Tag Archives: high-impact Strategic Planning

Maria Schnell

Maria C. Schnell, M.A. has been certified by Company of Experts as an Appreciate Inquiry Facilitator, and has built her practice on creating revolutionary change for Individuals and Organizations. Maria carries an M.A and B.A. in Organizational Communication with an emphasis in the areas of Leadership and Speech Education from the University of Colorado. This background combined with her exceptional experience allows Maria to assist with a variety of change initiatives for you or your organization.

A top-notch trainer with over 10 years of success in speaking, training and organizational development, Maria has mastered the Secrets to creating a life-changing, lucrative corporation.

An expert in interpersonal communication & personal/professional development and a mastermind in program design and facilitation, Maria delights her audiences with her unique blend of humor and insight, openness and sincerity, and complete generosity of self.

Maria exudes passion, and executes facilitation of change with experience and implementation of individualized sustainable programs. Maria is diverse in background; organizational communication, diversity training, leadership training, sales and development, profitability training, and individual development (just to name a few). Clients included in Maria’s repertoire; lia Sophia Jewelry, Goodwill Inc., United First Financial, and the BDCC.  Maria’s skilled performance fulfills clients need and executes transformation.

As an Expert on Call, Maria strives to pursue the mission of the Company of Experts. Maria creates a learning environment that is open, respectful and focused to ensure that your desired result is accomplished.  The opportunity to work with Maria will offer you and your organization tools to immediately use each day in your business.

As a Facilitator of Change, Maria seeks to inspire organizations to thrive through encouraging action and execution of transformation.

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Specialties:

  • Appreciative Inquiry
  • Change Management
  • Collaborative Learning
  • Conflict Transformation
  • Cultural Diversity
  • Customized Training
  • Gay and Lesbian Issues
  • High-Impact Strategic Planning
  • Interpersonal Relationships
  • Keynote Speaking
  • Leadership Development
  • Marketing
  • Online Education
  • Oral Communications
  • Professional Development
  • Program Development
  • Project Management
  • Team Development
  • Transformational Leadership
  • Women in Leadership
Bill McGinnisBill McGinnis has had a long and varied career in higher education, including management, trusteeship, and consulting and training. Bill has been certified by Company of Experts.net as an Appreciative Inquiry Facilitator.

From 1989 to 2003, he served as an assistant to the vice president for strategic planning, accountability and property procurement; and director of facilities management and services in the California State University system. He also taught political science, served on a system-wide quality improvement planning committee and as a system-wide facilities management coordinator.

Bill served as a California community college trustee from 1992 to the present, with terms as clerk, vice president, and president. He also served on the California Community College Trustees (CCCT) board since 1997 to the present, with terms as vice president and president, and on the advisory committee on legislation and finance.

In addition to his community college and university work, Bill worked as a local government manager from 1973 through 1985: city administrator, city manager, chief administrative officer, and personnel director in California, Oregon, and Florida.

From 1970 through 1975, Bill worked in the private sector as a legislative analyst for California State Employees Association (CSEA) and as an account executive.

Bill has made major presentations for university student groups; community college new student trustees; community college trusteeship and management; community college effectiveness; and effective trustee practices. He has facilitated training sessions on a variety of topics, including: Knowing – Doing Gap, Turning Knowledge into Action; Balanced Scorecard & Strategy Development; Parking Analysis of CSU; Balanced Scorecard for CSU; Measuring Success for Business & Finance; Development of Employee Strategic Goals; Growth Analysis for CSU; Balanced Scorecard for Butte Community College; Integrating Quality Improvement with Strategic Planning and Accreditation for CSU; Gift Receipting Process Mapping Project & Analysis; Balanced Scorecard in City Government; Outlook for Future California State Budgets; Results Based Leadership; Performance Measuring Seminar; Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats Analysis for CSU; FISH! and FISH! Sticks– Employee Development & Motivation; Leading Change; First Break All the Rules, Improving Employee Performance; Demonstration of PB Views Software for Performance Measuring ; Employee Climate Survey Presentation; Preventing Employee Burnout; Hidden Values: How Extra-Ordinary Companies Succeed with Ordinary People; Employee Motivation & Strategic Planning (Russian-American Business Training Center, Sakhalin Island); Community College Trustee Retreats and Board Development of Long Term Goals.

Bill earned a Master of Arts degree in public administration from the University of West Florida, and a Bachelor of Science degree in business administration from Midwestern College in Iowa. Bill holds credentials to teach public service administration and to be a supervisor in the California community colleges,

Specialties:

  • Board Training and Development
  • Change management
  • Core Values
  • Customer Service
  • Decision Making
  • Facilities Planning
  • Goal setting
  • High-impact Strategic Planning
  • High Performing Teams
  • Institutional Effectiveness
  • Leadership Development
  • Mission
  • Priority Setting
  • Seven habits of Highly Effective People
  • Process Improvement
  • Quality Improvement
  • Shared Governance
  • Strategic Planning
  • Trustee Training and Development
  • Trustee/CEO relationships
  • Visioning and Futuring

Christopher Szecsey

Christopher Szecsey

Christopher Szecsey (pronounced “say-chay”) has over 38 years of worldwide experience across more than 48 countries in capacity-building of individuals, teams, community groups, organizations, & projects. For the past 15 years, he has worked as consultant, trainer, & facilitator with international nonprofits & local nonprofits (NGOs) as well as with government & multilateral agencies in the USA & around the world.

