Global Gurus

Regarded by many as the authority on organizational culture change and leadership, John P. Kotter is a New York Times best-selling author, award winning business and change management thought leader, business entrepreneur, inspirational speaker and Harvard Professor. His ideas, books, speeches, and company, Kotter International, have helped mobilize people around the world to better lead organizational cultures, and their own lives, in an era of increasingly rapid change. Professor Kotter’s MIT and Harvard education laid the foundation for his life long passion for educating, motivating and helping people. He became a member of the Harvard Business School faculty in 1972. By 1980, at the age of 33, Kotter was given tenure and a full Professorship – the youngest person ever to have received that award at the Business School. Over the past thirty years, his articles in The Harvard Business Review have sold more reprints than any of the hundreds of distinguished authors who have written for that publication during that time period. Most recently, his HBR article “Accelerate!”, won the 2012 McKinsey Award for the world’s most practical and groundbreaking thinking in the business/management arena. Today, he continues to deliver seminars on organizational culture in Harvard Business School’s Executive Education Programs, which are sometimes regarded as life changing by his students. Kotter’s research and pursuits in education, business and writing over the past 35 years have earned the respect of his peers, helped transform organizations around the world, touched countless lives, and still inspires others to adopt his methods and spread the word. He continues to work tirelessly to achieve the goal of “millions leading, billions benefiting”.

Edgar H. Schein is Professor of Management at M.I.T. and is considered one of the a ‘founders’ of organisational psychology. Edgar H. Schein is currently a Sloan Fellows Professor of Management Emeritus and continues at the Sloan School part time as a Senior Lecturer. He is also the Founding Editor of “Reflections” the Journal of the Society for Organizational Learning devoted to connecting academics, consultants, and practitioners around the issues of knowledge creation, dissemination and utilization. He has had a notable mark on the field of organizational culture development in many areas, including career development, group process consultation, and organizational culture. Schein has been a prolific researcher, writer, teacher and consultant. Besides his numerous articles in professional journals he has authored fourteen books including Organizational Psychology. He is generally credited with inventing the term ‘Corporate Culture’. Edgar H. Schein, Ph.D., received his undergraduate education at the University of Chicago and Stanford. His Ph.D. (1952) is from Harvard’s Department of Social Relations where he majored in social psychology but was heavily influenced by clinical psychology, sociology and anthropology. After four years of work at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research in David Rioch’s Department of Neuropsychiatry, he moved to MIT’s Sloan School where he is now Sloan Fellows Professor of Management Emeritus. His early research on the “brainwashing” of Korean prisoners of war was published in Coercive Persuasion (1961). Subsequently, he worked on organizational socialization and career development (Career Dynamics, 1978) and organizational culture (Organizational Culture and Leadership (third edition, 2004). He wrote one of the first textbooks on Organizational Psychology (1965), now in its third edition, developed the concept of Process Consultation (revised edition in 1999), and recently published a third edition of Career Anchors and Job/Role Planning, (2006). His latest book is Helping (2009).

Recognized as one of the 50 leading business thinkers in the world. Whitney Johnson is an expert on disruptive innovation and personal disruption; specifically, a framework which she codifies in the critically acclaimed book Disrupt Yourself: Putting the Power of Disruptive Innovation to Work and in her latest book Build an “A” Team: Play To Their Strengths and Lead Them Up the Learning Curve. (Harvard Business Press, 2018). She is also the author of Dare, Dream, Do: Remarkable Things Happen When You Dare to Dream

She developed her proprietary framework and diagnostics after having cofounded the Disruptive Innovation Fund with Harvard Business School’s Clayton Christensen. This framework is complemented by a deep understanding of how executives create and destroy value, having spent nearly a decade as an Institutional Investor ranked equity analyst on Wall Street.

In addition to her work as a speaker and advisor, Whitney is one of Marshall Goldsmith’s original cohort of 25 for the #100 Coaches Project, is a coach for Harvard Business School’s Executive Education program, frequent contributor to the Harvard Business Review, is a Linkedin influencer, and hosts the weekly Disrupt Yourself Podcast.

