meet the team

Andy Crowe founded Velociteach in 2002 and serves as its CEO. He is a the author of The PMP® Exam: How to Pass on Your First Try, Alpha Project Managers: What the Top 2% Know that Everyone Else Does Not, and The PMI-ACP Exam: How to Pass on Your First Try. 

Andy’s career began in software development with AT&T, Cambridge Technology Partners, and Manhattan Associates. He also served on Microsoft’s advisory board for their DNA and .NET strategies.

Andy served on the Project Management Institute’s team for the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK Guide)® and the Organizational Project Management Maturity Model (OPM3). His vision for Velociteach led to the creation of InSite, the widely-adopted e-learning portal which is now used on six continents, and his licensed content is being used in over thirty countries across the globe.

Andy is a Project Management Professional (PMP), a Program Management Professional (PgMP), an Agile Certified Practitioner (PMI-ACP), and a Six Sigma Black Belt. He is currently obsessed with sailing.

Courses: 

• Pass the PMP
• Lesson From Top PMs
• Project Management Fundamentals

Bill Yates is the Executive Vice President of Velociteach. Bill holds the Project Management Professional, Program Management Professional, and Agile Certified Practitioner credentials from the Project Management Institute.

In 2016, Velociteach founder Andy Crowe launched Manage This with the tagline “The podcast by project managers for project managers.” As of Jan 2024, Bill has co-hosted over 190 episodes featuring outstanding guests and project stories. The Manage This podcast releases twice a month and has over 1.1M downloads to date.

From 2011-2013, Bill served on the Advisory Group for the PMI Registered Education Provider program. This group of eight advisors represented over 1,500 R.E.P.s, providing their professional knowledge and expertise to guide PMI’s R.E.P. program initiatives.

Before joining Velociteach in 2005, Bill worked in the utility industry for eighteen years managing software projects across the United States. His experience was with some of the nation’s largest utility companies, including Verizon, Pacific Gas & Electric, and Qwest.

Courses: 

• Best Practices in Project Management
• CAPM – Practice Test A
• Communications Excellence
• Lessons From Top PMs
• Mastering Scope and Requirements Management
• Pass the PMP
• PMI-ACP Exam – Practice Test A
• PMP – Practice Test A
• PMP – Practice Test C
• Project Stories: MRAP Vehicles
• Project Stories: Lakepoint

Ren Love brings 10 years of unique management experiences, having started her career working in zoos, science centers and Disney’s Animal Kingdom before joining one of the Big Four accounting firms. During her time with the Greenville Zoo as an Education Programs Coordinator, Ren created and delivered educational content, led training for staff and volunteers, and managed various small scale departmental projects. Ren earned the PMP certification and is a Certified SAFe Agilist as well as a Certified Scrum Master.

Ren joined the staff of PwC (PricewaterhouseCoopers) as a Project Manager where she worked on large scale data migrations & data warehousing projects.

Ren’s educational background is just as diverse as her professional one; she holds a B.S. in Environmental Science from Brevard College, a M.S. in Biology from Arizona State University, and a M.S. in Instructional Design and Learning Technologies from Anderson University.

Ren lives on a mountain in Greenville, SC, and when she isn’t working or collecting college degrees, she likes getting crafty, spending time outdoors, and making conversation with strangers.

Serena Ploessl oversees all Licensing Programs and Mobile Learning at Velociteach. Serena is the primary contact for customers interested in delivering Velociteach’s ProQuip live training courses under license. She assists all current and potential clients in determining their project management curriculum needs, registering for licensing, and navigating through InSite, Velociteach’s premier eLearning training platform that offers self-paced, mobile online learning for professional development.

Serena manages a highly skilled design team to develop online content. She also markets and promotes InSite while finding key contributors to help build out new online courses. She works directly with InSite subject matter experts, customers and resellers from universities, corporate clients, and other training companies to design a custom offering that meets their needs. A key member of the Velociteach team, Serena also provides smooth and efficient coordination of business development and operational process design.

Serena holds a BBA in International Business and Finance from Kennesaw State University. She has lived in 4 different countries and traveled to over 16 others. She loves traveling, spending time with family and friends, and hosting themed parties.

Missy Hugenberg serves as the Manager of Live Training for Velociteach. In this role, she supports Velociteach’s clients nationwide and is responsible for all aspects of our instructor-led classes (both traditional classroom and webinar-based). Missy provides both sales and account management services to our corporate customers, assisting them with determining their project management training goals and creating onsite or virtually-delivered training programs tailored to each organization’s unique needs. Additionally, she acts as a liaison between our clients and the Velociteach curriculum development team when custom content creation is desired.

In addition to her client-facing role, Missy is part of the team that provides direction and coordination of marketing, business development, and process improvement efforts for  Velociteach.

