2014 Annual Conference Speakers

Keynote Speaker, John Parker Stewart

For the past 35 years, John has coached and trained tens of thousands of leaders worldwide. He managed executive and leadership development for 86,000 employees at Lockheed Corporation where he designed and taught the Lockheed Executive Institutes for 13 years.  He started Stewart Systems, Inc. in 1980 where he has researched, consulted, taught, and coached CEOs, presidents, executives, and government leaders. 

John began his undergraduate studies at the University of Colorado.  He finished his bachelor’s degree at Brigham Young University and earned his master’s degree in Organizational Communication where he wrote his thesis at Parliament in London.  He began his doctoral work and teaching at Michigan State University, and continued his doctoral studies under management guru Peter Drucker in Executive Performance and Leadership at Claremont Graduate School. 

John has researched organizations and worked with corporations worldwide.  He was selected “National Trainer of the Year” by the American Society for Training and Development for two consecutive years. In addition to training and coaching all levels of management at Kennedy Space Center over an eight year period, his client list includes: Citibank, U.S. Air Force, Chevron, IBM, Lockheed Martin, Toshiba, CSL-Hong Kong, Xerox, GM, Kaiser Permanente, Telstra-Australia, U.S. Dept. of Energy, Boeing, and many other commercial firms and government agencies.

Keynote Presentation Title:  Leading Through Influence: Building Leadership for Yourself, Your Team and Your Projects

How do you develop an ability to lead from any position in an organization? How can you be more adept in influencing those over whom you have little or no authority?  What are the key skills that are needed for a successful leader?  Knowing how to influence and lead others—often without direct authority—is critical in successfully managing projects.    

In this highly engaging presentation, John Parker Stewart, internationally recognized leadership coach and award-winning author, will:

• Discuss the LEAD NOW! leadership development model
• Share how to align and remove obstacles for personal leadership development
• Apply the five principles of modern leadership to influence key stakeholders during any kind of change

Time

8:45-10:15 AM

Topic Track

People Skills

Time

Alan Cabelly, Ph. D., SPHR, is a transformational leadership professor at Portland State University and Founder of the Portland Leadership Institute.  He teaches and consults internationally, in such diverse places as France, Viet Nam, and China.  Recent conference presentations have included "Leveraging Your Corporate Future:  Today's Millennials, Tomorrow's Executives;" "Strategic Negotiation for the Modern Executive;" and "Leadership for the 21st Century." Visit his website at www.PortlandLeadershipInstitute.com

Presentation Title: Who Are You:  Your Style Makes You a Better Leader

Do you use your leadership style to your greatest advantage?  We'll help you better see who you are in those tough situations, what your behavioral style is.  People with different styles will help you understand how they view you, where you are effective, and where you can increase your success.  When we're done:  you will be on the road toward becoming the leader you've always imagined yourself to be.

10:30 to Noon

In 2008 Jake French began his dream forestry career, when a freak accident left him a quadriplegic. Reinvented as an author and motivational speaker, Jake isolates the ingredients you need to add optimism back into the office, jump start teamwork, and open up channels for real communication to finally happen.

Presentation Title: Igniting the Spark That Moves Everyone Forward

In Jake's enlightening and interactive workshop, discover the "why" behind how your teammates process information, their actions, and attitudes. With insight, humor, and life-changing stories, he shares how to unlock the secrets to creating powerful connections, respectful and engaging relationships, and a culture where everyone WINS. 

1:00-2:00 PM

Jackie Barretta has a 25-year history as a successful Fortune 500 C-level executive and Big Four consultant. Her book, Primal Teams, is being published by the American Management Association, and its material forms the basis of this presentation. Jackie is a Founding Partner of Nura Group, a consulting firm dedicated to enhancing team innovation and performance. She specializes in defining the super-energy of elite teams and helping organizations create it in their own teams.

Presentation Title: Harnessing the Power of Emotions to Fuel Agility

New discoveries in neuroscience and psychology show that emotion, more than anything else, spells the difference between a team creatively moving forward versus being stuck in the past. Learn how to instill the emotions that evoke the most sought-after team competencies, from quickness, flexibility and resilience to innovation and complexity-management.

2:15-3:15 PM

Chris Sheesely puts derailed workplace relations back on track. Professionals hire Chris when they need an experienced and objective facilitator to handle complex internal disputes. With 22 years of experience, Chris is among them most seasoned conflict management professionals in the northwest. He has 5,000+ hours of teaching experience and has a track record of over 1,500 cases. When he is not working, Chris enjoys sailing, cycling, and bird watching.  

Presentation Title: Fixing Interpersonal Conflict at Work

Workplace conflict is often uncomfortable and messy. Unfortunately, it can also do tremendous damage when mismanaged.  Today, you’ll gain confidence at working through discord by developing skills to reduce the impact of the conflict at work. After the presentation you’ll be able to identify:

•  5 barriers to solving discord
•  2 tools for overcoming each barrier
•  The surprising power of impartiality

3:30-4:30 PM

Topic Track

Strategy & Leadership

Time

Gus Cicala is the president, CEO, and founder of Project Assistants. He is a Wharton Business School graduate with more than thirty years of project management experience in a wide array of industries, including his eighteen years with Project Assistants.  He is also a frequent presenter on leadership topics and the acclaimed author of Project Management Using Microsoft Project 2013.

Presentation Title:  Leadership is Taken, Not Given: Establishing, maintaining and regaining control of projects

The project manager's role is a paradox: we are tasked with driving project success without having any tangible powers within the company.  Gus Cicala will draw from real-world scenarios to illustrate ways to navigate this paradox through establishing a cadence and harmony between project managers, project sponsors and clients.

