Let's connect! Join Carrie Beckstrom, CEO of PowerSpeaking, Inc., as she hosts the monthly conversation that's designed to help you become a more powerful presenter and communicator. We believe that everyone's voice deserves to be heard!
Join CEO Carrie Beckstrom and panelists to explore how communication plays a vital role in responding to crises, adapting to disruptive change, and enabling employees to thrive
through the challenges.
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Meet the Panelists
Being an effective communicator across cultures and diverse audiences is a must in today’s world. Join our expert panelists to talk about best practices to achieve clear, inclusive communication that builds relationships and drives business forward.
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Curtis is a strategic communication professional with more than 18 years of experience creating communication strategies, many for U.S. military CEO equivalents, and 28 years leading, teaching, coaching, and mentoring individuals and teams. His experience in crisis communication ranges from the tactical to strategic level, domestically and internationally, in both conflict and peacetime.
His experience has spanned public relations, media relations, internal communications, community relations, leadership development and training, and organizational leadership. He was most recently the Director of Communications at U.S. Special Operations Command. In that role, he oversaw communication efforts for the nation's Special Operations Forces enterprise and its nearly 80,000 military and civialian personnel.
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Staci is an experienced communications and branding executive and board leader. She spent three decades in the professional sports industry, overseeing strategic communications and crisis management as executive vice president for the San Francisco Giants. Previously, she served as press secretary to former San Francisco Mayor Frank Jordan and a communications advisor to former Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan and CA State Senate President Pro Tem David Roberti.
In 2017, Staci received a "Most Influential Women in Business" award from the San Francisco Business Times and was named to the Sports Business Journal's list of "Power Players: The Communicators and Storytellers" for leadership in the field of communications crisis management, messaging, and storytelling.
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Matt is a leading expert in communication with decades of experience as an educator, author, podcast host, and coach. As a lecturer in organizational behavior at Stanford, he teaches popular classes in communication and virtual presenting. Outside of the classroom, Matt is a sought-after keynote speaker and communications consultant. His online talks garner millions of views, and he hosts the popular, award-winning podcast Think Fast, Talk Smart.
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Dawn is a versatile, bilingual consultant with 30 years of global work experience in Europe, Asia, and Africa, with a strong record of enabling organizations to understand the dynamics impacting their teams as they work to build trust and manage change. Through consulting, coaching, and facilitating, Dawn helps organizations assess their cultural dynamics and bridge divides that affect business. Dawn's clients include government agencies, embassies, NGOs, corporations, and nonprofit organizations.
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Steven is an organization development consultant, speaker, executive coach, and author. He has more than 25 years’ experience facilitating the creativity of scientists, engineers, business leaders, and professionals to deliver bold solutions that are scalable and sustainable. Steven holds a Ph.D. in adult learning and organizational creativity from UCLA, works for biopharma pioneer Genentech and is the author of over 100 workplace learning programs. Find him at stevenkowalski.com
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Josh is a learning and development professional. After starting his career as a professional theater actor and director, he moved back to Silicon Valley to become a professor of theatre arts at San Jose State University. There, Josh got involved in communication and leadership skill building for VIPs, politicians, and corporate executives with a company called Stand & Deliver. He worked as a leadership development lead at Facebook/Meta, and Plaid prior to joining Sony (Playstation).
Having started her career in corporate law within the pharmaceutical industry, Sarah Palmer found her passion in motivational coaching, training, and development. She has extensive experience as a conference speaker and for the past eight years has trained and coached speakers for Cisco Live, as well as for global Women in Technology conferences. Her favorite place to be is where there are lights, camera, and action!
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Having grown up in Japan and earning undergraduate and graduate degrees in Japanese language, Chris Brannen has built a career as an international business and cross-cultural consultant. (She coaches and teaches her workshops in both English and Japanese.) She has trained and coached staff at all levels, across a variety of high-tech and biotech companies, including Genentech, LEO Pharma, Gilead, SAP and Oracle.
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Ralf is our resident “technology futurist.” He enjoys combining visionary thinking with a practical, hands-on approach to using technology to shape the future of coaching and training. He’s been a keynote speaker on the topics of leadership, innovation, the future of technology, and the future of coaching within the business environment. He developed and co-led the talent management program for Distinguished Engineers at Cisco Europe.
