"The mechanics of industry is easy. The real engine is the people:
their motivation and direction."

-Ken Gilbert

Companies grow with courageous, inquisitive, and innovative people. Retensa stays dedicated to this formula and we have become some of the most recognized Employee Retention Experts in the world. Retensa's Executive Bios and Advisors are listed below. Great appreciation goes out to each one of them for their hard work and commitment.

Chason P. Hecht - President

Chason Hecht is an advocate and innovator of employee retention strategies, and the Founder and President of Retensa, a firm dedicated to addressing the social and economic impact of employee turnover. Mr. Hecht is an often noted expert by media including NBC, ABC, Forbes, BusinessWeek, HR Magazine, the Associated Press, and Georgetown University. He is a popular speaker and the publisher of Employee Retention News. Previously, he served as Vice President of Operations at an international manufacturer where he restructured the Human Resources function to incorporate Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems, diversify employee programs, and improve organizational effectiveness, and Director of Technology at a global IT consulting firm delivering over $40 million of information systems in the US and Europe. Chason holds a B.S. Magna cum Laude in Management Information Systems, a B.A. Magna cum Laude in Political Science, and a Minor in Global Business Systems, from George Mason University.

Carol Ann Caccioppoli - Director

Carol Ann Caccioppoli has over 23 years experience as a learning and development professional specializing in training and retaining top talent. She has implemented proven methodologies of building manager effectiveness, interpersonal skills, organizational change, and motivating across generations at firms including KPMG LLP, Chevrolet Motor Division, Bayer and Costco. As a Vice President of Prudential Securities, Carol Ann's team provided product, customer service, and leadership development skills training for the entire nationally and internationally based operations group. She worked with senior management, line managers, and administrative personnel in designing and establishing an acclaimed mentor program for 17,000 employees.

Carol Ann has designed and implemented off-site leadership training for 10 to over 500 managers and supervisors. Carol Ann positively impacted Employee Opinion scores in areas of training and morale, increased the bottom line through leveraging personnel and her work at a retail bank reduced turnover 67% and reduced absenteeism 80%. Due to Carol Ann's expertise, needs analyses, focus groups, and surveys, firms have benefited from reduced costs and higher productivity. She has a proven track record in her distinguished ability to help transform corporate culture. In addition, she has served as adjunct faculty at Fairleigh Dickinson University, Hofstra University, and is currently adjunct faculty in the GOAL MBA program at Adelphi University.

Karin Otto - Senior Principal

Karin Otto has over 16 years of talent management and consulting experience. Karin's expertise managing Human Resources, operations, and marketing provide her with unique insight that has helped her implement cost-effective solutions for Retail, Manufacturing, Consulting, Food Services, Design, Financial Services, and Engineering firms. As Director of Services Solutions at Gevity, she designed, implemented, and supported existing and new products and services for over 10,000 clients with over 130,000 employees nationwide. A recognized expert for all areas of product/service interface, Karin led contract negotiations and the implementation of 52 Human Resources product/service programs. Prior to this role, in the position of Market Manager of Client Services at Gevity, Karin was honored with a Chairman's Circle award for exceeding regional client service goals. Karin has a history of success in Human Capital Management, Operations, and Communication through her experience in creating business solutions customized to unique workforce needs. Additionally, at Taylor Rafferty, an investor relations firm, Karin provided senior level HR consulting to a global staff in New York, London, and Tokyo. Karin has a MA in Organizational Behavior from Fairleigh Dickinson University and a HR Management Certification from Rutgers University and is completing her Executive Coaching certification.

Renee Rosenberg - Senior Consultant

Renee Lee Rosenberg has over 24 years experience in career counseling, coaching and workshop facilitation in the development of workforce excellence. A former vice president of the New York chapter of the Association of Career Professionals International, a board member of the New York Career Development Specialists Network and a member of the National Speakers Association, Renee is an accomplished and motivating global speaker whose expertise has been acclaimed through broadcast and print media including NY1, CNN, ABC, Washington Post, Money Magazine, and LA Times. Her experience ranges from one-on-one strength training sessions to presentations from 101 to 800 participants. She served as a career coach and key owner of a million dollar award winning program at the United Federation of Teachers. The program motivated teachers to improve performance and communication style resulting in increased job satisfaction and retention. Additionally, she served as director of The Employment Assistance Program (TEAP) for the New York City Human Resources Administration, where she successfully transitioned TEAP from a pilot project to a permanently funded state program. There, she developed successful "train the trainer" programs for managers and supervisors which increased staff productivity by 31% and expanded client intake by 49%. Her accomplishments with TEAP earned a merit award for increasing retention by nearly 60%. She is certified to administer and interpret the MBTI and The Strong Interest Inventory.

Phyllis Rosen - Senior Consultant

Phyllis Rosen has over 22 years experience in employee coaching and staff development. She brings proven personal and professional growth techniques for individuals to break through sticking points to reach new levels of productivity, organizational success, and personal fulfillment. She served as Director for Met Council where she designed and launched training and retention programs in information technology for dislocated workers. Through Phyllis' work at Met Council, the program successfully transitioned from a pilot project to a permanently funded city program with a seven figure annual budget.