His international clients include: the Center for Disease Control in Ethiopia, Carter Center, World Wildlife Fund, American Red Cross, Save the Children, CARE, PACT, PATH, Family Health International, Pathfinder, Counterpart International, The Asia Foundation, FAO/UN, UNDP, & UNICEF as well as international consulting firms, foundations, & government agencies. Prior to consulting, he served nine years as a Country Representative/Field Office Director for Save the Children/US on three international assignments in Asia & the Pacific Islands; two years as a Project Director for UNDP in Nepal; & three years as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Ecuador.

His USA clients, mostly in the Northern California, include: the Volunteer Center & its Nonprofit Resource Center, Community Action Partnerships, West County Community Services, Santa Rosa Symphony, Habitat for Humanity, RECOURSE, Restorative Resources, Sonoma County Repertory Theater, Next Generation, Lifeschool, Osmosis, Southwest Community Health Center, La Luz, foundations such as Levi Strauss & West County Healthcare, school districts, & local city & county government agencies.

Key areas of Christopher’s consulting experience include building the capacity of the nonprofit sector around the world including in the USA; providing technical assistance, training & facilitation in collaboration/partnerships; organizational assessment & development, leadership & team strengthening;  program assessment, design, planning, & management; & board & staff development as well as work with local government agencies.

Christopher has significant experience & skills in training & facilitation with boards, senior staff, & diverse stakeholder groups, using learner center participatory, interactive, & collaborative learning processes to ensure client & stakeholder involvement, engagement & ownership for positive change efforts.

He has served on the board of three nonprofits as well as the chair of one, and as a nonprofit executive director. He graduated from the University of the Pacific/Callison College, and successfully completed the Executive Certificate Program in Global Change & Social Innovation/Appreciative Inquiry, Global Excellence in Management (GEM) Initiative, Case Western Reserve University. His three languages are: English, Spanish, and Indonesian.

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Specialties:

  • Appreciative Inquiry
  • Board Training & Development
  • Community Development/ Mobilization & Community Partnerships
  • Consulting
  • Facilitating
  • Facilitator Training
  • High-Impact Strategic Planning
  • Leadership Training & Development
  • Management Training & Development
  • Organizational Assessment
  • Organizational Development
  • Participatory Learning
  • Participatory Management
  • Partnership Building & Strengthening
  • Program/Project Development & Management
  • Staff Training & Development
  • Team Building
  • Visioning & Futuring

Ray Wells

Ray Wells

Ray Wells, based in the Philadelphia region, is the president of a consulting firm that uses a strengths-based approach in designing leadership, team and organization development programs for its clients. This approach, which focuses on accentuating and building on “who we are when we are at our best,” has helped the firm capture the energy and professional passion of the people it serves. Ray has been certified by Company of Experts.net as an Appreciative Inquiry Facilitator and Appreciative Inquiry Facilitator Trainer (AIFT ©).

Since 1987,  the firm has customized programs and projects for nearly 100 non-profit, business, and education clients in organizations ranging from just a dozen people to the Fortune 500, from the smallest private schools to the Ivy League, from single-office non-profit agencies to the largest corporate health systems. When necessary, the firm draws on the talent of a host of trainers, facilitators and consultants with whom it regularly partners.

Ray’s own strengths and professional passion are focused on guiding higher education institutions and their leaders in transforming the post-secondary educational landscape. He has assisted with major change initiatives at Penn State University, Lehigh University, the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation, the University of Connecticut, and in the growing Drexel University system. He has facilitated whole systems change workshops for the National Association of Presidential Assistants in Higher Education, the American Council on Education, and A Community of Agile Partners in Education (CAPE), a not-for-profit Pennsylvania-based consortium of higher education and K-12 members, where he has served as a consultant since January of 2001.

In 2001 Ray joined the faculty of the Foundation for the Advancement of International Medical Education and Research (FAIMER) as a leadership scholar/instructor. The annual FAIMER Institute serves medical school faculty from developing countries in South America, Africa and Asia who have the potential to play a key role in improving medical education in their schools.

Over a four-year span at Princeton University, Ray worked with an on-going culture change program targeted towards Princeton’s top 450 administrators and managers. Among many other projects, he assisted with the design of several management development conferences and post-conference training programs on the challenges of change, process improvement, the introduction of a performance enhancement initiative, and the impact of new technology on organizational processes.

Ray earned his Master of Arts from Bowling Green State University (OH) in college student development and his Ph.D. in applied social-psychology from Temple University, where his research focused on how leadership creates and maintains a sense of community on a college campus. He has held professional student affairs positions at Arizona State University, Southeast Missouri State University, and Temple University.

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Specialties:

  • Appreciative Inquiry
  • Appreciative Inquiry Facilitator Training
  • Developing a Shared Vision
  • Drexler-Sibbet Team Performance System
  • Effecting Sustainable Change
  • Executive Coaching
  • Future Search Conferences
  • High Impact Strategic Planning
  • High Performing Teams
  • Knowledge Management
  • Leadership Styles
  • Leadership Training and Development
  • Learning Communities
  • Managing Time Management
  • Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)
  • Performance Enhancement
  • Project Management
  • Situational Leadership
  • Team Building
  • Team Development