Our People
For more than 20 years, ELG has assisted such clients as Sunoco, Deloitte & Touche, Chase Manhattan Bank, Seagate, Qwest, St. Paul Companies, Coors Brewing and US Military. ELG takes a results-oriented approach, basing its consultation on empirically proven methods and models. No fads here. The leadership, staff and associates of Executive Leadership Group, Inc. have achieved distinction within their respective areas of expertise and for their skills in instructing and consulting with executives.
Wendi Peck
Wendi Peck is one of the founders of ELG and consults on rapid business improvement. She specializes in developing measurable representations of strategy and aligning structure, processes, programs and resources to them. She has led the way in the development of research-based methodologies that assist organizations in building what ELG calls implementation strength.
In addition to her consulting work, she lectures on a variety of management topics in both corporate and academic settings. Wendi also specializes in large-scale program management. She coauthored Keys to Project Success, the text for ELG's foundation course in project management. She sponsored and directed a benchmarking study on best-in-class project management practices in the telecommunications industry. Prior to her current work in this area, Wendi directed several multimillion-dollar projects in a Fortune 50 company.
Her clients have included Qwest Wireless, Coors Brewing Company, US West, Seagate, The St. Paul Companies, Wegener Corporation, US Navy, US Marine Corps, US Coast Guard, and the Naval Postgraduate School.
Wendi received her MBA from the University of Denver and a Masters Certificate in Project Management from George Washington University.
Wendi co-authored with Bill Casey of "Managing for Results," a monthly column in the Denver Business Journal, and a contributor to the book, Business Driven Information Technology: Answers to 100 Critical Questions for Every Manager, sponsored by the University of Colorado at Denver's College of Business and published by Stanford University Press. www.amazon.com
William Casey, Ph. D.
William Casey, Ph. D. consults in the area of organizational behavior management specializing in organizational structure design and large project management. Before co-founding Executive Leadership Group, Inc., he was a vice president with a subsidiary of Touche Ross, the Garr Consulting Group.
In addition to his consulting practice, Bill serves on the faculty of the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California, teaching strategic planning and execution to senior civilian and military leaders, in the Navy's Executive Business Course and Corporate Business Course. Bill has also taught for the Haas School of Business (UCal, Berkeley), the Daniels School of Business and University College (University of Denver), and others. He completed his doctorate in psychology at the University of Kansas, with a dissertation that focused on business applications of reinforcement theory. He also has a masters degree in counseling from the University of Denver.
His clients have included Chase Manhattan Bank, Sunoco, Zurich Life Insurance, The Denver Post, The May Company, Microsoft, Qwest, Coors Brewing Company, ING, US Navy, US Marine Corps, US Coast Guard, and the Naval Postgraduate School.
He writes both professional and popular articles on management and has co-authored three books in the areas of psychology and communication, and co-authored a chapter for each of two texts on management. For two years Bill co-authored, with Wendi Peck, “Managing for Results,” a monthly column in the Denver Business Journal, and a contributor to the book, Business Driven Information Technology: Answers to 100 Critical Questions for Every Manager, published by Stanford University Press. www.amazon.com
Core Staff
Rebecca Hoskins
For the past four years, Rebecca has worked exclusively with organizations in the Department of Defense to develop and implement strategies for achieving organizational goals. She brings more than 16 years experience in developing and directing strategic initiatives - from strategic planning to multinational programs and product launches - as well as a broad background in marketing and communications.
As an experienced educator and certified facilitator of the Whole Goal® methodology, Rebecca has led dozens of seminars and workshops with whole commands, intact work teams, and diverse audiences. She consistently receives top ratings from clients because of her ability to make complex concepts practical and applicable to achieving measurable results.
Rebecca received a BS in Journalism from Northwestern University and has achieved advanced certification in ELG's courses and methodologies related to strategy articulation, planning and execution.
Rebecca's DoD clients have included the National Security Agency/Central Security Service Hawaii (NSA/CSS Hawaii); Navy Information Operations Command Hawaii (NIOC Hawaii); Navy Network Warfare Command (NETWARCOM); OPNAV N3/N5 Navy Special Projects (NSP); Office of the Secretary of the Navy, Office of Program and Process Assessment (OPPA); Navy Explosive Ordnance Disposal; and U.S. Coast Guard Materiel and Logistics Command, Pacific (MLCPAC). Her commercial clients have included Thompson Micromedex, Qwest, Syntex Laboratories, and DuPont Pharmaceuticals.
