About
Two decades ashore.
A new horizon.
Meritage at Sea is the maritime practice of Meritage Leadership Consulting — the executive coaching firm behind leadership programs at some of the world's most recognized companies. Same methodology, same bench, same standards. New water.
The Founder
Susan Drumm
Susan Drumm is a CEO advisor, executive coach, and leadership change agent with two decades of experience developing leaders at organizations including Microsoft, L'Oréal, Cisco, Oracle, and KPMG. She founded Meritage Leadership Consulting and built the Enlightened Leadership® framework and the Enneagram-based team methodology that underpins everything Meritage does — at sea included.
Her route was not a straight line: Harvard Law School, Boston Consulting Group, GE and NBC — and at thirty, a master's in acting from the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art. That last degree is why her work centers on presence and authenticity rather than management theory, and why it lands with people who have heard every motivational speech going.
She is the USA Today bestselling author of The Leader's Playlist and hosts The Enlightened Executive, a podcast ranked in the top 1.5% globally.
Credentials
The paper behind the practice.
What We Believe
Five beliefs, one through-line.
- People and teams — not equipment — decide how an organization performs. A vessel most of all.
- Development has to outpace the environment. At sea, the environment moves fast.
- Cohesion creates the trust that lets different minds disagree well in a confined space.
- Culture compounds. A crew's habits in week one are its reputation by season's end.
- Neuroscience and pattern recognition — not slogans — are what actually change how a leader shows up.
The Bench
One founder, twenty-five coaches deep.
Meritage is not a solo practice. Behind every engagement stands a bench of 25+ certified coaches and consultants — psychologists, former executives, mediators, Enneagram authorities. A few whose work bears directly on life at sea:
Natalie McVeigh
Family-dynamics consultant to a private bank, Harvard-trained mediator, and chair of the Family Firm Institute's NextGen group. When the vessel is a family program, this is the discipline that comes aboard.
Diane Ring
Two decades of executive coaching and team development, Fortune 1000 to founder-led firms — with fourteen years in the Enneagram, the instrument behind our crew-composition work.
Joan Hibdon
Global leadership development and culture strategist — organizational effectiveness, change, and human-capital strategy for teams in motion.
…and the full bench
Every Meritage at Sea engagement draws on the same certified coaching team that serves our corporate clients — matched to the vessel, the crew, and the work.
In Their Words
What leaders say about Meritage.
“This is the gold standard of leadership programs.” Divesh Makan — Managing Partner, ICONIQ Capital
“An essential part of our turnaround strategy.” Rob Tarkoff — EVP & GM, Oracle
“Meritage really helped me get my leadership and my team to a new level.” Nick Rockwell — CTO, Condé Nast
Trusted by leaders at
- L'Oréal
- Microsoft
- KPMG
- Oracle
- Cisco
- ViacomCBS
- A+E Networks
- ICONIQ Capital
- Etsy
- U-Haul
- L'Oréal
- Microsoft
- KPMG
- Oracle
- Cisco
- ViacomCBS
- A+E Networks
- ICONIQ Capital
- Etsy
- U-Haul
The standard, brought aboard.
If your vessel, fleet, or family program deserves the caliber of development the best companies ashore insist on — we should talk.
Request an Introduction