Guest Speakers (blog)

Leaders grapple with a universal challenge: How do you address the fear, inertia, confusion and resistance that are often associated with change? Savvy leaders turn to Wendy Mack, a nationally recognized expert on leading and communicating change. Though her workshops, books, and consulting practice, Wendy helps leaders communicate change in a way that mobilizes people and maximizes results.

As founder and president of T3 Consulting from 2000 - 2007, Wendy led a team that helped dozens of companies such as Northrop Grumman and AOL with the engagement and training aspects of strategic change initiatives. Since 2008, Wendy has focused on providing consulting support to executives, senior leaders, and change implementation teams with organizations such as The Nature Conservancy, the U.S. Geological Survey, and iContact. In addition, firms such as OSI Restaurant Partners and Presbyterian St. Luke’s Hospital have hired Wendy to design and deliver change leadership programs for their senior teams, while ManTech International and others have relied on Wendy to create custom keynotes for staff who are dealing with constant change. In all of her engagements, Wendy’s focus is on ensuring that the right people have the right conversations to move their organization forward.

Television and press editors look to Wendy as a subject matter expert on change, communication, and leadership. She is author of a monthly leadership column for the Colorado Springs Business Journal and co-author of three books: Change at the Core, Plugging into Passions, and Perfect Phrases for Leadership Development.

Wendy holds a master of arts degree in organizational communication from the University of Maryland. She is an active member of the International Association of Business Communicators and the National Speakers Association. She resides in Woodland Park, Colorado.

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Dr. George Thomson is a core faculty member in the School of Organizational Leadership, an adjunct faculty member at the Center for Creative Leadership, and an organizational consultant. Previously, he was Director of Training and Human Development for the world’s largest hardwood company and its partners. In that role, he was responsible for a comprehensive, international human effectiveness program that encompassed customer service and sales training, leadership development, recruitment, organizational development and succession planning.

Dr. Thomson also worked as an executive coach for an international leadership development and training firm, and has consulted organizations ranging from Fortune 50 to small privately held companies.

Dr. Thomson holds a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology from Wheaton College, a Master’s in Counseling and Student Personnel from Indiana University, and an EdD in Counseling Psychology from Western Michigan University. He is a member of the American Psychological Association divisions 13 and 17, as well as the Society of Industrial Organizational Psychology, the Society or Human Resource Management, and the American Society for Training and Development.

Roberta Yenc - Employed with Progressive for 17 years, Roberta has had the opportunity to serve as a customer service representative, trainer and line supervisor for the company’s Auto and Special Lines products.  For the past 10 years, she has worked as a Training Manager in multiple capacities, first dedicated entirely to the Cleveland & Tampa Agency Processing organization, then exclusively to the entire Cleveland Processing and Phones organization which focuses on approximately 3,000 customer service representatives and leadership.  Most recently, she has taken on responsibility for the Phoenix, Sacramento and Colorado Springs training organizations. Roberta is the process leader for the on-boarding of new hire customer service representatives within the Personal Lines organization. She is an active member of both SHRM and ASTD.

Melissa King - Melissa has been employed with Progressive for 16 years, and has also had the opportunity to serve in many roles for the company, including: customer service representative, trainer, training consultant/instructional designer, line manager in for the evening customer service group. She presently is the training supervisor for the Colorado Springs site. Her group locally on-boarded over 250 employees over the last 10 months for both their Services and Sales organizations, as well as delivered multiple alumni courses to existing reps.