Richard S. Hawkes, Founder & CEO
Richard is a consultant, coach, and strategic specialist in “navigating business evolution.” What sets Richard’s work apart is his focus on creating a mind set and system-of-roles that make business growth inevitable. He has worked domestically and internationally with global Fortune 100, mid-sized and start-up growth companies, leading large-scale strategic alignment engagements with companies such as: BabyAge, Corning, Ethos Partners, Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia, GENEWIZ, Gentex, Hallmark International, Instinet, Johnson & Johnson, Merck, Pearson Education, Pfizer, Pharmanet, Prentice Hall, Sun Microsystems and WLR Foods.
Richard began his career developing margins trading systems at Morgan Stanley. He subsequently became a senior member of the strategy practice with Kepner-Tregoe International, leaving to become a partner with the Strategy Partners Group LLC. In 2002, he joined Guttman Development Strategies as a Chief Strategist, while simultaneously founding Growth River LLC, which he leads today. Richard received a B.A. in Computer Science and German Literature from Hamilton College and an M.B.A. in Marketing and Organizational Development from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Tom Lombardi, Partner & Practice Leader
Tom Lombardi has more than 25 years experience using his unique coaching approach: identifying and resolving constraints in mindset, relationships, roles, and execution. He has supported CEOs, Senior Managers, and their teams in the for-profit and non-profit sectors. His clients include: BNY Mellon, PNC Bank, Quest Diagnostics, Merck, Points of Light Foundation, and Philadelphia Youth Network. Tom designs and delivers customized coaching engagements that range from Assimilation and Transition to Leadership Effectiveness and Execution Coaching, while deploying an extraordinary team of Growth River coaches. He also delivers strategic alignment engagements to for profit and nonprofit clients, in the U.S. and abroad.
Tom received his coach training at Georgetown University and certification through the International Coach Federation. Prior to that, he attended Boston College and University of Massachusetts Boston, earning a degree in History. Tom's greatest joy is connecting people and leadership teams with their purpose, and developing presence and possibility in leaders. His wife of twenty-three years and his four children share his love for family, faith, food and good health.
Tim Murphy, Practice Leader
Drawing on fourteen years of consulting, training and executive management experience, Tim leads Growth River teams in addressing diverse strategic, business development, leadership and organizational issues. His expertise and focus is on the synthesis between strategic management science and cutting-edge developmental processes that enhance and accelerate the evolutionary capacities within leaders and organizations. He has strategic, executive leadership and technological consulting experience in a variety of environments including: banking, insurance, legal, pharmaceutical, healthcare, manufacturing, telecommunications, high-tech and non-profit organizations.
Prior to joining Growth River, Tim served as Vice President of Worldwide Strategy for Global Knowledge, the world’s largest independent training company and Cisco training partner. Tim is a graduate of SUNY Maritime College, where he trained as a merchant officer while earning a Bachelors of Engineering degree. He also holds numerous advanced certifications in Cisco Systems technologies.
Everett Darby, Senior Consultant
Everett posts a proven 26-year track record of outstanding organizational leadership, with extensive experience in building high performance teams and mentoring individuals. Known for his negotiation and problem-solving skills, Everett has held various executive leadership roles at both Monsanto and The Coca-Cola Company. With experience in business innovation, e-business, sales and marketing, global strategy development and team management, Everett has staffed global cross-functional teams and executed the launch of new products within the Consumer Goods, Chemical, Food, and diverse Industrial industries.
Everett is a Co-chair of the Advisory Board of the recently established Atlanta Innovatrium (a business innovation consultancy). A well-respected and sought after expert and speaker, he is a frequent lecturer to audiences on the topic of business innovation. He earned a Bachelor of Science Degree from Atlanta's Morehouse College and a M.B.A. from Washington University's Olin School of Business. Everett resides in Atlanta. He enjoys golf, theatre and reading.
Robert Heinzman, Senior Consultant & Publisher
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Robert Heinzman has held leadership roles in a number of enterprises, and has both managed and consulted across a broad spectrum of industries. Robert brings unique skills to Growth River, in particular, extensive experience working with leadership groups and teams. Most recently, as founder and Director of RCS Digital, he guides publishers through transforming media. Other past experience ranges from groundwater pollution research in the desert Southwest, to tropical forest conservation in armed conflict zones to the more tame environs of multimedia publishing. His extensive research and wilderness travel in the New World tropics led to his contributing role in founding the Maya Biosphere Reserve, the largest protected area in Central America, where he directed the Guatemala Program for Conservation International.
Robert currently serves on the board of the Institute for Regional Conservation, an influential, botanical science-based conservation organization in Florida and the Caribbean Basin. Robert holds a degree in Geochemistry from the University of Colorado, and a Master’s degree from Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies.
Amy Flynn-Speir, Senior Consultant
Amy has worked in the Pharmaceutical and Medical Device and Diagnostic industries for over 20 years across a variety of functional areas including operations, marketing and business development. She has led and supported major change initiatives from both the client and consulting side, including mergers, acquisitions and partnerships, strategy formulation and implementation and process improvement projects.
