Biographies
Edward Silva
President
Ed, former Senior Vice President for HRDQ Consulting, now represents their products as a segment of the offerings of OLS. He was also Senior Vice President for The Fair, Inc., a specialty retail store in the Southwest. Ed also has experience as a Management Training Specialist for Gimbels, Philadelphia, and as a private school teacher. He has 15 years experience as an external consultant facilitating training programs to large corporations and organizations in North America, South America, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia.
Ed holds a B.A. degree from the University of Massachusetts at Lowell and has done graduate work at Temple University. Ed received the Outstanding Leadership award from the Beaumont, Texas Chamber of Commerce. He also received the National Association of Community Leaders Award.
Stefanie Heiter
Senior Consultant
Stefanie Heiter is among the nation's leading thinkers and consultants in the human side of virtual work. She provides expertise in such areas as leadership and team development for those located in the same place and virtually.
Stefanie's clients include many of today's leading businesses, such as Microsoft, Teradyne, United Technologies, and Verizon. She has improved each of these firms' ability to thrive in today's virtual world by reducing, targeting, and/or improving their use of all virtual communications with customers, vendors, employees, and the public.
Stefanie has a Bachelor's degree in Psychology from Clark University and a Master of Science in Organization and Management from Antioch University.
Sonia St. Charles
Senior Consultant
Sonia St. Charles has over 25 years of experience as a business leader, human resources executive, and professional facilitator. Her management background provides her with the insight to effectively coach her clients, because she understands the issues that today’s leaders face.
Most recently she served as Chief Executive Officer & Founder of Davenport Group, one of the country’s fastest-growing data protection solutions vendors. Prior to developing Davenport Group, St. Charles was a senior vice president for Deluxe Corporation. Before that she held executive leadership roles at PaperDirect, TRC, The Entrepreneurs Consulting Group and Resort Condominiums International (RCI). She also founded and was president of St. Charles & Associates, a human resources and organizational development consulting firm.
She graduated from the University of Tennessee with a bachelor’s degree in business and completed post-graduate work at Harvard University. Her facilitation clients include MBNA, Abbott Laboratories, Exxon, Texaco, American Express, IBM, California Closets, Delta Airlines, Williams Sonoma, Farm Credit Services, Sheraton Hotels, Chevron, and Phillips.
Vince Whelan
Senior Consultant
Vince Whelan is Managing Director of the human resources consulting firm of Whelan Global Associates LLC, which specializes in providing the human resources expertise required to expand into broader domestic or international markets.
He has over 30 years of global experience in compensation and benefits plan design and implementation, staffing, selection and placement of key personnel, international and local company regulations development and implementation, expatriate management and policy design and implementation, human resources process and administration design and implementation and organizational effectiveness and strategic human resources planning.
Prior to establishing WGA, Vince was a senior human resources executive for a number of multinational companies including Halliburton, BJ Services, Great Lakes Chemical, PowerWell Services, Nowsco Well Services, EGL Freight and Western Company of North America. His experience encompasses a variety of industries including oilfield services, manufacturing and transportation. Vince has an MA in organizational management and a BBA.
Markku Kauppinen
President, Extended DISC, North America - Partner
Markku oversees the North American operations of Extended DISC. He is the founder of Extended DISC, North America, Inc., and introduced Extended DISC assessments to the United States in 1997. He plays an active role in product development by focusing on the practical applications of the assessment tools.
Markku is also very involved in the education of Extended DISC users, and he has worked with clients such as Nokia, Halliburton, Sumitoma Bakelite, Entergy, and Tricon Restaurants International in the United States, Europe, Asia, and Latin America. He also worked with the New Orleans Small Business Development Center and consulted with small businesses in management, operational, human resources, finance, and marketing issues. Markku was born in Helsinki, Finland, and immigrated to the United States in 1984.
He has a Bachelor's degree in Management Marketing and an M.B.A. in Finance; he was the valedictorian in both of his collegiate graduating classes.