James W. Cardwell
James W. Cardwell is the Chairman and CEO of Cardwell Group, a management consulting
firm that helps clients succeed through organization- wide alignment and collaboration.
Mr. Cardwell's expertise is in executive leadership development and strategy execution.
For more than thirty years, he has served as an advisor to CEOs and their leadership
teams on strategy execution, performance and culture. In the early 1990s, the lessons
from these engagements led to the development of the Connections Strategy Execution
solution, a leadership system that helps companies overcome the "saying-doing
gap" by seamlessly joining the strategic thinking of the leadership team with
the day-to-day leadership behavior at all organizational levels.
He and his business partners turned this "strategy execution consulting process
with a three-ring binder" into Connections Online™, a fully-integrated
leadership and collaboration software suite. Organizations across various industries
currently use Connections Online to better define, communicate and execute their
organizational and department strategies and projects.
Prior to founding Cardwell Group in 1983, Mr. Cardwell worked at Ernst & Young
and The Credit Union National Association (CUNA) advising the boards and executive
teams of Fortune 500 and mid-cap companies on strategic planning and organization
development.
A noted expert in Behavior-Based Business Systems, Mr. Cardwell frequently speaks
at leading business forums and publishes papers in national publications. In conjunction
with his work at Cardwell Group, Mr. Cardwell has co-authored Getting Wired, Connections
for a FAST organization.
Mr. Cardwell holds an MBA in Organizational Behavior and an MA in Communications
from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He earned his Bachelor's degree from the
University of Washington, where he graduated magna cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa.
Karla Norwood
Karla Norwood is president of Connections Online™, a software product company
designed to address executives' challenges in leading companies towards their strategic
goals.
A seasoned executive with a background in organizational behavior, Ms. Norwood brings
to the company more than 20 years of experience helping strategy teams achieve their
objectives. Her areas of expertise include strategic planning and management process
improvement, including organization, project and people systems.
Ms. Norwood has presented at a number of conferences, including improving performance
management, aligning IT with strategy, and standardizing project management throughout
the organization.
Since the launch of Connections Online, Ms. Norwood has focused on its continued
development and support, as well as training offerings and services.
Ms. Norwood holds a Bachelor's degree from Western Washington State University.