Associates
Chris Jones MBA FCMC
Chris Jones, principal of FORUM Consulting Group, is a specialist in the management of governments and their related organisations.
Chris specialises in the “business side” of government - natural resources, finance, economic development and First Nations programs, and he has conducted important engagements all over Canada. Equally experienced in the federal government arena, he has worked for Natural Resources Canada, Statistics Canada, Indian and Northern Affairs Canada and Agriculture Canada.
Chris’s areas of professional interest and expertise include program evaluation and performance measurement, strategic planning, decision support and opportunity selection, program design, First Nations programs, cost accounting and cost analysis, financial and economic analysis, cost-benefit analysis and feasibility analysis.
He writes regularly for Summit Magazine and contributed a chapter to Clem Bowman’s book “Intangibles”. He is a Fellow Member of CMC Canada and teaches management consulting and government financial leadership at Royal Roads University. He has served on the Greater Victoria Advisory Board of the Salvation Army for many years.
Scott Ackerman MBA CMC
Scott Ackerman is a senior consultant with Western Management Consultants in Calgary. Prior to joining WMC in 2007, he held global leadership positions for Digital Equipment Corporation, Compaq Computer Corporation and Hewlett Packard.
Scott brings nineteen years experience in the information technology industry with the focus on planning and managing various functions including system and network management, security administration, helpdesk, engineering, asset management, knowledge management and resource management. He also has experience directing complex projects and programs in delivery, strategic initiatives labs, human resources, finance and business operations. Over the last three years, his focus has shifted toward projects involving group facilitation, business operations efficiency, crisis management and strategic planning. In many cases this entailed leveraging technology to accomplish tangible business objectives.
2007 was a year of stellar achievement for Scott. As well as receiving his MBA and CMC, he received the Founders’ Award for Academic Achievement from Royal Roads University and attained the Honour Roll in CMC-Canada’s final examinations.
Katherine Caughran CPP MBA
Katherine Caughran has over eighteen years’ experience in line operations management and management consulting with both the public and private sectors.
She is the principal of PSB Delegation Consulting Inc. which provides procurement planning and implementation services - planning, solicitation, evaluation and vendor selection. The firm covers procurement needs assessment, cost/benefit analysis, business case development, vendor market research, solicitation documents, evaluation, fairness monitoring, contract negotiation and contract management consultation,
Katherine’s other management consulting services include business process improvement, including process mapping, activity based cost management, ERP, implementation support services, strategic and business planning, policy development, standard operations procedures and in-house training and mentoring.
Eric Clemens M Arch MPA
After an early career in architecture, urban design and planning in central Canada and the US, including five years as a senior planner with the National Capital Commission in Ottawa-Hull, Eric graduated with an MPA from the University of Victoria in 1988. During his graduate studies and since he has specialised in program evaluation, research related to First Nations self-government and taxation and public sector management consulting. Eric has been successful in converting a long-time interest in First Nations issues and culture into highly respected professional skills.
Since 1991 he has taught courses in local government and urban and regional economics at the University of Victoria School of Public Administration, where he is currently an adjunct member of the faculty. He is co-author (with Professor Robert Bish) of Local Government in British Columbia which enters its fourth edition in 2008. He is a member of the Canadian Evaluation Society and served as a member of the Victoria Native Friendship Centre from 1992 to 1996.
Sandra Glass BA
Sandra Glass is an experienced program management consultant with a strong focus on social and multi-cultural programs. She has long experience in group facilitation.
Sandra managed some $56 million in government contracts, grants and foundation funding, evaluated project performance and recommended changes resulting in performance greatly exceeding expectations. She administered a social accounting framework pilot project to validate and apply socio-economic benefit indicators to the non-profit sector.
Her experience in immigrant employability training programs includes the design and implementation of a major provincial program, the formation of a national coalition of associations of community based employability training programs, and the creation of framework for a national study of leadership skills in community-based training;
She is a member of the Access Working Group of the Canadian Council on Learning and the Provincial Advisory Committee for the BC Construction Association’s Immigrant Project. In the past she has held leadership positions with a wide variety of education and training organizations across Canada.
Keith Jones BSc MSc
Keith Jones is principal of R Keith Jones & Associates and a Director of the Innovation Expedition, owner of the Challenge Dialogue® process. He has worked as an independent consultant and with FORUM since 1996. He takes the lead in product development for the Expedition’s Challenge Dialogue System (CDS)TM and for CDS Action Learning initiatives with affiliates and major clients.
