Kay McBrearty is the founder and principal of Waterville Partners. She brings with her over twenty years of corporate experience in various leadership roles including: Operations, Director of Staffing & College Relations, Director of Shared Values and Director of Strategy & Innovation.

Kay has successfully led global change initiatives and mentored countless team members. She has hired hundreds of employees, redeployed team members, led and developed teams, managed P&Ls, traveled the globe and drove operational excellence as a black belt in Six Sigma. She began Waterville Partners over a decade ago to provide consulting services to corporate clients on various strategy, change management and culture initiatives.

While Kay values her corporate experiences, her true passion has been mentoring and counseling individuals to help them attain career alignment and satisfaction. She is currently an effective career coach leading clients through a self-discovery process enabling them to create a sustainable plan for achieving career fulfillment. She focuses on leveraging client’s strengths, interests and values while accounting for investments of time, energy, education or experiences. Her high energy, genuine enthusiasm and straight forward approach are refreshing and effective.

Given her years as a corporate director of staffing and college relations, Kay’s focus began with twenty-somethings and recent college graduates, who remain a specialty today. Having successfully navigated multiple transitions throughout her own career, she has grown to support other adults in transition, some pivoting or exploring a second act.

She believes that the career transition process is similar across the life cycle and stages of a career. What distinguishes each client’s personal journey or story is their unique strengths, skills, values and passions, along with their education, experience and expectations. Those last three elements play a special role in more mature clients that overshadow either age or gender related considerations.

Kay earned a BBA in Marketing from the University of Notre Dame and draws upon a rich corporate background with Baxter Healthcare, along with her consulting experience. She is Flank 5 Coaches Academy certified and has also served as a mock interviewer for the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. Kay is currently a career coach for the University of Notre Dame Alumni Association, providing comprehensive career coaching services.