Keynote Presenters

Peter Senge is a senior lecturer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Founding Chair of SoL (the Society for Organizational Learning) Council. He is the author of The Fifth Discipline: The Art and Practice of the Learning Organization, coauthor of the three related Fieldbooks, and most recently Presence: Human Purpose and the Field of the Future. Peter lectures throughout the world about decentralizing the role of leadership in organizations to enhance the capacity of all people to work toward healthier human systems.

Medard Gabel has developed and delivered programs for corporate and government clients around the world including Motorola, IBM, General Motors, Novartis, Chase Manhattan Bank, the United Nations and the U.S. Congress. He is the former executive director of the World Game Institute, where he developed the World Game® global simulation, the Internet-based global simulation NetWorld Game, the socioeconomic database of global statistics Global Data Manager, the interactive atlas and encyclopedia of world problems Global Recall, and other products. For 12 years he worked with Buckminster Fuller, from whom he learned the power and utility of whole systems thinking, global perspectives, and a good sense of humor. He is the author of five books on global problems, resources, and strategies; the most recent are Global Inc.: An Atlas of the Multinational Corporation and Seven Billion Billionaires, due out in January 2005.

Kim Huat Ooi graduated with a degree in electrical engineering in 1986 and joined Intel Malaysia as a quality engineer. He was responsible for starting Intel's first offshore microprocessor failure analysis lab in Malaysia in 1993. In 1998, he was appointed the worldwide Assembly/Test Quality Manager and worked out of Chandler, Arizona. In 2000, he led Intel's worldwide manufacturing quality organization responsible for fab/sort, assembly/test, and board/system manufacturing quality with approximately 1,000 quality professionals across the globe. Beginning in 2002, Kim Huat Ooi has been the General Manager responsible for Intel's Communication products assembly/test operations in Malaysia.

Nora Hughes is a senior OD consultant at Intel's Assembly Test Manufacturing (ATM) division. Much of her work is in Asia focusing on China and the new plant in Chengdu. She also works with leadership development processes. Nora holds a master's degree in organization development, and she is working on a Ph.D. at Fielding Institute. Prior to joining Intel, Nora ran her own consulting business and worked with leaders and change projects all over the world.

Special Interest Group Presenters

Ari Jokilaakso is vice president, human resources, at Outokumpu Technology (www.outokumpu.com). His background is in R&D and metallurgical engineering (with a number of publications in scientific periodicals and conference proceedings). He is a member of the SoL Finland Board and the leader of SoL Finland's dialogue group for organizational members. He is most interested in contributing to values and learning in organizations.

Riitta Suurla,M.A., is trainer, values consultant, author, and managing director of Skills Academy Ltd. She has worked as a project manager in international networking projects (with IACEE, Parliament of Finland, and the European Commission). She has authored several books on values, dialogue, lifelong learning, and knowledge management. She is a member of the SoL Finland Board and the leader of SoL Finland's dialogue group for values, ethics, and sustainability. She has developed the Aristos—method™ for practicing values (values create skills).

Michael Jones is a pianist, author, recording artist, seminar leader, and speaker. His solo debut album Pianoscapes (1983) was the first recording on the Narada label. Since then he has composed and recorded 13 CDs and performed worldwide. Michael has also been a consultant and leadership educator for many years. Currently, he is on the core leadership faculty of Dialogos LLC and the Executive MBA and community leadership programs with the University of Texas, San Antonio. He has an M.A. in adult learning from the University of Toronto. For more information, please visit www.pianoscapes.com

Zhaoyi Wu is president of Cindalex Resources, Inc. and adjunct professor of Peking University. As a SoL China coordinator, he has developed learning web sites and edited the Chinese translations of The Fifth Discipline Fieldbook and The Dance of Change. He teaches "Project Management," "Intercultural Management and Communication," "Organizational Learning and Corporate Change," "Knowledge Management," and "Train the Trainers" courses for major international and Chinese corporations and universities. He obtained his doctorate from the University of Massachusetts, USA.

