Leadership

Richard T. Lippert brings Leathers Milligan & Associates over 30 years of senior executive and C-level management experience. Dick has an extensive background in sales and marketing, business development, mergers and acquisitions, strategic planning and organizational dynamics.

Dick has worked in a variety of industries including high tech, consumer products, and services. His executive management experience includes leading global enterprises, operating in high-growth venture capital start-up businesses, post-merger organization cultural integration and facilitating generational ownership transition, improving intra-family communications and conflict resolution in closely-held and family-owned companies. He has achieved notable success building top-performing organizations through his focus on developing people with ethics and integrity to lead and succeed in today’s complex environment.

Prior to joining Leathers Milligan & Associates, Dick was CEO of  a large family-owned management and investment enterprise with a portfolio of companies that included independent, regulated telephone companies, cable television properties, Internet service provider companies, telephony systems and services entities and data equipment and services businesses. He also concurrently served as Chairman and CEO of the Company’s online data business that became the first real-time, online interactive pre-employment background screening company. Prior to this position, and working with a venture capital partner, Dick founded and was President of a major regional multi-location security and alarm company.

Dick has held leadership positions in numerous industry and professional organizations and been a noted feature writer and columnist on business management issues throughout his career. Dick has degrees in political science and economics, is a retired US Naval officer and, in his spare time, is a national champion race car driver.

Jack Milligan joined Leathers Milligan & Associates in 2000 and has twenty years in client based consulting and over two decades of human resource and general management experience in American industry. Jack spent almost 20 years with ITT Corporation all over the world. He also served as the Corporate VP of Human Resources for TransTechnology Corporation. In 2003 the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) Arizona State Council awarded him the Professional Excellence Award given annually to only one HR Professional in the state.

Jack consults with clients on a broad range of business issues including strategic and tactical planning, organizational dynamics and succession planning, staffing and selection, compensation and reward practices, labor and industrial relations issues, business ethics and practices (he is a certified arbitrator of business issues), and other areas of concern to the human side of the business.

His blend of management skills was developed as a key member of the management team in numerous industries, including; aerospace, electronics, technical services, healthcare, semi-conductors, mining equipment, textile equipment, consumer products, and computers and applications software.

He is SPHR and GPHR certified by the Human Resource Certification Institute, and he is a past President of the Valley of the Sun Human Resources Association (VSHRA) and past Director of the Arizona State Council of SHRM. Jack also holds two Certificates in Employee Relations Law, and teaches management and HR courses locally.

Jack earned a Master of Arts degree in Human Resources and Organizational Behavior and a Bachelor of Science degree in Management and Labor Economics from California State University – Northridge.

He is very active in his community and has served on the United Way Board, various Mayor’s committees, the East Valley Cultural Alliance and the advisory board for Desert Samaritan Hospital. He currently serves on the Board of Directors for Goodwill of Central Arizona and Merchants Information Solutions in Phoenix.

Michael McDermott joined Leathers Milligan in September, 2010, bringing more than 30 years of broad-based business, corporate human resources leadership and an extensive HR consulting and executive coaching background to the firm.

In his current role as Vice President, Mr. McDermott manages Leathers Milligan’s Executive Coaching Practice. Prior to his relocation to the Phoenix area in 2010, Mr. McDermott was Managing Director, Wisconsin, for BPI group, one of the world’s largest management and human resources consultancies, headquartered in Paris, France. In that capacity, Mike successfully opened and led the firm’s offices in Milwaukee and Racine over a five year period. Prior to joining BPI Group, Mr. McDermott spent eight years as the senior HR officer with Jockey International, Inc. in Kenosha, Wisconsin and seven years in that same role at Gaylord Container Corporation in Deerfield, Illinois.  In addition, he has served as a Principal Partner with two human resource consulting firms in the Chicago area over a twelve year period. In these positions, Mr. McDermott provided consulting services focused on progressive workplace design, organizational effectiveness and development, and leadership coaching and development for companies such as Bridgestone USA, Alcoa, TRW and Textron.

Mike delivers executive coaching and organizational and leadership development services for types of organizations. He possesses strong interpersonal skills, allowing him to work effectively with all levels of management, including c-suite executives. In addition, he is an experienced bottom-line-focused leader with exceptional skills in providing services including leadership effectiveness, organizational planning/development, talent management, team building and culture change.

