We are a management and organizational development consulting group helping organizations achieve consistent, sustainable improvement in productivity and performance. Since 1993 our diverse and seasoned teams have partnered with clients in corporations, non-profit groups and government in the United States, Europe, Latin America, Asia and Africa. We are completely orientated to meet the specific needs of the client, adding significant value and making a difference. Helping to solve the tough challenges of business our major goal is to work with optimism and integrity empowering clients to be results oriented, deal effectively with change and build and grow high performance.

Please scroll down to learn about our Partnering Organizations and our Team Members.

Partnering Organizations include:

Aspen Organization Development Consulting provides expertise is in driving organizational performance through innovative organizational development. www.aspenod.com

Denison Consulting provides research-based organizational culture and leadership development surveys that link to bottom line performance metrics. www.denisonconsulting.com

McCreight & Companyis a strategy implementation consulting firm focused on ensuring competitive superiority of clients. 200 + alliance partners who have industry expertise and C-level position experience enables quick value add. www.implementstrategy.com

Team Members

Magda du Preez
Magda du Preez, the owner of Informed Talent Decisions is a psychologist. She is an affiliate of the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology and The American Psychological Association. She has provided consultation to Fortune 500 companies, start –ups, and not for profit organizations in the United States and abroad. Prior to establishing her own consulting company, Magda was employed as a psychologist in the Human Resources Department of Old Mutual, a mutli-biliion-dollar international financial services company with 36,000 employees worldwide, where she specialized in developing and applying job-specific competency models and assessment tools for staff selection and development in various business units.

Associates
All associates working with Informed Talent Decisions are professionals chosen for their proven track record in business pragmatism, assessment expertise, international experience and emotional maturity. Each associate has a minimum of a master’s degree and an average of ten years experience working with Fortune 500’s as an organizational development specialist and/or psychologist.

Kevin R. Nash, Ph.D.
Kevin is an Industrial/Organizational psychologist and management consultant specializing in organizational development, employee development, and human capital management. He is also an adjunct Professor of Management, teaching courses on conflict resolution. Kevin has held senior management positions in Marketing and Human Resources in the pharmaceutical and medical equipment industries, and has worked as a management consultant for clients in Europe, Africa, and the USA. Past clients include Hawker Sidley Engineering, Borden Dairies, El Paso Pipeline Company, Anglo American Corporation, SAS Hotels, and Eskom Power Generation. His consulting assignments have included coaching executives and management teams, designing and implementing management training and development programs, designing succession planning and performance management processes for large and medium sized companies, and providing change management consulting for organizations engaged in significant organizational change.

Kevin's undergraduate studies were in Marketing at the Dublin Institute of Technology where he graduated first in his class. He then gained an M.A. in Management from the University of Kent at Canterbury, UK, and a Ph.D. in Industrial/Organizational Psychology from Capella University, Minnesota. Kevin is a member of the American Psychological Society, the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology, the American Society for Training and Development, and The Academy of Management.

Kevin is the President and Founder of Aspen Organization Development Consulting, LLC and frequently teams with ITD on projects that require additional expertise.

Stella Kaplow Lee, Ph.D.
Dr. Lee has extensive experience providing organizational development, team building, system design and training and change management consulting in organizations of varying size and industry. She has designed and implemented integrated organizational processes and systems focusing on the practical application of theory and measurement of results. She specializes in the areas of measurement, organizational development and system design, as well as individual assessment.

Prior to full time consulting, Dr. Lee worked as an internal consultant for Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. She has worked extensively in the financial services and pharmaceutical industries. Dr. Lee was a member of the graduate faculty at Columbia University teaching Organizational Behavior and Survey Research Methods.

Dr. Lee received her Ph.D. from New York University in 1995. She is an active member of the Society for Industrial Organizational Psychology.

Thandi Mvakali
Thandi Mvakali is an associate of Informed Talent Decisions and Principle Director of Larona, one of South Africa’s most respected and innovative organizations in the field of Human Capital Solutions. She has extensive experience providing executive and management assessments, team effectiveness analysis, and transformation management services since 1999 to clients in the financial services, government, telecommunications, media and oil industries. Having lived and worked in multiple countries such as South Africa, United States, Kenya, and the United Kingdom Thandi applied her skills across multiple cultures. Clients benefitting from her services include the South African Department of Foreign Affairs, South African Department of Environmental Affairs & Tourism, South African Department of Economic Development & Planning, United Cricket Board of South Africa, TOTAL, SAB Miller, Vodacom, Transnet, Eskom, First National Bank, IDT, South African Broadcasting Company, and Premier Foods. Thandi received her M.Sc. in Psychology from the Medical School of Southern Africa in 1998.

Alison Larkan
Alison is an Organizational Psychologist with specialist knowledge in organizational development and human resources. She has provided consultation to Fortune 500 companies, small fast growing companies and not-for-profit organizations and government. Ms Larkan also devoted a number of years to working in Human Resources in new media, energy and served as a university faculty member in Organizational Psychology and Human Resource Management. She currently serves on the Career Development Committee for NYWICI and SHRM - HRNY Manhattan.

Her areas of specialization include: leadership, development, implementation and presentation of supervisory, management and executive development programs, change management, competency based recruitment, assessment and selection, succession planning, team building, cross cultural facilitation, career development, counseling, conflict resolution and organizational diagnostics.