Alain Gauthier focuses his consulting and coaching work on innovative approaches to collaborative leadership development and organizational learning. A graduate from H.E.C. (Paris) and a Stanford University M.B.A., he has served a large variety of client organizations both in Europe and North America, and is currently executive director of Core Leadership Development. He has adapted in French three of the Fifth Discipline books by Peter Senge, and is an associate author of Action Inquiry.

Sean Dailey attained his doctorate degree from UCLA in counseling psychology and completed his internship and clinical research at South Coast Medical Center in Laguna Beach, California. After 5 years in the clinical realm, Sean launched into Corporate America as an industrial/organizational psychologist for the Boeing Aircraft Company. After 3 years in operations and production, Sean returned to the Organizational Effectiveness Group to work at the newly constructed Boeing Leadership Center as a program designer and executive coach. Sean joined Intel in October of 2000 as an organizational consultant in the Assembly Test Group.

Heidi Sparkes Guber is cofounder of TriGlobal Associates, a consulting consortium specializing in organizational transformation, collaborative learning, and strategic breakthrough. She is also an investor and activist in The Hunger Project, funding strategic planning and leadership development programs for women elected to village leadership in South Asia and grassroots activists in Sub-Saharan Africa and South America.

Henry M. Frechette has 22 years of experience in the learning and consulting services. He was a professor in human resource management at Northeastern University's business school before joining the Forum Corporation. At the Forum he held a variety of management positions, including VP of Feedback Services and SVP of Client Research and New Product Development. He spent 7 years consulting and facilitating senior management teams in the area of organizational learning with Innovation Associates. Since then, he has founded two companies and worked in the area of collaborative learning and virtual team learning. He has published numerous articles and speaks frequently on systems thinking and organizational learning.

Micah Fierstein is director of the Change Institute. He has been helping transform the organizational culture of schools and classrooms for 26 years. Micah is a contributor to Schools that Learn: A Fifth Discipline Fieldbook. He has presented at national conferences such as Systems Thinking in Action, Association of Supervision and Curriculum Development, International System Dynamics Society, National Council of Continuing Education and Shambhala Institute for Authentic Leadership. He received his master's in education from Harvard University and doctorate in education from Oregon State University.

Steve Waddell supports deep societal change. The issues may be as broad as issues of trade, poverty and sustainable development, or as specific as road-building, youth employment, development of specific communities, and banking. The change strategy involves creating business-government-civil society collaborations and networks; these collaborations may be local, national or global. Steve brings organizational, network and societal development and change expertise to work as a consultant and researcher with two core concepts: societal learning and change, and global action networks (GANs). He has a PhD and an MBA, is widely published. He has lead formation of several leading organizations including Global Action Networks Net, a community of GAN practitioners, consultants, researchers and funders.. (see: www.gan-net.net; www.bc.edu/schools/csom/leadership.)

Poster Session Presenters

Ipek Kursat has been a founding SoL member since 1996 and an adjunct faculty member at Cornell University and consultant for 15 years. Ipek weaves together systems thinking approaches from different cultures, archetypal psychology, Ken Wilbur’s work and her experience as a consultant in the trenches to enable deep learning in leaders and organizations.

Robert Dickman generates breakthrough insights in how to make daily business communications more engaging. Bob is recognized by clients for his enthusiasm and talent for involving them in interactive communications trainings. His consulting improves clients’ communications by improving both message content and delivery using narrative techniques developed from rhetorical and dramatic traditions.

Manuel Manga is an organizational design consultant and leadership coach whose work focuses on leadership development, organizational learning, and effective communication based on language and transformational conversations. Manuel has taken courses with Humberto Maturana and Ximena Davila in the Biology of Cognition and the Biology of Love.

Bill Torbert is professor at the Carroll School of Management at Boston College. Earlier, Bill served as the school’s graduate dean and Ph.D. program director. He is also a founding faculty member of the Executive Program Leadership for Change, is a board member of Trillium Asset Management, and has consulted widely in Europe, Latin America, and the USA.

