THOUGHTLEADERS - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Principal
- McKinsey and Company As a Management Consultant
Alan graduated from the College of William and Mary in Virginia in 1991 with a degree in Chemistry, cum laude. He pursued higher education in chemistry, attending graduate school at the University of California, Berkeley. While at Berkeley, he had several appointments as teaching assistant in undergraduate chemistry curriculum, and conducted his own research, primarily in heavy element nuclear chemistry. Alan graduated with his Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in Chemistry degree in 1996.
After graduate school, Alan joined McKinsey and Company as a management consultant. He served clients in several industries (heavy manufacturing, healthcare, chemicals, and technology) on a variety of issues (strategy, mergers & acquisitions, cost reductions, growth and business building). Additionally, he worked extensively within the Purchasing and Supply Management practice.
Alan joined Ariba in early 1999 and served as a Director with the Global Account Management team, and was responsible for the strategic direction of several of Ariba's long-term and largest global customers. During his time at Ariba, Alan worked in a variety of roles: he built and led the Sourcing Solutions team within the Sales organization, managed a team of 60 market-makers in the Sourcing Operations group, worked with a number of customers across many industries in Account Management, and was briefly involved in acquisition integration.
After Ariba, Alan joined forces once again with several of his founding colleagues from Ariba to start Meakem Becker Venture Capital, and early-stage traditional venture capital firm based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. As a partner, he helped the firm to raise their first fund of $75 million, and is heavily involved in finding, selecting, and nurturing the startup enterprises that form their portfolio. He was most recently Vice President of Denali Sourcing Services, based out of Seattle, WA, a startup focused on providing on-demand sourcing execution services to the Global 1000. Alan is the co-founder at Prime Vector where he focuses on using innovative digital technologies such as RPA (Robotic Process Automation) and AI (Artificial Intelligence) to help businesses achieve their goals.
Job Titles:
- Principal
- Certified Executive Coach
- International Coach Federation Professional Certified Coach
Amy Yip is a facilitator, certified executive coach, keynote speaker, author and also serves as a faculty team member at the Hudson Institute of Coaching. With over 16 years of corporate experience building and leading global teams at Google, Clorox, and Booz Allen, she has led the professional development of talent across industries and functions.
Currently, Amy consults organizations on inclusive cultures and people development, and coaches organizational leaders, including corporate executives, nonprofits, and social entrepreneurs.
During her time at Google, Amy built and led the Marketing, Communications & Engagement function, building a global team of 30+ to develop and launch a global brand strategy in 1000+ locations globally reaching more than 100,000 users. In her last role, she established and led the People function, building a global team of more than 35 people to create and implement a talent strategy for attracting, retaining and developing talent, and cultivating a diverse, equitable and inclusive environment globally across 45 vendor organizations and more than 9,000 team members.
Prior to Google, Amy was a Senior Associate Marketing Manager at Clorox, leading brand marketing, innovation and growth for brands including Hidden Valley Ranch, Kingsford, Fresh Step, and Scoop Away. She managed marketing budgets upwards of $43MM and a P&L upwards of $700MM in revenue.
As a consultant at Booz Allen Hamilton, she led cross-functional teams to provide disaster recovery and contingency planning services to a variety of clients.
Amy is an International Coach Federation Professional Certified Coach (ICF PCC), a Certified Hudson Institute Coach, a Certified Strozzi Institute Somatic Coach, and a pioneer Mental Fitness Coach certified through Positive Intelligence.
She holds a Master of Business Administration from UCLA Anderson School of Management and B.S. Computer Science, B.A., Communication (Public Relations) and Entrepreneurship Citation from the University of Maryland.
Darcie brings two decades of business and learning & development experience to the table. As Head of Learning and Development for Heinz North America, Darcie was responsible for leadership development, organizational effectiveness, learning, instructional design, change management, performance management, succession planning and executive coaching. She worked for both Heinz World Headquarters and Heinz North America. Darcie was recruited by American Eagle Outfitters in 2013 and charged with building out the learning and development platform.
During her last five years at Heinz, the company was recognized as the industry leader for top talent with more than 30 quarters of consecutive growth and Darcie's targeted development enabled leaders to better achieve strategic objectives. Darcie has extensive CPG industry knowledge spending 10 years in Supply Chain roles at Heinz before moving into learning and development during her last 12 years there. She brings retail experience through her role at American Eagle Outfitters.
During her tenure at Heinz, she led talent management for Latin American and the Middle East while leading global high potential programs across Europe, Asia, North America and Emerging Markets. She also served as a global executive coach for the organization. She specializes in working with global teams, change management, and customized company-wide coaching models and training. She has extensive experience in establishing both functional and leadership development corporate academies.
Graduating from Robert Morris College with a Bachelor of Science in Business with a concentration in Marketing, she also holds a number of certifications relevant to the field of development through the University of North Carolina, Kenan-Flagler Business School, Talent Management Institute, Pritchett change management, Development Dimensions International facilitation and talent selection, Crucial Conversations, Situational Leadership, 360 degree assessments through the Center for Creative Leadership, Myers-Briggs Type Indicator and ghSmart Topgrading Talent Selection. She recently served a three year term as a Board Member for the non-profit Regional Learning Alliance in Pennsylvania - the region's premier learning center.
Job Titles:
- Principal
- Process Improvement Specialist
Darrell Polk is a process improvement specialist, corporate culture advocate, strategist, and business coach. He helps leaders to put their vision, strategy, operational, and tactical plans in place to achieve high performance through sustainable cultures. He has worked with organizations including Fortune 500 companies, start-ups, small businesses, and non-profit foundations. Darrell helps leaders understand and solve the root problems their businesses face and build cultures that will drive high performance and sustained success.
His work across a variety of industries and cultures drives his creativity and approach to solving problems. Darrell has a wide range of functional experiences. As a corporate planning specialist, he developed and implemented financial and strategic models. He's been a project manager on large process improvement initiatives with multi-million dollar budgets.
Prior to starting his own coaching and consulting business, Darrell was an operations executive in the insurance industry with Kemper Insurance and Zurich Insurance. At Kemper, he drove several companywide projects, including business process reengineering of both the Specialty Lines organization and Small Business Group. Each project saved well over $2MM, incorporated new technologies, and increased productivity by more than 30%. At Zurich, he again managed reengineering field operations - this time for commercial lines - saving over $2MM and enabling the reduction of staff upon field consolidation.