Throughout his career, Mr. McDermott has coached hundreds of leaders in achieving their potential, improving their effectiveness, on-boarding into new roles, and overcoming performance or behavior deficiencies. He has also designed and taught numerous leadership and management development programs for a broad array of organizations. Mike’s most recent coaching engagements have included:

• A CFO for a large healthcare provider with facilities throughout the Western United States.
• Two high potential divisional Vice Presidents, Human Resources for a global manufacturing company.
• Senior Sales and Marketing Executive with a US Division of a Japanese electronics manufacturing company.
• The EVP/COO and the EVP/General Counsel for a major national homebuilding corporation. While both were considered high potential, these coaching engagements also involved behavior change components.
• Two high potential Executive Vice Presidents and two Senior Vice Presidents within the commercial lending segment of a large bank, headquartered in the Chicago area.
• An IT Project Leader with a global alternative energy manufacturing organization.
• An Engineering / Product Development Director with a US based global manufacturer of high end consumer products.
• A high potential divisional Sales Vice President with a global multi-billion dollar manufacturing company.
• A high potential General Manager for a national provider of senior care/assisted living communities.
• Two Directors of Finance for a division of a global manufacturing company.
• Two senior level Directors within a nationally recognized not for profit foundation.
• A high potential General Manager of an international distribution services firm.

Mr. McDermott is certified with both the Q5 “Shared Success” organizational coaching framework and the Navigant N.E.W.S. coaching model and methodology. He also wrote an article entitled “Top Ten Reasons Why Leaders Fail,” published in the KABA magazine in 2008. Possessing highly effective presentation skills, Mike is frequently invited to speak to general business and human resources  professional groups. He is a graduate of the University of Michigan.

Mary Ann is a senior-level business executive with broad global experience in both public and private organizations. She has extensive experience leading Talent Management and Leadership Development initiatives targeted to corporate leaders, sales organizations and field operations with particular expertise identifying opportunities for organizational improvement and partnering with colleagues to create successful initiatives in start-up, growth and turnaround environments.

Most recently, Mary Ann was Vice President, Executive Talent Management at Avnet where she successfully led the talent management project targeted to the organization’s top 300 global leaders to create comprehensive executive development plans to create a strong leadership succession bench.

Prior to Avnet, she held the position of Vice President of Client Services at Right Management where she represented a diverse portfolio of talent and career management services to leading companies in Arizona and Nevada.  She was the company’s top Account Executive in its Western Region.

As Director of Learning and Development for Tokyo-headquartered Itochu International, one of the world’s largest global trading companies, Mary Ann was charged with strategizing and executing initiatives in leadership and management development with the presidents of Itochu’s 20 US subsidiaries. She led the company’s effort to create and successfully implement programs such as multi-level management development, succession management, competency development, leadership pipelines, performance management, 360-assessments, developing high-performing teams, executive coaching, and customized programs for high-potentials and high-professionals.  She also directed the activities of Itochu’s ethics and compliance training programs and in this capacity was interviewed by Training Magazine and was a featured speaker at an annual industry conference that recognized the breadth and innovation of her programs.

Mary Ann held the position of Director of International Sales and Product Training at Mary Kay Cosmetics where she was a member of the New Market Development Team responsible for the identification and development of strategies for penetrating all new global markets as well as improving the company’s performance within existing markets.  Her responsibilities necessitated extensive global travel, including an 8-month residency in Tokyo, and caused her to gain a thorough understanding of the impact of cultural nuances on organizational performance.  Some of the markets she developed were:  China, Russia, Japan, Taiwan, Thailand, Australia, New Zealand, Czech Republic, United Kingdom, Spain, Portugal, Argentina, Chile, Canada, Mexico, and Scandinavia.

Prior to becoming a part of the leadership team at Mary Kay, Mary Ann held management leadership positions at Avon Cosmetics where she created Avon’s first College Recruiting program at leading undergraduate and graduate universities to identify high potential candidates to fill roles in marketing, finance, and engineering.

Mary Ann was graduated from Saint John’s University with a BA in History and attended the MBA program at Pace University.  She holds numerous professional certifications, including MBTI and Lominger.  She has also completed management and certificate programs from CCL, Cornell, Achieve Global, and been active in the Conference Board and the Human Resources Planning Society.  She has delivered keynote motivational and sales leadership speeches globally.

Mary Ann is President of the Arizona Chapter of the Human Resources People and Strategy organization (HRPS).

James D. Paisley Ph.D. is a licensed psychologist with more than 35 years experience as a consultant. He has provided assessment, management development, coaching and career counseling services to individuals and corporate groups. He joined Leathers Milligan & Associates in 1997.