Madeline Nold is director of Creative Action Associates, a corporate consulting and executive counseling practice in the Boston area. Madeline was the first and primary protégé of the late mythologist, Joseph Campbell. She received her Ph.D. from Columbia University and her M.A. and B.A. degrees from Sarah Lawrence College.

Charles Kiefer graduated MIT with degrees in physics and management. In 1976, Charlie founded Innovation Associates to help large organizations innovate; in 1990, cofounder Peter Senge published the landmark management best seller, The Fifth Discipline, based in part on IA’s work. In 1995 Innovation Associates was acquired by Arthur D. Little.

Robin Charbit is a chemical engineer with an MBA and an early career in Exxon that culminated as the general manager of a billion-dollar business. He joined Arthur D. Little and ultimately led and managed the North America Chemicals Practice. When ADL dissolved in 2002, Charlie Kiefer repurchased Innovation Associates and, with Robin, formed Insight Management Partners, a member of the IA Group.

Ann McGee-Cooper, Ed.D., is founding Partner of Ann McGee-Cooper & Associates, a team of futurists and consultants. Ann is an international leader in researching and applying servant-leadership in the workplace, having served on the Culture Committee of Southwest Airlines for 14 years and with TDIndustries for 28 years.

Steve Saunders is a founding member of the SLLC and CEO of Tempo Mechanical Services, a residential HVAC company in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex. In 1997, when parent company TDIndustries decided to sell the Tempo business unit off as unprofitable, Steve led an Employee initiative to buy Tempo. The Tempo Partners paid off the loan ahead of schedule and have won several prestigious awards in the industry.

Karina De Déa Roglio is an associate professor of Pontific Catholic University of Paraná, Brazil, where she teaches Human Resources Development and Leadership in Business programs. Currently, Karina is a Fulbright Visiting Scholar at Northwestern University, where she is doing her doctoral research on reflective executive development.

Heidi Sparkes Guber and David C. Flanigan are cofounders and principals of TriGlobal Associates, a consulting consortium specializing in organizational transformation, collaborative learning, and strategic breakthrough. Heidi has consulted for over 25 years in organizational transformation and high performance. Dave has 33 years of global business leadership with experience in strategic planning, acquisitions, mergers, start-ups, and managing transnational joint ventures and integrations. They have been SoL Consultant members since 2002 and currently facilitate the SoL Liasion quarterly meetings.

Carolyn Hendrickson, Ph.D., is president and founder of Tandem Group, Inc., a firm that delivers extraordinary results through large-scale change and transformation. Carolyn has over 15 years of experience working with senior business leaders in the areas of executive alignment, large-scale change, organizational mobilization, business process redesign, organizational learning, and leadership development.

Vince Pelote is director of the Center for Organizational Learning at UMass Memorial Medical Center, where he is responsible for supporting the development of 500 clinical and administrative leaders. Vince is a research member of SoL and a founding partner with Leadership Development and Research.

James Hunt is associate professor of management at Babson College, where he teaches leadership and strategic human resource management at the MBA and executive education levels. James is also a faculty codirector of the Coaching for Leadership and Teamwork Program at Babson.

Madeline Nold is director of Creative Action Associates, a corporate consulting and executive counseling practice in the Boston area. Madeline has developed a facilitated a variety of leadership courses, both in the U.S. and abroad. She received her Ph.D. from Columbia University and her M.A. and B.A. from Sarah Lawrence College.

David Stroh and Marilyn Paul, Ph.D. are founders of Bridgeway Partners, an organizational consulting firm that integrates four aspects of human experience—thought, action, emotion, and spirit—to help leaders and organizations achieve outstanding, meaningful results. David, also a cofounder of Innovation Associates, has expertise in visionary planning, leadership development, systems thinking, organization design, and change management. Marilyn has been an independent organizational consultant for 15 years, specializing in time management, disorganization and managing workload systemically.

