Jeff currently serves in the office of the CEO as an active contributor to the strategic direction, innovation, and thought leadership of PDI Ninth House. PDI Ninth House is the premier global leadership solutions provider, with 700 employees serving more than 2,000 clients in 16 countries around the world. The business is the result of the successful merger between PDI and Ninth House, combining the leading brands in consulting, high quality assessment and blended leadership development to provide clients with integrated, end-to-end leadership solutions to achieve their talent selection, development and performance strategies.
Previously, Jeff served as the founder and CEO of Ninth House, Inc. for 12 years. In that role Jeff grew the business from a start-up into the #1 online leadership development firm, engaging an active faculty of Ken Blanchard, Stephen Covey, Tom Peters, David Allen and others in the creation of a new platform for large scale behavioral change. Ninth House integrated media, technology, storytelling and OD change processes to establish industry standards for effective blended learning models, winning top accolades as the best online leadership solutions provider from Forbes, Gartner, Bersin & Associates, Deloitte Fast 50 Growth Companies, CLO Magazine, HR Executive Magazine, eLearning Magazine, the American Business Association, and The Software & Information Industry Association. Today, Ninth House solutions impact more than 100,000 learners each year and are an integral part of the curriculum of more than 200 Fortune 500 organizations.
Prior to founding Ninth House, Jeff was a senior executive at Interactive Media, helping to grow it into a leading U.S. e-learning solutions developer before its sale in 1997. Additionally, Jeff spent two years as a management consultant in Madrid, Spain following an early career in corporate finance and investment banking in New York.
Jeff has been named one of the "25 Rising Stars of the Internet" by Internet World magazine, is a contributing author to CLO Magazine and frequent speaker at industry events. Leadership Excellence Magazine rated Jeff #45 in the Top 100 thought leaders on leadership in 2007. He was a President's Scholar at Southern Methodist University where he received a Bachelor in Business Administration in Finance and a Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy. He has participated in Executive MBA Programs at Stanford University, GSB (2002, 2003), is a member of the Young Presidents Organization (YPO), a Trustee of the Marin Montessori School, and actively contributes to education and media-related ventures and non-profit organizations.
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Nelda brings more than 20 years of leadership development experience to Ninth House. Prior to joining Ninth House, Nelda directed one of IBM’s most strategic accounts as the Client Executive in the communications industry.
At Ninth House, Nelda leads the national sales organization that delivers strategic sales and support to customers in the enterprise markets with an emphasis on customized leadership solutions, services and deployment.
Nelda has extensive credentials in the telecommunications industry and her knowledge of voice and data communications includes structuring and developing programs for companies to improve how their businesses run locally and globally.
Nelda’s background also includes a tenure at MCI where she served in various roles in Technical, Global Customer Service, Global Sales Management, and Channel Support worldwide. While with MCI, she was instrumental in helping launch MCI’s Virtual University.
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James has a broad portfolio of global experience focusing on applying technology to transform human performance and learning. During the past 25 years, James has developed operational and thought leadership strategies on learning & performance in the corporate, government, military, higher education and compulsory education markets.
Prior to joining Ninth House in 2007, James was IBM’s lead global executive in developing and executing IBM's worldwide learning strategy including technology, learning models, methodologies, advanced architectures, systems integration and solution design associated with over $2 billion in revenue annually.
During his 16-year+ career at IBM he focused on providing numerous global clients in the Americas, Europe and Asia with solutions that leverage key services, advanced software and systems to provide enterprise solutions that increase human effectiveness and learning. Prior to IBM, James was the Manager of Advanced Systems at General Dynamics Tactical Systems Division San Diego, CA
James holds several IBM patents including Operationalizing a Learning Solution, Knowledge Management System Automatically Allocating Expert Resources, and Blended Learning Experience Tools and Method. Founder of the Customized Learning Experience Online (CLEO) Lab, a research collaboration initiative between Cisco Systems, IBM, Microsoft and Thomson, which conducted focused, applied research on technical and pedagogical issues related to the ADL Sharable Content Reference Model (SCORM).
He has won numerous industry awards and is a frequent speaker at industry conferences and events. James holds a BS in Mechanical Engineering from Purdue University and course work at University of Southern California in pursuit of a Masters in Systems Management.
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Tina’s 25+ years experience as a marketing professional includes planning, strategy, management and implementation of marketing disciplines and programs including: positioning, brand strategy, solution development, media planning, communications, advertising, direct marketing, interactive marketing and events.
Tina founded, grew and sold a successful e-marketing company that pioneered the development of interactive, technology-based marketing, sales and training programs for Fortune 500 companies. She also led the development and implementation of marketing strategies and programs for numerous technology-based, emerging businesses.