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Based in the Netherlands, Nicole is a member of the Cisco World Wide Enterprise Networks Technical Sales team. She's been a frequent presenter at various Cisco Live events around the globe. She is responsible for design, documentation, and collateral for routing and switching infrastructure and security components of enterprise networks, and says she's "passionate about the Internet of Things (IoT), IPv6, and security." Nicole has been recognized at Cisco as a "Champion of Change" for her passionate work in the industrial automation space.
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Pamela is the chief coach and co-founder at Big Interview, the job interview training system that has helped millions ace their interviews and land big job offers. She has been featured as a career expert by The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, CNN, ABC News, and many other media outlets. Pamela is also a coach and trainer who works with both job seekers and hiring teams. She says, “I am committed to leveling the playing field for job seekers and helping organizations make the best hiring decisions.”
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In addition to her work with PowerSpeaking, Rita is Founder and Instructional designer of RDC Solutions. She’s committed to enhancing her clients' messaging. She helps clients clearly identify their brand and leverage their strengths for interviews, meetings, and presentations. She offers immediate feedback on opportunities for improvement with clear and specific exercises to strengthen communication presence.
Having worked with top local and international companies in the Greater China and APAC regions, Yvonne helps executives and managers be more effective sales professionals, communicators, team players, and leaders.
Her experience includes:
Fully bilingual in Mandarin and English, Yvonne has a BA in Communication Arts (Radio/TV Broadcasting) from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. She also attended the National Yang-Ming Medical College’s School of Dentistry in Taiwan.
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Mano is a global technology leader with 20+ years of practitioner and consulting experience in digital transformation and complex systems integration in numerous industry sectors. He thrives on the ambiguity of real-world business transformation scenarios and has a particular passion for addressing these difficult challenges in global scenarios with teams from widely differing cultures and backgrounds. He is a natural leader who creates a vision and roadmap to rally a team to achieve success with strategic impact. Mano takes a passionate interest in developing strong and diverse teams.
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Emilio helps enterprise technology companies transform their customer experiences. Leveraging his training at PowerSpeaking, he supports technical and business teams by creating clarity and urgency around complex topics. This year, he won the ”Rising Star Award” by the Microsoft Global Speakers Bureau for his executive presentations.
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John says, “I get a thrill from working with exceptionally smart people, especially engineers and scientists, to help them present their ideas in a compelling manner that boosts their self-esteem and advances their careers.” He was one of PowerSpeaking’s first trainers, and has extensive experience delivering a wide variety and ever-evolving suite of PowerSpeaking workshops and coaching sessions. He also serves as the primary speech coach for TEDx in Jacksonville, Florida
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Sarah advises customers on complex, multi-cloud digital transformations by evaluating people, processes, and products to balance cost, time to market, security, governance, risk, and compliance. She's a liaison between internal and field teams to ensure an effective product feedback loop. No stranger to technical presentations, Sarah has been a speaker at international conferences.
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Dan is an accomplished marketing leader with experience launching new products and driving world-class results in global technology companies including Verizon Wireless, Cisco, and Honeywell. He is passionate about having a servant-leader mindset in enabling teams to create more impact by building stronger internal and external customer relationships with a clarity of purpose. He is the host of the weekly podcast series Market Impact Insights, recognized by Forrester as a Top 100 Channel Podcast, sharing leadership best-practices from around the world.
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As a leader in Stanford’s Graduate School of Business MBA and MSx Programs for nearly 12 years, Mary is committed to creating opportunities where everyone can thrive. She manages the Women In Management Groups Program and the MBA and MSx Communication Programs. She leads by building strong partnerships, growing inclusive communities, and creating efficient operations. Mary is also a life and leadership coach; a diversity, equity, and inclusion strategist; and a dynamic community and culture builder.
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Brent is a dynamic and sought-after speaker, author, and industrial thought leader. Brent's insights have garnered recognition from prestigious publications such as Harvard Business Press, Chief Learning Officer Magazine, Workforce.com, and BBC News, as well as leading podcasts. Prior to founding HumanWRKS, Brent was an award-winning learning and innovation executive at Shell, who was the driving force that envisioned, designed, and operationalized many of Shell’s most critical global HR transformations of the 21st century.
