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The EXCELeration Training and Consulting team is comprised of
specialists in sales, marketing, management and e-learning, whose combined career
experience spans over 90 years. Each member of the team is renowned and respected
in his/her respective specialty. The multidisciplinary backgrounds of our team offer
a balanced and comprehensive approach to marketing training.
Jim Petzing, President & Founder
Jim Petzing is President of EXCELeration Training and Consulting, which he founded in
2001. Jim leads the EXCELeration training team, conceptualizes and develops customized,
interactive course curriculum, and delivers thought-provoking training classes
domestically and internationally in over 55 countries.
Jim's career spans over 25 years in various senior management and marketing positions on
both the client and agency side of the desk. Early on, he earned his credentials at
General Foods, Nestlé Foods, Citigroup and Comart before starting his own small,
Chicago-based integrated marketing communications agency, The Synergy Group (TSG), in
1994.
Upon merging TSG with Colangelo Marketing (Darien, CT) in 1998, Jim assumed the Chief
Marketing Officer role at the new entity, Colangelo Synergy Marketing (CSM), where he ran
company operations, built a strategic planning function, oversaw account teams, developed
new business and interfaced with key clients.
With a passion for training and development and a desire to help marketers and their
brands achieve "world class" marketing status, Jim's entrepreneurial spirit drove him to
leave CSM to create EXCELeration Training & Consulting (2001).
Today, under Jim's leadership, EXCELeration has helped raised the bar for marketing
planning, promotion strategy and integrated communications excellence with global clients
like Kraft Foods, Heineken Americas, IBM, and McDonald's, along with domestic clients like
Quaker, SC Johnson, Yahoo!, Chlorox, Integer Group, and Marketing Store to name just a
few.
Jim is a popular educator and speaker. He served for five years on the Integrated
Marketing Communications faculty at Loyola University Chicago's Graduate School of
Business and has been a featured speaker at PROMO Expo, the Association of Promotion
Marketing Agencies Worldwide's (APMAW) international conference and the Canadian
Promotional Marketing Conference.
In his spare time, when he's not travelling the globe, Jim enjoys poker and is a
world-ranked player hoping to make the final table at the next World Series of Poker
(WSOP) Main Event in Las Vegas.
Cindy Hanlon, VP of Learning
Cindy Hanlon is the VP of Learning for EXCELeration Training and Consulting. She is also
Managing Director of Ideas Rising which she founded in 2010 with a mission help marketers
manage the convergence of brand and insight to realize truly breakthrough communication
ideas.
Cindy brings together three accomplished career tracts: Advertising Account
Management (VP at Leo Burnett) General Management Consulting (Principal at the
Keystone Group) and Marketing Strategist/Trainer/Facilitator (VP at EXCELeration
Training). These complementary skills have helped her add value in specific areas:
- Defining brand strategy processes
- Implementing brand strategy processes through training workshops and brand-specific
consultations
- Facilitating brand/agency teams in the transition from strategy to big idea
She has broad experience in the consumer packaged goods and services industry: Procter
& Gamble, Kraft, Mars, SC Johnson, McDonald's, Yahoo, Clorox.
Versed as she is in coaching clients through obstacles and challenges, Cindy's personal
pursuits come as no surprise. She's climbed to both the top of Kilimanjaro and to Everest
Base Camp, run two marathons and jumped out of a plane at 13,000 feet (luckily with
success). Her current favorite passion is any small adventure with her six-year old
daughter.
Helen Holloway, VP of Learning
Helen is the VP of Learning for EXCELeration Training and Consulting and manages the EU
office. She is also Managing Director of brands-wise which she founded in 2008 with a
mission to help UK clients activate the full potential of their brands and organisational
processes.
Helen's projects are wide-ranging and include best practice and change management
initiatives, design and delivery of training programmes, applied workshop facilitation
and hands on marketing advice for new start ups. Her clients include Kraft, Statoil and
Walmart.
Helen has over 24 years of hands on brand marketing experience gained in senior level
roles within Unilever and Kraft Foods. Her experience working on great brands such as
Pond's, Axe, Dove, Comfort, Philadelphia, Dairylea, Bird's, Jacobs, Cote D'Or, Milka and
Jacobs has left her with a passion for brands and helping teams to activate all facets of
brand potential. At Kraft Helen also led Marketing Services teams across Consumer Insight,
Media, Advertising and Integrated Communications. She developed a reputation for change
management, leading edge best practices, enhancing agency performance and improving cost
efficiency.
Helen is a full member of the UK Market Research Society and belongs to the teaching
faculty at the UK Chartered Institute of Marketing. She has a Masters degree from Oxford
University.
In her free time Helen is kept busy by her two teenage sons and working on a house
renovation project with her husband. She enjoys Pilates, novels, cinema and travelling.
Eileen Mrowka, VP Operations and Marketing
Eileen Mrowka is the "glue" that holds EXCELeration Training & Consulting together. As
VP of Operations and Marketing, she manages the day-to-day operations of the organization,
including marketing, IT, finance, staffing and new business development. She is the
command center for all client activity and oversees and coordinates EXCELeration's team of
trainers/consultants and support staff to ensure quality, consistency and accuracy of all
training programs developed. Eileen is also the resident e-learning specialist, responsible
for the design of all e-learning programs. She brings over ten years of training
development and management experience from ASA Education Foundation, a national education
foundation serving industrial distribution professionals. She also founded Symphony
Consulting, Inc., an e-learning consultancy, prior to joining EXCELeration.
Eileen holds a Masters of Science in Communications from Northwestern University.
Eileen is an avid learner and when she isn't busy holding down the EXCELeration fort, she
can be found trying out new experiences such as glass blowing and parasailing with her
husband. She particularly enjoys the "newness" of everyday experiences through the eyes of
her 4 year-old son.
George Robertson, Trainer
George Robertson is a trainer at EXCELeration Training & Consulting, contributing to the
design of curriculum and leading consultative selling seminars. George is founder and
President of Better Leaders, Inc., an executive management consultancy firm. George
contributes his executive management training expertise from his thirty years experience in
various management and leadership positions at Viacom as well as his success as an
entrepreneur, founding Consultative Resources Corporation and The Robertson Group, Inc.,
now known as Better Leaders, Inc.
George holds a Masters of Business Administration in Finance from the University of Miami.
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