All About Skills!

As a Master Coach, Hugh Shields is one of the top leadership and career coaches in business today and is a co-founder of Shields Meneley Partners – one of the nation’s leading career transition and executive coaching firms.

Hugh’s experience fits his role as an advisor to executives in transition. He has extensive profit and loss, strategy development, sales & marketing and operations experience in a variety of industries including professional services, specialty chemicals, electronics and controls, and electrical products

Hugh’s clients appreciate his peer-to-peer “straight talk” way of helping them see, own and overcome their leadership blind spots. The result is that clients are better able to achieve the results they want for their careers and the organizations they lead.

Jill Wine-Banks is best known as the “Watergate Girl,” and has enjoyed a multi-faceted career in law, corporate, education, and as a regular prime time legal analyst on MSNBC, PBS and other networks.

Her story is documented in her book, “The Watergate Girl,” a memoir available in bookstores everywhere and on Amazon.com.

She currently hosts two podcasts – “Sisters-in-law” with her legal colleagues and “iGen Politics” – the intergenerational program discussing issues facing our nation.

Jill is truly a woman who has “been there – done that.

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Jim Carr is the owner, president and CEO of Blue Book Services, Inc., in Carol Stream, Illinois. Blue Book Services, Inc. is a credit rating and information company for the fresh fruit, vegetable, and lumber industries.

Previously, Jim worked for Harris Bank in Chicago from 1974 to 1979. He has also served as the mayor of the City of Wheaton for 14 years from 1993 to 2007.

I’m proud to say that Jim and his family lived across the street from me for about 30 years where we enjoyed our friendship and watching our children grow up and mature into responsible adults.

Fred Wackerle earned a reputation as a master Executive Recruiter. He had a forty-year career in executive search specializing in Chief Executive Officer succession and governance.

According to Business Week, Fred was named as one of the nation’s top five general management executive search professionals by Chief Executive Officers and high-ranking executives.

He has been the recipient of the Gardner Heidrick Award from the Association of Executive Search Consultants for outstanding contributions to the executive search consulting profession.

Truly a dean of his profession, Fred retired from search and now spends time as an artist, painting in oils. His works may be seen on his website, www.wackerle.com.

I’m proud to say that Fred is not only a dear friend, but an incredible partner.

Greg Pohlmann worked professionally in the store brand industry for 40 years. He is an expert in private labeling – store brands.

Greg worked for the cream of the crop in private labeling – Topco Associates and Daymon Associates which together cover over fifty percent of all private label product sales in the United States. Greg was also part of the original start-up team that brought Aldi Stores to the United States.

Greg is an expert in the private label industry and has documented what he has learned in his book, Thinking Store Brands First – Best Practice Guidelines to Enhance Customer loyalty and Increase Operating Profits.

In this short (7 minutes) episode, Charlie Jett discusses the importance of information validity to the Critical Thinking process. In short, if you want to think critically, your information needs to be reliable and accurate.

General Charles C. Krulak served honorably in the United States Marine Corps for 35 years and I’m proud to say that he is my US Naval Academy classmate in the great class of 1964.

General Krulak’s military service brought him into wartime combat roles in Viet Nam and operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm. He is the recipient of many awards including the Defense Distinguished Service Medal, Silver Star, Three Bronze Stars, Distinguished Service Medals from each of the three branches of the military (Navy, Army and Air Force), and, among others, two Purple Hearts.

Ultimately General Krulak served as the 31st Commandant of the United States Marine Corps from July1, 1995 until June 30, 1999.

Following his 35-year Marine Corps career, he entered the world of banking as Chief Administrative Officer of MBNA America and then as Senior Vice Chairman of MBNA Europe until his retirement in 2005. He then served as the 13th President of Birmingham-Southern College until his retirement in 2015.

General Krulak has served on the Board of Directors of several corporations and non-for-profit entities.

Former Illinois Lieutenant Governor, Evelyn Sanguinetti, is a wife, working mother of three, and an attorney by trade.

The daughter of a Cuban refugee and an Ecuadorian immigrant. she grew up in humble beginnings in Florida – attended university in Florida and earned her law degree at the John Marshall Law School in Chicago.

Her early private law practice focused on victims of housing discrimination, and subsequently was appointed an Illinois Assistant Attorney General. She served on the Wheaton, Illinois City Council and, in 2014, was elected the first Latina Lieutenant Governor of the State of Illinois – and the first Latina Lieutenant Governor in the United States.

After serving as Lieutenant Governor for four years, she joined the HOPE Fair Housing Center as Executive Director.