development Manager, Krista Powell helps bring Aileron’s strategy to life by designing and developing Aileron’s products and services, ensuring they empower business leaders to grow in professional management. She also works directly with Aileron community members as a Leadership Coach, leveraging her deep understanding of organizational change and her background in professional management implementation across a variety of cultures and roles.

Krista is naturally transparent; when she doesn’t know the answer, she isn’t afraid to say so – and she’s invigorated by finding it. She seeks to understand others’ points of view, and leans into curiosity over judgement. And she sees the opportunity in everything; Krista is easily excited about new ideas, and can envision the potential of an idea even in its infancy.

Krista is a third-generation entrepreneur; her father and grandparents were both small business owners, and today Krista runs a branding and design agency, Christopher and Mae, with her husband Jon. When not working on the business, she’s knee-deep in a DIY project or spending time with her three children, adventuring to nearby museums, parks, and attractions.

What’s something you’re constantly striving to get better at?

“Everything. I love learning and I see an opportunity for improvement in every aspect of my life. I’m also really passionate, so it’s easy for me to put my whole self into everything I do.”

What are the values that drive you?

“I have a high sense of both independence and interdependence; I love collaborating with a team, and at the same time I love autonomy. I am creative, so I enjoy designing and developing the experiences that we offer at Aileron. And I also have a high sense of responsibility – I’m driven to make an impact in what we do.”

Why Aileron?

“I have seen the impact that a well-run company can have on individuals’ lives, their families, and their communities – and I’ve also experienced companies that were not well-run, and the impact it had. I really believe professional management is making people’s lives and communities better.”

As a Business Advisor, Facilitator, and Leadership Coach, Tony executes Aileron’s mission of improving the quality of life in America by teaching business leaders the advantages of incorporating clarity and simplicity into their businesses and lives. An entrepreneur himself, Tony gets is fulfilled by empowering people to practice professional management as a personal and business growth tool.

Tony loves simplicity and believes the most effective things happen when people have clarity and understanding. He’s an avid and enthusiastic planner; Tony believes having a plan prepares people for focused execution and allows people to make adjustments along the way. (He also maintains that planning a vacation is almost as enjoyable as going on one.) And he’s a storyteller and humor advocate; Tony believes people learn best when they’re having a good time, sharing personal experiences, and creating connections over shared stories.

When he’s not helping business leaders reach their goals, you can find Tony woodworking, spending time with his kids and grandkids, or biking around the world; he and his wife have biked for 30 days from Zürich, Switzerland to Budapest, Hungary.

What’s something you’re constantly striving to get better at?

“Spirituality – understanding why I exist, what my purpose is, and how I can live it. Answering the question: what am I here for?”

What are the values that drive you?

“Spirituality, personal growth, and relationships. Spirituality is about living my purpose in life. Personal growth is about continually growing and learning, and taking advantage of opportunities. Relationships is about nurturing relationships with my wife, my family, and other people.”

Why Aileron?

“It provides me an opportunity to live my values and purpose. I get personal growth here, I get to develop a lot of relationships, and I get to give back. That’s what I like about Aileron.”

As a Leadership Coach, Mark works with Aileron members to bring their goals to the surface, asking the right questions and facilitating a process that empowers them to bring their desired outcomes to light. Mark brings to his work a background in merging communications and customer service to create exceptional, loyalty-building customer experiences from start to finish.

Mark is an empath; he is quick to suspend judgement and lets his natural ability to try on someone else’s shoes create a healthy and supportive coaching environment. He uses a bird’s-eye approach, leveraging his sales, communications, marketing, and consulting experiences to understand the challenges his clients face. And he sees coaching not as a space to give advice, but as an opportunity to help others bring their own answers to the surface.

When Mark isn’t helping business leaders grow, he’s producing his own short film, spending time with his wife Allison, or exploring parks near their home in beautiful southwest Michigan.

What’s something you’re constantly striving to get better at?

“Being present and in the moment.”

What are the values that drive you?

“Empathy, honesty, relationships, and outcomes.”

Why Aileron?

“Because of my background in marketing and branding, I have a sixth sense for understanding an organization’s values when I visit their website. When I visited Aileron online, I got the sense that this was a group that balances people’s holistic needs with the business’s needs, and I value that approach.”

As a Business Advisor and Facilitator at Aileron, Anne Thompson uses her expertise in organizational, leadership, and culture development to help businesses achieve their vision and purpose. Anne’s diverse experience in working with small privately held businesses, large public corporations, educational institutions, and nonprofits – and growing a business herself – enables her to quickly understand the context and culture of organizations, ask important questions to uncover key levers for change, and assist business leaders in identifying and implementing strategies, structures, and behaviors to create positive, sustainable change in all kinds of organizations.

Anne is endlessly curious; she uses the power of question to help people make sense of situations and uncover insights. She’s passionate about partnership, and driven to empower her clients to turn their hopes and dreams into realities. She has deep expertise in emotional and social intelligence, and sees the integration of the head and the heart as critical to developing the self, and in turn developing others. 

In her free time, you can find Anne, her husband, and their son jet setting around the world to experience different cultures and cuisines, or enjoying a beer and OSU football game while stateside.

What’s something you’re constantly striving to get better at?

“I’m always striving to operate from a mindset of being ‘good enough.’ It’s counter-culture to feel that what I do doesn’t equate to the value I have as a person. To get there, I’m continually connecting to the intention of my heart and my desire to serve. That helps to minimize the ‘I’m not good enough’ narrative.” 

What are the values that drive you?

“I’m driven by mastery and serving clients through evidence-based, practiced strategies. I thrive on collaboration and work to build reciprocal, respectful relationships. And I practice empathy. I embrace people where they’re at while also challenging them to stretch just a bit further outside of their comfort zone to help them see greater possibilities.”

Why Aileron?

“At Aileron, we consistently put into practice with each other what we offer to our clients. Aileron is its own learning lab for all the concepts we’re asking our business leaders to embrace. I love that about this organization.”