Rebecca Bechtel
Manager of People College
Air Products

With 20 years at a large, multi-national corporation, Becky Bechtel’s experience focuses on the creation and implementation of global, inclusive leadership and management development programs; organizational culture change; the development of global teams; and career and performance management processes, systems and tools. Prior to this assignment, Bechtel was a senior organization development consultant, providing support to all aspects of Air Products’ businesses. She has co-authored two articles on change management, published in professional journals. Bechtel is a member of the American Society for Training and Development, and she holds a B.A. in social work from Cedar Crest College.

Herb Blanchard
Outsourcing Market Manager
The Training Associates

Herb Blanchard joined The Training Associates (TTA) in 2002 as a client development manager for key accounts in the central U.S. region, bringing with him 15 years of experience in human capital management. After the growth of that territory, he led the development of TTA's expansion into the training outsourcing market and its entry into professional skills training. Blanchard now is responsible for establishing and managing strategic learning partnerships with TTA’s major clients. Prior to TTA, he held management positions at leading staffing companies such as Modis Inc., Kforce and Tac Worldwide (American Crystal). He has his B.A. in communications.

Michelle Blieberg
Global Learning Officer
UBS

Michelle Blieberg, global learning officer of UBS’ investment bank, brings an entrepreneurial approach to developing learning programs for more than 20,000 employees around the world. In her current role, she has established learning as a strategic operation that’s recognized throughout the enterprise for its innovative and effective programs. These include ASCENT, a program to develop hundreds of high potentials through mentoring from company leaders, and SUMMIT, which builds leadership and collaboration skills among managing directors through creative and challenging mental exercises. In addition to her work at UBS, Blieberg has operated corporate learning at financial firms JP Morgan, Shearson Lehman, Charles Schwab and Moody’s during her career. She also has led two corporate universities.

Dennis Brown
Senior Director, Market Development, Co-Founder
SkillSoft

Dennis Brown is a co-founder of SkillSoft, where he began by establishing and managing strategic partnerships with worldwide course development companies and putting more than 200 SkillSoft courses into production. During the past 16 years, he has been published in trade publications and presented at hundreds of conventions and seminars on topics such as blended learning, e-learning for the knowledge economy, organizational effectiveness and the ROI of learning. Brown now focuses on establishing SkillSoft’s worldwide presence in the business and professional management computer-based training industry, offering more than 25 years of expertise in the sales and international marketing arenas. Prior to SkillSoft, he worked with NETg as the senior director of product development running the video studio until it closed. Brown has held positions as international product marketing manager for Sterling Software and international marketing manager for Pansophic Systems. He also has owned and run his own video production company.

Wesley Bull
President and Managing Director
Integrate HR LLC

Wesley Bull is the president and managing director of Integrate HR LLC, a management consulting firm based in Phoenix. Based upon his broad experience in financial services, Bull is sought out as an executive advisor on financial services, human resource management, due diligence and strategic planning matters for a variety of companies, investment banks and private equity firms. Prior to Integrate HR, Bull spent 17 years in the financial services sector. Bull is finalizing a book about the need for businesses to transform their human resource management function to remain competitive in the global marketplace, expected to be published in mid-2008. Bull completed his undergraduate studies in pre-law and finance at Wayne State University in Michigan and attended law school at the John F. Kennedy University School of Law in California. Additionally, Bull holds a master black belt certification in Six Sigma and completed specialized training in M&A Legal Due Diligence through the Practicing Law Institute.

Lisa Byrne
Leadership Development - Global Capabilities
GSK

Timothy R. Clark, Ph.D.
Author
Epic Change: How to Lead Change in the Global Age

Timothy R. Clark, Ph.D., is considered a world-class expert in the field of large-scale organizational change. At TR Clark Associates — a consulting and training organization that specializes in organizational change, leadership development and strategy — he spends much of his time advising clients who are undertaking major change projects such as mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, internal restructurings and culture change. He has worked with organizations such as Boeing, Ford, Deloitte, State Farm, Amgen and Intel. He also advises government agencies, educational institutions and nonprofit organizations. Clark is the author of the newly released book, EPIC CHANGE: How to Lead Change in the Global Age. He earned a doctorate degree in social science from Oxford University and was a Fulbright and British Research Scholar. He also earned a master’s degree from the University of Utah and a bachelor’s degree from Brigham Young University, where he was named a first-team Academic All-American football player.

