Chris Bujak is a managing partner of Continual Impact, a consulting group providing consulting and training in continuous improvement. Chris is a mechanical engineer with extensive postgraduate training and experience in the application of lean manufacturing and Six Sigma methodologies and tools. As global director of continuous improvement (CI) for Air Products and Chemicals, Inc., Chris developed an integrated CI model that included Lean Enterprise, Six Sigma™, and other critical business improvement enabling elements. His global initiative yielded $13 million (2021 current U.S. dollars) in savings during its first year of implementation, $21.1 million in its second year, and over $68 million in its third year. His program was featured in a Business Excellence article in July 2007. His work with Continual Impact has reached some 200 organizations, with more than 4,000 people trained and engaged in continuous improvements efforts. His recent focus has been on public health organizations across the U.S. Chris is the co-author of Life Enabling Commerce: An Economic System for the Good of Humankind.

Jim Byron has a masters degree in Organizational Psychology and an Advanced Graduate Certificate in Organization Design and Effectiveness. He joined the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Lincoln Laboratory in 2020 following several decades of leading global organizational effectiveness functions in Fortune companies, including Pfizer, Air Products and Chemicals and Citi. In his current role, he heads the Organization Design and Change group charged with elevating organizational culture and performance. Jim’s work consistently produced bottom-line results with documented returns on investment in the tens of millions of dollars in benefits to his companies. Equally important, it generated dramatic improvements in employee engagement and satisfaction. He has authored or co-authored books, technical papers, and graduate text chapters on organizational improvement topics. He holds a graduate degree in Industrial/Organizational Psychology and an Advanced Graduate Certificate in Organization Design. Jim also provides pro-bono consultation and training solutions to community agencies and individuals around the United States in the areas of organization and leadership development.

Mark Reed is a senior CI consultant and Vital Enterprises associate. He has 34 years of experience in manufacturing and service areas including 26 years in management positions. During his career, Mark has implemented Statistical Process Control and other Quality management methods to continuously improve the operations he managed. He has implemented Lean since 1999 and has conducted Value Stream Analysis, Kaizen, and other Lean tool events in the U.S., the Middle East, and throughout Asia. He is a certified Tool Master in Value Stream Analysis, Kaizen, Workplace Organization and Visual Controls, Quick Change, Mistake Proofing and team facilitation skills. He led the implementation of Lean/Continuous Improvement(CI) for the Asian segment of Fortune 200 global business. It established Lean/CI within just 11 months in a business unit operating in 8 countries with over 1.3 billion dollars (USD) in revenues and 4,500 people. During that period, he engaged, energized and trained personnel to master plan the implementation of Lean/CI and implement 145 Lean improvement events. The savings in the first year (while he was still training personnel) were over $30 million (USD). This first year included six weeks during which the project was on hold due to SARS.

Raphael L. Vitalo received his doctorate in clinical psychology from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. He has authored 40 professional articles, technical reports, and chapters in the areas of psychology, organizational consulting, work process improvement, information systems, and artificial intelligence. Dr. Vitalo worked in community mental health during the first half of his 50-year career as therapist and as Clinical Director of two mental health centers. In the first of those centers, he led his staff in improving the success of treatment outcomes by 31% (from 70% to 92%), reducing dropout from treatment by more than 50%, expanding the number of people served with the same level of staff by 20%, and producing a per unit cost of care that was 56% below the national average. In the second of those centers, again working with his staff, he produced similar gains in caregiving. In the second half of his career, Dr. Vitalo worked as a business consultant. He has designed, managed, and implemented more than 350 projects serving public and private companies in the areas of organizational effectiveness, performance management, workforce productivity, business process reengineering, risk management, applications of the Quality and Lean Enterprise models, knowledge engineering, information systems design and development, and expert systems design and development. He is currently the president of Vital Enterprises.