“I have known Brian, both personally and as a business associate, for almost 25 years. During that time, I have come to appreciate Brian as a dedicated, hands-on professional with an exceptional ability to identify and address the key issues facing a business without being distracted by the day-to-day trivia that tends to throw many businesses off track. Brian is a quick study who can come into a situation cold and quickly develop action plans that get to the point.”
—Brad E. Balow, Partner, Focus Enterprises Investment Bank
“Brian brings a fresh perspective to any project, and always with a focus on the best long-term strategy for the client. With both depth and breadth, Brian can think at all levels – operational, tactical and strategic – to evaluate alternatives delivering a solid process and effective sustainable solution. I’ve worked with Brian on several initiatives over the years and he brings his personal integrity to the project every day.”
—Charlie Nagelschmidt, Director, Business and Management Programs, Champlain College.
“Brian has helped me tremendously with the financial analysis and set- up of the managerial structure of my business. He works with outstanding diligence, enthusiasm and openness, which, combined with his exceptional set of skills and experiences, makes for the most competent, efficient, and friendly work experience. He targets key issues with great clarity, goes out of his way to immerse himself in a specific problem, and has the unique ability to make the most complicated facts and processes understandable to his customer.”
—Claudia Becker, Owner/Manager, Big Picture Theater LLC
“In his capacity as COO, Brian was in charge of a number of important functions including human resources, accounting and finance, marketing and sales, strategic planning, facilities, and information technology. This was a large plate and Brian brought discipline, energy, and excellent ideas to all of these areas. Highlights of his contributions include: design and execution of our strategic planning process in 2004; managing replacement of our central digital storage server; creation of a new employee compensation system with pay grades and classifications; development of a new budgeting system for tracking and managing costs; and development of a new performance and financial reporting system for the company. All of these things have long lasting benefit for Stone Environmental. Brian brought focus, business acumen, initiative and process/system analysis skills which we will miss at Stone.”
—Chris Stone, President, Stone Environmental
“Brian’s orderly approach was incredibly helpful in the IT decision making process and I learned a lot from him on how to plan out projects, talk with management, think through problems, and just generally approach our jobs.”
—Nick Floersch, IT Director, Stone Environmental
“Brian worked with me to create a series of workshops to improve our customer service, employee teamwork, and quality management practices. The sessions were thoughtfully put together and paved the way for great transitions within the company. Brian was great to work with and everyone responded well to his workshops. Brian brought fun energy and excitement to each seminar.”
—Heather Palmer, Owner, Creative Pages, Inc.
“Brian made significant contributions to numerous strategic and tactical initiatives at IDC. Specifically he: led numerous process changes to improve IDC’s ‘thought to market;’ reduced throughput time by an incredible 50% -- an achievement unparalleled and unmatched in IDC’s 35 year history; and provided IDC management with various performance tools to measure throughput and quality. Brian’s key strengths include his initiative, business acumen, customer focus, process/systems analysis skills, and perhaps most importantly, ability to innovate and drive change within an organization.”
—Vicki J. Brown, Senior Vice President, International Data Corporation
“Great job – fascinating subject, well presented.”
—Customer workshop participant
“Excellent presentation, well organized, clear handouts, collaborative and inclusive of participants.”
“The instructor is exceptional at getting people involved.”
—Customer Service Workshop participants, The Vermont Business Center at The University of Vermont’s School of Business Administration
“Brian has strong skills, such as superior analytical and consulting abilities, creative verbal communication and presentation methods, clear setter of work priorities, excellent understanding of how to employ the latest management techniques and unparalleled promoter of improvements to and developer of original ideas to significantly reengineer work processes.”
—Thomas P. Cunningham, Vice President, Fidelity Investments
“While the Shareholder Reporting Task Force as a group deserves recognition, as do the people working in the groups they represent, Brian Degen deserves special recognition for focusing the group’s efforts and keeping it on track. Given the organizational structure at Fidelity, Brian’s task has been particularly challenging. Not all of the group members or their organizations have been equally cooperative or committed to the project and in some instances the experience level of particular individuals has made it difficult for them to contribute to the process. Brian has pushed and pulled the group along despite these obstacles.”
—Patricia B. Norris, Partner, Price Waterhouse |