John Clifford
Director
Telstra Learning Academy

John Clifford is director of the Telstra Learning Academy, a learning and development program that is training Telstra’s field workforce, wireless and network engineers, product managers, credit and billing consultants and operational support people. During his 13 years with Telstra, Clifford has held senior leadership roles in operations, IT and HR. Prior to joining Telstra, he worked in both the private and public sectors in operational and human resource leadership roles. Clifford has a master’s degree in commerce and post-graduate and undergraduate qualifications in employment relations, human resources and industrial relations. He is a fellow of the Australian Human Resources Institute.

Colin Crickmore
Senior Director
Accenture Learning BPO Services

Colin Crickmore is a senior director for Learning Business Process Outsourcing Services at Accenture. Colin has 19 years experience in client serving roles with Accenture in consulting and outsourcing. Building on his consulting background helping clients manage large-scale change, Crickmore has, for the past five years, focused on outsourcing work and delivering learning solutions on an enterprise-wide scale. He currently is responsible for delivering a set of global learning services to Unilever under a multi-year agreement.

Jay Cross
CEO
Internet Time Group

Jay Cross is a champion of informal learning, Web 2.0 and systems thinking. His calling is to help business people improve their performance on the job and satisfaction in life. He has challenged conventional wisdom about how adults learn since designing the first business degree program offered by the University of Phoenix three decades ago. Cross is the author of Informal Learning: Rediscovering the Natural Pathways that Inspire Innovation and Performance. Every day, thousands of people read his blogs, “Internet Time” and “Informal Learning Blog.” Cross is a graduate of Princeton University and Harvard Business School.

Mark Deans
Principal Learning Consultant
RWD Technologies

Mark Deans joined RWD Technologies in 2008. As a principal learning consultant at RWD, Deans maintains an expertise in learning industry trends, requirements of the modern "knowledge worker" and strategic business drivers that clients face on a daily basis. Deans works to design learning solutions that align with clients’ business requirements and maximize return on investment. Deans specializes in employee adoption, time to competency and on-the-job support learning solutions — all key factors in realizing corporate ROI goals in the business world. Prior to joining RWD, Deans led large-scale learning initiatives for Fortune 100 companies in the health care, specialty retail, insurance and banking industries.

Don Duquette
Senior Vice President
General Physics Learning Solutions Group

Don Duquette is responsible for General Physics’ global training outsourcing practice and has more than 25 years of workforce learning experience. His international consulting experience includes the full spectrum of learning: blended learning, learning strategies and corporate training governance. Prior to the merger of GP e-Learning Technologies Inc. with GP, Duquette was the chief operating officer of GP e-Learning Technologies Inc., and guided the day-to-day activities of the organization’s 125 professionals who developed and implemented e-learning solutions for Global 2000 corporations. Duquette holds a B.S. in mechanical engineering from The Johns Hopkins University and an executive MBA from Loyola College in Maryland. As a recognized authority on learning and corporate training strategies, he is a frequent presenter at industry conferences, a three-time Brandon Hall Excellence in Learning judge and was named as one of the industries most influential training professionals in 2007.

Michael E. Echols, Ph.D.
Executive Vice President, Strategic Initiatives
Bellevue University and Bellevue University's Human Capital Lab

An internationally known thought leader on evaluating and improving ROI on human capital, Dr. Michael E. Echols' three books on the subject are must-reads in CEO, COO and CLO suites around the globe. Named one of the “Top 20 Most Influential Training Professionals” in the United States by Training Industry Inc., Echols earned his bachelor's degree in physics from Carnegie Mellon University, his MBA from the University of Pittsburgh and his Ph.D. from the College of Business at the University of California, Berkeley. His thesis was in operations research and information process.

