As president of The Howells Group, Inc., Karen Howells and her team have worked with senior managers and executives at NIKE, Intel Corporation, American Express, Freightliner, Mentor Graphics, NASA, BP Oil, Cadence Design Systems, Hewlett Packard, American Express and other Fortune 500 companies and entrepreneurial firms.

Over the past 25 years, Karen and her team have designed and helped to facilitate NIKE’s global leadership program in the late 90s, Cadence Design’s Global Executive Leadership Program and American Express’ Leadership Forum. They recently developed and facilitated a program at Intel to retain key technical women in leadership through a customized leadership council format which blended executive coaching and leadership development.

As a member of The Howells Group, Inc., Karrine Granato brings to her clients a unique set of skills, experience and passion. Karrine is a professional actress, choreographer and director with more than 20 years experience in all elements of theatrical productions using her theatrical experience to help all her clients move toward mastery in their communication and presentation skills.

Karrine has worked with such clients as Intel, Hewlett Packard, Nordstrom and Bonneville Power Administration to deliver results oriented communication trainings. Using her varied background, she coaches clients to tap into their unique style to maximize their impact as a communicator. She also coaches clients in refining their content and message to connect with their audience and meet their communication objectives.

Francine B. Read founded VOICES, INC. in 1993, creating the VOICES Lectures in Portland. Over the last 18 years, VOICES has featured the world’s most influential women of our time. While the core business of VOICES, INC. is to produce the lecture series, a portion of the company is dedicated to brokering women speakers through GreatWomenspeakers.com, specializing in women speakers, trainers, consultants and celebrities.

Francine Read was selected by The Portland Business Journal as one of its Women in Business Orchid Award recipients for 2010 and is the founder of the VOICES Leadership Forum.

 

Judith McGee is co-founder and chairwoman of McGee Financial Strategies, Inc., a leading branch office of Raymond James Financial Services. She is an insightful author, national columnist, dynamic speaker, passionate educator and mentor and one of the country’s leading financial advisors.

Judith has been a guest speaker for numerous organizations including Portland University Club, Rotary Clubs, the prestigious Barron’s Winner’s Circle and presented at the Top Women Advisors’ Summit in December, 2010. Judith McGee was selected for Barron’s annual listing of the Top 100 Women Financial Advisors for 2011.

Elizabeth (Beth) Freeman, Ph.D. has been teaching, consulting and speaking on Strategic Management, Leadership and related topics since completing her MBA and Ph.D. at the University of South Carolina.

In addition to leading her company, B. Freeman Consulting, Beth serves as adjunct professor of management and supervises graduate student consulting projects at Portland State University. Beth has been a serial entrepreneur and business leader and has served on numerous nonprofit and civic boards of directors.