Cari H. Coats is a business advisor, leadership strategist, executive coach, and speaker, leveraging her extensive executive and C-suite experience. Coats is co-founder & managing partner of Accendo Leadership Advisory Group, a leadership firm offering advisory services for the full spectrum of leadership development, including executive and team coaching and professional development for high potential women and family business leaders. Coats is a key advisor to CEOs and executives of numerous innovative and high-growth companies. Her community, civic and social innovation leadership are longstanding and far-reaching.

Most recently, Coats was executive-in-residence, focused on leadership and entrepreneurship, at the nationally-ranked Crummer Graduate School of Business at Rollins College in Winter Park, FL. Coats has worked broadly with financial securities and consumer products companies, sports organizations, entrepreneurial and social ventures, family-held enterprises, as well as alternative investment, venture capital, private equity, and venture philanthropy funds. She is a former director on the boards of venVelo and StarterStudio, two early-stage venture investment funds focused on Florida and the southeastern U.S.

Prior positions include chief operating officer for CNL Financial Group, a leading private investment management firm providing global real estate and alternative investments with a cumulative $28 billion in assets under management, and a 16-year career with the Orlando Magic where she played a key part in securing the franchise for Orlando, joined as a member of the founding management team and quickly rose to one of the highest-ranking women in professional sports as executive vice president of the NBA franchise.