Fred Harburg
Managing Partner
Harburg Consulting

During more than two decades in the private sector, Fred Harburg has served as an organizational architect for Fortune 100 companies, including IBM, General Motors, Disney and AT&T. Harburg helped create the Saturn Corp. and led Motorola University as the chief learning officer and president. His work at Motorola was profiled in the November 2002 issue of Chief Learning Officer magazine. In 2003, he became senior vice president of leadership and learning at Fidelity Investments. In 2006, he established Harburg Consulting. Harburg received a master’s degree in business administration from the University of California, Los Angeles, and a bachelor’s degree from the U.S. Air Force Academy. He is a member of the editorial advisory board of Chief Learning Officer, a senior fellow for The Trinity Forum, a member of the education advisory board for Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University and is on the board of the Institute for Global Leadership at Tufts University.

Jeanette K. Harrison
Vice President
American Express Learning Network

Jeanette K. Harrison, DPA, is vice president of the American Express Learning Network. She leads her administration through performance support strategies and solutions to train all those who serve American Express’ customers. She is an elected board member of the American Society for Training and Development’s (ASTD) Public Policy Council, serving as the 2007-2008 council chair and as an examiner for ASTD’s annual Quality Awards. Harrison is a member of the American National Standards Institute’s (ANSI) committee on training, an organization charged with drafting international standards for the training and learning arena. In February 2005, Harrison joined American Express vice president of the Learning Network. Before American Express, she was employed at Intel, where she served as director of knowledge and learning, responsible for providing performance support strategies and solutions to manufacturing employees worldwide. Harrison holds a doctorate in public administration from the University of Southern California. She earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees from American University, Washington, D.C.

Felicia Haslom
Senior Director, National Accounts
Keller Center for Corporate Learning

Felicia Haslom is the senior director of national accounts at the Keller Center for Corporate Learning, which establishes partnerships with the top corporations in the U.S. Haslom has been with DeVry University for more than six years in various roles in corporate learning. She has delivered workshops on various topics in corporate training. Haslom holds a bachelor’s degree in speech communications from Valdosta State University and a master’s degree in business administration from Nova Southeastern University and is about to pursue a Ph.D. in organizational leadership.

Sam Herring
Executive Vice President
Intrepid Learning Solutions

Sam Herring leads Intrepid’s sales, solution architecture, marketing and account management functions. He is a member of ASTD’s Board of Directors and is recognized as a “Who’s Who” training industry thought leader by TrainingOutsourcing.com. Sam is a frequent speaker at leading industry conferences and seminars, where he speaks on topics ranging from designing effective corporate learning strategies to best practices in vendor selection and outsourcing. Herring holds a master’s degree from Harvard University, where he studied ethics, religion and workforce development, and a bachelor’s degree in history from Yale University.

Kathleen Jefferson
National Executive Consultant
AchieveGlobal

Kathleen Jefferson has more than 25 years of experience in global performance improvement. She partners with C-level executives to identify organizational business issues and develop interventions to improve performance. Jefferson’s expertise includes executive team building, coaching and mentoring; strategic planning; and leadership and management development. Previously, she was president of OPStrategies and executive vice president of retail at Provant. She has partnered with organizations such as Associated Bank, JPMorgan Chase, Citibank/Citigroup and Fannie Mae. Jefferson has a doctorate of philosophy in business administration and a Master of Science in administration and management, as well as a bachelor’s in behavioral and social sciences.

Norm Kamikow
President and Editor in Chief
MediaTec Publishing Inc.

Norm Kamikow is president and editor in chief of MediaTec Publishing Inc., which publishes Chief Learning Officer magazine,Talent Management magazine, Diversity Executive magazine and Certification magazine, along with targeted supplements, special reports and electronic newsletters for each publication. Chief Learning Officer was named "Best New Publication" by the American Society of Business Publication Editors (ASBPE). Norm also received the 2005 Innovation Award from Media Business Magazine, which honored him as Top Publisher of the Year.

