Bios
Michael Goldman
Michael is the President of
Facilitation First
. His expertise is geared to helping teams embrace change, take accountability and follow-through on actions! He is a workshop designer and leadership trainer. Michael’s experiential facilitation programs guide individuals to becoming effective ‘relationship’ managers through the use of simple yet powerful participatory tools. Over the past fifteen years Michael has also successfully facilitated over 400 meetings across North America.
Michael has edited over 5 books including the national bestseller ‘Facilitating with Ease!’ and is the chief contributor to Facilitation First’s newsletter ‘The Facilitator’s Flipchart’. His monthly teleconference series ‘Teams in Trouble’ attracts over 150+ listeners worldwide per session. He is also a keynote speaker. Michael has designed and presented keynotes for a host of groups from financial institutional conferences to association lunches, on topics ranging from ‘managing group conflict’ to ‘simple tools for running effective meetings.’
Ingrid Bens
Ingrid has a Masters Degree in Adult Education and over 25 years experience as a facilitator and consultant. During her career, Ingrid has been a community development officer, an internal organization development consultant, an independent consultant and trainer. She is also the author of many of our best-selling books on facilitation.
Bruce Craig
Bruce is a senior consultant, trainer and facilitator with over 25 years experience implementing programs that involve people to solve organizational problems, improve teamwork, build union-management collaboration, resolve conflict and implement organizational change. His collaborative style and approach to solving organizational challenges has resulted in major breakthroughs and innovative ideas to improve buy-in from front-line employees. By engaging people, Bruce has turned around negative work attitudes and built high performance work cultures based on proactive, two-way communication, respectful work relations, employee involvement and teamwork.
Bruce’s clients include: Shell Canada, Canadian General Tower, CIBC Leadership Centre, International Wallcoverings Inc., Wrigley Canada, Tremco Canada, the Centre for Independent Living (Waterloo), the Hamilton School Board, Public Works and Government Services Canada, HRDC -PEI Region, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency and the Ontario Ministries of Safety and Security, Health and Long-Term Care and Natural Resources.
Peter Dickens
Peter is an internationally recognized speaker, facilitator and strategist. For 21 years Peter has provided organizational development leadership and advice to a wide range of public, private and social sector organizations and is an associate faculty member in the Graduate School of Leadership at Royal Roads University.
Peter is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Leadership and Change at Antioch University.
Jane Eastmure
After 15 years of developing her career within the hospitality industry, in the spring of 1999, Jane made a career transition from her position as Associate Director of Global Sales for Starwood Hotels and Resorts to pursue her interest in sales and leadership development. Immediately accredited with Achievers International, Jane began training sales professionals across North America at Fairmont Hotels and Resorts, Delta Hotels, Larco Hospitality and Chip Hospitality. Today Jane works with individuals, teams and leaders within many organizations to help them understand themselves and others (colleagues, customers and team members) so they can better manage their relationships and time in order to maximize both productivity and financial performance.
As a CSP (Canadian Sales Professional), Jane has combined her work experience, a certificate in Adult Training and Development from University of Toronto’s OISE plus a certificate program in Hospitality Strategic Management at Cornell with an accreditation as a Certified Trainer with Facilitation First in order to incorporate three levels of learning into her work: the skill, attitude and behaviors necessary for success as leaders, sales professionals and team members.
Suzanne Gard
Suzanne is a management consultant, change management strategist and executive coach. She’s adept at creating and implementing employee and customer service surveys, leadership development coaching programs and experiential training. Suzanne brings 12 years of corporate experience and 8 years of consulting expertise to training our Facilitating with Ease workshop.
Marion Howell
Marion’s intuitive capacity to see and draw out the very best in people has made her a much sought-after confidante, guide and mentor to leaders from all walks of life. She is a passionate advocate for the integration of objective data and feedback with a deepening sense of authentic self-awareness that enables individuals and teams to transform their perspective. This shift allows them to see and pursue opportunities that may have been obscured by the misplaced emphasis on self-imposed constraints.
Marion has had significant success in taking her personal coaching skills into a team or departmental setting. She blends artful facilitation with a deep commitment to listening to people’s stories and then helps them frame a new collective narrative to which they become increasingly committed. Marion is also certified through Myers-Briggs and a Certified Emotional Intelligence facilitator.
Suzanne McGugan
Suzanne McGugan enjoyed a successful 32 year career in the Financial Services industry including positions in Retail Branch Banking, International Audit, Finance, IT and 20+ years in increasingly responsible roles in Project & Program Management. Recognizing that there was a need for Project Managers to look beyond process to excellence in Stakeholder Management, in 2003 Suzanne launched her career as an independent consultant to offer clients her insights and hard-won experience in the trenches of Project Management. Suzanne combined this experience plus a Project Management Certification from Boston University and a Project Management Professional (PMP) designation, with her accreditation as a Licensed Practitioner of Insights Discovery®, to create the suite of tools and services she offers today.
It is this combination of experience with world-class tools, a “cut-to-the-chase” focus and award-winning leadership that resulted in successful implementation of a critical BMO Financial Group Program, and ultimately earned her the title of “World’s Best Project Manager” from the international
Kevin Quinn
Kevin Quinn is a senior consultant specializing in coaching, consulting and the design and delivery of customized human resources development. For twenty years he has been helping his clients achieve business results by getting the best from their people. Kevin delivers these results through customized training and problem-solving with teams and individual managers. Clients have included Manulife Financial, National Trust/Scotia Bank, University Health Network, and Nelvana Productions. Kevin has done doctoral work in Adult Learning and holds Masters degrees in history and public administration.
Patty Schachter
Patty Schachter is a Senior Consultant specializing in organization, team and personal transformation. Bringing over 27 years of business experience and a wealth of knowledge about implementing total quality management and business excellence philosophies, clients and colleagues alike consider her a master at adapting the spectrum of quality tools and theories to meet real, everyday business needs
Andrew Welch
Andrew offers a range of facilitation services, from experiential activities to healthcare & manufacturing information systems analysis. He has conducted corporate training since 1981, and now specializes in adventure and experience-based development. Andrew has an extremely diverse background, as indicated by some of his affiliations and certifications listed below. When working in the IT industry, he was in constant demand as a speaker, consultant, and columnist. That experience, combined with a successful 25-year theatre career and an active travel history, has led to his current focus on experiential education.
Bruce Withrow
Bruce Withrow has been facilitating strategic planning sessions and corporate retreats for the past twelve years. During that time Bruce has been the lead facilitator for strategic planning sessions and high level conferences with up to 300 participants. Bruce earned his CA designation in 1980 and is a past director of the Strategic Leadership Forum in Toronto.