Michael Cherry is President of Cherry and Associates. He is an executive coach with experience assisting organizations and individuals in achieving strategic, business objectives through leadership development and performance management. He is versed in team development, strategic planning, Not-for-Profit management, merger and acquisitions and job transition coaching. He has know-how in training design and delivery, human resources management, group and individual facilitation, program and instructional design/development and change management. He has coached both domestic and international clients.

In addition to his coaching work, Mike is a faculty member of the College of Business at Lewis University and serves as Academic Coordinator of Adult Business Programs. He teaches Business Communication and Organizational Development to both undergraduate and graduate students. As Academic Coordinator he is responsible for the overall character, content and quality of the University’s Accelerated Business Programs.

Key Career Accomplishments

• Created and implemented customized, leadership coaching/development programs and supporting documentation and tools for more than 10 client organizations.
• Developed 360-degree competency models and facilitated competency-based performance management and leadership improvement programs.
• Conducted benchmarking studies of coaching practices used to facilitate leadership readiness initiatives.
• Participated in designing and implementing successful cultural and “best practices” integration programs for mergers and acquisitions.
• Spearheaded the development of new product offerings to comply with legislative boundaries.
• Developed and implemented screening, selection, orientation and performance assessment programs.
• Conducted national, client satisfaction surveys.
• Designed and implemented values-based leadership programs to address organizational goals/direction.

Education

• MSA, Not-for-Profit Management, University of Notre Dame, Indiana
• MBA, Leadership & Organizational Change, San José State University, San Jose, California
• BSC, Business Administration, Santa Clara University, Santa Clara, California

Clients have included

Joan Dauria has over twenty years of human resources management experience in the media, internet, technology and financial services industries.  Originally from the east coast, Joan worked in New York City at Paramount Pictures and then spent fourteen years in various human resources leadership positions at TimeInc, culminating as a Group Director for Time Magazine, the consumer marketing division and the People Weekly franchise. Time Inc is the world’s largest magazine publisher and a division of Time Warner.

She relocated to the Bay Area to join the new management team at ZDNet as Vice President, Human Resources where she established the function.  After ZDNet was acquired by CNET Networks, she became the Vice President, Human Resources for the CNET Media Group. In 2002 she joined LookSmart LTD, an internet search company as Vice President of Human Resources.  Most recently Joan was the Senior Vice President of Human Resources for Visa USA. In each role she had responsibility for all human resources disciplines both domestically and internationally.

Joan demonstrates effective leadership, organizational, problem solving and interpersonal skills. She leverages her strong background and experience with early stage companies as well as Fortune 100 corporations. She acts as a coach, facilitator and change agent in working with individuals to leverage their style and vision to achieve results.

Joan is a member of the Human Resources Committee of the Girl Scouts of the Bay Area, a Guide Dogs for the Blind volunteer, serves on the advisory board of the Santa Clara University Leavey School of Business HR Leadership Program and she is a coach/mentor for Women Unlimited.

Joan is a graduate of Rhode Island College with a dual major in Education and Psychology. She is qualified in the use and interpretation of a variety of assessment tools including the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator and Personality Dimensions.

Social Psychologist
Leadership Consulting

Biographical:
Shaye has 15 years of experience working with leading edge start ups, Global Corporations, and privately held companies. She is an adjunct Professor in the College of Business, MBA program at San Jose State University, California where she teaches courses in Leadership, Managerial Communication and Organization Behavior. She and her graduate students are currently conducting corporate sponsored research on how to improve the way change is communicated in organizations. Her expertise as a Leadership Consultant focuses on helping executives and their teams influence for results, develop communication and decision making competencies, and focus their attention where it counts. She has worked with CEOs, CFOs, and CIOs that need to be more confident and decisive when in the “hot seat”; attorneys that need to develop more persuasive opening and closing arguments; and teams that must work together productively for the success of the organization.

Shaye grew up in the Detroit area and started her career consulting with auto companies and their unions. She has lived in Silicon Valley for the past nine years and works with some of the leading technology, internet, and professional services organizations. Shaye has a Ph.D. in Organizational Communication with an emphasis in Social Psychology from Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan.

