About Halelly Azulay, Founder

Halelly Azulay is an author, speaker, facilitator, and leadership development strategist and an expert in communication skills and emotional intelligence.

In 2006, Halelly founded TalentGrow LLC, a consulting company focused on developing leaders and teams, especially for enterprises experiencing explosive growth or expansion that want a more proactive, strategic approach to leadership development. We specialize in growing leadership capabilities, improving communication skills, building stronger teams, and upgrading emotional intelligence. TalentGrow develops leaders across all organizational levels, including C-level leaders, frontline managers, emerging leaders, and individual contributors.

Halelly is the author of two books, Employee Development on a Shoestring (ATD Press) and Strength to Strength: How Working from Your Strengths Can Help You Lead a More Fulfilling Life. Her books and workshops build on her 25+ years of professional experience in communication and leadership development in corporate, government, nonprofit and academic organizations.

Halelly works with organizations such as HOK, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Booz Allen Hamilton, Boeing, the World Bank, Clark Construction, ZIM, Teva Pharmaceuticals, Deluxe Corp., FINRA, and the University of Maryland among others. She is a sought-after speaker at conferences and meetings for various organizations such as ATD (formerly ASTD) International Conference, The Training Magazine Conference, Turkey’s HR Dergi Training Conference, AFSA, GMAC, GAMA International, the Human Resource Leadership Forum, the International Coaches Federation, The Training Officers' Conference, and the ATD Leadership Conference.

Halelly is a contributing author to numerous books such as ATD’s Handbook for Consultants, The ATD Handbook (3rd & 2nd ed.), The Art and Science of Training, Active Training, 101 More Ways to Make Training Active, The Insider’s Guide to Supervising Government Employees, The Pfeiffer Annual: Training, The Pfeiffer Annual: Consulting, and The Trainer's Warehouse Book of Games, as well as articles and blogs. She was described as a “Leadership Development Guru” by the leading magazine in the field of Talent Development, “TD”. Halelly blogs at www.talentgrow.com/blog and published a six-year leadership podcast at www.talentgrow.com/podcast. She published two popular LinkedIn Learning courses titled Leveraging Your Strengths and 10 Mistakes Leaders Should Avoid which have been enjoyed by nearly 200,000 global learners.

Halelly is an active leader in her professional community: She has been selected to serve on four key volunteer committees for ATD, the world's largest professional association in the Talent Development profession: The Awards Strategy Committee (2017-2022), the 2014-2015 ATD International Conference & Expo Program Advisory Committee (ICE PAC), Chair of the 2014 ATD Chapter Leaders Conference PAC, and the 2014 ATD National Advisors for Chapters (NAC) Committee. She was a field editor for ATD’s LINKS member newsletter for ten years. Halelly is Past President of the Board of Directors of the award-winning Metro DC chapter of ATD where she served in various Board leadership roles for six years.

Halelly earned a B.A. (cum laude) and an M.A. in Communication from the University of Maryland with a focus on training and development and intercultural/organizational communication. She holds professional certifications in the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), the Bar-On Emotional Quotient Inventory (EQ-i), the Apter Motivational Style Profile (AMSP), the Index of Emotional Intelligence, Development Dimensions, Inc. (DDI) training, Conner Partners’ Change Management methodology, and PDI’s Profilor 360° Assessment. In addition, Halelly is a certified Primal Health Coach and L1 USAW Weightlifting Coach.

In 2024, Halelly expanded her coaching offering to include Whole Life Optimization Coaching for high-achieving humans who want to be even more BADASS in life -- including wellbeing, health, and habits.

My story: Bridge-builder from an early age

My true passion is helping self-motivated and growth-oriented leaders identify and work from their strengths to produce leadership with an edge, giving their companies an advantage to grow talent. Just like my clients, I’ve explored ways to push through challenges by going outside my comfort zone, and I’ve made it my mission to help others optimize their skills and push to new levels of excellence in their work and life.

Learning to push out of my comfort zone started early in my life. In my early years, my family followed my father’s career opportunities and moved often. When I was twelve, my family moved across borders from a small farming community on the Mediterranean to Washington, DC. I grew up as an outsider, especially after this international move: a new land, a new language, new friends, and a new culture. I learned how to be a bridge-builder with diverse others while developing a comfort level with standing out from the crowd by being edgy and creating my own unique identity. This skillset helped me when I began pursuing leadership opportunities later in life.

My 25+ year career in workplace communication and leadership development started while working for Ruesch International, Inc., a Washington-based international financial services firm specializing in foreign exchange. In addition to growing and professionalizing its employee training programs, I helped this high-growth company transform its teams of newly promoted high-potentials into elite managers by creating a management training program and rolling it out company-wide.

This success led to an opportunity to focus on developing managers and leaders at the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) on a much bigger scale. At FINRA, my role was a Performance Consultant, where I provided internal leadership and team development consulting and coaching throughout the then 2,500 employee organization.

In 2006, two former co-workers mentioned they needed help in training and development and asked if I could recommend a good consultant. In that moment, I took the leap of faith and said …”Yes, it’s me!” and my company, TalentGrow LLC, was born. Since then, I’ve worked with dozens of organizations and thousands of leaders to grow their leadership talent.

Whether I’m developing leadership development programs for large consulting firms or helping a leader create a more cohesive team through team-building and coaching, I’m always looking for ways to add value to my clients. Along the way, I’ve also written two leadership development books and chapters in several others, presented at international conferences such as the ATD International Conference & Expo, launched a leadership development blog and podcast and worked with organizations such as Booz Allen Hamilton, PricewaterhouseCoopers, and The World Bank to name a few.

From both my personal and professional life experiences, I’ve leveraged my ability to build bridges as an insider/outsider to create real improvement in performance.