Her clients include international corporations, start-up companies and non-profits such as: Johnson & Johnson, Pfizer, Whatman, Guildford Pharmaceuticals, Hemasure and The American Red Cross. She combines a strong process orientation with an interest in internally driven motivation to effectively shift organizational thinking and action toward a long term vision.
Amy received her coaching training and certification from the Leadership Institute of Seattle (LIOS). She holds a M.Ed. in Counseling Psychology from Temple University, an MBA from Rutgers Graduate School of Management, and a B.S. in Engineering from Rutgers College of Engineering.
Eb Schmidt, Senior Consultant, Practice Leader-Germany
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Eb Schmidt is a consultant, coach and seasoned executive. Before joining Growth River Eb assisted both individuals and companies improve time management skills as a licensed Mission Control coach. Through his consulting work with Expense Reduction Analysts, he led cost reduction programs for companies across different industries. Eb’s 25-year corporate career included executive positions such as Director of Quality Control and IT at Miele and COO at Powell Flutes, Inc.—leadership roles in which he continually guided quality improvements and cost reduction programs.
Eb’s experience with data-driven business growth and evolution extends from guiding senior executives in their professional development all the way through to the detailed work of organizational restructuring. It is this interest in both hard business data and soft transformation skills, an unusual—and unusually effective—approach to consulting, that brought Eb to Growth River.
Steffen Karneth, Senior Consultant, Practice Leader-Germany
An international consultant for the last 15 years, Steffen Karneth is an expert in both business and leadership development. He brings a wealth of sales and marketing experience from various industries. Steffen gained his broad knowledge working for IBM and Cisco and he played an influential role at WebEx, launching IP-based communication technologies throughout Europe and the Middle East. With a focus on the Enterprise market Steffen led large teams of consultants and partners in complex transformational projects.
Prior to his professional career Steffen was an athlete and trainer in East Germany. There he developed his unique focus and strength to thrive in challenging and competitive environments. After the fall of the Berlin Wall, he exercised his new gained freedom traveling and exploring different cultures around the world. Steffen currently serves as a board member for a non-profit organization dedicated to the evolution of consciousness and culture.
Bob Voss, Associate Consultant
Bob Voss, PhD, is skilled at helping organizations and their leaders identify and address those critical issues that stand in the way of a high level of shared vision, purpose and results-driven performance.
He has extensive experience as a teacher, trainer, and technical writer, and has held senior operational, executive, and board-level roles in a global non-profit organization. With a proven ability to resolve diverse management challenges, he has unusual—and considerable—skills at helping leaders navigate the ‘tough people issues’ at the heart of creating the conditions for sustained success. His broad range of life skills include his training as a systems ecologist, many years working as a software trainer, consultant and co-author of several best-selling software books, and his executive and team leadership experience. Trained in whole-systems thinking, Bob earned his PhD in Insect Ecology from the University of Massachusetts—Amherst. Bob’s other interests include music, national and world current affairs, and his family, friends and daughter.
Sylvia Smetana, Associate Consultant
Over the last 20 years Sylvia Smetana has parlayed an expertise in financial management to play a significant role in several companies located both in Europe and the US. She joined Growth River after working for 10 years as the Director of Finance for a US-based not- for-profit organization.
Sylvia’s passion is helping leaders unite the vision and mission of their organization with its financial reality, thus establishing the conditions for sustained growth, positioning and return. Through working across the US, Europe and Asia, she has developed valuable skills in creating team and leadership alignment across cultures. For more than 17 years she has intensively studied how people change, working with peers and clients in forging paths to higher performance. Sylvia is highly effective in resolving conflict, establishing the conditions for expanding creativity, and high performance team behaviors.
She currently is a board member of an influential educational organization in Germany. Sylvia earned her MBA from the University of Vienna in her home country of Austria.
Christo Schutte, Associate Consultant
Christo Schutte has nearly a decade of experience as a coach, consultant, and business owner, working extensively with leaders of Fortune 500, as well as mid-sized and start-up growth companies. Leveraging his former experience as a nationally ranked tennis player in South Africa, Christo founded The Game Within Leadership Performance Group. Based on his intuitive entrepreneurial skills, and a unique approach to human development and growth, he has developed groundbreaking methodologies to help leaders evolve. Christo is a highly sought after executive coach, speaker and seminar leader. Clients include leaders from the Barclay’s Group, Verizon Wireless, Wilmington Trust, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, Coldwell-Banker, PJM Interconnection, Federal Management Partners, Keller-Williams Realtors and Penn State University.
Christo is a graduate of Georgetown University’s globally renowned leadership program and a certified member of the International Coaching Federation (ICF). He also holds a Masters Degree in Counseling and a bachelor’s degree in Cost Engineering. A lover of sports and a face in the community, Christo currently serves on the board of The First Tee of Delaware.