Diana B. Elliott

Diana is a highly seasoned senior organization development executive with extensive experience in manufacturing, utilities and services industries. She achieves results through energizing leadership, persuasive communication skills and the ability to synthesize, analyze and develop strategic plans that deliver. Diana is a dynamic leader who recognizes the value of an empowered workforce and possesses the personal resources to attain that end. She is also experienced as an organizational performance consultant.

Some recent assignments included the providing of change management consulting and workshops for an engineering research and development group and an order management department consolidating operations into other locations (Ohio and New Hampshire), a human resource compensations and benefits group being restructured (Houston), a German-owned design and manufacturing groups accepting corporate level restructuring and consolidation (Johnson City, Tennessee, and Atlanta), and a manufacturing plant initiating and completing a profitability turnaround (Dallas).

Diana has worked in designing and facilitating a 2-day leadership workshop for a group of German and American executives establishing a startup company (New Your State), conducting focus group research in a wide variety of organizations to determine the sources of employee dissatisfaction (chemical plant in Houston, services company in Baltimore, and a corporate office in Boston) and designing working, retention strategies (foods company in Chicago). She has also established leadership models, creating succession plans, high potentials programs, and management development training (Commodities manufacturer in Baltimore, manufacturer headquarters in Boston, foods company in Chicago), supplied "outside expertise" to a Baltimore-based firm in the temporary contracting business (Allegis Group), and was the founding dean of their corporate university. This company is in a high-growth mode with slightly under $3 billion in sales.

Prior to joining Pragmatic, Diana 's experience included being Director of Commercial Business Development, Macro International Research, which does management consulting, and information technologies firm supporting business and governments worldwide, a stint as the Corporate Director, Development & Training, Sweetheart Cup Company Inc., Owings Mills, MD Fortune 500 Equivalent, a privately held, company that manufactured disposable products for the food services industry and employed 8,000 employees in 11 plants. She also recruited, organized, and led a staff of 17 organizational development, management, and training professionals at 11 locations; managed a $2 million annual budget while reporting to Vice President of Human Resources. And she redesigned annual performance objectives forms, procedures and management training, revised management succession plan and system beginning at executive level, and defined and resourced management training thus contributing to the development of more than 1,500 supervisors, managers and executives. The results showcased how both managers were capable of leading a more empowered and diversified workforce and alignment between business plans and employee skills and contributions.

Diana has also worked for the Sweetheart Cup Company, Inc., Owings Mills, MD as a consultant, Heidelberg Harris, Inc. in Dover, NH, Wheelabrator Technologies, Inc. in Hampton, NH. She holds numerous degrees, including the Ed.D., Higher and Adult Education, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ and the M.Ed., Major in English, University of Arizona, Tucson, and a BA, Education, cum laude, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ. Diana is a member of many business and educational associations.