John is the author of BUSINESS AT THE SPEED OF NOW, being published by Wiley in December of 2011. He’s a top-rated speaker for the Conference Board and National Attorney General Association, discussion leader on the Harvard Business Review blog, and his monthly newspaper column is syndicated to 41 Business Journals across the U.S.

For 30 years John has been building and reengineering organizations to enable them to aggressively grow the top and bottom line. As the principal architect of the NOW Management System℠, his passion focuses on leveraging best-practice management with social media INSIDE the organization to engage employees, sharpen focus and accelerate execution.

John’s deep and varied career ranges from serving as an executive team member at multi-billion dollar StanCorp Financial Group to being the founding CEO of a technology start-up, which he led through its sale. He also served in senior positions at Omark Industries, Floating Point Systems and ESI. John has led operations, manufacturing, customer service, product development, human resources, quality, information technology, strategic planning, engineering, shared services, marketing and communications.

He has consulted with senior executives at all levels in high technology, health care, insurance, banking, forest products, distribution, manufacturing, and a wide range of service companies, along with many large government agencies. John loves writing and spending time with his family; he has toddler boy/girl twins in addition to three grown and accomplished daughters.

John has a BA from the University of Portland in Mass Communications and Journalism.

Aaron is an industry leader in designing and installing visual business solutions. He has developed these solutions over the last 20 years and applied them to numerous areas across the enterprise, including strategy development and implementation, board governance, process improvement, risk management, audit and internal controls, leadership development, organizational transformation, and project management. Through these visual business solutions, Aaron has enabled leaders and employees to achieve outstanding results by providing a quicker and greater understanding of complex business functions, processes, and problems. In addition, his work has enabled a better grasp of cross-organizational connections and dependencies, increased individual accountability, and team collaboration. The tools also provide stronger prioritization, more concise and relevant communication (which remains more readily remembered), faster and more effective planning and execution efforts, more reliable decisions, and reduced waste.

Aaron is certified in Total Quality Management (TQM) from the Crosby Quality College. In addition, he is Lean and Six Sigma certified. He has successfully implemented Crosby TQM, Lean and Six Sigma at a division of Squibb Pharmaceuticals and Aldus (the PageMaker company and ninth largest software company at the time).

Aaron has held senior executive positions within publicly traded enterprises and venture funded companies ranging from $5-100+ million in annual sales. Aaron has managed teams from startups to over 1,000 people. He grew U.S. sales of Aldus PageMaker software to over $100 million and brought to market the first all-digital diagnostic ultrasound scanner (now owned by Philips Medical Systems).

At StanCorp Financial Group, Aaron was Vice President, Retirement Plan Services. This business unit provided retirement plan administrative services for plans totaling in excess of $20 billion in assets. The business unit served approximately 5,000 plans and more than 400,000 plan participants and offered plans for 401(k), 403(b) and 457 customers. Both defined benefit and defined contribution plans were administered by Aaron’s organization. Aaron and his organization interacted directly with retirement plan sponsors, retirement plan participants, internal and external pension consultants, and other external channel partners who sold and serviced the customer. He also managed organization development and process improvements within this business unit. This work included aligning retirement plan services processes with the evolving needs of both retirement plan sponsors and retirement plan participants.

Aaron’s consulting clients include Oregon Department of Administrative Services, Oregon Department of Consumer and Business Services, Oregon Department of Human Services, Oregon Health Authority, Paccess Global, American Electronics Association, Washington Software Association, University of Washington, Michael G. Foster School of Business Entrepreneur Center, Portland State University Entrepreneur Center, Sony Electronics, Disney Interactive and Feature Film, Microsoft, Philips Interactive Media, Nike, Kodak, McGraw-Hill Home Interactive, The Washington Post, Toshiba, National Geographic, Apple Computer, NeXT Computers, REI, and HarperCollins. Aaron has a MSEE and BSEE in Electrical Engineering with a focus on computer science and bioengineering from the University of Washington.

Kelly has 28 years as an entrepreneur, sales and marketing leader, OD manager for a Fortune 1000 company, senior OD consultant, and process improvement facilitator. She has over 15 years in relationship-based sales, successfully closing and implementing large-scale projects at Microsoft, Nike, Starbucks, Nordstrom, StanCorp Financial Group, Coinstar and REI.

