Our Team

Our Team

Our talented and uniquely qualified instructors are not only academically trained to deliver in-depth and entertaining learning experiences. We also have personally and professionally mastered the subject matter that we teach. Our collective backgrounds include television, radio and print reporting; anchoring and producing; counseling; organizational development; management; acting; entrepreneurship and sales.

Each of us has extensive experience working throughout the world. We are passionate in our appreciation of different cultures and take great care in making sure that our trainings are relevant and nuanced to meet customers’ unique learning objectives.

Joan Lowery, M.Ed.

Joan has more than 30 years’ experience working as a professional communicator both domestically and internationally. Her work spans the fields of training, instructional design, broadcast and print journalism, television producing, acting and counseling.

She specializes in several areas of communication skills training, including high-impact communications skills, listening, media training, executive coaching, creativity training, culture change seminars and career transition planning. In many of her seminars and coaching sessions role playing, with video feedback, are integral to the learning process.

Joan has extensive experience as an award-winning broadcast and print journalist for news organizations such as CNN, Associated Press, CNBC-TV and the Discovery Channel, KCSM-TV (PBS, San Mateo, CA) and KTVU-TV (Oakland, CA.) She was a talk show host on radio and television for several years. She edited, CultureShift, A Leader’s Guide to Managing Change in Health Care (American Hospital Publishing, Inc.) and regularly contributes to professional publications on a variety of communication skills-related subjects.

Joan began her career as an actress and worked extensively in Developmental (original) and Improvisational Theater in the United States and the United Kingdom. She got her start in corporate training while still an actress. A leading management training company brought Joan in to adapt theater skills into communication skills-oriented trainings for rising executives. She further developed this as a specialty, working in both public and private sectors. Joan went on to study instructional design and adult learning and received her Master’s in Education (M.Ed.) degree from Antioch University.

M. Kraemer Winslow, M.A.

Kraemer works in the U.S. and on the international stage as a trainer, coach, facilitator and consultant. Clients range from Fortune 50 companies to public agencies and include educational institutions and non-profits to large and small corporations covering technology, biotech, pharmaceuticals, financial institutions, and manufacturing.

The common denominator to what Kraemer offers is the importance of clear and meaningful connection with listeners. Kraemer’s specialties include: public speaking skills to large and small groups, interpersonal communication, how to make your point, how to deliver difficult messages and deep listening skills. With much of what she does, video feedback and coaching are utilized to enhance communication abilities.

Prior to launching out on her own, Kraemer was Regional Marketing Manager with Xerox Learning Systems (XLS), where she specialized in working with clients in the areas of sales and management. She came to XLS from Decker Communications where she was both an instructor and sales account executive. Earlier, she was Vice President, Operations, for Bernardo Productions, specializing in producing sales meetings and conventions worldwide for such companies as Nissan, Shaklee and Christian Brothers Wine and Brandy. In that role she began working with senior executives to help them formulate their ideas for keynotes and/or motivational speeches at their meetings. Her expertise has been helpful in her seminars and speeches for small groups and audiences of up to 4,000 people.

Kraemer has taught in Stanford University’s school of engineering and served as an Adjunct Professor at Golden Gate University in the San Francisco Bay Area for their MBA Programs. She holds an M.A. in Human Development and Behavioral Psychology from the University of Kansas.

She has worked with clients throughout the United States, Latin America, Asia and Europe. They include: Applied Materials, Good Technology, Cornerstone Research, Intel Corporation, Hilton Hotels, Cadence Design Systems, LSI Logic, Applied Biosystems, Silterra-Malaysia, Serono Pharmaceuticals, Tessera, JDS Uniphase, Bank of America, Kaiser Permanente, National Semiconductor, Memorex Corporation, Pfizer Pharmaceutical, American Electronics Association, Fujitsu Software Corporation, Sony Electronics, Siemens AG, Philips Semiconductor, Cornerstone Research, Citibank and Adobe Systems.

Greg Lyon

Greg Lyon’s skills as a trainer are informed by a career as an award-winning newspaper, radio and television journalist, a writer and producer of documentaries airing on major national networks and as a teacher.

Greg specializes in several areas of communication skills training, including media training, executive coaching, high-impact communication skills, management coaching and team building. His seminars and coaching sessions use video feedback as an integral part of the learning process.