Areas of Expertise:

• Strategic communication
• Influence
• Decision making and critical thinking
• Team and interpersonal problem solving
• Skill development for communication competencies
• Social science based research and needs assessment
• Speech writing
• Change management
• Organizational development

Shaye has created numerous developmental programs and facilitation models that get breakthrough results with executives and their teams.

Representative Clients:
Sun Microsystems, Intuit, Hewlett-Packard, Westpak, InSilicon, Tarlton Properties, Inc. Salary.com, Laurus Consulting, Rapt Technologies, GAP, Yahoo, Applied Materials, United Defense, Solano County Health and Social Services, Icarian, Open Wave, Silicon Graphics (SGI), Microsoft, and Wyse Technologies.

Current clients include:
Hewlett-Packard, Sun Micro Systems, GMAC, CNET, Palm Source, BEA, Westpak, San Jose State University, and Roche Diagnostics

Meg Ellis, an ExecutivEdge of Silicon Valley associate, is a reformed mainframe programmer, information systems analyst, and computer salesperson. Meg is also a leadership consultant, facilitator, and a qualifying trainer for Myers-Briggs Type Indicator. She coaches corporate personnel at all levels using a combination of assessments, listening, skillful questioning, and knowledge of best practices and personality type.

Meg promotes honest dialogue for breakthrough learning, identifying and enhancing individual strengths, and facilitating groups for problem solving. All of this is designed to achieve business and personal objectives.

Her clients have included Apple, Blue Shield of California, Cadence, Chase Manhattan, Chevron, Citibank, Excite, GE Captial companies, Greenlight.com, Hertz, Morgan Stanley, Mobil Oil, Pepsi, Proxicom, Oracle, Robert Mondavi Winery and Sun.

She has a BS in mathematics, and a MA in psychology from the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology, and extensive training with Newfield Network in coaching.

Robin Fields is an associate with ExecutivEdge of Silicon Valley. Robin has over eighteen years of combined human resource management, operations management experience and personal and professional coaching.

Since 2000, she has been an independent consultant, working in the areas of coaching and OD consulting. She has intensive experience with cross-cultural issues in leadership development, as she has worked with executives around the world, from a variety of cultures and countries. She has a passion for executive and team development.

Robin worked at Applied Materials for six years, where she consistently was ranked in the top three senior HR Management employees. Robin held three different titles while there, including HR Director-CMP Product Business Group. She was responsible for organization development, executive and managaement development and all other HR generalist activity. Robin also participated on the Corporate Executive Development steering committee, which was responsible for providing guidance to the Global VP of HR and the Office of the President on the development of a corporate-wide executive development strategy and program. From 1985 to 1994, Robin worked at Automatic Date Processing and Xlimage Corporation.

Her clients include Asyst Technologies, Ubicom, Sun Microsystems, Applied Materials, as well as several individual clients.

Robin holds a MS in Organization Developoment from University of San Francisco and a BS degree in Psychology from Santa Clara University. She also has her professional coaching certification from the Coaches Training Institute.

Experience
I have been an independent consultant to companies and non-profit
organizations since 1991. In addition, I have taught in the Master’s in
business at St. Edward’s University. In over 30 years in the technology
industry, I have held in-house positions as:

This cross-functional background enables me to see the various facets of your organization from a broad perspective and help you arrive at systemic solutions.

Education
B.A. Mathematics, Texas A&I University
M.A. Organization Development, The Fielding Graduate University
Ph.D. Human and Organization Systems, The Fielding Graduate University

I was trained as a scholar-practitioner. This means that I weave together a thorough grounding in the theory of how people and organizations work with solid practical experience, using theory to improve my practice and practical experience to enhance theoretical knowledge.

Key Skills

• Using a systemic view to drive enduring change
• Creating and executing plans on time, on budget
• Working across functions to achieve company-wide goals
• Developing managers
• Capturing and clarifying complex ideas -- in writing or orally

This unique combination of skills enables me to work simultaneously at the individual, team, and organization level to help your organization achieve its goals.