Natalie Roemer
Natalie Roemer excels in facilitating organizational improvement initiatives employing the disciplines of strategic planning, business optimization, process redesign, project management, and change management. Natalie’s client organizations are large and small, domestic and international, where she consults, facilitates, and trains.
With a keen ability to stay issue-focused in politically imbued initiatives, Natalie ensures that the tactical successes of a project really do add up to its strategic success. Her projects range from “soft side” initiatives (e.g., improved corporate communication) to technical (e.g., a PeopleSoft CRM implementation).
Her clients have included T-Mobile, Sprint, Comerica Bank, Lockheed Martin, and Thomson MICROMEDEX.
Natalie holds a BA in International Relations from Scripps College, has completed additional undergraduate coursework in Biology and Chemistry from the University of Colorado, and is a Fulbright Fellow. She is fluent in German and conversational in French and Spanish.
Linda Thaut
Linda Thaut has over eighteen years of executive administrative experience and office management. She is indispensable when it comes to project coordination, resource management, bookkeeping, and many other executive and operational tasks. Additionaly, she has experience in financial management handling contract negotiations and financial reporting, budgeting and analysis.
Associates
Claudia M. Baca, PMP, OPM3 Certified Assessor/Consultant
Claudia has been active in the project management industry since 1984 and has experience in the information technology, telecommunications, and e-commerce industries. During her varied career, Claudia has managed many mission critical projects for a major telecommunications company and several Internet companies. She most recently was the VP of Consulting Services for a nationally known project management consulting firm. She lectures and teaches for the Project Management Institute's Denver chapter as well as for Colorado State University and Front Range Community College. Claudia is a member of the leadership team that produced the standard for Project Management Maturity, OPM3 and is currently working on the second edition of that standard. In addition, she has a Masters Certificate in Program Management from Denver University. She earned her PMP in 1995 and was re-certified in 2001 and 2004.
Claudia is also an experienced writer and technical editor. She is a co-author of the paper “Organizational Project Management Maturity Model (OPM3)” presented at the PMI Global Congress Europe, 2003. She also co-authored the “The Past, the Present and the Future of OPM3” presented at the PMI Global Congress North America, 2004. In addition, she is the technical editor of the PMP Project Management Professional Study Guide and the IT Project + Study Guide and is the co-author of PMP Project Management Professional Workbook, all published by Sybex. In 2005 she published the Project Management Spotlight on Change Management in March and the PMP Project Management Professional Study Guide Deluxe Edition in August both by John Wiley Publishing. She is currently working on Project Management for Mere Mortals by Addison Wesley. It is due out in 2007.
Claudia is a certified OPM3 ProductSuite Assessor and Consultant. She has assessed and improved project management maturity in organizations ranging in size from a nuclear power plant to a 50 employee telecommunication networking company.
Ralph Brainard
Ralph Brainard specializes in Business Process Reengineering, Strategic Planning & Execution, Technology Design, Executive Level Coaching, Team Building & Leadership, and Program Management.
Ralph has been involved in some significant engagements. He led, managed and coached both the sale and delivery of an Order Fulfillment Process evaluation engagement for a $1 billion software products company. Identified opportunities to utilize J.D.Edwards' OneWorld ERP software to not only introduce new internet based self-service, but also improve order accuracy 90%, increase employee productivity 155%, and reduce maintenance billing cycle time 92%. The bottom line - an initial investment of $2.7 million that would return 116% over 4 years with payback within 17 months. He served as interim Process Owner for Order Fulfillment during transition of this business transformation effort over to the client.
Ralph also led, managed and coached both the sale and delivery of a process reengineering effort within the Information Technologies organization of a major Regional Bell Operating Company. He identified opportunities to reduce system support response time by 50-80%, reduce required resources to support the system change process by 40-50%, reduce rework by 60-70%, improve system development productivity by 60-70%, and improve overall quality. He transitioned the implementation of this business transformation effort over to the client, providing project management assistance to client implementation teams and organizational change coaching to senior management.
Led, managed, and coached both the sale and delivery of a major turnkey, strategic change engagement. He defined a new $20 million first year targeted market segment for a global e-messaging services company. He designed a new business process model that leveraged the client's defined competitive advantage for their new, hosted Microsoft Exchange Service offering. Designed, built, validated and deployed the core Go-to-Market operational support processes and organizational structure.