His assignments cover natural resource management, environment, forestry, sustainable forest and resource management and science and technology commercialization. Projects have been undertaken in BC, Alberta, Ontario, the US, and most recently in Kenya and Colombia. National studies include a national bioenergy strategy and a business case for Canada’s national forest information system.
Keith focuses on the facilitation of collaborative dialogues around complex multi-partied challenges and opportunities. He includes strategies and action plans; science and technology reviews; performance management, system design and development, technology commercialization assessment and marketing, business plans and business cases, market research and planning, gap analysis, governance and program design, land and resource information and decision support system design, development and marketing. Many of Keith’s projects involve the design and development of new initiatives and new program areas. He regularly works in team environments often as facilitator and catalyst for collaboration, innovation and co-creativity.
Theresa Kerin
Theresa Kerin is President and CEO of Ideas.Gov Consulting Inc, a Victoria based government consulting firm.
Theresa has over twenty years of senior public sector management experience and held Assistant Deputy Minister positions in three British Columbia ministries before founding her own consulting practice in 2001. She specializes in strategic planning, policy and program development and project management in the health and social services sectors.
Theresa is a skilled facilitator able to effectively manage meetings ranging from small executive planning sessions to large public consultation events. She has chaired senior level committees, province-wide advisory councils, expert panels and consultation forums. She has taught stakeholder consultation for the School of Public Administration at the University of Victoria and developed a best practices guide to consultation.
Tim Maki BA MA
Tim has worked with FORUM Consulting Group since 1993. His extensive government program experience includes evaluation planning and implementation, performance measurement and management, business and strategic planning, policy and program design/development, needs assessment and comparative reviews to support program, policy and service delivery innovation.
Tim draws on a broad base of experience to provide innovative approaches to client problems. He has worked with many difference agencies’ policy and program areas in varied organizational and environmental settings. At the same time he engages clients with varied working styles and audiences with different needs and viewpoints including the broad public, stakeholders and partners, program level staff, directors and executive.
Tim’s mission is to ensure that work done for clients is decision-relevant, leads to improved performance and accountability and strengthens organizations and clients.
Joe Misius
In the past decade Joe Misius has worked as a consultant to small and medium-sized businesses in British Columbia, the United States, the UK, and in government. Most of his clients are technology-focused businesses and their capabilities range from rich media, advanced research and development to manufacturing.
Along with his consulting work Joe was involved in the start-up of a number of small businesses in the technology and service industries. His background of fourteen years in the financial services industry and resulting familiarity with equity markets was the catalyst for his initial involvement in company start-ups. He has a keen understanding of the challenges that businesses face and the consequent need for a focused plan of action for operational efficiency that results in sustainable growth.
In the past two years, Joe has made a special study of the use of decision support and evaluation software for choosing and ranking projects on the basis of their inherent intangible characteristics.
Joe has a Graduation Certificate in Project Management and is completing his MBA at Royal Roads University.
Michele Vincenti MBA CFP CMC
Michele has over twenty years’ experience in the financial sector both as a consultant and as an executive in financial institutions. His experience lies in strategic business planning with a focus on international development and the natural resource and forestry sectors.
He is the founder and president of Alvana Business Consulting Inc., an international management consulting firm which helps organizations to reach their corporate goals by operating with greater effectiveness. Prior to founding Alvana he owned and operated a large insurance agency in Italy and managed the Wealth Management Division of a major Canadian Credit Union.
Michele is highly skilled in managing relationships and helping companies during the difficult challenges of change. He is a strong, enthusiastic motivator, bringing a high degree of integrity to the services he offers his clients. He uses a holistic approach to business management where solutions are achieved with a mixed approach that blends an expert understanding of processes, economics and people.
Michele manages the Organisation Consulting Project (OCP) program and teaches two management consulting courses at Royal Roads University. He teaches as an associate faculty member at five other universities in Canada, the U.S. and Switzerland.
Bert Zethof MBA CMC
Bert has over twenty-five years’ experience in assisting business owners and managers in a diverse range of industries to position their company for success and to move to the next level. He is Principal of Surge Strategies and The Zethof Consulting Group providing facilitation, coaching, and consulting services in strategic and business planning, leadership development and organization development.
His experience also includes market studies and business planning for companies in a diverse range of industries. Working in government, he was an early advocate of the environmental technology sector and of public-private partnerships.
Bert has a life-long interest in business as a vehicle for personal growth and fulfillment and as the basic building block for healthy communities. He is inspired by helping clients overcome barriers, achieve goals, and discover their potential through the process of building a business. Bert has an MBA in marketing and finance and is a Certified Management Consultant. He has additional training in strategic management and executive coaching.