Mariel Furlong (MBA ’13) joined the Darden Alumni Career services coaching staff in the spring of 2025. She began her career as a journalist, spending 5 years as a graphics reporter at National Geographic magazine before pursuing an MBA at Darden to make a pivot into strategy. After graduation, Mariel worked in management consulting and spent a decade at Google, where she held roles in corporate strategy, product marketing and as a chief of staff. Her perspective is grounded in experience that spans industries (tech, media, life sciences, non-profit), functions (corporate strategy, chief of staff, consulting, marketing) and levels of leadership.
You started your career in journalism before obtaining your Darden MBA and pivoting yourself to consulting and then Google. Recently, you went out on your own and founded an executive coaching business, Salamander Services. What led to those choices?
I adored my time at National Geographic. It was a uniquely special place—my colleagues had animal skulls in their offices, and I learned so much about nature, geopolitics and data visualization. While I was there, two disruptive innovations appeared on the horizon—digital tablets (Kindle, Nook, etc.) and making content available online.
These topics did not fall into my scope of decision making, but I found myself becoming curious about how a person makes those decisions, and what level of learning is needed to do so. I was fortunate to have a skip-level editor who gave me opportunities to contribute in small ways to this work. Those experiences pointed my feet to business school so that I could contribute to those kinds of conversations. Fun fact, that editor gave me a card when I received my first-ever promotion, with the words inside, “Thank you for doing so much more than following instructions.” I still have that framed on my desk to this day.
I joined Google after a grueling sprint in consulting, excited to contribute a small part to the hyper growth of Cloud. I now feel lucky to have spent a decade contributing to a variety of Google’s business areas and teams—B2B, B2C, software, hardware and a variety of functions. But after 10 years, I found myself increasingly gravitating toward coaching work I had begun in my spare time. The 1:1 and small-group nature of the work gave me a different sense of impact, and when my business unit offered a buy-out, I took it as a sign to take the leap. Interestingly, during my first week of work at Nat Geo, I learned that the magazine had offered a buy-out which was accepted by almost every person I had interviewed with. To leave Google in the same way feels like an interesting bookend.
The name Salamander Services was inspired by the “Salamander” mosaic in Antoni Gaudi’s Parc Guell. I find mosaics to be a great metaphor in coaching—small, seemingly-broken pieces of our lives and careers come together to make unexpected new works of art.
How did you get interested in career coaching?
During my time at Google, I was appointed Chief of Staff for a Vice President. What surprised me was how much of the role ended up centering on executive coaching, both for the leader I worked with and for members of my ~200-person team. The team jokingly referred to me as the team priest. I realized there was a spark there for me—I feel immense honor whenever I’m in a position to support someone in navigating a frightening or challenging situation.
What is your favorite aspect of coaching Darden alumni?
I have such immense gratitude to Darden for giving me a chance when I was a “nature magazine” artist and equipping me with the tools to transform into a strategist. Being able to coach Darden alumni feels like such a beautiful way to give back, and I love the privilege of championing their journeys.
What do you enjoy doing in your free time?
I have three young children, so much of my free time these days is spent doing arts and crafts, visiting local farms and repeating myself. 🙂 But when I get a breather, I love improv and stand-up comedy. My husband and I got to catch comedian Ben Schwartz’s improv show in Manhattan earlier this year and it was electric.
What are the top three tips you give for alumni who are looking for new roles?
- Don’t just jump in to applying to roles. Take the time to reflect on what you want and then begin the process through meaningful outreach to your network. These conversations enable you to learn about roles before they’re posted and create advocates for you within an organization.
- Make sure you deeply understand what a hiring manager’s needs are with a role, and tailor your story to highlight the relevancies.
- Keep the faith. Making a transition to a new role takes time.
If you would like to schedule a career coaching with Alumni Career Services, please send a request to alumnicareerservices@darden.virginia.edu.
