Linda McFarland brings her consummate professionalism, calm demeanor, and insightful sense of humor to her highly-acclaimed presentations and workshops. Having supported a dozen CEOs in Silicon Valley, Linda shares her decades of experience through stories that bring out the thoughtful lessons learned throughout her career. Her passion for sharing her knowledge and understanding with other administrative professionals led her to launch Ascend2Success in 2012, a consulting company, to develop educational and interactive training for administrative professionals, event planners, and other support professionals.

More About Linda:
• Executive Assistant for 20+ years in Silicon Valley supporting over a dozen CEOs spanning the medical, energy, bio-tech, and high-technology industries.

• In 2012, Linda launched Ascend2Success to help administrative professionals maximize their potential through coaching, developing programs, training, and speaking.

• Admin Awards Past Chair and Advisory Board member (2015-2018), an organization that is the first and only awards program of its kind in the country that publicly recognizes the invaluable contributions of administrative professionals.

• Along with a team of CEO Assistants and UCSC Extension of Silicon Valley, Linda helped develop the first certificate program for administrative professionals and was an advisory board member, master instructor, and guest lecturer from 2005-2010.

• With her sense of adventure, Linda McFarland is the author of the book The Wizard Behind the CEO: Enchanted stories from the assistant with the magic WAND, and also co-authored the book Sitting on a File Cabinet, Naked, with a Gun: True Stories of Silicon Valley CEO Assistants.

• Founder and past member of the Silicon Valley Catalysts Association (SVCA), a group for CEO Assistants in Silicon Valley (1995-2018).

• In-demand guest speaker at corporate events and conferences including: Admin to Admin, Q1 Productions, International Association of Administrative Professionals (IAAP), Administrative Professionals Conference (APC), Office Dynamics (certified trainer), MPI event planner conference, Microsoft Annual Global Administrative Conference, and more.

• Certified trainer for Office Dynamics – Star Achievement Series®.

• Co-founder of Admin to Admin (2014-2016).

• Co-founded PlanetAdmin, a training company for administrative professionals (2009-2011).

• Founder of McFarland Consulting, coaching and training for administrative professionals (2007-2009).

• Married with children and grandchildren.