2016 National Registry Summit - Guest Speakers

Ed Muzio’s mantra is “Higher Output, Lower Stress, Sustainable Growth.” He is CEO of Group Harmonics and author of Make Work Great (McGraw-Hill, 2010) and Four Secrets to Liking Your Work (FT Press, 2008). Both books won Awards of Excellence from the International Society for Performance Improvement, a professional association that requires both a clear problem statement and a measurable result for organizationalperformance improvements.

Ed has been called “one of the planet’s clearest thinkers on management practice.” He is a leader in the application of analytical models to group effectiveness and output – including whole-group intervention, simulation, facilitation, and instructional design. Originally trained as an engineer, he has started organizations large and small, led global initiatives in technology development and employee recruitment, and published articles and refereed papers ranging from manufacturing strategy to the relationships between individual skills and output.

Ed's analytical approach to human productivity has been featured in national and international media, including CBS News, Fox Business News, and The New York Post; he has been a regular contributor to both CBS and Monster.com. With clients ranging from individual life coaches to the Fortune 500, he serves as an advisor and educator to professionals at all levels, all over the world.

Prior to founding Group Harmonics, Ed was President and Executive Director of a human services organization, and a leader, mentor, and technologist within Intel Corporation and the Sematech consortium.

A Cornell University graduate, Ed's accomplishments include the creation and stewardship of a worldwide manufacturing infrastructure program, a nationally-recognized engineering development organization, and a non-profit residential services provider serving at-risk youth in his home town of Albuquerque, NM.

Diana L. Howles is owner and president of Howles Associates, LLC. She is an award-winning speaker with expertise in all aspects of camera work, presentations and multimedia design and production. She has worked behind the camera as a multimedia producer, visual communication designer, and video scriptwriter, as well as a voiceover artist and on-camera talent for TV, commercials, industrial films, and modeling. Additionally, she brings twenty-five years of experience in education and training, training trainers and teaching teachers. Her articles have been published in traditional print magazines as well as online media. Diana earned her Master’s degree from Colorado State University in speech communication and rhetoric and holds a BA in business administration and communication arts. She keynotes at various events, and presents at regional and national conferences.

“We are all wired to solve,” says David Kwong, a magician, New York Times puzzle builder, and TED speaker. Kwong has a degree in the history of magic from Harvard, and consults often on Hollywood films. In virtuosic talks full of humor, puzzles, and other surprises, he leaves audiences thinking about what they just saw—and, more importantly, just thinking in general.

Puzzles and magic might not seem like the most logical companions, but Kwong sees a clear parallel between the two. As human beings, he argues, we are driven by the urge to solve problems and “create order out of chaos." Kwong regularly writes crossword puzzles for a range of national publications, including The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, and Games Magazine. He is also the founder of the Misdirectors Guild, an elite group of magicians that specialize in magic for film and television. As the head magic consultant, Kwong created illusions for the bank-heist film Now You See Me, teaching magic to Jesse Eisenberg, Morgan Freeman, Michael Caine, Mark Ruffalo, and Woody Harrelson. Kwong has also designed magic and puzzles for Ant-Man, The Incredible Burt Wonderstone, The Imitation Game, and Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation, to name a few. He is currently teaching card tricks and sleight of hand to Channing Tatum for the upcoming film Gambit and working as series consultant for the NBC drama Blindspot.

Hans de Graaf is a Brain Tweaker and an online learning and video expert for the Dutch Knowledge Center for Online Learning (KCOL). He’s been a serial entrepreneur since 1995 and started several companies in online learning and online video. Hans joined KCOL in September 2015 and started to talk professionally on the topics of Brainful decision making, critical thinking and effective learning. 

 

 

Claire Herring, Co-Creator of Blue Ocean Brain, is a leadership development executive and negotiations specialist. She served as an operations leader for Deloitte’s national healthcare practice. Claire is passionate about helping people improve performance by advancing their critical-thinking skills. A former director of neuro-rehabilitation, Claire designs employee learning experiences grounded in neuroscience. She holds a bachelor’s from Wake Forest University, master’s from UNC-Chapel Hill and an MBA from UCF.