Lila Sparks – President

Lila has been developing and promoting team performance and organizational productivity since 1973. As co-founder of ACT and manager of the firm, Lila has led its growth from a two-person partnership to an internationally recognized consulting firm engaged in helping clients define and solve their most pressing business priorities.

As chairman, Lila reviews the needs of prospective clients, ensuring appropriate solutions to their requests for assistance.

Bill, a co-founder of ACT, brings over 25 years of experience to helping clients realize their business goals. A specialist in the sociology and psychology of rapid organizational change, he has developed specific strategies that allow clients to withstand the stress created by complexity, uncertainty and the constant demand for intelligent decisions.

Aggressive competition, rapidly changing technologies, diverse workforces and the greater demand for focused, flexible and fast work environments are Bill’s favorite challenges. Working in partnership with his clients, Bill guides them to address immediate and critical business issues.

Bill has written several books on effective management practices. He holds an MBA in Finance.

Peter has been successfully managing companies since 1968, when he started American Analysis Corp. Since that time he has lead two other thriving start up operations, as well as head a successful turnaround project. He has provided detailed consulting services for large business and government clients. He has been a member of the faculty at University of California - Berkeley and University of Southern California and was a pioneer in using technology for self-paced, mastery learning. Peter has over twenty years experience in all aspects of human performance improvement. With years of broad business and management experience, he has been tapped on two separate occasions to be CEO and once to lead a struggling company through a successful turnaround effort.

Peter has authored numerous professional papers and textbooks. His Active Learning program for college and high school students has reached over 100,000 students nationwide. Peter holds MS and BS degrees from MIT and a Ph.D. from Northwestern University in Mechanical Engineering.

Timm J. Esque consults with project teams and organizations to achieve immediate productivity improvements while creating environments for sustaining long-term success. His expertise in project implementation was developed largely during his 15-year career at Intel Corporation. During that time he served as internal performance consultant to more than 30 project teams, especially product development teams anxious to improve their Time to Money performance.

Timm is the author of No Surprises Project Management: A Proven Early Warning System for Staying on Track (published by ACT Publishing). He also has contributed to several books and periodicals, is a featured essayist for the Performance Improvement Journal, and is coeditor of the book Getting Results (HRD Press, 1998).

Paul has over 25 years of business experience with Fortune 100 firms Xerox, Binney & Smith and Wilkinson Companies. Paul has experienced first-hand the turmoil of corporate change and the unnecessary penalties and costs borne by the companies and individuals. Those experiences resulted in his conviction that the greatest opportunities to achieve corporate success lie in realizing the untapped human potential.

Paul holds a BA in Mathematics and an MA in Clinical Psychology.

Ned helps clients improve organizational productivity by concentrating on performance management, competency assessment and human resources strategy. He has more than 16 years experience working in both large corporate and entrepreneurial settings.

Prior to joining the consulting field, Ned worked for over ten years in Fortune 100 corporate settings, with experience in specialty areas including Employee Relations, Compensation, Human Resource Information Systems, Workforce Planning and Policy.

Ned has a Master's degree in Curriculum and Instruction and a Bachelor's degree with Honors in Psychology. Ned holds a lifetime accreditation as a Senior Professional in Human Resources (SPHR) from the Society of Human Resources Management (SHRM) of which he is also a member.

Kay Sandberg has served high tech clients for over 15 years as a management consultant, trainer, coach, and facilitator. She has a special interest in working with global clients on issues related to high performance, particularly in virtual and geographically dispersed settings. Kay also has extensive experience in workplace collaboration and experiential learning. She leads ACT simulations in the US and Asia/Pacific, and is fluent in Japanese.

In regard to management and leadership development, Kay enables individuals and groups to implement the key management practices, have strategic & visionary conversations, and maximize results of meetings.

Kay holds an MA from Stanford University, and has done extensive learning in the areas of marketing, collaboration, workforce diversity, and high performance team development.

Kathleen Lunny is responsible for daily management of the business. She works directly with clients and affiliate consultants and coordinates office production to fulfill client requests. In addition, she oversees marketing and sales.

Using her experience as a former public relations executive, she promotes American Consulting & Training's workshops, simulations, consulting engagements and publications.

Kathleen holds a B.A. in Speech Communication from California Polytechnic State University, with specializations in Organizational Communication and Technical Writing.