The Leadership Edge Staff
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Front Row (L to R): Marilyn Deming,
Ellen Kane, Gaylene Xanthopoulos, |
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GAYLENE XANTHOPOULOS |
Gaylene Xanthopoulos has a passion for assisting people to reach their highest potential. As a businesswoman, professional trainer, facilitator, speaker and published author, Xanthopoulos devotes herself full-time to creating and presenting custom training programs and keynote speeches to business leaders across the country. Through her company, The Leadership Edge, she is recognized for her expertise in teaching business skills and techniques to corporate leaders who are highly trained in academic fields other than business, but who also have executive and management roles in prospering, innovative companies. She has distinguished herself through the success of her popular Referral Prospecting program, a contemporary approach to building relationships that quickly translate into sales in the highly competitive market. From the Laboratory to Leadership program has been critical in the development of many of today's top scientific leaders and managers. Since 1989, when she established The Leadership Edge in Rancho Santa Fe, California, Xanthopoulos has been training business leaders in personal and corporate strategic planning, in a non-threatening approach to business development, in maximizing personal productivity, and in effective communications and employee relations.
Xanthopoulos holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Economics from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. In 1991, and again in 1992, Xanthopoulos was awarded "World Sales Leader of the Year" by Leadership Management, Incorporated, Waco, Texas. The San Diego Business Journal has named her winner of their "Business Management Awarded" in their Women Who Mean Business competition.
Xanthopoulos is an in-demand speaker and keynoter for national and international business conferences. She had served on the Board of Directors of the National Speakers Association, San Diego Chapter for 5 years. Her articles on business training trends and tips appear regularly in professional and general interest periodicals, and she acts as an expert resource for both radio and television business news programs. She is the author of Tips, Techniques & Strategies On Referrals (1995, The Leadership Edge), From The Laboratory To Leadership (1994, The Leadership Edge), and a co-author for "A Women's Way to Incredible Success in Business" (2001).
Xanthopoulos resides in San Diego County, California, with her husband and children.
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MARILYN
DEMING |
As one of the facilitators at The Leadership Edge for over 9 years, Marilyn Deming specializes in conducting the facilitation of Team Building, Performance Management, Diversity and Career and Life Planning programs.
Prior to working for The Leadership Edge, Deming was an instructor in the Business Department at the University of Alaska for four years. She then joined IBM Corporation where her positions included Marketing Support Manager, Central Employment Manager and Human Resources Manager. Her experience and drive led her to become recognized as an expert within IBM Leadership Development, Management, and Consultation. During the last year of her eighteen year career with IBM, Deming became owner and operator of Deming Development Group, Inc., specializing in consulting in the areas of leadership, management, team building, diversity and career and life planning.
Career highlights include leading the design and implementation of a three day team building workshop for managers and leaders designed to increase their effectiveness at leading and building teams. She certified new trainers on leadership and team building programs, and developed and led Team Building and Leadership programs open to women from various corporations throughout the country. She also opened a Management Development Department in IBM's western area region, which supported 850 managers and 6,000 employees. Deming has provided marketing support to accounts, such as, The State of Alaska, Arco, Union Oil, Camp Pendleton, General Dynamics and many others.
While attending National University, Deming earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Business Administration and a Masters degree in Business Administration, with an emphasis in Organizational Development. After obtaining her degrees, Deming continued studying in Advanced Business Studies at Harvard Business School. She became a certified instructor for Intact Team Building interventions using the SYMLOG Team Building instrument and the Myers Briggs type indicator. She also became certified to instruct the Performax Personal Profile, Time Systems, Career Speak, and the Hersey, Blanchard Situational Leadership Program.
Deming is an active member of the San Diego chapters of the Organizational Development Network, the American Society for Training and Development, Women in Business, National Association of Professional Organizers, and the Institute of Management Studies in Los Angeles.
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ELLEN
KANE |
As a trainer and facilitator for The Leadership Edge, Inc., Ellen Kane brings a wealth of knowledge and practical experience to our clients. Prior to joining The Leadership Edge, Kane served as Chief Administrative Officer of Games 2 Learn, propelling this high-profile developer of educational products such as the Phonics Game, from a one-product direct-response business into a 3,000-product, e-commerce educational game company.
Dramatic achievements of this nature are hardly new for Kane. In her very first foray into the private sector, she was hired by Jenny Craig International weight loss centers as manager of one of the chain's initial 13 centers. Rising to the rank of Chief Operating Officer, she helped build that organization into an 800-center, $400 million public company.
At the core of this remarkable success lies the heart of a teacher - one with a quality that distinguishes great teachers from all others: she is a motivator with the ability to inspire others to learn, grow, and perform. Armed with an M.A. in Education from Lesley College, she originally took this talent into more traditional arenas working first as a Master Training Teacher at UCLA's Laboratory School followed by a stint at the American School in Tokyo, Japan.
Today, Kane has carved out a unique career that makes full use of her background, her motivational skills and her grasp of evolving technologies, allowing her to do what she loves best: help people maintain their integrity and sanity while building dynamic, growing companies. She addresses corporate needs that run the gamut from the development of e-commerce sales strategies, strategic planning and Internet marketing, to organizational restructuring, customer service, public and investor relations, as well as product development, market research and more.
