I coach executives and help teams through creative, transformative reinvention.
I’m Carmen Schwender, and I’d be honoured to be your coach. Together, we’ll remove barriers, navigate change, and define how you’ll show up for your next chapter—personally and professionally—so that everything is, quite literally, en pointe.
Hi I'm Carmen Schwender
As the Founder of En Pointe Institute, I help leadership teams elevate communication, deepen alignment, and accelerate results. Drawing on 20+ years in global sales, leadership, and finance, I’ve partnered with high-performing teams and senior executives across cultures to navigate change and strengthen culture. I’d welcome the opportunity to connect.
Achieve. Your. Goals.
Before I led teams in global sales, finance, and leadership, I trained as a classical ballet dancer and performed professionally on many stages around the world. Dance taught me what high performance really takes: practice, perseverance, and ensemble mindset required for peak performance. Today, I help teams clarify their vision, stay anchored to their mission, and work in true alignment. I coach people to find their grit, courage, and determination—and to perform together with the precision that accelerates results.
Coach and Change Agent
I combine my experience from INSEAD’s Executive Master in Change, Collective Change Institute coaching certification, and more than 20 years of corporate leadership to help organizations transform with clarity and courage. Our work spans two domains: the inner—understanding emotional responses to organizational triggers and dynamics—and the outer—building capabilities in leadership, strategic thinking, team management, resilience, and adaptability. The outcome is consistent: positive, sustainable change. Let’s do this!
Here I talk about one of my approaches:
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Executive/Career/Life Coaching
I live for the “on point” moments in one-on-one coaching. Together, we strip away cognitive, psychological, and emotional obstacles that throw your performance off balance. With psychodynamic coaching and focused techniques, we realign presence, decisions, and execution—so you hit your marks and exceed your targets. Shall we explore your next step?
Coaching client testimonial
"Coaching with Carmen was a turning point for me. Her calm, incisive presence is backed by cross-disciplinary training, rich leadership experience, and deep personal work — all of which show up in how she listens, challenges, and supports. She didn’t just help me move forward — she helped me understand how. I’m grateful for the clarity and confidence I gained, and for the inspiration to pursue coaching more deeply myself."
- Qiu Yi LOH, Assistant Vice President, Healthcare, Singapore Economic Development Board
Keynotes and Workshops
My "Creative Leadership" keynotes and workshops focus on leading and embracing change, lowering resistance, shifting mindsets and aligning with organisational reinvention initiatives. Keynotes help shift the thinking of larger groups, while workshops help dig deeper into group dynamics and personal interventions. Let's talk about how I can take your audience on a special journey at your upcoming event...
Shall we make a time to discuss how we can work together?
What does "en pointe" mean?
It literally translates from French as, "on point," and in ballet it means "on the tips of the toes." This takes discipline, skill, training, and precision to master. And I take this mindset into my coaching engagements so that my clients know that I bring discipline, skill, training and precision into helping them towards personal and leadership mastery, and that our sessions are on point, and keep them on their toes!
Coaching client testimonial
"I engaged with Carmen as I was in transition from a long career to a much needed break to re-entering the workforce. She was instrumental in helping me define boundaries, realign my strengths and also provided much needed clarity on the importance of my non-negotiables. She was transformational in extracting direction from my professional passion and interests and providing a clear and sustainable roadmap of how to get there."
- Rupali Dooling, VP of Cloud and Security, Growth Markets, NTT Data.
Putting your best foot forward
Many of the pictures on this page are from my ballet days, and the painting below is particularly dear to me as it was painted by Sir Alex Schloss during my time in New York. Sir Alex was an oil painting institution, painting portraits and cityscapes in New York while based at the Plaza Hotel for some 35 years. He painted me here in 2004, when he was 81 years old. I adored him and I love this painting.
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