Art Kleiner, author of Who Really Matters (2003) and The Age of Heretics (1996), is the research and reflection director at Dialogos, editorial director of the Fifth Discipline Fieldbook Project, columnist on “culture and change” for Strategy & Business, and faculty member at New York University’s Interactive Telecommunications Program.

Project Forum & Capacity Building Session Presenters

Joe McCarron is a cofounder of the Global Leadership Initiative and joined Generon Consulting after seven years with Shell International. He held a variety of technical and commercial positions within Shell International working in Colombia and the Netherlands. For the last three years, he was part of a small, executive think-tank tasked with challenging Shell's existing strategy in light of the shifts in the global business, economic, and social environments.

Adam Kahane is a founding partner of Generon Consulting and of the Global Leadership Initiative. He is a leading expert in the design and facilitation of processes through which people can work together to solve their toughest, most complex problems. He has worked in this area with corporate leaders in more than 50 countries, in every part of the world, as well as with politicians and guerillas, civil servants and community activists, trade unionists and clergy. He is the author of Solving Tough Problems: An Open Way of Talking, Listening, and Creating New Realities (Berrett-Koehler, 2004).

Marilyn Darling and Charles Parry are partners in Signet Consulting Group. For the past eight years, they have studied organizations that demonstrate outstanding, sustained, mission-driven learning in teams. They published "From Post-Mortem to Living Practice: An in-depth study of the evolution of the After Action Review" as a result of their ongoing study of the U.S. Army's learning practice. Marilyn and Charles coined the term "Emergent Learning" and created Emergent Learning Maps. They work in a wide range of sectors to support leaders in fostering local ownership for learning at many levels of their organization. Their current research focuses on how leadership and accountability affect the ability of teams to learn from their experience and adapt in complex and dynamic environments.

Bruce Boggs is director of the Conservation Learning Group. He leads The Nature Conservancy’s initiative to rapidly improve conservation practice among staff and partners worldwide. Before joining the Conservancy in 1999, Bruce was associate director of Rural Development Initiatives, Inc., which builds the capacity of civic leadership teams to revitalize rural communities in the Pacific Northwest.

Brigitte Tantawy Monsou was appointed vice president of Organization Effectiveness at the Strategic Center of Unilever in 2002. Within human resources, she is responsible for performance measurement and organization effectiveness, especially in the areas of corporate responsibility, corporate sustainability, and human capital. She is the Unilever liaison officer for SoL and WBCSD, and a member of the Advisory Board of NIDO, a Dutch nongovernmental organization focused on sustainability.

Linda D. Marshall has been director of Sales Effectiveness and Process in AT&T Business Sales since mid-2002, and has focused her team on improving sales processes with a combination of process re-engineering and technology integration for 4,000 sales and sales support personnel. As the ABS lead on Sarbanes Oxley Controls, she also ensures that the process definition has a systemic method for driving business controls and process compliance. Her team has made significant inroads in process compliance and simplification supported by the eCRM Guided Selling and Sales Force Automation.

Carol Gorelick Ed.D., M.B.A., is the cofounder (1991) and principal of SOLUTIONS for Information & Management Services, a firm dedicated to supporting clients to help teams and groups improve their performance through learning. Carol studied and worked with the British Petroleum Knowledge Management team as part of her doctoral work at George Washington University on organizational learning, collaborative technologies, and virtual teams. She is a visiting professor at Pace University’s M.B.A. program and at the Graduate School of Business at University of Cape Town, South Africa.

Barry Sugarman is research coordinator for the Society for Organizational Learning, instigating and supporting research in member organizations and supporting the SoL Research Committee in building infrastructure for research in the SoL community. His own research involves case studies of change initiatives, working towards a theory of organizational transformation. Before coming to SoL, he was a professor of management for 20 years and worked in human services (nonprofit and government sectors) for 8 years. Barry earned a Ph.D. in sociology and anthropology from Princeton University.

Agnes Roux-Kiener is head of organization effectiveness at Unilever. At the request of the Corporate Centre, Business Groups and Operating Companies, Agnes acts as an internal consultant to the organization on architecture, culture, systems, structure, and change management. She joined Unilever in 1993, after 22 years with IBM-France (IT and HR) and IBM-Europe/MEA (executive programs and organization). Agnes graduated from a French business school (HECJF) and is a member of the Conference Board’s European HR Council.

