Track, Communicate, and Motivate

Cardwell is a software development and management-consulting firm that helps clients succeed by improving organization-wide alignment and cross-functional collaboration. Jim Cardwell and Karla Norwood, the firm’s current CEO and President, founded Cardwell in 1983 as a leadership development and management process-consulting firm.

James W. Cardwell
James W. Cardwell is the Chairman and CEO of Cardwell, a software development and management consulting firm that helps clients succeed through organization- wide alignment and collaboration.

For more than thirty years, he has served as an advisor to CEOs and their leadership teams on business strategy, performance and culture. In the early 1990s, the lessons from these engagements led to the development of Connections, 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.

In 1998, he and his business partners turned this “consulting process with a three-ring binder” into Connections Online™, a fully-integrated leadership and collaboration software suite. More than 60 organizations across various industries currently use Connections Online to better define, communicate and execute their organizational strategies.

Prior to founding Cardwell 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, 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 Cardwell, a software development and management consulting firm that helps clients succeed through organization-wide alignment and collaboration.

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.

In 1998, she and her business partners launched the web-based Connections Online™ software, a fully-integrated management and collaboration suite that offers companies an organization-wide solution to the challenge of leading companies towards their strategic goals. More than 60 organizations across various industries currently use Connections Online.

In conjunction with her work at Cardwell, Ms. Norwood has co-authored Getting Wired, connections for a FAST organization. She also writes about strategies for organizational behavior for professional and industry publications.

Ms. Norwood holds a Bachelor's degree from Western Washington State University.