Professor Geert Hofstede conducted one of the most comprehensive studies of how values in the workplace are influenced by organizational culture. Through the publication of his scholarly book Culture’s Consequences (1980, new edition 2001), Geert Hofstede (1928) became the founder of comparative intercultural research. His most popular book, Cultures and Organizations: Software of the Mind (1991, newest edition 2010, co-authored with Gert Jan Hofstede and Michael Minkov), has so far been translated into approximately 20 languages. Geert Hofstede’s organizational culture articles have been published in social science and management journals around the world. He is recognised internationally for having developed the first empirical model of “dimensions“ of national culture, thus establishing a new paradigm for taking account of cultural elements in international economics, communication and cooperation. Later, he also developed a model for organisational cultures. Through his varied and numerous academic and cultural activities in many different countries, Hofstede can be regarded as one of the leading representatives of intercultural research and studies. The findings of his research and his theoretical ideas are used worldwide in both psychology and management studies.

S. Chris Edmonds is the founder and CEO of the Purposeful Culture Group. After a 15-year career leading and managing teams, Chris began his consulting company in 1990. Since 1995, he has also served as a senior consultant with the Ken Blanchard Companies.

Over the years Chris has worked for clients in industries including automotive, banking and financial services, government, hospitality, insurance, manufacturing, non-profit, retail, sales, pharmaceutical, software, and technology.

Chris has helped clients consistently boost customer satisfaction and employee engagement by 40 percent each and results and profits by 35 percent.

Chris is the author or co-author of seven books, including two Amazon best sellers – his latest book, The Culture Engine, and Leading At A Higher Level with Ken Blanchard.

Chris has delivered over 5,000 presentations to rave reviews from audiences as large as 5,000. Chris is one of Inc. magazine’s “100 Great Leadership Speakers,” Recruiter.com’s “10 Corporate Culture Experts You Need to Pay Attention To,” and Richtopia’s “Top 200 Influential Authors.”

He received his master’s degree from the University of San Francisco in Human Resource and Organizational Development. He is a professional member of the National Speakers Association.

Chris is an accomplished musician, performer, and ASCAP songwriter. He provides guitars, banjo, mandolin, and vocals for Graystone Records recording artist, the Brian Raine band. Two singles from the band’s 2009 debut album made the Billboard country charts.

Arthur Carmazzi has made his biggest impact with his Directive Communication Psychology, a group dynamics discipline used in rapid organizational culture change and leadership development. His research and contributions to the leadership development community got full marks for uniqueness including his Environmental (Culture Based) Leadership model, his Coloured Brain Communication model and various psychology based leadership development tools. The models and tools Arthur Carmazzi combined into the Directive Communication system has helped Hundreds of organizations in 16 different countries recreate a positive and sustainable organizational culture. His Culture Revolution Model has a 100% success rate and his guarantees results. In the Organizational culture and leadership training sphere, Arthur Carmazzi’s DC certified licensed trainers, culture change consultants and his personal involvement have transformed workforces in 52 different countries. Arthur has written seven books, two of those are international bestsellers and are available in most Asian Languages. The foundational philosophy of Arthur Carmazzi is that there is no one leadership model that fits everyone and by understanding how we affect and are affected by others in multiple environments, we can make small modifications to create our own personal leadership identity model to have a bigger more sustainable impact. As a speaker he is dynamic, energetic and inspirational. Arthur Carmazzi is well known in Asia and the Middle East.

Louis Carter is an organization psychologist and one of the top consultants and executive coaches to C-level executives of major companies such as Kimberly Clark, Federal Reserve Bank of NY, Saudi Aramco, Duke Energy, Humana, Shire, Jazz Pharmaceuticals, Key Bank, QBE, Cigna, Nokia, AbbVie, Johnson & Johnson, WestRock, Gilead Sciences, Battelle, Madison Square Garden, CIT, Goodyear, Springfield Healthcare Clinic, Xenex Disinfection Systems and many more helping them transform themselves and their organizations into an environment where employees love and want to produce the best results for their company.

