About Linda McFarland

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About Linda McFarland

Author | Coach | Trainer | Speaker | CEO Assistant

Linda McFarland

Linda McFarland brings her consummate professionalism, calm demeanor, and insightful sense of humor to her highly-acclaimed presentations and workshops. Having supported a dozen CEOs in Silicon Valley, Linda shares her decades of experience through stories that bring out the thoughtful lessons learned throughout her career. Her passion for sharing her knowledge and understanding with other administrative professionals led her to launch Linda McFarland Consulting and Admin-Focus Forums, to develop educational, interactive training, online resources, and forums for assistants, event planners, and other support professionals.

More About Linda:

  • Executive Assistant for 20+ years in Silicon Valley supporting over a dozen CEOs and C-Level executives spanning the hi-tech, medical, energy, legal, and bio-tech industries.
  • Linda founded and launched Linda McFarland Consulting (formerly Ascend2Success and McFarland Consulting), to provide coaching and training for administrative professionals. Forums, resources, events, and speaking engagements have been added over the years.
  • Linda launched Ascend2Success (2012-2020) to help administrative professionals maximize their potential through coaching, developing programs, training, and speaking.
  • Admin Awards Past Chair and Advisory Board member (2015-2018), an organization that is the first and only awards program of its kind in the country that publicly recognizes the invaluable contributions of administrative professionals.
  • Along with a team of CEO Assistants and UCSC Extension of Silicon Valley, Linda helped develop the first certificate program for administrative professionals and was an advisory board member, master instructor, and guest lecturer from 2005-2010.
  • With her sense of adventure, Linda McFarland is the author of the book The Wizard Behind the CEO: Enchanted stories from the assistant with the magic WAND, and also co-authored the book Sitting on a File Cabinet, Naked, with a Gun: True Stories of Silicon Valley CEO Assistants.
  • Founder and past member of the Silicon Valley Catalysts Association (SVCA), a group for CEO Assistants in Silicon Valley (1995-2018).
  • In-demand guest speaker at corporate events and conferences including: Admin to Admin, Q1 Productions, International Association of Administrative Professionals (IAAP), Administrative Professionals Conference (APC), Office Dynamics (certified trainer), MPI event planner conference, Microsoft Annual Global Administrative Conference, and more.
  • Co-founder of Admin to Admin (2014-2016) and co-founder PlanetAdmin (2009-2011), training companies for administrative professionals, and certified trainer for Office Dynamics – Star Achievement Series®.
  • Married with children and grandchildren.