ACE Speaks! offers presentations by members of the Association for Consulting Expertise (ACE) on a variety of topics for business audiences. Approximately 1 hour, these presentations are free of charge.
ACE members are professionals with years of experience in their given areas of expertise. Following is a list of presenters, along with their areas of specialties,, and a partial list of potential webinar topics and short bio.
Nargiz Ali zada
Expertise: Management and Soft Skills
Nargiz Ali zada has a rich background with over 20 years experience in finance, accounting, financial audit, project management, team leadership, professional development and team coaching. As a corporate business trainer, Nargiz teaches soft and hard skills’ training courses for professionals.
Topic Areas:
ESG for small business project management
How to measure whether you're on budget and on time.. and how to fix it, if not
Giving and receiving feedback
Stress management
Dennis Boyle
Expertise: Sales
Dennis Boyle's experience includes sales and marketing, and he has held multiple Senior Executive roles in Business Development, Corporate Accounts, Strategic Management, Corporate/Commercial Training and Development, Private Equity, and Operations. His current company, Sales Xceleration, provides commercial consulting within small-to-medium sized businesses to build sales systems and infrastructure to help firms achieve record revenue growth.
TOPICS:
How AI can help you grow your company
Sales pipeline management
How to on-board your sales team
Networking and lead development
Creating a sales playbook
Sonia Cook-Broen
Expertise: Creativity and Team Productivity
Sonia Cook-Broen draws from a decade of experience in corporate tech, in addition to several years working as a freelance designer and web developer, and established her own tech startup, TheTechMargin in early 2023. Her expertise sparks innovation for technology teams through creative thinking workshops and groundbreaking, inclusive AI solutions. As a devoted productivity hacker, she empowers others to optimize their time and focus on their passions.
TOPICS:
Digital hygiene’ for safety and sanity
- The creative edge for future proofing your team
Francis Eberle, PhD
Expertise: Leadership Development, Coaching, Teamwork
As a leadership and organizational advisor, speaker and author, Francis believes in people development over business development. After spending 25+ years as an Executive, Francis coaches both leaders and teams to help them see things they may not see themselves, in particular those who may have run into a block or simply want to up their game. His most recent book - Connected Leadership; Engage your workforce to lead themselves.
TOPICS:
Dynamic communications and learning to love difficult conversations
Adding value with emotional quotient
How to do connected leadership
Hard skills are easy and soft skills are hard
Angela Hansen
Expertise: HR consulting, Training, Team-bonding
Angela provides HR consulting and group training (with Rachel) incorporating improvisation-based activities. The staff team includes a human resources leader, an
improvisation performer/teacher, and a masters level educator who does instructional design and facilitation. This group does HR consulting, public workshops, and private events for employer groups in Maine and beyond.
TOPICS:
Improv(ing) encounters with conflict
Four practical tools for retention
Improv(ing) group collaboration & cohesion
Brianna Henward
Expertise: Medicare Plans and Pricing
Brianna is an independent insurance advisor and owner of Tindon Associates. She specializes in Medicare plans & planning, the Affordable Care Act and the Maine Health Insurance Marketplace.
TOPICS:
Understanding Medicare: Caring for those over 65 or and adult disabled child
Delayed enrollment in Medicare
Medicare Parts A, B, C, and D, Medicare Advantage & Medicare supplement plans
Understanding Medicare: Do I need to start drawing Social Security?
Terry Johnson
Expertise: Business Models, Business Operations, Innovation
Terry is an experienced business advisor and product and technology development professional. His focus is on business models, innovation, and innovation processes. He helps growing companies in transition with improving profitability and scale by bringing a systems-perspective to tie the needs of the business with the customer. Results include high productivity and cost-effective solutions.
TOPICS:
Operating your business
Innovation processes: Counterintuitive that creativity and innovation need process
Strategy: Key Q’s and the emergent nature of strategy
Teams: How the team forms, aligns, and performs around direction
Business Model Canvas: What it says about your business, your strategy, and your value proposition
Priscilla Hansen Mahoney
Business Strategy, Leadership Development,
Workforce Development
Priscilla is an ICF-accredited business coach and strategic advisor with over 20 years of experience in the lawn/landscape industry. As founder of Blazing Trails Coaching, she helps businesses grow, profit, and succeed by developing strategies, systems, and leadership teams. With expertise in process management, Six Sigma, and High Performance Team Building, Priscilla has assisted countless business owners create business models, systemize their businesses, develop team leaders, and build businesses to support their desired lifestyles.
TOPICS:
7 C's of Confident Leadership
7 C's of Highly Motivational Leaders
Mapping Out Your Employee Journey
Leadership Compass - Leveraging your strengths to Guide Your Team
Tove Rasmussen
Expertise: Growth, Operations and Profit Improvement
WEBSITE
Tove has long been passionate about growing revenues and profits of small firms and
Fortune 500 companies. She has served as general manager, global marketing manager,
operations manager and consultant for many companies looking to expand business
and improve operations. She now brings this passion and successful experience to
mentoring and consulting with business heads to help them grow both revenues and
profits through Partners Creating Growth.
TOPICS:
- Develop an Effective Growth Strategy for your Business
● 5 Steps to Significant Sales Growth
● Find your Competitive Advantage
● Understand Marketing - and Network Like a Pro
Carrie Green Yardley, Esq.
Expertise: Legal Advice for Start-ups, Scaling, Small business
Carrie is a Maine attorney based in Greater Portland. She founded Yardley Esq. PLLC in 2015. The firm offers a wide variety of transactional and advisory services to small businesses, from start-up to exit. With seventeen years’ previous litigation experience, she has a deep appreciation for the importance of being proactive in avoiding disputes, while minimizing their impact when they cannot be avoided.
TOPICS:
Housekeeping for a Business Sale
Assembling a Business Advisory Team
Concrete Commitments: The Who’s Who of Construction Projects