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Anshu brings 26 years of diverse and cross-cultural experience as a Global Master Facilitator and Coach. She is a Pecha-Kucha Coach, Speaker Coach, C-Suite Coach and a Train the Trainer specialist. She is also a certified storyteller who has authored a book on 11 inspirational biographies and runs a podcast show. Recognized for her zeal and high engagement, she works with 85+ partners across EMEA, APAC, US, CWAR, UAE, Australasia, Nordic Region and Sri Lanka.
David’s 30+ years of experience in corporate organizational development, leadership assessment and development, and coaching give him a savvy edge we appreciate. He has provided leadership assessment and development services to help identify talent for leadership positions. He’s also conducted leadership training workshops in emotional and social competency, leadership excellence, and communication skills.
Payal has over two decades of experience as a Global Facilitator, Executive Coach, professional speaker, business conference host, TEDx speaker, and a Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) Coach. She has hosted 21 Senior Executive interviews in the ‘Guiding Light’ Series, and has insights into the executive mindset and what matters to them. In her last full-time engagement with Ernst & Young she trained and coached presenters to present to decision makers.
Carrie is passionate about leading the talented PowerSpeaking, Inc. team in helping organizations—at corporations like Genentech, eBay, Autodesk, and Gilead Sciences—develop powerful communication skills that inspire people and get results. “Our purpose is to make great people even greater at what they do every day. That includes becoming effective global communicators who build positive relationships and drive business forward.”
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Liane is Co-founder and Principal of a small firm with a big vision: to radically change the way people communicate, connect, and contribute so they can achieve amazing things together. She’s a bestselling author, keynote speaker, and HBR contributor. She specializes in team effectiveness, strategy, and leadership development.
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Empowering clients to find their own confidence and share their truths with their audiences is what drives Mitesh every day. With a BS in engineering and an MS in information systems, he has helped clients with communication skills ranging from business writing to negotiation, to team building and presentation skills.
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Janell’s self-described mantra is, “Improvement doesn’t come from comfort zones.” She stresses that speaking isn’t about perfection—it’s about engagement. Janell brings a unique lens to each workshop and coaching engagement, backed by additional experience in television and higher education.
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Rebecca is an international marketing leader with 10+ years of experience in UK, Europe, and US markets. Based in London, she leads the Salesforce Service Cloud EMEA Experiences team. Mackenzie is passionate about public speaking and storytelling, frequently presenting on-stage keynotes and hosting in-studio programming. She believes presentation skills are fundamental to improving confidence, visibility, and your personal brand.
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Bonny manages the program content for the annual Cisco Live EMEA conference. He also leads a team of super-passionate events professionals to plan, design, and execute the event. Cisco Live attracts thousands of customers, partners, and employees year after year, delivering education and inspiration to technology innovators worldwide through large-scale events, as well as on-demand education.
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Christa is a Coach, Consultant, Special Advisor to Stanford’s Center for Racial Justice, Co-Founder of the Leadership Transition Community (LTC), and the Founder of Fresh Lifelines for Youth (FLY), which she created with incarcerated youth. Christa served as FLY's CEO for 22 years and along the way received numerous awards including the James Irvine Leadership Award, Human Rights Award for the City of San Jose, Stanford Law School’s Inaugural Alumni Public Service Award, and the Law Foundation’s, Youth Advocate of the Year.
Geoffrey is the Uganda Country Director for Asante Africa Foundation, a nonprofit that partners with local schools and communities in East Africa to provide youth the educational resources and support they need to reach their full potential. With deep leadership experience in the philanthropy industry, Geoffrey says his and Asante’s mission is “To educate and empower the next generation of change agents, whose dreams and actions transform the future for Africa and the world.”
Kevin is known in the global training, learning, and talent development community as the L&D Detective™. He investigates impact and solves measurement mysteries with facts, clues, evidence, and data. With 25+ years’ industry experience serving in diverse roles across multiple industries, Kevin examines fulfillment of purpose for training and learning. He is also founder and president of Meals in the Meantime, a nonprofit providing food support and assistance with pop-up food pantries.
