WASHINGTON (PRWEB)
March 09, 2020

PACENation announced today the featured speakers for the 2020 PACENation Summit, the national event dedicated to Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE). PACE is a voluntary financing option that enables property owners to make critical energy, water and resilience upgrades to their homes and businesses.

The Summit will be held in Columbus, OH from March 30-April 1, and will feature over 25 sessions and collaborative workshops with over 90 expert speakers, including capital providers, state and federal policy makers, commercial property owners and representatives from the largest PACE markets across the country. Attendees will have the opportunity to participate in multiple networking receptions, including a She-PACE reception for women working in PACE, an offsite reception sponsored by Bricker & Eckler, a live PACE project tour, and more. To see the full agenda and learn more about the Summit, visit https://pacenation.org/events.

Featured Speakers:

Yaphett El-Amin is the Executive Director of MOKAN Construction Contractors Assistance Center and President of Efficacy Consulting and Development. A former Missouri state legislator, Yaphett has more than 20 years’ experience in the construction industry, specializing in minority business support and workforce development. Over the past 8 years, Yaphett has also built more than 200 affordable housing units for seniors and working families directly in urban communities.                     

W. Craig Fugate served as President Barack Obama’s FEMA Administrator from May 2009 to January 2017. Previously, he served as Florida Governor Jeb Bush’s Emergency Management Director from 2001-2009. Fugate led FEMA through multiple record-breaking disaster years and oversaw the Federal Government’s response to major events such as the Joplin and Moore Tornadoes, Hurricane Sandy, Hurricane Matthew, and the 2016 Louisiana flooding.                    

Lonnie Hendry, Jr. is Vice President of Commercial Real Estate (CRE) product management with Trepp, LLC with a specialization in valuation, appraisals and financial analysis. With a background spanning 16 years in the commercial real estate industry, he is charged with creating and enhancing Trepp’s CRE products and client solutions.  His experience includes conventional multifamily property management and development, commercial and residential leasing, brokerage and appraisal.                     

Glenn Prickett is Founder and Principal of Rock Creek Strategies, LLC. Glenn launched Rock Creek Strategies in 2019, after three decades of leadership in global development, corporate sustainability, and environmental, natural resource, and climate change policy and practice.                    

For more information and to register for the event, visit http://pacenation.org/events.

PACENation is the national nonprofit association that works to expand access to PACE financing. Our members enable millions of American property owners to increase the efficiency and resiliency of their homes and businesses with PACE. To learn more and join PACENation, visit http://pacenation.org.

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BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (PRWEB)
March 09, 2020

Companies need leaders. Promoting high performing persons from within the organization, while common practice across many different industries, isn’t necessarily setting new leaders up for success. To that end, Dale Carnegie of Northern and Central Alabama is delivering two new leadership programs designed to develop emerging leaders while setting the teams within the organization up for success. Talk of Alabama’s Nicole Allshouse spoke with President of Northern and Central Alabama, Nancy Covert, recently to learn more about these new leadership offerings.

Dale Carnegie has recently started delivering 2 new Leadership Programs to address the ever-changing training needs of organizations. Based on the fact that the role leaders play in organizational success is vitally important, these two new programs are addressing the lack of guidance that exists when high performing team members find themselves in a new leadership role; effectively guiding leaders to achieve goals, drive results, and align their teams.

Without guidance, new leaders are left to figure it out for themselves, or fail. Dale Carnegie’s leadership training can speed up the transformation and help to ensure success. The Dale Carnegie Course is a solid foundation for those looking to lead themselves by focusing on their self-confidence and interpersonal skills. The Dale Carnegie Leadership Curriculum addresses additional leadership needs which focus on developing the competencies specific to new and experienced leaders

Dale Carnegie believes in bringing out the greatness in others, and that leadership is about working through/with other people—in trusting and dynamic relationships that inspire, engage, and align efforts—to realize desired organizational outcomes. The successful leader recognizes that leadership is not about doing the work or taking credit for it, but enabling and inspiring others to be successful. While sometimes the leadership role comes with opportunities to dictate, more often it’s about gaining buy-in and commitment through exercising influence patiently and with skill. That means leadership boils down to achieving results through other people.