Affiliations

• TexChange Board of Directors
• National Coalition for Dialogue and Deliberation
• Women in Technology International (WITI)

As President/Owner of Bonnie Gallup & Associates, Bonnie Gallup has worked with corporate leaders and teams for over 25 years. She has designed and implemented a major corporate values initiative, conducted 360 feedback programs and developed leaders and teams in a variety of industries from banking to hi tech throughout the United States, Europe and Asia.  Pleased with results and reliability, clients establish long term partnerships with Bonnie. They value her “inside-outside” perspective: knowing their organization and culture while bringing in her expertise and new ideas from other client experiences.

Bonnie’s consulting focuses on:

• ensuring that newly hired or promoted leaders develop followership from day one
• leader’s who need to address negative leadership performance feedback
• experienced leaders who know they must continue to learn and change

Committed to using a systems approach, Bonnie works with leaders and their teams to improve teamwork and communication. She specializes in integrating newly merged teams. Bonnie’s focus over the last five years has been supporting corporate women in their leadership roles. She is currently researching models of successful women leadership styles.

Bonnie has a BS in Education, an MA in Educational Technology and a Master’s in Neurolinguistics. Dedicated to lifelong learning, she keeps on the leading edge of every aspect of her work by attending conferences and training so she can have access to current thought leaders. She has served on the board of the South Bay Organizational Development Network, Global Women’s Leadership Network and the UC Berkeley Human Resources Extension Program. She was an adjunct professor at San Francisco State University and taught courses at UC Berkeley Extension.

José Luis (Joe) Garcia, Ph.D., is an associate of ExecutivEdge of Silicon Valley . He is a Lominger Limited, Inc. Associate and is a managing partner of Human Resources Decisions International, Inc. (HRDI), a human resources and development consulting firm. His firm helps organizations design and implement selection and development processes, build competency models, and create change strategies. HRDI also provides executive coaching, career planning and counseling, and multi-rater feedback assignments.

Dr. Garcia has 15 years of business experience in medical equipment, manufacturing, retail, service, hospitality, life science, and financial organizations, including eight Fortune 500 companies. Prior to starting his consulting practice, he was Senior Vice President of human resources for The Scientific World, Inc., a leading provider of scientific information to the pharmaceutical, environmental and biotechnology industries. He works with senior management groups to create talent management processes aimed at selecting and developing future organizational leaders.

He has extensive international experience. He has consulted with multinationals in Latin America and the Caribbean and has led major selection and organization development projects in Mexico, Venezuela, Argentina, and Brazil. He is fluent in Spanish and English.

Dr. Garcia is a frequent presenter at national conferences speaking about his work in the areas of selection and leadership development. Additionally, he teaches courses in human resource management, organizational behavior, and cross-cultural human relations for the State of Florida University system and the University of Miami.

He received his masters in psychology from the University of Miami and his Ph.D. in human and organizational development at the University of Miami and The Fielding Institute.

Lesly Higgins, MS is an associate with ExecutivEdge of Silicon Valley. She has over twenty years of experience in coaching, consulting, leadership and management, primarily with high tech companies.

Lesly's career includes executive positions with Charles Schwab and Commerce One, and management roles at Sybase and Sun Microsystems. At Commerce One, she was responsible for the first web-based releases of product, for building out a strong and effective software engineering organization and for implementing processes and structures in support of the company's move to go public. At Charles Schwab, as a senior member of the technology organization, Lesly led major cross-functional initiatives in the application solution and infrastructure areas.

Leveraging her experience with both early stage and established companies, Lesly has been providing executive coaching and organizational development consulting services since 1999. Lesly demonstrates effective leadership, organizational, analytical, holistic problem solving and interpersonal skills. She couples her humanistic approach with a passion for results.

Lesly's clients include: America Online, Autodesk, Charles Schwab, CNET, Commerce One, Google, Peoplesoft, Shutterfly, TiVo, U.S. Bancorp, Piper Jaffray and Wilson Sonsini, Goodrich and Rosati. She is an advisory board member of the High Tech HR Forums.

