Corporate - IL Biographies

Chad is the President of Infinite Learning of Ohio. Chad's expertise is helping companies attract, maintain and retain valued employees. His clients are banks, hospitals, retail chains, automotive suppliers, manufacturing plants and consulting organizations. He works with both blue chip and start-up companies to build solid foundation systems and capabilities focused on maximizing people satisfaction and business performance.

Formerly, Chad led the corporate human resource development function for Rubbermaid (now Newell-Rubbermaid) and the organizational development and sales training functions for the Firestone Tire & Rubber Company - Retail Division.

He has extensive experience designing, implementing and managing core business curriculums. His expertise also includes global leadership development, TQM initiatives, supervisory development, human resource management practices, self-directed work teams and EVA business measurement.

Two recent change initiatives Chad worked on involved implementing Economic Value Added (EVA) business performance measures to support massive cultural shifts focused on measures, and the designing and implementing of an Associate Retention System to proactively address turnover.

Chad is an adjunct professor in Kent State University Executive Master's Program and Baldwin-Wallace College Master's Program. He is also one of twelve founding fellows of the Workforce Stability Institute, which offers research, consulting and educational support services.

Chad has an Executive Master's in Business Administration from Baldwin-Wallace College and a B.A. in Psychology from Thiel College.

J.T. (Tom) Buck

Tom is a co-founder of Infinite Learning and an expert on team development, innovation and implementation of Total Quality Management. He has partnered with such diverse organizations as Ford Motor Company, Amoco Production Company, the U.S. Postal Service, Rubbermaid (now Newell-Rubbermaid) and the Canadian Pacific Rail System.

Tom has served as consultant and manager on numerous large-scale change projects, from working with organization leadership to implementing large-scale change. He has developed, taught and consulted in implementations on leadership, teaming, quality, union-management relations, re-engineering and rational/creative thinking.

Tom has an MBA from Wayne State University and a B.A. from University of Michigan.

Gary Gabel, Ed. D.

Gary is a co-founder of Infinite Learning. He has been a finalist for Entrepreneur of the Year, and regularly speaks to groups throughout the U.S. on the subjects of personal motivation leadership, personal accountability and team effectiveness. He is also President of Great Lakes Strategies, L.L.C. Great Lakes Strategies is a well-known provider of benefits and human resources outsourcing, flexible benefit plans and stock plan administration. The company serves clients throughout the U.S. and was cited a "Future 50" company in 2000.

Gary's professional experience includes seven years in various line management functions and over 20 years in human resources. His published articles include "From Victim to Self-Empowerment," in the Journal of High-Performance Teams, August 1998.

Gary has a B.A. in Economics from University of Michigan, an M.A. in Economics from University of Detroit and a Ph.D in Human Resource Development from George Washington University, Washington, D.C.

David Hultgren, PH. D.

David is the Director of Client Services for Infinite Learning. David Hultgren has been involved in education and training for over 25 years, and has a broad range of experience working with the adult learner. Since 1985, he has served as a corporate consultant and trainer. Dr. Hultgren has designed, developed and delivered training programs in leadership, communication, team building, speaking and selling for numerous corporations globally.

His expertise includes Instructional Systems Design (ISD). In a recent custom training and consulting intervention, he worked with Canada’s life insurance regulators to design a new pre-certification training program and certification examination.

Throughout his career, Dr. Hultgren has conducted hundreds of workshops in the U.S. and around the world. To date, he has worked with clients in the U.S., Canada, Japan, Malaysia, the Republic of Singapore, France, Switzerland, Austria, New Zealand, and the Republic of South Africa.

Dr. Hultgren’s interest and expertise in cross-cultural understanding has been employed in a variety of projects. He led the design, development and implementation of a five-day cross-cultural leadership academy for Japanese and American managers of a Japanese tier one automotive supplier. This project was highlighted in a presentation he made at the annual conference of the International Federation of Training and Development Organizations (IFTDO) in Porto Alegre, Brazil during April 2001.

An interesting example of a project involving the merging of organizational development consulting, training along with an international dimension was a customer-focused team implementation with a large computer manufacturer. Dr. Hultgren was involved in the concept design, participant material development, early team initiations to finalize the team-launch structure, and the training of consultant facilitators. Dr. Hultgren was also instrumental in implementing the quality control of the program's content and delivery through the rollout of over 450 teams in 43 countries.

Dr. Hultgren also consults with clients undertaking organizational change initiatives. In this change consultant capacity, Dr. Hultgren has worked with clients in both the public and private sectors. His consulting work has included facilitating strategic planning sessions, conducting executive interviews, and working with process redesign teams. To maximize both output and the efficient use of clients’ time, Dr. Hultgren often uses electronic facilitation tools in his consulting engagements.

Dr. Hultgren holds a Ph.D. in Education from Michigan State University. His work there emphasized curriculum development and instruction.

Paul A. Zuelch

Paul is Director of Client Engagement for Infinite Learning. His areas of expertise in human resources include human resource development, organizational development, employment and equal employment opportunity. He is experienced in the areas of process improvement, team building, team facilitation and QS 9000 and is a certified QS 9000 Auditor. He has 18 years experience as a human resources professional in the manufacturing, service and health care industries, of which 12 years were in the area of total quality improvement.

Previously, Paul was the Total Quality Manager for SPX Corporation, where he was responsible for developing and implementing a corporate-wide total quality improvement process. His last assignment there, before joining Infinite Learning, involved project management for the training portion of the organization's information technology transformation.

Human resources, training and development and strategic planning are other areas Paul has worked as a manager.

Paul has a B.A. is Psychology and Organizational Behavior from University of Michigan.