Tina Spangler
Tina Spangler is an organizational and training development consultant with over fifteen years experience in OD consulting, Assessment for Selection and Development, Coaching, Career Counseling/ Development, Training and Facilitation.

Tina consults and trains in the areas of Customer Service, Leadership, Teaming, Meeting Facilitation, Team Development and Diversity. In addition, her experience includes extensive work in sales and sales management training. She is an expert group facilitator, helping clients work effectively toward desired and specific outcomes.

Working with a wide range of fortune 500 firms from industries including Engineering, Retail, Financial Services/Banking, Utilities, Consumer Organizations and Pharmaceuticals, Tina includes the following among her list of clients: Allied Domecq (Dunkin’Donuts/Baskin-Robbins), Allied Signal, Asea Brown-Boveri, Chemical Bank, Citibank, Dreyfus, Elizabeth Arden, Fleet Bank, Haagen-Dazs, Janssen Pharmaceutica, Kansas City Power and Light, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, Ortho-McNeil, Parke-Davis, PECO Engineering, Warner-Lambert and Unilever.

In addition, Tina designs assessment instruments/simulations and training programs and has developed competency models. She also frequently works as part of an assessment team to evaluate candidates for leadership, management and sales positions and to give feedback and developmental recommendations.

Prior to starting her own firm, she worked as an internal consultant for a NY Bank and as a consulting manager for a major national consulting/training organization.

Tina holds an Advanced Degree in Organization Behavior and Development and an M.S. in Counseling and Human Resources.

Joan Heynemann
Joan Heynemann is an associate of Informed Talent Decisions and managing partner of Competence Incorporated, a consultancy specializing in the assessment and development of organizations and human capital for growth. Joan’s career commenced at the Centre for Local Government Training: Western Cape, where she played a pivotal role in the acceptance and implementation of the use of Assessment and Development Centre Technology as part of Human Capital Development within the Local Government environment. This required the facilitation and creation of understanding amongst key role players such as Union Representatives, Politicians and Officials as to the importance of adopting this technology in order to assist with the implementation of Affirmative Action and Fast Tracked Development policies. She was also involved in other training related aspects of the Training Board which focused specifically on the development of newly appointed Councilors post the 1994 National election. Thereafter, from 1998 till 2006, Joan managed the Selection / Assessment department of Old Mutual South Africa (a multi-billion-dollar international financial services company). This is where she concluded her corporate career after she re-established the Assessment and Development Assessment Department and played an integral part in a project which transformed Old Mutual’s Human Resource practices to competency and role based. This project was a large scale change initiative which involved all employees, including the Executive Committee members. As an independent consultant for the last three years, Joan has been specializing in the Assessment and Development of human potential; Organizational and Role Design and the facilitation of Change processes including in business mergers and retrenchment situations.

Joan Heynemann holds a Master’s Degree in Psychology from the University of Stellenbosch, South Africa.

Areas of Expertise

• Project management
• Facilitation
• Culture Change / Change Management
• Leadership Development
• Assessment
• Organizational Design, Role Design and design of associated Human Capital practices

Representative Engagements and Clients

• Old Mutual South Africa
• Old Mutual, Namibia
• First National Bank
• Sanlam
• Safcor Panalpina (Logistics)
• E+PC (Engineering)
• Graham & Rhona Beck Skills Centre
• DG Murray Trust
• Local Government Training Board, Western Cape
• Various Local Authorities within the Western Cape Province

Yvonne van der Merwe
Yvonne van der Merwe, an Industrial / Organizational Psychologist, is an associate of Informed Talent Decisions and managing partner of Competence Incorporated, a consultancy specializing in change management and the assessment and development of people and organizations. In her early career she practiced as an Industrial Relations Specialist within the food and transport sector, focusing on procedures, practices and related training. She and her team also played an integral part in spearheading change initiatives within Transnet, the sole provider of rail and harbor facilities in South Africa. Yvonne concluded her corporate career as a Senior Manager within the Transnet Group, taking responsibility for Training and Development. She also lectured at the University of Stellenbosch to graduate and post-graduate students in Industrial Psychology and Industrial Relations. Over the past 14 years, Yvonne specialized as a consultant in assessing leaders for purposes of selection, development, restructuring, and mergers. Yvonne’s sound academic footing, complemented by years of in-depth assessments and development experience, positions her well to fulfill her personal and business mission of ‘enhancing the well-being of people and organizations by developing them holistically’.

Yvonne holds a Master’s Degree in Industrial Psychology from the University of Stellenbosch and an Advanced Diploma in Labour Law from UNISA (South Africa).

Areas of Expertise

• Leadership Development
• Culture Change / Change Management
• Emotional Intelligence and Life Skills
• Development of Organizational Capability and Competency Frameworks
• Assessment
• Organizational Transformation/Development

Representative Engagements and Clients

• MTN and Vodacom
• Bidvest Group
• Phillip Morris International
• British American Tobacco
• ABSA and Nedcor Group
• Barloworld Group of Companies
• Old Mutual, South Africa & Namibia
• Air Seychelles and Mason’s Travel (Seychelles)
• Alexander Forbes
• First National Bank
• Sanlam
• Safcor Panalpina (Logistics)
• E+PC ( Engineering )
• Skills Centers and Academic Institutions ( Rand Afrikaans University)
• Various Trust_ and Section 21 companies
• Transnet