Darrell next served as the Chief Operating Officer of a leading sales agency within Northwestern Mutual Financial Network - the nation's premier life insurance company. While there, he engaged the senior leadership team in development of a strategy and results-focused culture. He built an outcomes-based accountability structure across 140+ member sales team resulting in higher retention of veteran agents and reduced acquisition costs for new agents. He focused the organization on achieving annual sales expectations and group performance incentives to achieve organizational goals.
He's been an operational leader and sales & service leader for BPO operations of more than 350 staff. While at Aon Hewitt and GoHealth, Darrell built winning cultures through hands-on involvement and modeling professional, ethical behavior. This helped both organizations achieve tremendous growth and implement changes while onboarding hundreds of new staff members. He created and delivered sales leadership workshops focused on performance management and a high performance cultures. Darrell built an innovative performance accountability model that stressed achievement of all KPIs rather than focusing only on sales. He achieved major performance goals including revenue (delivering profitability in the second year of the startup), quality (95% quality and script adherence, 97% compliance), hiring targets, retention of 95% of desired staff, and service (100% of calls made within service window for nearly a full year).
Darrell continues to make time for consulting support for non-profits, especially those focused on cancer survivors, cancer research, and at-risk young people. He lives in Crystal Lake, IL with his wife and five children. Darrell and Carla have attended well over 2,000 sporting events while raising their five kids - that doesn't include dance and piano recitals, dance competitions, musicals, and band concerts.
David's approach to development is built on 30 years of experience managing a diversified mix of businesses and serving in a wide-range of leadership and managerial roles. His broad spectrum of experience includes CEO/President for mid-market private and public companies, consultant, Managing Director and Operating Partner for private equity funds, start-up CEO, coach and trainer. David has built a record of consistently producing positive results by solving complex business problems and enabling great teams. He is also recognized as a servant leader who possesses skills others appreciate and respect.
Mid-Market Private and Public Company Operator: David invested many years as CEO/President for four very different privately held mid-market companies where he was responsible for hundreds of employees and all facets of the businesses. His experiences included a family owned business selling maintenance supplies across the US and Canada, a private equity owned business selling public safety products across the US and another private equity owned business selling medical products online. David also helped run a TPG Capital publicly-traded portfolio company in the telecom sector. Currently, he is the CEO if a private equity backed SaaS company.
Consultant: David was a senior manager at Bain & Company in the Dallas, London, and Atlanta offices leading projects across multiple industries including airline, defense, retail, automotive, and nuclear services. His work at Bain was equally distributed across growth strategy, operational improvement, and M&A/post-merger integration.
Private Equity: Today, David works as an Operating Partner for two different funds. Previously, he was a Managing Director at Prophet Equity, a mid-market, industrial sector focused fund out of Texas. He was also a member of TPG Capital's Operations Group in San Francisco, ultimately moving into a full-time operating role within one of its portfolio companies.
Start-Ups: David was CEO and founder of two businesses. Both of these start-ups were sold to $1B+ global companies and both earned 50X+ returns for their investors. One of them placed in the top 5% of the Atlanta Business Chronicle's "Best Small Business to Work for Challenge" predicated, in part, on building and sustaining an extraordinary culture.
Coach and Trainer: David has a passion for coaching, training and leadership development. For nearly a decade David has led new cohorts through a yearlong Spiritual Leadership program in the US and in Costa Rica. While at Bain & Company, David was given responsibility for the redesign and management of one of Bain's six worldwide training programs focused on problem solving, communications, and leadership. He has also spoken on entrepreneurship and leadership in various business school programs.
David began his career as a sales representative for IBM and also spent time in the global marketing department of The Coca-Cola Company. He is a graduate of Auburn University and has an MBA from the Kenan-Flagler Business School at UNC-Chapel Hill. He lives in Atlanta with his wife, their four daughters, and their two golden retrievers. In addition to family time, he enjoys competing in extreme sports and is an avid reader of history, religion, sociology, and leadership.
David Sandler is an award-winning facilitator and coach who has spent the last 20 years developing people, teams, and businesses around the globe. For ten of those years, he served as a leadership advisor, sales enablement leader and executive coach at Google, where he developed and led many of Google's highest-rated learning and development programs for Sales, Marketing, Cloud, and Engineering. He was a founding team member of both the Google Sales School and Google's Sales Excellence Coaching Program. Those programs collectively earned six Brandon Hall Awards for Excellence in Human Capital Management including:
[Gold Award, 2022] Best Advance in Competencies and Skill Development
[Gold Award, 2021] Best New Hire Onboarding Program
[Gold Award, 2021] Best Sales Onboarding Program
[Gold Award, 2021] Best Advance in Custom Content
[Bronze Award, 2021] Best Unique or Innovative Sales Training Program
[Bronze Award, 2021] Best Unique or Innovative Learning and Development Program
Prior to Google, David worked for multiple digital agencies and innovation firms, including Digitas and Noise, where he operated as a strategic advisor for iconic brands such as American Express, Ancestry.com, Mercedes, JP Morgan, Intel, Chase, Comcast, Indeed, VitaminWater, GlaxoSmithKline, and more.
In 2012, David received his MBA from New York University - Stern School of Business with three separate specializations in marketing, entrepreneurship, and entertainment, media and technology. He studied marketing as an undergraduate at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and further advanced his professional education at Duke and The Wharton School via Google Business Academy and Google Marketing Academy, respectively.
David currently resides in Long Island, New York where he lives with his wife and three daughters.
David is Vice President of Health System Strategy and Executive Education at The Advisory Board Company. In this role he works with boards and executive teams from health systems across the country to identify strategies for improving clinical quality, population health, revenue, and profitability as organizations transition from fee-for-service to value-based care delivery.
He is a featured speaker at the firm's annual meeting series for CEOs. He also oversees the firm's Health System Performance Initiative, in which he convenes working groups of senior executives from the nation's largest health systems to share insights and best practices in the areas of system integration, business model and care model transformation, physician alignment, and patient engagement.
During his tenure at The Advisory Board, David has held a variety of leadership roles, both as a senior faculty member and as a consultant in the firm's research and insights division. He has also served as senior faculty member for The Advisory Board's international division.
Prior to joining The Advisory Board Company, he served as Senior Vice President of Marketing and Strategy for The Infohrm Group, an IT firm providing business intelligence solutions to the Global 2000.
