Grace Ueng

Grace Ueng is an entrepreneur, leadership coach, and management consultant whose career spans more than three decades at the intersection of business strategy and human performance. Ueng began her career at Bain & Company and later held consumer marketing and brand management roles at Fortune 500 companies including Time Inc., General Mills, and Clorox. She earned her MBA from Harvard Business School after being recognized as one of Glamour's Top 10 College Women during her time at MIT. Before founding her own firm, Ueng served on management teams for five consumer and enterprise software companies, each of which achieved exits via public offerings or acquisition. She has also served as adjunct faculty, teaching entrepreneurial marketing in the MBA program at Kenan-Flagler Business School and in an international MBA program at Fudan University in Shanghai, a joint venture with MIT Sloan School.

Ueng is the founder and CEO of Savvy Growth, a firm dedicated to helping leaders and their companies achieve business success. She is recognized as an expert in marketing strategy and management consulting, working with clients ranging from emerging growth companies to the Fortune 1000. Founded as Savvy Marketing Group, her firm has expanded to offer executive coaching services and programs such as HappinessWorks, PersonalBrandWorks, and SpeakingWorks. Ueng has spent her career coaching leaders to build stronger businesses by first fostering healthier mindsets. She is also an expert on integrating the science of happiness and well-being into organizational performance.

Ueng's journey from MIT-trained engineer to executive led her to become a leadership coach and creator of HappinessWorks, a program rooted in positive psychology and behavioral science. She delivers her keynote, "HappinessWorks," introducing research-based concepts and actionable keys to experiencing happiness, helping audiences sustain engagement at work and in life. Ueng is the author of "Happiness@Work" and teaches audiences worldwide how to elevate engagement and performance. In addition to corporate settings and company retreats, she designs and delivers programs for young people and colleges.

Ueng's commitment to the science of happiness is informed by personal experience. Facing a genetic predisposition toward depression, she studied positive psychology, finding the research instrumental in her development as a leadership coach. During the COVID pandemic, after experiencing compounded grief, she navigated a depressive episode and now openly discusses her mental health challenges as part of her public mission. Ueng has delivered a TEDx Talk on entrepreneurship, fear, and the parallels between climbing the Seven Summits and building a start-up.

A published author and keynote speaker, Ueng has been named one of the Top 8 Asian-American Women of Influence by Audrey magazine. She serves on the board of International Women's Forum Carolinas and the Harvard Alumni Association of Research Triangle, and is an advisor to the Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship. Ueng is a regular contributor to WRAL TechWire, where she writes the "Happiness & Leadership@Work" column. Her combination of academic credentials, business experience, and insights into resilience and well-being positions her as a resource for leaders and organizations seeking to improve performance and workplace culture.