Prior to joining Velociteach, Missy worked in software consulting for the Utility industry and as a program coordinator for a pharmacy products company.

Missy holds a B.S in Industrial Engineering from Georgia Tech.  She loves traveling, spending time with her family, playing golf/tennis/pickle ball, and riding intense roller coasters!

Bob Mahler brings over 20 years of project management experience to his role as Senior Director of Business Development. His project management roles began as “military operations” while in the U. S. Army. Bob became a communications expert as a Green Beret, fulfilling many roles during training and combat missions in Egypt, Kenya, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and Kuwait. After 12 years of service, he left the military in 1998 as a service-connected disabled veteran.

Bob’s technical skills led him to Nextel, Nextel Partners, and Sprint-Nextel in a variety of roles. While in the telecommunications field, he managed a range of infrastructure projects for regional markets as well as strategic national projects including disaster recovery projects in support of hurricanes Katrina, Rita, and Wilma. Bob also supported responses to California wildfires, the Virginia Tech shooting, and a wide range of federal law enforcement training needs.

Courses: 

• PMP – Practice Test A
• PMP- Practice Test B
• PMP – Practice Test C
• Project Planning – Communications and Stakeholder Management
• Project Planning – Risk Management
• Project Planning – Scope Management
• Project Planning – Schedule Management
• Project Planning – Quality Management

As the Operations Supervisor, Teresa works with all departments of Velociteach to ensure a smooth delivery of our products and services and that our clients receive outstanding customer service. Teresa holds a BS in Applied Computer Science with a concentration in Software Engineering from Kennesaw State University. Prior to joining Velociteach, she spent 15 years working and consulting on corporate IT projects across a variety of industries.
Teresa enjoys a number of hobbies including travelling, kayaking, woodworking and playing disc golf with her family. She resides in Georgia with her husband and has a son that is currently attending medical school.

Becky Hodgins is responsible for coordinating all aspects of onsite classes, providing outrageous customer service to both businesses and individual students alike. She is the single point of contact for corporate and government clients in the delivery of live training classes, and she assists our students in interacting with PMI as they work toward earning their PMP® or CAPM® certification. Becky also provides oversight in the daily operations of our corporate office.

Prior to joining Velociteach, Becky worked for nearly 20 years in Prudential’s Atlanta office, providing customer service in their relocation division. She enjoys cooking, gardening and painting, and currently resides in Georgia.

Jessica joined the Velociteach team in August of 2022. Before joining Velociteach, Jessica spent over 20 years overseeing proposals and working with various government contracts in a Fiber Optics & Communications office. She has a background of assisting many departments and helping to improve daily operations. Jessica has now carried that into her role at Velociteach to support our clients and students in all areas needed.

In her free time, Jessica loves spending time with her family enjoying all the activities with their 3 kids along with hiking, kayaking, and frequently visiting the North Georgia Mountains.

Meet Adriana, our dedicated in-house graphic designer at Velociteach. Passionate about forging connections with our customers, Adriana thrives on developing innovative designs that resonate with our audience. Working closely with our product management team, she transforms ideas into visually compelling creations, driving new sales leads through creative designs and targeted messaging across various platforms.

In addition to her role as a graphic designer, Adriana serves as the Senior eLearning designer, leading and training a team of course designers. She collaborates with subject matter experts to produce engaging eLearning content, incorporating audio, video, graphics, and other learning artifacts to create dynamic online modules for Insite.

Adriana holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts with a concentration in Graphic Communications from Kennesaw State University. Her creative touch modernizes Velociteach’s project management training techniques and tools, contributing to the company’s innovative approach.

Beyond the world of design, Adriana embraces an active lifestyle. Whether she’s enjoying brunch with her girlfriends, cruising on her motorcycle, lifting weights, or exploring new destinations, she is always seeking out fun experiences. In Marietta, GA, she shares her home with her two beloved dogs, Sasha and Mae.

As an InSite Designer, Danny designs visual aid for eLearning Courses. Danny is responsible for recording and editing audio for eLearning courses and the Manage This podcast. Danny received his BFA in Animation from Kennesaw State University and uses his skills in videography to create interesting and engaging works.

In his spare time, Danny enjoys running, drawing, reading, hiking, and playing with his dog.

Wendy serves as the Podcast Producer and cohost of the Manage This podcast. With a passion for fostering positive change, Wendy views her role as an avenue to inspire and empower others. Wendy also holds the position of culture champion at Velociteach, where she spearheads team building initiatives, coordinates events, and ensures connectivity within a remote workforce.

After graduating from Cape Peninsula University of Technology, Wendy dedicated 12 years to serving as a Diagnostic Radiographer at Red Cross Children’s Hospital in Cape Town, South Africa, before relocating to the USA. Subsequently, she transitioned into education, spending another 12 years teaching at Johnson Ferry Christian Academy, where she also assumed administrative responsibilities within the school office.

