Bio

Bernard Mohr (left)

Bernard Mohr – Chair, President and R&D Lead, People Powered Innovation Collaborative After a 45 year consulting career spanning multiple continents, working with leading global corporations in the financial services, petro-chemical, pharmaceutical and care delivery sectors, seven books on organizational innovation and pioneering the practice of Appreciative Inquiry in the corporate sector, Bernard co-founded (with Neil Samuels) a not-for-profit action research organization called the People Powered Innovation Collaborative. The Collaborative presumes that business has a both a moral and economic rationale to positively impact the complex social, economic and environmental problems we face. But to do that requires evidence-based, breakthrough ideas, methods and tools. Through our action research process, PPIC works to uncover the best of what exists, to prototype and apply the next level of design practice and make all results openly available Bernard brings to this challenge his commitment to forging a world that works for all, his expertise in inclusive, strength-based Whole System Design, Innovation Accelerator Summits, Dialogic Decision Making and Design Thinking and his experiences in founding two professional service firms. He holds a Masters degree in Organization Change (University of Toronto) and completed his post graduate studies (at Columbia University) in Human Resources Management and Organization Design.

Toni Racco Benner (center)

Toni Racco Benner has 20+ years of experience as a strategic thinking partner, coach and facilitator of strategy deployment and Lean based process innovation and culture change. In partnership with her clients she has significantly improved the engagement, learning, teaming, coaching, leadership, and productivity across supply chains.

As a lifelong learner, Toni is on a journey where Design thinking, Appreciative Inquiry, Lean and Coaching converge as part of reimagining complex socio-technical systems. She believes this is where we can discover how human actions, mindsets and organizational purpose interplay with work systems and operating philosophies.

Toni holds a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from Youngstown State University; and a Master of Science in Positive Organization Development & Change and Coaching and Appreciative Inquiry certifications from the Weatherhead School of Management at Case Western Reserve University. She is a doctoral student in the Doctorate in Organization Development and Change at the Allen W. and Carol M. Schmidthorst College of Business at Bowling Green State University.

Neil Samuels (right)

A respected coach, mentor, and change strategist, Neil has worked with senior leaders on six continents to help them develop themselves, their teams, and their organizations as they navigate through complex, large-scale change. An expert in the field of Appreciative Inquiry, Neil served as adjunct faculty at Pepperdine University’s Graziadio School of Business and Management. He has published in the education, management, and organizational development fields in the US and UK and has presented his work at the Academy of Management, the International Conference on Appreciative Inquiry, and the National Safety Council Congress.

Prior to opening his firm, “Profound Conversations” in 2006, Neil spent 27 years with British Petroleum, completing his work there managing the European organization development team, serving 30,000 employees in 13 countries. Recent clients have included Aviva Investors, Rolls Royce, Glaxo Smith Kline, Celebrity Cruise Lines, BP, Stantec Engineering, the U.S. Geological Survey, International Fluid Power Society, TransGlobe Energy, Kimberly Clark, and Danish Oil and Natural Gas.

In 2020, Neil co-founded (with Bernard Mohr) a not-for-profit action research organization called the People Powered Innovation Collaborative whose purpose is to “Amplify the ability of organizations and their ecosystem partners to forge a world that works for all”. “