30 Years in the Room Where Transformation Happens

Shad McFadden has spent 30 years inside organizations going through change — first as a consultant, then from the inside, then leading it himself.

He started at Andersen Consulting (now Accenture) in 1994, later moving to PwC Consulting. From 2006 to 2011, he spent six years at Creative Artists Agency, a period that included CAA Sports integrating nine smaller agencies into the larger organization — the kind of work that teaches you how to bring people with very different ways of operating onto one team.

Shad spent four years as a DIRECTV Senior Business Analyst, then became IT Chief of Staff as AT&T completed its acquisition of DIRECTV in 2015. In that role, he led the DIRECTV NOW implementation across more than 30 departments, and was one of six people — alongside his boss, the head of IT Development for DIRECTV's product line, and four other IT leaders — who traveled to nine cities to bring incoming AT&T employees into the DIRECTV and DIRECTV NOW organization. Much of that work happened one conversation at a time, with people who had real reason to be uneasy: the less familiar someone was with DIRECTV's systems, the more exposed they felt. Getting the real story directly from the people living it — and keeping it in confidence — is still central to how Shad works. Across the large projects he's led since, he estimates 500 to 1,000 conversations like those.

Shad then moved into AT&T directly, where over five and a half years he was promoted three times — from Product Marketing Manager to Associate Director of Product Management to Senior Director of Competitive Intelligence and Product.

Shad founded 71 Consulting in August 2023. He holds the ICF Professional Certified Coach (PCC) credential — verified record — and was elected Chairman of the City of El Segundo's Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Committee, serving from 2020 to 2024.