Wendy happily resides in Marietta with her husband. Together, they proudly parent two fully grown adults who miraculously managed to escape their parental clutches and bravely venture into the wild world of adulthood.

Margo Love became a Fellow of the Life Management Institute (FLMI) in 1987, achieved her Project Management Professional (PMP) certification in 2000, and earned her Six Sigma Black Belt in 2001, making her a certified project management and process improvement nerd. She has over 30 years experience managing projects and project managers in information technology for the life insurance and utility industries.

Margo says, “Project management is my favorite process, project managers are my favorite people, and there is not much I’d rather do than talk with project managers about project management!”

A summa cum laude graduate of Charleston Southern University, Margaret lives in her favorite city, Greenville, SC.

Courses: 

• Applied Risk Management
• Risk Management Fundamentals

Harold Samson brings to Velociteach more than 25 years’ experience in Application Systems Development, 20 of these involved in all aspects of Project Management. As Senior Principal and co-founder of C.W. Costello and Associates, a national provider of business systems consulting services to Fortune 500 companies, Harold gained hands-on experience managing project teams in all phases of the system development life cycle within many different industries, including telecom, insurance, banking, manufacturing, public utilities, retail, publishing, and government.

Harold has been an active investor for almost 30 years, and as an entrepreneur has provided venture capital and leadership skills to three different start-up companies.

Harold graduated with honors from the University of Florida, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in Computer and Information Science. He also holds a master’s degree in Economics from Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts. Harold and his wife live just outside Orlando, Florida.

Courses: 

• Collecting Customer Requirements
• Communicating with Senior Management
• Controlling the Project
• Stakeholder Analysis

Frank has over 25 years of experience in project management and information technology as a consultant and instructor. His expertise was in implementing PMOs and enterprise project management tools, as well as providing training in project management and tools. Frank was also a founding member of Emedikon, a consulting firm specializing in medical practice management and electronic medical record systems.

Having worked in several industries including telecomm, aviation and facility management, Frank also had the opportunity to work for the Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games (ACOG) on special projects such as the Torch Relay, cycling (road and mountain), and Olympic Village Housing Allocation. A highlight of his tenure there was carrying the Olympic Torch in his hometown of Gainesville, Florida.

A member of the Project Management Institute (PMI) since 1996, Frank was president of the Atlanta Chapter of PMI, and sat on the PMI Global Ethics Review Committee for 4 years. He holds a B.S. in Hospitality Management from Florida International University.

Frank lives in Atlanta with 2 college-age sons, and spends his free time traveling in addition to racing and restoring vintage automobiles.

Alan Zucker has over 25 years of experience managing projects and project execution organizations in Fortune 100 companies. His agile experience predates the Agile Manifesto, and he played a leadership role in the Agile/DevOps transformation of a large financial services enterprise.

Alan is an instructor and consultant, sharing his project management and agile experience. He works nationally with leading professional development providers. He is an adjunct faculty member at George Mason University, Northern Virginia Community College, and Graduate School USA. He speaks internationally at project management conferences. In 2016, he founded Project Management Essentials to provide training, advisory consulting, and expert witness services.

Alan has PMP and Agile (ACP) certifications from the Project Management Institute. He was among the first PMI members to be certified as a Discipline Agile Instructor and Coach. Additionally, he has multiple advanced certifications from the Scrum Alliance and the Scaled Agile Institute (SAFe).

Courses:

The Fundamentals of Agile

Agile Beyond IT

Ren Love brings 10 years of unique management experiences, having started her career working in zoos, science centers and Disney’s Animal Kingdom before joining one of the Big Four accounting firms. During her time with the Greenville Zoo as an Education Programs Coordinator, Ren created and delivered educational content, led training for staff and volunteers, and managed various small scale departmental projects. Ren earned the PMP certification and is a Certified SAFe Agilist as well as a Certified Scrum Master.

Ren joined the staff of PwC (PricewaterhouseCoopers) as a Project Manager where she worked on large scale data migrations & data warehousing projects.

Ren’s educational background is just as diverse as her professional one; she holds a B.S. in Environmental Science from Brevard College, a M.S. in Biology from Arizona State University, and a M.S. in Instructional Design and Learning Technologies from Anderson University.

Ren lives on a mountain in Greenville, SC, and when she isn’t working or collecting college degrees, she likes getting crafty, spending time outdoors, and making conversation with strangers.

Velociteach and InSite welcome Neal Whitten, PMP as a course author and contributor to InSite’s eLearning courses.  Neal’s initial series of courses has been well-received by InSite’s community of users.