Previously, David spent ten years with the Corporate Executive Board, a leading management consultancy. He served more than 300 clients, including more than half of the Fortune 100, advising executive teams and boards of directors on organizational strategy, change management, lean/six sigma, and supply chain optimization.
David has an MBA from Yale University and holds a BS in mechanical engineering from Carnegie Mellon University. Originally from Boston, he has lived in Northern Virginia for the past 16 years, but remains a diehard Red Sox fan. He instructs clients on topics of leadership, strategy and communications.
Job Titles:
- Assistant Professor of Religion at Dartmouth College
Devin Singh, Ph.D., works as a consultant, advisor, coach, speaker, and professor. He has over 15 years of experience helping people learn, grow, and develop, in large and small group settings and one-on-one. In addition to his scholarly work on business, culture, and society, Devin specializes in leadership development and personal growth, team dynamics, learning and communication styles, conflict management, and emotional and cultural intelligence.
Devin is Assistant Professor of Religion at Dartmouth College, where he teaches courses on ethics, social capital, and the connections between religion, economics, and politics. He is also a visiting scholar at Harvard Divinity School, serves as a guest lecturer at Tuck School of Business, and previously taught at Yale University. He received his PhD from Yale, MA from University of Chicago, MDiv from Trinity Divinity School, and BA from Pomona College. His work has been nationally and internationally recognized, and has appeared in periodicals such as Time, The Huffington Post, and Harvard Theological Review. His book, Divine Currency, forthcoming with Stanford University Press, examines the surprising connections between money, religion, and politics in the West.
In addition to his university research and teaching, Devin most recently served as an advisor, trainer, and content creator for SurePeople, LLC, an innovative human capital management and analytics firm specializing in emotional, relational, and team intelligence. Devin has authored several thought papers on emotional intelligence. He has also worked in the fields of educational recruitment and admissions, corporate real estate management, grant writing and advancement, nonprofit casework and counseling, and faith-based community development.
Devin has a black belt in Shaolin Kung Fu, and has also trained in Muay Thai and fought full contact in Thailand. His martial arts background has provided opportunities to coach and train others, offer self-defense workshops, and explore mindfulness and meditation techniques, all of which inform his approach to executive training.
Having visited, lived or studied in over 35 countries, Devin brings a global and culturally aware perspective to his teaching and advising. He is passionate about nurturing and directing the innate energies and talents in those he coaches and teaches, and in helping form healthy and sustainable teams and organizational cultures.
As an author, speaker, trainer and consultant, Frank understands the importance of communicating the complicated. He helps clients explain their hard-to-grasp ideas and turn concepts that baffle into comprehensible ideas bosses, regulators and investors embrace. He works with engineers, scientists, economists, lawyers and other smart people helping them mold their ideas into something non-specialists can comprehend. He's been "translating" for the technology elite for over 20 years.
Frank discovered he had a talent for making complex topics easier to understand when organizing industry conferences on telecommunications, cyber security, mining and financial services in the United States, Chile and Brazil. At A.T. Kearney and at The Launch Company, a public relations agency for high-tech start-ups, he honed his skills in de-geeking specialized topics and garnering media attention. He started his own company, Definitive Communications, working with clients such as George Washington University's Creative and Innovative Economy Center, the International Intellectual Property Institute, The Hartford and NASA's Ames Research Center.
The author of Washington Post bestseller Supercommunicator: Explaining the Complicated so Anyone can Understand, Frank appreciates the significance of a changing communication landscape. He coined the term "supercommunicator" to describe a new breed of forward-thinking professional who can apply classic content development skills to a rapidly evolving era of new communication styles. He helps clients explain their complicated concepts and trains people on the critical skills of communications, presentation and visual design, and storytelling.
Frank earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Cornell University. Additionally, he has completed coursework at Universidad Iberoamericano in Mexico, University of Bath in England and the School of Visual Arts.
Job Titles:
- Principal
- Member of the Arthur W. Page Society
Gary Ross has coached corporate leaders for more than 25 years on communicating effectively and managing through change. Equally adept at working with FORTUNE 500 companies and small non-profits, Gary partners with CEOs, VPs and new leaders to help them communicate their vision, engage teams and position their organizations for success.
Combining C-suite savvy with his experience as a journalist, Gary has led change communications efforts supporting international mergers & acquisitions, corporate culture rollouts, benefits changes and more. He works with leaders to build programs that help employees stay focused on their jobs, minimize the anxiety of change, and maintain productivity levels. Gary has also helped leaders navigate through crises, labor issues and other special situations by keeping an eye on the big picture and leading with a calm hand.
Throughout his career, Gary has worked in a variety of industries, including healthcare (pharmaceuticals, medical devices and health systems), technology, manufacturing, consumer goods, hospitality and higher education. He led corporate communications departments at three major corporations: Fortune Brands Home & Security (the parent company of Moen, Master Lock and other consumer brands), CDW, and Hyatt Hotels Corporation.
Beginning his career as a journalist, Gary was a reporter and substitute anchor for WCBD-TV in Charleston, SC, where he was nominated for an Emmy Award in investigative journalism, traveled overseas with the U.S. military and reported from the eye of Category Four Hurricane Hugo. He began his career at the former WRKL-AM in the New York City area as an anchor and reporter. He has spoken at Northwestern University, DePaul University, The Conference Board, The Federal Communicators Network and the Great Place to Work Institute (authors of FORTUNE magazine's "100 Best Companies to Work For" list) on a host of communications and change issues.
Gary is a member of the Arthur W. Page Society, a professional association of senior PR and communications leaders. He has served on the communications committee of the American Red Cross of Greater Chicago and on the advisory board of the Lake County, Illinois chapter of Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA), which provides guidance and support for abused and neglected children. He is also the public address announcer for Northwestern University football and men's basketball.
He holds a Bachelor of Science in journalism degree from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University. He lives in the Chicago suburbs with his wife and two sons.
Job Titles:
- Executive
- Leader
- Principal
- Principal of Wilson Growth Partners
Geoff is a seasoned executive leader with deep experience in strategy consulting and corporate development. He is an acknowledged capability builder and people developer with an abiding passion for clear communication and sharp problem solving skills.