Lesly holds a MS degree in organizational behavior and development from Golden Gate University, and coaching certifications from the Professional School of Psychology and New Ventures West.

Lisa’s professional experience includes over 20 years in Senior Leadership roles within Consulting and High Technology organizations.  Lisa has extensive experience as a Coach to leaders, a Principal in Organizational Consulting and a driver of team building initiatives with particular focus in High Technology, Medical and Financial Services and Academic organizations.

Lisa has coached hundreds of top-level Executives, Vice Presidents and Managers to successfully
identify and address business issues and take actions that improve performance to business objectives.  In addition, Lisa is a skilled facilitator who works with teams to enhance their collective potential.  She designed and delivered dozens of successful programs enabling internal leaders to coach more effectively. Using 360-degree feedback, coordinated coaching and consulting, Lisa has also been a key factor of success in mobilizing organizations to productive change.

Lisa began her career in Human Resources and International Customer Support at National Semiconductor.  From the beginning, she has always been known for bringing creativity, innovation, and focus to the individuals and teams she works with. She has received multiple Outstanding Achievement Awards including two most Valuable Contributor Awards for her work.
 
Before launching her own coaching and consulting firm, Lisa was Senior Vice President and Regional Leadership Development Specialist for Lee Hecht Harrison, a global leadership and career management consulting firm.   In this role, Lisa oversaw 5 offices and lead a team of top level consultants focusing on executive coaching, group level capability building, and senior level organizational consulting including competency identification, succession planning, career regeneration and retention.

Her clients include: AT&T, Applied Materials, Apple Computer, Hewlett Packard, Sun Microsystems, LSI Logic, Genentech, Tyco Healthcare, Honeywell, Morgan Stanley, Comerica Bank, Valley Medical Center, Stanford University and Lucile Packard Hospital, Teichert Aggregates, and Evergreen, Dekalb and Scottsdale Community Colleges. Functional Areas: Sales, Marketing, IT, Finance, Call Center Management, Engineering, Biotechnology, Human Resources and General Management.

Lisa has a Masters degree in Education from San Jose State University and is a National Certified Counselor.  She is certified in multiple assessment tools including the MRG Leadership Effectiveness Analysis and Personal Directions, The Hay Groups Emotional Competencies Inventory, the Myers Briggs Communication Style Indicator, various Lominger tools, TKO Conflict Management Style Indicator and Organization Systems International’s Polaris Competency Mapping Suite.

Lisa has been quoted in the New York Times and has appeared in the multiple business journal articles throughout California and Arizona. She is actively involved with the YWCA of Silicon Valley.

Ann Marie Lei is a leadership consultant and executive coach based in Portland, Oregon, USA. She designs and facilitates a variety of individual and group programs for corporate and non-profit clients. Her primary areas of focus include leadership develoment and executive coaching, intercultural communication in the workplace, multicultural work team effectiveness, and international assignments. Ann Marie has earned a Bachelors degree in Business Administration from the University of Notre Dame and a Master of Arts degree in Intercultural Relations through Antioch University and the Intercultural Communication Institute. The focus of her masters thesis research was on factors that influence the business effectivenss of transferees from various countries working in the United States on temporary assignments.

Prior to starting her consulting business, Ann Marie worked for Nike, Inc. for 17 years. The majority of her work at Nike was in international advertising and marketing communications, with additional experience in leadership develoment and human resources. She has traveled extensively throughout Western Europe and Asia. In addition to several years at Nike's World Headquarters in Oregon, she worked at Nike's European Headquarters and lived in the Netherlands for 3 1/2 years, starting up and leading Nike's European retail marketing and merchandising departments. In this role she directly supervised Dutch, British, French and Algerian employees and led a team of managers from several European countries.

Ann Marie's recent consulting projects have included the design and faciliation of intercultural communication workshops for Nike, Inc., a comprehensive training assessment for Paccess, and the design and facilitation of a cultural competency program for St. Joseph's Shelter in Mt. Angel, Oregon. She is currently developing cultural orientation programs for two organizations, to help people from various countries that have recently arrived in the United States to accelerate their ability to work effectively in the U.S. American work environment and with their American colleagues.