Neal Whitten is a popular speaker, trainer, consultant, mentor and best-selling author in the areas of leadership and soft skills, project management and employee development. He has over 35 years of front-line leadership, project management and human resource experience. He has authored eight books and written over 150 articles for professional magazines and had been a contributing editor of PMI’s PM Network® magazine for over 15 years.

In his 23 years at IBM, Neal held both project leader and management positions. He managed the development of numerous software products, including operating systems, business and telecommunications applications, and special-purpose programs and tools. For three years, he also managed and was responsible for providing independent assessments on dozens of projects for an Assurance group. Neal is president of The Neal Whitten Group, created shortly after leaving IBM in 1993.

Courses: 

• 17 Top Reasons Why Projects Fail
• 25 Actions to Build Your Self-Confidence
• 7 Steps to Successful Conflict Management
• Achieving the Elusive Work-Life Balance
• Are You Too Soft?
• Behaviors That Lead to Exceptional Performance
• Behaviors to Master When Dealing with Your Leaders
• Build a Better Team
• Crash Course in Agile Scrum
• Dealing With Difficult People
• Drive Innovation with Disruptive Thinking
• Effective Mentoring
• Effective Time Management
• Escalate is Not a Dirty Word
• Essential Tips for Effective Negotiation Skills
• How to Lead Successful Change Management
• Self-Assessing and Improving Your Performance Maturity
• Surveying Client Satisfaction
• Top Ten Mistakes in Conducting Lessons Learned
• What Makes a Team Member Valuable?

Bill Yates is the Executive Vice President of Velociteach. Bill holds the Project Management Professional, Program Management Professional, and Agile Certified Practitioner credentials from the Project Management Institute.

In 2016, Velociteach founder Andy Crowe launched Manage This with the tagline “The podcast by project managers for project managers.” As of Jan 2024, Bill has co-hosted over 190 episodes featuring outstanding guests and project stories. The Manage This podcast releases twice a month and has over 1.1M downloads to date.

From 2011-2013, Bill served on the Advisory Group for the PMI Registered Education Provider program. This group of eight advisors represented over 1,500 R.E.P.s, providing their professional knowledge and expertise to guide PMI’s R.E.P. program initiatives.

Before joining Velociteach in 2005, Bill worked in the utility industry for eighteen years managing software projects across the United States. His experience was with some of the nation’s largest utility companies, including Verizon, Pacific Gas & Electric, and Qwest.

Courses: 

• Best Practices in Project Management
• CAPM – Practice Test A
• Communications Excellence
• Lessons From Top PMs
• Mastering Scope and Requirements Management
• Pass the PMP
• PMI-ACP Exam – Practice Test A
• PMP – Practice Test A
• PMP – Practice Test C
• Project Stories: MRAP Vehicles
• Project Stories: Lakepoint

Andy Crowe founded Velociteach in 2002 and serves as its CEO. He is a the author of The PMP® Exam: How to Pass on Your First Try, Alpha Project Managers: What the Top 2% Know that Everyone Else Does Not, and The PMI-ACP Exam: How to Pass on Your First Try. 

Andy’s career began in software development with AT&T, Cambridge Technology Partners, and Manhattan Associates. He also served on Microsoft’s advisory board for their DNA and .NET strategies.

Andy served on the Project Management Institute’s team for the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK Guide)® and the Organizational Project Management Maturity Model (OPM3). His vision for Velociteach led to the creation of InSite, the widely-adopted e-learning portal which is now used on six continents, and his licensed content is being used in over thirty countries across the globe.

Andy is a Project Management Professional (PMP), a Program Management Professional (PgMP), an Agile Certified Practitioner (PMI-ACP), and a Six Sigma Black Belt. He is currently obsessed with sailing.

Courses: 

• Pass the PMP
• Lesson From Top PMs
• Project Management Fundamentals

Bill Yates is the Executive Vice President of Velociteach. Bill holds the Project Management Professional, Program Management Professional, and Agile Certified Practitioner credentials from the Project Management Institute.

In 2016, Velociteach founder Andy Crowe launched Manage This with the tagline “The podcast by project managers for project managers.” As of Jan 2024, Bill has co-hosted over 190 episodes featuring outstanding guests and project stories. The Manage This podcast releases twice a month and has over 1.1M downloads to date.

From 2011-2013, Bill served on the Advisory Group for the PMI Registered Education Provider program. This group of eight advisors represented over 1,500 R.E.P.s, providing their professional knowledge and expertise to guide PMI’s R.E.P. program initiatives.

Before joining Velociteach in 2005, Bill worked in the utility industry for eighteen years managing software projects across the United States. His experience was with some of the nation’s largest utility companies, including Verizon, Pacific Gas & Electric, and Qwest.