Norm has more than 30 years of magazine and direct marketing publishing experience. Since beginning his career with Seventeen magazine, Norm has worked either directly or as a consultant to many consumer and business-to-business magazines. With a specialty in new magazine development, he has played a key role in the launch of OMNI magazine, SPIN magazine, Game Players magazine, CD-ROM Today, Internet World and Web Week. He contributed to the redesign of such magazines as Financial World and CD-ROM World. As president/CEO of Decks Inc., he worked with several major publishing companies to develop revenue resources from alternative media. This client base included BusinessWeek, Fortune, Money Magazine, Sports Illustrated, Esquire, The Journal of the American Dental Association and Dun & Bradstreet reports. Norm is a recipient of the Tempo Award from the Direct Marketing Association and is a biographee of Marquis Who's Who in the Midwest and Who's Who in Advertising and the Media.

Michael Kissida, Ph.D.
Associate Vice President for Global Mindset
Thunderbird School of Global Management

Dr. Michael Kissida has a passion for helping global executives succeed in their roles and achieve organizational goals through influencing people inside and outside their organizations and from different parts of the world. His organization, the Thunderbird School of Global Management, was ranked No. 1 in international business by the Wall Street Journal, U.S. News & World Report and The Financial Times. Dr. Kissida holds B.A., M.A., Ed.S. and Ph.D. degrees in social science, counseling psychology, education and social psychology. He has extensive international experience and is a recognized leader in his field.

Karen Kocher
CLO
CIGNA

At CIGNA, Karen Kocher is responsible for learning and development for employees and external stakeholders, such as producers, providers, members and population. Prior to becoming CLO, she was responsible for learning and development for CIGNA’s service operations organization. Kocher has more than 20 years experience managing learning organizations. She has had profit and loss responsibility for each educational organization she has managed and regularly is consulted regarding the strategies she uses to build and lead highly efficient, effective and profitable education enterprises and teams. Previously, Kocher worked at IBM, within Mindspan Solutions and Learning Services, and served as vice president of education for IKON. She also has served on a variety of boards and advisory groups, including the Telecommunications Industry Association Advisory Board and the Certified Network Professional Advisory Council. She often works with vendors, such as Microsoft and Lotus, on focus group initiatives.

Sailesh Lalla
Vice President of Business Development
NIIT CognitiveArts

Sailesh Lalla is the vice president of business development at NIIT CognitiveArts. He also leads the company’s learning outsourcing initiatives across corporate markets in North America and within key industry segments such as banking and insurance, automotive and retail. Lalla has been a part of NIIT’s learning outsourcing business for 15 years, and he has rich experience in forging and managing the governance of large-scale outsourcing relationships. Lalla also brings rich international expertise, having lived and worked on major learning outsourcing relationships in Singapore, Australia and India.

Faith LeGendre
Senior eLearning Consultant
Cisco WebEx

For more than 10 years, Faith Legendre has led organizations through learning strategies to business results excellence. She is an organization and training expert, virtual and in-person knowledge speaker, and a new technology and social networking enthusiast. Legendre eagerly shares her creative ideas on how electronic collaboration can benefit organizations internally and externally. She was awarded Trainer of the Year for 2008 by Training magazine. She held a position as vice president of training for many brands organizations, including those involving home decor, flowers and children’s toys. Legendre’s vision of “nibblet learning” helped to embed knowledge application into daily business practices, and during the past few years, she has been dubbed a social networking strategist.

Kevin J. Lisko
Director, PCIO Sales
Nationwide Insurance

Kevin J. Lisko is responsible for the Nationwide Insurance distribution channel customer experience strategy and for leading the associated change management to gain successful implementation of the strategy in more than 3,800 agencies across the country. Previously, he was responsible for helping the sales force develop business structure and practices within agencies, including financial, operational and organizational. Before Nationwide, Lisko worked for management consulting companies, including Robert E. Nolan, KPMG and Ward Financial. His responsibilities included working with organizations to develop business process recommendations, manage expense benchmarking studies and develop cost-benefit project recommendations.

