Process – Pioneer Knowledge Services®

Bryan Choe is a young professional born and raised in Honolulu specializing in Technology, State, and Government relations’ strategies. Passion in anything physically and mentally demanding; from hiking Hawaii Loa ridge to venturing deep into rabbit hole algorithms; to community based activities with local neighborhood boards, to the battle against sequestration in the federal level.Whether it is process improvement or how to make our world and community a better place, let’s talk story over coffee!

Zach Wahl is CEO and co-founder of Enterprise Knowledge (EK), the world's largest dedicated Knowledge, Data, and Information Management Consultancy. Based in Washington, DC but operating globally, EK has worked with hundreds of commercial, government, and non-profit organizations to deliver KM/IM strategy, design, and implementation services. EK has been listed on the Inc. 5000 fastest-growing companies in the United States for the last two years and has won Best Places to Work awards from Washington Business Journal, Washingtonian Magazine, and Inc. Magazine.

In his role as CEO, Zach is responsible both for the strategic growth of the organization as well as the organizational development and culture. Under his leadership, EK has grown every year since it was founded, being recognized on the Inc. 5000, Virginia Fantastic 50, and Arlington Fast Four for the organization's noteworthy rate of growth. At the same time, EK has been consistently recognized as a great place to work and as a philanthropic leader in the community.

Zach is also a globally recognized thought leader in Information Management, Knowledge Management, and Taxonomy Design, having provided business, management, and IT solutions to a global range of clients for over 20 years. He has worked with over 200 public and private organizations to define strategy, road map, implement, and evolve knowledge bases, intranets, content management, document management, taxonomy management, websites (eCommerce and informational), and other information management systems. In support of these activities, he has run over 250 taxonomy design workshops based on his own business taxonomy design methodology.

April Buckland

April currently serves as a Driving Adoption Program Analyst for the Internal Revenue Services’ Knowledge Management and Transfer (KMT) team.  She began her career with the agency in 2008 and has served in several HR positions within the Agency. In 2014, April first began her Knowledge Management journey as a KM cadre and later had the opportunity to detail within KM. In 2019 she began working permanently within the IRS Knowledge Management and Transfer group, she has specialized in developing the KM tools in SharePoint, leading our key stakeholder groups and continuing to obtain sponsorship within all levels of the agency.

Clara Prather

Clara graduated from Texas Woman’s University with a bachelor’s degree in business administration. She began her career with the Internal Revenue Service in 2007. Clara currently serves as a Driving Adoption Program Analyst for Knowledge Management and Transfer (KMT) and is a Certified Knowledge Practitioner. She has held various positions within the IRS. Clara is married and has two children. Her son Duece will be entering ninth grade for this upcoming school year and plays football and runs track and her daughter, Sariah will be going to third grade and runs track.

Guests on the KM Lobby

Ian Rodwell

Ian works with Linklaters’ key clients on a range of knowledge and learning initiatives. He delivers guidance, workshops and masterclasses globally on knowledge exploitation, collaboration, high-performing teams, creativity, the role of trust, virtual working and motivational leadership. He is also an experienced coach and a member of the Linklaters training faculty.

Ian joined Linklaters in 1992, originally working in their Real Estate Department where he helped set-up the group's first knowhow system. He then ran an Information Unit providing research and analysis services to 260 lawyers and business development practitioners in the firm's mainstream corporate practice.

A regular speaker at conferences and events, Ian is a doctoral researcher at City University, London and has supported the Guildhall School of Music and Drama on a workshop that looks at business collaboration via the lens of a jazz ensemble. He also authored Knowledge to Action – a report that looks at how effective KM practices can help in-house legal teams add value to the wider business. 

Vishal Agnihotri

Vishal Agnihotri has held operational, consulting and leadership roles for over 20 years in enterprise Knowledge Management spanning business research, knowledge technology implementation, training and adoption, and knowledge process outsourcing (KPO).  Prior to joining Hinshaw as its first Chief Knowledge Officer, she was the Chief Knowledge Officer at Akerman LLP. Earlier, she led Knowledge Management groups at two Big 4 consulting firms, KPMG and E&Y.

Her focus is to equip practitioners with enabling services, tools and insights. Vishal started her career in Knowledge Management at a boutique research and advisory firm which supported Fortune 500 clients with market perspective that informed and provoked their new product development, new market entry, strategic growth and innovation efforts. 