Courses: 

• Best Practices in Project Management
• CAPM – Practice Test A
• Communications Excellence
• Lessons From Top PMs
• Mastering Scope and Requirements Management
• Pass the PMP
• PMI-ACP Exam – Practice Test A
• PMP – Practice Test A
• PMP – Practice Test C
• Project Stories: MRAP Vehicles
• Project Stories: Lakepoint

Velociteach and InSite welcome Neal Whitten, PMP as a course author and contributor to InSite’s eLearning courses.  Neal’s initial series of courses has been well-received by InSite’s community of users.

Neal Whitten is a popular speaker, trainer, consultant, mentor and best-selling author in the areas of leadership and soft skills, project management and employee development. He has over 35 years of front-line leadership, project management and human resource experience. He has authored eight books and written over 150 articles for professional magazines and had been a contributing editor of PMI’s PM Network® magazine for over 15 years.

In his 23 years at IBM, Neal held both project leader and management positions. He managed the development of numerous software products, including operating systems, business and telecommunications applications, and special-purpose programs and tools. For three years, he also managed and was responsible for providing independent assessments on dozens of projects for an Assurance group. Neal is president of The Neal Whitten Group, created shortly after leaving IBM in 1993.

Courses: 

• 17 Top Reasons Why Projects Fail
• 25 Actions to Build Your Self-Confidence
• 7 Steps to Successful Conflict Management
• Achieving the Elusive Work-Life Balance
• Are You Too Soft?
• Behaviors That Lead to Exceptional Performance
• Behaviors to Master When Dealing with Your Leaders
• Build a Better Team
• Crash Course in Agile Scrum
• Dealing With Difficult People
• Drive Innovation with Disruptive Thinking
• Effective Mentoring
• Effective Time Management
• Escalate is Not a Dirty Word
• Essential Tips for Effective Negotiation Skills
• How to Lead Successful Change Management
• Self-Assessing and Improving Your Performance Maturity
• Surveying Client Satisfaction
• Top Ten Mistakes in Conducting Lessons Learned
• What Makes a Team Member Valuable?

Louis Alderman worked 17 years with Velociteach as the lead curriculum development manager, overseeing manages the instructional design process for live class, online and licensed curricula.

He is a Project Management Professional, holds a Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology, and earned his Master’s degree in Business Administration from the University of Houston.  Louis came to Velociteach after retiring with almost 29 years of experience at Hewlett Packard Company.  Originally a member of HP’s Computer Systems field hardware support force, he developed and delivered training courses to increase troubleshooting productivity.  He experienced successful tours of duty in HP technical computer sales as well as the computer peripheral OEM marketplace, where he was instrumental in the development and management of a peripheral distribution program for HP’s regional and national distributors.

Louis holds certifications from the Scrum Alliance as a Certified Scrum Master and from Project Management Institute as an Agile Certified Practitioner.

Courses: 

• Best Practices in Project Management
• Communications Excellence
• Fundamentals of Earned Value Management
• Fundamentals of Schedule Network Diagramming
• Mastering Scope and Requirements Management
• Pass The PMP
• PMI-ACP Exam – Practice Test A
• PMP – Practice Test A
• PMP – Practice Test B
• PMP – Practice Test C
• The Strategy of Project Selection

Eric Norman was a PMI Fellow and a skilled management consultant and business transformation leader with extensive process design experience supporting a broad array of industries.  For more than twenty-five years, Mr. Norman specialized in the process of project and program management – mentoring, consulting and leading project, program and business improvement initiatives at AT&T, Sprint, Delta Air Lines, Norfolk Southern and CSX Railroads, Cox Communications and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta.  He was an expert in program management, change management, strategy alignment, decision support systems development as well as software systems development and implementation using waterfall and iterative methodologies.

Eric was a frequent presenter at trade conferences at the Local, Regional, National and International level, and is a recognized authority on the use of Work Breakdown Structures and application of Program Management.in organizations.

Mr. Norman was the recipient of several awards including PMI Fellow, Shingo Prize – International Engineering Award in Operational Excellence and PMI Linn Stuckenbruck Person of the Year Award. 

Sadly, Eric battled health issues and passed in 2022. The Velociteach Team was incredibly fortunate to partner with Eric on many projects. We are a better team because of Eric’s positive impact on us all.   

Courses: 

• Preparing Project and Program Leaders for Organizations of the Future: Foundations
• Developing and Applying Effective Work Breakdown Structures
• Communications Planning and Management
• Risk Management: Practical Applications and Tools
• Effective Project and Program Status Reporting
• How to Know When Agile Isn’t the Right Tool for the Job
• The End of the PMO (as we know it)

Bob Mahler brings over 20 years of project management experience to his role as Senior Director of Business Development. His project management roles began as “military operations” while in the U. S. Army. Bob became a communications expert as a Green Beret, fulfilling many roles during training and combat missions in Egypt, Kenya, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and Kuwait. After 12 years of service, he left the military in 1998 as a service-connected disabled veteran.