In January, 2001, Ann Marie joined the faculty of the Winter Institute for Intercultural Communication at the Catholic University in Lille, France, where she teaches an annual 5-day course about "Working with U.S. Americans" to third-year students. She aslo teaches intercultural communicaton courses in the Masters Of International Management (M.I.M.) Program at Portland State University and the Master of Physician Assistant Studies Program at Oregon Health Science University (OHSU) in Portland, Oregon, USA.

Ann Marie is qualified to administer and analyze the Intercultural Development Inventory (I.D.I.), which she has utilized in corporate and non-profit organizations to assess levels of intercultural sensitivity prior to training, and to evaluate the development of a group of participants in a leadership development program. She is accredited in the Insights Discovery System, an internationally validated personality profile system based on the work of Dr. Carl Jung, and is a board member of SIETAR USA, the Society for Intercultural Education, Training and Research.

Yuko Morimoto-Yoshida is a coach/trainer specializing in intercultural communication among employees in multinational organizations. Prior to consulting, she had more than 10 years experience in a US-based global financial institution in Japan, and served as the global liaison in the company working with colleagues and clients in Asia, Europe, and the U.S. Yuko is the author of Culture Shock! Tokyo At Your Door (Graphic Arts Center Publishing Co, US; Times Media Private Limited, Singapore; 2003) which is a part of well-known international series, and the book provides insights into the Japanese culture in both business and social life.

For the past 8 years, she has provided coaching/training services for employees at major multinational companies across industries including high-tech, telecommunication, financial, and retail institutions. The clients she has worked with include Apple Computer, Applied Materials, AT&T Wireless, Cisco Systems, Gap and Wal-Mart. Her coaching/trainings focus on overcoming cultural differences between the U.S. and Asia in the areas of decision-making, leadership, the customer relationship, information transfer, and business communication. She has helped expatriates, impatriates, executives, and multicultural virtual teams to increase their effectiveness in communication and productivity. In a recent assignment, she has provided coaching to both American and foreign executives working for a multinational firm on their leadership skills based on the results from a 360 feedback survey. She can provide training/coaching in both English and Japanese.

Prior to consulting, Yuko served as Second Vice President in Risk Management at Chase Manhattan Bank in Tokyo. In this capacity she traded derivative products and also served as the global liaison in her division, working with colleagues and clients in Asia, Europe, and the U.S. Other positions included Second Vice President in Sales and Marketing, whereby she developed business with top Japanese companies such as Mitsui Co, Toshiba, and NEC. Yuko also led the TQM group in Chase Tokyo, producing a corporate training design for the subsidiary.

Yuko has a Master’s Degree in Organizational/Intercultural Communications from San Francisco State University.  She was born and raised in Japan, lived in Europe and Mexico, and currently resides in California. Yuko is bilingual in Japanese and English, and conversational in Spanish.

Marissa Peterson brings a broad senior executive portfolio to her consulting practice. She joined Sun when it was still a small company, helping it scale to reach a peak of close to $20 Billion in annual revenues. She retired from Sun with an unprecedented legacy of concurrently leading some of Sun's largest and most effective organizations: as Executive Vice President of Services, Executive Vice President of Worldwide Operations, and Sun's Chief Customer Advocate.

As EVP of Sun Services, she developed and oversaw programs designed to help companies reduce the time, cost and risk of transforming their business. These programs leveraged technology to architect, implement and maintain customers' network computing infrastructures. As Chief Customer Advocate, Marissa resolved critical customer satisfaction issues while driving more sustained efforts - most notably the Sun Sigma program - to instill a "customer - first" ethic throughout the company. And as EVP of Sun's Worldwide Operations organization, Marissa guided Sun's supply chain, manufacturing and logistics programs and established an industry leadership position for high quality and cost-effective product execution to a global customer base.

