Our Facilitators

Ahmed Abd Alwareth is an HR director, organization development (OD) leader, and talent management and development expert. With 13 years of rounded, enriched, and diversified experience in different industries (modern trade, pharmacy, and FMCG), he has solid knowledge in strategic management. He’s contributed to strategic planning, budgeting, restructuring, employer branding, and engagement and culture transformation initiatives in more than one company, from leading positions. In addition, he had a leading role in planning OD interventions related to establishing a learning organization and performance-based culture.

Ahmed takes every opportunity to enrich his talent development career as a facilitator, instructional design professional, and leader for learning functions. For example, within teams, he’s established training academies throughout his career in different firms. His initiatives have a proven track record of success and achievements.

Ahmed has designed, co-designed, and delivered more than 30 different training programs on topics ranging from competency training in leadership, communication, self-awareness, change, teamwork, and collaboration, as well as scientific knowledge-based training. His total learning delivery exceeds 2,200 hours, between classroom, online, and other blended learning methods.

Ahmed has an educational background in pharmacy and practiced in clinical and community settings for three years with regional experience and exposure to different regional cultures (KSA and UAE). He is a CPTD® and PHRi certified professional (and preparing for the SPHRi). These certifications validate his experiences with structured knowledge and professional-level education. He is also an HRCI certifications preparation instructor with Jobeex Consulting, one of the HRCI-approved certification preparation providers in ME.

Zahi Abdein is a facilitator for several key programs at the Association for Talent Development—a global leadership and talent development coach, speaker, and consultant. He facilitates bespoke solutions to support executives and organizations reach their leadership goals. Having facilitated leadership development learning interventions for groups of up to 120 people and among varied experience levels from aspiring entrepreneur to seasoned C-level executives, he has worked as a mentor and coach to rising entrepreneurs and established executives across the region for more than 10 years.

Zahi has worked for more than 20 years with leaders from renowned companies and startups across the United States and Middle East. As a leader and consultant, he has built and implemented large-scale projects for the Center for Creative Leadership, Cranfield School of Business, Saudi Aramco, Lucent Technology, and Saudi Telecom Company.

An entrepreneur from the age of 19, Zahi discovered a passion for developing leaders, which led him to pursue key projects such as spearheading the creation of a leadership academy, developing and implementing company-wide culture change initiatives, and coaching and mentoring current and future leaders.

He holds an MBA with a focus on international marketing from the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Continually sharpening his skills by attending industry events worldwide, he ensures that his skillset is relevant to his clients and that he can provide the most innovative approaches and value. Zahi is a Certified Professional in Talent Development (CPTD) since 2015, and he holds more than 15 other industry-related certifications, which helps him provide a world-class leadership and talent development solutions.

Rania is a technical corporate veteran-turned master coach and facilitator on a mission to help make the world a more humane place one change agent at a time.

She works with executive leaders, professional coaches and facilitators providing leadership programs, facilitator and coach development programs, mentor coaching and executive leadership coaching.

Rania is the first certified Dare to LeadTM facilitator from the MENA region and the only one in Egypt. She is an International facilitator for ATD, Cranfield Executive Leadership School, CCL and UN programs in the EMEA region amongst others.

Rania is the founder of THINK for Leadership & Coach Development. She has over 25 years of executive experience, having worked in senior leadership positions in multinational organizations in Canada, UAE and Egypt.

Rania is an MCC (Master Certified Coach, ICF) and a registered ICF MCC mentor coach. She has a record of 4200+ coaching hours working with executives and leaders in Egypt and around the world. Rania is a faculty member of the LCE Coaching Academy. She also designed and leads the ICF accredited Certified Positive Psychology Coaching program (CPPC) and the Team & Group Facilitation Program (TGFP).

Rania is a Certified Professional in Talent Development (CPTD) as well as a Certified Applied Psychology Practitioner (CAPP). In addition, she is a Professional in HR (PHR), a certified MBTI® practitioner and a LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® facilitator. Rania graduated from Canada with a BSc in Computer Science, specialized in Forensic Engineering.

In 2017, Rania was recognized as one of the top 50 most influential women in Egypt. She is currently working on her first book due to be published very soon.

Rania is passionate about many things in life, most of all her children, travelling, adventure and deep inspiring encounters!

