Our Team

John A. Gibson

John is a much sought-after speaker, delivering highly successful seminars throughout Canada, the US, Australia, New Zealand, and the UK. Over the last 30 years, John has written, developed and implemented numerous training programs, seminars and workshops in the area of people skill development. He holds an MBA from Oxford University and is a certified CSP, a member of CSTD, TAC, Toastmasters, and Optimists International. He is also a certified ISO/QS auditor.

John served in the RAF, with overseas service in Libya and Saudi Arabia. He spent his post military career in Sales, and Sales Management, initially with the world’s fifth largest forklift company. There, he developed a profitable UK network of distributors and dealers before being promoted to Field Sales Training Manager. In this position he developed numerous initiatives that brought solid, measurable results to the overall success of the company. He came to Canada in 1992 and worked with Canadian Bearings and Dun & Bradstreet before return to the training environment in 1997. His clients include the Royal Australian Air Force, Nucor Steel, Johnson Controls, Terra Footwear, Tetra-Pak, Jay-Lor Manufacturing, M&M Meat Shops, Standard & Poors, Navs Canada, and the New York State Troopers.

His clients include the Royal Australian Air Force, Nucor Steel, Johnson Controls, Terra Footwear, Tetra-Pak, Jay-Lor Manufacturing, M&M Meat Shops, Standard & Poors, Navs Canada, and New York State Troopers.

John is a highly successful coach and trainer, specializing in people skill growth and development. His dynamic and energetic deliveries ensure that everyone listens, learns, and implements the ideas, tactics, and skills immediately. He focuses on enabling people to be the best they can be. His empathic style enables him to bond with people to want to learn and grow.

Rose Miller

Rose Miller is a dynamic and expressive International speaker with extensive business experience and a broad Human Resources background.

Rose started her career as a teacher and recognized the importance of developing individuals. With that knowledge she moved into the corporate environment to help others grow, develop and succeed. She has held senior positions with a major oil company and was Vice-President in one of Canada’s premier real estate development and management companies.

Today, as an entrepreneurial business owner, Rose is able to share her first hand insights and innovative thinking with organizations so they may achieve their goals and improve profitability.

As a CHRP (Certified Human Resources Professional) Rose continues to assist organizations and individuals in seeking solutions to improve employee performance and productivity through real life situations.

Rose is a sought after facilitator of leadership training programs, a motivational speaker and Human Resource consultant. She has presented thousands of workshops across Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom and Russia.

Her enthusiasm and sense of humour is contagious, combined with her wonderful ability to motivate her audience.

Susan Code McDougall

Susan Code is a freelance writer and editor and a college instructor who has also enjoyed working as, among other things, an historical interpreter and an assistant to a federal cabinet minister.

Susan has considerable experience in the field of business communications, having served several years as a writer for an Ottawa Valley public relations firm and as a correspondence briefings editor for the federal minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food and the president of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency. She served more than three years as constituency assistant for the federal riding of Lanark-Carleton.

Since the late 1990s, Susan has taught at the Perth Campus of Algonquin College; courses have included business English, short-story writing, the history of Canadian architecture, and the history of social welfare development. She has also taught minute-taking and writing workshops through various training providers in Ottawa.

She appears regularly on radio and television and speaks to groups about the history Perth and the Rideau Corridor. She has been conducting guided tours of Perth and area for more than twenty-five years.

Susan is the author of A Matter of Honour and Other Tales of Early Perth and co-author of Inside the Tent-45 Years on Parliament Hill with Tom Van Dusen. She has edited several local histories, including Charlotte-The Last Suffragette, which won the 2011 Donald Grant Creighton (OHS) award for biography, and several fiction titles, including all four novels in the popular Lost Villages Mystery Series. All are published by General Store Publishing House, for whom Susan serves as a senior editor.

Susanholds an honours degree in history from Queen's University at Kingston.

DecolynneJo Barteski

DecolynneJo Barteski received the Administrative Excellence award for 2009 in Denver, Colorado. She was selected from a field of 200 nominees throughout North America. DecolynneJo holds a CPS designation (Certified Professional Secretary), is accredited as a Professional Legal Assistant and is a career Executive Administrative Assistant. She has supported a range of corporate Presidents, Vice Presidents, senior managers and their teams throughout North America over her 15-year tenure.

