Phil Davis

Founder & Managing Partner

As Managing Partner and co-founder of St. Charles Consulting Group, Phil brings over 40 years of executive level expertise in human resources, training, and operations to his clients at large, global companies. Since its inception 15 years ago, Phil has and continues to apply his extensive financial and operations background to build and grow, St. Charles into a multi-million-dollar management consulting firm. His talent, leadership and commitment have resulted in a thriving, world class company that provides outstanding service to its clients. In addition to building the business, Phil has also delivered client service on a variety of large scale, client assignments. One example was the design and creation of an entire workforce lifecycle, including all supporting developmental programs, for the start-up of a 50,000-employee enterprise. Phil has also developed and manages St. Charles’ coaching services and has designed customized programs through which these services are delivered. As the relationship partner on several significant clients, Phil thrives on collaborating with the client to orchestrate programs that achieve their targeted results. Prior to founding St. Charles, Phil served as Partner in Charge of Global Operations for Arthur Andersen’s worldwide learning and education organization. In this role, he managed 500 learning professionals who designed, developed and delivered training courses and programs for Andersen. Before this role, Phil worked for Freeport Indonesia, a subsidiary of Freeport McMoRan. For six years, Phil lived and worked in eastern Indonesia at one of the largest copper and gold mines in the world. In Phil’s final role at Freeport he served as the Chief Administrative Officer and was responsible for all human resources, administration, finance, infrastructure, training and logistics activities for 17,000 employees and contractors. Phil also served on the Board of Directors for this multi-billion-dollar business. Phil’s career began at Arthur Andersen where worked in both auditing and human resources groups. Phil, a non-practicing CPA, spent the first 21 years of his career working for Arthur Andersen. The first half of his career there was spent providing auditing and financial consulting services to his clients. Later, he moved into a variety of leadership roles within Human Resources. In these roles, he managed various activities of recruiting and human resources for the firm in the Southwest US. His client experience spans several industries including; professional services, financial services, mining, hospitality, energy and natural resources.

Laura Oswald

Partner, Firm Operations

With nearly 30 years’ experience in training design and development, as well as corporate and broadcast communications, Laura has served a valuable role at St. Charles Consulting. Throughout her career, Laura’s abilities to quickly assess an issue and seek innovative, yet pragmatic solutions have given her clients’ confidence in her work, and in the St. Charles Consulting Group. Laura takes great pride in being one of the original partners at St. Charles, and over the last 15 years has worked with her colleagues and consultants to build, sustain and grow a thriving management consulting business. During her career, she’s help to take the firm from a grassroots, start-up organization, to one that is nationally recognized and respected in the industry. Whether it’s setting company strategy, building infrastructure, cultivating client relationships, or delivering learning and talent development services, Laura’s engagement and commitment has been unwavering. Under her direction, she has led client teams in delivering large scale learning programs, and communication initiatives in professional services, retail, data & analytics, banking, healthcare, manufacturing, trade associations, and food service. At St. Charles, Laura has directed dozens of strategic initiatives for her clients, including: the design and deployment of a comprehensive learning curriculum and on-boarding program for an innovative retail and entertainment start-up venture; managed the development and implementation of a company competency model; built and executed stakeholder communications and all learning interventions for the implementation of an organization’s US learning management system; conducted a national assessment of training groups across a healthcare management group; directed the design and development of a core values training curriculum; and oversaw the roll out of a customer service methodology to over 2,000 new employees in the retail sector. Prior to starting her career with St. Charles Consulting, Laura held a senior management position in Arthur Andersen’s worldwide learning organization. In this position she directed a team of 30+ employees providing integrated learning delivery services to Andersen’s 300+ offices worldwide. Laura established her expertise in learning management through numerous national and global initiatives at Andersen, including the project management and implementation of the firm’s U.S. learning management system and, the launch and communication strategy for a $4.5M global competency/ performance management program. Before Andersen, Laura worked with the Oribis Broadcast Group designing and producing video news releases and worldwide media events. Laura holds a Master’s in Organizational Leadership and a Bachelor’s in Communications/Public Relations.