Ralph has his MBA in Finance from the University of Chicago, Graduate School of Business, a BSEE with Honors from Lafayette College, and Certificate of Mastery from the Hammer and Company: Business Process Reengineering & Change Management.
Lara Ewing
Lara Ewing applies 25 years of expertise to assist organizations achieve richer results through facilitating dynamic, effective meetings. Her sophisticated facilitation processes focus the team’s efforts on key people, systems and external factors to deliver the outcome efficiently.
Lara uncovers issues beneath the surface, bringing them to light with respect, and humor. This discovery frees the group to move beyond differences, stale thinking and limiting perceptions into innovative solutions. Organizational life is full of frustration resulting from poorly run meetings. Meetings spring to life when the group is achieving results rapidly. Entrepreneurial solutions emerge when the process is lively and fun.
She has facilitated meetings for hundreds of CEOs and senior executives for more than 20 Fortune 500 companies on six continents. Clients credit her with saving their organizations, key client relationships, partnerships and sanity.
Clients Include: American Express, Avaya, Citicorp, First Data, GlaxoSmithKline, HP, Intel, Johnson & Johnson, Merck, Merrill Lynch, Monster Cable, Nokia, Procter & Gamble, and Sun Microsystems.
Jodi Grossman
Jodi Grossman has 15 years experience leading projects in the private, public, and not-for-profit sectors. She has taken that experience and used it to conduct training programs in subjects such as project management, leadership development, team effectiveness, interpersonal communication, organizational communication, and job performance management. Jodi has facilitated project planning and review meetings, strategic planning sessions, group problem-solving meetings, and focus groups.
Jodi managed the design and implementation of a comprehensive project management curriculum for an international manufacturer of data storage systems. This project required the assessment and integration of multiple clients' requirements into an acceptable curriculum that included training in basic project management skills, using the company's cross-functional product development methodology, leading project teams, and using project management software. In another position with a major multinational oil company, Jodi led organizational development and training efforts for a business unit undergoing major cultural change. Additionally, while working in the public and not-for-profit arenas, she successfully managed projects with volunteer staffs and severely constrained budgets.
Jodi has a BA from the University of Colorado and a Masters degree in Applied Communication from the University of Denver.
Paul Houston
Paul Houston is a management consultant and internationally-known expert in market and competitive intelligence (CI).
His career began with five years at sea during the Cold War as a Damage Control Assistant on a guided missile frigate and then as a Russian-speaking Naval Intelligence Officer on the USS Enterprise (CVN-65).
In the business world, Houston has consulted with clients ranging from public sector and not-for profit to biotech, big oil, publishing, mobile telephony and food packaging. He has worked globally in Japan, Russia and Kazakhstan, and has expertise beyond CI in general management, executive recruiting, strategic planning, marketing and market research.
Paul is skilled at both human source intelligence collection and in formulating targeted research questions and designing, implementing and analyzing qualitative and quantitative inquiries to resolve those matters.
He is a graduate of the U. S. Naval Academy at Annapolis, MD, has an MBA from the Daniels School of Business at the University of Denver, and completed the American Management Association's “Management Course for Presidents.”
Mitzi Katz
Mitzi Katz has taught and consulted on computer software applications for the past twenty years in the business, industry, and government sectors, with clients ranging from small business to Fortune 500 companies and the Federal government. She also managed the Computer Applications Program for the University of Colorado for several years, a program hosting hundreds of computer classes in five labs withseventy-five instructors.
She trains and coaches Microsoft Project and a full range of other Microsoft products, in addition to desktop publishing and ERP packages. Mitzi's goal in teaching is to provide solutions for people to simplify their workload. Mitzi emphasizes basic shortcuts that can often eliminate hours of tedium.
Mitzi received a Bachelor of Science in Education from the University of Kansas and a M.Ed from the University of Montana.
Susan May
Susan May has 15 years of experience in leadership, organizational development, human performance, and change management consulting. She began her career at Accenture where she spent nine years helping clients achieve greater levels of performance via various initiatives. Her expertise lies in organization design and development, business process improvement, program / project management, large-scale change management, communication planning / execution, leadership development / alignment, performance metrics / management, and training design / development. In 2002, Susan continued her consulting career in Denver. She is known for her facilitative, partner-based approach.
