Our Experts and Catalysts

One of the foundations of the Synecticsworld Body of Knowledge is the importance of diversity when trying to achieve true breakthrough thinking. We achieve diversity internally by creating cross functional teams. We also believe that the diversity of thinking brought by people outside the organization is invaluable. We have developed a network of great thinkers and connection makers and we tap into that network to get the right mix for a client engagement.

Experts are people who bring content expertise into how other firms and industries have addressed certain critical business issues. Learning from their experiences, we are able to bring connections back to the opportunity that we are working on.

Catalysts bring creative minds, exceptional connection making capabilities and open minded thinking to the sessions in which they participate. Their contribution increases the possibility of new thinking and new connections and increases the probability of breakthrough ideas.

Listed below are a few examples of the many experts and catalysts that we have employed in client engagements to give you an insight into the amazing spectrum of people that Synecticsworld can access for your opportunity.

• Harry L. Davis: Professor

  Professor Harry Davis created the New Product Laboratory in 1978 which was designed to complement the traditional lecture and case study curriculum by providing a real, practice-oriented component to the MBA program. Over its twenty-five year history, more than 100 companies have sponsored the laboratory, representing fields as diverse as package goods, high technology, durables, and financial services. In 1989, Professor Davis initiated an innovative program for Leadership Exploration and Development (LEAD) at the Graduate School of Business. This required course for full-time students is designed to strengthen general management, communication and interpersonal skills through experiential learning.

  Professor Davis is a trustee of the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago. He has served on several boards of directors in both the public and non-profit sectors and has consulted for such companies as ABB, The Boston Consulting Group, Monsanto, Raytheon, and Whirlpool. His recent work with Barbara Lanebrown brings performance and theater metaphors to programs designed to enhance the effectiveness of teachers and business leaders.

  Professor Davis teaches MBA and Executive Education courses at the Graduate School of Business. He received an MA in Sociology and Ph.D. in marketing from Northwestern University. In addition to his research and teaching in the areas of strategy, leadership and creativity, Professor Davis served as Deputy Dean between 1983 and 1993. He is the recipient of the Roger L. and Rachel M. Goetz Distinguished Service Professor of Creative Management, University of Chicago, Graduate School of Business.

• Stephen J. Drotter: Chief Executive, Drotter Human Resources, Inc.

  Stephen has more than 35 years of substantial Human Resources Management experience with leading American, European, and Australian global corporations, both as a Senior Human Resource Executive and as an expert advisor to Senior Management. Mr. Drotter is currently the Chief Executive of Drotter Human Resources, Inc. which specializes in executive succession, organization design, and leadership development. He is co-author of The Leadership Pipeline and of The Succession Planning Handbook for the Chief Executive.

• Edward George: Former CIA Agent

  Born in 1925, a child of the depression era, Edward served in WWII as a paratrooper. Following college graduation with a Bachelors in Media, he joined the CIA and served for some 25 years as an operations officer in Asia. After retirement in 1975, he settled with his late wife in a rural county of West Virginia, not too far away from Washington DC where they got involved with salvaging and restoring log houses, which are now rented as vacation homes.

• David Houle: Futurist

  David Houle is a futurist, strategist and speaker. He has always been slightly ahead the curve. Houle spent more than 20 years in media and entertainment. He has worked at NBC, CBS and was part of the senior executive team that created and launched MTV, Nickelodeon, VH1 and CNN Headline News. He helped to create television series on A&E for his client Bill Kurtis, "Investigative Reports' and "American Justice", introducing single subject documentaries and legal programming to prime time before those programming concepts became common place. Both series were award winning and ran for more than ten years.

  Houle has won a number of awards. He won two Emmys as Co-Executive Producer for a nationally syndicated kids program, "Energy Express". He won the prestigious George Foster Peabody award and the Heartland award for "Hank Aaron: Chasing the Dream" and was nominated for an Academy Award.

