Andrea Brockmeier, PMP, CSM, PMI-ACP, PMI-PBA, BRMP, CSPO, IIBA-AAC, ECBA, Watermark Learning

Andrea is the Director of Project Management for Watermark Learning. Andrea is an experienced trainer, facilitator, speaker, and project manager with over 25 years of business experience. Andrea oversees certification and skills development curriculum in project management, business analysis, agile, and leadership. She has been a speaker at IIBA® and PMI® conferences and is an active volunteer. She enjoys practicing what she teaches and has a steady stream of projects that she manages. Andrea is highly committed to partnering with her clients through projects, consulting, and training, and seeks to make every engagement enjoyable as well as valuable.

Cat Breet, CEO, Arbez

Catherine cut her teeth hiring project managers 20 years ago! And, she credits her PMI membership as a big reason for her success back then. Today, she is a highly-sought international speaker whose background includes recruiting, sales, consulting and leadership positions for two global consulting firms and as CEO for her own firm since 2006. Today, she's still teaching people how to harness their greatest strengths to achieve more success and happiness in their careers. 

Since launching ARBEZ in 2006, Cat has trained over 200,000 people around the world how to achieve greater success (and fun!) at work … from Minneapolis to Dallas to Pretoria, South Africa. She even delivered a keynote at the PMI Shanghai chapter in 2019. 
 
She’s here today to show you how to do the same. 

Oh, and by the way … she owns a zebra. His name is Joe. 

www.catbreet.com

Chris Vandersluis, President of EPMGuidance, President and Founder of HMS Software

Chris Vandersluis is the president of EPMGuidance and the president and founder of HMS Software with over 35 years of experience in implementing enterprise project management and timesheet systems. He has authored over 200 published articles on project management in publications that include Fortune Magazine, Project Times, CPO Magazine and, PMI’s PMNetwork magazine.  He is also a contributing author on Enterprise Project Management in the AMA Handbook of Project Management.

 Mr. Vandersluis has taught Advanced Project Management at Montreal's McGill University and has been part of PMI since 1986.  He has presented both classes and seminars to PMI-MN members in the past.

Dawn Ealy, Founder of Peak Cadence LLC

Dawn Ealy is the Founder of Peak Cadence LLC. Dawn loves working with small, growing companies to optimize their organizations, processes, and teams around the natural ways they work. She helps leaders structure their teams and workflows to maximize clarity and efficiency, while increasing engagement. Dawn’s background in leadership, technology, HR, operations, project management, and documentation within companies ranging from three employees to 30,000 provides a unique perspective for organizations preparing to scale.

https://www.yourclearnextstep.com/

Jeff Lee, CSP-SM, CSPO, CLP, SPC, PMP

Jeff is a Partner at agilityIRL, focusing on coaching at the team and leadership levels as well as training individuals and organizations. He takes pride in his ability to help teams reach their full potential while helping the organization support team success.

Jeff spent 10 years as a PMP-certified project manager, managing large programs for a variety of Fortune 500 clients.  In 2011, he pivoted his career to focus on Agile development, working as a Scrum Master and Program Manager in Agile environments. In that time, he has worked on and with Agile teams in a variety of industries and environments.  He has seen Agile work in industries as diverse as medical device manufacturing and online retail. 

Now as an Agile coach and trainer, Jeff is able to tie together all that experience, plus an undergraduate degree in Operations Management, to help focus organizations to see the full picture.  Once teams and organizations to see the full system that they are operating within, they can identify their true constraints and opportunities and unlock their full potential.

Julie Soderlund, Owner, Emerge

Julie is the owner of Emerge – an organization that is committed to helping people become the leaders they would follow. Julie has worked in the trenches of Project and Program Management and understands the burdens of leadership from many perspectives. Her ongoing commitment to becoming a fearless and courageous leader has caused her to gain certification in variety of disciplines foundational to excellence in leadership.

www.emergeccs.com

Kent Lacy, Ed.D, PMP, CSM

Kent Lacy holds a Doctor of Education (Ed.D.) degree in Organization Development and has been certified as a Project Management Professional (PMP) since 2000. He has over 30 years of industry experience working in management and project management roles. In addition to his industry experience, Kent has been working as an adjunct instructor in higher education for the past 18 years. He is currently serving as an adjunct instructor at the College of St. Scholastica where he teaches in the Master of Science in Project Management program on topics ranging from core to advanced project management principles.