Prior to joining Ninth House, Tina led marketing planning and execution for IBM America’s HCM Learning and Development practice. Previously, as IBM America’s Marketing Director for Learning Solutions, Tina developed marketing plans and strategies and led the execution of high-profile, external conference and event programs that positioned IBM as the learning leader.
Tina holds a Bachelor of Arts from Syracuse University, Newhouse School of Public Communications.
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Over the course of his eighteen year career, Craig has helped senior business leaders create vision and implement learning initiatives that align with their business goals. In the learning field, Mr. Laviano has built a reputation as a polished and highly engaging strategist, trainer and facilitator, whose extensive business fluency informs his learning solutions.
During his time as a senior manager at PricewaterhouseCoopers in the Strategic Change practice, Craig helped develop the national organizational change practice in the firm. In this capacity he traveled around the globe to train consultants in the areas of business strategy, process reengineering, change management, team development, facilitation, and creative thinking. He quickly became the most highly rated trainer in the network, and a benchmark for world class instructional delivery.
In 2000 Craig joined DigitalThink (now Convergys), a leader in the e-learning industry. During his tenure, he led the development of enterprise-wide custom learning solutions for Fortune 500 clients, addressing business issues that included new hire assimilation, leadership development, sales force effectiveness, and organizational capability development.
His clients have covered a wide range of industries that include Technology, Retail, Financial Services, Entertainment, Healthcare, Oil & Gas, and Utilities.
Craig received his MBA from Peter F. Drucker Center at The Claremont Graduate School. He received his BA in Economics from UCLA.
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Bonnie and her team are responsible for partnering with clients to develop targeted implementation plans for their learning initiatives that utilize our Ninth House best practices. They also provide implementation support, classroom facilitation and custom ILT design services.
Prior to joining Ninth House, Bonnie spent six years as a Senior Learning Consultant in IBM’s Financial Services Practice where she supported clients such as Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan Chase, and Wells Fargo Home Mortgage. Her other key experience includes serving as the Director of Customer Service and Technical Support for an internet-based technology company, heading up the Training department at Harris Corporation’s Headquarters Division, as well as a stint in the Air Force.
Bonnie holds a B.S. in Technical Communication from Florida Institute of Technology and an M.A. in Instructional Design from the University of Central Florida.
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Lisa has over 10 years of experience overseeing projects and teams responsible for producing engaging online training experiences for the corporate marketplace.
In her current position at Ninth House, Lisa is responsible for the design and production of all off-the-shelf, high-end blended leadership training products as well as custom online products for major, global corporations. She oversees an award-winning team of instructional designers, executive producers for video, creative design and project management. Such projects developed under her management at Ninth House have been Retaining Talent, 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Resolving Interpersonal Issues and High Impact Hiring as well as numerous custom solutions for a variety of industries.
Prior to joining Ninth House, Lisa served in management and project management roles at VitesseLearning and DigitalThink.
Lisa holds a Bachelor of Arts from the University of California, Santa Barbara and a Masters Degree from Boston college in Social Work Policy and Administration.

Ramon joined Ninth House in 2003 and serves as the Senior Director of Technical Services and is responsible for managing customer support and technical implementation services. Additionally, he works with Sales and Learning Services to assist customers in developing a deployment strategy that addresses all customer requirements. His responsibilities include developing a detailed technical implementation plan and managing the technical deployment project through system installation and training of the client’s internal IT/IS staff.
Before joining Ninth House, Ramon was a Sr. Product Consultant at Saba Software where he teamed with Account Executives in preparing and executing sales strategies and was responsible for mapping Saba software solutions to the customers’ business and technical requirements. Additionally, Ramon acted as the e-learning content standards Subject Matter Expert and the Life Sciences Industry Subject Matter Expert for the North American product consulting team. Prior to Saba, he was the Manager of Engineering Services at Flomerics Inc. where he managed customer services including training and customer support for all North American customers and a staff of 9 engineers. Additionally, Ramon was responsible for the operation of Flomerics IT infrastructure at headquarters and at its regional offices in the U.S.
Ramon holds a B.S. in Aeronautics and Astronautics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a Diplome Post-Universitaire in Aerospace Engineering from the von Karman Institute for Fluid Dynamics and a M.S. in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Minnesota.

Jeff Small, Sr. Director Technology - Jeff joined Ninth House in May of 2005 and leads the technology development and innovation efforts for the company's course offerings and services.
Prior to joining Ninth House, Jeff held numerous technology positions developing and managing teams in mobile, web, and desktop technology development including a 14+ year career at Autodesk, Inc, as one of their Chief Engineers developing Computer Aided Design and Drafting software.
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