He is the author of over 10 books on best practices in leadership development and talent management including Change Champion’s Field Guide, Best Practices in Leadership Development and Organization Change and Best Practices in Talent Management. He is a proud member of the MG 100 Coaches project chosen from over 12,000 coaches by his longtime mentor Marshall Goldsmith. Louis is the recipient of ELearning! Magazine’s Trailblazer Award, HR Tech Conference’s Top Products Award, and Leadership Excellence Magazine’s Best in Leadership Development for his work as founder and CEO of Best Practice Institute and the creator of the first anytime 360-degree feedback tool based on feedforward and appreciative dialogue, Skillrater.

Louis Carter founded Best Practice Institute in 2001 while obtaining his graduate degree from Columbia University. He facilitated drum circles in New York City after 9-11 to help rebuild the community. He further developed this concept into the BPI Senior Executive Board, a benchmark research consortium comprised of C-levels from F500s who want to transform themselves and their organizations through best practices in leadership and organization development.

His newest book, In Great Company: How to spark emotional connectedness and peak performance will be released at the end of 2018.

He has spoken to the Prime Minister of the UAE’s HR Lighthouse Initiative, Pentagon and UN officials, and various international conferences on his work and research. He has been a drummer for over 5 bands throughout the past 30 years and volunteers to drum for community drum circles and children’s centers.

#1 Bestselling Business Author, Organizational Culture, Employee Engagement and Leadership Expert

One of today’s most influential voices in workplace trends, Chester Elton has spent two decades helping clients engage their employees to execute on strategy, vision, and values. In his provocative, inspiring and always entertaining talks, #1 bestselling leadership author Chester Elton provides real solutions to leaders looking to manage change, drive innovation, and lead a multi-generational workforce. Elton’s work is supported by research with more than 850,000 working adults, revealing the proven secrets behind high-performance cultures and teams. He has been called the “apostle of appreciation” by Canada’sGlobe and Mail, “creative and refreshing‚” by the New York Times, and a “must read for modern managers” by CNN   Elton is co-author of the New York Timesand #1 USA Today and Wall Street Journal bestselling leadership books, All In, The Carrot Principle and The Best Team Wins.His books have been translated in more than 30 languages and have sold more than 1.5 million copies worldwide. Eltonis often quoted in publications such as the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Fast Company and theNew York Times.He has appeared on NBC’s Today, CNN, ABC, MSNBC, National Public Radio and CBS’s 60 Minutes. In 2017 Global Gurus research organization ranked him as #15 in the world’s top leadership experts and #10 in the world’s top organizational culture experts. Eltonis the co-founder of The Culture Works, a global training company and is a board member of Camp Corral, a non-profit for the children of wounded and fallen military heroes.He serves as aleadership consultant to firms such as American Express, AT&T, Avis Budget Group andProcter & Gamble. He is most proud, however, to be the father of four exceptional children-more exceptional now they’ve grown up and left home.

Bestselling Leadership Author | Organizational Culture Expert 

How do today’s best leaders accelerate business results? By engaging their employees to execute on strategy, vision, and values. In his challenging, information-packed talks, #1 bestselling leadership author Adrian Gostick provides real solutions on managing change, driving innovation, and leading a multi-generational workforce. Gostick is a global workplace expert and thought leader in the fields of corporate culture, leadership, and engagement. He is founder of the training and consulting company The Culture Works and author of the #1 New York Times, USA Today and Wall Street Journal bestsellers All In and The Carrot Principle. His books have been translated into 30 languages and have sold 1.5 million copies around the world. As a leadership expert, he has been called “fascinating,” by Fortune magazine and “creative and refreshing” by the New York Times. Gostick has appeared on NBC’s Today Show and CNN, and is often quoted in The Economist, Newsweek, and Wall Street Journal. If you Google the 30 Top Leadership Gurus, he is on the list along side Jack Welch and Jim Collins. His consulting clients include Danaher, Bank of America, Rolls Royce, JELD-WEN and California Pizza Kitchen.

Sam Silverstein, CSP is founder and CEO of Sam Silverstein, Inc., an accountability think tank dedicated to helping companies create an organizational culture that prioritizes and inspires accountability. He is an international business consultant, speaker and author. His manufacturing and distribution companies have sold over $100 million in products and services and he has successfully sold one of his businesses to a Fortune 500 company. Sam served as the President of the National Speakers Association (2008-2009) and is a Certified Speaking Professional. Sam’s work with companies has transformed organizational culture and created success in all areas. Originally from Atlanta, he has a Business degree from the University of Georgia and an MBA from Washington University. He is married with four children and currently resides in St. Louis, MO.