Bob’s technical skills led him to Nextel, Nextel Partners, and Sprint-Nextel in a variety of roles. While in the telecommunications field, he managed a range of infrastructure projects for regional markets as well as strategic national projects including disaster recovery projects in support of hurricanes Katrina, Rita, and Wilma. Bob also supported responses to California wildfires, the Virginia Tech shooting, and a wide range of federal law enforcement training needs.

Courses: 

• PMP – Practice Test A
• PMP- Practice Test B
• PMP – Practice Test C
• Project Planning – Communications and Stakeholder Management
• Project Planning – Risk Management
• Project Planning – Scope Management
• Project Planning – Schedule Management
• Project Planning – Quality Management

Alan Zucker has over 25 years of experience managing projects and project execution organizations in Fortune 100 companies. His agile experience predates the Agile Manifesto, and he played a leadership role in the Agile/DevOps transformation of a large financial services enterprise.

Alan is an instructor and consultant, sharing his project management and agile experience. He works nationally with leading professional development providers. He is an adjunct faculty member at George Mason University, Northern Virginia Community College, and Graduate School USA. He speaks internationally at project management conferences. In 2016, he founded Project Management Essentials to provide training, advisory consulting, and expert witness services.

Alan has PMP and Agile (ACP) certifications from the Project Management Institute. He was among the first PMI members to be certified as a Discipline Agile Instructor and Coach. Additionally, he has multiple advanced certifications from the Scrum Alliance and the Scaled Agile Institute (SAFe).

Courses:

The Fundamentals of Agile

Agile Beyond IT

Harold Samson brings to Velociteach more than 25 years’ experience in Application Systems Development, 20 of these involved in all aspects of Project Management. As Senior Principal and co-founder of C.W. Costello and Associates, a national provider of business systems consulting services to Fortune 500 companies, Harold gained hands-on experience managing project teams in all phases of the system development life cycle within many different industries, including telecom, insurance, banking, manufacturing, public utilities, retail, publishing, and government.

Harold has been an active investor for almost 30 years, and as an entrepreneur has provided venture capital and leadership skills to three different start-up companies.

Harold graduated with honors from the University of Florida, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in Computer and Information Science. He also holds a master’s degree in Economics from Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts. Harold and his wife live just outside Orlando, Florida.

Courses: 

• Collecting Customer Requirements
• Communicating with Senior Management
• Controlling the Project
• Stakeholder Analysis

Margo Love became a Fellow of the Life Management Institute (FLMI) in 1987, achieved her Project Management Professional (PMP) certification in 2000, and earned her Six Sigma Black Belt in 2001, making her a certified project management and process improvement nerd. She has over 30 years experience managing projects and project managers in information technology for the life insurance and utility industries.

Margo says, “Project management is my favorite process, project managers are my favorite people, and there is not much I’d rather do than talk with project managers about project management!”

A summa cum laude graduate of Charleston Southern University, Margaret lives in her favorite city, Greenville, SC.

Courses: 

• Applied Risk Management
• Risk Management Fundamentals

Jennifer B. Kahnweiler is a bestselling author and one of the leading speakers on introverts in the workplace. Her pioneering books, The Introverted Leader, Quiet Influence, The Genius of Opposites, and Creating Introvert-Friendly Workplaces have been translated into 18 languages. The Introverted Leader was named one of the top 5 business books by The Shanghai Daily and a 2020 top 5 leadership book by Blinklist.

Jennifer has partnered with leading organizations like Amazon, Merck, Kimberly Clark, NASA, Bosch, and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control. She holds the Certified Speaking Professional designation, awarded to a small percentage of speakers.

Courses:

The Introverted Leader: Leading a Team In Today’s Extroverted Workplace. 

Quiet Influence: A New Wave of Leadership

From Accountant to improv comedian, to IT Consultant and back to improv comedian, Kupe’s goal in life is to make you more awesome. Onstage, Onsite, and Online Kupe helps individuals and organizations achieve business value focusing on professional skills, business analysis, project management and leadership skills.

With his 20 plus years of experience, he serves as a coach and trainer and keeps his skills fresh by getting his hands dirty in the work.  Kupe is the co-author of Business Analysis for Dummies and is an industry requested keynote speaker. Being an improvisational comedian, Kupe is sure to make you laugh while you’re learning. Kupe is a connector and has a goal in life to meet everyone!

Courses:

• Overview of Lean Business Analysis: The Discipline Everyone Need
• Remote Agile Delivery

Crystal is a two-time TEDx speaker, international keynoter, and best selling author, known for transforming the toughest workplace changes into exciting possibilities for our digital world. As an organization development consultant, she brings organizations into the digital age, leveling up people strategies in areas such as career development, learning culture, inclusion, leadership development, and employee engagement.

