Short Bio

Early in my career, I was navigating more than just corporate deadlines. Freshly divorced from an abusive marriage, I found myself rebuilding my personal foundation at the same time I was helping organizations rebuild theirs. On the outside, I was thriving, leading change strategies, guiding leaders through disruption, and driving transformation forward.

But behind closed doors, the reality was different. I was learning resilience not from textbooks or frameworks, but from survival. Every setback demanded reinvention. Every challenge demanded strength I didn’t yet know I had.

What I didn’t realize then was that those two worlds, personal resilience and organizational transformation, were preparing me for something bigger. I began to see the patterns: change doesn’t fail because of process; it fails because people aren’t fit to navigate the emotional side of disruption.

That realization became the foundation of my Change Fitness Mastery™ Framework. Instead of treating change as a checklist, I built a revolutionary approach that strengthens resilience, builds capability, and turns emotion into measurable results.

Today, I help leaders and teams do what I had to learn the hard way: turn adversity into advantage and get fit for change. Through a practical, structured, and repeatable framework, I show organizations how to not only manage disruption but master it.

Because thriving in change isn’t just about surviving the storm.

It’s about building the fitness to rise stronger because of it.

Long bio

With a commanding presence built on both corporate expertise and hard-won resilience, Brenda Petrillo is redefining what it means to thrive through disruption. As a leading voice on Change Fitness Mastery™, she equips leaders and organizations to not only manage transformation, but to build the emotional fitness, resilience, and capability required to sustain it.

Early in her career, Brenda was balancing more than deadlines and deliverables. Freshly divorced from an abusive marriage, she was rebuilding her personal foundation while helping organizations rebuild theirs. What she discovered through lived experience is now the core of her message: successful transformation isn’t just about process; it’s about people and their fitness for change.

For more than two decades, Brenda has partnered with executives and leadership teams to deliver enterprise-wide transformations spanning finance, HR, procurement, operations, and technology. She knows firsthand that while systems and strategies set the stage, it is human adaptability, resilience, and engagement that determine whether change fails or flourishes.

Brenda created the Change Fitness Mastery™ Framework, a groundbreaking model that equips leaders and teams to transform adversity into advantage. Her approach helps organizations disrupt “change as usual” by building cultures where employees don’t just survive disruption, they thrive through change.

Brenda’s client impact spans Fortune 200 and 500 companies as well as global organizations navigating multi-million-dollar transformations and enterprise technology shifts. She brings an unparalleled combination of corporate savvy, entrepreneurial spirit, and deeply human connection to every room she steps into..

Why Brenda Petrillo?

Resilience in Action: Brenda’s journey through tragedy, loss, and divorce isn’t just a personal story; it’s the foundation of a methodology that helps organizations thrive in the face of disruption. Just as she rebuilt stronger after every setback, she equips leaders and teams with the same skills: to adapt quickly, bounce back from challenges, and transform disruption into measurable progress. Her lived resilience becomes a blueprint for building organizational strength, adaptability, and long-term success.

Corporate Savvy + Change Leadership Expertise: With over two decades of leading enterprise-wide transformations across industries, Brenda speaks the language of executives and employees alike. Having guided organizations through enterprise-wide transformations, spanning finance, HR, procurement, operations, and technology, she knows how to balance strategy and systems with the human side of change. Her pragmatic, results-driven approach transforms abstract concepts, such as resilience and mindset, into practical, actionable solutions that deliver measurable business outcomes.

AI Change Management Specialist: As artificial intelligence reshapes the workplace, Brenda is at the forefront of preparing organizations to succeed. With certifications from ASU’s Artificial Intelligence for Business Leaders and LinkedIn Learning’s AI Skills for Change and Business Management, she integrates AI-readiness into the Change Fitness Mastery™ Framework. From job redesign and workforce upskilling to building employees’ AI high-value capability muscles, she helps leaders future-proof their organizations by making them fit for continuous transformation.

The Change Fitness Mastery™ Framework: A practical, repeatable model that makes disruption less about fear and resistance, and more about capability, opportunity, and reinvention.

Practical, Not Woo: Brenda strikes the balance between acknowledging the emotions that fuel resistance without drifting into theory or fluff. Her methods are grounded, actionable, and proven to deliver measurable results.

Magnetic Energy + Relatable Voice: Brenda lights up every room she walks into. She combines executive-level insight with an approachable, empowering presence that resonates from the C-suite to the front line.

Perfect-Fit Customization: Brenda partners with every client to deeply understand their unique change challenges, culture, and leadership dynamics. By tailoring the Change Fitness Mastery™ Framework to each organization, she ensures strategies resonate at every level, empowering leaders and teams to apply them immediately and achieve lasting results.

Through her consulting, executive coaching, and speaking, Brenda delivers a powerful truth:

Thriving in change isn’t about surviving the storm; it’s about building the fitness to master it.