Marcella Bremer MScBA is an author and culture change consultant. She helps leaders, middle managers, supervisors, HR professionals, OD consultants, and employees to develop a positive culture at work.

Positive organizations are better at change, more innovative, competitive, profitable, but also contributing more to the world.

Her online Positive Culture Academy focuses on how you can personally contribute to a positive, productive culture in your organization.

Sheis the co-founder of OCAI OnlinethatprovidesCameron&-Quinn’svalidatedOrganizationalCultureAssessmentInstrument (OCAI) online. Sheworksonorganizationalculturewithglobalclients.

Marcella’s latest book is “Developing a Positive Culture where People and Performance Thrive”. She also published “Organizational Culture Change: Unleash your Organization’s Potential in Circles of 10”.

Her Leadership & Change Magazine blog offers weekly inspiration about positiveleadership, culture, andchange.

Graduated from Rotterdam School of Management, Marcella is a member of the Institute for Culturally Adaptive Leadership (ICAL), the Academy of Culture Ambassadors, contributor at Culture University, the Berlin Change Days, the International Society for Organization Development & Change (ISODC) and guest blogger at Lead Change Group.

Randy Pennington helps leaders and organizations build cultures focused on results, relationships, and accountability. He is a twenty-plus year business performance veteran, author, and consultant who has worked with many of this country’s best-known organizations including: Alabama Power Company, Motorola, LaSalle Bank, SmithBucklin, Hyatt Hotels and Resorts, Texas A&M University, Marathon Oil, Sprint PCS, and Progressive Insurance, in addition to government agencies at the local, state, and national level. Mr. Pennington is a frequent radio talk show guest/commentator. His ideas and comments on integrity, trust, and commitment have appeared in The New York Times, Entrepreneur, Executive Excellence, on CNN, Fox News, the BBC, the ABC radio network, and in numerous professional and trade association journals. His book, On My Honor, I Will: The Journey to INTEGRITY-DRIVEN® Leadership has a timeless message about achieving enduring success as a leader and has been released in a third edition. In his endorsement of On My Honor, Ross Perot says “Randy Pennington has cracked the code of great leadership.” His second book, Results Rule! Build a Culture that Blows the Competition Away, received the 2007 Best Books Award from USA Book News. Randy Pennington has earned the Certified Speaking Professional (CSP) designation and has been inducted into the Speaker Hall of Fame. He is Past Chairman of the NSA Foundation Board of Trustees and NSA Board of Directors. He was the 1998-99 Chairman of the Board for the American Heart Association, Texas Affiliate, and a founding member of the Texas Council on Disease and Stroke. Additionally, he serves as an adjunct instructor in the Cox Business Leadership Center at Southern Methodist University.

Tasha Eurich is an organizational psychologist, researcher, and New York Times best-selling author. She’s built a reputation as a fresh, modern voice in the business world by pairing her scientific grounding in human behavior with a pragmatic approach to professional development. Over her 15-plus-year career, she’s helped thousands of leaders—from public company CEOs to early stage entrepreneurs—improve their self-awareness and success.

She contributes to Harvard Business Review and her work has been featured in outlets like NPR, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Forbes, and Fast Company. Her TEDxMileHigh talks have been viewed more than three million times.

In 2019, Thinkers50 named her one of the top 30 emerging management thinkers in the world. She was also chosen from more than 16,000 candidates as one of Marshall Goldsmith’s “100 Coaches” to advance the practice of leadership with Dr. Goldsmith (recognized as the world’s most influential leadership thinker).

Dr. Eurich’s first book, Bankable Leadership, debuted at #8 on The New York Times best-seller list. Her latest book,Insight, delves into the connection between self-awareness and success. Hailed as a “bold, exhilarating take on self-improvement” by Success Magazine and a “fascinating read” by The Guardian, Insight was named a best book of 2017 by Strategy+Business and nominated for best book of the year by 800CEOREAD.