DecolynneJo holds an executive position with the International Association of Administrative Professionals, (IAAP). She is Vice President of the Western Canada Division of IAAP and Past - President of the Calgary chapter. DecolynneJo IAAP offers its member administrative professionals training and development, fellowship and emphasises a realization of their importance in a business environment. As an office holder and leader within IAAP, DecolynneJo mentors fellow members in areas including leadership, motivation, organization, accountability, self-confidence and life/career balance. She’s a strong believer in the importance of patience, honesty and consistency in a professional environment. Her go-getter attitude, excellent interpersonal, negotiation and time management skills, along with old-fashioned hard work have facilitated her success in the administrative field. She has a calm disposition, a friendly professional attitude when dealing with superiors, peers and clients alike, and endeavours to anticipate the needs of her work group. She consistently demonstrates a pride and passion for her administrative profession, and her workshop participants return to their employers inspired, invigorated and determined to excel.

She is a strong believer in the importance of patience, honesty and consistency in a professional environment. Her go-getter attitude, excellent interpersonal, negotiation and time management skills along with old fashioned hard work have facilitated her success in the administrative field. She has a calm disposition, a friendly professional attitude when dealing with superiors, peers and clients alike and endeavours to anticipate the needs of her work group. She consistently demonstrates a pride and passion for her administrative profession and participants of her workshops return to their employers inspired, invigorated and determined to excel.

Jan Hollingsworth B.A. M.C.S.

Jan Hollingsworth is an adult educator and executive coach, who specializes in workplace communication. She has more than 15 years experience, leading group training sessions, coaching one-on-one, providing management consulting and delivering keynote speeches.

Jan has designed and delivered training to over 6000 participants on many subjects including communication, leadership, and team building.

She has worked within numerous industry sectors and a variety of occupational groups from junior to senior levels. Her goal is to increase organizational effectiveness by building better work relationships. This means helping people develop the tools and techniques necessary to enhance their own performance and, where applicable, the performance of their staff.

Jan is committed to bringing out the best in people - to seeing them grow, succeed, and believe in themselves and their organizations.

Academic Qualifications:

• Bachelor of Arts, University of Calgary
• Master of Communication Studies, University of Calgary; specializing in organizational development.

Affiliations:

• University of Calgary: Business Communication, Coaching, and Business Management courses.
• S.A.I.T.: Public Speaking, Leadership, Communication, Train the Trainer, and Career Planning courses.
• Mount Royal College: Customized Communication and Supervisory workshops.

Jennifer Rankin

Jennifer Rankin is an accomplished, senior facilitator who has over 28 years of experience in administration, customer service and various management positions. As a national speaker she has presented a variety of workshops to well over ten thousand people. She has also written, developed and delivered many highly successful workshops in the areas of office administration and customer service.

Jennifer is a professional speaker, trainer and consultant specializing in the development and deployment of innovative, customer focused processes. She is also dedicated to the concept of modeling excellence in employee performance, and in finding innovative ways to assist organizations in creating the focused strategies needed to excel. As a passionate and motivating speaker she is dedicated to helping individuals realize their full potential. The enthusiasm and easygoing style, which she brings into her presentations, creates a comfortable atmosphere for all her attendees.

Tamara Ali

Tamara Ali works in the field of human resources as a facilitator, administrator, recruiter and trainer. Over the last 15 years, her career progressed to the executive management level, entrusted to design and deliver programs for development in areas of leadership, performance management, communications, recruitment and customer first. Tamara instructs in these areas for a variety of positions from reception to management. Having several international clients, she is actively involved with cross cultural training & awareness for individuals, families and corporations.

Tamara uses humor, warmth and interpersonal strengths to be an effective and dynamic leader to assist people in looking at their best. She believes in the power of the group to build and achieve goals. Being originally from rural Manitoba and currently settled in the Calgary region, she imparts common sense to sometimes complicated corporate or work related issues, offering applicable strategic tools to people to include in their ever-growing toolbox.