Past clients include General Mills, Southern Company, Monster.com, Wells Fargo, and other organizations. She also brings deep training expertise as the co-creator of the Owens-Kadakia Learning Cluster Design model, that upskills the training industry to design modern learning, supported by ATD.

Crystal is honored to be a Power 30 Under 30, CLO Learning in Practice, and ATD One to Watch award recipient. Her academic background includes a bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering and a master’s in Organization Development. Originally from Austin, TX, she is now based in Atlanta, GA with her husband Jeremy, where they love immersing in nature’s way of life and cultural experiences.

Courses:

Managing Millennials & Gen Z: Demystifying and Engaging Modern Talent

David Barrett is a professional speaker, regular blogger, podcast host, author of 5 books and education adviser.  He specializes in helping people and organizations Manage the Uncertainty by creating healthy projects and strategies.

David’s career includes the creation and directing of a conference business, training company, software development firm, speaker bureau, and most recently a TED-style event series for project professionals across North America and he has been a member of the PMI since 1995.

Courses:

From a Good Project Manager to a Great Leader

An acclaimed speaker and author, Tricia Molloy is an expert on developing content so employees can achieve goals and improve in their career. For more than a decade, Tricia has presented customized, interactive programs on achieving goals and improving work-life balance for organizations like Marriott, Kellogg, The Home Depot, Deloitte and the Network of Executive Women.

Through conference keynotes and breakout sessions, and employee development talks, workshops, webinars and vision board facilitation, Tricia inspires people to achieve their professional goals faster and easier by capitalizing on life-changing principles—like Visualization, Affirmations and Gratitude.

Course:

CRAVE! Your Goals! Motivate Your Team and Get Things Done.

Forbes Contributor Bruce Weinstein, The Ethics Guy®, shows organizations around the world how ethical leadership is the key to sustained success.

“It’s time to put ethics front and center in all that we do,” Bruce says. “The most successful leaders aren’t merely knowledgeable and skilled. They’re also people of high character who are committed to doing the right thing every time, everywhere.”

Bruce writes a leadership column for Forbes.com and has discussed ethical leadership over 200 times on national and international broadcast and cable television news programs. His books include “Ethical Intelligence: Five Principles for Untangling Your Toughest Problems at Work and Beyond,” “The Good Ones: Ten Crucial Qualities of High-Character Employees,” and for tweens and teens, “Is It Still Cheating If I Don’t Get Caught?”

As an ethics and leadership speaker and trainer, Bruce’s many clients include Société Générale, Dublin-based construction company CRH, Northrop Grumman, the National Football League, RS&H, the Association of College and University Auditors, the National Association of College and University Business Officers, the Investment Management Consultants Association, Bristol Bay Native Corporation, Marathon Petroleum Corporation, Allstate Insurance, Astellas Pharma, the Western Australian Local Government Association and The Home Depot.

Bruce received his B.A. in philosophy from Swarthmore College and an M.A. and Ph.D. in philosophy with a concentration in bioethics from Georgetown University and the Kennedy Institute of Ethics. The W. K. Kellogg Foundation in Battle Creek, Michigan awarded Bruce a National Fellowship in Leadership Development.

He lives in New York with his wife, Kristen Bancroft, a senior compliance officer.

Courses:

Leading with Ethical Intelligence: Five Principles for Making the Right Decisions Every Time

Dave Po-Chedley has been actively involved in project management and organization effectiveness for over 25 years. During this time, he has worked on and managed projects, and helped others to manage projects effectively through consulting and training. He is currently serving as a Principal at Cambridge Consulting, a firm dedicated to enhancing project and organization effectiveness for clients around the world.

Dave has taught at the graduate level and has written several resource guides that have been used to support client workshops and consulting services. Topics include project management, stakeholder relationship management, coaching, customer service, managing problems/ decisions, process improvement and leadership. His book, Client Relationship Management, is used by professionals around the world to create a competitive advantage for them and their organizations.

Dave serves on the Board of Directors for Pioneer Aerospace, a supplier of deceleration equipment to the U.S. military, NASA and foreign governments.  He is also a member of PMI (Project Management Institute), and is certified as a PMP. Dave has served as a faculty member for the PMI SeminarsWorld program since 2002; he has delivered presentations and workshops at numerous international, regional and local project management conferences.

Courses:

Project Productivity Killers

Ruth Middleton House specializes in troubleshooting high risk, high visibility, high conflict projects from small business ventures to multi-billion dollar partnerships and joint ventures.  She is author of It’s Time to Change the Way You Change and The Human Side of Project Management.   She is co-author with Martin Broadwell of Supervising Technical and Professional People.  She is a frequent contributor to The Georgia Engineer magazine and has been interviewed by Engineering Georgia. 

