Our Team

LEADERSHIP TEAM

John Bernard

Founder and Chairman

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, 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.

503.957.9923
jbernard@massingenuity.com

Aaron Howard

President and CEO

Aaron has 30 years of blending executive leadership with emerging technologies, including social media. He has held senior executive positions within publicly traded enterprises as well as venture funded companies ranging from $5 million to over $100 million in annual sales.  Aaron is a leader with experience managing teams ranging from startups to over 1,000 people.  Aaron has created distribution channels for retail, direct, VAR, OEM and online businesses. He has a proven track record raising strategic/venture capital and is a strong negotiator. He led several M&A projects and has been responsible for introducing direct consumer sales into product distribution.  His industry experience includes biomedical devices, financial services, B2B, consumer and large enterprise segments spanning technology, internet, digital media, entertainment, gaming, and interactive education.  In addition, Aaron has hands-on M&A experience (asset and stock), both purchase and sale side and has managed joint ventures, strategic investments and other intellectual property based deal structures and licenses. Aaron produced animated storybooks for Disney Interactive such as The Lion King and Pocahontas, creating Lamb Chop Loves Music (with Shari Lewis) for Philips Interactive Media, 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.  In addition, Aaron’s has worked with Microsoft, Apple, Sony, Nike, Kodak, McGraw-Hill Home Interactive, The Washington Post, Toshiba, REI, HarperCollins, The American Electronics Association (now TechAmerica), Washington Software Association and the University of Washington.

Aaron has an MS and BS in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from the University of Washington.  He also attended executive business programs at Stanford University Graduate School of Business and The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

206.550.3503
ahoward@massingenuity.com

Kelly Ferguson

Vice President of Marketing

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. 

206.300.7220
kferguson@massingenuity.com

PROFESSIONAL SERVICES

Jim Clark

Senior Consultant

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, 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. Jim holds an MBA from Southern Illinois University and a BA from Middle Tennessee State University.  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 Director for Leupold and Stevens and Big Brothers Big Sisters Columbia Northwest.

Jim has an MBA in Economics and Finance from the Southern Illinois University, Carbondale.

503.547.7354
jclark@massingenuity.com

Kelly Jensen

Senior Consultant

Kelly T. Jensen is a management consultant and business leader with over 25 years experience introducing new technologies and management practices in high technology, application software, manufacturing, government, and healthcare (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, PricewaterhouseCoopers, and IBM) 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. He loves the NOW Management System for it logical and efficient approach to enterprise management. Kelly is currently president of the Harvard Business School Association of Oregon. He also serves on the board of The FACES Foundation whose surgical teams repair facial abnormalities for children in Peru.

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.

503.819.8887
kjensen@massingenuity.com

Tom Moore

Senior Consultant

Tom has been working with the Management System for over 10 years. He worked closely with Mass Ingenuity’s founder, John Bernard, while he worked at The Standard 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.

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.

360.607.3299
tmoore@massingenuity.com

Mike Rowney

Senior Consultant

Mike has over 35 years of experience as a change agent and consultant.  He specializes in formulating and implementing strategies to achieve world-class competitiveness. In the early ‘80s he was a key change agent reporting directly to the president at Omark Industries, where he coordinated one of North America’s first full-scale efforts in Lean Manufacturing, Six Sigma, and Employee Involvement. As a result, he was recruited to perform a similar role for Weyerhaeuser Paper. As a foundation to his consulting career, Mike held management roles in primary materials and manufacturing, including production, R&D, strategic planning, marketing, and new product/new business development. In 1992, Mike became a partner at The Deltapoint Corporation.  He consulted for eight years in the planning and implementation of strategies for world-class competitiveness to Boeing, numerous worldwide Boeing suppliers, Alberta Power, SmithKline Beecham, Burlington Northern Railroad, Nabisco, and Public Service Company of North Carolina. Prior to Deltapoint, Mike was a senior consultant in Quality Systems with Luftig and Warren, a leading quality consultant. He added Total Quality Management and Lean to their practice and guided the implementation for major units of Fortune 500 companies, such as Alcoa, Anheuser Busch, and Chiquita.  Mike’s recent consulting clients include Oregon Department of Transportation, The World Bank, VDO, Timberline Software, Esco (Belgium), United Defense, Hewlett-Packard (USA and Ireland), A-Dec,  University of Washington, Piller Plastics, Oregon Health and Science University, Columbia River Mental Health Service, St. John Medical Center, and Precision Machining. Mike also conducts “lean product development” for clients including A-Dec and Hewlett-Packard.

Mike holds a BSc (Hons) degree from the University of Birmingham (UK), a Masters from the University of Toronto, and a PhD in Metallurgical Engineering from the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago. He  has been trained as a Lead Assessor for ISO 9000 and speaks German and French.

503.989.1897
mrowney@massingenuity.com

Beverly Stein

Senior Government Consultant

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.

503.789.3457
bstein@massingenuity.com

Barry Wilber

Senior Consultant

Barry Wilber is a management consultant and business leader with over 25 years of experience leading enterprise change, improving business process, building successful teams, and driving dollars to the bottom line.  Barry is an encouraging leader and communicator who mentors and develops personnel, and delivers high customer satisfaction.  An executive leader who is also at ease rolling up his sleeves and leading teams by example, Barry was a key member of the late Dr. Michael Hammer’s Phoenix advisory group.  Barry’s expertise includes process improvement, operational excellence, global change management, project management office leadership, lean/Six Sigma, vision, strategy, execution and organization design and global executive leadership.

Barry has a BS in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Washington and an MBA from the University of Washington, Michael G. Foster School of Business.

253.222.7756
bwilber@massingenuity.com

SUPPORT SERVICES

Tim Dexter

Cloud Computing

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.

503.706.7053
tim@massingenuity.com

Christine Barker

Administrative Assistant

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.

971.409.6680
cbarker@massingenuity.com