Joleen brings more than 25 years of talent and team-building experience to each engagement. Her broad experience ranges from serving as president and CEO of the Elliot Leadership Institute, a not-for-profit organization providing leadership training solutions to food service industry professionals, to her role as the executive vice president, Human Resources and Training for Famous Dave’s of America. At Famous Dave’s she led human resources, organizational development, payroll, risk management, training and development, giving her the unique perspective and background to assist organizations in reaching their full potential.

She began her career in operations and has keen insight into frontline employees and their impact on the customer experience. This experience, along with deep professional insights as a human resource leader, training leader, and executive, gives her the capacity to provide real solutions to her clients.

Curt brings a real-world perspective that connects with clients and motivates them to take the steps necessary to improve performance. The passion, energy, and unparalleled service that he models when working with clients, business partners, and key stakeholders results in tangible actions that lead to quantitative improvements to performance.

Curt has spent more than 30 years in the training and hospitality industry, where his career started in operations as a maintenance employee at the age of 16 years old. He has fulfilled every role, from entry-level employee to corporate training and development manager and every position in between, playing a key role in developing and implementing performance-improvement projects. His background allows him to help drive strategic change in a way that motivates the front-line employee.

Curt is a member of the National Restaurant Association’s Certification Governing Board, past  president of the Council of Hotel and Restaurant Trainers, and has been a well-received speaker at industry events including the National Restaurant Association Show, Multi-Unit Foodservice Operators Conference, Council of Hotel and Restaurant Trainers and the Society of Human Resources.

Astrid has spent a career in the marketing industry working for both small firms and large corporations. She’s a skilled marketing writer who is as comfortable writing creative marketing materials as she is working on technical manuals. She has worked with McDonald’s corporation as a marketing operations specialist, then spent several years as a marketing manager in the publishing industry.

In 2007, Astrid joined Uponor Corporation and wrote case studies, manuals and marketing collateral. She worked with a team of writers to create technical installation, operations and process manuals for industry installers. Astrid also developed a video platform where she wrote and helped produce approximately 30 short videos highlighting installation techniques to the trades.

Astrid was born in Norway and came to the United States to attend college after her high school graduation. She holds a master’s degree from the University of Minnesota with an emphasis in marketing writing. As a dual-language speaker, she’s passionate about writing and communications, and she enjoys the written word; whether it’s a great novel or a well-written process manual.