About Us
Who we are
Cedar, a global leadership consulting firm, specializes in serving the Office of the CEO. Working with CEOs, C-suite leaders, and Executive Operations teams, Cedar maximizes CEO and C-suite impact across top companies and organizations. The firm's services cover the entire CEO function, from hiring a Chief of Staff, to building the Office of the CEO, to implementing C-suite operating systems. Services include executive search, executive coaching and management consulting. Cedar provides deep expertise in CEO operating models, CEO data and analytics, and organizational development. Headquartered in New York, Cedar serves clients around the world.
Our mission
Thanks to technology, changing markets, and demanding investors, the C-suite job is tougher than ever. We help executives find freedom from blockers and busywork. Our mission is to help 1 million CEOs and their C-suite teams let go and do more of the things that matter.
Meet our team
Our team helps CEOs and C-suite executives become fast and fearless leaders at world-class companies and organizations.
Mackenzie Lee, CEO & Co-Founder
Mackenzie is the CEO & Founder of Cedar. He helps CEOs and their C-suite teams to let go and do more. He gives leaders the freedom to do things that matter.
Mackenzie fights C-suite distractions, busywork and blockers. He helps his clients to hire a Chief of Staff, build the Office of the CEO, and implement operating systems that turn executives into fast and fearless leaders.
As a former management consultant, startup founder and Chief of Staff, Mackenzie has almost two decades of experience partnering with C-suite to scale new heights, no matter what challenges they face.
Mackenzie has worked with leaders from Fortune 1000 companies, top scaleups, private equity-backed companies, and government organizations, with a particular focus on financial services, technology and healthcare industries. He’s advised executives at Google, Palantir, Citi, Optum and the Department of Energy among other top organizations.
Mackenzie is a sought-after speaker, researcher, and thought leader on all things related to leadership, Chief of Staff and the Office of the CEO. He is a graduate of the Stanford StartX accelerator, proud Stanford management science & engineering alum and Stanford public policy alum. Mackenzie now lives in New York City.
Linda Kraemer, Talent Partner
Linda is a Talent Partner at Cedar. She helps CEOs hire for key leadership roles, including Chiefs of Staff, Executive Assistants, and other C-suite leaders.
Previously, she worked at Russell Reynolds Associates for over a decade where she focused her efforts on recruiting Board Members and CEOs for Silicon Valley companies. Key clients included Logitech, Splunk, Informatica, and Zynga. Prior to this role, she was with McKinsey & Company for 25+ years as a Knowledge Manager for the eCommerce Practice and a founding member of the Silicon Valley office.
Linda is a graduate of Barnard College and also holds a Masters of Library Science from Columbia University. She resides in Palo Alto.
Ray Hertanto, Engagement Manager
Ray is an Engagement Manager at Cedar. He helps CEOs build strong Offices of the CEO and implement leadership operating systems.
Ray has over a decade of experience working in startups, large companies and consulting firms, with a particular focus on the energy sector. As a former McKinsey & Company consultant, he’s advised top firms and leadership teams with an emphasis on operational projects. Ray then worked in-house at Enbridge Inc. (NYSE: ENB, TSX: ENB.TO), the Canadian energy industry’s biggest firm by market capitalization, by partnering with C-suite on special projects, especially related to strategy and innovation.
Ray is a graduate of the Nanyang Technological University in Singapore and now resides in Calgary, Canada.
Stephen Buchanan, Engagement Manager
Stephen is an Engagement Manager at Cedar. He helps CEOs build world-class CEO Offices and implement systems for leadership teams.
Stephen is a seasoned consultant and advisor to C-suite leaders and Boards of Directors at Fortune 100 companies, leading NGOs, and industry associations. Stephen has a background in human capital, organizational design, and corporate strategy. He began his career in consulting at Quatt Associates, a boutique organizational design firm with a focus on C-suite compensation strategy. After business school, Stephen continued on as a corporate strategist at 3M (NYSE: MMM), a Fortune 500 company, by partnering with C-suite to deliver strategic special projects.
Stephen is a proud graduate of Darden’s School of Business at the University of Virginia, as well as the Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University. He lives in Philadelphia, PA.
Maria Andree Tobias, Growth Analyst
Maria is a Growth Analyst at Cedar. She helps CEOs hire top-notch Chiefs of Staff and build exceptional Offices of the CEO. She also supports Cedar’s Go-To-Market efforts, helping to build relationships with top executives across the world by delivering proprietary Cedar insights.
Maria is a former Executive Assistant and Program Manager, having partnered with executives from top Silicon Valley startups to help them save time and grow their companies faster. She is well-versed in the intricacies of the Office of the CEO and brings this domain knowledge to clients at Cedar.
Maria is a graduate of the SP Jain School of Global Management and currently resides in Quetzaltenango, Guatemala.
Raffi Freeman, Advisor
Raffi is an Advisor at Cedar, serving African private and public sector clients with a focus on infrastructure development.
Raffi is also Managing Partner at Izuba Energy, developing commercial and utility-scale renewable energy plants across Africa, focused on pioneering/first-of-a-kind projects. He also serves as advisor to a range of climatetech startups. He has 15 years of experience in scaling and commercializing industrial climatetech and robotics startups, and has been involved in 4 successful exits (3 IPO, 1 $100M acquisition).
Raffi holds a BA from Stanford University in Public Policy and conducted graduate work in International Policy Studies. He resides in Boston, MA.
Jared Sun, Advisor
Jared is an Advisor for Cedar, serving African private and public sector clients with a focus on private-public partnerships. He has over 15 years of experience in business consulting and management.
Jared is a practicing emergency physician and ex-McKinsey management consultant, and holds faculty positions at the University of Southern California and University of Cape Town. Prior work has included building African healthcare systems, projecting budgets for Africa CDC, and developing policies for the African Federation for Emergency Medicine.
Jared holds an MD from Yale School of Medicine, an MBA from Stanford Graduate School of Business, and a PhD from the University of Cape Town. He resides in Los Angeles, CA.
The Cedar advantage
There are a lot of leadership firms — but Cedar is unique. We focus on the Office of the CEO, we are thought leaders in Executive Operations, and we implement practical systems that drive change. Through passion, know-how, and speed, we roll up our sleeves to execute key CEO initiatives that transform your business or organization.