With 20 years of organizational consulting experience in Silicon Valley with over 300 clients in the high-tech, biotech, healthcare industries, The Strayer Consulting Group, Inc. has earned an excellent reputation with CEOs and the venture capital community. It is one of the leading management consultation firms specializing in Organization Development for rapid growth and startup companies, and mature companies managing significant change.

Founders Dick Strayer and Linda Tirado have professional expertise in organization and executive development spanning twenty-five years, focusing particularly on organization assessment, CEO coaching, top-management team building, founder transitions and new team formation. They have served as a professional advisors or special limited partners to over 30 venture / private equity capital firms. Corporate consultation assignments have included CEO and executive coaching and team building for over 300 pre and post IPO companies. The Strayer Consulting Group is known in the technology sector as the organization to call when tough issues inhibit success.

The Strayer Consulting Group, Inc. also provides coaching and consultation to CEOs and senior executives at larger corporations. In this capacity, it helps the executives diagnose organization and management issues and define change and development plans. This work often involves executive team building, as well as planning for broader corporate change such as restructuring and acquisition integration.

The Strayer Consulting Group, Inc. maintains regional affiliate offices in Seattle, Portland, San Jose, Southern California and Toronto, Canada, with over 20 consultants trained in the Strayer methodology.

Dick Strayer, Ph.D., M.B.A.; Los Gatos, California. CEO, Strayer Consulting Group, Inc.

Dick earned his MA and Ph.D. degrees in Psychology from Claremont Graduate School in 1971 and 1973, respectively. He completed a Post-Doctorate, with a focus on clinical and organizational behavior at the UCLA Neuropsychiatric Institute in 1973-74, and later earned an MBA in Marketing at Boston University in 1979. With 20 plus years of organizational consulting experience, Dick has worked with more than 250 high technology companies. He has earned an excellent reputation with CEOs and the venture capital community for his organizational and executive development skills, particularly for his work in founder career pathing, top management team building, and executive coaching. Dick earned both his Masters and Ph.D. degrees in Psychology from The Claremont Graduate University. He completed a Post-Doctorate in Clinical and Organization Behavior at the UCLA Neuropsychiatric Institute and also holds a MBA in Marketing from Boston University.

Linda A. Tirado, Ph.D.; Los Gatos, California. Partner, Strayer Consulting Group, Inc.

Partner and co-founder Linda Tirado, earned her Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology at University of Connecticut in 1981, and is a licensed psychologist in the State of California, and maintains professional affiliations with the American Psychology Association.  Her research focus has centered on leadership development and corporate management of the creative process.  Linda directs the venture partner consultation practice for The Strayer Consulting Group.

Our Regional Partners:

Chrismon Nofsinger, Ph.D.; Seattle, Washington. President, Nofsinger Strayer Consulting

Chrismon Nofsinger is the president of Nofsinger Strayer consulting. In his some 15 years of experience he has become a trusted confidant and advisor to CEO's, Board members, and private equity investors. Chrismon has personally worked with more than 60 companies focusing on organizational change, individual and team leadership development, and CEO coaching and transition. Chrismon holds a Masters and Ph.D. in organizational Psychology from The Claremont Graduate University.

Sydney Joyner, M.B.A, Portland, Oregon. President, Joyner Strayer Consulting

Sydney is a partner in Joyner Strayer Consulting and president of The Joyner Group, LTD. She earned her MBA with a concentration in organizational development from Marylhurst University in Lake Oswego, Oregon, and holds a BA degree in speech and hearing pathology, with additional postgraduate work in broadcast communications. Her over 20 years experience in organizational development and communications consulting with start-ups, emerging, and mature companies has given her the reputation as a trusted resource and executive coach. She has worked with over 100 companies in a broad range of industries, advising the CEOs, boards of directors, and executive teams through change events, team formation and transitions, and leadership development. She acts as a catalyst for organizational change and transformation and is noted for her high energy, insight, and skilled facilitation abilities. Sydney serves on the boards of the Oregon Entrepreneurial Forum and the Oregon College of Art and Craft.

Einar Westerlund, Laguna Beach, CA & Canada. President, Westerlund Strayer Assoc.

Einar has been a senior consultant with Strayer Consulting since the company's inception, assisting in training, coaching, and organizational development in several dozen organizations from start-ups and early stage growth companies through Strayer's largest multi-national clients.

In this capacity, he's represented the practice in numerous client projects across the globe. He began his career with the General Electric Company following his graduation from Yale University following studies in English and Psychology. From there he progressed to an executive position with the A.C.Nielsen market research organization, before co-founding a successful training company which he led for nearly 20 years. He then became an independent OD consultant, later joining Strayer Consulting. Based in Southern California, and also continuing work internationally, he continues to serve as Director of Special Projects at the Centre for Business Venturing, part of the Queen's University School of Business in Canada.

Bill Tobin, Principal, Strayer Consulting Group, Inc.

Bill Tobin brings over 25 years of consulting and high technology experience to Strayer Consulting from PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), public companies such as Sun Microsystems, Intel, Ampex, RasterOps, and 3DO, and as a founding executive and board member at startups DotRocket and MediaFlex. Bill is an experienced business consultant and coach who brings technical savvy, business discipline and an orientation towards people to his work with clients; he specializes in helping companies implement major strategic and operational initiatives that require an integrated, cross-functional approach.

Bill has an undergraduate engineering degree from Drexel University and has completed post-graduate engineering and business studies at Stanford University and the University of California. He is an advisor and former chairman of the MIT/Stanford Venture Lab, an advisor at the Entrepreneurs Foundation and the Software Development Forum, and also is active in a variety of other Bay Area organizations that work with entrepreneurs and early stage companies.

Paul Bianchi, Principal, Strayer Consulting Group, Inc.

Paul Bianchi is the most recent addition to Strayer Consulting, bringing almost 20 years of high technology experience at PeopleSoft, NeXT Computer, Apple, ProBusiness Services, and Ask Jeeves. In his role as the Global VP of HR, Paul has led significant organizational development strategies, including building management infrastructure and disciplines to support 50% annual growth up to and over $100M, creating Strategic Plans for human capital management, and installing a Performance Consulting organization in a large public company. Paul’s expertise includes leading due diligence and integration efforts for a dozen acquisitions ranging from $50MM to $1.5B, rebuilding a Corporate University to triple the employee development results, and leading executive transition, recruiting, assimilation and team development in all sizes of public and private companies.

Paul has a Masters in Management from the University of Kent, Canterbury (UK) and a Bachelor of Science in Managerial Economics from the University of California, Davis. Paul has been certified as a Senior Professional in HR, has taught at San Jose State and has spoken on a variety of topics at software and human resources forums.

Sally Wilder, MSW, Senior Consultant,
Strayer Consulting Group, Inc.
President, Wilder Consulting

Sally has over 15 years of experience specializing in executive development, teambuilding, coaching, organization assessment and managing change. She has worked closely with venture capital firms, board members and executive teams to help them achieve their organization’s goals. Her experience includes working with over 90 companies, including 35 start-ups. Sally has strong international experience, having worked in India and Europe for over 8 years. This real-time cultural sensitivity has helped her work effectively with difficult cross cultural team issues.

Sally received a BA in Sociology from Indiana University. She holds a Masters degree from San Jose State University and is a graduate of University Associates, as well as a Certified Trainer in Organization Development, Situational Leadership and Myers Briggs. She worked as a participant and Facilitator for the Interpersonal Dynamics Course in the MBA program at Stanford University.