Virginia's business career started in the 1980s on Wall Street as an investment banker, followed by brand management at Frito-Lay and General Mills, and an MBA from the Tuck School at Dartmouth. In the early 90s she bought a one-way ticket to the Himalayas and didn’t look back. After a trekking season in Nepal, she returned to the US and became an instructor for the Pacific Crest Outward Bound School, designing and facilitating adventure-based leadership programs for executive teams all over the country. She hung a shingle out as a leadership development coach and was snatched up first by Nike Global to assist in their leadership programs. She then built a thriving coaching practice with C-level executives of progressive fast-growing Seattle-area companies. Along the way, Virginia took an MA in Psychology at Antioch University and taught leadership and management courses at two of Seattle’s universities. In her personal life, she became smitten with the Lindy Hop style of swing dancing and performed with Seattle’s oldest swing dance troupe. She reconnected with her passion for horses and received training in the ancient art of dressage, an athletic mounted dance with horses. A few years ago, Virginia combined this equine training with her leadership development practice and now offers Equine-Guided Coaching where her clients are literally learning with and from the horse. She and her husband John McConnell are business partners and run the Jempe Center at Pegasus Ranch on South Whidbey Island.