Presenter Biographies

Nancy Myers, Seeds for Change

Nancy Myers has worked extensively with Fortune 500 companies and experienced the increasingly critical need for tools to empower people to greater effectiveness, productivity, and well-being in the midst of intensified change, technological advancement and demand for bottom line delivery. In response Nancy developed programs for individuals and organizations in creativity and innovation as a path to growing and flourishing in these turbulent times.

As part of her business activities and as a means of staying at the forefront of her profession, she became an Independent Certified Trainer for the Institute of HeartMath, which forms the basis of the emotional intelligence workshop she will present. Nancy is also a Director of the Innovation Network and an Innovation instructor; a Colleague and on the faculty of the Creative Problem Solving Institute; a Charter Associate Partner of Dr. George Land's Leadership 2000; a Certified Trainer of The Thomas Concept, a styles measurement; and she develops experiential trainings in Leadership & Team Building.

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Dr. Ellen Domb, The PQR Group

Ellen Domb is the President of The PQR Group, a consulting firm specializing in helping organizations maximize customer satisfaction, productivity and profits through strategic management of quality and technology. She has been a Director of the Aerojet Electronic Systems Division with specific responsibility for Total Quality Management implementation. She guided Aerojet and many of its suppliers in developing and using systems to improve the quality of their processes, products and services, shorten development time for new products and services, and achieve dramatic increases in customer satisfaction through continuous process improvement.

Dr.Domb's academic background ranges from Stanford University's Executive Management Program to a Ph.D. in physics from Temple University and a bachelor's degree from MIT. She is a founding board member and Judge for the California Council on Quality and Service. She is a charter member of the Quality Function Deployment Institute, co-founder of The TRIZ Institute, and editor of The TRIZ Journal, http://www.triz-journal.com.

Dr. Domb speaks frequently to business and professional groups on the impact of TQM on organizations and on accelerating new product development using TRIZ and quality function deployment. She is an instructor for San Diego State University, The Claremont Graduate School, George Washington University, GOAL/QPC, and The American Supplier Institute. She is the co-author of Beyond Strategic Vision, Strategic Planning that Makes Things Happen, Management Readings in TQM, Developing Your Concurrent Engineering Plan, The Voice of the Customer: Find it! Use it! and of courses and papers on the applications of quality function deployment and TRIZ.

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Dr. Charles Prather, CW Prather Associates

Charlie Prather inspires listeners to think creatively. He teaches principles that result in Bottom Line Innovation®. With a Ph.D. in biochemistry from N.C. State University, Charlie joined DuPont as Research Chemist and served for 18 years in numerous R&D; Management positions. He was appointed Manager of the DuPont Center for Creativity & Innovation upon its formation and helped shape its direction and design its offerings. He has received training from some of the world's experts, including Drs. Michael Kirton, Edward deBono, Scott Isaksen, and others. He is guest lecturer at Drexel and DePaul University's Graduate School of Business, has been the keynote speaker and presenter at numerous conferences, authored magazine articles, and his book, Blueprints for Innovation, was published by The American Management Association in 1995.

Dr. Bobby Phillips, Exponential Solutions

Bob has a Ph.D. from the University of Tennessee in Chemical Engineering and has approximately 30 years experience in industrial innovation as a manager, project leader, program developer, inventor and team participant. He has been awarded approximately 40 US patents and numerous foreign equivalents. He pioneered the use of creativity and creative problem solving at Eastman Chemical Co. He developed an extensive course on Discovering Customer Needs as well as several insightful models of industrial innovation.

He has also prepared 15 yr technology/market projections, Delphi studies, and future scenarios for planning purposes. He has extensive knowledge of needs driven innovation and technology push innovation as well as estimation, binary modeling, working with customers, interpersonal communication, and basic team building.

Bobby has presented papers at World Congress of Chemical Engineers, International Creativity & networking conference, INDA Fundamental Research Conference, Insight Conference, Textile Research Conference-Princeton and the Convergence Conferences of the Innovation Network. He is a director of the Innovation Network. He is currently the proprietor of Exponential Solutions, a consulting/facilitating/teaching endeavor.

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Laura Hauser, Leadership Strategies International

Laura Hauser is founder of Leadership Strategies International. As a respected author, consultant and speaker, she specializes in the development of leaders, teams, and organizations. She is the author of several articles, including a publication titled A New Way of Guiding Large-Scale Organization Change (Jossey-Bass Consulting Annual, 1998). Laura brings over 25 years experience--18 years of internal corporate experience, seven years as a leader of her own firm, and a master's degree in business. A 1999 graduate of the Innovation University program, Laura's approach encourages people to see new possibilities and to create the future they desire. People find her warm, engaging, motivating and inspiring.

Andrea Woodward, Innovation Network

As an accomplished horsewoman who has trained her own horses from start to finish, Andrea Woodward has learned for herself the importance of taking the time to recollect, sense, and enjoy nature through the connection with horses. In her role as the Marketing and Sales Director for Innovation Network, Andrea combines an understanding of creativity with a practical approach to business. Previously, she developed the curriculum for a women1s business start-up program and led the course. A 1998 graduate of the Innovation University Fellowship, Andrea presented a session at Convergence 99 on applying the communication techniques of author and horse trainer Monty Roberts. Click here to read the article by Andrea and her Innovation University colleagues on "Out of the Corral and into the Workplace: Putting Join-Up to Work."