Ruth was awarded the Associate Member of the Year award by the American Council of Engineering Companies in Georgia for her role in the Emerging Trends Task Force.  The Task Force researched trends in a politically and economically turbulent environment and developed guidance to help engineering firms flourish in spite of the turbulence.  She is an honorary member of the 325^th Tactical Training Squadron of the U.S. Air Force.

She is President and Lead Consultant of Middleton-House & Company and has consulted to and trained project teams across the US and Canada, in the U.K., and in Germany.

Dr. House serves on the faculty of the School of Leadership Studies at Fielding Graduate University.  She facilitates classes in Leadership, Strategies for Complex Change, Managing Organizational Change, Managing Resistance to Change, and Group Process.

Jeff is the founder of LikeAbilities.com & ITCareerHacking.com, an IT hiring manager, a certified body language trainer, a certified trainer in the Big 5 Personalities, keynote speaker, and career coach.

Jeff Baird has been in IT and data analytics for almost 20 years. He’s been a recruiter, hiring manager, and managed teams of up to 30 data engineers. But over the years he has found that data isn’t enough if we want to be able to persuade and influence. HOW we present ourselves and our message matters. In fact, 90% of decision-makers will go with their gut feelings over data. Jeff studies and teaches the art & science of influence.

Jeff has worked with recruiting companies such as Apex Systems, Teksystems, Software Technology Group and Dash2group. You may have heard him speak at various SHRM events, the ERE Talent Acquisition Conference, or a number of Universities.

Jeff lives in Lehi Utah with his family, where they enjoy anything outdoors including ice climbing, canyoneering, caving & kayaking.

Courses:

Attracting Top Talent: First Contact

As an organization and leadership development consultant, Laura combines strong business acumen with expertise in talent management, change leadership and human resources effectiveness to serve organizations as they plan strategy, build leadership capability and execute change. She has a broad range of experience working with clients in sales, service, operations and staff organizations in the US as well as countries throughout Asia and Europe.

Laura launched her consulting practice in 2003 after 15 years of corporate human resources experience with General Electric, Bank of America, and Delta Air Lines.

Her major projects have focused in the areas of learning strategy and curriculum design, leadership development, executive assessment and coaching, succession planning and cross-border post merger HR integration.

Her clients include: Ascension Health, Bank of America, Cotiviti, Doosan Group, General Electric, Greenway Health, JP Morgan Chase and LSG SkyChefs among others. Additionally, she has coached executives in industry-leading organizations such as Exelon, Fidelity Investments, Flowers Foods, IPG and KPMG.

Laura received her Bachelor’s degree in Economics from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and her Master’s degree in Business Administration from Vanderbilt University. She is a graduate of the Executive Program at the Thunderbird School of Global Management.

Courses:

Hire the Best: Strategies, Tools and Tips for Hiring Top Talent

Don supports leadership teams who seek to increase their effectiveness in selecting, developing and advancing leadership talent to enhance organizational performance and growth.  He leverages his background in human resources management, line operations and account management, as well as P&L responsibility, to bring practical solutions that fit the context, culture, and resources of the organization.

Don has worked with such client organizations as Ascension Health, Bank of America, Chase, Citibank, Doosan, GE, Greenway, ihealth Technologies, intellinet, Lanier (Ricoh), LSG Sky Chefs, Solvay, Southwire, Tempur+Sealy, Westrock, and Vantiv.

Don holds an MBA from Georgia State University and a Bachelors Degree in Economics from Lafayette College. He has completed an Executive Coaching program at Teachers College, Columbia University.  Currently, Don lectures on Human Capital Management in the Executive MBA Program at Coles College of Business, Kennesaw State University.

Courses:

Hire the Best: Strategies, Tools and Tips for Hiring Top Talent

Ren Love brings 10 years of unique management experiences, having started her career working in zoos, science centers and Disney’s Animal Kingdom before joining one of the Big Four accounting firms. During her time with the Greenville Zoo as an Education Programs Coordinator, Ren created and delivered educational content, led training for staff and volunteers, and managed various small scale departmental projects. Ren earned the PMP certification and is a Certified SAFe Agilist as well as a Certified Scrum Master.

Ren joined the staff of PwC (PricewaterhouseCoopers) as a Project Manager where she worked on large scale data migrations & data warehousing projects.

Ren’s educational background is just as diverse as her professional one; she holds a B.S. in Environmental Science from Brevard College, a M.S. in Biology from Arizona State University, and a M.S. in Instructional Design and Learning Technologies from Anderson University.

Ren lives on a mountain in Greenville, SC, and when she isn’t working or collecting college degrees, she likes getting crafty, spending time outdoors, and making conversation with strangers.