Frederic Laloux works as an adviser with corporate leaders who feel called to explore fundamentally new ways of organizing. His work draws on two strands: His deep understanding of the inner workings of organizational culture, which he developed among other during the years he worked as an organization and strategy consultant with McKinsey & Company. His longstanding fascination with the topic of human development and his own joyful journey of personal and spiritual growth. Frederic has worked intimately with people at all levels of organizations. He has witnessed how the organizations that make up the fabric of our modern lives (large corporations and small businesses, hospitals and schools, nonprofits and government agencies) are for the most part places of quiet and pervasive suffering, places inhospitable to the deeper yearnings of our souls.The intuition that more is possible—that we must be capable of creating truly soulful organizations that invite all of our human potential into the workplace—has led him to engage into groundbreaking research: how a currently emerging, new form of consciousness is bringing forth a radically more soulful, purposeful, and productive organizational model. Reinventing Organizations, the best-selling book based on this research, has been variously described as “groundbreaking,” “brilliant,” “spectacular,” “impressive,” and “world-changing” by some of the most respected scholars in the field of human development.  Frederic lives in Brussels, Belgium, where he is blessed to share his life with his wife, Hélène, and their two children.

Experienced and highly qualified Organizational Development leader with over 20+ years of collaborative, compelling delivery that is inspirational and profitable. Versatile executive strategist recognized for having a systems thinker approach, excellent project management ability, exceptional people skills and superlative business acumen. Progressive, decisive, and innovative, highly valued for expertise in interpreting corporate vision and strategy and translating objectives into actionable plans. Expert in engaging diverse groups. Keen ability to quickly connect with teams strategically, intellectually and emotionally.

Recognized Thought Leader in Talent Management.  Presented over 60 conference workshops to senior leaders across multiple industries and specific to the HR audience. Popular keynote speaker. Created and delivered over 50 distance learning programs. Leverage and train on social media platforms and communication systems.

Corporate Training Instructor: Brandman University, Chapman University System

Liz Wiseman is a researcher and executive advisor who teaches leadership to executives around the world. She is the author of New York Times bestseller Multipliers: How the Best Leaders Make Everyone Smarter, The Multiplier Effect: Tapping the Genius Inside Our Schools, and Wall Street Journal bestseller Rookie Smarts: Why Learning Beats Knowing in the New Game of Work.

She is the CEO of the Wiseman Group, a leadership research and development firm headquartered in Silicon Valley, California. Some of her recent clients include: Apple, AT&T, Disney, Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Nike, Salesforce, Tesla, and Twitter. Liz has been listed on the Thinkers50 ranking and named one of the top 10 leadership thinkers in the world.

She has conducted significant research in the field of leadership and collective intelligence and writes for Harvard Business Review, Fortune, and a variety of other business and leadership journals. A former executive at Oracle Corporation, she worked over the course of 17 years as the Vice President of Oracle University and as the global leader for Human Resource Development.

She is a frequent guest lecturer at BYU and Stanford University. Liz holds a Bachelors degree in Business Management and a Masters of Organizational Behavior from Brigham Young University.

Anese Cavanaugh is the creator of the IEP Method (Intentional Energetic Presence) as well as a leadership and collaboration advisor, strategist, and thinking partner for business leaders in the design, service and innovation spaces. Through her speaking, writing and creative leadership programs, people learn how to optimize their leadership and presence, bringing their best selves to the table for greater collaboration, impact, and cultural success. Anese Cavanaugh is a dynamic, highly sought after speaker who has been called “transformational.” Anese has appeared on stages across the country—Stanford University, the Inc. Women’s Summit, the Education Equals Partnership Annual Conference, and many others—all in service of Showing Up well and creating positive impact in the world. In addition to appearing in publications like The Huffington Post, CEO.com, and the NY Times, Anese writes regularly for Inc.com in her column “Showing Up”, and has recently released The IEP Survival Guide: First Aid for Your Presence and her book Contagious Culture: Show Up, Set the Tone, and Intentionally Create an Organization that Thrives (McGraw-Hill) just came out this past November.

