It is always good to know a little bit of information about those who offer their opinions, experience and especially their wisdom. Hopefully this description will help put some 'meat on the bones' so to speak

1. Just Who is This Dr. Ted Marra
Anyway?
A Crazy Old Man or a Purveyor of
Wisdom?

2. Just Who is This Dr. Ted Marra
Anyway?
Well known strategic facilitator and organizational mentor Ted Marra has taught and lectured in a number of universities in Boston, Detroit, the
U.K., Croatia and Switzerland. His focus has been on Strategic Leadership and Strategic Stakeholder Relationships. He also has had 27 years
experience working with the EFQM Business Excellence and Baldrige Performance Excellence frameworks in organizations around the globe
since first being invited to Washington D.C. as one of a group of 40 'experts' chosen to review and comment on the first draft of the Baldrige
Criteria for Performance Excellence in 1987.
He has been directly responsible for business turnarounds such as Cybernet the oldest and largest telecom company in Pakistan; the launch of
new organizations such as Sybrid based in Pakistan which is now flourishing in America in the health care arena; and creating a unique
sustainable growth model for an SME sytems integrator in Eastern Europe allowing them do go from 90 to over 200 people while
simultaneously moving from a local/regional market focus to a global one. Aside from working extensively in America and Canada for many
years, he has worked in virtually every European country (West, Central and East), Africa, Caribbean, Puerto Rico, Middle East including Saudi
Arabia and also Asia including Korea, Malaysia, Japan and more.
Most recently he has been supporting Informed Decisions in Sweden in the area of Decision Intelligence and has already undertaken to develop
a 'new decision science' model called 'Hyper-Decision Making' as a part of his collaborative activity. He also has a particular interest and
expertise in executive development and business research such as his unique '7 Deadly Sins of Management' research conducted with CEO's
and Managing Directors of leading organizations in Western Europe to determine the senior executive behaviours and practices which can
damage an organization most quickly. He has command of the analytical tools and processes for gaining business intelligence through his
thought leading work on creating organizational 'sensing systems'. He is well grounded in process management/operational excellence
including 6-sigma and Lean, HR/Human Performance Excellence as well as balanced scorecard/performance measurement, innovation,
agility/resiliency, organizational/cultural change and creating and delivering value to achieve greater competitiveness and profitable growth.
Marra is author of numerous reports and articles for The Conference Board in New York as well as noted European journals such as the
European Journal of Quality. He has consulted widely – some 37 countries and 155 organizations in virtually every industry and sector (public
and private) during the past 40 years and has led transformation initiatives in some of the world's most prominent companies as well as having
worked extensively with six sigma, performance measurement and creating customer centric cultures during his engagements. In addition he
was a 'Senior Policy Advisor' to Presiden Reagan while part of the Presidential Executive Exchange Program' beginning in 1980.

3. For over 25 years Dr. Marra owned and operated CARE Associates in Kansas City, Missouri, MQI Consulting in Boston, MA. and also The Centre
for Innovation Management Ltd. in the U.K. Ted is also a gifted speaker and master facilitator bringing passion, energy and humor to his work for
the delight of his learning session participants. He is visionary, intuitive, and an integrator of ideas and a strategic thinker. He has the capability
to take exceptionally complex ideas and transform them into easily digestible and highly actionable components. He is now living in Europe and
plans to remain there for the forseeable future.
His clients are truly a 'Who Who' in business, many of which have become household names from Xerox, to IBM, J&J, Royal Bank of Scotland
Group, Department of Energy, Irish Life, Anglo-American, Boeing/McDonnell Douglas, London Underground, StoraEnso, Huhtamaki, Atlas Bank,
Red Cross, Department of Defence (UK), Electrolux, Nortel, DuPont, VW, First Direct, Direct Line and the list goes on. Ted has worked in virtually
every industry and sector – public and private, SMEs as well as with NGOs including educational institutions, medical and police organizations.
Either he has worked directly as an organizational mentor to the CEO and management committee of organizations or as a strategic facilitator
coaching and developing a hand picked strategic business improvement team to assist him in many large scale organizational change
transformations either at a national and global level.
These adventures with numerous organizations and in a variety of cultures are now captured in his new book entitled, 'The Wisdom Chronicles:
Competing to Win – Lessons Learned for Reaching the Next Level of Organizational Performance' to be published this January. Ted indicates
there are still at least five more short volumes to come as he shares the wisdom he has gained around the world. Ted is known as being a
strategic thinker, visionary and for being highly intuitive with a systems orientation. He is passionate and energetic as well as humorous speaker
delighting audiences around the globe from Kenya Africa to Tokyo Japan as well as, of course, North America. His leadership series, Competing
for the Future: What it Takes to Win''is considered thought leading in content and structure.
He also has a passion for working with high school and college level youth and on improving society. He has had the opportunity to present
'Crazy Thoughts from an Old Man' for two graduating high school student classes in Sweden. He was Chairman of the 'Young Social Reformers' in
Karachi Pakistan for nearly 2 years before returing to the U.S. and then Europe. As an example he has been focused his time and attention for the
past year on a national/regional strategy for 'Re-inventing Education' (Building a better life and a better world through learning) which extends to
building a globally competitive workforce and minimizing national unemployment – especially for youth. This effort was originally begun when
Dr. Marra was asked to assist a Senior Policy Advisor to the Prime Minister of Australia in creating the design for this programme. His programme
extends far beyond just re-invention of primary and secondary education to inclue a total integrated system for creating a 'learning society'
within a nation or region. He has also developed a plan for the world's most unique and 'Advanced Maritime Technology Centre and Technology
Park', the latter being for entrepreneurs in maritime as well as allied industries such as aviation and automotive where technology and
aerodynamics often have some degree of commonality.
Ted has a BSc in Mathematics, an MSc in Statistics and some 30 hours of Ph.D. level course work in advanced mathematics and applied statistics.
He was selected by General Motors to participate in the Michigan State University Advanced Management Program, receiving an EMBA with
distinction (magna cum laude) and being inducted into the Beta Gamma Sigma business honorary. He later completed a Ph.D. in Strategic
Management, summa cum laude, from Amhurst University in Denver, Colorado.
You can reach Ted on doctorted47@gmail.com or by telephone on +385 95 890 2456 in Zagreb, Croatia.