Our Team

Dean R. DeLisle – Founder, CEO and Chief Architect

 

For over 30 years, Dean has demonstrated his ability to accelerate companies, stimulate business development and make operations more efficient. He has harnessed the ever-evolving power of technology, paired with his consulting, coaching and training skills to implement sound business practices. Using the power of online social networks as well as traditional media, he has helped numerous clients pack the room for events and establish their online and media presence as well as countless company, brand, product and service launches. Dean uses every tool available, weaving aspects of every medium to achieve the end goal and accelerate his clients’ business growth.

At Forward Progress, Dean leads his core team to provide integrated marketing solutions using a proven coaching and consulting methodology in driving business growth. Committed to delivering both “Lowest Cost per Lead” and “Converting Leads to Sales,” Forward Progress has helped over 4,000 corporate clients assess and improve their online marketing and social networking results and have trained over 50,000 people in over 45 countries with their online programs. As an experienced CEO and business owner, Dean coaches senior executives in publicly and privately held companies, using his proprietary Power Plan System to identify the appropriate strategy, map out a clear direction, structure the team and execute the plan within an aggressive timeframe.

Jim Wolande – Sales Coach

As a recognized technology leader known for crafting and supporting a strategic vision to achieve business goals, Jim Wolande offers a unique blend of business acumen, team building, and business development credited with strong ROI and operational improvement. While serving as Vice President of Business Development and Procurement at Comark, Inc., Jim has built a responsive organization that delivered results by aligning technology initiatives, standardization, and team goals regarding overall company performance.

With a reputation for judicious use of resources- Jim's work has been instrumental in providing Comark with the needed national growth to structure the sale of the company. In addition, he has effectively raised visibility within the organization by bringing issues to the forefront of crucial Executive Committee discussions.

Today as Partner and Vice President of Operations at HD Ready, LLC, Jim has facilitated the largest library of HD music content in North America. Re- launching the critically acclaimed series Soundstage on PBS allowed the company to monetize and license over 130 hours of high definition content digitally in over 18 countries today.

He led the initiative to subsidize production costs through a key sponsorship agreement with corporations such as Master Card, Allstate Insurance, National City Bank, Samsung and Lexus.

Jim holds a Bachelor’s degree in Business & Communication Arts from St. Mary's University in Winona, Minnesota, and maintains active membership in the CMO Executive Network and sits on the Board of The Lazy Volunteers for Children's Memorial Hospital in Chicago, Illinois.

Jack J. Wills – Coach and Trainer

Jack started his career as a Co-founder of CPR Inc. in 1989 and enjoyed a successful career over 21 years. His experience evolved from just being a Sales representative while jumping into a startup business and making CPR an effective player within the IT staffing arena. The time spent at CPR allowed him to perfect his skills as a business manager and grow a business into a success.

He specialized in the staff augmentation of Information Technologies services. He has successfully staffed critical teams of Software Engineers / Programmers / Testers and Project Managers in the Telecommunications Field, Medical, and Automotive industries. I have staffed projects in 28 states as well as Internationally in South Korea and South America.

With his extensive sales experience he coaches and trains sales clients on the NEW aspects of selling with the power of the Internet and Social Networking, he is a significant part of the Sales 2.0 and Social Network Acceleration Programs.

Holly DeLisle – Senior Manager – Accounting and HR.

Holly A. DeLisle, Senior Manager at Forward Progress in charge of all financial aspects of the company. Holly has been involved with accounting and customer service with two key companies over the last 20 years. She first started her role at Delcom Systems Group, Inc, as an owner involved in Accounting and Customer Service, while she managed 22 employees.

In 2005 Holly made the move to Forward Progress to head up the Accounting and Human Resource functions. She currently has set up the systems for the company that involves the following: Accounting, Invoicing, Accounts Payable, Benefit Analysis, Recruiting, Human Resoources, Customer Service and she coordinates all the key events for the company. She wears many hats for the company. She currently is also the PTO President for her sons Middle School in Indiana.

Rick Sherman – Senior Marketing Strategist – Rapid Launch Plan Specialist

Rick Sherman has spent his 25 year career in the graphic arts and marketing, and has successfully blended entrepreneurial ingenuity with corporate practicality. Effectively creating campaign for both B2C and B2B models across multiple industries: Education, Real Estate, Technology, Finance, and Manufacturing. With Forward Progress, Rick has helped develop and execute the integrated Rapid Launch Plan, designed to achieve rapid sales growth and response, and seen it successfully implemented across multiple business sectors. Rick's experience encompasses every aspect of the marketing and production process.

Kathy Sipple – Senior Social Media Coach

Kathy holds a B.A. in Economics from the University of Michigan and is a member of Mensa. She has had 20 years of diverse sales and marketing experience. Kathy is a regular public speaker and trainer and has been interviewed by the Northwest Indiana Business Quarterly, The Northwest Indiana Times, The Chesterton Post Tribune and Chicago National Public Radio and co-hosted her own radio show “Socially Speaking” on WVLP 98.3. She was awarded the title “Most Influential Social Media Woman in Indiana” for 2009. With Forward Progress, Kathy has helped to coach thousands of clients internationally.

Paul J. Engelbrecht – Lead Application Developer/Systems Architect (CRM/Database/Marketing/Web)

Paul has over 15 years’ experience in providing design, development and implementation of customized CRM applications, integrated web applications and online marketing systems to medium and enterprise level businesses. Involved in managing all aspects of various projects from concept to delivery, as well as hands on application development on a wide variety of platforms, mainly involving client/server architecture. Managed specialties include systems/data integration, workflow automation and reporting services via extensive experience in database server administration, third party API utilization and various reporting platforms. Lead developer on several multi-million dollar custom online payment web applications, requiring in-depth understanding of online data validation, integrity and security. Other duties included end user technical support and training on all custom solutions.

Bert Shiengate – Director of Project Management

Mr. Sheingate is a seasoned executive with over 30 years of experience providing advisory services to legislative, judicial, and regulatory environments in the United States (US), European Union (EU), and the Middle East. He has worked directly with the legislative and judicial branches of government in many of the fifty states, the US Congress, the European Court of Justice, and the Jordanian Parliament. Mr. Sheingate has managed the design and implementation of technical reform, many times hand-in-hand with information technology deployments in both public and private enterprise environments. In this context, his experience includes authoring lifecycles, workflows, document archiving and repository content management, record management, case management, and content distribution models. Many of these endeavors incorporated elements of Six Sigma Methodologies applied to maximize the degree of process improvement. All endeavors have resulted in strong investment returns.

Bert plays a significant role with supervisong larger accounts and associated projects, he oversees the project management, recruiting and execution of those proejcts.