Lindsey Zajac

Lindsey A. Zajac is CEO at Ascendant. In this role, Lindsey is able to leverage her passion for leadership development and coaching to help organizations develop and retain their employees while improving their overall performance.

Before CPIBN, Lindsey spent fifteen years in corporate Human Resources roles in fast-paced organizations, including PepsiCo, Eaton Corporation, Saab Sensis, and Next Jump. Training and Development, Talent Management, Employee Relations, Recruiting, and Strategic Planning are Lindsey’s areas of expertise. 

At PepsiCo, Lindsey was a Senior Human Resources Manager supporting the largest market in the country, Upstate NY.  In this role, Lindsey was responsible for providing Human Resources support for 1,100 union & non-union frontline associates and managers across nine locations.

Lindsey co-led the quarterly “Getting Started as a New Supervisor” training for the entire Northeast Region, training close to one hundred new Supervisors each year. In addition, she helped develop new training content that was later incorporated into the Frontline Leader Excellence Training curriculum used by all Managers across PepsiCo nationwide. Lindsey is a proud recipient of PepsiCo’s most prestigious “You Excel” Award and multiple “Way to Go” Awards for delivering exceptional results.

Then In 2018, Lindsey decided to join Ahern, Murphy & Associates, a Leadership and Organizational Development firm based in Syracuse, where her father is a co-founder. Here, she leveraged her passion for leadership development and coaching to help organizations develop and retain their employees while improving their overall performance.

With all of that said, Lindsey is well aware that life is not just about work, but also that the two are inextricably linked. As a mother of two small children – Delania and Drew – Lindsey knows first-hand how difficult it is to juggle your family and your career. She has directly experienced work environments with a stark lack of women in senior leadership roles and believes that career women today need a heightened level of support and resources to advance into leadership positions and be successful both at work and at home. All of this inspired her to get a coaching certification in Women’s Leadership. She also holds an Advanced Coaching Certification from the Gaia Project for Women’s Leadership as well as an Executive Leadership Certificate from Cornell University.

Lindsey’s areas of expertise are Leadership Development, Talent Management and Career Development but you’ll see quickly she’s involved in much more than that. Since 2020, she has served on the Board of the Buffalo Niagara Sales and Marketing Executives (BNSME). She was a facilitator of the Leader Exchange program with the Buffalo Niagara Partnership for three years as well as the facilitator of the Master Advisory Group at the Women’s Business Center at Canisius College. Lindsey is an authorized Everything DiSC partner and uses the assessments as a way to improve the leadership capabilities of her clients.

Lindsey considers her superpower to be a combination of her ability to read people and her strong work ethic, a suspicion strongly backed up by her accolades and experiences. What she loves most about Buffalo are the people – and, of course, the Bills! Outside of the office, Lindsey can be found enjoying Buffalo’s great restaurants with her husband John, embracing her inner foodie and tasting her favorite Napa Cabernets before taking the latest show at Shea’s.

Education & Credentials

• B.A. Political Science, Minor in Women’s Studies, Providence College
• Advanced Coaching Certification in Women’s Leadership
• Executive Leadership Certificate, Cornell University

Areas Of Experience

• Leadership & Team Development
• Performance Management