Partner Biographies

  DAVID FOOTE, Co-Founder, CEO and Chief Research Officer

As Foote Partners' CEO and Chief Research Officer since 1997, David leads a senior team of experienced former McKinsey & Company, Gartner, META Group, and Towers Perrin analysts and consultants, and former HR, IT, and business executives, in advising governments and corporations worldwide on increasing performance and managing IT's impact on their businesses and customers. 

Prior to co-founding Foote Partners in 1997, David was an analyst and consultant with Gartner and META Group, co-founding and directing META's executive service for Chief Information Officers and leading the firm’s IT Human Capital Management and Compensation research practices. Before this he held executive and management positions with technology and consumer products companies in the San Francisco Bay Area. There he also founded and managed a successful management consulting firm for six years, advising fast-growing technology companies on corporate strategy and business development, organizational development, and managing under conditions of rapid change.

An IT compensation research innovator, David created in 1994 the first survey-based IT compensation research in the U.S. that defined and benchmarked emerging “new breed" information management positions in Unix and NT engineering, Data Warehousing/Business Intelligence, Web and e-Commerce operations, Business Technology, and Enterprise Applications development.

As Chief Research Officer at Foote Partners, he directs a research team that interviews and continuously monitors the compensation and attitudes of 78,000 U.S. and Canadian IT workers. The firm publishes the IT Insider research series, the industry’s most comprehensive IT salary and skills pay surveys and IT workforce trend research that serves more than 1,400 subscribers. Included in this quarterly series are: IT Professional Salary Survey; IT Skills and Certifications Pay Index; IT Salary+Skills Pay Survey Reports; and IT Insider Workforce Trends Series.

David received his BA from Vassar College and MBA from Cornell University’s Graduate School of Management (with coursework in the Graduate School of Industrial and Labor Relations). He completed post-graduate studies in business innovation and business creativity at Stanford University's Graduate School of Management.

In his 24-year career with McKinsey & Company, George served as the firm’s senior partner in charge of the firm’s Worldwide Executive Compensation practice.  A distinguished expert on corporate compensation and tax practices, he served the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) in an ex officio advisory capacity for several years.     

An acclaimed pioneer in the compensation field, George conceived and globally developed the executive performance share pay plan concept which has been the centerpiece of Global 3000 executive compensation programs (with stock options) for more than 30 years.   

George serves on several Boards of Directors and has for been active for more than a decade in creating college curricula in business ethics. He established the Foote Chair in Ethics at Hiram College in 2000. He is a graduate of Harvard University.  

Associate Biographies

With over thirty years in high technology and human resources, Larry Sheehan is best known for his contributions in organizational behavior and assessment.  As the author of such tools as Soft Factors Analysisä and The Cambridge Assessment Methodä, his work has been reviewed by The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Computer World, CIO Magazine and PC Week.  An author of cross-cultural case studies, change management methodologies, and human resource seminars, Lawrence is a frequent speaker in industry and academia. As CEO of The Cambridge Assessment Centre, the assessment and consultancy firm he founded in 1994, Larry helped numerous organizations and major corporations to understand the aptitudes and attitudes of their IT workforce through self-report and objective assessment. In 1996, he and the Centre developed the only known Object Oriented assessment model (used to evaluate candidates for OO programming and design training) and marketed this instrument at the request of IBM’s OO Training Institute in Chicago. Prior to this he was International Director of Human Resources for the Information Services Division of The Chase Manhattan Bank and the founder and past president of Corporate Development Systems (CDS), an international OD consulting firm. At both CDS and Chase, he lived and worked 50% of the time in Europe.  Larry received his undergraduate business degree from Boston College and a master’s degree in psychology from Harvard University.  He is also a graduate of the Chase Institute and has taught programs in The Chase Manhattan Bank Executive Management School.  

Leslie Janoe combines seasoned organizational transformation skills with 20 years of e-Business and Information Technology management, Telecommunications management and global project management experience.  She excels in facilitating clients in synthesizing the important triad of people, process and technology to innovate solutions that are accepted and produce results. 

Leslie specializes in strategic planning/visioning and change management strategies; business process development and redesign; collaborative communications; leadership development; team-based organizational processes and skills; and coaching/mentoring programs.   She has provided training and consulting focusing on system-wide change and organizational effectiveness for numerous clients.  Leslie includes among her recent clients: Advanced Micro Devices, 3Com, Adaptec, California Department of Health Services, California Energy Commission, Advance Paradigm, Airgas, AOL Time Warner, BroadVision, NeuStar, Raychem(Tyco), and Robert Mondavi Winery.   