Greg’s background includes more 25 years as an on-air television reporter at KRON-TV in San Francisco, where he was honored with local, regional and national awards including a dozen Emmy’s and the prestigious Dupont Columbia Award for Excellence in Broadcast Journalism. He has written and produced documentaries for National Geographic, the History Channel and the Weather Channel, been a guest-lecturer at Michigan State University’s School of Journalism and taught a broadcast class at San Francisco State University.

As a trainer, Mr. Lyon has worked for companies whose businesses range from high technology and national security to wine making. Some of the clients with whom he has worked are Intel Corporation, Samsung, Cornerstone Research, Rae Systems, Yahoo, Synaptics and Patz & Hall Wine Co.

Mr. Lyon brings to his training the unique perspective of someone who has been on both sides of the camera, who knows the presentation skills that can help busy executives represent, persuade, motivate and inform, whether they’re speaking to a single reporter, to a small meeting or to an audience of hundreds.

Susan Croft

Susan Croft is one of our International Associates. She is a global management and communications trainer as well as an author of several cutting-edge business books. She delivers training workshops to organizations in the private, public and non-profit sectors and specializes in women in management courses as well as networking, negotiations and business development.

She has also played a full and active role in public life and has focused specifically on women’s issues in the workplace. She is a member of the steering group for the European Commission’s Women in Industrial Research – a special project looking into ways to encourage more women into industrial research across the European Union. She is also former chairman of the London Fair Play Consortium, a joint venture between the UK Government’s department for Employment and the Equal Opportunity Commission, whose remit is to identify and help remove the barriers to women playing a full role in the UK economy. She is also a former chairman of the CAM Foundation, the UK’s leading awards body for qualifications in marketing, advertising and public relations.

Susan is a trainer and member of the Advisory Board for the London School of Public Relations. She has worked for the organization for close to 20 years and has helped shape the structure and focus of the school’s diploma programs.

Susan also teaches at a number of leading Universities in the USA, including San Jose State and USF (Tampa). She has also run courses for Georgetown, UC Berkeley, UCLA and Stanford and has developed one of the first on-line programs on new trends in communications for San Jose State. In addition, she has been a trainer for the PR Academy, an initiative of the Government of Singapore’s Ministry for Information, Technology and the Arts

In addition Susan is a Governor of Brighton & Hove High School for girls (part of the Girls’ Day School Trust) and has developed a series of training workshops, entitled CareerStart, for the Trust schools which equip high school students with the business skills they will need when they enter higher education or go out into the workplace. She is an Accredited Member of the Public Relations Society of America, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and holds a diploma in Journalism from the UK’s National Council for the Training of Journalists. Susan is a graduate and active alumna of University College London and she chairs UCL’s fundraising campaign board in the United States.

Susan is also a director of Skill Pill M-Learning, based in London. Skill Pill develops and delivers brief animated training videos which are sent to mobile devices and act as training refreshers and information boosters. The company’s clients include many of the Times 100 and Fortune 500 companies.

Susan has written three books – “Win New Business” (2002), and “Corporate Reputation: The New Currency” (2003) both published by Acorn/Thorogood. Her third book – “The High School MBA” will be published in early 2014.”

Susan Blake

Susan Blake brings a wealth of journalistic and broadcast experience to her work as a communications coach and media consultant. She has worked as a television news anchor and reporter with the majority of her career in San Francisco, one of the top five markets in the United States. Susan has also hosted an innovative home design show on the nationally-televised Home and Garden Television Network (HGTV). In those roles she educated the general public on a variety of subjects. These days she is dedicated to applying her communication skills to working with individuals and groups in the corporate and nonprofit sectors to help clients become more effective communicators.

Over the span of Susan’s career, she has interviewed foreign leaders, top U.S. politicians and Hollywood celebrities. She has reported from political conventions; anchored endless hours during times of war, riots and natural disasters; and traveled extensively to work on documentaries in India, Japan, the Middle East and Mexico.

In addition to Susan’s international travel as a journalist, her interest in other cultures has guided her on personal journeys through Central and South America, Southeast Asia, and Eastern and Western Europe. This has provided her with a deeper understanding of and resonance with, our global community.

Susan’s extraordinary background is the perfect match for clients who seek media and communications training. She loves working with groups and individuals and especially appreciates the chance to do one-on-one coaching. Additionally, as a Certified Instructor of Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI® Step I & II) Susan can design and customize a program to help individuals with their specific personal communications style . Susan brings a unique personal touch in her work blending the inner world of a storyteller and writer with a very public and expressive arena.