Kent KaufmanKent Kaufman has over 30 years of experience in executive roles, management consulting, and executive coaching. He has long been interested in and studied leadership, organizational development, and change (OD/OC). Kent has coached and mentored severl of the best Silicon Valley CEOs and top management teams. As the CEO of the Growth and Leadership Center and a frequently utilized leadership consultant for Korn Ferry International, Kent has worked with CEOs, boards of directors, vice presidents, directors, and executives at all levels, ranging from progressive Fortune 500 firms to small startups. His work has spanned multiple market verticals, including high tech, internet/software, life sciences/healthcare, manufacturing/supply chain, construction, legal services, aerospace/defense, oil and gas, and financial services. He has consulted for NVIDIA, Amazon, Google, Intel, Hewlett-Packard, Chevron, Abbott Labs, Medtronic, Network Appliance, Barclays, BlackRock, Bank of New York Mellon, Cisco, Northrop Grumman, and Apple. Kent has brought his keen insights and strategic perspective to these and his many other clients in the context of accelerating business growth, go-to-market strategies, change management, team dynamics, decision theory, strategic planning, and development (vision, strategy, measurement, and execution - VSME), and executive coaching.Kent is also a managing partner at BEEC Capital, the CEO and chairman of the board of Blackhawk Acquisition Corporation, a NASDAQ-listed SPAC (Special Purpose Acquisition Company), and he serves on the San Jose State University Advisory Board for the Silicon Valley Center for Operations and Technology Management. Earlier in his management career, he was a technical leader at IBM and later held the product leadership role at StorMedia, which he helped take public through an IPO. His hands-on business experience enables him to relate to his clients to meet their challenges and address their needs. Kent also worked early on as a materials scientist, having received his Bachelor of Science in Materials Science from the University of Washington and his Master of Science in Materials Science from Stanford University. He was the recipient of IBM's prestigious Outstanding Innovation Award. He has contributed to several major hardware and internet-software product releases and is a U.S. patent holder. Read More Read Less