Dale Carnegie of Central and North Alabama President, Nancy Covert explains, “While this may sound simple, it requires engaging many people or teams, managing competing priorities, providing compelling direction, and trying to figure out how to achieve results without unlimited resources.” Doing this requires that leaders role model essential competencies and apply principles, tools, and processes that bring out the best in people. By doing so, key leadership outcomes emerge which are critical for achieving the leaders desired performance results. Nancy also notes, “Unfortunately, these are skills in which few leaders receive adequate training as they are promoted into positions of leadership.”

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The Dale Carnegie Difference

• 
  Human Relations principles that are time-tested, global, timeless and universal, and guide everything that individuals and organizations do.
• Dale Carnegie provides practical skills that can be applied (not mere theories, buzzwords, or flavors of the month)
• Being a leader means being responsible for more than just yourself, and that is stressful. That’s why these programs provide practices to help reduce stress and worry.
• The programs are based on the wisdom and expertise gained from developing leaders longer than anyone else in the marketplace. Rather than trying to have people be someone they’re not, Dale Carnegie helps people bring out their greatness –their authentic self.
• Expertise from the organization that literally wrote the book on influence and building relationships. The knowledge and skills to work on getting things done through others

Upcoming Programs at Dale Carnegie of Central and North Alabama:

• Dale Carnegie Course – March 25-27, 2020
• Dale Carnegie Develop Your Leadership Potential – March 24, 2020
• Dale Carnegie Leadership Training for Results – May 1, 2020

If you’d like to know more about this or any of the programs Dale Carnegie of Central and North Alabama has to offer, call 205-444-5011 or visit https://birmingham.dalecarnegie.com/events/. Click here to view the full Talk of Alabama segment. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n2bhnPCDbxg&feature=youtu.be

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CHICAGO (PRWEB)
March 09, 2020

Catalytic, the easiest-to-use, next-generation digital process automation platform, today announced the findings from its 2020 report on closing the digital maturity gap and scaling process automation enterprise-wide to gain competitive differentiation and ensure exceptional customer experiences.

Catalytic conducted a cross-industry survey of 600 enterprise C-suite leaders, department directors and managers, including dedicated automation leaders. The research report, entitled “The Real State of Automation Progress,” aims to uncover the status of digital transformation and the scaling of automation across enterprises.

Catalytic’s study examined where businesses see themselves compared to competitors in terms of adopting automation tools, how equipped companies and specific departments are to take process automation to the next level, who’s involved in decisions about automation, and what factors hold companies back from reaching digital maturity.

“Our findings confirm that despite all departments seeing the potential of automation, most companies are not achieving their goals and need to rethink the roles, responsibilities and technologies leveraged to ensure greater success,” said Sean Chou, CEO and co-founder of Catalytic. “Specifically, our report underscores why organizations need to look beyond RPA tools to truly scale their automation efforts and adopt a federated model so that multiple lines of business can actively participate while maintaining a strong central governance at the core.”

Key findings from the report include:

The Workforce Is Optimistic About Automation’s Potential to Make Jobs Easier

The report found that as employees get more familiar with process automation, they become more optimistic about its implementation and benefits. For example, 93% of respondents believe automation will make their jobs easier, especially those working within IT, procurement, operations, finance and HR. Findings show that 42% of those who are “unfamiliar” with automation still feel optimistic about its benefits. This percentage increases to 89% of those who are “somewhat familiar” with the concept. Based on this, Catalytic’s study shows that educating employees across departments will heighten their comfort level with automation technology.

