Mike Abrams

19-year career has always centered on People Development, Business Development & Information Technology. For the past three years he has served as Vice President Learning & Technology Consultint at TBD Consulting. He is a frequent speaker, consultant, and workshop leader in the area of Learning Innovation with Virtual Worlds and Social Media. He consults with companies to develop innovative people development programs that drive employee engagement, performance improvement and process effectiveness. He also provides solutions for healthcare providers to develop training programs for their system implementation or leadership development.

Before his work with TBD Consulting, he spent six years as an executive at Avnet, a Fortune 500 corporation, holding executive positions in Corporate Training, Global Web Services, and eCommerce. He was an active trainer in their award winning international executive development program and taught courses in the US, Belgium, Germany, and the UK.

As an active member of the community, Mike has served on the board of directors for American Society of Training & Development (ASTD) Phoenix Chapter and most recently for the Arizona Chapter of the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (AZHIMSS). Mike is also an Advisory Board member for Blueprint Education and sits on the ASTD National Technology Team.

Mike holds both MBA and M.Ed degrees and is certified in Ken Blanchard's Situational Leadership II and Wilson Learning's Sales Excellence. Mike was recognized in July 2009 for ASTD National’s Recognition Program, "Sharing Our Success", for innovations in Virtual World Simulcasting. Mike was ranked #67 on InfoWorld’s 2001 Top 100 Business Innovators.

Contact Information:
602.957-1045
Work: mike.abrams@tbdconsulting.com
Personal: michaeltabrams@gmail.com

Second Life: Milford Revnik
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/mikeabrams
Blog: http://tbd-consulting.typepad.com/mikeabrams

Mike Abrams’s Specialties:

Healthcare systems implementation, Leadership development programs, executive coaching, performance management, performance improvement, software development, Learning Innovation, Web 2.0, Social Media, electronics distribution, Second Life, eCommerce

Mike Abrams’s Experience

AZ Chapter Board of Directors

HIMSS

(Non-Profit; Hospital & Health Care industry)

July 2009 — Present (5 months)

Develop and execute the Communication strategy for board growth using social media and traditional marketing channels.
Advisory Board Member

Blueprint Education

(Non-Profit; Education Management industry)

June 2009 — Present (6 months)

Consulting with the CEO to share industry best practices and opportunities in social media and business strategy.
Technology Team Advisory Board

ASTD

(Non-Profit; Non-Profit Organization Management industry)

January 2009 — Present (11 months)

Work with ASTD National to develop a technology strategy and assist in the coordination of rolling it out to the chapters. Provide expertise on social media, virtual worlds, and online facilitation.
VP Learning & Technology Consulting

TBD Consulting, Inc.

(Privately Held; Professional Training & Coaching industry)

July 2006 — Present (3 years 5 months)

We provide Performance Improvement solutions to create measureable business impact. We utilize our expertise in Organizational Development and Learning to create solutions that meet our customer's needs. We've been successfully serving Fortune 500 companies since 1991. Although we have customers in many sectors, we focus primarily on Financial Services, Healthcare, Hospitality, Technology, and Government.

My specific role is to:
Develop business growth strategies. Design & execute North American strategic sales plan. Develop US sales team. Manage PR/Marketing activities. Develop and launch new products/services. Consult with customers to develop business solutions through OD/Learning.
VP, Learning & Performance Development

Avnet, Inc

(Public Company; AVT; Wholesale industry)

2004 — 2006 (2 years )

As a member of corporate global OD/HR team reporting to Chief Human Resources Development Officer my primary role was to provide learning strategies and North American implementations in the area of Learning and Performance Development. This included learning consulting, development, facilitation, logistics and learning systems management.

• Developed IBM channel partner online training portal with ILT and web-based courses.
• Professional sales skills training to drive high margin consultative sales.
• Coordinated training of employees in support of several large IT system implementations.
• Developed training plan to support acquisition of another firm.
• Faculty member for executive leadership program taught in US, Belgium, and Germany.
• Consolidated training vendor contracts for annual savings.
• Awarded State of Arizona corporate education grant to develop multi-year IT professional skills program.
• Situational Leadership II Certified Instructor, Ken Blanchard Companies.
• Sales Excellence Certified Instructor, Wilson Learning.
VP, Supply Chain Applications & eCommerce

Avnet, Inc.

(Public Company; AVT; Wholesale industry)

2002 — 2004 (2 years )

Reported to Chief Technology Officer managing North American Supply Chain application development and ecommerce.

• Launched IBM Websphere ecommerce sites for Avnet and suppliers increasing revenue with reduced labor/software expense.
• Launched Integration Center Operations application to automate ISO 9001:2000 work processes.
• Merged several supply chain applications into central application increasing functionality and reduced software expense.
• Launched Avnet.com ecommerce application
VP, Global Web Services

Avnet, Inc.

(Public Company; AVT; Wholesale industry)

2000 — 2002 (2 years )

Reported to division Chief Information Officer managing global web application development services. Primary responsibilities were to develop internal employee learning portal with applications for every stage of the order cycle, fee-based customer portal, and ecommerce engines in partnership with suppliers.

• Launched division Internet/Intranet websites supporting 30 countries reducing software development expense.
• Managed application merger and training for EMEA acquisition reducing overall capital expense.
• Awarded InfoWorld Magazine “Top 100 Business Innovators” (ranked #67).
• Launched employee portal consolidating sales & ops applications avoiding annual licensing costs.
• Launched ecommerce site supporting EMEA

Mike Abrams’s Education

University of Phoenix

MBA , 2003 — 2005
Arizona State University

M.Ed , Learning & Instructional Technology , 1997 — 1999
Western International University

BS , Business , 1993 — 1995

Activities and Societies:

Delta Mu Delta

Additional Information

Mike Abrams’s Websites:

My Company

Mike Abrams’s Groups:

American Society for Training & Development: Currently President-Elect for 2006. Previously Director of Marketing/Communications, Director of Web Services.

Knights of Columbus: Very active in youth development.