WOO WOW WIN - Key Persons

Job Titles:

• President of Aerten Consulting

Patricia O'Connell is president of Aerten Consulting, a New York City-based firm that works with companies to devise content strategies and develop thought leadership for top management. Her interest in service design expresses a lifelong pursuit of the idea that "there's got to be a better way." She is the writer, with author Neil Smith, of the New York Times bestseller How Excellent Companies Avoid Dumb Things Breaking the Eight Hidden Barriers that Plague Even the Best Businesses. Patricia is twelve-year veteran of Bloomberg Businessweek.com, where she served as news editor and subsequently as the management editor. There she worked with writers and thought leaders like John Byrne, Marshall Goldsmith, Dov Seidman, Bill George, Ben Heineman, Don Tapscott, Bruce Weinstein, and others, while overseeing the design and launch of new channels and services. A graduate of Boston College, Patricia has worked with such organizations as the Project Management Institute, the Association of Management Consulting Firms, Strategy&, Boston Consulting Group, Hay Group (now part of Korn Ferry), Stephens Inc., Savannah College of Art and Design, and T. Rowe Price.

Job Titles:

• Chief Knowledge Officer of Achieve

Thomas A. Stewart and Patricia O'Connell are co-authors of the bestselling book Woo, Wow, and Win: Service Design, Strategy, and the Art of Customer Delight. Drawing on their combined experience as management experts, thought leaders, and journalists, Tom and Patricia offer groundbreaking insights into how companies create memorable, differentiating customer experiences that boost reputation, customer satisfaction, and the bottom line. Tom Stewart is the Chief Knowledge Officer of AchieveNext, a learning & development ecosystem that provides executives, teams, and enterprises with benchmarking, peer networks, and solutions for next level performance. He is an influential thought leader on global management issues and ideas and an authority on intellectual capital and knowledge management. Before joining AchieveNext, Tom was the Executive Director of the National Center for the Middle Market, at The Ohio State University. He came to the NCMM from international consulting firm Booz & Company (now called Strategy&), where he was Chief Marketing and Knowledge Officer. He was for six years the Editor-in-Chief of Harvard Business Review and earlier served as a member of the Board of Editors of Fortune. He is the author of two other books, Intellectual Capital: The New Wealth of Organizations and The Wealth of Knowledge: Intellectual Capital and the Twenty-first Century Organization. He has published articles in Harvard Business Review, strategy + business, Fortune Inc., Financial Times, and more. Tom is a summa cum laude graduate of Harvard College and holds an honorary doctorate from Bayes Business School, City University London.