Enterprise Overreliance on Centralized Models for Automation Hinders Them From Reaching Digital Maturity

Catalytic’s report found that automation initiatives are heavily centralized with a dedicated team responsible for its implementation and usage. While only 22% of respondents operate in a distributed model, organizations who use this approach to automation view the ROI as much higher than expected. Responses pointed to IT bottlenecks as the biggest enterprise challenge to reaching digital maturity, indicating a need to distribute automation efforts across the organization.

Companies Must Reimagine Roles to Empower Business Users + Amplify IT Teams

Catalytic’s findings prove that digital transformation shouldn’t have gatekeepers – meaning organizations need to reshape how to effectively roll out automation across the business. The IT department represents only 3.7% of the average company and is most effective at providing oversight and governance for projects. Further, when business users deploy their own projects and shift their roles for the future of work, organizations have 27x more resources to scale while eliminating bottlenecks and requirement gaps in the process.

With 61% of automation leaders prioritizing upskilling their staff beyond IT, it’s clear that enterprises are beginning to see the benefits of reimagining how and who plays a part in digital innovations. To assist with upskilling efforts and get employees more involved in decision making, organizations should consider introducing a low-code platform that allows technically-minded business users to build automated workflows for their teams without the need for traditional computer programming skills.

While C-Suite Leaders Feel Optimistic About Their Organizations’ Automation Process, Managers Tell a Different Story

C-suite and managers were asked to characterize the maturity of their automation efforts as “Novice,” “Intermediate,” “Advanced” or “Pro.” The C-suite (21%) is much more likely than managers to characterize their organization’s automation efforts as “Pro,” indicating their view from the top might be clouded and aspirational compared to managers. While 79% of managers cited their automation efforts as “Advanced” or “Intermediate,” only 9% currently rate their strategies as “Pro.” This shows further communication and collaboration between all departments, and the involvement of managers in decision-making and execution is necessary to change the narrative of automation to be more optimistic. This includes using automation to create more opportunities for people on the front lines of an organization to do more meaningful work. Automation initiatives that remain centralized will continue to contribute to the lack of department-specific confidence in automation skills.

To access the full report, please visit this link.

About Catalytic

Catalytic, the next-gen digital process automation provider, supercharges employee productivity with smart workflows. Using Catalytic, anyone can easily build low-code automations that connect systems, data and people so companies can execute higher volumes of work with less time, cost and risk.

In one collaborative platform, IT and non-technical users alike can embed AI, integrations, and data analysis tools into everyday operations. Then, recurring information gathering, document processing, decision-making and reporting become more automatic, rapidly boosting operational efficiency and transforming organizations at scale.

Proven by customers like Bosch, Dentsu Aegis Network, Edwards Elmhurst Hospital, Mayo Clinic, TalentWave, and UL, Catalytic is unlocking up to 5x returns, improving customer experiences and increasing competitive edge for companies globally. To learn more, visit: https://catalytic.com/.

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THE HAGUE, Netherlands (PRWEB)
March 09, 2020

DFO Global Performance Commerce, an industry-leading performance marketing agency, announced today that Pascal Rossol has been promoted to Chief Commercial Officer. Pascal was previously vice president for client success, where he strengthened DFO’s global e-commerce, logistics and customer service operations while expanding the company’s footprint in Europe.

In his new role, Pascal will focus on all consumer-facing eCommerce business. He will oversee activities tied to marketing, sales, product development and customer service to ensure they drive business growth, market share and customer satisfaction.

“Pascal’s success across the many facets of DFO makes him an ideal fit to ensure we align commercial strategy with organizational development,” said CEO and Co-Founder Bruce Cran.

Pascal has been part of DFO since its inception almost seven years ago. He started in DFO’s Vancouver, Canada office as a German translator and quickly moved into a creative director position, where he oversaw multilingual creative teams and coordinated global units of copywriters, designers and developers. He’s held several positions with DFO Global since then, including campaign manager, where he managed real-time eCommerce web campaigns, and business development and affiliate management roles. He is co-founder and managing director of DFO’s European operations.

