Speakers and Chairs Bios

Platzhalter Speakers
Lisa Hershman
US

Founder and CEO The DeNovo Group,
Vice Chair for the SCRUM Alliance

 

Biography

Lisa W. Hershman is a seasoned business professional, author and speaker who brings a wealth of real-world experience and an innovative style to her work. Hershman is the Founder and CEO of The DeNovo Group™, a global consulting, training, and research firm focused on leadership and innovation through process management and redesign. DeNovo is a global leader in process consulting services, whose clients range from the Fortune 500 to a rapidly growing practice in the non-profit and government sectors.
 
Hershman, a co-author of the Random House international business book "Faster Cheaper Better; The 9 Levers for Transforming How Work Gets Done" (rated 8 out of 10 by Inc. Magazine, as well as highlighted as a special book selection by Steve Forbes), is an inspirational and sought-after speaker and conference moderator/leader. She regularly presents to global audiences drawing upon her experiences with a client list that includes household names like BMW, Pfizer, PepsiCo, and State Farm Insurance, as well as governmental units including the U.S. Air Force and Sandia National Labs.
She has been a frequent contributor to BusinessWeek and her columns have appeared in Forbes.com and Foxnews.com. Hershman has appeared as a business expert on Fox Business News, the Jim Bohannon Show, the Ron Insana Show, and other nationally syndicated business radio programs. She has been quoted in Investors Business Daily and has also been a guest lecturer at top universities including Purdue University and Yonsei University in Seoul, Korea.
Hershman previously served as Chief Executive Officer at Hammer and Company, a business education and research firm specializing in operations, organization, and management. Her practical experience, engineering background, and engaging presentation style led to her selection as the successor to Dr. Michael Hammer, the author of one of the 10 best-selling business books of all time, Reengineering the Corporation, and the founder of the field of business process reengineering.

 
Her global implementation of business process reengineering principles during her previous tenure as Corporate Senior Vice President of Operation Excellence at Avnet, Inc. led to an extensive multi-year collaboration between Hershman and Dr. Hammer. Avnet is the world’s largest B2B distributor of electronic components and computer equipment. Hershman’s successful management of Operational Excellence initiatives in the 72 countries in which Avnet has operations led to her being honored with the Avnet Corporate Chairman’s Award.
 
Earlier in her career, Hershman led Process and Resource Development efforts at Brightpoint Inc., a global provider of integrated logistics services, where she reduced defects per million by 97 percent in three months. Her foundational skills as an engineer were honed during her time with General Electric, where she managed a portion of the Seawolf attack submarine program.
Hershman has been featured addressing current trends affecting women in the corporate world for Fortune Magazine and Monster.com. She served as Chairwoman of the Avnet Executive Women’s Forum, as National Secretary of the Business and Professional Women’s Foundation (BPW USA), as Vice Chair for the Center for Interactive Learning and Collaboration (CILC), as a Commissioner of the Indiana Commission for Women, on the board of the Consortium for Advanced Management (CAM-I), and the board of the Richard G. Lugar Excellence in Public Service Series.
She currently serves as a member of the Indiana Commission for Higher Education, as Vice Chair for the SCRUM Alliance, as a member of Ball State University’s Miller School of Business Entrepreneurial Education Advisory Council, and the Leadership Council of the Indiana Chapter of the National Federation of Independent Business.
Hershman earned her degree from Clarkson University, which has been ranked among the top engineering and supply chain institutions in the country by U.S. News and World Report, studying engineering and industrial distribution.  She has also studied innovation with MIT and IMD in Switzerland.