Each The Alternative Board Facilitator is an experienced business person who has successfully completed the TAB Facilitator Training Program. Most facilitators run or have run their own businesses. The TAB Facilitator guides the group discussions without dominating the meetings and encourages all members to express their views while keeping the discussion on track. They also ensure problem solving ideas are generated and the meeting does not become a gripe session.
Gary Ellenbogen is an organizational and social psychologist. He has also been a technical consultant, educator and small business owner. Over a thirty-year career, this diverse but interconnected background has brought him to where he is today - motivating and guiding business owners to achieve their own business and personal visions and goals.
Gary coaches business owners in the areas of business development, time and project management, team building, and creative problem solving. “Failing to plan is planning to fail.” Thus, he emphasizes strategic planning so you have a big picture view of where you want to go, as well as attention to detail. He does this through individual coaching together with the benefits of proven group-dynamic approaches.
Gary’s professional experience spans the gamut: from being a small business owner himself, to working with leading edge Fortune 100 companies. As an organizational and social psychologist, he published ground-breaking research on the Social Psychology of Creativity. While teaching at the University of Vermont and the SUNY college system, he taught courses in Experimental-Design & Statistics, Introductory Psychology, Social Psychology and Motivation. Gary also developed highly specialized courses on Brainstorming and the Social Psychology of Creativity.
As a consultant, Gary has been retained by leading law firms to provide time management and law office automation services, including: Akerman, Senterfitt & Eidson; Bryan Cave; Dechert Price & Rhoads; New York State Defenders Association, and the house counsel at Progressive Insurance. Gary has also worked with some of the world’s best known global companies to help them manage and implement complex multi-vendor solutions, including: Nielson Media Research, Avis/Budget, Pitney Bowes, City of New York, U.S. Department of Defense, and the Centers for Disease Control. In 2001, he worked with technology early-adopters General Electric, Sprint, Vodafone and Orange, on the implementation of enterprise email for wireless smartphones. In 2003, he developed and implemented a field service solution for the Imagistics division of Pitney Bowes that eliminated paper by moving all of the service and repair job tickets to smartphones, and in doing so, increased the productivity of their 1200 field service representatives from 7 to 10 completed jobs per day. More recently Gary served as a consultant to New York City’s Taxi & Limousine Commission (TLC) on the design and implementation of wireless GPS and e-Pay systems for the city’s 13,000 taxis.
Gary is a member of the American Psychological Association. He has served on the Board of Advisors of several early-stage venture capital groups, and he currently serves on the board of a medical device manufacturing company. In conjunction with The CIO Forum, Gary facilitated thinktank groups of Fortune 500 CIO’s in assessing and brainstorming the applicability of new technologies in the current economy. In the spring of 2007 he was interviewed by The Economist regarding his CIO Forum activities, and subsequently quoted in an article they ran on enterprise mobility.
Gary’s coaching skills are not limited to the boardroom, as he is also a certified skiing coach and member of the Professional Ski Instructors of America.