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Meet the Team 1
Meet the Team 2

Steve Trautman

Principal and Founder

Steve wrote the book on knowledge transfer and now he has written the book on talent risk management. His practical, data-driven ideas on knowledge transfer have been used by blue-chip companies around the globe for over 20 years and provide the backbone of his fresh insights on talent risk. These ideas apply up the chain of command—from the front-line to the boardroom—and work across generations, geographies, job functions, and industries.

He knows both sides of the talent management problem, having been a talent manager and a line executive. As a young project manager working at Microsoft, Steve began solving talent-related business problems as a response to the intense on-the-job training needs of his rapidly growing technical team. He cofounded a department at Microsoft that provided training and knowledge transfer, and later left to form his own knowledge transfer and consulting company. Expedia then asked Steve to become general manager of their advertising unit—a $20-million business—which he ran until his own growing consulting company required him to return full time.

Steve is known for his high-energy style that combines humor, street smarts, and boardroom wisdom that deliver real answers to tough problems. Read More About Steve

Meet the Team 5

Teresa Canady

COO

Supporting teams as they learn and use the Steve Trautman Co. talent risk management framework allows Teresa Canady to combine her passion for coaching with a pragmatic solution that ensures results. Teresa brings a global focus and over 25 years of diverse experience in knowledge transfer, content publishing, software design and development, and technology education to her role as COO and Director of the Consulting team. The last 20 years of her experience has been in leading teams and global organizations in designing, developing, and implementing technical training solutions, first as a leader at Microsoft and then as a consultant. Teresa has played various roles in financial institutions, taught mathematics to elementary, secondary, and college students, and enjoyed a career in software, designing and building consumer-focused computer-based tutorials, applications, and tools to facilitate software localization. She has lived and worked in India, and incubated new business approaches to dramatically extend the reach of learning products in developing countries in Africa, Asia and South America.

Meet the Team 6

Sonja Gustafson

Director of Marketing

Sonja is a marketing veteran of over 25 years dating back to the “go-go” days at Microsoft. She was deeply involved in creating and opening up the new markets of multimedia software, including Microsoft Encarta, Microsoft Bookshelf, and Multimedia Beethoven. She then moved on to help bring the first version of the Microsoft’s corporate intranet, MSWeb, and managed a team of crack researchers who did then what Google does now: find answers. Then there were the “other go-go” days of mommyhood where new dreams were inspired and journeys launched within two fabulous children. In 2011 Sonja joined The Steve Trautman Co. as Marketing Director, and continues her drive in helping businesses manage talent risk so that their workforce is ready to roll.

Meet the Team 7

Denise Glancy

Account Manager

Denise Glancy is a 35-year veteran of the IT industry where she was responsible for implementing and motivating people through many a change initiative at The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company. Her technical work experience started in the mainframe era and then led Denise into the Project Management discipline where she helped usher-in the client-server Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) period of People, Processes and Tools. The People aspect then became the focus for the last third of Denise’s career, as Denise developed a multi-year IT Leadership Development Program to recruit, groom and retain top IT talent. Denise championed the creation of the IT Business Analysis Center of Excellence, a discipline that ‘bridged the gap’ between the business community and IT. And finally, she is credited for introducing the Steve Trautman 3-Step Knowledge Transfer Solution to Goodyear IT; a framework that is now loved by all who use it!

Denise and her husband Dave enjoy doing just about anything outdoors and the great North Carolina weather helps to accommodate that. They have a 25 year-old son Zack, who they enjoy following on Facebook as he posts pictures from his around-the-world medivac pilot adventures.

Meet the Team 8

Marissa Martinez

Consultant and CTO

Marissa started her career as a firmware and software engineer, where she learned words like "FORTRAN" and "Real-Time." Later she moved to software testing, then found her stride in the Program/Product Management discipline, where she uses terms like "user experience" and "product strategy." She's played key leadership roles in developing software across diverse industries such as DoD, public utilities, desktop software (think "Microsoft,") the early days of the internet and online advertising (yep, MSN), contract furniture, the travel industry, the auto industry, and the pharmaceutical supply chain. More recently, she has worked with small businesses and startups to help owners identify and solve business and technology pain points. She has spoken nationally and internationally on issues at the intersection of technology and diversity. She is an alumna volunteer for the MIT Undergraduate Practice Opportunities Program (UPOP) as a Mentor-Instructor and for the MIT Office of Minority Education as a member of the Industrial Advisory Council for Minority Education.

Meet the Team 9

Traci Hudson

Consultant

Traci is a senior information technology executive with over 23 years of experience with U.S. Steel. She has extensive international business experience building and managing culturally diverse teams, driving business alignment and cost reductions in challenging business, organizational and multi-cultural environments. Traci brings with her vast experience managing / mitigating talent risk and accelerating knowledge transfer. She is an organizational and idea leader garnering respect and trust from staff, management, customers, vendors, and the executive suite.

When Traci isn’t working, she enjoys traveling the world, tasting wine and entertaining friends and family with her husband Drew and their rescued dog from Slovakia, a wire-haired Hungarian Vizsla named Whiley.

