Common Thread Advisors launches to help organizations untangle complex change

New York, October 27, 2026 – Common Thread Advisors (Common Thread), a new independent consultancy, launched today to move organizations from strategic intent to commercial impact. Common Thread guides organizations through transformation and change by closing the gap between leadership strategy and human behavior—so change stops being something teams recover from and starts being something they build on.

Common Thread was co-founded and is being led by five industry leaders with decades of senior in-house and consultancy-side experience across business strategy, change management, digital and AI-enabled transformation, strategic communications and social investment. The team brings deep lived experience, having led its former consultancy firm KYNE through a multi-year, global integration and private equity-driven transformation. All five co-founders are Partners, with Wendy Woods-Williams serving as Managing Partner and David Kyne as Executive Chair.

• Wendy Woods-Williams — Managing Partner
• Maureen Byrne — Partner, Client Experience & Growth
• Michael Grela — Partner, Operations & Impact
• David Kyne — Partner, Executive Chair
• Julie O’Donnell — Partner, Strategy & Innovation

Organizations and their leaders are facing increasingly complex internal and external pressures and a rapidly evolving environment, requiring near-constant transformation to support innovation and growth. At the same time, technology and change often move faster than teams can absorb and cultures can evolve, causing the majority of transformations to ultimately fail in practice.

“One of the most important performance drivers in transformation strategy is whether the people who must deliver the change are not just briefed or trained, but truly with you. When organizations don’t fully invest in the human side of change, the result is often stalled adoption, lost productivity and strategies that never fully land, impacting the bottom line,” said Wendy Woods-Williams, Co-Founder and Managing Partner, Common Thread. “We built Common Thread to do things differently. Our team is senior from day one and 100% focused on change by design, allowing us to stay close to the work while being credible in the boardroom. We partner with clients to identify critical business drivers and develop approaches around them, helping organizations move through and benefit from change, faster.”

“After years moving in different directions, what felt like gravity pulled this team back together with a collective desire to create a new kind of firm—one that draws on our common experience navigating change and meets a growing need across industries and geographies,” said David Kyne, Co-Founder and Executive Chair, Common Thread. “We work with clients to identify and act on the common threads that connect teams and cultures, impacting their ability to achieve their goals and reach their commercial potential. We connect intent with execution and proof.”

Common Thread’s offering is built on decades of established change management, human behavior and communications research and models, and includes several interconnected service areas:

• Transformation and Change: Change is only successful when people truly understand it, trust it, and know what to do differently. Common Thread makes sure strategies land by building belief in the approach, the plan, and the people leading it.
• Leadership and Culture: Engaged and productive teams require trust in leadership and a set of values and a culture that live beyond the handbook. Common Thread helps protect and build leadership trust and shape the culture teams and strategies need to deliver.
• Social Performance and Impact: Societal value and impact are important business indicators but can be difficult to track. Common Thread helps prioritize and connect commitments to measures that impact reputation and the bottom line.

Common Thread’s unique approach is centered around four key conditions shaping change—clarity, agency, capacity and trust—helping quickly identify what matters most and prioritize efforts with the greatest impact. From friction and trust mapping to strategic leadership engagement, listening tours and manager sprints, Common Thread provides a comprehensive suite of transformation and change-related offerings, built to address each client’s specific needs. Clients often engage Common Thread during leadership transitions, business transformations, growth periods, mergers, acquisitions, restructurings, AI integrations and the rollout of new operating models and policies.

Common Thread works as an extension of client teams, operating inside live programs, close to the real decisions and trade-offs that determine whether change happens. Measurement is built into every engagement, connecting human factors to business outcomes and creating a consistent evidence base for ongoing improvement.

About Common Thread Advisors

Common Thread Advisors (Common Thread) is an independent consultancy that helps turn strategic intent into commercial impact. Too often, strategy sits apart from the people responsible for bringing it to life. Common Thread ensures transformation lands by bridging the gap between strategy and human behavior. We get people engaged, leaders empowered and strategies delivered in practice—so organizations can move through and benefit from change, faster. Across transformation and change, leadership and culture and social performance and impact, we connect intent with execution and proof. That’s complex change, untangled.

Common Thread is values- and purpose-driven. We’re committed to being a good corporate citizen and a best place to work by operating at the highest ethical standards, working with clients who share our philosophy and values and donating a percentage of future annual profits to causes impacting our communities.

To learn more, visit LinkedIn, Instagram and www.CommonThreadAdvisors.com.

Media Contact: Michael Grela, +1 917 670 2283, michael.grela@commonthreadadvisors.com

Frequently Asked Questions

What is Common Thread Advisors?

Common Thread Advisors is an independent advisory firm that helps organizations untangle complex change, moving them from strategic intent to commercial impact. It works where leadership strategy meets human behavior, making sure change is understood, trusted, and adopted so it holds in practice. Common Thread launched in October 2026 and works with clients across industries and geographies.

Who co-founded Common Thread Advisors?

Common Thread was founded in 2026 by five partners: Wendy Woods-Williams (Managing Partner), Maureen Byrne (Partner, Client Experience & Growth), Michael Grela (Partner, Operations & Impact), David Kyne (Partner, Executive Chair) and Julie O'Donnell (Partner, Strategy & Innovation). The team has worked together for more than a decade across strategy, transformation, communications, digital and AI-enabled change and social impact. Each partner leads a distinct area of the firm, drawing on that combined experience to guide clients through complex change.

What does Common Thread Advisors do?

Common Thread guides organizations through transformation and change by closing the gap between leadership strategy and human behavior. Its work spans three interconnected service areas: Transformation and Change, Leadership and Culture, and Social Performance and Impact. Common Thread provides custom offerings, including the CT Transformation Friction Map and CT Trust Debt Index, that pair human judgment with AI analysis: identifying friction points, measuring trust and mapping social commitments to what an organization can actually deliver.

Who does Common Thread Advisors work with?

Common Thread works with senior leaders and organizations facing high-stakes change — leadership transitions, business transformations, growth periods, mergers, acquisitions and restructures, AI integrations, and new operating models and policies. It works as an extension of client teams, operating inside live programs and close to the real decisions and trade-offs that decide whether change happens.

What makes Common Thread Advisors different?

Common Thread is senior from day one and fully focused on change by design — the team operates close to the work and is credible in the boardroom. Rather than treating change as a soft, people-only concern, Common Thread ties it to commercial outcomes and builds measurement into every engagement, connecting human factors to business results. Its tools are rigorously built, rapid to deploy, and customized to each client’s challenge.

Is Common Thread Advisors a communications agency?

No. Common Thread is a strategy and transformation advisory firm. While the founding partners have deep communications experience, Common Thread's work centers on the conditions that make change succeed or stall: clarity, agency, capacity and trust, not messaging or narrative.