WHO WE ARE - BIOS
LAURA ERKENEFF, the founder of Training for Techies, Inc, has over 20 years experience in leadership development training, coaching, organization development, and building leadership programs for technical professionals at all levels of the organization.
By focusing on integrating her clients’ technical expertise with their leadership and business skills, she has established a proven track record for showing immediate performance improvement. Laura brings both internal company and external consulting experience to her work. Her engagements have included all aspects of technical leadership development, from designing training courses in leadership development and leading design teams for technical symposiums, to designing and implementing systems for technical leadership development, and coaching executives in organization development projects. Laura holds a Master's degree in Clinical Psychology.
JIM TIETZ has provided technical leadership to small teams and large organizations in the course of a 20-year career in semiconductor engineering. He began his career as the lead technologist of a team at Dow Corning that introduced a new class of spin-on dielectric materials for low dielectric constant applications. Upon joining Applied Materials, Jim led a group of engineers that designed and shipped the world's first semiconductor production equipment for 300mm wafer processing. Later, his organization at Lam Research revitalized the dielectric etch product line, leading to breakthrough technical advances that regained market share supremacy against two entrenched competitors. Jim has made groundbreaking contributions throughout his career through technical insight, marketing perception, and management excellence.
Jim's personal success is founded on developing the team personnel to achieve optimal performance. He has taught the principles that lead to technical and business success to hundreds of employees of all levels, leading to measurable productivity increases. Jim holds a doctorate in Physical Chemistry and a BS in both chemistry and computer science.
PEG VIDETTA has taught hundreds of technical professionals all over the globe how to communicate detailed data and concepts into business actions and deliverables. She is an accomplished trainer and because of her engineering background has high credibility with engineers and other technical professionals. Peg is a model for others of how to get to the heart of the issue and communicate the key message.
Peg has held positions in engineering, applications, training, technical marketing and management. She has a BS in Physics, and work experience in the aerospace and semiconductor equipment industries. She is currently a consultant and coach in presentation skills for engineers and scientists.
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