Nan Gesche

Nan is an energetic speaker, educator, and coach who uses experience, insight, and some sturdy research, all sprinkled with a little humor, to get people to see themselves and the world differently. Her passion is "Helping people play well together!" Nan provides clients a chance to ponder and practice different ways of thinking and acting around change, conflict, decision making, communication, and leadership all in hopes of providing more positive outcomes.

www.nangesche.com

Pat and Pam Jones, Co-founders Parallel Partners

Pam and Pat Johns, (P2) are executive leadership advisors who work with corporate and entrepreneurial leaders to improve their communication, alignment, and performance. With their advanced knowledge of behavior, they bring clarity and simplicity to complex situations. Pat and Pam are a hybrid team whose work is dedicated to inspiring people to become the best they can be as leaders in their companies, their communities, and families. They bring energy and enthusiasm to their workshops and you will learn proven best practices with experiential exercises. They have competed and coached elite athletes for 2 decades in the areas of high performance, intrinsic motivation, mental focus and determination, and fortitude.   

Pat and Pam are the co-founders of Parallel Partners, an Executive Leadership Development Consultancy in Northfield, MN.  They have a combined 40+ years of experience in leadership, motivation, and communication.  
 
What Makes them unique: There are two of them – Pat and Pam (P2) yin and yang, male and female, two voices, two viewpoints, two personalities, and two story-tellers; which gives audiences a great deal more variety when listening to us for any length of time!  
 
They’ve presented at numerous PMI associations; in their hometown of Minneapolis for many years, as well as PMI-Philadelphia, St. Louis, New York, Washington, and Dallas.  Pat and Pam presented virtually to PMI-Manitoba during the pandemic.  They’ve spoken to many other high-profile groups including General Dynamics, CIA, US Marshals Service, and US Marine Officers.  Their work on motivation and the brain carry an endorsement from the Director of the Smithsonian Institution and the Society for Neuroscience.

Paul Fjelsta, Founding Partner, accomplir® Inc.

Over the course of his 40+ year management consulting career with Fortune 500 clients, Paul has learned that a successful consulting engagement is predicated on understanding the dynamics of systemic organizational change, focusing on critical business issues and results, providing a well-rounded, robust performance improvement framework & methodology, and working to create a win-win situation for his clients.

accomplir® has pioneered next-generation "Integrated Methodology" toolsets by embedding Behavior Management (Behavioral Science) methodology into Lean Sigma, Business Process Management, and technology deployment frameworks. They have taken Behavior Management out of the theoretical, academic domain and made it readily understandable, useful, and repeatable by creating tools imbedded in the project management track for all types of digital, process, cultural and organizational change initiatives.

Paulie Skaja, ICAgile Certified Professional 

Enterprise Transformation Coach & founder of the Agile Mindset Mastery program. 

For over 30 years, Paulie Skaja has supported teams in the roles of Project/Program Manager, Scrum Master, and Agile Coach and is currently working as an Enterprise Transformation Agile Strategist for a global energy company. She has had the opportunity to work with tens of thousands of people and over a thousand teams globally, helping them improve their communication skills, challenge the status quo, and achieve outcomes.

In addition to decades of life and professional experience, Paulie has earned a degree in Organizational Leadership from Bethel University and is a certified Life Coach, Business Coach, and Agile Coach with many certifications and training authorizations. This combination gives her a unique perspective and toolkit that allows her to help teams and organizations in ways that get real results.

On a personal note, Paulie has a blended family made up of a loving husband, seven adult children, two grandbabies and a rescue pup. This crew helps her stay balanced and reinforces the tactics she brings to life with her teams and the companies she serves. Paulie loves helping people!

Rachelle Brockman, MBA

Rachelle Brockman, MBA, B. Comm, lives passionately and productively and as the Principal of Eureka Experience she guides others to do the same!  She is in the business of designing and delivering learning and development experiences, in the essential skills of strategic planning, leadership and communications and with the ultimate purpose of guiding people and teams to be more passionate and productive. And she has had the privilege of designing & delivering experiences for many diverse organizations within all North American sectors and for some of Canada’s Top 100 Employers.

Rachelle has a diverse work history that includes being an award-winning University Assistant Professor for over a decade at the Edwards School of Business, the Director of 2 Mentorship Programs, a banker, and a ‘carnie’ at the Royal Easter Exhibition in Sydney Australia.  Rachelle is also a Professional Visual Artist, a certified MBTI & FOCCUS facilitator, a volunteer and mentor.  Additional information about Rachelle can be found at:

Samir Penkar

Samir Penkar is the CEO at Simulation Powered Learning – an education and training company focused on project management training through simulations. He is the author of the book From Projects to Programs and has trained professionals on project management and agile across three continents. Samir loves the outdoors, and kite flying is his favorite hobby.