Steven Fulmer is a successful entrepreneur and HUMAN STRATEGIST who started his first business at the age of 16. By 35 he was Vice President of an 85 person, $10 million software company he was instrumental in growing from 3 people and $300,000/yr.

Presentation Title:  The Reflection of Leadership

We've all experienced people in "leadership positions" who stink as leaders, who bring out our worst not our best; or who shine so bright we're intimidated. Leadership is tricky, and it is so much more than position, power or authority. Leadership is behavior, attitude and attributes; courage, invitation and above all community

Kevin McCarthy is a professional member of the National Speakers Association and a 30-year veteran entrepreneur, C-level executive, and national trainer. Through his dynamic keynotes and workshops he empowers executives, entrepreneurs, sales professionals, leadership staff and work teams to create fresh perspectives that transform relationships and empower cohesive teamwork.

Presentation Title: Bare Naked Leadership

There is a new kind of leadership being birthed from an outcry of emerging leaders and their distaste for the status quo. Learn the mindsets of peak effective leaders. Discover leadership blind spots and learn how to become a magnetic leader with a high, earned leadership quotient. 

Tom Cox is amanagement consultant specializing in individual performance optimization and the creation of powerful teams. His early success with math became a fascination with human dynamics, communication, and deep trust. He's the author of a book on database technology, co-author of a chapter in a textbook on trauma surgery, and earned his Bachelor's degree in Behavioral Science from the University of Chicago in 3 years, with honors.

Presentation Title:  Protect and Push: How the Best Leaders Execute Strategy

Tom will present the elements of his Leadership Ladder that are most useful to the project manager, program manager, or director, when they are defining and executing strategy and creating change. The attendee will assess three aspects of their own unique work style, will assess the styles and motives of key stakeholders, and learn three weekly practices that will greatly speed strategy execution.

Topic Track

Tools and Techniques

Time

Tim Runcie, MCP, MCTS, V-TSP, PMP, MVP is a 20+ year veteran of Project to Portfolio Management, Published Author, Speaker and Trainer.

As the President of Advisicon, he has written over 36 books on PM Methodologies and Technologies and he has over 20 years of helping organizations maximize Project Methodologies with Project Technologies, ranging across all industry sectors, from Information Services, Healthcare, Construction, Energy.

Tim sits on the Microsoft Advisory Council to help influence and improve PPM technologies for our community of practice.

His overall background has been in project portfolio planning. He has guided organizations to successfully manage competing initiatives using scarce resources, fixed budgets and interconnected schedules. He is particularly adept at teaching and establishing project methodologies that are adopted into the project management culture of organizations and either leveraging or creating custom tools to expedite and automate the project management process.

Tim's true love is in teaching. When not leading or mentoring organizations, he is actively involved in teaching classes, or developing courses and training programs centered on the disciplines and technologies of project management. To every project, he brings a personal passion for education and a commitment to providing customers with a full set of skills and tools to achieve optimum success.

Presentation Title:  Portfolio to Project Business Intelligence Reporting: Making Effective Business Decisions with Key Metrics using Office 365 Technologies

The world of Business Intelligence is rapidly changing and for the better.  The powerful reporting and BI tools are being driven into the hands of mere mortals (not just developers anymore…).  Come learn about how to build Charts, Graphs and visually effective reporting for Project, Program and Portfolio managers using Office 365, Excel Services, SharePoint and Microsoft’s PPM platform.  Attendees will learn about the options for fast, easy to manage and different approaches to generate dashboards.

Diane Brady is a Project Management Professional working in the Pacific Northwest with 18 years of project management and consulting experience working in the Information Technology industry.  She is passionate about using technology to create and improve systems, building dynamic teams, and serving teams to achieve amazing results!

She is an experienced trainer, coach and methodologist specializing in planning, analysis, systems integration, change management and deployment readiness.  She has provided leadership in the development of software implementation and development life cycle, business process workflow, ERP system replacement and mergers, and been instrumental in defining best practices for the companies she has served.  

Presentation Title:  ADKAR: A Model for Change

Change Management knowledge and understanding has become essential for many project management professionals.  We are surrounded by change every day, everywhere and in every part of our lives.  It can be challenging, sometimes overwhelming, to prepare you and others, navigate through the chaotic transformation, and then sustain the effort going forward.   The ADKAR model will provide a clear process and give you confidence to prepare and navigate through any change. 

Judy Jarosh is a Global IT Leader at NACCO Materials Handling Group. She heads large global implementation projects and IT Risk Management & Compliance activities. Her work has taken her around the world and she’s a lifelong PMI evangelist. She’s a Certified PMP, a Certified Internal Systems Auditor and a Certified Master Gardener.

Presentation Title:  10 Things Gardening Has Taught Me About Project Management

As a Certified Master Gardener, I teach gardeners about the agility required to deal with Mother Nature.  As a Certified Project Manager and leader of large global projects, I find there is much correlation with the gardening world and the need to anticipate and deal with "mother-nature-like" challenges that arise. This session focuses on 10 practices, skills and tools that will improve agility and project success.

Brad Hermanson, PE, PMP, MBA is a senior project manager with GEI Consultants, a 650-person consulting firm with 30 offices nationwide.  Brad has worked as a project manager in the engineering consulting field for over 30 years. For four years he was director of project delivery for a 550-person firm. 

Presentation Title:  True Fundamentals of Project Management

Achieving the mission of project management takes an array of skills. This talk distills project management life to five absolute fundamentals of project management. These fundamentals are mostly behavioral in nature, and are a basic requirement for project management. The talk applies to new project team members, project managers, and seasoned veterans.

3:30-4:30 PM