Her clients have included: Accenture, Corporate Express, Rock Bottom Restaurants, Samsonite, Boeing Military Aircraft, Gateway, Hospital Shared Services, Tenneco Shared Services, Tenneco Energy, Tenneco Packaging, Burlington Resources, United Dominion Realty Trust, Blue Cross / Blue Shield of Tennessee, Mobil (pre-merger), Celanese, Williams Energy, and Federal Express.
Susan's client accomplishments include:
- Co-developing the overall strategy for how a large consulting company would position and sustain leadership development for their high-level executives.
- Co-facilitating the strategy articulation of two companies seeking a better sense of their purpose and direction.
- Helping a rapidly-expanding business effectively implement new back-office technology in 100 of their stores and in their headquarters so they could operate more efficiently and grow with greater ease.
- Defining and leading the Change Management efforts for a global SAP implementation resulting in a successful roll-out and consolidation of duplicative costs / functions.
- Helping a high-growth company identify and develop leadership competencies for their various leadership levels.
Linh Nguyen
Linh Nguyen has over 20 years of experience in helping clients envision their future, realize their plans, and sustain meaningful change. Specializing in complex business transformation, Linh is in his element helping clients manage large initiatives and programs. Having advised numerous clients through complex change, he is also an experienced coach to senior executives and managers and a trained facilitator of large-group dynamics.
to his current position, Linh was a partner at Accenture Ltd. (formerly Andersen Consulting). Linh led Accenture's U.S. Public Sector Organizational and Human Performance Practice, with services encompassing organizational strategy, business transformation, change enablement, human resources and workforce transformation. Prior to Accenture, Linh was a manager at Cambridge Associates, a well know financial and investment consulting firm serving endowed and non-profit institutions, where he specialized in financial planning and performance measurement for large endowments.
Linh's clients have included Fortune 100 companies such as Microsoft, Verizon, and Freddie Mac; major federal government agencies such as the U.S. Departments of Education, Homeland Security, Defense, Energy, Housing and Urban Development, and NASA; as well as municipal governments such as LA County and Salt Lake County. He has also worked with well-known endowed and non-profit institutions such as the Albuquerque Community Foundation, ACCION New Mexico, United Way of Central New Mexico, the World Bank, National Geographic Society, and World Council of Churches.
Linh graduated from Yale University in 1987 with a BA in Anthropology, with joint concentrations in pre-medicine and art.
Jan North
Jan North has 15 years Project Management, Process Management, Change Management and Training experience with numerous Computer Manufacturing, Insurance, and Food Distribution companies. She has led the conversion activities for several custom software implementations, primarily in the Sales Force Automation, Order Processing and Call Center functions. She has managed several project teams to implement process improvements and call center technologies.
Jan introduced and implemented several call center technologies which helped increase productivity by 30% and maintain improvement gains of over $6MM. She managed an inter-department project team which developed one of the first web-based process management systems designed to help 6-SIGMA projects maintain productivity and monetary gains. She also developed and implemented a series of 6-week “turn-key” business, software systems, and change management training programs for hundreds of new and transferred employees impacted by a project which centralized 18 order processing call centers.
Jan has conducted numerous system conversion and continuing education technical training courses, primarily for Sales and Marketing and Call Center audiences. Jan designed, developed and wrote the curriculum for many of the courses.
Jan has a B.A. from Colorado College and an M.B.A from the University of Colorado.
David Roberts
David Roberts works closely with senior executives to develop and implement practical business strategies to grow profits and shareholder value. For more than 25 years, he has advised over 100 companies in 45 industries and 15 countries, including clients in financial services, consumer products, business process outsourcing and technology-based businesses.
His approach to business strategy emphasizes creating value propositions to win and retain the most valuable customers in a market, then aligning operations, processes and organizations to fulfill the customer commitments efficiently and effectively.
David began his consulting career with Bain and Company. As a Bain partner, he lived in Tokyo for four years while building Bain's successful Asia -Pacific consulting practice. In addition to his consulting work, David served as a Senior Vice President for First Data Corporation where he was responsible for global corporate strategy and developing new lines of business.
Mr. Roberts is a graduate of Brown University and earned an MBA with distinction from the Harvard Business School. He is an adjunct professor in the University of Colorado (Denver) MBA program where he teaches courses in Strategic Management. He is also a private investor and advisor with many entrepreneurial ventures.