About Us

Vision - To capture the imagination of the leaders and engage the hearts and minds of their employees and communities.

Mission - Serving the learning needs of organizations: their leaders, teams and individuals.

SKA Values

Balance - We honor individual commitments to family, community and work.

Fun - We embrace playfulness, creativity and humor.

Integrity - We are fair and honest in all our dealings.

Community Building - We support business practices that promote environmental and community stability.

Developing the Capacity of People and Organizations - This is what we stand for. We model self and team advancement to support the growth and development of our clients.

M. Patricia Kane

M. Patricia Kane is the Managing Partner of SKA, where she has served clients since 1986. Patricia has worked with such clients as American Century, the Dallas Ft. Worth Airport, International Paper, Assurant, both the Allegiance and Adventist Healthcare Systems, and Lockton Insurance. She has worked across North America and in the UK and Australia. She is a catalyst for growth, and uses her 30-plus years in business and her reservoir of emotional intelligence to help people discover their talents so as to live their passions into a future of their own design. She will tell you stories ranging from teaching Chinese-Malaysian consultants on financial literacy to coaching executive women on their search for more meaning in their work.

She is founder of the Executive Exchange, a peer learning group for women CEOs in Kansas City, now in its 15th year. She possesses several certificates of study in a diverse number of other disciplines. One of her more valued certificates is her Coaching Certification from the Hudson Institute of Santa Barbara, a leading coaching certification organization. Her career includes leadership in the customer service effort of the Hyatt Hotels Corporation.

Patricia is the co-author of two books published by John Wiley & Sons, The Power of Open-Book Management (1996) and Open-Book Management Field Book (1998).

John P. Schuster

John P. Schuster, trainer, consultant, author and speaker, is the founding partner of The Schuster Kane Alliance, Inc., a firm he started in 1981. He serves as the Director for the Center for Leadership and as faculty for the Executive Fellows MBA program for a Midwestern Jesuit University. He is a senior consultant for the Hudson Institute of Santa Barbara, a leading executive coaching certification organization.

John has helped to pioneer the movement toward empowered, business-smart work forces. He has done presentations on four continents, and his clients include EDS, Motorola, Sprint, and Harley-Davidson in addition to numerous small and mid-sized businesses nationwide.

John spent seven years in government service, serving in Washington, DC, Chicago and Kansas City. He was chairman of an ongoing developmental group for CEOs called The Executive Committee (TEC).

John is also a published author whose books include Answering Your Call: A Guide to Living Your Deepest Purpose (2003-Berrett Koehler), Hum-Drum to Hot-Diggity: On Leadership (2001), The Power of Open-Book Management (1996) (Wiley & Sons) translated into four languages, and The Open-Book Management Field Book (1998).

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Joseph Vacanti Joe has more than thirty years experience as a Certified Public Accountant with extensive experience in public speaking, teaching, facilitating, taxation issues and financial analysis. He is highly skilled as a trainer with proven effectiveness as an instructor for a nationwide CPA Review Course. He consistently ranked in the top 10% of all US instructors for over ten years in that capacity. He also filled the role of lead marketing instructor with extensive experience in dealing with young professionals beginning with campus speeches on various college campuses. His well-developed communication skills have demonstrated sensitivity to the needs of others and the ability to develop a working rapport with diverse groups and as a seasoned professional Counselor to the accounting profession.

He is an experienced seminar leader for a hands-on course in financial concepts and business literacy basics. He is also trained as a life coach. He has worked in private industry as a Controller for a large trucking company, a marketing representative for a computer company and as a shareholder in his own CPA firm.

He received his BSBA in Accounting from Creighton University and his CPA certificate from the state of Nebraska. He is a member of the Nebraska Society of CPAs.

George Ferguson is well known in both local and national circles as a motivating and accomplished speaker and trainer. As a facilitator, educator, and consultant in leadership, management, and organization development, he is one of SKA's most invaluable colleagues. George is highly respected by his audiences for his compelling presentation skills, whether in leadership workshops or the Profit and Cash® simulation. George holds an MBA from Rockhurst University and a BA in Economics from Georgia State University. He is an interdisciplinary Ph.D. candidate in Public Administration and Education at the University of Missouri-Kansas City.

Carol McAdoo is a motivational/inspirational speaker and educator whose primary role has been in the areas of employee development, patient relations, organizational change and ethics. Most recently Carol has been working with the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization to support the development of palliative and hospice care in prisons and jails across the country. As a specialist in health advocacy and consumer affairs, Carol collaborates with SKA in development of programs specialized for the medical profession.