  Houle is consistently ranked as one of the top futurists and futurist keynote speakers on the major search engines. He has keynoted numerous conferences both across the country and internationally. He is regularly invited to speak at corporate management retreats. He recently won a speaker of the year award from Vistage International, the leading organization of CEOs in the world. He is often called "the CEOs' Futurist" having spoken to or advised 800+ CEOs and business owners in the past two years.

  He writes the highly regarded futurist blog, www.evolutionshift.com, with the tag line "A Future Look At Today". For those of you on Twitter his user name is evolutionshift which is also the name of his YouTube channel. He publishes a free monthly newsletter and the highly acclaimed semi-annual Shift Age Trend Report. Both are available at www.davidhoule.com . He has been speaking about the future for a number of years and his first book "The Shift Age" was published in 2008. He is working two more books.

  To visit David's website, click here.

• Jamie Kennedy: Chef and Restauranteur

  One of Canada's most celebrated chefs, Jamie Kennedy is known for his legendary commitment to environmental issues and his support for organic agriculture, local producers and traditional methods. Today, his acclaimed restaurants include: Jamie Kennedy at the Gardiner Museum, Wine Bar on Church and the Gilead Café. Jamie makes every effort to minimize the impact of his operations on the environment and is continuously on the look-out for like-minded suppliers and better methods of work.

• Pavel Mikoloski: Film Marketing Director

  Pavel Mikoloski is the Grassroots Marketing Director of the film, "What the BLEEP Do We Know!?" which in 2004 became a 12 million dollar hit; making it the third most successful documentary of all time. Pavel was the researcher for this film, including identifying the experts that are interviewed. Pavel, a Beloit College Honors Graduate, has worked in Marketing and Public Relations in the New Age, Holistic, and Cultural Creatives Market for 20 years. The Cultural Creatives, a select group of discerning individuals made known by the work of Paul Ray, Ph.D and Sherry Ruth Anderson, Ph.D. in their groundbreaking sociological and marketing study, The Cultural Creatives: How 50 Million People Are Changing the World, (New York: Harmony Books, October, 2000) was the basis for the marketing strategy for "What the BLEEP!?". Pavel is recognized in the industry as an expert in this market and is also sought out to speak on guerilla marketing. In addition to film, Pavel has extensive expertise in promoting books, videos, speakers, conferences, health products, and publications to these markets. Note: Not only does Pavel appear as the Catholic Priest in the Polish Wedding sequences, but has a long resumé of performance as a classically-trained actor and singer.

• Paul Morris: Lead Pastor, The Meeting House

  Born is Northern Ontario, Paul is currently Lead Pastor at The Meeting House, a self described church for people not into church with Mennonite origins. Originally planted in Oakville, The Meeting Houses uses satellite technology to broadcast its teaching to almost four thousand people across six geographic locations. Paul was Lead Pastor of the Oakville site, then launched a Meeting House site in the heart of downtown Toronto.

• Dr. Clifford Nass: Professor, Stanford University

  Dr. Nass is an expert in human communication and how people interface with technology and digital platforms. As the director of the Communications between Humans and Media Lab, Cliff has helped Mercedes-Benz to enhance communication between car and driver. Dr. Nass also serves at the director of the Kozmetsky Global Collaboratory and the Real-time Venture Design Laboratory.

  Cliff has written two books Wired for Speech and The Media Equation, and his paper Machines and Mindlessness is a classic citation that has been referenced by the top 1% of the field. In addition, Cliff has more than 100 publications in peer reviewed journals.

  Dr. Nass has consulted on the design of over 150 information products and services for companies in the U.S., Europe, and Asia. His current consulting focuses on voice interfaces, automobile interfaces, ubiquitous computing, intelligent interfaces, and internationalization.

• Joseph Pekarovic: Vice President of Strategic Alliance and Business Development, PCS

  Joseph has been an integral part of PCS, which designs secure prison communications systems, since its inception in 1987. He established the Inmate Call Processing unit at PCS in 1996 and currently oversees the Telecom Division in his new role as Vice-President of Strategic Alliance and Business Development. Mr. Pekarovic has been involved with the installation of over 100 correctional facilities nationwide and has been involved with the marketing of telecommunications services in the Caribbean, South America and Europe.