About

In Good Company

Where You Land

The Shape of It

Leadership, Lived

A life across cultures shapes how you lead.

Leadership often shows up between the lines.

In decisions made without a roadmap or precedent.

In balancing cultures, communities, and expectations.

In the often-invisible work of bridging worlds.

Leadership is more than a title.

It is a way of moving through the world.

The Foundation

Threads

Three threads shape every Circle, experience, and coaching conversation.

Belonging

FIND SHARED GROUND

Where life across cultures becomes shared ground.

Well-Being

SUSTAIN WHAT MATTERS

Leading from a grounded place, at a pace that is your own.

Voice

LEAD AS YOU ARE

Speaking and leading as yourself, wherever you land.

The Founder

Elyse Michaels-Berger

Franco-American, Elyse has built her life and family between Europe and the United States. She is a leadership educator, coach, and community builder with more than two decades of international experience.

A certified executive coach and Director of Well-Being and Inclusion at HEC Paris, Elyse works with founders, executives, and women navigating leadership transitions and turning points across cultures.

Credentials

Leadership and Coaching
HEC Paris Global Executive Coach · ICF ACC · CPCC · NLP Practitioner · Equine-Facilitated Coach

Education
Princeton BA · Columbia MA · ESSEC MBA

Community Leadership
President, Princeton Alumni Association of France

Executive Committee Member, Princeton University Alumni Council

ORIGINS

A Message from the Founder

— Elyse Michaels-Berger

It began with a small dinner gathering.

We came from different countries and different chapters, yet quickly found a shared rhythm. Laughter. Listening. Insight. The kind that comes easily in good company.

That first gathering soon became a regular series of dinners and conversations. Each time, we left seeing something differently.

I have always been drawn to bringing together women who may not yet see how much they share.

Over the years, I have shared many chapters of life with extraordinary women as we navigated transitions, built careers and ventures, raised families, and shaped our lives across cultures.

That first table stayed with me. I began creating more spaces for that kind of connection through dinners, panels, and eventually Circles where women could reflect, challenge assumptions, and recognize their own leadership more clearly.

One early gathering I organized in Paris with the Princeton Alumni Association of France brought 80 women into conversation. It showed how deeply questions of voice, belonging, and leadership resonated, and how many women wanted to be part of what came next.

Each woman, her own light.

Each gathering, its own constellation.

Women Leading Across Cultures carries that original circle forward.