Catherine Cates

Catherine Cates has spent her career where results matter most, from managing $2B private placement portfolios at Prudential to leading turnarounds in manufacturing and construction. She’s seen it all: the boardroom politics, the messy middle of scaling, the power of focus.. and the cost of not having it.

Now, as a Certified EOS® Implementer, Catherine helps entrepreneurial leaders in Atlanta and beyond cut through the noise, align their teams, and drive meaningful results. She’s a straight-shooter with a keen wit and a bias for simplicity. Clients come to her for her decades of corporate finance and operations experience; they stay for her practical tools, unflappable presence, and knack for making even hard conversations productive (and sometimes funny).

Catherine’s leadership roots run deep. She’s been a McKinsey consultant, a CFO in a private equity turnaround, a CEO of a multi-state staffing company, and a COO in the trades. Through it all, she’s learned that great businesses don’t happen by accident, they happen when leaders get clear on their vision, accountability, and build teams that actually want to show up on Monday.

What her clients love: Catherine can walk into a leadership meeting, slice through decades of “we’ve always done it this way,” and in the same breath crack a joke that gets everyone breathing again. She’s a realist with a fun streak, and she knows that when the leadership team gets aligned, everything else gets easier: profits, people, even Monday mornings.

A Harvard MBA and Dartmouth grad who still calls Atlanta home, Catherine has the corporate chops and the front-porch candor to help you build a business you actually enjoy running. Outside of work, she’s the favorite aunt to three nieces and seven great nieces and nephews—and a lifelong UNC basketball fan!