Ann Rhoades has an extensive national speaking platform in the area of organizational culture spanning a range of industries including: health care, airlines, hospitality, finance, retail, restaurants, food and beverage, convenience stores, public utilities, entertainment, law enforcement, nonprofit, higher education, and business schools. Represented by the Washington Speakers Bureau since 2003, Rhoades delivers popular programs on the values-based principles of Off-the-Wall Leadership to over 25,000 people a year. She appears in the Washington Speakers Bureau list of top ten most frequently requested speakers in the categories of Leadership and Management as well as Customer Loyalty and Motivation. Rhoades is also represented as a speaker by the Phoenix Speakers Bureau and is on the speaking faculty of the American Hospital Association Health Forum.

Dr. Larry Senn is a pioneer in the field of corporate culture. He founded Senn Delaney (originally called Senn-Delaney Leadership Consulting Group) as a culture-shaping firm in 1978. It was a spinoff of Senn Delaney Management Consultants, a business process consulting firm. The challenge of implementing change in organizations led to Larry’s interest in the power of the personality or habits of organizations to support or defeat initiatives. His vision from the beginning was to create a transformational process to assist CEOs and their own change leaders in creating healthy, high-performing cultures. Today, Senn Delaney is the oldest, most experienced organizational culture-shaping firm in the world.

Larry’s 1970 doctoral dissertation, Organizational Character as a Tool in the Analysis of Business Organizations, played a key role in Larry’s journey. It was the first field study of corporate culture in America. Based on his principal finding that “organizations become shadows of their leaders,” Larry created Senn Delaney – the culture-shaping firm – to work with CEO teams and organizations from top to bottom to create the behaviors needed to support strategies and enhance business results.

Larry’s vision and leadership for more than 30 years has helped Senn Delaney become an international firm that is widely recognized as the leading authority and practitioner in the field of culture shaping. Based on his early work, Larry was recently named “The father of corporate culture” by CEO Forum magazine.

Mike Ganino delivers inspiring and actionable keynotes to drive meaningful outcomes worldwide. He’s got that perfect balance between energizing and practical; entertaining and result-focused; fun and impactful. As a keynote speaker, Bestselling Author, successful hospitality executive, tech industry advisor, and well-respected improv actor, Mike blends deep, real-world experience with a magnetic stage presence to help people, teams, and organizations thrive in the new economy. Every talk is customized to deliver the biggest possible impact, combining engaging stories, gorgeous visuals, and practical techniques that push audiences to jumpstart their creative energy and solve challenges in fresh, innovative ways.

Roger Connors is co-founder and CEO of Partners In Leadership. He is a four-time New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestselling author. He and his business partner, Tom Smith, have authored the most extensive body of knowledge on workplace accountability ever written, and are recognized as the worldwide experts on organizational culture. Roger brings over 30 years of extensive expertise in assisting senior management teams all over the world in successfully facilitating large-scale corporate cultural transformation. Recently, his company was named to the Inc. 5000 fastest growing privately held companies in America. As a pioneer on the subjects of organizational culture and accountability and an industry thought leader, Roger has developed #1 award winning content and has published and interviewed extensively, including Forbes, Chief Learning Officer, Workforce Magazine, Energy Digital, Training and Development Magazine, Leadership Excellence Magazine, Talent Management Magazine, Journal of Business Strategy, Executive Excellence, and Inside Supply Management Magazine. His radio, television, and webcast appearances include CNBC’s Power Lunch, KWHY-TV “Market Talk,” OCN-TV’s “Prime Story,” Fortune 100 Executive Teleconference, Business Radio Network, UPI, Voice of America, Business Matters, and numerous other broadcasts. In addition, he was a featured speaker at the Executive Office of the President of the United States in Washington, D.C. Roger co-authored the classic New York Times bestselling book, The Oz Principle, which has been ranked year after year as one of the top five bestselling business books in the leadership and performance categories. He also co-authored the New York Times bestsellers The Wisdom of Oz; How Did That Happen? Holding People Accountable for Results the Positive, Principled Way; and Change the Organizational Culture, Change the Game: The Breakthrough Strategy for Energizing Your Organization and Creating Accountability for Results.