Neema says her career and expertise have always been about transforming companies through advanced technologies. She was one of the first three women executive officers in the works/infrastructure branch of the Indian Navy. And she is the published author of “The Cinderella Elephant,” a book for young managers about finding purpose, power, and potential in unexpected places.
Eleanor was the only female Technical Lead when she joined the Office for National Statistics, but quickly set about changing that by using statistics to highlight the issues women face. Being from a non-traditional tech background and a woman in STEM, she is an outspoken advocate for diversity and inclusivity in teams and how women can fight biases they face.
Karen is at heart, a technologist who is passionate about ensuring that people are centric to all successful transformations. With experience in both nonprofit and financial services, in 2021 she was awarded CIO 100, which recognizes groundbreaking leaders in IT. One of her key passions is working toward true equity in both the technology and the insurance market.
Paul suggests that you "Start with the why—your customers and your own. Find the common ground and tell the stories that bring you closer. Engage intelligently. Be respectful, but challenge: perceptions, limitations and barriers. Make each moment count."
With over 25 years of experience in learning, consulting, presenting, communications, writing, and storytelling, Mark is a native Californian who now calls Memphis home. He is founder and executive director of the nonprofit multimedia magazine StoryBoard Memphis, which through the power of storytelling features community-contributed Mid-South content focused on local and regional arts, culture, community, and history.
Isabel began her career as a journalist and (later) editor, specializing in medicine, health, and science. Since 2005 she has worked as an independent trainer and coach, with a focus on communication skills training, message development, and storytelling for business.
Most recently, she has helped executives develop and articulate their unique value propositions in the workplace.
Jenny leads communications for ADP’s transformation office and oversees global internal communications. She creates and executes multi-channel communication strategies for leaders to inspire, connect, and energize more than 60,000 associates who serve 1 million clients in 140 countries.
Amy is such a stellar coach and trainer, she heads up all US trainer certifications and mentoring for PowerSpeaking. She also produces a regular virtual meeting for a nonprofit, has developed and leads public-speaking workshops for advanced ESL students, and trains elementary school faculty and students in public speaking.
Amy is an internationally renowned speaker, author, and leadership development consultant. She’s worked with organizations such as Deloitte, Cisco Systems, and Aon Hewitt and has over 25 years of experience working with leaders at all levels. Her second book, The Courage of a Leader (2021), has been an international #1 best-seller.
Kristin’s LiveWire is a leadership development and executive coaching firm. A former corporate executive and Stanford MBA, Kristin uses her education and experience to help her clients build skills in self-awareness, emotional intelligence, tackling tough conversations, and coaching and developing others. She is an expert in personal branding and executive communications and specializes in helping her clients improve their self-confidence, executive presence, and perception within their organizations. Kristin is also a Certified Dare To Lead Facilitator™ for Brené Brown.
Amy leads a team of executive-strengths coaches, facilitators, and content creators who help individuals and organizations activate their unique talent. Amy has two decades of experience in the leader development and learning space, including 10 years in sales and marketing leadership roles with global enterprise responsibility for sales training and leadership development. Her passion for driving results through developing people has contributed to her success in a variety of industries and organization types, including Fortune 500s, startups, and nonprofits.
As a wardrobe stylist and speaker, Morgan Wider advises executives, entrepreneurs and college students on how to build wardrobes that convey confidence and competence.
Morgan is the author of the best-selling book, The Worthy Wardrobe: Your Guide to Style, Shopping & Soul. Her podcast, The Worthy Reveal, is available on all streaming platforms. By sharing her knowledge about the retail industry and her passion for fashion, Morgan helps her clients feel more powerful in all areas of their lives.
Andrew has a wealth of experience in leadership, culture-building, and communications in the corporate, political, and nonprofit worlds. He has successfully built and led organizations during periods of unprecedented growth, change, and impact—including the first global employee communications team at Facebook, as the company grew from 5,000 to 30,000 employees worldwide.
Andrew’s work focuses on building and maintaining vibrant cultures; steady, effective leadership across functions and teams; and consistent, clear communications. He is the author of the book, Honestly Speaking: How the Way We Communicate Transforms Leadership, Love, and Life.
