I am a leadership and organizational development coach -- and a skillful partner at the workbench.

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My  work centers on increasing the impact, effectiveness and learning for leaders, their teams and organizations. 

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My previous work experiences have been my best teachers:

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• Coaching CEOs and working with the executive teams in several startups and medium sized companies and organizations. 

• Working on a national malaria elimination project in Zambia on several fronts:

  • Coaching several institutional leaders

  • Redesigning the organization to be "fit for purpose"

  • Bringing together several teams to increase their collective effectiveness

  • Consulting with the Zambian Ministry of Health on building their organization's readiness and capacity to execute against a national plan​

• Leading Microsoft International's People and Organization Capability function (POC) for over 5 years.

  • Worked with the President of Microsoft International and his 11 Area Vice Presidents on team performance.

  • Responsible for leadership development, organization development, talent management and manager excellence for Microsoft’s sales and marketing organization outside of North America, an organization of over 17,000 people.

  • Catalyzed significant improvements in organizational health and leader effectiveness measures.

  • Coached executives to improve their performance and close development gaps. learning. Created Country Manager Learning Circles, a peer-led framework for global best practice sharing and organizational.

• Directed the People and Organization Capability function (POC) for Microsoft’s largest engineering division for 5 years. 

  • Led fundamental re-design of one of Microsoft’s largest engineering groups.

• Line leadership experience as a Group Program Manager (and Program Manager)  for the Automap product line and Encarta Virtual Globe. Management of team, design, writing specs, development and test, scheduling, budgeting, tradeoffs, and localization

• ​Previous work experience focused on creating learning environments and professional development experiences for a diverse set of organizations; I have designed and delivered leadership development programs for school principals, teachers and military commanders. 



Education

​• Ph.D. studies in Organizational Behavior. Cornell University, School of Industrial and Labor Relations. Ithaca, NY (ABD) 
• Ed.M. Harvard University, Graduate School of Education. Cambridge, MA
• B.A., History. Tufts University. Medford, MA



Publications

Bhasin, A., Rait, E., and Homer L.  (2014) “Strategic Corporate Assignments to Develop Emerging Market Leaders” In C. McCauley and P. Yost (Eds.) Experience-driven Leadership Development. Wiley: SF

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Rait, E. (1995) “Against the current: schools as learning organizations” (145-166). In S. Bacharach and B. Mundell (Eds.) Images of schools: structures and roles in organizational behavior. New York: Corwin Press

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Board Affiliations​
2010 - Present |  Board of Directors, Ultimate Peace. Israel
2000 - 2007 | Board of Directors of TREC. Seattle​