Johanna & Sami Sawalha
Born in Sweden, Johanna came to the United States a little over 20 years ago. She lived in New York up until last year. But San Antonio beckoned, and she moved here in June 2010 with her husband Ziad and their son Sami.
They bought their home at 140 Lavaca and quickly fell in love with San Antonio through Southtown, which — according to Johanna — is the best part or our city.
Johanna keeps busy! In addition to spending time with her family and building her career, she “loves to move”. She plays squash with Ziad, weight trains, runs, loves to dance, and practices yoga (she has a Jivamukti yoga certification).
Johanna belongs to a food group that meets and tries all the great fares of San Antonio, and a playgroup that gets the kids together. Her son Sami is almost two, and is a unique blend: half Swedish, a quarter French and a quarter Jordanian.
Johanna has a well-established career as a private and executive coach. In addition to over 15 years of coaching experience, she has founded and headed several companies. As a speaker and writer, she has led courses at the Learning Annex in New York City and worked as a columnist for Modern Economy. For the last seven years (and since the company’s inception), she has been both a Senior Vice President and Senior Executive Coach for the Handel Group (a New York based coaching firm that has an impressive “Who’s Who” list of clients such as MIT, AOL, Sony and the New York Times).
Johanna moved her coaching practice with her to San Antonio and is currently establishing it here and doing speaking engagements. In the past year, she has already established a steady client base of both private individuals as well as corporate accounts. Take a look at her web site to learn more about her practice, and check out her blog (it’s chock full of good advice!).
Johanna, Ziad and Sami occasionally come to the weekly La Frite Hapy Hour, so look for them there and say hello!
Originally published July 27, 2011 in the Lavaca & Friends Happy Hour update.