Brad is a pre-eminent thought leader, lecturer, and author in organizational communication. He has led global internal and executive communication programs at HP, Cisco, Hitachi, PeopleSoft, and MicroFocus.
Brad is a past International Association of Business Communicators International Chairman, an IABC Fellow, and an author of the IABC Handbook of Organizational Communication and The IABC Guide for Practical Business Communication: A Global Standard Primer. Brad is a communications coach for Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business and California State University at Chico’s Engineering Leadership Program.
A sought-after speaker and strategist in Silicon Valley–as well as nationally and internationally–Elizabeth works with leaders and influencers who need to become concise and compelling presenters. Fluent in five languages, she is adept at working with presenters from many countries, bringing her global experience to her clients. Host of the award-winning international podcast “Speakers Who Get Results,” Elizabeth interviews experts from around the world on presentation skills, leadership and visibility, as well as communication challenges that range from presenting internationally to gender misunderstandings.
Rajani is a transformational, people-oriented, and results-driven leader with experience across the US, Europe, and Asia, and currently at Tech Mahindra, a leading IT Services company specializing in digital transformation, consulting, and business reengineering. A firm proponent of the value of diversity and inclusion in every walk of life, she regularly speaks with high school and college students on the impact of diversity in the workplace. She is the chairperson of the “Women in Technology @TechM,” San Francisco Bay Area chapter.
Mary is responsible for helping clients across all industries with transformation, change management, and communication. She works with clients to provide strategy, advice, insights, and effective communication solutions to help organizations meet their HR goals. Mary is also a regular speaker for industry and ADP events.
Sandia is responsible for Vitech’s System Group transformation initiatives and driving growth and change. Prior to joining Vitech Systems Group, Sandia was Vice President of Cloud Transformations at Guidewire Software and served many other roles during her 18 years there.
Jon, who was a solution engineer for 15 years before his current position with Salesforce, says, “I am obsessed with magic and stories and have been for a long time. I have been deepening my understanding of stories and storytelling to deliver workshops that help global teams create and tell stories in the business environment.”
Describing herself as a “culture broker and brand interpreter,” Bei is also the co-founder and CMO of StraightFire, an NFT platform and production company helping global brands and IPs to capitalize on untapped financial and promotional opportunities in the metaverse. Bei is also an engaging public speaker and storyteller.
Reci's background was in medical and computer sales and sales management before she decided to dedicate more than 20 years to leadership training, executive coaching, and presentation skills training. She has coached 50 TEDx speakers.
In her TEDx Talk, “Space is for Everyone,” Rachel explains how exploring “the last frontier” affects our everyday lives on earth; and she makes a compelling case for encouraging children who dream of reaching for the stars. (PowerSpeaking, Inc’s Reci Schmellick coached Rachel for the talk.)
Put simply, Cindy Solomon builds Courageous Leadership at Scale for organizations, teams, and individuals. With over 350,000 leaders participating in Cindy's Courageous Leadership programs and over 1.8M TED views, Cindy's formula for creating courageous organizations and teams has resonated around the world with clients like Oracle, Salesforce, Dow, The Cleveland Clinic, and over 400 others. CourageousLeadershipInstitute.com
Joao is a Senior Content Producer at Ascend Global Media, creators and organizers of the Women in Technology World Series where he leads the research and development of the USA portfolio with events in San Francisco, Houston and Boston.
Donnie loves helping business leaders cultivate their influence and advance their communication skills, so they stand out in their organization or field. He’s a business and marketing strategist, as well as a leadership development coach for social impact entrepreneurs, plus business and community leaders. Donnie holds a drama degree from Stanford University and has worked as a professional actor.
Over a decade of experience in theater and the performing arts makes Brian Moore one seriously dynamic professional trainer, facilitator, and coach! His years of experience as a senior leader within corporations adds to his creds, along with his passion for recognizing and nurturing talent. Brian holds a BFA in acting from Long Island University, New York.
Lisa brings her love of performing virtually and in person to the workshops she teaches as a way to engage participants and demonstrate effective presentation skills. Her critically acclaimed one-woman shows sell out theaters and raise funds for worthy causes.
Phone:
650-631-8459 or
800-828-1909
Address:
1233 Harrison Avenue
Redwood City, CA 94062
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