Jeanne C. Meister
Founding Partner
Future Workplace

Jeanne C. Meister is an internationally recognized workplace learning consultant dedicated to delivering competitive advantage, innovation and improved business results for organizations. Meister is founding partner of Future Workplace, a consulting firm dedicated to assisting organizations in rethinking, re-imagining and reinventing the workplace. She was recently voted by her peers as one of the top 20 influential training professionals in the United States. Meister’s name is synonymous with the establishment and institutionalization of global corporate universities. She is the author of two books, Corporate Quality Universities and Corporate Universities, and the co-author of upcoming book The 2020 Workplace: How Innovative Companies Attract, Develop and Keep Tomorrow’s Employees Today. Meister has worked as a consultant with more than 200 organizations on launching, managing and reinventing a corporate university. She was previously vice president of market development at Accenture; prior to that, she was the CEO and founder of Corporate University Xchange. Meister is a graduate of the University of Connecticut and Boston University.

Jeffrey Mitchell
Executive Vice President and General Manager
H.O. Penn Machinery Co.

Jeffrey Mitchell joined H.O. Penn Machinery Co. — the Caterpillar dealer for Connecticut and southeastern New York — in 1987 and worked his way up through a variety of management roles before assuming the role of executive vice president in 1998. He has been the key individual responsible for the implementation of the Managing By Values process at H.O. Penn. The Managing By Values process — created by Dr. Michael O’Connor — completely transformed the culture and significantly improved the business results achieved at H.O. Penn during the past 13 years. In April 2007, H.O. Penn purchased Life Associates and the Center for Managing By Values. Mitchell, in addition to his EVP position, holds the role of president of this new subsidiary. He holds a bachelor’s degree in engineering from the University of Rhode Island and a master’s of business administration from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

Roger Nierenberg
Conductor
The Music Paradigm

Roger Nierenberg is the creator of The Music Paradigm. He has led sessions for more than 100 major corporations throughout the United States, Europe, Latin America and Asia, with more than 70 different orchestras. The Music Paradigm was the subject of a one-hour prime-time television broadcast on the British Broadcasting Corp.’s “Money Programme.” For 24 years, Nierenberg served as music director for the Stamford Symphony Orchestra in Connecticut, and for 14 years he directed the Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra in Florida. His guest conducting credits include many of the great American orchestras and opera companies, as well as major music festivals around the world. His recording with the London Philharmonic can be found on the Sony Classical label.

Mike Offerman, Ph.D.
Vice Chairman
Capella Education Co.

Mike Offerman served as president of Capella University from June 2001 through October 2007, when he became the vice chairman of Capella Education Co. He formerly was the dean of continuing education at the University of Wisconsin-Extension and founding executive director of the University of Wisconsin Learning Innovations Center. Learning Innovations supports all 15 UW institutions in the development, delivery and support of online degree programs. Dr. Offerman was the director of continuing education at UW-Stevens Point, director of extended university credit programs at the University of Arizona and assistant director of the Quad-Cities Graduate Study Center in Rock Island, Ill. He earned his undergraduate degree from the University of Iowa and his doctorate from Northern Illinois University.

Annette Pillar
Director of Learning Administration
ACS

Annette Pillar is director of learning administration for ACS, where she is responsible for the design, implementation and operation of innovative service solutions that support the delivery of training. Her scope includes years of experience honing best practices in the areas of facilities procurement and management, materials and instructor management, catalog management and learner care, resulting in a consistent high-quality learning experience. She is also responsible for the delivery of training for Ernst & Young’s U.S. organization — Ernst & Young outsourced all U.S. training, including content design and development, learning management system hosting and delivery administration to ACS. For the past three years, Training magazine has recognized Ernst & Young as a top-10 leader in overall corporate training.