Carrie Addington is an internal ATD Facilitator. She is a down-to-earth educator and people development coach with a passion for delivering effective communication solutions with a spirited energy. As a business consultant and educator for the past 10 years, Carrie has worked with a wide variety of business segments including retail, beauty, education, and nonprofits, and has worked with C-level executives, directors, managers, and high potentials.

She has experience designing and delivering customized management and self-development programs, including personal coaching on strategy and communication. She has delivered training on key business management principles for small business owners through Bumble and Bumble University in New York, deemed the "Harvard of Hair" by the Harvard Business Review, to classrooms ranging from 20 to 150 attendees.

Carrie has delivered on topics ranging from energetic accountability, leadership, and great feedback to cross-generational communication, resolving conflict, and presentation skills. Carrie is a part of the coaching network with the prominent, global executive leadership and management company, The Mind Gym and is a Gallup Certified Strengths Coach. As a certified ATD Master Trainer, Carrie is knowledgeable about both the development and delivery of outcome-based learning programs.

She has a master of fine arts, poetry, from George Mason University and serves on the board of the American Poetry Museum in Washington, D.C. Carrie is passionate about using her love of language and the arts to work with individuals on establishing deeper connections with their daily work.

Nanci Appleman-Vassil, M.A., NCC, CSP is a highly experienced business professional with more than 20 years of experience delivering training, organizational development, executive coaching, and corporate consulting interventions with a focus on developing leaders, including leadership development, change management, and building high-performing teams. She specializes in facilitating individuals, groups, and organizations toward better solutions for increased engagement and effectiveness. Nanci’s consulting experience includes the technology, healthcare, engineering, manufacturing, education, and retail industries.  Her clients include GSK, Red Hat, Nomacorc, LLC, Citrix, and Cisco. Her certifications include Vital Smarts, MBTI, DiSC, DDI, Situational Leadership and Achieve Global. Nanci holds an M.A. in Counseling from the University of Colorado and a B.A. in Psychology and Education from the University of Denver. She is a member of the National Training Labs Institute for the Applied Behavioral Sciences (NTL), and the Association for Talent Development (ATD), among other organizations. Nanci is Past-President for the Research Triangle Park (RTP) Chapter of ATD, a past member of the ATD ICE Program Advisory Committee, and was a member of the ATD National Advisors for Chapters (NAC) from 2011-2013.

Rhonda Askeland is an organization development and training partner, facilitator, coach, instructional designer, and performance consultant with a twenty-year background working with leaders at all levels — C-level, managers, teams, and individual contributors. She has her own consulting business and has worked for training companies Blessing/White and Cahners TRACOM. She has worked with leaders in Fortune 100 companies in diverse industries, as well as government agencies, and a California university system. Her recent projects include development of a leadership development series in the entertainment industry, co-development and facilitation of an innovative 12-month leadership program for executive managers in the finance industry, and ongoing coaching of sales management on account executives selection process for a credit-reporting agency. In addition to coaching, she created a 90-day onboarding map to follow-up account executive selection to accelerate hire-to-performance. Her creativity in design and delivery earned her recognition in ASTD's Training magazine for innovative training and experiential learning techniques. Additionally, she was a co-author in two ASTD's T+D Learning Blueprint columns on "Presentation Design" and "More Than a Smile Sheet: Using Level 1 Evaluation Effectively." Rhonda has a passion for helping organizations achieve results through people. She is president-elect of ASTD Orange County (OC), past president of International Society of Performance Improvement (ISPI)-OC (2009), past board member of ISPI-OC and ISPI-LA, and is currently on the Whittier College Alumni Board. Rhonda's goal is to improve performance through people.

Tom Atkinson has a strong track record of enhancing business and individual performance through learning. In addition to being a thought-leader and conducting best-practices research in leadership, sales, and customer service, he has led teams to achieve award-winning results for Fortune 500 companies. His strengths include assessing training needs, designing and facilitating learning solutions, and measuring results.

Professional Experience:

Atkinson Analytics helps clients achieve better results throughout the learning process, from defining needs to measuring the learning experience, on-job-the application, and business results. Whether it is a high-profile learning program or an entire curriculum, Tom enables you to demonstrate value to executives, sustain and enhance performance gains, and target opportunities for increasing return on your learning investment.