Larry Durham

Partner, Chief Strategist

Larry is a visionary in the fields of enterprise learning and talent development. Over the last 25 years, he has worked with many Fortune 500 companies to co-create innovative talent development solutions that yield measurable business outcomes. In implementation, Larry is highly regarded for his ability to manage complex strategic transformation initiatives. His experience spans many industries, including technology, pharmaceuticals, financial services, telecommunications, media, hotel and leisure, utilities and energy, and retail and consumer. As a Partner at St. Charles Consulting Group, Larry invests the majority of his time managing key client relationships. He also develops thought leadership on the future of organizational learning and helps create innovative solutions for St. Charles’ clients. Prior to joining St. Charles Consulting Group, Larry spent 10 years with PwC’s Human Capital Advisory Services, where he served as the Learning Practice Leader. In this role, Larry had responsibility for: 1) developing PwC’s point of view on enterprise learning, 2) helping clients identify and articulate their talent development needs, and 3) developing tailored solutions that met the clients’ resource development needs and delivered measurable business value. Larry was also responsible for developing PwC’s client-facing learning service offerings, overseeing multiple global engagements, and publishing thought leadership pieces. Before joining PwC in 2003, Larry was a founder of Acadient – a successful start-up focused on eLearning for the financial services industry. Given his strong background in financial planning and eLearning design, Larry served on the executive team as the Vice President of Product Development. In this capacity, he led the development of the first fully online prep course for the Certified Financial Planner (CFP) designation, partnering with world-renowned educational institutions in the process. Acadient is now known as the Boston Institute of Finance, which is the #1 provider of CFP online prep courses in the industry. Earlier in his career, Larry held various training roles in financial services, including the Director of Brokerage Training for Scudder Kemper and National Products Trainer for Fidelity Investments. Larry actively shares his insights and experiences in learning, and his thought leadership is broadly recognized. His major focus is on ways that organizations define, support, and leverage the value of learning within the enterprise (and beyond). Larry has written numerous articles on these and other topics in the talent development arena, and he has been a keynote speaker at a variety of global conferences. His most notable publication – “Unlock the Next Wave of Productivity” – appeared in Chief Learning Officer. Larry holds a Bachelor’s degree in business administration, with emphasis in financial planning, from Baylor University.

Gabrielle Wallace

Partner, Client Service

Gabrielle excels at client relationship management and team leadership combined with a strong background in learning and project management. Gabrielle brings over 24 years’ experience helping clients solve strategic business needs through learning and development solutions. She currently manages the delivery of our services to several key clients and focuses on opportunities to grow our business. Before her account leadership role, Gabrielle delivered solutions to clients. She was the project manager on a learning needs analysis for a global professional services firm leading a team of instructional designers as they gathered data, conducted analyses and developed recommendations for the client around a challenging area of their business. Gabrielle also provided design expertise to a client project whose goal was to deliver a creative learning experience to senior leaders. Prior to joining St. Charles, Gabrielle worked with clients in various industries including energy, manufacturing, pharmaceuticals, professional services, retail and telecommunications to help identify their needs and co-create innovative talent development solutions that yielded measurable business outcomes. Gabrielle successfully delivered numerous projects including: An on-boarding program at a professional services firm A leadership development program at a Fortune 100 manufacturer A two-day management development workshop at medium-sized government contractor An experiential executive sales training program at a Fortune 500 diversified, multi-industrial company A weeklong “university” focusing on technical and non-technical skills for various career levels at a professional services firm A needs analysis and curriculum design at a Fortune 500 national retailer Earlier in her career, Gabrielle was the Director of Education for the global Assurance practice at Arthur Andersen. In this role, Gabrielle was responsible for the training and development of 30,000 audit professionals worldwide. Gabrielle helped leadership define the learning strategy and execute it through learning needs assessment, curriculum design and the design and development of numerous core and specialty courses. She also led projects utilizing other learning interventions including assessments, local office implementation teams and performance support tools. Gabrielle earned a Masters Degree in Communication from the University of Illinois, and a Bachelors degree in Political Science and Communication from Purdue University. She also attended Erasmus University in The Netherlands and has extensive professional experience working globally.