“Pascal has a talent for bringing together global teams to work more cohesively and effectively as a whole,” said President and Co-Founder Jordan Rolband. “We’re excited to watch DFO grow under his leadership.”

“I’ve been fortunate to be part of our operation for a long time,” said Rossol. “To have the opportunity to inspire change, seed growth and help teams excel has been a fantastic experience. I’m excited to be at this innovative forefront with our global teams and partners.”

Pascal holds a MA from the University of Bonn in Political Science, Economics, and Media Studies as well as an MA in European Studies of Science and Technology from Aalborg and Lund University.

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MCLEAN, Va. (PRWEB)
March 09, 2020

CrossCountry Consulting, a leading business advisory firm, today announced that Chris Clapp has joined the firm as a Partner to lead their national Private Equity practice, effective immediately. Mr. Clapp will be responsible for the overall strategy, practice development, business development, and client delivery of the firm’s Private Equity accounts.

Mr. Clapp has in-depth expertise supporting Private Equity firms with implementing operational initiatives and executing strategic transactions across their portfolios. His extensive experience working on-behalf of financial sponsors will accelerate CrossCountry’s growing Private Equity practice. The firm regularly assists portfolio companies with due diligence, integrating newly acquired investments, selecting and implementing new back-office systems, improving financial reporting processes, and preparing for strategic exits.

“Part of our strategic vision, to continue to grow the firm, includes attracting talent like Chris to our team, and we are beyond thrilled to have him join us at CrossCountry,” said Dave Kay, Co-Founder and Managing Partner of CrossCountry Consulting. “His record of successes and sophisticated knowledge of the Private Equity industry will enhance the service we offer to clients.”

“In today’s competitive deal market, we are continuing to see Private Equity firms turning to operational enhancements as a driver for value creation. CrossCountry’s suite of operational capabilities, coupled with their consistent track record of delivering outstanding client service to financial sponsors, makes them an ideal partner for Private Equity,” said Chris Clapp. “I’m excited to play a role in strengthening our Private Equity practice and look forward to working in partnership with our clients and my new colleagues.”

Mr. Clapp is a certified public accountant who focuses on delivering high-quality service while developing lasting relationships with his clients. He has spent his career advising clients and leading teams on complex engagements focused on initial public offering (IPO) readiness, integration, financial reporting, technical accounting, carve-outs, due diligence, and audit readiness. Prior to joining CrossCountry Consulting, he was a Managing Director at MorganFranklin Consulting where he founded and led the Private Equity practice, as well as served as the Northeast Market and IPO Readiness Service Leader during his tenure. He began his career in the Audit and Transaction Services practices of PricewaterhouseCoopers.

To learn more about CrossCountry Consulting’s Private Equity practice, please visit: http://www.crosscountry-consulting.com/industries/private-equity/.

CrossCountry Consulting is a trusted business advisory firm that provides customized finance, accounting, human capital management, risk, operations and technology consulting services to leading organizations facing complex change. We partner with our clients to help them navigate pressing business challenges and achieve goals related to improving operations, minimizing risks and enabling future growth. For more information, visit http://www.crosscountry-consulting.com.

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BOSTON (PRWEB)
March 09, 2020

Skyword, the leading content marketing software and services company, today announced the appointment of John Tawadros as Chief Revenue Officer (CRO) and Krishna Raman as Chief Product and Technology Officer (CPTO).

The addition of new executive leadership reflects further investment in Skyword’s growth trajectory; the company was recently named for the second consecutive year to Inc. Magazine’s annual Inc. 5000 list, the most prestigious ranking of the nation’s fastest-growing private companies.

Tawadros, who previously served as COO at EverQuote, will oversee Skyword’s new business operations and expansion strategy. Tawadros’ 20 years of experience includes a number of successful exits in the online marketing space. Additionally, he served as a founding principal and COO at iProspect, where he built and led the Service, Technology, and Training groups.

