PPG Associates

The professionals at Peak Performance Group have exceptional knowledge, expertise, corporate leadership experience, and advanced degrees in the fields most valuable to our clients including: business operations, human resources, organization development, team development, motivation, negotiation, conflict management, interpersonal influence, adult education and organizational psychology.

PPG matches each client's need with exactly the right expert. We engage only in projects in which we have the experience and expertise and on topics and issues we are fully qualified to address and resolve.

Peak Performance Group, Inc. and individual staff hold Top Secret Security clearances with multiple governmental organizations.

Dr. Wayne W. Crouch

Dr. Crouch is a consultant and educator who works with clients in the classroom and through consulting relationships. His clients include corporations of all sizes, groups, and individuals. He is a certified mediator of workplace conflict. He specializes in conflict management, team building, team leadership training, meeting facilitation and communication skills training. His work with intact teams has helped them increase productivity, decrease mistakes, and improve their internal working relationships.

He has held positions on the Faculty of the Corporate Education Center at Boston University and as a Management Development Consultant in the Executive Programs Division of Babson College. Prior to that he was the director of a major research project and Associate Professor in the School of Information Studies at Syracuse University where he was responsible for activities and programs pertaining to interpersonal communication in a technical environment. He has also taught communication skills to foreign nationals for the U. S. Agency for International Development. He has been associated with the College of Engineering at the University of Illinois, the Department of Communication at Michigan State University, the Liberal Arts Division of Babson College, the Naval Underwater Systems Center, and AT&T.

Dr. Crouch has his B.S. in physics and mathematics and an M.S. in journalism from the University of Illinois, and his Ph.D. is in the behavioral sciences/communication from Michigan State University. His work has taken him to India, Hong Kong, and Canada as well as major business centers in the United States. Companies that have used his services include Con Edison, UTC, Otis Elevator, Baxter, Bell South Services, UNUM Life Insurance Company of America, The Travelers, Union Pacific Railroad, and American Power Conversion.

Dr. Betty Doo

Dr. Betty Doo is a Management Psychologist and Leadership Consultant who provides Executive Coaching, Assessment and Management Consultation. She delivers a highly customized consulting service and is adept at partnering with leaders from all levels of an organization and diverse industries. She has a growing interest in "Executive Diversity", recognizing the strategic need for organizations to attract, develop, promote and retain diverse leadership talent. Betty is an Executive Coach with the Harvard Business School"s Executive Education Department working with emerging leaders from around the world.

Betty's professional experience encompasses work in diverse industries including global manufacturing, professional services, the heathcare industry and academia in varied roles including: Organizational Development, Career Management, Research, Quality Improvement and Counseling. She received her Doctorate from Harvard University in Human Development and Psychology, an innovative behavioral sciences program, and has received extensive training beyond her Doctorate in management and organizational fields. She holds certifications in Executive Coaching, is a Licensed Psychologist, and is qualified to deliver diverse assessments for individual and organizational development.

Betty's professional affiliations include: The Human Resources Leadership Forum, the American Psychological Association, the Society for Consulting Psychology, the American College of Healthcare Executives, and the National Society of Hispanic MBAs. Her community service includes membership on the Board of Directors of Employment Options, Inc., a nonprofit agency, and she is an Ambassador for the Latinos in College program, a public awareness campaign to ensure Latinos are successful in achieving a college education.

Thomas R. Evans

Tom is the founder of Team Technologies, a training and consulting firm dedicated to helping people work better together. He has over 20 years of experience specializing in the development and delivery of customized training programs in interpersonal, communication and project management skills to increase worker productivity and effectiveness. He has worked extensively with all types of work teams, from project and cross-functional to self-directed/self-managed. He has worked in various industries, including insurance, financial management, manufacturing, and pharmaceutical, as well as many non-profits.

Prior to forming Team Technologies, Mr. Evans was an internal organizational development consultant for The Travelers Companies in Hartford, Connecticut. Concentrating his work in the information systems department, he worked extensively in team development and training for all types of teams providing on-going consulting and performance measurement support for those teams.

