To CEOs focused on business growth, Catherine Woods brings the strategic focus, mature business judgment, and proven track record gained during over 20 years of leading business operations and helping clients improve operational results. Catherine founded Raven Management Consulting in 2003 and since then has guided projects for 75+ clients, from startup to multinational, across six continents. By engaging organizational success, Raven Management Consulting has become known for its practical, business­-driven solutions that are true to their clients’ strategy and custom fit for their organization and culture.

Patricia Bravo equips leaders with Empathetic Leadership techniques that drive team member engagement and increase business results. She does this by consulting with organizations and leaders through her company Bravo For You, where she helps organizations develop leadership programs and facilitates workshops that accelerate leader capability.

Patricia enjoys using her talent management experiences gleaned at Fortune 500 companies such as Starbucks to shape the leadership landscape of the future. She also teaches at UCLA Extension and is currently authoring a leadership book.

A transplant who adopted the Pacific Northwest as home, she fuels her love of travel by exploring new destinations and spending time in Southern California enjoying the sunshine. 

Marty Palecki is the founder of the Leadership Experience Group, a business consulting and coaching firm.   Ms. Palecki has comprehensive senior management experience in all aspects of Human Resources consulting, change management and strategic planning.  

Presently she works with senior leaders who face critical business issues in cultural change, leadership alignment, and continued growth.  Marty focuses on strategic intention, leadership, communication, and leadership development.

She guides individuals and organizations in discovering better ways of working together. Her clients leverage people’s strengths and develop collective wisdom. With her guidance, they reduce waste of their essential resources of talent, time and revenue.

Ms. Palecki offers years of practical corporate experience and knowledge of today’s business requirements.  Her client list includes small, family owned business, mid size and publicly traded entities.

Elizabeth Harris is the founder and CEO of Resultist Consulting. She specializes in growth initiatives and working with small and mid-sized businesses to help organize their sales and revenue processes to make them predictable and profitable.

Elizabeth has more than 20 years of experience as a proven driver of revenue, profitability and accountability.  She is adept at improving businesses in competitive and changing market conditions. She is a complex B2B sales expert and skilled at leading and managing sales teams to achieve award winning results. Her experience includes: Business Founder & Owner, Entrepreneur, President, CEO, VP of Sales & Marketing, Consultant and Executive Advisor for numerous successful businesses.

Resultist Consulting is her fifth business. She grew one of her previous businesses from $4M to $16M in annual revenues in 3 1⁄2 years.

In addition to her work at Resultist Consulting, Elizabeth is the 2016 Past President of The Executive Network of Seattle. Elizabeth is a frequent speaker and leader of workshops for business owners and executives.

Andrew Ballard is the president of Marketing Solutions, a Seattle area agency that develops research-based growth strategies that accelerate revenue generation. He has over 30 years experience in marketing, media and management. His specialties include marketing research, strategic planning, brand development and advertising. Mr. Ballard has helped hundreds of organizations (from startups through Fortune 500 Companies) achieve remarkable growth.

Andrew is a graduate of the Ford Marketing Institute and certified in Six Sigma. He has held every position in the marketing food chain…from sales rep to CEO. Prior to launching Marketing Solutions in 1997, he was an executive director for the March of Dimes Birth Defects Foundation, and worked for the CBS broadcast affiliate in Seattle.

He is also a respected author and educator. His articles on marketing strategy have been published in business journals through all 50 States. His first book, entitled Your Opinion Doesn’t Matter, has been endorsed in both the corporate and academic circles as being “innovative and insightful.” Andrew is also a part-time faculty member at the University of Washington School of Business.

Shannon Bruce, CPCC, PCC Founder and current President and CEO of StoryBridge, Inc. of Kitsap County has been in the professional coaching industry for over 10 years working in many capacities as an Executive and Leadership Coach and Team Coach, Facilitator and Trainer. Her diverse background also includes 13 years as a CPA with Ernst & Young, Corporate & Regional Operations Management in the wholesale distribution field and entrepreneurship launching multiple business start-ups.

Currently, Shannon is also the Kitsap Group Leader for Excell Puget Sound.

Shannon is an “out-of-the-box” thinker looking for new and life-giving ways to enhance business results and team relationships. With her corporate background and coach training, Shannon understands the needs of both “people” and “profit” to help companies produce more with less. She creates positive and sustainable culture change within organizations,and partners with her clients to build a foundation of solid trust to increase employee engagement. Shannon’sgreatest joy is “going into companies” to “create communities.”