Vishal holds an MBA from the University of Leicester (UK). She frequently speaks on Knowledge Management in the professional services firm, and her audiences have included podcast listeners of Technically Legal, The Geek in Review and the Modern Lawyer and conference attendees at  ILTA, AALL, the World Bank KM Forum, the Lex Mundi Roundtables, the Ark Group Knowledge Management in the Legal Profession Conferences, Ark Group Law Libraries Conferences, APQC, E2, IABC's Intranet Global Forum, Digital Workplace Group, and the EY Human Capital Conference.

Evan Shenkman

Evan Shenkman is the Chief Knowledge and Innovation Officer at Fisher Phillips, an AMLAW 200 labor and employment law firm with 36 offices across the United States, where he leads the firm’s Knowledge Management, Innovation, and Library functions. Constantly at the forefront of change in the legal profession, Evan was named to the 2021 Fastcase 50 List, recognizing “50 of the smartest, most courageous, innovators, techies, visionaries, and leaders in the law,” and he received the 2020 Legal Innovator of the Year Award, recognizing his team’s numerous innovations during the coronavirus pandemic. At Fisher Phillips, Evan’s responsibilities include harnessing the power of knowledge, A.I., and data analytics to the benefit of firm attorneys and clients; creating processes, practices, and software to allow firm attorneys to work smarter, faster, and more in sync; creating internal and client-facing collaborative tools; and introducing innovative technologies and approaches to help firm attorneys and clients thrive in the modern workplace.

A frequent author, presenter, and podcast guest in the KM and Innovation space, Evan has been featured in The American Lawyer, the ABA Journal, Law.com, the AALL Spectrum, The Modern Lawyer Podcast, LiteraTV, and the Reinventing Professionals podcast, among others. Before entering the KM field in 2011, Evan was an AV-rated employment litigator for a decade.

Lloyd has been a knowledge management practitioner for seven years, after discovering it in 2014. Prior to this Lloyd had a solid background in IT support, spanning over 20 years in a wide range of industries and multi-national organizations.

Having experienced the success that knowledge management brought to an IT support team in Airbus Australia Pacific, Lloyd found his new passion! He took up an opportunity to perform knowledge management at an organizational level for Airbus in Australia when they upgraded their ISO9001 standard to the 2015 version. This involved his first foray into developing a Knowledge Management framework. This framework included tools that help an organization preserve knowledge when staff exit, prevent costly re-work, reduce organizational risk, fast track projects and unblock tasks holding staff up.

In Lloyd’s current capacity working for a state government agency in Australia, he continues to hone his knowledge management skills while coordinating knowledge flows and facilitating sessions to improve support outcomes, build working relationships across teams and geographies, unblock tasks and preserve organizational knowledge. In this time, he has also been called upon in a consulting capacity by other Australian State Government agencies and even Auckland Police in New Zealand.

Outside of work, Lloyd likes to contribute to global knowledge management sessions and initiatives and is very passionate about permaculture and traditional food preparation methods such as dehydrating, fermenting, sprouting and sourdough…though perhaps not so successful at times!

Creative communications and PR marketing professional committed to promote social change through communications and marketing.

Over 10 years experience in managing the creative process from conception to completion of communication, KM and marketing strategies and campaigns to drive brand awareness and stakeholder engagement. This includes partnerships and community engagement with high-level government and public entities, civil society actors, producers, local organizations, and celebrities.

Master’s in communications and social marketing and with hands-on experience at global and local level in the United Nations and the international development sector, brings unique knowledge and multi-cultural understanding of development and social and environmental issues, agro-food industry and education. Interested in corporate social responsibility as well as a strong promoter of sports and entertainment as drivers for change.

Discover what is happening in EY in the realm of knowledge management as Rob joins us from the top notch beach of Cleveland Ohio's north-coast.

Rob Usher is an accomplished knowledge leader and analytics driver with extensive experience in global professional services firms serving Fortune 500 and US Federal Government clients. Working for clients in Defense, Space and Big Four accounting, He has built and led global knowledge project teams tackling complex requirements, applying technologies, team skills and analytics to develop and deploy solutions. Rob is a relationship manager bringing an engineering mind-set to understanding a community’s unique knowledge management needs from multiple levels and then translating into plans, products  and actions.

This edition dives into many facets of how and why and what as relating to organizations and awareness. What can you do to bring better knowledge flow to work?