Geoff began his career in finance as a financial analyst with Comerica, Inc. where he focused on analysis and due diligence of early stage venture capital investments. After Comerica and a stint in graduate school, Geoff progressed through McKinsey & Company, where he spent 7 years as a consultant serving clients in the basic materials, transportation, technology, and energy industries on topics ranging from growth strategy to operations strategy.
At McKinsey, Geoff was a leading faculty member for the firm's problem solving curricula. He was a dedicated developer of strategic problem solving talent and served as lead faculty for the firm's Basic Consultant Readiness, Engagement Management Essentials, and multiple operations and strategic leadership topics. Within McKinsey's ecosystem, Geoff was a prolific publisher, publishing well over 20 internal documents and leading a globally recognized knowledge initiative in the strategy space.
Following McKinsey, Geoff served as SVP of Corporate Strategy & Development at Milliken & Company, an innovative, diversified manufacturing company with positions in the specialty chemicals, textiles, and floor covering sectors. At Milliken, Geoff acted as a hands on people developer and strategist, working across the company's portfolio to advance the corporate vision. His activities included building strategic acumen through direct, hands on coaching; building the company's capabilities as they relate to mergers & acquisitions; and driving the development of a unique leadership academy focused on building high potential leaders' capabilities across a set of key attributes.
Geoff graduated from Stanford University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Human Biology and a Master of Arts degree in Sociology. At Stanford, he was a member of the varsity football team and a 30-game starter as an offensive lineman. Geoff also holds an MBA with high distinction from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College.
Geoff now serves as Principal of Wilson Growth Partners, LLC - a strategy consulting firm focused on advising clients on strategic revenue, margin, and productivity growth topics. He is married to Lindsay; and they have four children, 2 dogs, and a significant sleep deficit. Geoff and his family live in Inman, South Carolina.
Greg has broad experience in financial and operational transformations at dozens of organizations, both for-profit and not-for-profit. Since 2011, he has been the founder and President of Two Bell Group, LLC - a consultancy focused on sales operations and growth/turnaround strategy. His clients range from technology startups, to strategy groups of mature global businesses, to foundation-sponsored turnarounds of public institutions.
From 2008 through 2010, he was a sales executive with SmartOps. First based in the United States, then from Brussels as the Director of the EMEA Region, he designed and led the commercial expansion into Europe for the Pittsburgh-based enterprise supply chain software company. Responsible for recruiting, partner, and customer relationships across multiple countries he also worked extensively with executives responsible for supply chain, finance, and IT and helped lead their teams' decisions to deploy SmartOps software.
From 2004 through 2008 he was a consultant at McKinsey & Company focused on general strategy and transformation of sales and operations. His industry experience spans Education/Not-for-profit, Commercial P&C Insurance, High-Tech, Chemical, and Automotive.
Greg earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science while studying on a full academic ROTC scholarship at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, PA. After his service in the United States Navy, he returned to Carnegie Mellon where he earned a Master of Business Administration degree with concentrations in operations, finance, and quantitative analysis. He interned with Amazon.com's Operational Excellence/Six Sigma group.
In addition to his teaching through thought LEADERS, Greg teaches "Strategic Analysis of Business" at Sunstone - India's largest online business school. He also holds Flight Instructor certificates from the United States FAA in single- and multi-engine airplanes, including instrument instructor privileges.
Job Titles:
- Principal
- Founder of Self - Reliant Leadership
Jan has over 25 years of business experience and has held executive roles in business development, marketing, sales, training, product management, and as a CEO. Prior to his business career, Jan joined the U.S. Army at age 17 (weighing 114 pounds) where he spent six years in Special Forces as a medic and "A" team executive officer, and three years as a military intelligence officer.
As a professional speaker, Jan was recognized as one of "The Top 100 Leadership Speakers for 2018" on Inc. Magazine's Inc.com site. Jan presents the self-reliant leadership principles contained in his book The Littlest Green Beret: On Self-Reliant Leadership to business leaders across the U.S. and Europe. Half the proceeds of Jan's book are distributed to the Green Beret and Special Operations Warrior Foundations. Jan also serves on numerous boards, and invests time with select Department of Defense units and veteran organizations.
Jan is the founder of Self-Reliant Leadership, and cohost of The Leadership Podcast. He holds an MBA from the University of Phoenix, where his research focused on the effects of long-distance learning on job performance. He earned his undergraduate degree in Political Science from the University of South Florida, and was a Distinguished Military Graduate. Jan is a dual U.S. and Irish citizen with a special affinity for Ireland and the wilderness of the Western United States.
Joel is a sought-after keynote speaker and corporate trainer who is regularly called upon to address conferences across the country and around the world. He has over 17 years of executive coaching experience working with some of the most influential executives at the world's most respected companies.
His prior experience includes working as a consultant for two of the top consulting firms in the world: Ernst & Young in Hong Kong and Accenture in San Francisco. His background in executive coaching, performance improvement, and change management equips him to help senior executives, directors, and managers achieve results quickly and effectively.
Joel has written seven books and has contributed to the book The Art and Practice of Leadership Coaching and Leader to Leader - the award-winning quarterly journal launched by the Peter F. Drucker Foundation.
Joel's books include:
Getting Ahead: Three Steps to Take Your Career to the Next Level
Executive Presence: Sixteen Characteristics to Help You Advance Up the Corporate Ladder Quickly and Effectively Through Increased Exposure, Visibility, and Self-Promotion
Time Management Mastery: Stress-Free Productivity in the 7 Key Areas of Life (time, projects, people, schedules, information, work/life balance, and abundance)
Get Paid What You're Worth: How to Negotiate a Raise or Higher Starting Salary
Love Your Work: Make the Job You Have the One You've Always Wanted
Land Your Dream Job: The Last Career Search Book You'll Ever Need
Find a Job in 14 Days: A Practical Guide and Process for Finding the Job You Need Fast!
Joel's leadership and coaching skills have been utilized by many large companies in the development of their executive leadership. He's able to share his broad knowledge and perspectives from a variety of real-world situations to help people improve their skills rapidly. Joel's background and his breadth of experience enable him to deliver on the thought LEADERS promise of delivering real experience versus just theory.
Job Titles:
- Founder
- President
- Principal
John Fisher is President and Founder of rethinking IT, a firm that works with IT leaders who want to become business leaders. Based on over 25 years of experience applying technology solutions to critical business problems, and operating the IT function as a profit center, John has developed the Rethink Framework to provide a consistent approach to understanding the current IT environment and creating a roadmap for moving IT to the next level. John is an adjunct faculty member at DePaul University, where he teaches graduate level courses in negotiations, strategy, social media, leadership and project management.