Example 1: A major manufacturer of packaging materials aimed to build a robust process for preparing leaders to be effective in a fast-paced, global environment. Their learning and development team created a pilot program for 18 managers and focused on key leadership capabilities. The yearlong “learning journey consisted of classroom training, coaching, management planning and check-ins, 360-degree feedback, and action learning projects. Tom measured the program’s results systematically, including return on investment, and recommended ways for the company to sustain and enhance the program’s value.

Example 2: Tom founded and leads a special interest group (SIG) on learning measurement for the Greater Boston chapter of the Association for Talent Development (ATD). From its founding in September 2019 through the present, Tom facilitates bimonthly sessions (currently virtual) to enable learning professionals to enhance their skills in measuring and improving results. The Greater Boston chapter was recently recognized by ATD National for its innovative work, highlighting the measurement SIG.

Fresenius Medical Care is a premier healthcare company serving people with renal and other chronic conditions. Tom was director of learning projects and measures, leading a team of professionals in delivering an ambitious curriculum of programs and projects, including more than 1,000 sessions of the company’s keystone leadership development initiative.

Example: A key element of the leadership development initiative was training and coaching facilitators. Tom led workshops to enable facilitators to engage with program participants, and he provided feedback on their skills. His analysis found a substantial return on investment of the leadership program due to improved retention rates among leaders who had been trained.

Deloitte Consulting is among the world’s largest consulting companies. Tom worked there as a specialist master, which included designing award-winning training and measurement systems for some of Deloitte’s largest clients.

Example: A major retail organization needed to improve the effectiveness of human resource professionals who served the store management in its stores located across North America. Tom coached the client in designing a session that teaches HR professionals how to be a business consultant to the store managers. This included developing the business knowledge and consultation skills that enabled them to establish trusting relationships with managers and develop effective solutions to HR challenges. The program earned an award from Deloitte based on positive client feedback on its results.

The Forum Corporation (now AchieveForum) is a pioneering training company where Tom led projects for more than 50 Fortune 500 client companies as a Forum consultant in designing, building, implementing, and measuring learning solutions that yielded significant business results. Industries included healthcare, pharmaceuticals, government, financial services, information technology, transportation, and energy.

Example 1: Delivering a process improvement to managers with the United States Postal Service, in its Washington, DC, region. The program included best practices in total quality management, as well as the influence skills managers needed to implement the program. The program led to improved mail flow in the facilities that participated.

Example 2: Designing and teaching the impact workshop, a program that helps learning and development professionals link learning programs to business outcomes. Tom led the training sessions and coached clients in developing their measurement systems and using the findings with their executives and other stakeholders.

Volunteer Activity:

Tom is an advisory board member for RDIConnect, an organization that helps parents with children on the autism spectrum to build meaningful relationships and a foundation for successful growth and development (see www.rdiconnect.com). Tom has served more than a dozen families through direct coaching and feedback on their relationships. He has also recently delivered a workshop to a global panel of hundreds of RDI parents and consultants about how to manage stress during challenging times.

Education:

PhD, Boston College (Psychology); MA, Fairleigh Dickinson University (Psychology); BA, University of Connecticut (Psychology)

Certified ROI Professional (The ROI Institute™)

Mohamed is the founder of SeGa Group enterprise with a mission to develop the talent development professionals in active learning and performance coaching.  For over 15 years, Mohamed has delivered learning and development solutions for a variety of regional and multinational organizations such as  Schlumberger, Maersk, Coca Cola, Pepsi, Mars, Heinz, Kraft, Vodafone, MobiNil, Etisalat, Oracle, Ericsson,EL-ARABY Group, Olympic Group , AbuDawood  and Nahdi Pharmacies. These organizations have exposed him to over a dozen different nationalities within the MENA region, allowing him to design and facilitate diverse and effective learning solutions.  Mohamed’s passion is for coaching and helping individuals reach their full potential. He is a Gallup Certified Strengths Coach and member in ICF (International Coach Federation) . He is an accredited coach from the Mind Gym Academy in the United Kingdom which has a highly stringent accreditation process.  He also holds multiple certifications including being a certified trainer from Huthwaite UK, qualified to deliver the SPIN Selling Course, SPIN Coaching and Account Strategy for Major Sales courses, NASAGA education game design certificate and SENTENCIA gamification certificate for talent development. He is also certified to deliver John Maxwell trainings as well as the Wilson Learning Leadership and Management Track.. he is also certified from SimDustry in Germany for business simulation Finally, he is a Thiagi group certified  facilitator.  Originally a Cairo University Systems Engineering graduate, Mohamed also studied Business Management and pre-Masters in Education and Psychology.

