Craig is a partner in The Gatehouse Alliance and Insights Seattle.  He is the author of the just released book The Gatehouse: A Book about Business, A Story about Life, a business novel that focuses on new business paradigms of the 21st Century as well as life lessons for personal transformation. The Gatehouse won the Writers Notes Magazine Business Book Award for 2004. 

Craig founded the Applied Thinking and Creativity Team at The Boeing Company, which provided tools and strategies to think more efficiently, effectively and creatively, and was also the Director of Quality Assurance for one of the three Boeing Divisions.  Craig is one of only a handful of Master Trainers worldwide in both Six Thinking Hats and Lateral Thinking and he was on Innovation ’98, a worldwide broadcast on creativity, innovation, and business strategy.  He is a regular speaker across North America and the U.K. on business topics such as communication, spirit and passion in the workplace, cultural transformation, and creativity to include the SAP Global Leadership Conference in June 2004, the Fortune Magazine Conference on Human Resources—The New Agenda, and the American Creativity Association National Conference, where he was the keynote speaker in 2002.

His interesting and diverse background includes being an intelligence officer—where besides “regular” intelligence work he served as the assistant to the Commanding General of the U.S. Army Intelligence Center and School—and a professional bowler.  He also served as the President of the American Cancer Society’s East King County unit.

His education includes a Bachelor of Arts in English with an emphasis in Written Communication from Santa Clara University where he was selected Phi Beta Kappa, and a Master of Science in Systems Management from the University of Southern California, which he earned with Magna Cum Laude honors.

David Labno, is a partner in The Gatehouse Alliance and Insights in the Twin Cities and Seattle. In his consulting practice, he has worked with numerous companies large and small in addition to his work with government, education and other non-profit organizations. He has significant knowledge of creativity and innovation methods, personality and organizational assessment and development processes. He is dedicated to improving people, processes, products and the working environment.

He was previously an Internal Innovation Consultant with General Mills Inc., Program Chair of the Institute for Creativity and Innovation at the University of St. Thomas and Director of the Graduate Program in Applied Creativity and Innovation at Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota.

David received his Bachelors degrees from The University of St. Thomas in St. Paul and a Masters of Science in Creativity and Innovation from the Center for Studies in Creativity (S.U.N.Y). He has numerous regional and national conference presentations and keynotes as well as a paper in submission to a professional journal to his credit.

LeAnn Elkins is Chief Learning Officer for the Gatehouse Alliance.  She is a facilitator, trainer, and consultant in teaming, communication, creativity, high performing organizations and leadership development with 17 years experience in a corporate environment.  LeAnn combines her expertise and training skills to develop and deliver high impact programs that are interactive, experiential and learner-centered.  LeAnn’s work has been featured in US News and World Report, The Seattle Times, Effective Meetings, Quality, and Bright Magazine. LeAnn holds a Bachelor of Science Business Administration and is a Master Trainer in both Insights Discovery and Edward de Bono’s Six Thinking Hats.

Kristin Lenseigne is the Operations Coordinator for The Gatehouse Alliance.  Prior to joining The Gatehouse Alliance, Kristin worked for The Boeing Company as well as Northern Life Insurance Company. 

She is the chairman and chief cybernetics officer of the Allison Group, LLC, a New York-based international consulting firm that develops, provides, and licenses practical tools to develop and sustain high performing teams and flexible organizational planning. Mary Ann’s experience includes internal and external management, strategic planning, and product development and delivery. In 1996, she co-founded and was president of Human Ordered Technology, an Internet start-up company specializing in the development of branded Internet services and intelligent agent software.

Mary Ann was with Citibank for 16 years where she worked with emerging technologies on a global basis. She was part of the team that took the credit card division, now a major contributor to Citicorp’s profits, from near bankruptcy to profitability. Ms. Allison was also part of the team that developed banking by personal computer, opening the first virtual branch bank, and she created Citibank’s global banking-by-telephone line of services.

Kathy Bass has extensive experience working business leaders and executives at small and large companies alike. Her work includes professional coaching and self development, team building workshops, conflict resolution and customized consulting. Past experience includes President of a $150 million travel services company that was recognized as “Best Company to Work for” by Washington CEO magazine as well as other national recognition.

Kathy is an Certified Professional Coach, accredited in Insights Discovery and is a Faculty member at the Secretan Center in Canada.

A graduate of the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania, Christy earned an MBA in Marketing and Strategic Management. She earned a B.S. degree from Cornell, as well as her Business German certification from New York University. Christy has completed coursework at the Creative Problem Solving Institute (CPSI), and is earning her coaching certification at Coach U.

Marcia’s work has been featured in a special edition of the American Compensation Association Journal. In addition, Marcia has served as a speaker at a variety of conferences including The Conference Board, The International Quality and Productivity Center, The International Association of Business Communicators, and The Alliance of Work/Life Professionals.

Marcia Ellis graduated from the University of Connecticut with a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology and received her coach’s training from The Coaches Training Institute.

In addition, Dike is a Board certified Family Practice Physician with 14 years of private practice experience. Formerly, he was CEO of a Multi-specialty Medical Group and a Managed Care Medical Director. Dike is also a Certified Professional Coach.

Exceptional facilitation and communication skills, dynamic energy and a sense of humor, contribute to Peg's success in working with diverse groups and organizations. Creative and focused, process and results-oriented, skillful in negotiating challenging situations, Peg is committed to continuous learning as a priority in individuals and organizations.