We were happy to have Shannon lead our April/May 2016 Teambuilding workshops.  Please take a moment to read both her Q&A and the roundtable preview about Heroic “Leadership.”

James DeBragga is an international entrepreneur and former Microsoft Corporation executive. From small businesses to multi-national corporations, James applies his world-class business acumen and unique understanding of personal potential to transform the capabilities of a company’s most important asset – its people – and drive break-through results across corporate development, marketing, sales, organizational development and data-insight strategy.

Over two decades ago James began his career on Microsoft’s “digital factory floor” as a temporary employee answering product support calls for Windows 3.1. A true example of “success rewards hard work,” he climbed from entry level to top executive and developed a passion for leading business, people, and change. James has been instrumental in multiple start-up, hyper-growth, and turn-around businesses as well as the creation of elite international marketing and sales organizations. Recognized for award-winning global product launches and product go-to-market strategies, James has also driven the transformation of some of the most trafficked global Internet properties, including http://www.windows.com.

James has served as a technology industry spokesperson to the Wall Street financial analyst community and has appeared on multiple industry panels for technology including the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Based in Munich, Germany, James currently leads DC1 Consulting, an international boutique management consulting firm focused on maximizing organizational capability in the business workplace. A firm believer in authenticity and service to others, he utilizes his unique people and business skills, supported by the values of integrity and commitment, to serve as a passionate change-agent. James is a trusted advisor to senior executives around the world, and widely considered a thought-leader in the area of enabling individuals and teams to become truly high-performance. He publishes a management and professional development blog athttp://jamesdebragga.com/, is a lecturer on Entrepreneurship & Venture Capital Investing at Seattle University and University of Washington, Seattle, and also a member of the European Press.

Laura Hamill, Ph.D., has 20 years of experience architecting and implementing research and assessment strategies in organizations. Laura owns Paris Phoenix Group, an organizational research and assessment consulting firm. Before starting her own company, Laura worked for Microsoft for over 8 years, primarily as the Director of People Research, a team of organizational researchers.

Examples of Laura’s work include developing customized employee engagement and organizational culture assessments, implementing culture change approaches, creating strategic competency models for leaders, managers, and employees, creating approaches to ensure effective acquisition/integration, and conducting research to better understand employee perceptions of organizational strategy.

Laura has a Ph.D. in Organizational Psychology, and has led major strategy efforts for companies like Microsoft, GoDaddy, Concur, Avanade, and Limeade.

Dr. Summers-Ewing is a licensed psychologist and earned her Ph.D. in Counseling Psychology. She also has Masters’ degrees in Business Administration and Psychology. She has also achieved certification as a Senior Professional Human Resources leader through the Human Capital Institute and recognition by the Society of Human Resource Management as a Senior Certified Professional.

As a business psychologist and executive coach, she specializes in partnering with individuals and teams to effect critical changes in support of their future growth and sustainability.   Her over 20 years of experience includes work with Fortune 500 clients in a vast array of industries. She has also consulted with start-ups, family businesses, and nonprofit organizations to build their leadership capacity. A well-known authority on leadership, she is a frequent speaker/writer on Executive and High Potential Talent Development, Organizational Learning, and Transformational Change.

Locally, she has served as a community leader on the Boards of multiple nonprofit organizations: Executive Service Corps, the Alzheimer’s Association of Western WA, Leadership Kitsap, Hospice of Kitsap and two regional Humane Societies. Time permitting, she is also a pro bono consultant for 501 Commons, which provides affordable management consulting services to nonprofit organizations in Washington State.

Jim Hessler is president of Path Forward, a leadership development company that he founded in 2001. He brings over 30 years of business management and executive leadership experience to our group meetings to help put you on the path to greater success.

Jim has been an award-winning salesman, sales manager, general manager, and executive. He has specialized in turning around underperforming operations, and helped lead a massive national reorganization for a Fortune 150 company.

Jim’s experience in general management has resulted in broad and deep knowledge of nearly all aspects of a well-run business. From building and managing a sales organization and managing complex inventories and delivery systems, to generating vision and trust in demoralized organizations, and leading complex restructuring efforts, Jim has earned a depth of knowledge and insight that serves his Path Forward clients exceedingly well, regardless of the leadership challenges they face.

We were pleased to have Jim facilitate our workshops and round tables in early 2016 and again in early 2019.  Please take a moment to review his blog about how to Attract Talent & Stay Ahead of the Competition and his Q&A about the Eight Practices for Creating a Smarter Organization.