About Mariel

Executive & Career Coaching helps leaders navigate transitions, both planned and unexpected.

As an ICF-credentialed executive coach and corporate strategist, I partner with tech executives, founders, and emerging leaders to navigate complex inflection points. Drawing on two decades of operational experience inside hypergrowth and matrixed environments, I provide the strategic focus, objective challenge, and behavioral clarity required to make your next leadership chapter your most impactful.

I began my career as a science journalist, spending 5 years at National Geographic magazine translating complex topics into compelling stories for an audience of millions. Disruption to the print industry prompted me to make a transition to corporate strategy. I spent the next several years in management consulting focusing on business transformation, change management, and new product introduction for clients in Life Sciences, Media & Technology, Education, and Non-Profit sectors.

In 2015, I joined Google and spent the next decade working across its Cloud, YouTube and Hardware divisions. My roles there included corporate strategy, product marketing, and chief of staff. It was here that I experienced professional coaching for the first time, and recognized the compounding power of executive coaching in high-velocity environments.

Drawing from my experiences across industries, functions, modalities (hardware, software, B2B, and B2C), I launched Salamander Services, LLC in 2025. My clients describe me as warm, insightful, and action-oriented.

Executive Coach Mariel Furlong has 20+ years operating at the intersection of people and strategy.

My credentials include:

  • ICF-credentialed coach (ACC) with over 600 hours of professional coaching experience

  • Top-Rated Google Coach: 5-star rated coach in Google’s internal coaching program

  • Integrative Enneagram (iEQ9): Accredited Practitioner specializing in team and leadership diagnostics

  • UVA Darden School of Business: Retained to provide specialized coaching masterclasses and leadership programming for mid-to-senior career clients across a global alumni base.

  • Education: MBA from the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business; BA in Journalism & Mass Communication from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

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