Previously, John served as Chief Information Officer of SmithBucklin Corporation, the world's largest association management and professional services company. He joined SmithBucklin as the company's first CIO and directed the company's information technology resources and investments. He led a number of critical technology initiatives, including implementation of ERP systems and websites, and negotiated a number of high value supplier agreements that were critical to meeting clients' needs for making large technology investments. John also held senior IT management positions at CNA Insurance Companies, and Continental Bank.
John was named one of the Premier 100 IT Leaders for 2006 by Computerworld Magazine, and in 2002, the Windy City Chapter of AITP selected John to receive their CIO of the Year award. He is one of the founding members and past president of the DePaul CTI Alumni Association and the CDM Leadership Council. In 2003 he received DePaul's Alumni Champion Award. John is a member of the Society for Information Management (SIM), the Association of Information Technology Professionals (AITP) and the Executives Club of Chicago. John is a frequent speaker at industry events on topics such as negotiations, leadership and running IT as a business.
John holds an M.S. in Computer Science from DePaul University, a B.S. in Communications from Southern Illinois University, and an M.A. in History of Religions from the University of Ottawa. John focuses on teaching leadership, negotiations and improving how people communicate with others.
Jon is an executive and mental coach, trainer, and speaker. He has delivered over 3,000 public workshops and trainings across nine industry sectors. A graduate of Carleton College and Harvard, his books have been #1 best sellers in 22 categories on Amazon. His work has been featured in O Magazine, Elle, The Huffington Post, Fox, Fast Company, and Psychology Today. His three books Mastering Communication at Work: How to Lead, Manage, and Influence, The Three Commitments of Leadership: How Clarity, Stability, and Rhythm Create Great Leaders, and Hijacked by Your Brain: Discovering the Path to Freedom From Stress teach leaders the essential communication, leadership, and stress reduction skills that make them the kind of people others want to work with, and the kind of managers, executives, and coaches that produce teams of leaders.
He began his training career in 2005 with a division of Time Warner, and has since worked with Fortune 500, start-up, universities, and non-profit organizations to improve resilience, executive and board communication, client relationships, and leadership.
In the non-profit world, he has trained dozens of towns and affiliate groups in addition to thousands of public sector leaders to be strategic communicators and intentionally manage stress. He has led 43 service projects to cities like New York and Toronto and disaster areas like New Orleans. The suburban-urban partnership program he co-led for a decade in Worcester, MA has provided summer camp for 80-100 1st through 6th graders every summer.
Jon also coaches on the PGA tour, assists the golf team at the University of Connecticut, teaches Philosophy and Ethics at the Institute for Rowing Leadership, and serves an advisor to Wholesome Wave which provides millions of healthy fruits and vegetables a year to those in need. He lives with his wife outside Boston.
Watch Jon discuss your body's stress response and how you can be a more effective leader by better managing that stress.
Job Titles:
- Principal
- Member of the Prestigious Thinkers50 Radar Group
Kaihan is committed to helping organizations and individuals thrive in today's era of fast-paced, disruptive technological change.
He began his career with McKinsey & Company before founding the growth strategy and innovation consulting firm Outthinker. His growth strategies and innovations have generated over $2.5B in revenue for many of the world's most recognizable companies including BNY Mellon, Citibank, L'Oréal, Microsoft, and Viacom. A best-selling author of five books, including Outthink the Competition and Driving Innovation from Within: A Guide for Internal Entrepreneurs, Kaihan also founded the Outthinker Strategy Network - a community comprised of strategy executives from the world's top Fortune 500 and private companies.
Kaihan is a member of the prestigious Thinkers50 radar group - a global selection of the top management thinkers in the world to follow. He was also shortlisted by Thinkers50 for a Distinguished Achievement Award in Innovation - awarded to the person in the world that has contributed the most to the world's understanding of innovation in the past two years. Kaihan is currently ranked the Thinkers360 #1 Global Innovation Thought Leader and the Thinkers360 #1 Global Business Strategy Thought Leader.
Kaihan teaches at business schools throughout the US and internationally. Regularly featured in major business media outlets, Kaihan is an advisory board member for a blockchain-powered transportation platform, an international food processing/exporting company, and a B-corporation focused on sustainable products and lifestyle.
He holds degrees from the University of Pennsylvania School of Engineering, Wharton, Columbia, and London Business Schools and a doctorate in strategy.
Job Titles:
- Principal
- Director of Learning Solutions at Veritas
As a facilitator, coach, keynote speaker, and executive, Kerri offers over 20 years' experience in leadership development, program and project management, operations, call center management, global and outsourcing enablement, service, and sales. Across the globe, she has led learners in experiential programs in a way that is engaging, yet with focused outcomes. Applying her certifications in the art and science of communication and facilitation, she has designed, developed, and delivered technical and soft skill programs for executives, managers, and associates. In her roles at Intuit, Symantec, and Veritas, Kerri built programs and tools to build employee bench strength and to amplify results. Additional experience includes holding leadership positions in the legal, payroll, and technology industries.
At Intuit, Kerri held leadership positions in the Support organization, led the Learning organization for Sales and Services where she designed strategy and execution plans to deliver on business unit learning and development needs, and oversaw outsourced vendor training strategy and implementation. She created a revenue model to supply customers with external education resulting in the ability to self-fund her entire learning function. As the Personal Growth and Development Leader at Intuit, Kerri collaborated with leaders, teams, and individuals to identify their personal and professional development needs and build plans to remedy skill gaps. She introduced personal development courses, team interventions, and various agile experiments to elevate performance and increase organizational effectiveness. Team intervention resulted in an increase from the team averaging 68% CSAT to over 90%. Kerri certified 115 employees in the Facilitation Skills for Trainers Program so a sustainable and scalable program was left in place for front line leaders to teach others.
As Director of Learning Solutions at Veritas, Kerri partnered globally with delivery leaders, enabling functions, sales, and other groups. She facilitated executive meetings, quarterly business reviews, offsites, team meetings, and focus groups. Kerri's personal coaching of senior leaders and managers inside the organization boasts a 100% record of role promotion of her coachees. Under her direction, new hire 90-day CSAT increased from 59% to over 85% and time to resolution was reduced by 23%. Kerri's programs received near-perfect Net Promoter scores. Her custom-designed leadership program was proven to have a 6:1 ROI, returning over $1.1MM in revenue impact and earning a 100% Net Promoter score.