“I’ve worked in the marketing industry for decades. When it comes to choosing partners, talent attracts talent,” said Tawadros. “With clients like Mastercard, IBM Security, Neutrogena, and Nationwide, Skyword is attracting the best in the business with their unique service model. It’s an ideal time to join Skyword, and I look forward to unlocking content marketing excellence for the entire Fortune 500.”

Raman, who previously served as SVP of Product Strategy and General Manager for Enterprise CRM solutions at Community Brands, will oversee Skyword’s product and engineering teams. Raman brings more than two decades of technology and product leadership experience to Skyword, including leading high-performance engineering and product go-to-market teams at software companies BMC Software.

“I believe in customer-first product leadership,” said Raman. “Skyword’s mission — to make it easy for marketers to tell authentic stories that establish trust and build lasting relationships — reflects that ethos. I am excited to lead the next evolution of Skyword’s software suite. Solving CMO’s biggest content marketing headaches along the way is the bonus.”

The foundation for a customer-first approach is already laid, Raman notes: Skyword’s content marketing platform—Skyword360—was recently named a leader in three categories in G2Crowd’s 2019 Grid® Report for Content Marketing Platforms, based entirely on customer satisfaction: best content creation software, best content experience software, and best content distribution software.

ABOUT SKYWORD

Founded in 2010, Skyword’s mission is to make it easy for brands to tell authentic stories that earn trust and build lasting relationships. Skyword offers its customers unique competitive intelligence and insights to build a winning content strategy — and the content marketing software, creative talent, and professional services to transform that insight into action. Today’s leading brands have created and published more than one million original stories, articles, videos, images, infographics, podcasts, and animations with Skyword.

A private company headquartered in Boston, MA with offices in Washington, D.C. and Pittsburgh, PA, Skyword and its talented pool of freelance creatives are dedicated to telling stories that resonate with audiences and inspire them to act. Visit skyword.com to learn more or email learnmore@skyword.com.

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PITTSBURGH (PRWEB)
March 09, 2020

Workscape Inc., a market leading contract furniture and pre-fabricate interior dealer in Western Pennsylvania, today announced three leadership changes. Last year, Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer Dawn Sauter expressed her intention to step away from her leadership position and pursue other interests, agreeing in the short-term to work as an advisor to the business. With Dawn’s transition, Virginia (Ginny) Rothschild has been hired as CEO and Abigail Slovonic as CFO. Co-Founder and President Dave Sauter will remain in his current role.

“We are incredibly fortunate to have worked side-by-side with Dawn during our first year in the business and look forward to leveraging her in a consultative capacity for our long-term strategic initiatives,” said Susanna F. Koubek, Chairman of Workscape Inc. “I also couldn’t be happier that Dave will continue to be working shoulder-to-shoulder with our new management team. We believe this balance of experience and a fresh perspective will allow Workscape to remain a leader in our market and create value for our shareholders.”

In her new capacity as CEO, Ginny Rothschild will be tasked with continuing to grow Workscape’s existing core business while opportunistically looking for avenues of expansion. Previously, Rothschild worked in design-centric facets of the retail industry, highlighted by senior positions at Walmart, Dick’s Sporting Goods, and Pittsburgh denim start up Revtown.

“I’m excited about the future path for Workscape, as we leverage Dave’s background as a true industry expert with Abigail’s small business operational and financial experience. The transition has been seamless.”

In addition to Slovonic’s primary role as CFO, with her portfolio also including various operational and technology-oriented workstreams. Prior to starting at Workscape, she was the director of grants management at a private New York foundation supporting brain research before becoming Director of Finance and Operations at BAW Plastics.

“We recruited this management team to lead the organization with a bold, long-term strategy for the next 10, 15, 20 years,” said Koubek.

About Workscape

Headquartered in Pittsburgh, Workscape is a woman-owned contract furniture dealer exclusively representing Knoll and DIRTT in the western Pennsylvania region. Since 1996, Workscape has pioneered design-focused office furnishings, sustainable architectural products, and speech privacy privacy solutions to match an organization’s vision.

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