As CEO and Founder of QVF Partners, Rita partners with organizations and individuals who want to transform ordinary work environments into high-performing, profitable cultures. She shares her expertise and resources to help create workplaces where enlightened leaders can leverage the strengths and diversity of their people as a competitive advantage. During her 25 year career at Southwest Airlines, Rita served in several roles including customer service, sales, marketing, public relations, and HR. In her last position she was director of the Southwest Airlines University for People. She was responsible for the design, development, and implementation of leadership and personal development programs for over 32,000 employees. She also established a career development services team, responsible for helping employees develop a career path. Rita has served on several advisory committees and boards and was a member of the ASTD Board of Directors, serving as chairwoman of the ASTD Board in 2005. She is often quoted in publications such as Harvard Business Review, Business Week, Corporate Meetings and Incentives, and The Wall Street Journal on topics of recruiting and training practices. Rita is the co-author of the new book, Destination Profit: Creating People-Profit Opportunities in Your Organization. As an international speaker and consultant, she has presented to and worked with groups in Europe, Mexico, Brazil, Australia, and Japan on topics including organizational culture, people strategies, leadership, innovation, customer service, and branding. When asked what business she is in, the answer is simply "the people business."

Jennifer “Jen” Bailey is a learning solutions manager at a leading financial services organization where she has spent the last 24 years of her career. Jen has a passion for learning and for developing others. She is described as having a positive can-do attitude in the toughest situations, a willingness to be candid yet empathetic, and an “unflappable” demeanor when she facilitates. Jen has spent 15 years of her career in a learning and development role working as a facilitator, designer, learning consultant, and leader of a design team. Jen has worked with a range of people in different roles and stages of their careers including new hires, aspiring leaders, and senior and managing directors.

Jen has experience designing and delivering programs from technical training to professional development and leadership programs. Jen facilitated for a leading financial services university for more than 10 years, and during that time, she was an expert certified facilitator in crucial conversations and executive presentation classes among many other skills and topics. Recently, Jen and her team built an online training academy that serves as a one-stop-shop learning platform for financial advisor sales teams. This academy includes a robust new-hire and leader onboarding program that consists of a series of in-classroom, virtual, on-the-job, and self-paced reinforcement activities. Jen and her team also built learning paths designed to enhance sales knowledge and skills about focused products and offers, which provided distinct advantages and opportunities to grow their business with their clients.

Jen has a degree in education with a concentration in psychology from West Chester University and has had her Professional in HR certification and Series 6 and 63 licenses. These credentials also served Jen well in other previous HR roles as a business consultant, HR generalist, and employee relations specialist. Building and strengthening relationships and helping people stretch outside of their comfort zones and try new things brings Jen a great sense of accomplishment. She looks forward to meeting you, helping you advance in your learning and development journey, and learning from you.

Mimi Banta, a skilled facilitator and organization development consultant, has over 25 years of experience helping private, public sector, and not-for-profit organizations implement training and development initiatives that produce results. Clients rely on her ability to diagnose training needs, engage executives in development efforts, design and conduct training, and equip in-house staff to be effective trainers. In addition to an educational background in psychology and adult education, Mimi is certified to use a variety of tools such as the Career Architect, Myers-Briggs Type Indicator assessment, "I Speak Your Language," and Change Style Indicator. She is also affiliated with Netspeed Leadership, Learning Tree International, and is master certified in Achieve Global products and services.

Nader Bechini is passionate about assisting people and organizations with improving and maximizing their performance and bottom-line results. His life mission is to support others with strengthening their abilities to inspire, influence, and create an impact.

He is the co-founder of Growship and the director of ROI Institute in the MENA region.

He is also global facilitator with the Association of Talent Development.

For more than 20 years, he led human performance improvement projects, programs, and initiatives in more than 30 countries in North and South America, Europe, Africa, Australia, and Asia.