Kerri earned an undergraduate degree in Political Science (with a minor in Latin American Studies) from the University of California, San Diego and an MBA with emphasis in eBusiness/global. She was a NCAA softball and soccer player and only recently retired both her cleats and her coaching whistle. Married and the mom of three young adults, Kerri now spends her free time traveling, boating and fishing, exploring the areas around her home town of Reno, NV and volunteering.
Kim Wasson brings a unique blend of common sense, pragmatism, structure, and empathy to her work in project management, risk engineering, process engineering, and employee engagement/team building. She works with both individuals and organizations including companies ranging in size from start-up to Fortune 500 with primary businesses in software development, SAAS, manufacturing, design, medical devices, hardware development, and distribution.
Kim has over 30 years of experience in software development, project/program management, process engineering, and management. She worked primarily in software development in companies both large and small including IBM and eBay. She has also worked for innovative start-ups like General Magic and FusionOne in positions from line engineer to VP. Kim brings a deep knowledge of tools and techniques plus the experience to combine them for practical, tailored solutions.
Kim holds a BS in Computer Science from CSU Chico and an MS in Industrial Engineering and Engineering Management from Stanford University. Kim is PMP certified, a member of PMI, and is active on the PMI Speakers Hub. Her book, The Socially Intelligent Project Manager - Soft Skills that Prevent Hard Days, teaches leaders how critical interpersonal skills are when it comes to successful project management. In her spare time Kim plays with horses and trains in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.
Loree Draude brings over 30 years of leadership and training experience to her clients. As one of the first women to fly combat jets in the U.S. Navy, she understands the challenges of leaders supporting teams in high-performance environments. After earning a B.A. in Mathematics at the University of San Diego, she began her naval aviation career as a support pilot at VAQ-34, flying F/A-18 Hornets at NAS Lemoore, CA. When the Combat Exclusion ban for women was lifted, Loree transitioned to a combat jet aviation squadron where she flew the S-3B Viking and led divisions of sailors who maintain aircraft and weapons. Loree completed two six-month deployments to the Persian Gulf on the USS Abraham Lincoln and the USS Kitty Hawk, accumulating over 300 carrier landings.
After her naval service, Loree earned an MBA at the Wharton School at The University of Pennsylvania. She began her civilian career as a management consultant at Bain & Company, then went on to lead teams at startups and tech companies - including Google and Facebook - in marketing, operations, customer support and online learning organizations. In 2019, she became an executive coach and leadership consultant supporting leaders and teams in the tech industry. She is the host of the Supersonic Leaders and Teams podcast and a popular keynote presenter.
Loree wrote and performed a one-woman show called, "I Feel the Need," about the various forms of flight in her life. She performed the show to a sold-out audience off-Broadway at the United Solo Theatre Festival in 2021 and at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2022. When she is not supporting leaders or speaking on a stage, she enjoys painting (www.encaustech.com), traveling, live music, yoga, hiking and flying.
Job Titles:
- Principal
- Director of Leadership Development for the Cleveland Clinic
Lori has over 20 years of experience as an executive coach, trainer and designer of nationally award-winning accelerated leadership development programs. Her passion is to serve others through coaching and teaching by introducing strategies and tools to help people reach their goals with more ease and efficiency.
As the Director of Leadership Development for the Cleveland Clinic, Lori led the leadership development strategy for over 3,500 leaders including leadership forums, leadership tracks, accelerated development programs for high potentials, assessments and executive coaching. These programs and services had a direct impact on key metrics including targets for "ready now" successors, retention rates of high performers and percentage of leadership roles filled with internal candidates.
She also spent six years leading and designing career and leadership development programs for the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland. Her design and management of the Emerging Leader Program earned her the American Society of Training & Development "Excellence in Practice" award in 2010. During the first 15 years of her career, Lori led career development and academic support programs at Case Western Reserve University, The University of Georgia and Baldwin-Wallace University.
Lori holds multiple coaching and assessment certifications. Her coaching certifications include Certified Leadership and Talent Management Coach (CLTMC), Gallup Strengths Performance Coach, Leadership Maturity Framework Coach and Job and Career Transition Coach. She is certified to administer the Hogan Assessment Suite, Emotional and Social Competency Inventory, Myers-Briggs Type Indicator and Strong Interest inventory. She has a Master of Arts from Bowling Green State University and Bachelor of Arts in Communications from Ashland University.
Lori resides in Rocky River, Ohio with her husband and two daughters. She enjoys making the most use of her green space with perennial and vegetable gardens, staying fit, and watching her daughters play volleyball after "retiring" from the sport herself.
Job Titles:
- Principal
- Voice and Communication Coach
- Voice Coach With an
Louise Crowley is a voice and communication coach with over fifteen years' experience working in the private sector. She provides one-to-one coaching to senior leaders, runs small group workshops, and gives talks on voice, presence, and personal brand. She has coached over two hundred board-level directors in a range of industries including pharmaceuticals, law, banking, and technology, and has delivered leadership development programs across the globe. In addition to business executives, she has also worked with professional speakers and broadcast journalists at the BBC and Bloomberg.
Louise is a qualified voice coach with an MA in Voice Studies from the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama and an IPA diploma in phonetics from the International Phonetics Association. Prior to becoming a communication coach, she was a television continuity announcer and voice artist for 20 years which provides her the experience that has given her a unique understanding of how to use the voice to engage, influence, and inspire. She believes that how we communicate is what we communicate and that by properly applying the power of the voice we can communicate more powerfully and persuasively.
Louise is originally from New Zealand but has been based in London since 1990. She recently spent two years living in Mexico, where she furthered her interest in working with women from diverse backgrounds, providing training to female leaders from indigenous groups. She now balances her corporate coaching in the UK with voluntary work helping women from disadvantaged backgrounds return to the workforce. She is a keen exponent of yoga and occasional marathon runner.
Over the last 20 years Marcy Schwab has been applying her unusual combination of talents in strategy, analytics, creativity, and people skills in organizations ranging from large corporations to start-ups. She has envisioned and built groundbreaking financial services products within Fortune 200 companies, consulted start-ups on strategy and culture development, and has coached senior level executives within the Fortune 200, not-for-profit sector, and fledgling businesses.