Among her awards are the Sun Microsystems President's Excellence Award, Silicon Valley Tribute to Women and Industry, Kettering University Management Achievement Award, SF Business Times Top Women in Business, Filipinas Magazine Corporate Leader of the Year, and the National Co-op Hall of Fame. She serves on the Board of Directors of Supervalu ($43 Bil retail/distribution company), Humana ($30Bil health benefits insurance company), Ansell ($1Bil Healthcare barrier protection company), and Lucille Packard Children's Hospital of Stanford, and was previously on the Board of Trustees of Kettering University.

Prior to joining Sun, Marissa worked as a management consultant at Booz, Allen and Hamilton, and in various marketing, financial and engineering positions with Saturn Corporation and various GM divisions. She holds a Bachelors of Science in Mechanical Engineering and an Honorary Doctorate in Management from Kettering University and a Masters in Business Administration from Harvard University.

Thomas (Tom) Pickett is President of Coach Pickett, LLC.  After 35 years in the high tech industry, Tom is giving back to Executives, Leaders and their Management Teams a passion of co-creating successful strategies leading to higher profits, increased margins, promotions, work/life balance and higher retention of employees. Tom works with executives and their management teams to realize their strengths and unlock their potentials.

Tom's career is with three companies – Wang Laboratories, Inc. - Compaq Computer Corporation – Sun Microsystems, Inc. Tom has lead customer service, sales, marketing, professional services, and educational teams in a fast paced, ever changing environment.  Tom has first hand experience with the “the good, the bad and the ugly”. Success, profits, higher margins, retention, reductions, cost cutting – these all have one thing in common – people.  The character, the values, the actions, the passions of executives and managers have a dramatic and direct impact on the individuals or on the organizations these executives and managers are responsible for - a direct and dramatic impact. 

Tom is qualified on Myers Briggs and certified with DiSC Behavioral Assessments.  Tom also holds an Associates Degree in Electronic Engineering and a PhD in "Street Smarts"!
Coach Pickett lives in Centreville, Virginia, about 20 miles west of Washington, D.C. Born and raised in the Midwest.  Tom has lived in Kansas City, Omaha, Chicago and Northern Virginia. Tom is a single parent and has four children; Jamie, Kristen, Billy and Katie. Jamie and Molly have blessed him with Emma Nicole, his first grandchild and another on the way!  Kristen is getting married in summer of 2007. Billy and Katie are sneaking up on high school. The rocket ship ride continues!

Michael K. Sheehy has over 30 years of managerial and executive experience in a variety of organizations including large corporations, high tech start-ups, international enterprises, environmental organizations, and the military. His industry experiences range from enterprise computing to advanced technology components & services to the medical, military, and insurance market arenas.

Mr. Sheehy has held executive positions in general management, sales, service, and operations with companies such as Wang Laboratories, Kendall Square Research Corporation, Millipore Corporation, Sanmina-SCI, and DDi Global. During his business career, he has exercised leadership responsibility for organizations of up to 1500 people including operations in Europe, Australia, and Asia.

A Phi Beta Kappa graduate of the University of Connecticut and a decorated veteran of the Viet Nam war, Mr. Sheehy earned his MBA at Boston College and completed several executive development programs at Harvard Business School and Cal Tech.

As an executive coach, the assets & capabilities that Mr. Sheehy brings to an engagement are:

• Successful real world operating experience in diverse organizations & industries and in a variety of roles.
• Embedded understanding of the demands, necessities, and trade-offs inherent in successfully navigating the corporate business universe; “how the game is played”, what it takes to win, and what pressures, conflicts, and ambiguities this creates for the players.
• Perceptiveness, honed intuition, acute listening & observation skills.
• Genuine empathy with people.
• Strong academic foundation.
• Confidence & credibility from highly diverse life experiences.
• Exceptional communication & relationship building skills

His particular interests are in working as a mentor and helping clients understand & come to terms with management/shareholder expectations and effectively dealing with organizational complexities.

His talents include helping clients understand how their styles are perceived in the work environment and what barriers and opportunities this creates for them. He is adept at guiding people through the challenges of conflict management, group leadership, and interpersonal communications.