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Marian J. Thier, Founder of Expanding Thought® and creator of THINK TANK: The Game of Creative Problem Solving®, and The Journey, a Fable, and OutThink (co-developer) with Joe Miguez

Marian Thier, founder of Expanding Thought, began her career in commercial and public television before moving on to adult and non-traditional education. It seemed a natural leap to consulting and training in creativity/innovation, leadership, and organizational development. She is creator of Thought Expanders, a CD-ROM designed to increase innovative thinking, THINK TANK: The Game of Creative Problem Solving, and co-author of The Journey, A Fable, and OutThink (co-developer) with Joe Miguez..

A consultant since 1984, Marian's work focuses on:

• coaching executives to become clear about their direction, and the direction of the organization they lead
• developing a team's competence to use idea generation, and idea evaluation tools during the creative problem-solving process
• assessing an organization's climate for creativity, and individual's personality, creativity, and thinking styles
• educating people about change, creativity and innovation, leadership, communication and culture

Marian has fourteen years experience in the fields of creativity/innovation, leadership, team dynamics, and organizational change. She like to share how her works has been applied to organizations in her broad, on-going client relationships. She will customize her lectures and interactive workshops to your audience - this is not a canned presentation because she is eager to listen to what you and othters are doing and apply it to your organization.

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Stewart Cubley, Co-Founder of the Institute for Art and Living

Stewart Cubley was originally trained as an engineer, a career he pursued for many years before turning toward his interest in the process underlying original discoveries. After finding in painting a powerful tool for accessing and exploring the source of creativity, he co-founded The Painting Experience Studio in San Francisco in 1976. For the past two decades he has guided many people on the exciting journey of developing their creative potential, and he continues to lead workshops and seminars throughout the world. Since 1996 Stewart has worked closely with Lucent Technologies, leading seminars where employees can explore experientially the role of creativity in the workplace. Stewart is currently writing a new book on the transformative experiences of people who have experienced the painting process, and the ramifications of their discoveries both personally and professionally.

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Deanna H. Berg, Ed.D, Innovation Strategies International

Dr. Deanna Berg is an internationally known consultant, speaker and coach to business organizations. She is known for producing significant bottom-line improvements for her clients and wins critical acclaim for her unique approaches to the critical change areas of change, creativity, team work and learning organizations. Her efforts have won praise from a client list that includes AT&T, Boeing, Corning, NASA, Kimberly-Clark, Southwest Airlines, Northrop Grumman, 3M and other major organizations throughout Asia, Australia, and South America.

Dr. Berg is President and founder of Innovation Strategies International, a consulting firm with offices in Atlanta and Chicago. She was previously President of Avatar Learning Systems International in Atlanta.

Deanna is a published author and member of the World Future Society, Association of Quality and Participation, the American Society of Training and Development, Meeting Planners International and the National Speakers Association. She is on the Board of the Innovation Network and is also an Associate of The Learning Circle, a Boston-based network of leading thinkers and practitioners in the area of learning organizations.

She earned a Doctorate in Counseling Psychology and Business from Indiana University.

Dr. Berg’s sessions are best described as non-traditional and highly interactive, with immediate take-home value.

Ken Westray, Cloud Nine Product Solutions

Ken Westray has extensive business experience in producing corporate profits demonstrated by his track record of leading major contributions in new products, developing new markets, and capitalizing on opportunities to gain technological competitive advantage through acquisitions and mergers. Ken has successfully helped to develop and introduce over 60 commercially successful new products, in both domestic and international markets. In over 80 % of these cases, new products not only achieved market leadership, but also maintained those positions for average of 5 years, generating an average of 55% gross margins.

Ken's formal education and professional affiliations have prepared him exceptionally well to understand the technical considerations of new product development. Holding a Masters degree in Management from the University of Missouri and a Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering from the Missouri School of Mines, he is also registered as a professional engineer in the state of Michigan. Additionally, he is a member of the Innovation Network, Product Development Management Association (PDMA), Chemical Market Research Association (CMRA), Commercial Development Association (CDA), Planning Forum and the Society of Competitive Intelligence (SCIP) and has given numerous presentations to top management on the complex organizational, technical and financial issues of successful new product development.

Ken's professional experience represents a variety of increasingly responsible marketing and sales roles, ranging from award winning Sales Representative, Product Manager, Market Manager, Director of Business Development, and Director of Acquisitions, Strategy and Planning. He has held these positions for BASF, Economic Laboratory, English China Clay and JM Huber. The common thread of his measurable contribution in these organizations is his focus on perfecting the complex process of successful new product development as a corporate competitive advantage, beginning with developing the company's new product strategy, culminating in successful market launch and sustaining commercialization.

Ken's sessions are best described as always based on business realities, highly interactive with identified action steps.

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Lari Washburn, IdeaVerse, Lucent Technologies

Lari Washburn is founder of IdeaVerse, a creativity center within Lucent Technologies; winner of the 1997 George Land World Class Innovator Award. For the past 5 years she has developed and presented workshops, retreats, and custom ideation sessions focused on using the arts to create business innovations. She holds a BFA in painting and art education, and her business experience includes work in sales, marketing, training development and product management. She recently formed InSpiritus, a Chicago based creativity consultancy.

Her work has been cited in Inner Edge, Fast Company, Training Magazine, the Wall Street Journal, and at the Executive Leadership Forum sponsored by the Center for Creative Leadership.

Suzanne Merritt, The Lab

Suzanne Merritt is founder of the Polaroid Creativity Lab, and principal of InsightOut, a Boston based creativity consultancy. Suzanne has combined 15 years of business experience is sales, marketing, strategic planning, and new product development with her advanced degree in aesthetic education to develop this personal leadership program for: the University of Michigan Business School, Helsinki School of Economics, and the Center for Creative Leadership, in Greensboro, N.C. Her work has been cited in The Wall Street Journal, MIT Technology Review, and Fast Company Magazine.

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