Scott Savor, CEO/Founder, Uncommon Competitor LLC

Scott Savor is a leadership analyst and keynote speaker for highly competitive individuals, teams and companies who are committed to never stop improving. He has worked with NBA, WNBA, collegiate and high school championship coaches, players, and teams as well as executive leaders of small businesses and multi-million-dollar corporations.

Scott Welle

Outperformers are not born; they’re made. We ALL have the capacity to “raise our game,” and Scott Welle has spent more than 15 years helping people do this, personally and professionally. Scott’s 8 best selling books, articles, videos, podcasts and online programs inspire hundreds of thousands of people worldwide. He has a Master’s degree in Sport Psychology, is an adjunct professor at St. Olaf University and regularly consults with top performing business leaders and athletes, all with one common goal: to OUTPERFORM. He’s completed 29 marathons, 5 Ironman triathlons, a 100-mile ultra marathon, and serves others by showing them how to tap into the mindset of challenging their self-limiting beliefs and aspiring to be their best everyday.

https://scottwelle.com

Steve Hegele, Hegele Inc.

Steve Hegele is the founder and CEO of Hegele, Inc. He has degrees in Communications and Psychology, a unique combination which grants him the ability to uncover the challenging issues in an organization, and to impactfully articulate his discoveries and solutions. Spending quality time with his 4 children is the number one priority for Steve as well as living an active healthy lifestyle.

Hegele is no stranger to success, setbacks, crisis, challenge, and the unforeseeable circumstances life can throw at us. When Hegele’s wife Angie passed away from cancer in 2010 at the age of 42, he was left to raise his four young children on his own. Every aspect of who he is as a person as well as the company he founded was about to be put to the ultimate test.

Working through a challenge this intense allows Hegele to work from a place of deep, powerful understanding. His intense commitment to help others strengthen their critical relationships, improve the quality of their communication, and leverage the genuine emotion in life (be it positive or negative) drives desired results.

https://www.hegele.com/

Susan Heidorn, Director, Watermark Learning

Dr. Susan Heidorn is the Director of Business Solutions for Watermark Learning in Minneapolis. Susan is an experienced consultant, facilitator, speaker, and trainer, with over 25 years of business experience. Susan directs programs in business analysis, business relationship management, and leadership.

Terri Kimball, Senior Project Engineer, MTS Systems Corporation

Terri Kimball has 30 years of experience in project management, product support, and technical documentation and training. She has a degree in Aerospace Engineering and Mechanics from the University of Minnesota and began her career managing astronaut procedures for NASA Space Shuttle missions. She is currently a senior project engineer at MTS Systems Corporation, where she manages multi-million-dollar projects for export around the world. She has Six Sigma Green Belt and Lean Bronze certifications and is a past president of PMI-MN. Terri has been a project management instructor since 2007 and was part of the global team that wrote the fifth edition update to the PMBOK® Guide. She has presented at PMI Leadership conferences, MNSCU Mankato and St Cloud.

Tom Colosimo, Career Strategist, Colosimo Career Consulting

As a professional career architect/coach and recruiter expert with an extensive scope of business connections in the accounting, manufacturing, banking, service and retail industries, Tom offer strong expertise for successful career strategies. He is a sought after speaker on topics of networking, career-changing, impactful resumes and how to successfully work with recruiters.

Tom is a Career Strategist with a corporate foundation of 22 years in accounting, 7 years of agency and corporate recruiting experience and 11 years in career coaching. His experience in developing career pathways for many professionals based on his real-life development allows him to be a key strategist for you!

Tom Esch, President, Esch Consulting, LLC

Tom Esch, President of Esch Consulting, LLC has been having courageous conversations since 1969 when a wiffleball game ended badly in the backyard. He has inspired more than 25,000 people with his unique and engaging messages related to communication, leadership and culture change. Esch has a proven track record as a keynote speaker. He is inspiring, enthusiastic, empathetic, challenging and funny. 

He has conducted highly reviewed full day trainings and morning and evening events for PMI chapters many other associations for many years. 

He is willing to address challenging interpersonal and organizational situations. He will own his unconscious privileges and admit mistakes in communication, without getting stuck in a defensive posture. He has heart for people on the margins, including lonely leaders. 

He has two master’s degrees, one in “Conflict Resolution” and the other in Theology from the University of Notre Dame. He is a former minister and spent 20 years in the construction industry as a culture change consultant and salesman.

He just published a book called Personal Accountability and POWER: How Contractors Can Build a Stronger Safety Culture. 

In the daytime he is a leadership development consultant. At night he is Fr. Vito Incognido, stand-up comic.

www.EschConsulting.com