Well known strategic facilitator and organizational mentor Ted Marra has taught and lectured in a number of universities in Boston, Detroit, the U.K., Croatia, and Switzerland. His focus has been on Strategic Leadership and Strategic Stakeholder Relationships. He also has had 27 years experience working with the EFQM Business Excellence and Baldrige Performance Excellence frameworks in organizations around the globe, since first being invited to Washington D.C. as one of a group of 40 'experts' chosen to review and comment on the first draft of the Baldrige Criteria for Performance Excellence in 1987.

He has been directly responsible for business turnarounds, such as Cybernet, the oldest and largest telecom company in Pakistan; the launch of new organization, such as Sybrid, based in Pakistan, but flourishing in America in healthcare; and creating a unique sustainable growth model for an SME systems integrator in Eastern Europe, allowing them do go from 90 to over 200 people, while simultaneously moving from a local/regional market focus to a global one. Aside from working extensively in America and Canada for many years, he has worked in virtually every European country (West, Central, and East), Africa, Caribbean, Puerto Rico, Middle East, including Saudi Arabia, and also Asia, including Korea, Malaysia, Japan, and more.

He is currently a Senior Partner of Insights Paradigm, a unique strategic advisory firm in Dubai and a member of the Board of Knowledge Now/MAX, a global learning organization. In the recent past, he supported Informed Decisions in Sweden in the area of Decision Intelligence and has already undertaken to develop a 'new decision science' model called 'Hyper-Decision Making,' as a part of his collaborative activity. He also has a particular interest and expertise in executive development and business research, such as his unique '7 Deadly Sins of Management' research conducted with CEOs and Managing Directors of leading organizations in Western Europe to determine the senior executive behaviours and practices, which can damage an organization most quickly. He, as well as, has command of the analytical tools and processes for gaining business intelligence through his thought leading work on creating organizational 'sensing systems.' He is well grounded in Process Management/Operational Excellence, including 6-sigma and Lean, HR/Human Performance Excellence, as well as Balanced Scorecard/Performance Measurement, Innovation, Agility/Resiliency, Organizational/Cultural Change, and creating and delivering value to achieve greater competitiveness and profitable growth. He also works as a Senior Consultant with natau management & beratungs gmbh in Switzerland and Professor Emeritus of Strategic Leadership with Cotrugli Business School in Zagreb, Croatia.

Marra is author of numerous reports and articles for The Conference Board in New York, as well as noted European journals such as the European Journal of Quality. He has consulted widely for 44 years in some 40 countries and 160 organizations in virtually every industry and sector (public and private) during the past 40 years and has led transformation initiatives in some of the world's most prominent companies, such as IBM, Shell, Xerox, Johnson and Johnson, Royal Bank of Scotland Group, and Electrolux, as well as having worked extensively with Six Sigma, Performance Measurement and creating Customer Centric Cultures during his engagements. In addition, he was a 'Senior Policy Advisor' to President Reagan while part of the Presidential Executive Exchange Program' beginning in 1980.

For over 25 years, Dr. Marra owned and operated CARE Associates in Kansas City, Missouri, MQI Consulting in Boston, MA and also The Centre for Innovation Management Ltd. in the U.K. Ted is also a gifted speaker and master facilitator, bringing passion, energy, and humor to his work for the delight of his learning session participants. He is visionary, intuitive, and an integrator of ideas and a strategic thinker. He has the capability to take exceptionally complex ideas and transform them into easily digestible and highly actionable components. He is now living in Europe and plans to remain there for the forseeable future.

His clients are truly a 'Who Who' in business, many of which have become household names from Xerox, to IBM, J&J, Royal Bank of Scotland Group, Department of Energy, Irish Life, Anglo-American, Boeing/McDonnell Douglas, London Underground, StoraEnso, Huhtamaki, Atlas Bank, Red Cross, Department of Defence (UK), Electrolux, Nortel, DuPont, VW, First Direct, Direct Line and the list goes on. Ted has worked in virtually every industry and sector—public and private, SMEs as well as with NGOs including educational institutions, medical, and police organizations. Either he has worked directly as an organizational mentor to the CEO and management committee of organizations or as a strategic facilitator, coaching and developing a hand picked strategic business improvement team to assist him in many large scale organizational change transformations at a national and global level.

These adventures with numerous organizations and cultures are now captured in his new book entitled, \"The Wisdom Chronicles: Competing to Win – Lessons Learned for Reaching the Next Level of organizational Performance,\" available on Amazon.

Dr. Ted Marra is the instructor for The Essence of Strategic Leadership.