Kelly is responsible for company-wide marketing strategy, as well as channel development and support. She is committed to supporting clients improve business results, employee engagement and ultimately a high-quality customer experience. As a leader, Kelly is recognized for her drive to grow companies from start-ups to large enterprises by focusing on top-line growth, the introduction of innovative products and services while developing diverse relationships. She consistently makes the customer experience and results the highest priority.

Kelly has a BA from the University of Washington in Liberal Studies and a MS in Organization Development from Central Washington University.

Tom has been working with the Management System for over 12 years. He worked closely with Mass Ingenuity’s founder, John Bernard, while he worked at StanCorp Financial Group as an internal consultant. He has over 15 years in the financial services and telecommunications industries covering B2B and B2C. He was a leader in Operations and Engineering at Electric Lightwave LLC, a subsidiary of Citizens Utilities.

Tom has rolled up his sleeves with businesses and teams to achieve industry and product leadership, creating the most efficient and effective organization, and winning customers and their loyalty. He has worked in business development, marketing, operations, engineering, organization development, and has led enterprise-wide multi-million dollar initiatives. Prior to joining the firm, Tom was the Director of Organization Development at The Standard and a Business Development Consultant and a member of the leadership team for Adaptu LLC, a cloud-based personal finance social media site.

As part of Mass Ingenuity’s Professional Services team, he is responsible for delivering services and products that deliver high client value. He believes that success is shaped by developing inspired objectives, blending the right expertise, building strong relationships, and setting the bar extremely high for himself and others. He has delivered leadership and entrepreneurship programs. He is the lead consultant for the Oregon Health Authority and Oregon Dept. of Human Services in building their NOW Management System.

Tom is certified in project management (PMP) and received certificates in change management, business process management and improvement. Tom has a BA in Business and an MBA from the University of Portland.

Jim has over 20 years of diverse industry experience in leadership roles in small and large corporations and portfolio companies with strong brand focus in the Outdoor Recreation market. Industry categories of experience include highly engineered hard goods (Yakima Products), paddle sports and accessories (Perception, Dagger), family camping (The Coleman Company), fishing and hunting products (Flambeau) and outdoor media services.

In his role as President and CEO for Yakima, Jim has led the strategic planning process for a complex multi-site, multi-brand businesses, as well entrepreneurial organizations seeking to grow. He has a strong sales and marketing background and is adept at building brands and developing effective growth strategies. Jim also has a well-rounded organization development and operations background. He has overseen several acquisitions and divestitures, restructured management teams and led process improvements in sales operations, product planning and operations.

He is the past Vice Chair of the Outdoor Industry Association Board of Directors, past President of the Outdoor Industry Foundation, and is a Board Chairman for Leupold and Stevens and Big Brothers Big Sisters Columbia Northwest.

Jim holds an MBA from Southern Illinois University and a BA from Middle Tennessee State University.

Beth has been working in the field of Organization Development for over 25 years. In her work, she focuses on the effectiveness of the whole organization, on how the elements of the organization align, and on how effectively the energy and commitment of employees is encouraged and harnessed. Beth believes organizations have to balance the need for short term results with long term sustainability, work on problems in a narrow context and keep the whole organization in mind. They must also strive for success on all levels — financial, customer, employee and environmental. Beth uses the tools of organization design, strategy development and execution, leadership and team development, conflict management and productive conversations to create results for her clients. Her work is focused on the key business issues of accountability, execution and achieving business results.

Beth’s goal is to help her clients create work places in which people are connected to each other and the work and to have a clear understanding of what is expected of them. Beth works throughout the organization, from top leadership to the people producing the real work of the organization to clarify roles and responsibilities and to enable fast, direct and open communication. Beth excels at working with executives to create long-term goals, make strategic choices and to translate these choices into aligned execution and results. Beth has designed and led major organization change projects (including mission, vision, strategy, structure, process redesign and people) at Sun Microsystems, Financial Engines and Nike, Inc.

Beth’s experience as a leader in small and large global corporations and non-profits contributes to her effectiveness as a consultant to CEO’s and other senior executives and their teams. She founded and ran a non-profit organization for 10 years, worked as a manager and OD consultant at Levi Strauss and has consulted to a wide range of organizations from high-tech start ups to Adobe Systems.