Jon Sparks is an associate of ExecutivEdge of Silicon Valley, in Asia. He is an executive coach at several multi-national organizations in Asia and has extensive HR assessment and business simulation experience. With over 25 years of international experience he has a highly successful track record in leading fundamental change and directing large, complex projects and business operations in a range of environments and industries. These industries include the financial services, hospitality and manufacturing sectors.

Jon has held a range of senior roles in Australia, Hong Kong, China and most recently Japan including Board and C-level positons. His background in leading entrepreneurial companies as well as multinationals provides him a deep understanding of organizational development and leadership/human capital issues. He has led a full range of project initiatives from facilitating boardroom strategic planning to major change management programs. Jon currently is involved in project direction and project management roles from establishment of new business units for clients to enterprise-wide programs to maximize the performance of people, processes and technology.

An accomplished presenter both inthe workplace and a wide range of settings, Jon is also the communications coach to a range of business leaders in Japan and China. Jon is certified in the Organization Effectiveness Profiler, LGR Leadership, and Leader Contour.

Jon has his MBA, an MIS in systems engineering and a Ph.D. in operations research. He was born in Australia and resides in Japan. He is an avid mountaineer.

Shawn Spano, Ph.D. is an associate with ExecutivEdge of Silicon Valley and a Senior Consultant with the Public Dialogue Consortium. Shawn has 25 years experience in higher education where he has developed his teaching and research interests in the areas of applied interpersonal communication and dialogue theory. For the past 15 years he has developed a communication consulting practice that successfully bridges the academic and corporate worlds. Shawn specializes in applying conceptual frameworks to enhance the communication and leadership performance of executives, managers, and teams in the public and private sectors. He is currently preparing to take a professional leave of absence from his position as Professor in the Communication Studies Department at San José State University to pursue consulting and executive coaching full time.

A key component of Shawn’s consulting work involves adapting cutting-edge ideas to meet the practical demands of his clients. His customized approach to working with individuals and teams is characterized by these qualities:

• Foregrounding communication in leadership, executive, and team development.
• Ongoing relationship building founded on mutual trust, respect, and confidentiality.
• The use of established tools to identify strengths and needs.
• The co-construction of performance outcomes and empirical markers of success.
• Benchmarking and assessment using quantitative and qualitative data.
• Real time coaching and training that maximizes learning in response to problem-solving situations that clients are in and decisions that they have to make.     
• Ensuring accountability through candid feedback that enables the coach-client relationship to thrive.

Shawn has worked with executives, senior managers, and leadership teams in a number of organizations, including multi-year projects with two different organizations. His client list includes the City of San José, City of Cupertino, Town of Los Gatos, City of Pismo Beach, International Coaching Federation, San José State University, Saint Mary’s College, Joint Venture: Silicon Valley Network, Santa Clara County Registrar of Voters, Silicon Valley Commonwealth Club, the Community Coalition for End of Life Care. Shawn was selected “SJSU Outstanding Professor” in 2000, and has published numerous articles and chapters, including the book, Public Dialogue and Participatory Democracy: The Cupertino Community Project (Hampton Press, 2001).

Julia Arellano Sullivan has over twenty years of experience helping individuals and organizations change. Her specialty is in working at all levels of an organization to model and create the thinking, direct communications and systems required to produce results. Julia integrates business experience with proven principles of organizational and personal change.

She has consulted across industries at all levels in organization design, strategic planning, and new team start-up. She worked on the start-up and first 2 1/2 year operation of a Japanese-American joint venture, high technology plant in Puerto Rico. In the pulp and paper industry, she shaped the organizational design and designed a selection and development process for a mill that has become an industry standard for mills in its class.

Julia works in association with Dr. Jerry Porras of the Stanford Business School in implementing the principles described in Built to Last by Dr. Jerry Porras and Jim Collins. Built to Last, the result of six years of research at the Stanford University Graduate School of Business, shattered many myths about the contribution that charismatic leaders or brilliant product ideas make to enduring success.

