冈本视频

Dr. Becky Andree, Vertical Leadership Consulting & University of Wisconsin - Stevens Point

Dr. Becky Andree has over 30 years of experience helping organizations and leaders navigate complex change. She has designed and led global change initiatives for Fortune 100 companies, including leadership development programs, performance management transformations, and lean manufacturing efforts. She collaborated with the Lean department to develop a training program that shifted supervisors from reactive to proactive leadership, translated into 13 languages and deployed across 20+ countries, reaching over 7,000 leaders.

A former faculty member at the Federal Executive Institute, Dr. Andree specializes in developing leaders鈥� capacity to manage complexity. Her research and consulting focus on adaptive leadership, cognitive development, and behavioral change. She applies insights from the SWITCH model to help leaders move from resistance to readiness, ensuring continuous improvement and sustained change.

April Callis Birchmeier CSP, CCMP™, PMP®

Recognized with the 2024 Change Awards 鈥� Lifetime award and as one of the Top 30 Global Guru鈥檚 in Organizational Culture, April is a Keynote speaker and internationally known organizational change management expert who has implemented change for government, health care, higher education and corporate clients. 

She served the Association of Change Management Professionals (ACMP) to develop the global professional standard for all change management practitioner鈥檚 worldwide and is CEO of Springboard Consulting, a change management consulting firm which provides change implementation support, and education. April is also an ACMP Qualified Education Provider and provides training and exam preparation for the Certified Change Management Professional examination. As a PMP she provides training for PMI Training and her expertise and experience are evident in certifications such as, PMP庐 (Project Management Professional), CSP鈩� (Certified Speaking Professional) and CCMP鈩⑩�檚 (Certified Change Management Professional).

April is the author of four books including the bestsellers 鈥淩EADY, Set, Change! Simplify and Accelerate Organizational Change鈥�&苍产蝉辫;and 鈥�READY, Set, CCMP鈩� Exam Prep Guide and frequently speaks for ACMP, SHRM and PMI events.

Katie Chase, Thrivent

Katie is a Continuous Improvement Manager with 11 years of continuous improvement experience in the financial industry. She holds a Black Belt certification and plays a strategic role at Thrivent, leading the development of an enterprise-wide continuous improvement program.

Thom Keehan, Enterprise Kaizen

Thom Keehan is currently the Founder & CEO of Enterprise Kaizen, a full service consultancy focused on business excellence and growth.  Previously, Thom was Vice President of Enterprise Quality & Operational Excellence for Daikin Applied focused on bringing Daikin鈥檚 Quality back to the forefront of the company.  Thom also was the Chief Innovation Officer and Founder of Leanserv LLC, a consulting and Professional Services company. During his 26-year career, he had expat assignments with General Electric in Turkey, Romania, Canada and England. He served as Corporate Vice President at Tenneco leading the global Operational Excellence initiative for the company overseeing Manufacturing & Business Operations. Thom has an extensive background in the design and launch of enterprise-wide business systems utilizing his comprehensive background of Lean Six Sigma and Problem Solving leading companies through Recovery, Turnaround and Transformation. 

Previously, he was the Group Vice President of Power Solutions at Johnson Controls. In this role, Thom developed and executed the Business Transformation for Power Solutions five-year business strategy, and led a team of highly qualified experts to directly impact Quality, Cost, and Delivery to customers, both external and internal. He was the Executive Lean Enterprise & Business Transformation Leader at GE Transportation where he led the re-launch of GE's Lean Six Sigma program across the enterprise focused on product quality, speed to market, and cost effectiveness. Thom was also the Chief Operating Officer & Business Transformation Leader at GE Capital/ Garanti Bank where he overcame cultural and language barriers to lead the full Operations organization and pioneered Lean Six Sigma methodologies within the Banking industry of Turkey and Romania. 