Thomas Kupetis II

Managing Director, Business Development & Marketing

Tom has over 20 years’ experience providing management consulting and learning solutions to Fortune 500 companies. Throughout his career, he’s been committed to delivering value to his client’s in a meaningful and measurable way. Using his expertise in consulting and business development, Tom partners with clients to measure the business value that learning solutions can deliver to an enterprise. The result of this results-focused approach has been trusted advisor client relationships with large, global organizations. As Managing Director for St. Charles Consulting group, Tom has primary responsibility for new client acquisition and growth. Tom drives the overall advancement of the firm by executing a client-centric growth strategy focused on strategic learning services to address the client’s business issues and produce measureable results. Tom partners with clients to ensure solutions are designed to achieve desired business objectives; such as strategic transformation, reduced risk, increased revenue and speed to profit, people effectiveness and cost reduction. Additionally, Tom leverages his years of experience to also provide key direction as it relates to our overall go-to-market strategy and market positioning. Prior to joining St. Charles Consulting Group, Tom was a Senior Vice President for Conduent Learning (formerly Xerox Learning Services). As part of Conduent/Xerox, Tom led business development and marketing efforts for the learning services business globally, focused on achieving the company’s strategic growth objectives. Tom brings a deep expertise in engagement-based and outsourced learning service solutions. Before Xerox, Tom was a Vice President with Intellinex LLC, a subsidiary of Ernst & Young, where he was responsible for business development and led the finance and accounting learning practice. Tom worked closely with Ernst & Young’s coordinating partners to provide value-added HR and learning consulting solutions to non-audit clients. Tom holds a Bachelor’s degree in Marketing, and has served as a board member for CVSA.

Eric Pierce

Managing Director, Client Service

Throughout his 28-year career, Eric has built an extensive portfolio of practical and wide-ranging business consulting experiences yielding accelerated and profitable business growth as well as outstanding leadership, executive, and managerial effectiveness, both at the individual and team levels. Eric invests the majority of his time at St. Charles Consulting providing strategic talent development consulting and leadership coaching services to the firm’s clients. As an example of his work, Eric is currently serving as the executive coach for a senior leadership team of a publicly traded manufacturing company. In that role, Eric has implemented a series of 360-degree feedback assessments, individual development plans, classroom training sessions, and one-on-one and team coaching interactions. This program has produced a significant improvement in the efficiency and effectiveness of the team’s inter-personal communications, decision-making, and strategic and operational business results. Eric recently organized and led a team of 50 professionals in 26 cities across four continents to deliver a values-based leadership development program to 9,000 employees of a global oil and gas company. He interacted with senior business leaders in multiple countries, assisted with curriculum design and development for delivery in three languages, selected and managed the performance of an external logistics firm, chose and trained professionals instructors to lead the classes, and personally lead 14 training sessions on three continents. Eric is currently leading a project to design and implement a comprehensive talent development process for a rapidly growing North American professional services firm. This project will include designing a novel and dynamic organizational structure, including role descriptions, success profiles, competencies, and career paths, for each of that firm’s current and future professionals. During his career, Eric has held key executive positions with organizations in the technology, professional services, and non-profit sectors. Before joining St. Charles Consulting, Eric was the Chief Operating Officer and Vice-President of Strategy for CourseAvenue, a start-up offering professional services and a suite of Cloud-based eLearning software products. Prior to his time at CourseAvenue, Eric was a Partner with KPMG. During his 13 years at KPMG, he served in two primary roles. First, he consulted with Fortune 500 and middle market companies throughout the US on a variety of tax, legal, and operational issues. Before joining KPMG, Eric practiced law for eight years. His legal experience includes a wide variety of legislative and lobbying activities; business and transactional negotiation and complex planning assignments; and litigation and dispute resolution matters before various courts and administrative tribunals throughout the US. Eric’s legal experience spans almost every industry. Eric earned his Bachelor of Science degree (with distinction) with an emphasis in finance and accounting, and his Juris Doctor degree (cum laude). Eric is a graduate of Georgetown University’s Leadership Coaching Program and a certified coach (ACC) by the International Coach Federation. He is also certified to administer and interpret the full suite of 360-degree behavioral feedback tools developed by the Center for Creative Leadership, as well as the complete array of Hogan Personality Assessment tools.

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