Mal Poulin
Enterprise Market Director
RWD Technologies

Mal Poulin, RWD Technologies enterprise market director, has been in the corporate learning and performance field for more than 27 years. Poulin’s roles have ranged from technical classroom instruction to global business development management. Poulin spent nine years as business development manager in SAP Education, where he worked extensively with customers and the Americas’ SAP Users’ Group to assess business needs and trends. The results have been new and different ways to address these needs and support companies in their mission of optimizing employee performance across the enterprise. For the preceding 16 years, Poulin worked at Digital Equipment Corp., teaching, managing and developing many levels of business technology education.

Rebecca Lea Ray, Ph.D.
Senior Vice President, Global Talent Management and Development, Global Human Resources
MasterCard Worldwide

Rebecca L. Ray, Ph.D., leads the global team responsible for employee training and development under the banner of MasterCard University. She also is responsible for management and leadership development, executive coaching and mentoring, organizational development, employee engagement, performance management and succession management for MasterCard Worldwide. Previously, Ray held positions at Comcast, American Skandia, Prudential and Merrill Lynch. She serves on the Editorial Advisory Board for Training and Chief Learning Officer magazines and on the Advisory Board for the Executive Program in Work-Based Learning Leadership at the University of Pennsylvania. She holds a doctorate from New York University, where she taught as an adjunct professor for many years.

Charles Rosenblum
Executive Coach
Rosenblum Associates

Chuck Rosenblum specializes in coaching and consulting with senior managers who require change in their personal performance and organizational results. In his 30 years in the corporate world, he has coached executives who require strong leadership, critical team building, creative strategic planning and persuasive communication skills. Rosenblum has a long-standing reputation as a sincere, creative and trusted consultant to senior management. His career as a human resources generalist and human capital specialist includes establishing large-scale organizational startups, institutionalizing widely accepted performance management systems, developing long-lasting recruiting and retention strategies, and introducing innovative learning and development applications. Rosenblum’s key coaching strength lies in his ability to create a “stretch mindset” among his clients, which enables successful senior managers to engage in growth goal setting previously considered unattainable. Rosenblum holds a B.S. in business administration from the University of Maryland and an M.A. in human resource development from the George Washington University.  He is certified through the Professional Coaching Program of The Bricklin School of Business and Baruch College.

Gabriella Salvatore
Managing Director
Vantage Corporate Education

Prior to her current role, Gabriella Salvatore acted as a director in Corporate Education and, prior to that, as a trainer and consultant. She recently was named one of Training magazine’s Young Trainers of 2008. Before joining Vantage Partners, Salvatore was a facilitator at AT&T, where she provided intervention and coaching while advising on conflict management. She has designed and delivered workshops focused on improving individuals’ skills in negotiation, communication and relationship management. Salvatore holds a bachelor’s degree from Cornell University and a master’s degree in psychotherapy from Lesley University. Her graduate work focused on innovations in corporate team-building programs.

Karen Scott
Senior Manager, Human Resources Education Department
Allstate Insurance Co.

Karen Scott is the senior manager of the human resources education department at Allstate Insurance Co. She has more than 20 years of experience in consulting, design, development, delivery and management of learning solutions. Scott has worked with Allstate Insurance Co., in Northbrook, Ill., for the past 12 years in various capacities, and she leads learning strategy for Allstate’s learning and organization effectiveness team. Before Allstate, she worked for three major telecommunications companies and in private consulting. Scott holds bachelor’s degrees in English and education and a master’s degree in business administration. She is also the president of the Society of Insurance Trainers and Educators, a nonprofit for learning professionals within the insurance industry.

Thomas J. Starr
Principal
Booz Allen Hamilton

Tom Starr leads the firm’s learning and employee development consulting practice in the commercial market sector. He has more than 20 years of experience in organizational learning and workforce education and is experienced in corporate university and curriculum design and the application of technology to learning development, delivery and management. Prior to Booz Allen, Starr was responsible for launching the learning solutions business of Convergys Corp. He also has held management and consulting positions with Wilson Learning Corp. and Ford Motor Co. He has a bachelor’s degree in English from the University of Delaware and an MBA from the Fuqua School of Business at Duke University.