Beth currently works with three Mass Ingenuity clients in Oregon to support their organization development, executive coaching, and team development needs. Those clients are Public Employees Retirement System, Department of Environmental Quality, and Oregon State Lottery.

Kelly T. Jensen is a management consultant and business leader with over 25 years of experience introducing new technologies and management practices in high technology, application software, manufacturing, government, including 17 years in health care (providers, suppliers, and payers). As a business leader, Kelly’s roles have included General Manager/CEO and VP level assignments in operations, marketing, and sales. His experience includes both large firms (Baxter Healthcare, Pitney Bowes, IBM, and PricewaterhouseCoopers) and entrepreneurial ventures.

As a management consultant, Kelly has implemented transformational projects for Nike, Kaiser Permanente, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Agilent Technologies, Cisco Systems, Intel, Nestle, the State of Oregon, and many smaller firms. In a partnership between Baxter Healthcare and Bain & Co., Kelly developed the Value Improvement Process that compared the cost of service delivery among 300 hospitals nationwide and identified “best practices.”

For the Kaiser Foundation Health Plan, Kelly accelerated the roll-out of Unit Based Teams by identifying key metrics for performance improvement, organizing a national work group, developing reporting systems, and introducing balanced scorecards. For Kaiser Permanente Northwest, he performed an analysis of patient access issues leading to multi-million dollar investments in technology and processes. For Regence Blue Cross Blue Shield, he guided the software development for a new patient information system. For Performance Health Technology, Kelly structured a project management office to address changing software and service requirements for Medicaid and Medicare billing.

Prior to his work with Mass Ingenuity, Kelly led a team of internal consultants at Kaiser Permanente Northwest (MBAs and MHAs) and directed their efforts in consulting, project management and process improvement (Lean Six Sigma) for the following initiatives: medical home development, emergency department efficiency, hospital patient flow optimization, readmission reduction, specialty care resource allocation, sleep lab organization, physician time reporting, mental health service redesign, generic drug utilization, diabetic outreach, and operating room access.

He currently serves on the board of The FACES Foundation and coordinates surgical teams that repair cleft lips and palates for children from medically under-served communities in Peru. Kelly is also president of the Harvard Business School Association of Oregon.

Kelly has a BA in Anthropology from Harvard University, an MBA from Harvard Business School, and previously taught business strategy as an adjunct faculty member at Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago.

Drew provides Operational Excellence, Lean, and Organizational Development services to industrial and service organizations representing a wide variety of industries including Healthcare, Transportation, Distribution, Education, Financial Services and Manufacturing. Drew first became involved in the development and delivery of innovative Business Improvement programs while working for General Electric in the 1980s. Starting in 1990, Drew has utilized his diverse experience to help develop creative solutions for clients in order to improve their business performance.

Drew received a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Delaware in Mechanical Engineering, as well as a Master of Science degree from Drexel University in Electrical and Computer Engineering. He has also received a Master of Business Administration from Cornell University. He is a member of the American Production and Inventory Control Society (APICS), American Society for Quality (ASQ), and Association for Manufacturing Excellence (AME). Drew is currently a faculty member at the Lean Enterprise Institute, and an instructor for the National Institute of Standards and Technology Manufacturing Extension Partnership (NIST MEP). He is also an adjunct faculty member at Ohio State University where he delivers workshops as part of the Fisher College of Business.

In 2004, Drew co-authored a book titled, “The Complete Lean Enterprise – Value Stream Mapping for Administrative and Office Processes”. The book won a 2005 Shingo Prize for Manufacturing Excellence in Manufacturing Research. In 2008 he published a book titled, “Value Stream Mapping for Lean Development – a How-to Guide for Streamlining Time to Market”. This book demonstrates the application of Lean Thinking to the third primary value stream, “problem solving”. His third book titled “Lean Office and Service Simplified” was released February 2011, and received a Shingo Prize for Research in 2012. He is a frequent speaker at conferences in the U.S. and abroad on the subject of Lean Enterprise and Operational Excellence.

Beverly has had a long and successful career working with public and non-profit leaders and organizations seeking innovative solutions to public challenges. Beverly’s services include facilitation, policy development, political analysis and advocacy, and assessment of public purpose agencies.