Mr. Evans has a technical background and prior to his organizational development work, designed and delivered technical training. Mr. Evans has a BA in Mathematics and Computer Science from the State University of New York at Brockport. He is certified in various personality and assessment tools. He has been a member of the American Society for Training and Development and served as an active board member of the Western New England Organizational Development Network for several years.

Steve Frigand, MA

Steve Frigand specializes in executive and management team coaching and process consulting. He has more than 20 years of experience working with leaders in a variety of industries including technology, transportation, financial services, education, health care, and government. He works side-by-side with clients to create cohesive teams to shorten the timeframe to sustainable, measurable results. Steve is an exceptional facilitator who develops customized solutions for each client to help simplify complex issues and to effectively engage appropriate stakeholders. He has found that clarity, humor, and being open to experimentation help individuals and groups move forward, enabling them to tackle the most daunting issues. Prior to coaching and consulting, Steve held several senior management positions for Compaq Computer/Digital Equipment Corporation, where he was responsible for business planning and integration, strategic analysis, and market planning.

Steve earned a master's degree in management from the Sloan School at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a bachelor's degree in economics from Tufts University. He is certified in a variety of assessment tools and is a member of the NorthStar Alliance, International Coaches Collaborative, the Boston Facilitator Roundtable, and has joined the Board of Directors of the Human Resources Leadership Forum. He has designed and taught courses in the Coaching Certification Program at Cambridge College, and for the last seven years has won the Distler Family Endowment for the course he developed and continues to teach at Tufts University, "Ethical Leadership in Business." Steve resides in Arlington, Massachusetts.

Dr. Lois Sekerak Hogan

For over 25 years Dr. Hogan has consulted in a broad range of industries to all levels of leadership and on a variety of business challenges. As an applied behavioral scientist, she balances the rigor of achieving measureable and sustainable business results with a down-to-earth style, practical sensibility and a sense of humor.

She has worked as a professional business coach, consultant, trainer and facilitator on assignments that have involved her in many of the key issues facing business in this era of global competition: from designing and implementing change initiatives to improving leader effectiveness, executing strategies and performance improvement. Industries she has worked in range from healthcare and pharmaceutical to financial services, the oil and gas industry, railroad and transportation, public utilities, universities and school systems, government agencies and more.

Her work spans the spectrum from the executive suite to the frontline. Lois has worked side-by-side with clients "in the field" helping middle and frontline managers convert plans and goals into performance that matters. Executives working with Lois report that she challenges them to better understand how their own behavior affects the performance of others which is turn affects business results - an essential leadership skill.

Lois received her doctorate in Human and Organizational Systems from Fielding Institute and also holds two Masters degrees. She is certified in multiple personality and assessment tools as well as in Executive Coaching.

Stephen Josephs

Stephen Josephs' 30-year executive coaching practice has grown through decades of training and research. With his knowledge of business performance, psychology, and mind/body disciplines, he helps leaders attain new levels of agility. In working with clients Stephen guides them in achieving two measurable results: their leadership makes a difference and they expand their capacity to lead by meeting their challenges in new ways. A skilled performer himself (classical guitar, improvisational theater, keynotes), he uses the arts to raise the fun quotient in business and helps executives in their presentations, their "executive presence," and their ability to influence others.

Stephen has worked across industries and sectors including hi-tech, manufacturing, hospitality, education and government. He holds a doctorate from the University of Massachusetts and masters degrees from Harvard and Antioch Universities. He has taken post-doctoral courses at Harvard and M.I.T. in organizational development. The International Coach Federation has certified him as a Master Certified Coach.With co-author Bill Joiner, Stephen has written Leadership Agility: Five Levels of Mastery for Anticipating and Initiating Change (Jossey-Bass, 2007). The book shows how being at one stage or another of adult development significantly affects a leader's capacity to lead.

Steve Leichtman

Steve Leichtman is a seasoned Executive Coach and Leadership Development professional. For over twenty-five years Steve has helped leaders and companies achieve business results through building individual and organizational effectiveness. Because Steve has been a member of executive teams responsible for creating and executing strategy during turbulent times, his coaching is reality-based and business-driven. This pragmatic coaching approach reflects a deep understanding, across many industries and corporate cultures, of what really works for leaders who successfully grow their skills to address changing circumstances.

