The Lauridsen Group is a group of highly experienced management consultants that helps organizations strategize, produce their products and services and remain competitive and profitable.

Who we are:

Robert Lauridsen

Robert W. Lauridsen, holds a Ph.D. in Educational Psychology and Research from the University of Southern California and has over 15 years experience consulting with Fortune 500 companies such as BEA Systems, Align Technology, Lucent, Novell, Emerson Electric and Adobe Systems. He is the principle consultant and founder of Lauridsen Consulting Group, a Silicon Valley organizational effectiveness firm specializing in improving productivity and performance in complex environments.

He has written over 25 articles on leadership, management, culture and building teams which are used consulting engagements. With Tandem Computers, he co-produced a management film. His book, Boss Talk: A Manager’s Guide to Exceptional Productivity and Innovation (co-authored with Steven Sherman, MBA,) was published in 2000.

Steven J. Sherman

Steven J. Sherman is a 20-year veteran in technology development and has held senior management positions at software companies both internationally and in Silicon Valley, including Symantec, Frame Technologies, Adobe Systems, and Tera PLC. Through his experience with high-growth companies, Mr. Sherman has helped many managers grow themselves and their teams to be highly effective and collaborative. As a consultant, he helps companies maximize the satisfaction and productivity of their employees with an integrated approach to people, planning, projects, and process.

Mr. Sherman holds a bachelor’s degree in Mathematics/Computer Science from Emory University and a MBA from San Jose State University.

Burt Nanus

Professor emeritus of management of University of Southern California, is author or coauthor of seven books, including the best-selling Leaders: The Strategies for Taking Charge (with Warren Bennis) which is used in his consulting engagements. Dr. Nanus brings over 35 years of educational, research and managerial experience in the processes and methods of leadership, strategy, and long range planning and forecasting, as applied in the business, public and nonprofit organizations.

Fran Lauridsen, Ph.D.

Fran Lauridsen has been a consultant to both government and industry. Her international experience includes having trained managers for the U.S. Office of Education and management consulting for corporations in the Far East. She has received several research grants to further her work in human learning.

Dr. Lauridsen holds a degree from Stanford University in Behavioral Sciences along with her Ph.D. in Psychology. Post-doctoral work includes three years studying business, language and philosophy with Dr. Fernando Flores. She has published books and articles in the area of human learning and communications. Clients of Dr. Lauridsen's have commented, "She seems to care more about my future than I do."

Brenda Fox

Brenda Fox combines entrepreneurial agility and large-scale IT experience, to successfully build responsive, efficient and lasting Professional Services & IT teams that provide outstanding service to customers, employees, suppliers, and investors. Ms. Fox has been an integral part of three high-tech management teams, which have raised over $200,000,000 in venture capital.

Ms. Fox has a strong matrix of interpersonal skills, management experience, computer science education, sales, team building, customer management, client services and technology expertise. She has twice built and managed national Professional Services organizations implementing and supporting software, hardware and networks. She has successfully managed large-scale enterprise information technology development and deployment across teams on three continents, and serving thousands of users. Her experience includes strategy and business plan development, national client service organization management, ASP hosting, product and market research, directing research & development functions, managing product development and integration, as well as, deploying, world wide, Enterprise IT infrastructure including ERP, Customer Relations Management, Document Control, Manufacturing, Engineering, E-Commerce, Supply Chain Management, Human Resource Management and Informatics-Statistical Analysis Systems.

With skills honed over 18 years in the real world of high growth technology start ups, Ms. Fox’s greatest talents may be her ability to create organization out of chaos; her ability to envision the quantifiable goals and systems that will best serve the defined mission of an organization and to listen to the customer.

R. Bruce Pittman

R. Bruce Pittman holds a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from U.C. Davis and an MS in Engineering Management from Santa Clara University. He has over twenty years experience in high technology project management, system engineering, concurrent engineering, risk management and planning for both industry and government. Bruce has been recognized for his work with organizational effectiveness and project teams acting as a facilitator, coach and mentor to increase speed and quality of the development process, while reducing overall project risk.

Fortune 500 companies have been Bruce's mainstays including Behring Diagnostic, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Westinghouse, Varian and numerous government agencies. International experience includes Europe and Saudi Arabia. As an adjunct professor, Bruce teaches engineering management at Santa Clara University. He has published over two dozen papers on technical and management topics and regularly speaks at professional meetings and conferences.

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