Leslie held several top management positions in Raychem Corporation’s Information Technology Division over a 12 year period, reporting to the CIO.  Her work there centered on promoting collaborative work environments, introducing new technologies and processes, and leading cross functional and multinational teams operating in distributed environments and multiple geographies and cultures.  As the company's Internet Program Manager, she championed, created, and managed all enterprise Internet and intranet programs.  Leslie served as an internal organizational change agent for many Raychem groups outside of IT, particularly in facilitator and team process coach roles; she led team building and transition management activities for Raychem’s SAP Human Resources module deployment, and managed strategic visioning and  process optimization for Inside Sales.  As a consultant to the company, she managed various Customer Relationship Management activities for Field Sales in the Electronics Division.  

As 3Com's Intranet Program Manager, Leslie managed development and launch of that company’s company-wide intranet.  Prior employment has included Vice President, Telecommunications Manager, Sales Engineer, Systems Engineer, Project Manager positions in predominantly telecommunications companies.   

Leslie earned her BA degree from the University of California at Santa Barbara and MA degree in Management from JFK University, with a focus on Organizational Transformation and Leadership.  

Kathy is a leader authority and specialist in global human resources including compensation, HR strategy/systems/service delivery, global total rewards, and leadership.  She has been an international human resource executive and consultant for 20 years with extensive accomplishments in domestic and expatriate program management, compensation, benefits, human resource planning, staffing and leadership development, organizational development, outsourcing and change management in Fortune 250 organizations. 

Kathy has lead a wide range of HR activities for global companies including HR service delivery; executive compensation and total compensation planning; global sales and variable compensation; benefits/medical cost containment;  international benefits; human resource planning; global staffing and leadership development; international expansion strategy; foreign national compensation; assessment and coaching.  

She has been responsible for international human resource programs in more than 50 countries for four different multinational companies.  As as former Vice President of Total Reward Systems for Allied Domecq, she was one of the company's five highest ranking women.

Kathy has a Masters degree in Human Resources from Cornell University, a Bachelors degree in Economics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and has completed extensive executive education at INSEAD in Fontainebleau France and the Global Leadership program at Babson.  She taught International Benefits for the International Employee Benefits Foundation and has been a board member and editor for the New England Chapter of the Human Resource Planning Society.  Kathy has published numerous articles relating to human resource practices in publications including the Journal of International Compensation and Benefits.

Rochelle specializes in project and process management, emphasizing cross-functional, enterprise integration. She holds the Project Management Professional certification from the Project Management Institute and is an instructor at University of California Davis in its Project Management Certificate Program.  Miss Furtah has twenty years of experience in process and project management, strategic planning, team building, meeting facilitation, and training, including the functions of planning and scheduling, risk analysis, performance analysis, progress reporting, maintaining stakeholder relations, project and cost trend analysis, logistics management, cost control, organization and resource planning, maintaining technical/business interface, contract administration, communications and negotiation. Rochelle is currently a designated Independent Project Oversight Contractor (IPOC) for the state of California's Department of Information Technology, providing independent assessment of project/process management practices for several state-level departments.  She has extensive process and project management experience in most areas of voice and data communications technologies including international voice and data T-1 networks, PBX systems, ACD systems, telemanagement systems, and integrated cabling systems.  She has also overseen project management of data center relocations and disaster recovery operations. 

ERIC CRAVEN, PMP, Associate Senior Partner 

Eric has worked for more than 27 years in organization development (OD) and managing organizational change (MOC).  In that time he has consulted to educational enterprises, companies and government entities and worked with diverse cultural backgrounds in many areas, among them planning, coaching, and inter-group issue resolution.  

Eric focuses on facilitation, process improvement and culture change.  His clients have included IBM, Levi Strauss, Wells Fargo Bank, Apple Computer, AT&T Global IS, Cisco, Advanced Micro Devices, NEC Electronics, Chevron, NCR, Pacific Bell, NASA, Bell Atlantic, Inland Steel, Dow Chemical, Kaiser Permanente, National Guard, Transportation Security Administration, Bell Atlantic, Inland Steel, The Smithsonian Institution, United Cerebral Palsy Affiliates, Bell of Pennsylvania, Sacramento World Trade Center, the Chancellor’s Office of the California Community Colleges, Stanford University, and the city and county of San Francisco.

Eric spent several years at Hewlett Packard as a Senior Consultant with Hewlett Packard Consulting in OD and Management of Organization Change.  While there, he had responsibility for a CEO initiative to improve the technology access for low-income communities in East Palo Alto and Baltimore, Maryland.  He also served for four years as a Senior Manager with DHL Airways as the Manager of Organization and Management Development.  In that capacity, he developed processes for VP-level initiatives to conduct planning, reorganize departments and improve the facilitation skills of first level managers. 

Eric earned a BA from the University of California at Berkeley and an MBA from Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business, focusing his studies on organization behavior and strategy.  He holds the PMP certification.  For two years he produced and served as co-host of the National Public Radio program The Organization Doctors.  He is the co-author of the book Creating Outstanding Two-Way Videoconferences.

