Catherine McCarthy

Catherine McCarthy is a former Chief Operating Officer at The Energy Project, a company that helps individuals and organizations fuel energy, engagement, focus, and productivity by harnessing the science of high performance. She is the co-author of "Leading at the Edge," a book based on Ernest Shackleton's Antarctica expedition which outlines 10 key strategies for helping leaders and teams optimize performance in the face of adversity. McCarthy also penned "Manage Energy Not Time: The Science of Stamina," published in the Harvard Business Review in October 2007. This article discusses the impact of the Energy Project curriculum on engagement and performance at three Fortune 100 companies. Additionally, she contributed to "The Way We’re Working Isn’t Working," a New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestseller, co-authored with Tony Schwartz and Jean Gomes, which was released in May 2010.

At The Energy Project, McCarthy delivered keynotes, facilitated training, coached executives, and helped develop the core curriculum. She has worked with senior leaders and teams at companies including Chubb Insurance, Credit Suisse, Johnson & Johnson, Google, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Kaiser Permanente, Kraft Foods, Merrill Lynch, Microsoft, Price Waterhouse Coopers, Starbucks, UBS, and Wachovia, as well as organizations ranging from the FBI to the Boys & Girls Club of America.

Prior to her tenure at the Energy Project starting in 2003, McCarthy was a Senior Consultant at the Syncretics Group, an organization devoted to helping leaders perform at their best under challenging conditions. Before that, she spent five years as a Consulting Psychologist for MICA Management Resources, a consulting firm based in Chicago. McCarthy began her career as a leadership consultant to large family-owned businesses. She received her BA in 1990 from Princeton University, where she was also an All-American lacrosse player. She earned her PhD in clinical psychology from the Illinois Institute of Technology, and completed a fellowship at Yale University's Consultation Center. As a competitive athlete, McCarthy has completed twenty marathons and eight Ironman races, each spanning 141 miles.