Her clients include the Oregon Department of Administrative Services, Oregon Secretary of State, Auditor General of British Columbia, City of Portland, City of San Jose, City of Redmond, WA, Washington State Auditor’s Office, Oregon Business Council, Oregon Department of Education, Clackamas County, OR, Snohomish County, WA, the States of Iowa and Michigan, Sacramento County, CA, and City of Dallas, TX. Beverly was elected Chair of Multnomah County (which includes Portland) Board of Commissioners and Chief Executive of the county for eight years.

She managed 5,000 employees and a $1 billion budget. She focused on creating a sound public safety system, linking schools and social services, expanding access to health care, and implementing quality management techniques in government. She led the county in a year-long assessment process resulting in winning the Oregon Quality Award (based on Baldrige criteria) in 1999.

In 1996, Beverly was chosen by Governing Magazine as “Local Public Official of the Year” and Secretary of Labor Robert Reich appointed her to his Task Force on Excellence in Government through Labor Management Cooperation. Beverly has spoken nationally and internationally about her experiences creating high-performance government based on results, engaging line workers, and creating a post bureaucratic culture in government.

Beverly was elected as a State Representative in the Oregon Legislature three times in the 1990’s and ran for Governor in the 2002 Oregon primary. Prior to government service, Beverly was an attorney in private practice. She also worked with over 100 clients on strategic plans, board development, and organizational change.

Beverly received her BA from the University of California at Berkeley in Urban Studies and her law degree is from the University of Wisconsin.

Matthew Kohrs has over 15 years as a sales consultant and manager conducting business development for complex solutions. He is outstanding at building productive and trusted relationships and building business by influencing the support of executives, managers and employees in client organizations.

Matthew is recognized for his integrity and passion for bringing valuable solutions to clients. He takes the long-term perspective by seeing the big picture without overlooking the details. In addition, he is an excellent listener who takes the time to listen to client’s needs. Matthew is a very good problem solver and always looks for a collaborative win-win approach.

Matthew’s sales career began when he joined Grayhill, Inc., a successful private electronics company that provides custom solutions for Fortune 500 companies . He earned multiple promotions growing from an Account Administrator role to Territory Manager (West Coast) and Regional Sales Manager (SE U.S. and Canada). He successfully turned around under-performing territories under his direction and developed a reputation for developing new opportunities.

Matthew then joined B&B Electronics, a company focused on industrial grade networking products. While there, he helped shift company’s sales approach from a direct marketing to an actively customer engaged sales process.

Matthew has a BA in Sociology and Psychology from Governors State University and an MBA specializing in Leadership and Change Management from De Paul University, both schools in Illinois, where he originates from before moving to Portland.

Tim brings over fifteen years of experience as an Information Technology professional to Mass Ingenuity. Before focusing on consulting full time in 2007, Tim provided technical services to public education, and the telecommunications and financial services sectors. Tim’s clients include such diverse industries as staffing, property management, law, architecture, accounting, manufacturing, and civil engineering.

He has developed solutions for businesses as large as 16,000 employees and as small as sole proprietors, and specializes in supporting professional services companies in the 5 to 50 user range. Tim enjoys solving business issues with technology and realizes that even the most powerful tools must be easy to use to be adopted and to reach their potential.

Tim is passionate about helping people of all technology skill levels transition to the emerging world of cloud based computing. Tim is a lifelong Oregonian and loves hiking throughout the state with his wife and dog.

Tim is a Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer, and participates in partner programs with industry leaders such as Google, Hewlett Packard, and Lenovo.

Christine joined Mass Ingenuity as an administrative assistant in August 2011. Her background includes seven years working in a variety of administration roles at Northern Trust Company in Chicago and Northern Trust of California. While there, she participated in a two-year officer training trust program and completed rotations in marketing, trust administration, tax, and operations. At Northern, Christine was the recipient of the Chairman’s Signature Service award for her efforts serving on a statewide quality improvement task force aimed at improving operational procedures.

Christine and her husband relocated to Portland, Oregon in 1996 and have three children. She spends the weekends cheering her children on at their sporting and theater activities, plus she and her husband have played coed softball for the past 19 years.

Christine has a BS in Business Administration from University of Illinois in Urbana, Campaign and an associated degree in paralegal studies from Pioneer Pacific College.