Specializing in career consulting, pre-employment and internal assessment, and coaching of key executives, Jim has served a variety of Fortune 50 as well as smaller corporate clients. He has assisted executives from diverse industries in the job-search/career-transition process.

Jim has provided seminars to employees on topics such as: Resolving Conflict in the Workplace; Anger Management; Thriving in the New Job and The Low-Down on High EQ. As a guest on local radio talk shows, he has discussed workplace stress and conflict management and has been quoted in Fortune magazine on the same topics.

Jim operated a clinical psychology practice in Scottsdale for number of years. As a consultant to police departments in Mesa, Scottsdale and Phoenix, he provided traumatic-incident counseling, completed evaluations, and provided employee assistance services to police officers and their family members.

Jim received a Doctorate in Counseling Psychology from Arizona State University, a Master’s in Personnel Service from the University of Colorado and a Bachelor of Science degree in Engineering from Montana State University. While at the University of Colorado, he served on the staff of the Counseling and Testing Center and in an administrative position as Dean of Men.

Jim served as a classroom instructor in the Air Force Aviation Cadet Pre-Flight Program and was a single-engine jet pilot and flight instructor. As an adjunct faculty member in the Graduate School at Arizona State University, he taught psychological measurement and counseling classes.

Jim has been an officer in the Arizona State Psychological Association and the Arizona Career Development Association. He is a member of the American Psychological Association, a member of the National Register of Health Service Providers in Psychology, and the Arizona Personnel Testing Council.

Gwen Scheetz is a Senior Consultant and Organization Development Practice Leader. She joined Leathers Milligan & Associates – OI Partners in 2001. Gwen has more than 25 years of experience in the management and delivery of training and organizational development programs. She specializes in learning and organization development (OD) initiatives including leadership skills, role profiling/competency modeling, organization assessment, skills assessments, training design, development and delivery, and the use of technology to improve human resources (HR) programs.

Gwen’s background includes career counseling, team building and consulting on human resource, training, and organization issues. Her career includes twenty-one years with Honeywell, Inc. where she held both generalist and specialist positions in Human Resources including training and development, organization development (OD), employee relations and staffing. She has twelve years of leadership experience as a department manager and a team leader for division and corporate task teams.

As the Manager, Learning Services, she was responsible for leading the Skills Transition and Learning System initiatives within the business unit. These initiatives provided a structured approach to learning and introduced new automated tools to assist managers and employees in preparing development plans. Other key projects include implementation and integration of learning databases; web-enabled access to learning tools; skills assessments; competency management; and technology resources for HR. These learning projects involve local, regional, and corporate-wide initiatives.

Gwen has a degree in education, with a minor in psychology, from the University of Illinois, Champaign, Illinois. She also attended the Bath College of Higher Education (Bath, Avon, England). She is a member in the American Society for Training and Development (ASTD) and the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM).

Gwen is a certified Career Management Fellow (CMF). She is also a certified instructor in a number of key programs including: LET (Leader Effectiveness Training), Seven Habits of Highly Effective People (Covey), Career Architect and Leadership Architect (Lominger), and the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI). Other programs she has developed include: management training, team leader training, change management, facilitation, customer service, interviewing, mentoring and new hire orientation.

Ron Hudson is a Business/Performance Management professional with more than thirty-five years of experience providing a unique perspective into the principles that improve individual and company performance. Ron specializes in strategic planning, performance management, executive coaching and human resource development.  Ron facilitates strategic and operational planning, conducts organizational assessments, conducts training and development, provides executive coaching, facilitates succession planning, provides human resource consulting, facilitates board development, conducts compensation planning, and establishes individual and company performance measures.

He has applied his managerial and operational expertise to both corporations and closely held and family businesses in the financial, manufacturing, healthcare and service industries.  In addition, he has developed particular expertise helping regulated utility companies. Ron is frequently published in numerous professional periodicals and is a sought after public speaker on topics related to performance improvement strategies.

Ron has been an adjunct faculty member in the business programs at both Southwestern College (Undergraduate Program) and Webster University (Graduate Program).  He holds a Bachelors degree in psychology, a Masters degree in clinical-counseling psychology, and a Masters degree in business administration with an emphasis in management. He is a native of Pelham, Georgia.

Caitlin Green-Cheney is the Client Services Manager for Leathers Milligan & Associates – OI Partners. Prior to joining the firm in 2008, Caitlin worked for a Phoenix-based law firm as an Office and Client Manager. At Leathers Milligan Caitlin dedicates her time to providing excellent client services as well as operating all aspects of daily business. Caitlin received her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Modern Dance from the University of Utah and is a Phoenix native.