Bud is a Canadian citizen who was naturized in the US in 2000. He has a post graduate degree in political science and public administration.

Early in his career he worked for the Canadian Federal government before starting his management consulting company that was bought by an American company in 1993.

In the United States Bud managed major management consulting practices at Willis-Towers-Watson; Deloitte; and Ipsos. In 2007 Bud became an independent consultant after writing his award winning book Customer Driven Change.

Bud’s superpower is his broad international experience. He has advised executives of marquee global companies in matters from Strategy & Planning to Marketing & Customer Loyalty to Culture & Employee Engagement to Innovation & Entrepreneurship. His work and professional speaking engagements have been throughout the America’s and Europe as well as cities such as: Athens, Istanbul, Saudi Arabia, Johannesburg, Beijing, Singapore, Hong Kong, and Seoul.

In his post-career life Bud has continued his speaking at universities and organizations where he specializes in topics related to US-Canada relations.

Bud and his wife have taken cruises to destinations such as: the Adriatic, France, the Baltics, the West Indies and have scheduled their next cruise to the Mediterranean.

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My wife and I enjoy the cruise experience. In particular I enjoy the on-board enrichment talks.

My Business Career
My business career has prepared me to be an enrichment speaker. I am a Canadian citizen and naturalized in the US about 25 years ago. For more than forty years I advised executives of marquee global companies on how to improve the performance of their organizations. Highlights include:
• Deloitte: Partner – Human Resources Strategies
• Willis-Towers-Watson: Practice Leader – Mergers & Acquisitions
• Ipsos: SVP and Global Director of Consulting Services
• Vistage: CEO Group Chair
• Government of Canada: senior advisory and operational roles
• Pearson International Airport: VP HR & Retail Contracting
See my LinkedIn profile for a complete resume.

My Business Speaking Career
I used my business career to build my professional speaking career. First I authored many works including my award winning book Customer Driven Change. I used this platform to speak extensively in Canada and the US as well as internationally where I informed audiences on topics such as:
• Athens: the call center dilemma
• Istanbul: the future of customer research in retail
• Johannesburg: the changing customer profile at Toyota
• Jeddah: strategies for measuring customer preferences
• Hong Kong: creating an innovation culture at Experion – Asia
• Singapore: Customer service in retail banking
• Seoul: avoiding the “six o’clock employee” syndrome

My Continuing Speaking Career
When I retired I continued my speaking career in businesses and not-for profits, like Osher “the lifelong learning institute” where I’ve adapted my speaking to personal interests in the channels of: history, politics, and world affairs. I now have about 20 hours of PowerPoint supported talks in theme areas such as:
• How the United States Created Canada
• A Boomers Look at Canadian & American Cultures
• The US Civil War & the Canadian Paradox
• (note: my next scheduled talk is on: Colonialism in the Caribbean)
My talks are never canned, I tailor each one to the audience. An example of my speaking content is in the “presentations” box below.

My audiences appreciate the dedication I have to me work. I can assure you that Americans will see their history in a new light; Canadians will get a deeper appreciation for their past; and others will know why the countries share the longest undefended border in the world.

Enrichment Site - Presentations
Canada-US Relations
This series of talks begins with the Viking settlement in L’Anse aux Meadows around 1000 BC. They continue into the French landings in Quebec around 1535 that lead to the lucrative fur trade and eventually the first US millionaire, John Astor. The British make their way to North America in the early 1600’s followed by the Dutch a few decades later. These explorers and settlers meet in wars that are often derivates of their ancestors in Europe. Each of these wars change the face on the continent and define the relationship between Canada and the US.

These events have led to two countries with different founding values (“life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” vs “peace, order, and good government.”) The protests of the ‘60’s broke apart their common British heritage and landed the countries in separate places: the US becoming divided and Canada having a much softer landing.

The US Civil War
There are many cruise destinations that invoke the spirit of the Civil War. Firstly, anything up the St. Lawrence and along the eastern seaboard brings with it the unique relationship Canada had in the war. There were about 35,000 Canadians who fought for the Union and 5,000 for the Confederacy. Contraband and piracy drove profits in Canada’s Atlantic provinces while Toronto was a hotbed of conspiracies with the Copperheads and Montreal was the focus of Jefferson Davis’s strategy to drag the conflict past the 1860 election in search of a political solution.

Working down the seaboard opportunities to explore the war are presented at places like Norfolk, Virginia. Here the Army of Northern Virginia established itself during the “seven days war” by driving McClellan out of the Virginia Peninsula. Two years later the revers happens when Grant sieges Petersburg and forces Lee to surrender his army at Appomattox. Further down the coast Charleston gives us a chance to introduce the battles that raged through the south.

Corsairs of the Caribbean
Bud has visited many of the islands of the Caribbean and has studied the history of the region. Caribbean talks start with the 300 years of “privateers, corsairs, and pirates” to show how these adventurers served their interests and their European benefactors. Bud looks at all the big names in pirating explorations along with issues such as pirate justice. Bud uses his political science background to explore the concept of the “pirate republic” before this romanticized era was brought to an end with the suppression of piracy – only to be resurrected with threats from current day pirates.

Colonialism in the Caribbean
This series begins with a strategic look at the impacts of colonialism in the region to help passengers appreciate the history, culture, and governance of the islands that tried to fill Europe’s insatiable appetite for: sugar, cotton, and tobacco. There is a high level “compare & contrast” of the four major colonizer in the region: Spain, the Netherlands, the French, and the British (also the limited story of Denmark and the introduction of the United States into the zone.) Themes across the blocks include: the slave trade, enrichment of Europe through the trade triangle, emancipation, cultural legacies (language, cuisine, music, religion, and architecture) and the current challenges of dependence on agriculture and fossil fuels.

Bud then has separate modules which look at the major islands within each block. The modules detail the islands of the cruise itinerary through a set of modern lenses: demographics, geography, unique features, current governing structures, challenges, hopes and aspirations.

Currently I speak at the University of Richmond, Osher, with a passion to help Americans understand their northern neighbor.

In my career I spoke constantly to executive retreats and continued this on the speakers platform internationally - Europe, Asia, and North America.