Leadership Team

Michael Kaplan, PMP

Founder and CEO

Author, and Innovator; recognized leader in exeution and resource management

Mr. Kaplan is founder of SoftPMO™, a New York-based consulting firm that specializes in improving execution and resource management. He is a recognized leader in program management and serves as an advisor and mentor to senior executives. He founded MAK CON LLC, a consulting firm specializing in large-scale program management, in 2002. In 2009, he re-launched the company as SoftPMO, incorporating MAK CON LLC’s tools and methodologies into a larger enterprise program management framework.

In more than 20 years of practice, Michael has worked with several of the most successful organizations in the world, including Fortune 500 companies and government agencies, to help them achieve the full intent of their most urgent and critically important initiatives.

Mark Kielek

Advisor

Diversified experience in the manufacturing of medical and pharmaceutical products

Mr. Kielek has over 25 years of diversified experience in the manufacturing of medical devices and pharmaceutical products. He was employed by Johnson and Johnson for 13 years building and leading quality organizations at McNeil Consumer Healthcare, Johnson and Johnson Medical, and Ethicon Endo-Surgery. For the past five years Mr. Kielek was with Schering-Plough Corporation directing the establishment of effective quality systems that resulted in the successful remediation of the company’s consent decree. He also held Quality leadership positions at The West Company, Playtex, Inc., and National Pharmaceutical. Mr. Kielek has a B.S. in Zoology from the University of Maryland.

Frank Wander

Partner

Author, Transformation and Organizational Effectiveneness Expert, former CIO

Mr. Wander is founder of the IT Excellence Institute, a social enterprise that is leveraging the productive power of human understanding to create truly high performing organizations. People count. They aren't interchangeable parts – they never were! We integrate human factors into every solution we design - processes, tools, etc. Corporations can unlock vast, untapped pools of employee potential by operating the human infrastructure with as much care, understanding and concern as they devote to their networks and computers . Let’s stop the waste of human capital and end the root cause of IT Failure. Nothing will increase your return on human capital more than this.

Dennis D. McDonald, Ph.D.

Partner

Project management, technology adoption, digital strategy.

Dr. McDonald for over 30 years has managed technology related projects ranging from research and development to system integration management and collaboration technology adoption. He specializes in planning and managing the adoption of digital media and collaboration technologies in project and program management.

Dr. McDonald's clients have included the World Bank, the Environmental Protection Agency, Ford Motor Company, General Electric, Whirlpool, and the National Library of Medicine. He has worked throughout the U.S. and in Western Europe, Egypt, and Hong Kong. He has a B.A. in Psychology from Ohio State University and an MLS and Ph.D. in Library and Information Science from the University of Maryland.

Walter Schiller

Partner

Business Development Executive, and graduate of MISR Harvard Business School

Mr. Schiller is a technology executive with a distinguished thirty-year career in infrastructure operations, security, and retail branch banking. Provides vision and direction to achieve superior levels of quality, service and efficiency. Adept at creating, and implementing effective programs and systems to improve productivity and service. Poised and assured dealing with a worldwide range of cultures and social sectors.