She graduated with honors from the School of Engineering and Applied Science at the University of Pennsylvania and earned an MBA from The Wharton School. Marcy started her career as a consultant with Mercer Management Consulting and cut her teeth in the operations world at Pizza Hut, Inc. as an operations and financial senior analyst working with restaurant staff and area operations managers.
After business school, Marcy took on progressively more senior leadership roles at Capital One, building several businesses. With the opportunity to build the Internet business for the Card division, Marcy defined credit policy and online credit card products, built the processes to process credit applications, and built the marketing engine to reach $1B in credit outstandings in just 3 years. In the ensuing years, she reached the level of Senior Vice President, building the company's online retail deposit presence and integrated retail banking into Capital One's existing infrastructure and culture.
Marcy moved to Sallie Mae to elevate the company's stature in the banking industry. She and her team created a new deposit business, taking into account Sallie Mae's strong position as a student lender. While at Sallie Mae, Marcy attended Georgetown's Leadership Coaching program and began her executive coaching practice in earnest, both as an internal coach and coaching external executives.
Most recently she's worked with clients across industries to identify their strategic objectives. She regularly coaches top leaders and helps them organize for success. Based in Northern Virginia, she remains committed to her hometown Baltimore Orioles and spends her weekends and evenings cheering on her children on the soccer field.
Throughout her career, Martha has held various leadership positions with organizations including AIG, MetLife, and McKinsey & Company. She has significant C-Suite exposure, having worked for and with C-Suite executives for investments, data science, legal, operations, finance, and technology functions.
Her last "in house" position was AVP of Change Management at MetLife. She recently returned to consulting. She has consulting experience helping major global companies and institutions form strategies, articulate value propositions, build communications capabilities, execute marketing strategies, coach top level executives, and identify innovation opportunities. Her methods are rooted in her McKinsey experience and design thinking training.
Martha holds a Bachelor's Degree in Government and Women's Studies from the University of Maryland and earned her Certificate in Interior Design from Parsons School of Design. She has earned certificates in design thinking from Rutgers and MIT. Martha currently serves on the Rutgers University Executive Design Thinking Advisory Board and was previously a member of the NYC Social Media Week Advisory Board.
Maureen Metcalf brings 26 years of business experience to support your leadership and organizational success. She is recognized as an effective leader who demonstrates operational skills coupled with the ability to analyze, develop, and implement successful strategies for profitability, growth and sustainability. She is the author of The Innovative Leadership Fieldbook - a leading text for managers, executives and individual contributors providing a combination of well-researched theory with practical business case studies. The book defines leadership from a thoughtful, new perspective and provide six-step process for developing strong leadership qualities.
Mike is the founder and managing director of our firm. He's an executive, an entrepreneur, a trainer, and an author.
Mike's first book One Piece of Paper: The Simple Approach to Powerful, Personal Leadership is designed to help leaders define who they are and what their personal leadership philosophy is. His second book Lead Inside the Box: How Smart Leaders Guide Their Teams to Exceptional Results shows leaders how to better allocate their energy across their team members to achieve higher levels of performance. Mike's third book The Elegant Pitch: Create a Compelling Recommendation, Build Broad Support, and Get it Approved covers a tried and true method for getting your ideas across in an efficient and effective way. It's the same method covered in the thought LEADERS Structured Thought & Communications course. He is also one of the top authors on LinkedIn Learning where his video-based training courses have been viewed millions of times.
He graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1993 where he was an honor graduate and a Distinguished Cadet. Upon graduation, he was commissioned as an officer in the United States Army. He spent five years as an Armor officer in a variety of roles including Tank Platoon Leader, Company Executive Officer, Squadron Personnel Officer and ROTC Instructor at Duke University.
After leaving the Army, he joined McKinsey and Company as a management consultant. He served clients in several industries (banking, retail, healthcare, chemicals, and technology) on a variety of issues (strategy, mergers & acquisitions, cost reductions, growth and business building). He also published many of his findings in professional development documents proprietary to McKinsey as well as publishing an article in The McKinsey Quarterly.
Mike next worked at Capital One Financial as Group Manager of Strategy & Analysis and as Director of Specialty Collections. He was responsible for $1B in collections, a $125MM budget and the performance of 150 employees. The initiatives his teams put in place delivered over $125MM in value.
Mike's most recent roles were Vice President, Quality Improvement, Customer Service, Business Development & Service Support for Scotts LawnService where he was responsible for acquisitions, division strategy, technology infrastructure, customer service, and franchise operations. Previously, he was Vice President, Strategic Planning at The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company where he was responsible for setting the strategic direction of the company by working directly with the executive team (CEO, CFO, Division Presidents) to assess where to take the business long-term and then identifying opportunities to achieve corporate goals.
Mike founded thought LEADERS because he believes practitioners make the best instructors and because he has a passion for people development and organizational improvement. He was named the Columbus, Ohio Small Business Leader of the Year by the Columbus Chamber of Commerce and Business First, and has been recognized as one of the Top 100 Leadership Experts in the world in Inc. Magazine.
He is an avid fisherman, skier, and poker player. He lives in Gahanna, Ohio.
Mike Lynn has been helping people learn for nearly 25 years. His experiences span informal and formal training, extensive delivery and facilitation, one-on-one coaching, virtual learning and training management. He has run the training function for a 300 person global consulting firm, served as the local office learning manager for the Midwest office of McKinsey & Company, trained extensively on professional skills, communications, problem-solving, and MBTI, and served numerous individual clients in an individual coaching capacity.
He was an honors graduate from Loyola University. Mike took a communications training role at Arthur Andersen's Center for Professional Education, designing and producing educational and institutional videos to support global learning. He moved to a training and communications role at the Inland Press Association where he helped key executives build their leadership, communications and revenue development skills.
Mike returned to Arthur Andersen to train partners, managers, and broad industry teams how to cultivate prospect relationships and close large engagement sales. He then joined the CPA firm Ostrow Reisin Berk & Abrams, Ltd. as the firm's marketing director, bringing business development and leadership coaching and training to the entire staff.
In his next role at McKinsey & Company he focused on training and individual coaching on a wide range of communications topics, and then broadened his role to focus on problem-solving skills, management, team development, and MBTI. Mike was responsible for leading training programs for new consultants and engagement managers. He was also responsible for driving and delivering in-person and virtual training sessions on business strategy.
