The Wunderlin Company

Dr. Tony Zipple

Dr. Tony Zipple is an expert in improving human performance. He uses his 30 years of senior executive experience and deep training as a psychologist and coach to help great organizations, teams, and staff members become even better.

As a CEO and COO of large behavioral health organizations in three states, Tony has worked in healthcare and non-profit sectors to develop, bring to market, and sustain innovative services. He has led successful mergers and has helped a behavioral health organization restructure through Chapter 11 bankruptcy. His years as a university professor and researcher allow him to bring the best evidence-based tools to difficult situations and find practical strategies for improving performance. Tony also provides exceptional executive coaching by blending subject matter expertise with work on personal well-being, health, and interpersonal skills. He has worked with clients in more than a dozen states as well as in Singapore, India, and Pakistan. As the former CEO of a company with over 1400 staff and a $125,000,000 budget, Tony understands the demands of managing great organizations. He relishes opportunities to work on complex problems and build effective and novel solutions. Tony’s work helps organizations, teams and executives who are struggling with the toughest challenges to get back to business and achieve even better results.

Dr. Zipple’s consulting experience includes:

Executive coaching – Tony uses his experience as a successful CEO and his extensive training in business, coaching, and psychology to improve the individual performance of key executives. His clients have included executives from healthcare, non-profit, hospitality, manufacturing, real estate, and engineering companies.

Executive entry and transitions – Tony was selected as the successor to founding CEOs for two different companies and understands the challenges that executive transition poses for organizations and individuals. He is an expert at helping exiting executives to leave with their professional and personal lives in order and in supporting the entry of new executives, helping them to use the critical first few months to set the optimal tone for their tenure.

Team building and coaching – Tony works with teams to improve their performance. He knows that his takes more than a one-time packaged training session and designs engagements that fit the individual needs of the team and helps them to be collegial and effective.

Organizational assessment – Tony brings fifteen years spent as a surveyor for a national health services accreditation organization and his training as a university research leader to assessments of the effectiveness of organizations, departments, and teams. He is skilled at identifying the strengths of his clients, uncovering critical opportunities for improvement, and building practical plans to rapidly improve performance.

Facilitation – Meetings consume expensive staff time and Tony helps groups to extract maximum value from limited time. He works with clients to design effective and efficient meetings that produce results. Establishing schedules, developing ground rules, and keeping meetings on task are all a part of his facilitation work.

Recent Successes Include:

  • Consulting with a behavioral health start up in Karachi, Pakistan. This multi-year project has included a comprehensive assessment of the organization, work on Executive Director selection and transition, executive coaching, program design, strategic planning, and board of directors development.
  • Training and consulting in school systems in the area of toxic stress, trauma informed interventions, and building resilience in students.
  • Training and consulting on the use of positive psychology interventions in clinical contexts.
  • Consulting with multiple behavioral health organizations in Singapore. This multi-year project included work on strategic planning, program evaluation, organizational assessment, staff training, and services development. Work was completed via video conferencing, multiple visits to Singapore, and hosting visiting managers from Singapore.
  • Coaching executives from diverse industries including healthcare, non-profit, hospitality, manufacturing, real estate, and engineering.
  • Assessment of an affordable housing project for people with disabilities and providing expert testimony in a federal fair housing case related to the project.
  • Developing the first university courses in the development and delivery of specialized rehabilitation services for people with serious mental illness ever offered by a Kentucky university.
  • Market assessment and operations support for an opioid addiction treatment start-up company.
  • Planning, services development, marketing and proof of concept work with a specialized psychological services company.

Credentials:

Dr. Zipple has a doctorate in rehabilitation counseling from Boston University, an MBA from the University of New Hampshire, and a master in planning and design and bachelor of arts degrees from the University of Notre Dame. He is certified as a coach by the International Coach Academy and completed Positive Psychology Coach certification with the WholeBeing Institute. Tony has many years of university teaching experience and currently holds appointments at the University of Louisville and Eastern Kentucky University. He always brings his knowledge of the best current research a deep toolbox to every engagement.

Connect with Dr. Zipple to learn more about how he can add value to your organization.