Since 1993, Peg has achieved success in a wide range of settings from global corporations to non-profit and governmental agencies using her expertise as consultant, facilitator and trainer. As a mediator, she has established a reputation as a skilled negotiator providing meditation services to government, business and schools.

Professionally, she has worked at NordicTrack in health promotion/training, Rollerblade in employee wellness and administration, and at LifeTime Fitness as a project manager focusing mainly on fitness/health education, training and leadership development.

Annie has appeared on Minneapolis TV and radio stations, at the Minneapolis Women's Expo, presented seminars across the country on wellness, and has been a guest speaker for online chats sponsored by Medformation.

Annie specializes in "people development" training design and facilitation, thinking style assessment and training, organization development, and personal training and coaching.

Mark's broad education and industrial experience are well suited for innovation. He received his Bachelors degree in Aerospace Engineering and Mechanics with extra classes in chemistry from the University of Minnesota in 1976. In 1979 he received his Masters degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Michigan. He received TRIZ specialist certification in 1998.

Mark's industrial experience has emphasized product and process innovation. As an engineer at Chrysler, he was a pioneer in the use of computer-aided engineering and cross-functional teams. At 3M, he was a top inventor and entrepreneur. Several of his products and projects have been featured as examples of 3M innovation. The first 3M product sold over the Internet was one of Mark's inventions. As an entrepreneur, Mark has started and run a successful adhesive test equipment business.

As a TRIZ specialist, Mark has used TRIZ to solve difficult design problems, find hidden sources of quality problems, strengthen patent applications, and circumvent competitor's patents. He also has used TRIZ to forecast future product and process developments.

He is particularly knowledgeable in the areas of inventive problem solving, corporate technology transfer, and the use of different skill sets and tools in developing inventive organizations.

He has been trained in the use of a variety of innovation tools like DeBono's Lateral Thinking and Six Hats, Michael Kirton's Adaptive/Innovative assessment tools, and TRIZ, a unique software assisted problem solving methodology.

Jack is a chemical engineer, receiving his degree from Carnegie Mellon University in 1967. After a 30-year career in the chemical industry, where he spent significant time in the innovation and creativity area, he became involved with innovation and creativity methods full time in 1997, by joining Ideation International, a leader in the development of the TRIZ methodology and state of the art software. In 1998 he joined Idea Connections, adding TRIZ to their existing innovation program.

During his industrial career, he was responsible for the Discovery Research program in Dow Chemical's largest division as well as its corporate chemical engineering research program. During this time, many new commercial products were launched which were outside the existing business focus. At Cabot Corp. and Ansell Edmont, he was responsible for major new technology programs in specialty inorganics and breakthrough process technology for protective equipment.

Jack has published articles in the journals of The Technology Transfer Society, the American Creativity Association, the World Future Society, and the American Institute of Chemical Engineers. He has made many presentations at meetings of the National Center for Manufacturing Sciences and the EPA. He has given TRIZ tutorials for the American Supplier Institute and Ideation International.

A graduate of the Player's Workshop of the Second City, Russ serves as a facilitator and "innovative brain" for a variety of clients including: Allstate, DuPont, Kraft, Tenneco, Avery-Dennison and SUNY Buffalo. Russ also works with enhancing leadership, communication and problem solving skills among youth.

Russ completed his Master of Science degree in Creativity and Innovation from the Center for Studies in Creativity (SUNY College at Buffalo) and draws on his extensive psychology and improvisation background to help organizations develop creative solutions. Russ is also a leader at both the annual Creative Problem Solving Institute and the Healthy Lifestyles camp sponsored by the Creative Education Foundation.

Charmaine Sullivan has more than 30 years of experience in all facets of global product development. Her primary area of expertise is in consumer research using creative techniques to understand unarticulated needs, then applying these to product and market development. She has talked with consumers in 30 countries, and has worked with numerous global teams on billion dollar brands. While at Procter & Gamble, she brought in and developed innovative facilitation techniques, which formed the basis for a network of more than 200 internal facilitation experts. She is a certified Insights practitioner and an associate of the Gatehouse Alliance. Charmaine holds a bachelor's degree in engineering physics from the University of Illinois and a Master of Business Administration in international marketing from Xavier University.

Gerard has worked as a trainer, facilitator and consultant for many organizations throughout the US & Europe. As an author, Gerard has written numerous articles, chapters and books that have been published in publications such as the Journal of Creative Behavior, The Creativity Research Journal, and The Creativity and Innovation Yearbook.

Gerard is also the creator of the Buffalo Problem Solving Style Inventory and is certified to administer the Myers-Brigs type indicator and the Kirton-Adaption Innovation Inventory. He has a Master of Science Degree in Creativity and Innovation and a Ph.D. in Organizational Psychology from the University of Manchester, UK.

Diana Vickers is an international consultant with over 30 years of teamwork experience. She helps individuals improve their personal performance and thus leverage their contribution to the success of the business.

Diana obtained her master’s degree in Organizational Innovation at the University of Connecticut. Since then she has achieved breakthrough results and improved the bottom line for clients as diverse as Atlantis Paradise Island Bahamas, Kerzner International, AEtna Life & Casualty, The Hartford Financial Services Group, the town of Wilmington Vermont, the University of Connecticut, and Outthink. Diana also applied her tools and expertise to work commissioned by Governor Lowell Weicker in the 1990 Progress Council, which resulted in statewide initiatives that continue to provide a quality of life to those in Connecticut.