WHERE BUSINESS STRATEGY MEETS IMPROVISATION

Holly Mandel serves as the CEO of iMERGENCE (est. 2011), where she fuses high-level business strategy with elite improvisational training to transform how people show up at work. She operates at the intersection of psychology, leadership, and embodied communication — translating human dynamics into practical, measurable growth.

THE GROUNDLINGS. YES, THAT GROUNDLINGS.

Holly trained at the world-renowned Groundlings Theatre in Los Angeles — the institution that shaped generations of top television and film performers. She later founded and led the longest-running improv school in New York City, also the first and only female-founded improv school of its kind. She currently serves as a respected professor at Pace University in Manhattan.

This is not surface-level facilitation. This is mastery of human behavior in motion.

PSYCHOLOGY + SYSTEMS THINKING + REAL-WORLD APPLICATION

With degrees in Psychology and Sociology from UCLA, Holly studied organizational development, collective creativity, and leadership through Integral Theory, Holacracy, Spiral Dynamics, and EpiEnergetics.

She understands how systems work.
She understands how people work inside them.
And she knows how to evolve both.

INSIDE CORPORATE. INSIDE CREATIVE.

Before founding iMERGENCE, Holly worked within Disney Pictures, FX Networks, ABC Television, Comedy Central, and in advertising as a freelance writer/producer.

She has lived inside corporate culture.
She has created inside high-performance creative environments.

That dual fluency is why her programs land.

SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE ENERGY. BOARDROOM EXECUTION.

Holly has worked alongside performers such as Will Ferrell, Kristen Wiig, and Melissa McCarthy, emerging from the same elite improv ecosystem that shaped many Saturday Night Live cast members.

She brings that same level of rigor, timing, presence, and sharp perception into the corporate world — translating it into leadership presence, adaptability, and confidence.

FORTUNE 500 TRUST

Her clients include IBM, GE, Walt Disney Studios, Apple, and global organizations across industries.

Whether partnering with a multinational enterprise or a fast-scaling startup, Holly personally designs each bespoke iMERGENCE program to ensure it is strategic, relevant, and transformational.

GOOD GIRLS AREN’T CEOs

She is also the creator of Good Girls Aren’t CEOs, a women’s leadership, confidence, and creativity program presented at Ogilvy, Skadden, Princeton University, and the Grace Hopper Celebration at AnitaB.org — helping women unlearn cultural conditioning and lead from instinct, authority, and bold self-trust.

As a Corporate Trainer and Director of Partnerships & Events, Sarah designs programs for and facilitate workshops for clients such as Capital One, Louis Vuitton, Genentech, Spotify, Pricewaterhouse Coopers, Yale University, Deloitte and many more.

Her favorite part of bringing improv into the office is watching the shift that happens from the beginning of the session to the end. Colleagues go from, “ugh, I don’t want to do another dumb team building workshop…to holy $h*t, this was AWESOME!”

She attributes the transformation to what she’s dubbed the ‘kale inside the brownie’ approach; improv teaches the tools you need to kick a$$ at work (kale) AND is super fun (brownie) at the same time!