A POWERFUL PARTNERSHIP

The Forward Focus partnership also includes a cadre of Team Members who provide custom program design, research, training delivery, coaching and consulting services.

Margaret coaches executives and entrepreneurs as they launch new business ventures, jumpstart sales initiatives and plan infrastructure changes to support new strategic initiatives. Having begun her career in the software industry, she is especially effective as a coach in the high-tech sector. Her understanding of technology and the technological mindset gives her an edge in coaching managers in high-tech firms in interpersonal and organizational dynamics. She also helps high-tech companies create better partnerships between technicians and sales & marketing professionals.

Margaret's coaching clients report increased business, fewer organizational crises and a more strategic approach to the situations they face. "She makes me think" is a common comment, as well as "she asks great questions." Margaret excels at "on the fly" interventions that bring clarity to challenging issues. She has also created a number of tools that help managers and leaders manage their businesses more effectively, with more integration between the company's face to the public and its own internal processes.

Margaret is a popular public speaker and facilitator for conferences and professional associations, including the Conference Board, National ASTD Leadership Conference, NJ State SHRM Conference, Northern NJ ASTD, IT Training Managers Conference, NY Metro ASTD, NJ ISPI and New England Data Educators. She is a past president of the New York Metro American Society for Training and Development. She is currently a member of the International Association of Coaches and the Association of Psychological Type.

As an independent marketing, sales and training consultant Beth has served the new media industry, including Recruitment Marketplace, Zip2.com, Careerpath.com and AdStar.com. These assignments included sales and marketing strategy, training and coaching, project management and client sales conference planning. She has also worked for QED, a training and organizational development firm, where she assisted in the development of a marketing program and planned the 1998 Conference Board, Human Resources conference.

Beth's coaching strength lies in her ability to integrate personal development with business results. Her clients report improved bottom line, increased sales ability, greater organizational and managerial influence and clarity about goals. She is a skilled relationship manager who gets at the real issues and brings great insight into conflict management situations.

Beth's clients appreciate her ability to create a judgement-free environment where they can share openly yet receive challenging messages that promote growth.

Beth is a certified practitioner of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator and a distributor for the DISC assessments. She uses these tools to help companies make better hiring decisions, orient new hires to the organization and strengthen communication among supervisors, peers and direct reports and other team members.

She has a BA in Communications and Marketing from Boston College and has completed graduate courses in Training and Organizational Development at the New School. She is currently a member of the International Association of Coaches and the International Listening Association. Beth is a volunteer for the Girl Scout Council of the Greater Essex and Hudson Counties and on the Board of Directors of First Congregational Church of Montclair, NJ.

Becky Nelson serves on the program design team. She brings to the team 25 years’ experience in designing learning programs for small and large group audiences and 19 years’ experience in management and organizational development. She has served as a coach for 20 years, including work with multi-cultural mentoring.

Becky has specialized expertise in strategic planning, change initiatives, leadership development, skills assessment, adult learning strategies, and personal growth. She has skills in research, writing, editing, and training. She has extensive experience in the non-profit sector as well as experience in small business ownership and management.

Becky particularly enjoys the process by which people learn and the challenge of creating courses that meet the needs of specific audiences. She works hard to make Forward Focus courses creative and challenging.

Mandy Schumaker. As a former executive with over 25 years in the newspaper industry, Mandy offers experience in a variety of areas including: leadership and sales and marketing training, coaching, facilitation and team building. Her newspaper experience includes sales and marketing positions with The Portland Press Herald/Maine Sunday Telegram, The Dayton Daily News, The Hartford Courant, The Danbury News-Times and several weekly publications.

With a solid record of setting and meeting aggressive goals through creative planning, innovation, leadership and followthrough; Mandy has the proven ability to assess and respond effectively to her customers' business challenges and opportunities. She serves as a catalyst for positive change by partnering with her clients to define specific outcomes and strategies that inspire them to act on their important goals.

Clients draw on Mandy’s expertise, experience and intuition; they typically find strengths they didn't know they had, and discover ways to use them more effectively to increase their self-management capabilities, handle stress better, and create better outcomes for themselves and for the clients, customers and businesses they serve.

Besides newspapers, her clients include executives, entrepreneurs, small business owners, and non-profit organizations.

Mandy holds a BS in Journalism from Indiana University. She is also a certified practitioner of the Myers Briggs Type Indicator as well as a graduate of Coach University. She resides in South Portland, Maine with her husband and son.