 In addition, Thom has held positions in Engineering, Manufacturing, Supply Chain, Finance, and Banking within the Appliances, Plastics, Corporate, Capital, and Transportation divisions of GE as well as three Joint Ventures. Within his consulting business, Thom re-engineered various functions while acting as interim executive.  He holds Master鈥檚 and Bachelor鈥檚 degrees in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Virginia and is a graduate of GE鈥檚 prestigious Edison Engineering Program and Advanced Courses.

Katie Labedz, Learning To Lean

Katie Labedz is the President/CEO of a process improvement consulting. Learning to Lean helps companies to embrace the concepts of continuous improvement, leading to REVOLUTIONARY results through coaching, training and kaizen events.  

Katie is a certified Lean Six Sigma Master Black Belt, Project Management Professional (PMP), certified Emotional Intelligence Coach, and sought after keynote speaker. She has been practicing Lean, Six Sigma and Project Management concepts for over 20 years. Katie is the epitome of perseverance. She has also authored two books, "How to Improve Absolutely Anything-Continuous Improvement in Your Home, Office and Family Life" and "How to Improve Absolutely Every Process-Kaizen for process improvement and fun."  You can reach Katie on LinkedIn, via her website  or via email info@learningtolean.training.  

James Long, Cadence Inc.

James Long is a seasoned leader with over 15 years of experience in operations leadership and continuous improvement. He has successfully led a small medical device component operation in Wisconsin and implemented Lean Manufacturing concepts in various supervisory and managerial roles within the flexible packaging industry.

James holds an AMCOR Certified Lean Six Sigma Green Belt and has demonstrated expertise in engineering, lean, and six sigma methodologies. His proven track record includes significant achievements in safety, quality, delivery, and cost management, particularly within ISO 13485:2016 certified environments. His experience spans medical and food flexible and rigid packaging, coating, laminating, and extrusion processes.

Currently, James serves as the Director of Operations at Cadence Inc., where he leads a 30+ employee plant in Sturgeon Bay, WI. His role involves managing an annual budget of $12M, mentoring managers, and ensuring 100% on-time delivery. He has also collaborated with the VP of Operations to deploy Operational Excellence foundation and governance for over 600 employees across 8 regional sites, focusing on continuous improvement, daily lean management and 5S implementation projects.

Previously, James held key positions at AMCOR, where he served as a Continuous Improvement Manager. In this role, he managed Lean Six Sigma projects, trained, and developed employees, and coordinated cost-saving initiatives that forecasted significant savings. His efforts in waste reduction and process improvement have been instrumental in enhancing operational efficiency.

James's military background includes roles as an Operations Officer and Engineer Advisor in the US Army, where he advised Afghan military and police forces, managed construction projects, coordinated large-scale training operations, and led over 500 counter IED missions in Afghanistan. His leadership and operational expertise have been instrumental in both his military and civilian careers.

Dr. Andrew Paasch, 冈本视频

Andy brings over 12 years of combined experience in the manufacturing and construction industries, with a strong focus on Environmental, Health and Safety (EHS) and Human Resource (HR) Management.

Professional Highlights
Andy鈥檚 expertise includes regulatory compliance with OSHA standards, labor relations, and personnel management. Since 2011, he has served as a dedicated instructor at 冈本视频 (冈本视频), teaching across multiple programs including Human Resources, Leadership Development, Manufacturing Operations Management, and Project Management.

Areas of Specialty

• Environmental, Health & Safety (EHS)
• Human Resource Management
• Labor Relations & Compliance
• OSHA Training & Standards
• Leadership & Talent Development
• Project Management
• Lean Six Sigma Principles
• Manufacturing & Construction Operations
• Technical Education & Curriculum Design

Jennifer Riley, Thrivent

Jennifer is a Senior Continuous Improvement Analyst at Thrivent with 13 years of experience in continuous improvement across the insurance and manufacturing industries. She holds a Black Belt certification and is currently pursuing her Master Black Belt.