Grady McGonagill has been president of McGonagill & Associates, an organizational consulting and leadership development firm specializing in building capacity for learning and change, since 1982. Grady’s workshops on coaching, leadership, conflict management, team building, and interpersonal skills have been offered through a number of executive programs, including Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government, MIT’s Sloan School of Management, Babson College’s Center for Executive Education, Brandeis University’s Heller School of Management, and the Center for Management Research. He is the author of The Coach as Reflective Practitioner (Davies Black Publishing, 2002).

Shelia Covert-Weiss is presently working at Ford Motor Company. Sheila has spent the last three years actively engaged in developing ways to bring systems thinking to Ford’s internal Information Technology organization. She previously managed organizational change enablement for the re-engineering of Ford’s Information Technology organization, as well as the development and implementation of computer-based simulation models. Shelia has a background in organizational behavior consulting.

Gregory J. Clark spends most of his time at Ford Motor Company applying information technology solutions to the challenges facing Ford's product development organization. Having also spent time as an internal consultant at Ford, Greg continues to find opportunities to apply systems thinking and system dynamics across the company.

Jeremy Seligman is director, IT Strategy and Competency Development, for Ford Motor Company in Dearborn, MI, where he is sponsoring efforts to create an organization-wide capability in systems thinking, systems dynamics, and related approaches. A former Fortune 500 CIO, Jeremy has also consulted to major corporations, helping them assess and better utilize their investment in learning resources. His mission is to build strong communities by creating environments where individuals can reach their full potential, instilling a passion for learning, growth, and meaningful work.

Deborah Reidy, president of Reidy Associates, has worked with nonprofits, government agencies, schools, businesses, healthcare organizations, and communities during her 28 year career. Along with her work as a consultant, she has founded and run several businesses, and served as a senior manager in a large state agency. Her work focuses on leadership development, innovative organizational design, and systems change. She holds a master’s in Adult Education and is a published author.

Marjorie R. Schiller is an organizational consultant and lecturer with international experience in both the public and private sectors. Marge specializes in helping make people and organizations more productive. She is the author of many book chapters and articles and the coeditor of Appreciative Leaders: In the Eye of the Beholder (Taos Institute Focus). She is the executive director of The Positive Change Corps, a global community serving youth and education, and a founding partner of Appreciative Inquiry Consulting. Marge holds an M.A. in OD from Harvard University’s Graduate School of Education and a Ph.D. in Learning Environments for Management and Public Policy from Union Graduate School.

Jean Tully spent 30 years in Hewlett-Packard Company before early retirement in 2002. She worked as an internal consultant in OL Concepts, teaching systems thinking courses, and was co-creator and co-facilitator of the Worldwide Change Management Community of Practice. She also served as the change manager to one of the business CIO’s as HP went through the HP-Compaq merger. She has been an organizational member of SoL, a member of SoL’s Governing Council, and a member of several Council sub-committees. She is now in the process of starting a consulting practice focused on dealing with issues related to complexity.

Sara Schley and Joe Laur are founding partners of SEED Company, dedicated to promoting sustainable development in business through the use of organizational learning and systems thinking disciplines, in combination with scientific conditions for sustainability. They employ a cutting-edge approach that views sustainability strategies as a key to competitive advantage for business. They have developed the Systems Thinking for a Sustainable Future Conference; the Creating Sustainable Organizations course; and the Chief Executive Forum on Sustainability, bringing together leaders of major corporations in a learning initiative focused on sustainable business. They are coauthors of Creating Sustainable Organizations (Pegasus Communications, 1998).

Linda Lancaster is an organization development consultant working with organizations and leaders across the National Security Agency. Her current work focuses on Social Action Research and large-scale change initiatives. Linda joined NSA in 1973 and has a diverse background working in the intelligence business, including security, operations, education and training, knowledge management, and organization development. She has been an active member of the SoL Liaison Officers since 2001, and is a member of the Knowledge & Innovation Consortium.