As a Vice President at Fidelity Investments, Steve served in both Corporate and Business Unit leadership roles, where he provided executive coaching and leadership development support to senior executives and their teams. As a member of the Executive Team at Tufts Health Plan, Steve served as Executive Coach and Vice President of Organization Effectiveness, heading Executive and Leadership Development, Management Training and Internal Communications. Prior to his focus on leadership development, Steve provided business coaching and counsel to senior executives as a consultant at Mercer Management Consulting, Bain and Company, and Associates for International Research.

Steve was recently selected into the Network of Senior International Leadership Coaches for the Foundation for International Leadership Coaching. Due to the innovative and successful results of Steve's coaching, his approach has been profiled in the books "The Coaching Organization", (James M. Hunt), and "Creativity, Inc." (Jeff Mauzy). He is certified in a wide variety of leadership, competency and team effectiveness instruments, and is a member of the Human Resources Leadership Forum. Steve holds an MBA from the Sloan School of Management at MIT, where he concentrated in Marketing and International Management. Steve's undergraduate degree is from The University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School of Business (magna cum laude), where he majored in Labor Relations and Political Science.

Dr. Harriet Nezer

Dr. Harriet Nezer's work has focused on identifying leadership and management development needs within organizations, coaching and designing innovative programs that resulted in greatly improved performance of individuals and their organizations. Harriet's broad and varied experience helps her zero in on the central issues confronting individuals coaching them to enhance their effectiveness as leaders gain influence, motivate others and produce enhanced business results. As a creative learning specialist and instructional designer, she works with organizations to zero in on their employees learning needs and to design and present programs with significant long-term effectiveness.

Dr. Nezer uses the knowledge and experiences that she has gained in over 20 years as a coach, learning specialist, instructional designer and consultant to assist clients in industries such as investment and financial services, audit, tax and advisory services, biotech and pharmaceutical, health care, public safety and higher education. Earlier in her career, Harriet was responsible for professional development in several large school systems and an entrepreneur who's highly successful retail venture won the "Best of Boston" award from Boston Magazine.

Dr. Nezer earned her Doctorate in Education and Public Administration from Boston College, Chestnut Hill, MA, a Masters Degree from Southern Connecticut State University, New Haven, Ct. and a Bachelors Degree from the University of Massachusetts/Amherst. She is certified in several leadership assessment, psychological and emotional intelligence instruments.

Carol Salloway, MBA

Carol has been an organizational consultant for over 20 years with emerging growth and start up companies and well established companies in the technology, biotechnology, financial services and health care industries as well as not-for-profit organizations. Her earlier career involved starting up and running the student service organization at a Boston area graduate school.

As an organizational consultant and executive coach, Carol designs, develops and delivers programs and services that enhance individual and organizational effectiveness. She is known for helping individuals and teams achieve clarity about issues, opportunities and actions that lead to results.

Carol earned a Bachelors degree in Psychology from Simmons College and an MBA degree from Boston University, with a concentration in organizational behavior.She is a certified professional coach through New Ventures West Integral Coaching Program and is certified in a wide variety of leadership, competency and team effectiveness instruments.

Service Partners

Peter Kaplan, President and Founder, PK Hunter Associates

PK Hunter Associates brings a personalized approach to executive search. Their clients always work with a dedicated partner and research team, who are focused and committed to exceeding expectations. They take the time to understand each client's business. PK Hunter employs a competency-based search methodology that helps clients identify desired skills and behaviors and leads to superior hiring decisions. They strive to place executives with the ideal background, attitude and approach in the most timely and effective manner. Companies look for external executive leadership assistance when they face a set of internal issues that they are not equipped to resolve on their own. Determining the best approach requires a true partnership between the search firm and the client.

Their professionals are committed to delivering customized solutions to our clients. Renowned for their expertise in executive search and management assessment, PK Hunter consultants provide insight into the broad spectrum of strategic, financial, operational, and human capital challenges that companies face. They have access to an extensive network of business leaders across industry and functional areas. In addition to their ability to identify, assess, and facilitate the optimal executive leadership solution, they provide leaders the support needed to successfully transition into their new role and meet their business objectives easily.