Our Partners

Michael Lee Stallard, Co-founder and President

Michael Lee Stallard is a leading authority on leadership and teams as they relate to employee and customer engagement.  He is the co-founder, president and CEO of E Pluribus Partners, a consulting firm that specializes in helping leaders create “Connection Cultures” to form strong bonds among the management, employees and customers of an organization. Connection Cultures increase employee and customer engagement as well as productivity, profitability, innovation, employee retention and customer loyalty.

Michael is the primary author of the book Fired Up or Burned Out and a chapter in the book What Managers Say, What Employees Hear: Connecting With Your Front Line (So They’ll Connect with Customers). The latter book, edited by Regina Maruca, the former senior editor of Harvard Business Review, includes contributions from several Harvard Business School professors and well-known author-consultants. Fired Up or Burned Out has been widely praised by well-respected leaders and thought leaders. Russell Reynolds, Jr., founder and former CEO of Russell Reynolds Associates wrote, "An enthralling and impressive work. It shows how to empower people and create great societies, corporations and cultures. I'm giving it to everyone at my own firm." Frances Hesselbein, Chairman of the Leader to Leader Institute, described the book as "the indispensable leadership guide for leaders everywhere."  Michael Fitzgerald, The New York Time’s columnist, wrote on BNet, “The soft stuff counts and Stallard's book helps...It's impossible not to find some example that will make you rethink your own approach to other people in your working life."

Michael’s work has also been featured in the media including The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Leader to Leader, Human Resource Executive, HR.com, CustomerServiceCrossings.com, Leadership Excellence, and Fox Business Now.  He has spoken at conferences organized by Fortune magazine, The World Presidents’ Organization, the American Bankers Association, The Corporate Executive Board’s VIP Forum, the Innovation Council and the Investment Company Institute. He is a guest lecturer on employee and customer engagement at New York University’s Stern School of Business.

Prior to founding E Pluribus Partners, Michael was a managing director, chief marketing and strategy officer at the U.S. Trust business of Charles Schwab and principal, chief marketing officer at the global private wealth management business of Morgan Stanley. The programs identified and implemented by the team he assembled and led at Morgan Stanley contributed to doubling the business unit's revenues over a two year period. The practices he and his team developed became the genesis for his approach to elevating the productivity and innovation of individuals and organizations. Earlier in his career, Michael worked as an executive in investment banking, marketing, finance and business development-related positions at Texas Instruments, Van Kampen Investments and Barclays Bank, PLC. Michael’s educational background includes a bachelor’s degree in marketing from Illinois State University in Normal, Illinois, an M.B.A. from University of Texas in Odessa, Texas, and a J.D. from DePaul University Law School in Chicago, Illinois. He was admitted to the Illinois bar in 1991.  Michael is married and has two daughters.

Jason Pankau, Co-founder and Partner

Jason Pankau is a leading authority on leadership and teams as they relate to employee and customer engagement.  He is a cofounder and partner at E Pluribus Partners, a consulting firm that specializes in helping leaders create “Connection Cultures” to form strong bonds among the management, employees and customers of an organization. Connection Cultures increase employee and customer engagement as well as productivity, profitability, innovation, employee retention and customer loyalty. Jason serves as a consultant and life coach to many corporate executives.

Jason is a co-author of the book Fired Up or Burned Out and a chapter in the book What Managers Say, What Employees Hear: Connecting With Your Front Line (So They’ll Connect with Customers). His work has appeared in the media including in Leader to Leader and Leadership Excellence.

Jason is also the president of Life Spring Network, an organization that trains and coaches people to realize life’s potential. He is a sought after author, speaker, organizational consultant and life coach. Jason is the author of the Omega Seminar as well as several seminars that he teaches throughout North America. Previously, Jason was an associate pastor at Stanwich Congregational Church in Greenwich where he focused on mentoring and leadership development.
 
Jason earned a B.S. from Brown University in business economics and organizational behavior/ management. He was captain and pre-season All-American linebacker in football, school record holder in discus, and national qualifier in track while at Brown. Jason earned a Masters of Divinity from Southern Theological Seminary and is currently finishing a Doctorate in Leadership. Jason is married and has two daughters and two sons.

Carolyn Dewing-Hommes, Co-founder and Partner

Carolyn spent 15 years at Citibank working in New York City, Sao Paulo, London and Hong Kong. She was selected to lead a global team, reporting to Citibank's CEO, which identified the best practices of companies worldwide that successfully engaged their employees, specifically in the area of work/life balance. Carolyn's industry experience comes out of corporate and private banking where she managed significant client relationships in Europe, Asia and Latin America. She received a B.A. in Political Science and Languages from Georgetown University and a Masters degree in Economics and International Affairs from Columbia University.

Mitchell H. Dickey, PhD, Associated Partner

Mitch Dickey has 28 years of experience improving the effectiveness of individuals, teams, and larger systems. He focuses on making a concrete and substantial improvement in performance, and his experience encompasses undertaking original research, developing new diagnostic technologies and managerial tools, pushing the boundaries of current theory, coaching individual executives, and training others in specific intervention methods.

His experience covers the financial, media/entertainment, medical/life science, education, environmental, insurance and professional services industries, as a researcher, coach, and consultant. His practical approach to leadership development integrates quantitative tools that yield unique insights about invisible interpersonal interactions on the one hand with methods that accelerate execution on the other.

His approach to organization-wide change benefited from having worked on company research with Michael Beer’s Organizational Fitness Profiling method at Harvard Business School, and from having managed change at an outpatient mental health clinic. His approach to coaching individuals stems in large part from award-winning research in emotional intelligence that was undertaken before the term was coined. He has authored book chapters and articles, and is a featured speaker on the intersection of business and psychology.

He has held teaching and research positions at Purdue and Yale Universities, and has a BA in English from Kenyon College and a PhD from in Psychology at Yale. He also undertook much of the MBA course work at Yale.