Retreat Faculty 2010
The Future of Talent Institute is proud to introduce our 2010 Retreat Faculty. Visit our Core Faculty page to meet the rest of our Team.
Bob Aubrey is president of the Metizo Group. After undergraduate studies at the University of California, Bob received both an MBA and a Ph.D. in Philosophy in France. He is the author of 6 books on training, education and personal development translated into 7 languages. He was a human resources consultant for 15 years and worked in 20 countries before founding Metizo. He lives in China and France and is a Professor at Euromed Marseille School of Management and Visiting Professor teaching MBA courses in Beijing at both Tsinghua and Peking University.
Metizo’s mission is to provide personal development programs to companies, and to higher education and government organizations. Metizo’s learning philosophy is based on recognition of individual differences in defining “success” according to life goals, values and interests. At the same time we believe that individual development is most effective in a social group with peer feedback and team learning. Metizo’s philosophy does not represent a particular religion or school of psychology: we respect cultural and spiritual diversity.
Metizo was established in January 2002 to provide personal development programs to business and education. Founded in France, from the beginning, the Metizo concept was to be an international network of locations serving partners globally. In July of 2002, Metizo set up its first subsidiary in Beijing, adding a residential program for individual students. Since then we have begun to work with a number of well-known multi-national companies, as well as with business schools and universities. In 2003, we established an office in Marseille to manage a personal development certificate program for a thousand students annually, in partnership with Euromed Marseille business school. In 2006, we opened an office in Singapore, expanding our operations further into the Asia-Pacific region. Another office is planned for Silicon Valley.
The company’s programs and services draw on 20 years of experience of international experts in personal development, corporate training and higher education. Metizo is the first company to develop a personal development certification system for international companies and is the only company to provide courses for academic credit in leading MBA programs in Europe and Asia.
CEO, Author and Strategist, Nilofer Merchant is a leading authority on creating business strategy to win markets. Having worked inside and outside major corporate brands like Adobe, Apple, Nokia and others, Nilofer has honed her collaborative approach to solving tough problems.
As Rubicon’s founder and CEO, she leads a distinguished team of operational veterans. Her firm is hired by global brands such as Hewlett-Packard, Pinnacle, Logitech, Openwave, Symantec and others to create the solutions to win markets.
Her keynotes attract SRO crowds at business leadership events, technology expos, women’s conferences and universities – ranging from AjaxWorld to CTIA and PBWC to Stanford. Having won multiple awards for her insights on applying strategic thinking and innovation, she’s been quoted or published in major business publications such as BusinessWeek, Entrepreneur, Fortune and The Wall Street Journal.
Nilofer earned her MBA from Santa Clara University, a BS in Economics from University of San Francisco and is a certified Instructor of Facilitative Leadership from Interaction Associates. O’Reilly Media is publishing Nilofer’s book on the art of collaborative strategy creation, in Fall 2009.
Follow Nilofer on Twitter @nilofer and visit her blog at NiloferMerchant.com
Sameer Patel is a partner at the Sovos Group and founder of SpanStrategies – consulting practices that help leading organizations accelerate employee, customer and partner performance via the strategic use of social and collaborative approaches and technology.
Sameer spent a decade managing engagements for large organizations helping them define and execute sustainable programs that drive lead generation, business partner network optimization, sales and marketing operational effectiveness, customer acquisition and employee productivity.
Sameer has had the privilege to work with well known organizations such as BitTorrent, Ingres, Sun Microsystems, KPMG, McKessonHBOC, WR Wrigley Jr. Co., The Sabre Group, Grupo Televisa (Mx), and Cardinal Health.
Organizations that Sameer has led were responsible for strategy and execution planning enabled by social and collaborative approaches and technology, user needs assessments (voice of customer, partner and management), UI and rapid prototyping, operational feasibility, technology sourcing, development and vendor management, strategic alliances and overall client services management and delivery.
Sameer has a Bachelors in Corporate Finance, Securities and Economics from Babson College in Wellesley, MA and a Masters degree in Management Information Systems (MIS) from Boston University’s School of Management (Masters thesis in Knowledge Management), in Boston MA and a certified Associate in Risk Management Designation (ARM) by the AICPCU. His work experience comes from working as Managing Director of Span, Director, Strategy and Business Development at LiquidThinking and Practice Lead in the West Coast Tech Strategy Consulting Group at marchFIRST ( a merger between USWeb, The Mitchell Madison Group & CKS).
Sameer entered the working world before college in the foreign exchange business, working for a financial services firm in their offices in Hong Kong, Singapore, London, Mumbai, Dubai and Sydney. Sameer was a nationally ranked Squash player and a state record holder as a Swimmer in India.
Follow Sameer on Twitter @sameerpatel and read his blog at PretzelLogic
Josh Wexler currently works for Deloitte consulting as an expert on social media and Enterprise 2.0. He has advised many clients on Enterprise 2.0 issues including a global consulting firm, government agency, and a small insurance company. He focuses on Enterprise 2.0 strategy and helping companies work better through collaboration, communication, and connection with Enterprise 2.0 tools. Josh has defined a global consulting firm’s alumni social media strategy, including using LinkedIn to keep alumni connected with the firm. He has helped a major government agency build an Enterprise 2.0 strategy to increase knowledge sharing and expertise finding across the agency. He has advised on a number of projects using Enterprise 2.0 tools in unique ways such as requirements gathering for building software. Josh has spoken about Enterprise 2.0 and social networking at places such as Dartmouth College, New York University, Thailand, and Amsterdam.
Within his work on Enterprise 2.0, Josh has developed a model of the People-centric Organization. A People-centric Organization is where companies put their people first by creating or enabling the 3Cs: Connection, Communication, and Collaboration. Through this model, Josh has helped many organizations increase collaboration, employee engagement, innovation, and attracting and retaining talent.
Josh has also worked on Human Capital issues for Fortune 500 clients. He has helped to project manage and define global processes for a global outsourcing implementation at a global pharmaceutical company. Josh has helped conduct HR assessments and designed talent management programs at various clients. He believes that there is a great unrealized opportunity between HR and Enterprise 2.0 and has been working on spreading that message to many of his clients. Josh graduated from Dartmouth College with a Degree in psychology. He currently serves on the board of two non-profits in the New York area, Babies First Home and Rock Star Camp.