She has taught at executive programs offered by Stanford University and Columbia University; where she analyzes business cases participants write depicting the complex issues confronting their companies. Julia utilizes principles developed by Chris Argyris from Harvard to encourage productive reasoning and mutual learning in difficult high stakes environments.

Julia has expertise in planning strategic initiatives that link recent breakthroughs in information technology with marketing strategy. She designed a worldwide symposium of the top 150 marketing executives of a high tech client to launch four strategic initiatives in the company. During a two-year follow-up engagement, Julia applied strategy frameworks and led decision-making forums that resulted in double-digit business growth across multiple business units.

She has operations and staff experience from her years at General Motors and ROLM Corporation. Her clients include Hewlett-Packard, Charles Schwab, Levi Strauss & Co., FirstHealth of the Carolinas, and other public sector and not-for-profit clients.

Julia earned a bachelors degree in industrial administration from Kettering University and completed her MBA at Stanford University. In 2003, the Stanford Graduate School of Business awarded Julia the Jerry I. Porras Latino Leadership Award to recognize her professional achievements and her contributions to the community.

Betty Till has over twenty years experience in leadership positions in business and healthcare. As Vice President of Corporate Communications and a member of the executive team at a variety of companies, Betty coached senior managers in crisis communications, developed corporate business and marketing strategies and communicated merger and acquisition goals and information to employees.

Betty provides executive coaching for individuals who are preparing for new leadership roles, transitioning into a new company and role, and those who want to increase their probability for success in their current role. Throughout her career she has coached and counseled managers and employees on effectively communicating, creating alliances, making choices and building positive relationships. She has a unique ability to build rapport with her clients. She works collaboratively with her clients to help them design the impact they want and to achieve specific outcomes in work and in life.

Betty is a Certified Professional Coach and is an Assessment Center Evaluator. She is qualified to administer and interpret the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)©, 360 degree Benchmark© from the Center for Creative Leadership, the Lominger Choices Architect and Voices©, as well as the Organization Systems International Polaris 360 Survey. She has published articles in Healthcare Leadership and Management Report, EMS Manager and Supervisor and several other publications.

Her client companies include EmCare, Inc., Life Port, Inc., InnoVast, Warner Brothers/Reprise Records, Hewlett Packard and Sun Microsystems.

With a BS in nursing from the University of Texas at Austin, Betty began her career as a Registered Nurse where she provided care for critically ill patients at a major trauma center. With her critical care background, she soon began teaching in the Allied Sciences Department at Austin Community College and pioneered one of the first Associate Degree programs for paramedics in 1980. She held a faculty position at Austin Community College for six years. She is currently a member of the International Coaches Federation, the Professional Coaches and Mentoring Association, the Institute of Management Consultants, the Professional Women's Chamber Connection, and an advisor to the Junior League of San Jose.

Cathy Wilson, M.A., is an associate with ExecutivEdge of Silicon Valley. She has a BA from UCLA and an MA in Counseling Psychology from Santa Clara University.

Cathy has over twenty years combined experience in corporate business management, and executive consulting. Her career began at Fujitsu America, where she was selected for a premier junior management training program. She managed programs across all functional areas of the company and gained experience in global marketing. She held management positions of increasing responsibility in sales and marketing at Frame Technolgoy, where she and her teams won numerous awards for meeting and exceeding revenue goals. She was with the company when they held their IPO in 1993, prior to its acquisition by Adobe Systems in 1994.

Cathy has leveraged her corporate background with her training in psychology since 1998 to provide a wide variety of executive coaching services. She specialized in manager and director-level executives and offers coaching for a broad range of leadership competencies, including strategic planning, managing people, composure, career transition, interpersonal savvy, decision making, communication skills and building organizations. Cathy has a passion for helping people reach their potential in work and life, and always seeks breakthrough thinking and learning with her clients.

Cathy is qualified to administer and interpret the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)©, 360 degree Benchmark© from the Center for Creative Leadership and the Lominger Leadership Architect© Series. Her clients include Apple Computer, Yahoo!, GAP, Sun, Compaq, Bay Networks, Red Cross, Price Waterhouse Coopers, and RAFT.