Dennis Sandow is president, owner, secretary, bookkeeper, and janitor of Reflexus Company. Prior to starting the company, he was a research project manager at the University of Oregon and responsible for research grants studying human, social capital, and social relationships in the workplace. He has been a SoL council member and a member of the Knowledge and Innovation Network.

Nick Zeniuk is a former Ford executive that developed the 95/98 Lincoln Continental, the subject of the MIT case study, “Car Launch” and Goleman’s “Working with Emotional Intelligence”—he collaborated with Peter Senge and Dr. Edward Deming in building the Lincoln Team. Nick is also a founding member and former trustee of the Society for Organizational Learning (SoL) and a steward of the Knowledge and Innovation Network (KINSoL). Nick is presently a consultant and researcher for understanding organizational performance in dynamic social systems.

Robert Fritz has been developing the field of structural dynamics for over 25 years, first in the area of the creative process and then in the area of organizational, business, and management issues. He is the founder of Robert Fritz, Inc. Along with Peter Senge and Charles Kiefer, he codeveloped Leadership and Mastery and was one of the cofounders of Innovation Associates. As a structural consultant, Fritz has helped many organizations put the structural approach into practice. His books include The Path of Least Resistance, Creating, The Path of Least Resistance for Managers, and most recently, Your Life As Art.

Pam Murdock serves as a computer scientist on a research team in the federal government that uses learning organizations principles to make intelligence gains. For the past 20 years, Pam has served the government in various technical and managerial positions in the United States, Asia, and Europe. She received her B.S. in elementary/special education from Penn State, her M.S. in computer science from Johns Hopkins, and her Ph.D. in personnel management from California Coast University.

Helen Salter is a senior intelligence analyst currently working in the Research Directorate of the National Security Agency. She designs and develops cognition technologies based on advances in neuroscience, with the objectives of automating certain receptive and perceptive processes and helping revolutionize learning and education across scientific disciplines. She received a B.A. in philosophy, an M.A. in Russian area studies, and an M.S. in strategic intelligence.

Roberta (Bobbi) Garon is a manager in the Research Directorate of the National Security Agency. Bobbi has 21 years of experience in developing technologies that support the intelligence community. She leads an organization that has proven to be a haven for unconstrained thinking and a willingness to explore the improbable, resulting in intelligence breakthroughs and the documentation of a new business case for understanding processing information.

George Barrar is president and COO of LaFrance Corporation, an international company headquartered in Concordville, Pennsylvania. George worked his way through college as a parts trimmer in LaFrance’s die casting plant and succeeded at a series of engineering positions, in which he learned all facets of the company’s operations. His in-depth understanding of Robert Fritz’s “Structural Approach,” coupled with his ability to consistently apply the Creative Process both strategically and in day-to-day situations, has carried LaFrance to a leadership position in their field. His practical knowledge and down-to-earth communication skills have transformed the company into a successful learning organization.

Bill Brandt is the chairman and founder of American Woodmark, a leading manufacturer of kitchen cabinets. Bill led a leveraged buyout of Boise Cascade’s cabinet business in 1980. Since then, sales have grown from $30 million to over $650 million today. The company is the primary supplier of stock cabinets to The Home Depot and Lowe’s. Bill consults with CEOs in the areas of strategy creation, “CEO coaching,” and new-venture startup. He is the author of several articles, including “Training as Learning: A Key Element of Cultural Change” in The Fifth Discipline Field Book.

George Greenfield was born and raised in Southern California during the raucous 60’s and 70’s. He was educated at UC Berkeley in Engineering and BYU (MBA) with emphasis in operations research and organizational development. In 1972, he participated in the Olympic Games as a member of the USA Olympic Gymnastics Team. Business experiences include leadership positions resulting in significant improvements to operations, quality, and customer satisfaction at Ampex, Hamilton Standard, and Hewlett-Packard companies.