After McKinsey, Mike was Head of Learning and Development at Prophet - a global marketing and branding consultancy. Mike helped the firm create its first-ever global training curriculum, with programs targeted across a range of consulting tenures, roles and specialties. He worked closely with the firm's performance management team to ensure training offerings matched broad development needs, and constructed strategies and budgets for executing effective training programs.
Mike lives in Des Plaines, Illinois with his son. He has been a board member and volunteer for various nonprofit organizations. Mike recently started taking bass guitar lessons and also dabbles in song lyrics and other forms of writing.
Mike graduated from Lafayette College in 1996 with dual degrees in Economics & Business and German. He joined Management Planning, Inc., a financial advisory firm focused on business valuation. His next position was as an associate at White Williams Private Equity Partners in Austria, a venture capital and private equity firm. White Williams managed over $200 million invested in twenty-five companies through five investment funds. Mike began as an Associate working on all phases of the investment lifecycle and was promoted to Director of Research.
He then returned to the US to earn his MBA at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. He earned four majors at Kellogg including management and strategy, operations, marketing, and analytical consulting. After an internship at the Boston Consulting Group in Germany, Mike joined Archstone Consulting, a boutique strategy and operations consulting firm. He served clients in a variety of industries on numerous functional issues (strategic planning, supply chain, strategic sourcing, finance transformation, change management).
Mike's next role was as Senior Manager of Corporate Development and Planning at Purepay Capital, a $100 million private equity firm focused on the financial technology and payment processing sector. He was responsible for planning and development activities with executive management of portfolio companies and for analyzing industry trends. He led various strategic and tactical projects as directed by Purepay's CEO.
After Purepay, Mike helped start and grow a consulting firm, Griffin Strategic Advisors. After roughly four years, he was part of the leadership team which sold Griffin to Acosta and joined Acosta's consulting arm (AMG Strategic Advisors) as Vice President.
HIs next challenge was as VP of Operations for HOMAGE, a fast growing apparel retailer based in Columbus, Ohio. In this role, Mike helped HOMAGE scale its infrastructure and oversaw the warehouse/shipping operations, supply chain, order fulfillment and customer service functions.
Mike is currently Managing Director at Summit Global Advisors, a boutique management consulting firm focused on helping companies develop and execute strategies to drive and fund growth. He resides in Upper Arlington, Ohio with his wife and three children. He is an avid downhill skier and also spends an incredible amount of his free time watching his kids play soccer, lacrosse and other sports.
Job Titles:
- Executive
- Principal
- Training Consultant
Mitesh Kapadia is an accomplished executive training consultant with a distinctive blend of technical expertise and a deep commitment to personal growth. His experiences span from IT auditing to co-founding yoga studios and integrating mindfulness into leadership training.
At the core of Mitesh's expertise is a dedicated focus on supporting individuals in becoming effective leaders. He helps professionals stand confidently in their communication skills and demonstrate executive presence.
With over 15 years of experience as a learning partner and workshop facilitator, Mitesh has become a trusted consultant for Fortune 500 companies. He has served industry giants such as Apple, Cisco, Pfizer, PNC, Johnson & Johnson, Genentech, Salesforce, Verizon, PWC, Lockheed Martin, Cognizant, Microsoft, Oracle, Intel, Abbott Labs, Adobe, and Ebay.
Mitesh began his professional journey in 2005, joining Goldman Sachs as a Senior Analyst in their IT Auditing Department. In 2007, he shifted his focus to training and development. In addition to his role as a training consultant, the following years saw him co-founding and owning two yoga studios in Silicon Valley, showcasing his versatility and dedication to holistic well-being. During his year-long sabbatical in 2011, Mitesh embarked on a transformative journey near the Himalayas in India, where he studied as a yoga and mindfulness teacher.
He has global experience, having conducted training sessions in Canada, India, Singapore, Mexico, Australia, and Thailand. His commitment to transformative learning is evident in his work with over 10,000 participants across various industries over the past 15 years. Mitesh blends elements from mindfulness, improv theater, and entrepreneurship into his sessions, creating a dynamic and engaging learning experience.
Mitesh holds a Master of Science in Information Systems and a Bachelor's in Computer Engineering, both earned from Stevens Institute of Technology. Mitesh currently lives in Northern California, in the midst of pristine Tahoe National Forest with his wife and two kids
Monica Jerath is a recognized specialist adult educator, a part of adult education professionals' network contributing to Continuing Education and Training (CET) in Singapore. She has over 30 years of experience in consulting, facilitation, coaching, learning and development, talent management and C-Level engagements. As an employee and entrepreneur providing training and management consulting, she has worked with numerous clients across Asia. Complementing her business and managerial roles, she also has wide experience in consulting, coaching, and facilitation. Her practical, structured and analytical approach is complemented by her creative and independent nature.
She is a computer science graduate and specialist by academic qualifications and, after working in the technical domain for 10 years in India, she moved into consulting for Morgan Stanley, Tokyo. She was instrumental in setting up process workflow management systems for their IT teams and eventually moved to building process and communication workflows between different departments of Morgan Stanley. This experience gave her a deeper understanding of people, different personality types, cultural nuances, and how all these factors impact professional and personal relationships at work. She became deeply interested in how to manage and lead people, which led her to move into soft skills accreditations and facilitation. Today, she is a certified neuro-linguistic practitioner and has numerous certifications for many professional assessments and development methodologies.
Monica has used her extensive multi-cultural business experience and proven coaching and training techniques to take her clients on a journey to peak performance in many areas. She has worked with clients to improve their business performance by sales and channel transformation. She has designed a comprehensive sales competency assessment and development framework to take salespeople through a sales transformation journey backed by effective sales management and coaching. She has also successfully implemented a ROI model on all learning and development initiatives for her clients.
She has also led many leadership interventions and talent development projects ranging from top talent development to succession planning for senior executives. Her work also includes teaching how to manage effective communication, collaboration and building trust amongst teams and has helped them move from a fixed mindset to a growth mindset culture.
Monica was born and raised in India, lived and worked in Japan for a few years, and now is permanently settled in Singapore. She loves to travel and listen to the tales and stories of different places, people, and cultures. Wherever she goes, she loves to walk and talk.