Nader has received several awards for his achievements. On two occasions, ROI Institute awarded him for having the best international implementation of the ROI Methodology. The Moroccan Society for Human Resource presented him an award for being the best African HR expert in 2019. His articles about learning and development have been translated into Korean, Russian, Chinese, French, Arabic, and Spanish.

Nader facilitates workshops, consults with organizations, and speaks at conferences worldwide. He has been interviewed by several radio and TV programs in Saudi Arabia, the Republic of Sudan, Tunisia, France, and Algeria.

Nader holds a master’s degree in marketing from University of Tunis El Manar in Tunisia.

With more than 25 years of experience and a doctorate in human resource and organization development, Dr. Virginia Bianco-Mathis is considered a leader in her field. Her background includes a core set of industry positions, extensive consulting with corporate and agency executives, and publications and presentations in the areas of organizational change, leadership development, consulting skills, executive team building and facilitation, coaching, career management, conflict and dialogue, and strategic planning.  Dr. Bianco-Mathis has held positions in human resources, strategy, and organization development at C&P Telephone, AT&T, Lockheed Martin, and The Artery Organization. Presently, she is a Professor in the School of Business, Chair of the Department of Management and Marketing, at Marymount University.  She teaches courses in organization development, team and group dynamics, leadership, consulting skills, executive coaching, and strategy.  She also is a partner with the Strategic Performance Group. Her present consulting engagements include leadership development, executive coaching, strategic planning, team building, and organizational change. Current clients include AARP, Department of Agriculture, Seyfarth Law, American Society of Clinical Oncology, Phillips Corporation, MSRB, and Next Century Computing.  Dr. Bianco-Mathis has given major presentations at several international conferences, and has written numerous articles for the Washington Business Journal and a blog (“On Success”) for The Washington Post.  

Elaine Biech, president of ebb associates inc, a strategic implementation, leadership development, and experiential learning consulting firm, has been in the field for thirty years helping organizations work through large-scale change. She has presented at dozens of national and international conferences and has been featured in publications such as The Wall Street Journal, Harvard Management Update, Investors Business Daily, and Fortune Magazine. She is the author and editor of over 50 books including ATD's Handbook for Training and Talent Development , ASTD Leadership Handbook, 10 Steps to Successful Training, The Ultimate Trainer, Thriving Through Change, The Business of Consulting, 2nd ed., and Training for Dummies. A long time volunteer for ASTD, she has served on ASTD's National Board of Directors, was the recipient of the 1992 ASTD Torch Award, the 2004 ASTD Volunteer Staff Partnership Award, and the 2006 Gordon Bliss Memorial Award. Elaine was instrumental in compiling the CPLP study guides and has designed five ASTD Certificate Programs. In addition to her work with ASTD, she has served on the Independent Consultants Association's (ICA) Advisory Committee and on the Instructional Systems Association (ISA) board of directors.

Ron Blanton entered the talent development field as a result of his passion to help others succeed. After a 27-year military career where he had two assignments as an instructor in leadership academies developing new leaders, Ron had the distinct pleasure of serving our great nation by becoming the course manager for all leadership courses received by locally hired staff at US embassies abroad with the US Department of State. This was a perfect fit for Ron, who had more than 20 years of experience as a leader, an academic background in leadership, and assignments as a leadership instructor. He lived the leadership theory that he was teaching.

Ron currently serves as the director of the curriculum and staff development division with the US Department of State, Foreign Service Institute (FSI). In this capacity, he and his team deliver a full battery of “train the trainer” courses for foreign service officers (diplomats) assigned to FSI based on their subject matter expertise and scheduled to become instructions. Ron enjoys this position because it has a direct impact on what happens in the world of foreign affairs. When diplomats are trained well, that means Ron and his team have done their jobs and America is strong and righteous on the international stage.

With more than 20 years of classroom experience, Ron’s number one claim to fame is his passion in the classroom. He has trained in more than 92 countries around the world delivering leadership and train the trainer courses. Ron holds an ATD Master Trainer certificate, is an MBTI certified practitioner, 7 Habits of Highly Effective People trainer, and certified speaker, trainer, and coach with the prestigious John Maxwell Company, led by the bestselling author and world-renowned leadership guru John Maxwell.