Meet the Team 10

Kim Tsuchida

Consultant

Kim joins Steve Trautman Co. after working in the IT field for over 19 years. She started her career in IT consulting as a developer, working with Fortune 500 companies in the financial services, automotive, and insurance industries. She spent the last 15 years working at Warner Bros. as a Product/Program Manager in the rapidly evolving digital content distribution space where she won a Technical Emmy award for her team’s groundbreaking work automating digital content delivery to global publishers. Kim serves on the executive board of a UCLA women’s alumni association, Prytanean, and is passionate about encouraging young women to pursue STEM careers.

She lives in California and enjoys spending time with her two young daughters, playing basketball, and running Ragnar races.

Meet the Team 11

Bridget Jennings

Consultant

Bridget Jennings comes to The Steve Trautman Co. after many diverse experiences in wide-ranging industries. Bridget has brought her passion, intelligence and business savvy to the project management of museum exhibitions, live events, music, television production, and software development. While at Microsoft Bridget worked as Lead Program Manager on education and entertainment software such as Cinemania, Music Central and Sidewalk, and spent nearly a decade producing and managing popular music concert venues. She has some fantastic stories that she’ll share with you one of these days. While working as a television producer in Minneapolis, she won 2 Emmy awards for her work on a weekly arts magazine show, and recently worked as Senior Project Manager for EMP Museum in Seattle, creating high impact, technically innovative, interactive exhibits about Music, Science Fiction and Popular Culture. She has also worked as Company Manager for the juggling troupe, The Flying Karamazov Brothers, traveling the world, managing logistics, handling finances and bringing silliness to the planet.

Bridget loves spending time with her teenage daughter (really), exercising, growing vegetables, and raising service dog puppies.

Meet the Team 12

Laura Benoit

Consultant

Throughout Laura’s career she has worked at the junction of social impact and business, supporting small teams to scale their operations by leveraging their talents and maximizing efficiencies. Thinking through complex problems, applying a human centered design lens, and implementing sustainable systems that create a positive impact in our world and enable teams to flourish are her biggest motivators.

Laura has been living in Latin America since graduating with a master’s in public administration in 2015 and has worked across a variety of sectors including agriculture, tech, and education, in a number of roles ranging from program management, operations, and marketing. She is excited to bring the Steve Trautman Company resources and methodologies to impactful teams across Guatemala.

Meet the Team 13

Hannah Kirshenbaum

Business Manager

Hannah has worked in business administration and accounting for over 15 years in a variety of industries including IT services, medical research, and home building.  Before coming to the Steve Trautman Company, she ran a women’s health research center wearing many hats related to operations, accounting, in-house IT support, and copy machine whisperer.  Hannah joined the STC team in 2013 and continues to enjoy the company culture and having fun while working.  She also appreciates having fun spending time outdoors exploring trails with her husband and dog in and around the diverse Puget Sound region.

Meet the Team 14

Todd Hudson

Consultant

With more than 20 years of engineering and plant management experience at European, Chinese and US-owned companies in a variety of industries, Todd has seen just about everything the business world can throw at a person—from frenetic growth and high volume, to cutting out fat, cutting into muscle while avoiding cutting one’s own throat. Todd is a former client of the Steve Trautman Company who implemented the knowledge transfer solution in his own factory. He is also a long-time lean practitioner and started the Maverick Institute to pioneer the application of lean principles to training and learning. Throughout his career, he’s seen that effective knowledge transfer and sharing of expertise are critical elements to success. Todd works with Fortune 100 giants as well as fast and furious startups and mid-sized companies around the world, and speaks regularly to companies and industry associations about using lean to improve training.

Meet the Team 15

Stacey Dickinson

Consultant

Stacey Dickinson has been in the training industry for over 30 years. Her professional career began at a technology company in a management and marketing support role specializing in the legal market. In 1989 she began working for Microsoft teaching customers to administer, design and implement databases on Microsoft SQL Server version 1.0. She continued working on the product in both training and courseware development through version 7.0. As a training manager at Microsoft, Stacey owned all training for Program Managers and Marketers in the Product Groups. In 1994, she left Microsoft to start her own training and management consulting business, Solutions View, Inc. The company focuses on 3 key areas of effective communication: knowledge transfer, collaboration and critical thinking. Stacey is a master consultant of the 3-step Knowledge Transfer Solution and a master instructor of the Knowledge Transfer Workshop which she has been teaching since the late 1990s. Stacey is an avid hiker and is working on her goal of backpacking the entirety of the magnificent Pacific Crest Trail in her own backyard of Washington state.

Meet the Team 16

Sherryl Christie

Consultant

Sherryl has worked with Steve since the early 1990's, co-creating and facilitating the Practical Leader Management Series and providing a vital team role in delivering the 3-step Knowledge Transfer Solution. Her partnership with Steve to consistently deliver quick and clear solutions to clients goes back 20 years and counting. As a sought-after executive coach and long-time business owner of Best Practice, Inc., Sherryl partners with leaders from Fortune 100 companies, small businesses, and not-for-profit organizations to grow their own skills, build results-driven teams, and develop the people around them. She is frequently described as warm and engaging with a directness and tenacity that enable her clients to achieve outstanding results in their businesses...and in their lives.

This team is available to radically enhance your company’s talent.