Pete Thedinga
Senior Vice President and Learning and Leadership Development Executive
Bank of America Card Services

Pete Thedinga is senior vice president and learning and leadership development executive for Bank of America Card Services, where he is responsible for the strategy, tactics and processes for developing, retaining and growing the talent and leadership within the organization. Thedinga joined Bank of America in 2001 as a leadership development client manager in global corporate and investment banking. He was promoted to senior vice president and head of talent planning for global corporate and investment banking in early 2002. He was appointed client manager for customer service and support in early 2003 and added the risk operations group to his duties later that year. In December 2005, he was appointed the learning and leadership development executive for the newly formed Global Card Services business as a result of the $35 billion acquisition of MBNA. Thedinga did his undergraduate work in psychology and management at The Citadel, and he was awarded a master’s degree in industrial/organizational psychology from the University of New Haven.

Andrea Turner
Sales Director
The Training Associates

Andrea Turner joined The Training Associates (TTA) in 1999 and began a successful sales career culminating in her role as sales director. She is responsible for recruiting, developing and managing TTA’s national sales team and for the overall coordination and leadership of all sales activities to meet the needs of TTA customers and the objectives of TTA’s business plans and strategies. Turner’s vast knowledge of market and industry trends, all learning modalities and leading customer strategies has enabled her to develop turnkey solutions that are utilized nationwide to manage large training implementations.

Kathy Uroda
Vice President of Executive Education
Lore International Institute

Kathy Uroda specializes in leadership development with an emphasis on behavioral change, especially in the area of influence. Having worked with clients worldwide, Kathy has firsthand experience developing the skills and attitudes necessary to influence others effectively in a global, multicultural environment. A top-rated facilitator and executive coach, Kathy has led workshops for hundreds of global organizations such as Avaya, Microsoft, Bechtel and Pfizer.

Andrew Waller
Leadership Development Director
Unilever

Andrew Waller joined Unilever in 1990 and has held a range of corporate roles encompassing R&D, strategy and technology and HR. In 2003, Waller returned to the corporate center as senior learning manager with specific responsibility for one of the key leadership development programs. This role expanded to include responsibility for the global leadership development portfolio and the design and development of the Unilever Leadership Program. In 2006, Waller moved to become head of learning for Unilever’s European business. In October 2007, he returned once again to the corporate center to assume global responsibility for learning and performance management.

Edie Weiner
Author
Future Think: How to Think Clearly in a Time of Change

Edie Weiner is president of Weiner, Edrich, Brown Inc., a leading futurist consulting group. Formed in 1977, the organization has served more than 300 clients, helping identify opportunities in marketing, product development, strategic planning, investments, human resources, public affairs and advertising. Weiner has been involved in issues analysis and strategic planning for more than 30 years, having directed the Trend Analysis Program of the American Council of Life Insurance, the first industrywide futures research program. She is acknowledged as one of the most influential practitioners of social, technological, political and economic intelligence gathering. Weiner was the youngest outside woman ever elected to the board of directors of a major financial institution when, at 29, she joined the board of Union Mutual Life Insurance Co. (now UNUM Provident Corp.) in 1978. She has been a guest lecturer at Harvard, Brown and many other universities, and her articles have appeared in numerous publications. Weiner has co-authored three books with her partner, Arnold Brown: “Supermanaging,” “Office Biology” and “Insider’s Guide to the Future.” She is working on a fourth book.

R. John Welsh, Jr.
Vice President
Allen Interactions

R. John Welsh Jr. is responsible for leading the business development effort and driving the performance and innovation for Allen Interactions. As an accomplished senior executive with more than 20 years of expertise with designing organizational performance, Welsh has worked with hundreds of Fortune 500 organizations delivering behavior-changing strategic consulting services. With his extensive experience solving complex issues with C-level executives, he has achieved a successful track record of exceeding corporate revenue and profit goals. In addition to earning a Bachelor of Arts in accounting from St. John's University, Welsh holds master's degrees in business administration and international management from the University of St. Thomas, and he is currently working toward his Ph.D. in organizational leadership at Capella University.