THOMAS JAHN, Associate Senior Partner

Thomas is an independent consultant specializing in international operations and general management issues.  Recent work includes corporate development for AIC; improving sales operations at Sanmina-SCI; assisting Siemens with a spin-off in Germany; founding a fuel cell company in San Jose, CA.

Thomas has a long history of executive IT and business employment.  He was previously a corporate executive with broad experience in general management, international operations, finance and systems. He is a recognized driver of change with a strong demonstrated track record in transforming business functions.  A powerful motivator of people, Thomas has consistently won the confidence of the internal organization as well as the trust of global business partners in producing strong business results.

As President of Tyco Electronics Power Systems and Printed Circuit Group, Thomas was responsible for all aspects of the division’s $1.2 billion / 6,000 employee operations encompassing Sales/Marketing, Manufacturing, R&D and Administration.  Under his leadership, several factories were transferred out of the US to Mexico; seven factories in the US and Europe were closed; R&D was streamlined and product development cycles accelerated, enabling better customer focus and response; expenses were reduced 40%.  Prior to this, Thomas held senior management positions at pre-Tyco acquisition Raychem Corporation, including Vice President of the Power & Utility Division, Chief Information Officer and Worldwide Supply Chain Manager, various controller positions and Managing Director of Raychem GmbH.  With Raychem he implemented a mid-size, Unix-based ERP system in 23 locations in Asia and Latin America, and installed SAP/R3 in Raychem's major locations in North America and Europe.  He standardized the network infrastructure, and systems and hardware throughout Raychem Corporation.

Thomas received his B.S. in Information Systems Engineering and M.S. in Mathematics from University Dortmund, Germany as well as his SEP from the Stanford Graduate Business School at Stanford University.

RICHARD DENTON, Associate Senior Partner

Richard has more than 25 years experience in senior corporate IT positions and as an independent consultant, with a rich history of Applications Development innovation, International Program Management, and Business Process Re-engineering. He specializes in enterprise software system implementation and rollout planning; global business process centralization; organizational impact analysis, redesign, and change management; communication planning and management; and e-Commerce systems management. Richard is experienced in leading vendor selection teams for application systems, and in establishing regional and global systems strategies.

Richard was previously Vice President of Marketplace Technologies at Ventro Corporation, first-mover in the field of B2B e-Commerce and JV partner with companies such as Dupont and American Express. In this role, he led the PMO, Database Engineering and Administration, Quality Assurance, and Release Management teams through the marketplace implementation process.

Prior to Ventro, Richard worked at Raychem Corporation for many years, where he held a number of senior IT management positions. As Enterprise Systems Director, he managed a 50+ member global implementation team reengineering Raychem’s worldwide order attainment to order fulfillment process, including the design and implementation of standard manufacturing and logistics processes, and successful SAP R/3 system implementations and support. Richard also managed all process redesign and IT-related activities in re-engineering Raychem’s worldwide finance function, reporting jointly to the Corporate Controller and CIO. In this capacity, he led the design and implementation of a pan-European and a North American Finance Shared Service Center, enabling Raychem to reduce finance personnel costs for transaction processing activities by 50%.

Other notable innovations include design and implementation of an intercompany Service Center to manage $800M of global intercompany sales annually; a centralized intercompany Transfer Pricing system, which automated transfer price calculation and established an arm’s-length distributor relationship between all Raychem entities worldwide.

During the prior 10 years of his career, Richard was an independent IT consultant working and living in the UK, France, Germany and Belgium.  

RONALD E. LEBLEU, Ph.D., Associate Senior Partner

Ron has had a distinguished career in the areas of IT, HR and business change.  As president of Strategic People Concepts, Inc. (SPC) for more than a decade, he has worked with executive management at dozens of Fortune 500 companies in change management focusing on improving the skill base and management processes required to deliver on sound information technology initiatives.  Over this period SPC created and continues to co-sponsor the acclaimed Annual Symposium for Human Resource Executives in IT, now in its sixteenth year.  Prior to this, Ron was Corporate Manager of Technical Personnel Development Programs at ITT; Corporate Manager of Organization Planning and Employee Development at Digital Equipment Corp.; and Manager of Consulting Services at DuPont.  He is quoted in the popular press, has been published in numerous journals, including Harvard Business Review, is a reviewer for the Journal of the Information Management Association, and was formerly co-editor of the international newsletter Managing MIS Personnel.  He currently serves on the Advisory Council of The International School of Information Management and the Steering Committee of the Institute of Industrial and Engineering Technology at Central Connecticut State University, and has earned recognition and awards for his dedication to community service in southern Connecticut.  Dr. LeBleu earned his doctorate from Duke University.