Phyllis also served as Corporate Vice President and Manager of Training at UBS (Paine Webber) where she managed the development and delivery of leadership development programs for the firm's top 20% producing brokers. In her 13 years in career management and executive coaching and 8 years of corporate experience in training, Phyllis has facilitated one-on-one development training with all levels of an organization such as managers, financial advisors, technologists and support staff, and served as a corporate and career management coach for executives and professionals.

Marc Levine - Senior Consultant

For more than 14 years Marc Levine has performed as a consultant, coach, and leadership trainer for individuals and teams in the public and private sectors. He has worked with organizations such as Prudential Financial, New York Methodist Hospital, Citigroup, and The Brooklyn Public Library to create quantifiable improvements to employee performance. This measured success includes increased revenues, reduced employee attrition, improved employee engagement and enhanced client service and relationships. His corporate training experience began at Xerox and includes work as a training manager for a publishing company in New Jersey and a training specialist for a Long Island Manufacturer where he prepared account managers and district managers to better serve current/potential clients. With Long Island University's Continuing Education Program Marc helped employees, managers and leaders reach their business goals faster using the same or fewer resources. He designed and delivered courses ranging from Team Building to Managing and Resolving Conflict to help participants break barriers to achieve higher levels of performance. As a director of sales in wireless data and professional services Marc built, led and coached sales teams to exceed organizational goals.

Incorporating a background in psychology, neuro-linguistic programming and improvisational comedy; Marc has developed a style that is engaging, relevant, humorous, challenging, supportive, and results-oriented. He creates a strong environment for learning and change.

Marc is a highly requested speaker for industry professional associations. This year he will be speaking at the ASTD International Conference (American Society for Training and Development). He formerly served on the Board of Directors for ASTD's chapter in NYC.

Barbara Vigilante - Senior Consultant

Barbara Vigilante has 15 years of professional development experience with distinguished expertise in Women's Advancement and Work/Life Management issues and is an experienced producer and writer on next generation initiatives. She published a video on Professional Staff Retention that received highest honors as winner of the Silver Telly Award and the Gold Aurora Award. Other production credits include; the Women's Summit, a handbook - Promoting Your Talent: A Guidebook for Women and Their Firms (First and Second Editions), the event - "Career and Life in the Balance", and two Work/Life DVD's demonstrating the human interest story, business case and best practices.

Featured in the Journal of Accountancy, her many writing credits include; Making the Most of the Mentoring Experience (a professional guide for mentors and proteges), a position paper for the Women's Summit, an article entitled "The Facts on Workplace Flexibility", and the Millennium Report. She is also a regular speaker for the AICPA, a member of the AWLP, the American Society of Association Executives (ASAE), the American Accounting Association (AAA), and the National Association of Female Accountants (NAFE).

Lester Hoffman, Ph.D. - Senior Consultant

With 26 years experience in the HR, OD, and training and development field, and a Ph.D. from Harvard University in Instructional Design and Cognitive Psychology, Lester Hoffman brings a unique combination of academic research and "in the trenches" experience in measurement, instructional design, and performance management. He has worked with some of the world's best-known corporations, including IBM, JP Morgan/Chase, Novartis, Lockheed, Goldman Sachs, Xerox, Pfizer, Grey Advertising, Avon, and Federal Express, as well as with the Pentagon, National Cancer Institute, US Navy, and the Columbia School of Public Health. Lester's training ROI work at AT&T resulted in a $2.2 million annualized cost reduction; his performance enhancement system led to a 36% productivity increase at the National Cancer Institute; and his on-boarding program at Arrow Electronics was credited with reducing new employee time to-full capability by 41%. His retention solutions helped create the nation's first internal recruiting database at AT&T and enabled Credit Suisse to reduce new hire turnover from 74% to 26%.

Tom Kruglinski- Senior Consultant

Tom Kruglinski is a training and organizational development professional with over 23 years experience leading organizational change efforts in manufacturing, sales, service, consumer products and government organizations. At Retensa, Tom works with private and public clients on talent management programs, organizational assessment, learning initiatives, and human resource management solutions. Prior to joining Retensa, Tom managed Training and Organizational Development for H.O. Penn Machinery Company, the Caterpillar dealer for southern New York and all of Connecticut. Prior to that position, Tom spent eighteen years as chief executive and consultant with two nonprofit consulting organizations in Ohio. In these settings, Tom provided team development and high performance training and coaching to more than 5000 people. He coached and mentored more than 35 process facilitators in client organizations and developed and led more than 60 successful high performance teams as well as developed dozens of training programs on topics relevant to all types of businesses.

Tom is most experienced in conflict resolution, management training and coaching, group process and organizational problem solving. Tom holds a Master's Degree in Labor & Human Resources from the Fisher College of Business at Ohio State University and a B.A. in Political Science from Syracuse University. He also holds the SPHR (Senior Professional in Human Resources) certification from the Human Resource Certification Institute.