Charles Handy (born 1932) is an Irish author/philosopher specializing in organisational behavior, organizational culture, and management. Among the ideas he has advanced are the “portfolio worker” and the “Shamrock Organization” (in which professional core workers, freelance workers and part-time/temporary routine workers each form one leaf of the “Shamrock”). He has been rated among the Thinkers 50, a private list of the most influential living management thinkers. In 2001 he was second on this list, behind Peter Drucker, and in 2005 he was tenth. When the Harvard Business Review had a special issue to mark their 50th Anniversary they asked Handy, Peter Drucker and Henry Mintzberg to write special articles. In July 2006 he was conferred with an honorary Doctor of Laws by Trinity College, Dublin.

Mitch Marks is an internationally recognized expert on managing corporate transitions (including mergers, acquisitions, alliances, downsizings, and restructurings), organization design, communications, corporate culture and executive teambuilding. He is Emeritus Professor of Leadership at San Francisco State University’s College of Business and president of the consultancy JoiningForces.org. He is a frequent speaker to corporate audiences and professional groups including the Harvard Business School, Smithsonian Institution, and the American Psychology Association. Mitch consults with a wide variety of firms in the United States and abroad, advising on issues of organizational change, team building, strategic direction, organizational design and structure, corporate culture, communications, human resources management, employee motivation, and the planning and implementation of mergers, acquisitions, alliances, reorganizations, and other transitions. His clients range from small start-ups to large multinational corporations, as well as government and not-for-profit organizations. Mitch has advised in over 100 cases of major organizational transitions. Current or past clients include Pfizer, Intel, Grant Thornton, Motorola, Citicorp, AT&T, Lockheed Martin Corporation, Unisys, Hewlett Packard, Cisco, Abbott Laboratories, Johnson & Johnson, BP, Molson Breweries, Bank of America, American Airlines, Kaiser Permanente, DigitalGlobe, Blue Shield of California, U. S. Department of Energy, Los Angeles County, the March of Dimes, and others in the financial services, professional services, high tech, manufacturing, health care, education, entertainment, transportation, publishing, consumer products, and communications industries. Mitch has designed and conducted executive education programs for Harvard Business School, University of Minnesota, University of Hawaii and other educational institutions. Reports of Mitch’s work have been featured in publications such as the Wall Street Journal, Fortune, The Economist, Time, New York Times, Washington Post, and Sports Illustrated, as well as on the PBS News Hour, NBC Nightly News, CNBC, CNN and other television programs. Mitch is the author of eight books—including Charging Back Up the Hill: Workforce Recovery after Mergers, Acquisitions and Downsizings (providing practical advice and examples of how to rebound from the unintended negative consequences of difficult transitions), and Joining Forces: Making One Plus One Equal Three in Mergers, Acquisitions, and Alliances—and scores of articles in practitioner and scholarly journals including the Harvard Business Review and MIT Sloan Management Review. Mitchell Lee Marks received his Ph.D. in Organizational Psychology from the University of Michigan, where he conducted the first studies on human and cultural aspects of mergers, acquisitions, and other major organizational transitions. His research has been recognized in ways including the Outstanding Contribution to Organizational Behavior award from the Academy of Management. He is a Fellow of the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology. He has been named one of the “World’s Top 30 Organizational Culture Consultants” for three years running.

Fawn Germer is the personification of the heroine we see in movies. She has gone against the odds, she has been rejected and put down and yet, she has triumphs over her environment. She is an advocate woman in leadership and has compiled the wisdom, insight and leadership strategies from more than 200 famous women leaders for her new book Pearls. Her philosophy through her six books is one of adaptability and an ever-changing skills set. Fawn Germer is a bestselling author and four-time, Pulitzer Prize nominated journalist who has written for The Washington Post, U.S. News and World Report, and The Miami Herald. Fawn Germer deals with what it takes to be a great leader today and is an Oprah Winfrey must read author. As a speaker she is dynamic, energetic and inspirational. She is well known in North America but has had substantial international exposure.