Tyra Bremer is a highly-accomplished and dedicated human resources executive with a proven history of delivering innovative strategies. A thought leader and visionary, she ignites strong leadership and enables good people to have a secure future and become their best self. Dynamic facilitation and presentation skills allow her to connect with professionals at all levels within an organization.

Tyra is the Founder and CEO of Thrive Hive Solutions. She earns the trust and smiles of her clients by driving talent acquisition, learning, retention strategies, and leadership development programs that are creative, transformative, and support long-and short-term corporate needs.

She has a personal commitment to being a life-long learner and has completed numerous ATD certification courses including Coaching, Designing Learning, Project Management for Learning Professionals, and Creating Leadership Development Programs.

Niamh Jordan is a highly experienced executive coach and leadership consultant with an international career spanning 22 years in executive coaching and mentoring, leadership consultancy, corporate training and learning and development. She has a Bachelor of Education with honors, from Queen’s University, Belfast, Northern Ireland, and a master’s degree in executive coaching and mentoring from the Institute of Leadership and Management. She is a faculty member at the Institute of Healthcare Leadership and Management, a member of the Association of Coaching and a senior consultant with FranklinCovey, delivering a range of leadership topics.

Niamh is a hands-on leader capable of strategic and critical thinking, identifying potential in others and inspiring them to action. Her strength lies in liaising and building strong relationships as well as in facilitating professional development across multiple platforms while consistently displaying exceptional communication skills and a strong sense of moral and ethical principles. She demonstrates a balance of professionalism, passion and practicality in inspiring others to action.

She is currently working across a range of industries, focusing on one-on-one executive coaching, skilled facilitation, team and leadership development, action learning facilitation and coach and mentor training. Niamh has completed executive coaching and leadership consultant assignments in the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Ireland, Vietnam and Thailand. She has coached, facilitated and consulted in organizations at C-suite, middle management and new graduate levels in a range of industries, including; healthcare, hospitality, aviation, education, construction, entrepreneurships, oil and gas and government entities.

Tim Brock, PhD, is a senior consultant at ROI Institute, where he provides coaching and consulting services and facilitates ROI certification. A speaker at international conferences, Tim has written about the return on investment (ROI) methodology in multiple publications.

After retiring from the Air Force as a field grade officer, Tim led Lockheed Martin's science of learning and performance improvement team as a human performance system engineer and architect. Tim also has experience as a K–12 private school principal, a college director of education, and an associate professor. Tim earned his PhD from Capella University in education, specializing in training and performance improvement.

LaKisha C. Brooks, MSc, MEd, is the chief learning officer at Brooks Enterprise and Consultants and the former president-elect for the Greater Atlanta chapter of ATD for 2020. LaKisha previously worked for the Adidas Group under the Reebok brand, managing the field retail training, and she served as a coaching and mentoring board advisory board member for HR.com.

An internationally recognized leadership expert, LaKisha, has been featured on ABC, FOX, CW, and NBC affiliates across the country as well as in the Denver Post and the Miami Herald. She was also recognized by Atlanta Business Chronicle as a “Person on the Move.” LaKisha is the 2018 Trainer Showdown winner for the ATD Central Florida chapter. She has more than 12 years of sales and management consulting experience and 18 years of public speaking experience. She has worked with companies and organizations such as Rheem Manufacturing, Flexport, Chief Learning Officer magazine, and the Sandy Springs Chamber of Commerce. She has also traveled the country training global clients in the areas of leadership, management, and sales as a consultant for Krauthammer USA.

Holly Burkett, PhD, SPHR, is an accomplished talent builder, change leader, and performance consultant with more than 20 years of experience advising organizations like Apple, the SEVA Foundation, and Blue Cross Blue Shield. She is passionate about developing resilient leadership capabilities that enable high engagement and operational excellence. A certified change practitioner, ROI Institute associate, Stakeholder Centered Coach, Forbes Coaches Council member, and research fellow at the Conference Board, Holly is a sought-after coach, speaker, and facilitator. Award-winning author of Learning for the Long Run, she regularly contributes to industry resources, including ATD’s Talent Development Body of Knowledge (TDBoK™) and ROI series. Her doctorate is in human capital development.