As a qualified Myers-Briggs practitioner, Ellen Kane taps into her teaching roots as well as her proven technological and business acumen, providing companies with individualized consulting and coaching. Paving the way to more harmonious and, by the same token, more productive working relations, she develops structured ongoing training programs that foster personal and corporate growth and development by strengthening communication among individuals, teams and management.
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TERESA MCCARTHY |
Teresa McCarthy is a leadership development consultant with a passion for helping organizations achieve excellence through people. With more than 15 years of hands-on experience in leadership development and training, strategic planning, and teambuilding, Teresa has a proven track record in successfully working with executives in the achievement of their goals.
Teresa’s expertise in organizational behavior and human resources development grows out of her unique combination of internal industry and external consulting experience. She has consulted in a variety of industries, including healthcare, communications, and high tech. Some of her external clients include Atlas Consulting, Molecular Bio-Products, NCR, Alkermes, SDSU Management Development Center, and Solar Turbines.
Recent accomplishments include:
Human resource strategist in the successful divestitures of Edwards Lifesciences from Baxter Healthcare and IVAC Corporation from Eli Lilly and Company.
Designed and drove the development of global performance management systems (e.g., 360 degree feedback, performance assessment tools) focused on securing alignment with and accomplishment of organizational objectives.
Directed global leadership development and human resources planning initiatives, to include the CEO sponsored Critical Talent Development initiative, War for Talent/Employer of Choice campaigns, organizational restructuring initiatives, and employee engagement programs.
Designed systems to support national and international sales strategies through sales force talent assessments, organization structure review and sales leadership development.
- Lead an organization-wide project intended to drive technological innovation – which included sub teams focused on culture change, talent and capability assessments, process improvements and customer partnering strategies.
Teresa holds a Masters of Arts degree in Organization Communication from San Diego State University. She has taught courses at San Diego State University and the University of Phoenix on Human Resources Management, Strategic Management, Management and Leadership, Corporate Culture and Organization Behavior.
She has held a range of Talent Acquisition and Development leadership roles within organizations such as Edwards Lifesciences, LLC (Formerly Baxter Healthcare Cardiovascular Group), IVAC Corporation and Cox Communications.
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JIM
VASCONCELLOS |
Jim Vasconcellos has delivered hundreds of public training seminars to thousands of people across the United States, Canada and Europe. He has a broad range of experience in presenting to groups ranging from 10-200 participants on topics of management, customer service, computer software and business communication skills.
Jim earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from GSU in Atlanta, Georgia in Speech Communications with a minor in Public Relations. His curriculum focused on public speaking, persuasive speech, debate and interpersonal communication. During this time, he developed & designed a communications training program addressing issues on speech anxiety, listening skills, and speech organization.
He started his career with SunTrust, a major financial banking institution. He has worked the front lines of retail banking to the inside trenches of factoring. From there, he accepted a position in the Training and Development Department delivering programs to customer service and management personnel. He presented programs in the areas of computer operation, products, services, policies, procedures and regulations. While managing, developing and assessing new personnel, he initiated and coordinated a Train-the-Trainer program to improve on-the-job training of new customer service employees. He also redesigned the customer service training program.
His passion to develop the skills of business personnel grew through the years and led him to fine tune his presentation and training skills. His expertise focuses on management and personal development. A partial list of topics addressed includes:
* Communication Styles
* Coaching Skills
* Delegation
* Conflict Resolution
* Presentation Skills
* Goal Setting
* Feedback
* Planning and Prioritizing
As his interest in the development of people increased, Jim began his training in the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator. He is MBTI Qualified through the Association for Psychological Type.
Today, Jim partners with The Leadership Edge to deliver leadership and management programs throughout the East Coast and the South.
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JOE
VASCONCELLOS |
Joe Vasconcellos facilitates the executive training programs in leadership, management, and business development for The Leadership Edge in southern California and across the country. He is also Chief Financial Officer of the company.
Joe’s expertise is in working with talented entrepreneurs to develop them into savvy business and financial managers. This focus stems from his own experience as a partner in these types of ventures, as well as financial consultant to them. In addition to working with The Leadership Edge, he is business and financial advisor to several other businesses ranging from science and medicine to art and design. In 1997, he sold his last personal venture, Mountain Bike Warehouse, dba, MTB Gear, Inc. to focus solely on assisting other entrepreneurs in these ventures.
He began his career in finance in 1979, but soon developed a desire to focus on the strategic planning aspects of finance. Recognizing the need for individuals to develop and execute personal financial strategies, he enrolled in the College for Financial Planning and received his CFP from the ICFP in 1987. As board member of a local bank and partner in an accounting firm specializing in small to medium size businesses, he recognized the vast need for the development and implementation of strategic planning in the entrepreneurial arena. Since then, his understanding of the “human” factor as the greatest obstacle to the implementation of well developed business strategies, has lead him to his association with The Leadership Edge and these programs.
Joe currently resides in San Diego, California and is the proud father of his son, Alex.
Behind the scenes...
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TIFFANY RAPP |
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