Paul Gibbons (from London, England) is passionate about science, and how science can be used to improve human flourishing. His writing and teaching “at the nexus of science, philosophy, and business” focuses on the application of the wider human sciences (not just psychology but philosophy, medicine, public health, mathematics, behavioral economics, and sociology) to business and business leadership. He began his career in neurochemistry, followed by Masters-level study in International Economics and Finance. At 20, he moved to London as a “quant” derivatives trader, working at Salomon Brothers and Morgan Stanley. He eventually became Director of Eurobond Trading for the world’s third largest bank. At 28, he resumed doctoral study in neuroscience, and then joined PwC as a strategist and expert on derivatives, advising on trading disasters such as Barings and Long-Term Capital. He then joined PwC’s “Strategy, Innovation and Change” think-tank, helping develop the firm’s methodologies in change management, innovation and corporate transformation. He ran many of PwC’s board-level leadership programs, as well as change management on a $1 billion program for the UK government. In 2001, Gibbons then founded his own firm, Future Considerations, which grew at 60% per annum under his leadership and still delivers flagship programs in many of the top fifty European companies. After selling that firm, he joined the University of Wisconsin, Madison as a lecturer, while continuing to coach senior executives worldwide. He has appeared in the Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, the Guardian, and Times newspapers, and in 2008, CEO Magazine named him one of two “CEO Super Coaches.” He recently published a small self-coaching workbook entitled Reboot Your Life: A 12-day Program for Ending Stress, Realizing Your Goals, and Being More Productive.

Digital and Internet of Things business model, execution and scaling leader. Advisor to companies and leaders working to compete with more agility and effectiveness.

Clients call me when they are looking to scale and improve digital, IoT or technology-driven strategy and operations. I help them envision and execute complex customer-oriented change, and differentiate themselves by the level of immediacy, control, personalization and customization they offer customers. I work across most industries including service, retail, social sector, high tech and others.

I am the author of The Amazon Way: 14 Leadership Principles of the World’s Most Disruptive Company, and The Amazon Way on IoT: 10 Principles for Every Leader from the World’s Leading Internet of Things Strategies.

Sought after analyst on Amazon.com featured by New York Times, CNBC and others.

Former Amazon executive who launched and scaled the Amazon Marketplace business and ran the enterprise services business at Amazon.

Tim Kuppler is the founder of CultureUniversity.com and Director of Culture and Organization Development with Human Synergistics, a 40+ year pioneer in the field of workplace culture and leadership. The mission of Human Synergistics is Changing the World—One Organization at a Time®. It’s the home of the most widely used culture assessment in the world (a “real” culture assessment…not a climate assessment like most other engagement or culture assessments), the annual Ultimate Culture Conference and the proven 90 Day Culture and Performance Quick Start Program. CultureUniversity.com is a 100% educational site with a purpose of positively impacting society on a global scale through culture awareness, education, and action. CultureU content is contributed by a faculty of some of the leading culture experts in the world and guests. Faculty members include some of the top workplace culture experts in history: Edgar Schein, Robert Cooke, and Dr. Larry Senn. Tim also facilitates the Human Synergistics collaboration with Edgar Schein and the Schein Organizational Culture and Leadership Institute along with many other partnerships with consulting firms, thought leaders and industry organizations.

He is the author of the 2014 book – Build the Culture Advantage, Deliver Sustainable Performance with Clarity and Speed. Tim led many organizations through major culture transformation efforts with a high level of involvement, teamwork and rapid performance improvement. Best practices from organizations he led are featured as part of the 2012 book – Leading Culture Change in Global Organizations. He built on this foundation as a business leader when he was President of Denison Consulting.

Peg Neuhauser is a management and organizational consultant, specializing in the areas of conflict management, organizational culture, avoiding burnout. In 1984, she established her own company and works with clients in many industries including health care, high tech, finance, and publishing. As a speaker and consultant, she offers practical tips for action to create a more innovative and adaptive organization. Her focus is on increasing collaboration in cross-functional teams, improving relationships among work colleagues, avoiding burnout, and strengthening the organization’s culture to focus on its goals more effectively. Her stories, case examples, and humor illustrate each idea in a way that is both entertaining and easy to remember. In addition to speaking and consulting, Peg facilitates meetings and retreats for both board and management groups. Ms. Neuhauser completed studies in the United States and England with an M.A. in psychology and undergraduate work in sociology. Prior to starting her business, she worked at Vanderbilt University Medical Center and as an internal consultant for Hospital Corporation of America developing services and programs for both corporate and hospital clients. In addition to working as a designer, trainer and consultant, she also managed financial systems conversions that involved training and consultation in the technical and accounting divisions.