Vision - Connecting Soft People Skills to Hard Business Results

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.

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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M. Patricia Kane

M. Patricia Kane is the Managing Partner of SKA, where she has served clients since 1986. She previously headed customer service efforts at Hyatt Hotels Corporation. She most enjoys being a catalyst for growth, helping people discover their strengths and talents and 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.

Patricia has worked with such clients as American Century, the Dallas Ft. Worth Airport, International Paper, and Fortis and has worked in the UK and Australia. She is active on the non-denominational Board for the Center for Faith and Work in Kansas City. She has a Public Relations Associate degree from Stevens College and possesses several other certificates from course study in a diverse number of other disciplines. One of her more cherished certificates is her Coaching Certification from the Hudson Institute of Santa Barbara, CA., a leading coaching certification organization, certified by the International Coaching Federation.

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

Art Wells has a wealth of experience that has prepared him to manage SKA's business simulation Profit & Cash®. He possesses the entrepreneurial spirit that SKA has built in its business model and understands the complexities of running and managing a small business. In his career, Art has been a real estate developer and builder, management consultant, and business owner. Most recently, he created Healthy Homes Associates, Inc., a firm specializing in indoor air quality, lead, mold, and allergen risk assessments. Art also founded an active management consultant practice that had clients ranging from giant companies to start-ups to government to nonprofits. He has worked as a finance consultant with the World Bank and as controller for a marketing division of Pfizer. He taught graduate courses in corporate finance and entrepreneurship at the Columbia University Graduate School of Business and the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. While a builder he served as president of the New Jersey Home Builders Association and spoke frequently in the media about real estate development and affordable housing issues.

Art holds the following degrees: BS (physics) from Florida State; MS (physics) from William and Mary; and MBA and Ph.D. (industrial administration) from Carnegie-Mellon.

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.

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.

Jan Graves adds her considerable writing and creative ability to client materials, the website, and other areas. She holds a BA in Human Services from Metropolitan State University in Minneapolis and contributes a background that includes professional resume writing and commercial and industrial voice work.