OUR CCHPO TEAM
The Commonwealth Center for High-Performance Organizations, Inc. (CCHPO, Inc.) functions as a network of experienced individuals with expertise in a variety of organizational improvement approaches who choose to work to serve our clients. All of the individuals listed are officers of CCHPO, Inc. and may act on its behalf, so feel free to contact any of those listed.
Tony Gardner, M.A. is President of the Commonwealth Center for High-Performance Organizations, Inc. (CCHPO, Inc.), a management consulting firm focused on improving organizational performance and managing large scale organizational change in the public and private sectors. Areas of consulting emphasis for CCHPO are large-scale organizational change, development of high-performance executive leadership teams, project management, executive coaching, emotional competence, values and ethics, organizational diagnosis and work culture surveys, integration of the continuous learning and improvement philosophy into organizational work cultures, design and implementation of product quality and service quality programs, and design and delivery of executive development programs.
Mr. Gardner also serves as Director of Leadership Development at the University of Virginia's Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service. Before joining CCHPO and the University of Virginia, Mr. Gardner worked in Warsaw, Poland, where he directed the initial phase of a partnership aimed at developing new and existing innovative local governmental practices. Prior to his service overseas, Mr. Gardner served the last ten years of his 26-year career in Arlington County, Virginia as County Manager. In this role, he led an organization-wide change effort to improve the county's performance and introduced a number of economic development and redevelopment initiatives in addition to managing the operations of this full-service jurisdiction. Twice during his tenure in Arlington County, the county received the John F. Kennedy School of Government “Innovations in American Government” award. Mr. Gardner holds a B.A. in Political Science from Fordham University and an M.A. in Political Science from the State University of New York at Albany.
Contact him directly at AGardner@highperformanceorg.com
Craig Gerhart, M.P.A. is Senior Vice President of CCHPO, Inc. and is an adjunct faculty member at the University of Virginia serving at the Institute of Government in the areas of leadership development and high performance organizations. He is also President of Gerhart Enterprises, Inc., a management consulting firm specializing in organizational development, performance improvement, and financial analysis. Major clients include Amtrak, the International Institute of Municipal Clerks and several municipalities and regional organizations.
Prior to the formation of his consulting company, he served in local governments for 32 years, including 10 as County Executive of Prince William County, Virginia. During his tenure, the County achieved the Triple A bond rating, overall citizen satisfaction ratings of 90% or higher, and an organizational climate where 93% of county employees were proud to work for the County and saw their work as very important to the success of the community. He fostered the implementation of high performance organizational tools, developed major transportation strategies, promoted the expansion of public safety services, championed the creation of a vibrant historic preservation program, and led a multi-jurisdictional, Northern Virginia emergency response team to operate the New Orleans emergency operations center in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. He received a B.A. from Juniata College in Pennsylvania and an M.P.A from George Mason University in Virginia.
Contact him directly at cgerhart@highperformanceorg.com
John Pickering, Ph.D. is Vice President of CCHPO, Inc., a management consulting firm located in Charlottesville, Virginia, which he founded in 1989 to provide services to federal, state, and local governments, non-profit organizations, and the private sector. Areas of emphasis for CCHPO are large-scale organizational change, development of high-performance executive leadership teams, building of high-performing units ("micro-businesses"), project management, executive coaching, emotional competence, values and ethics, organizational diagnosis and attitude surveys, design and delivery of executive development programs, and development and delivery of seminars for executives, including the Building High-Performance Organizations seminar.
The seminar, the HPO Diagnostic/Improvement Model associated with the seminar, and implementing workshops and hands-on consulting support have been used widely in federal, state, and local governments in the private sector. The HPO seminar is offered to federal agencies through the US Office of Personnel Management (OPM) and to state and local governments through the University of Virginia's Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service, in its Senior Executive Institute (SEI) and its Leading, Educating, and Developing (LEAD) Programs.
Dr. Pickering is an adjunct faculty member at both OPM and the Cooper Center. Over 40,000 executives, managers, and employees in federal, state, and local government and the private sector have been exposed to the HPO seminar. Recent research is showing the CCHPO improvement approach to be effective in a variety of organizations. Before founding CCHPO, Inc., Dr. Pickering was Deputy Director and a Senior Faculty Member at the Federal Executive Institute (FEI) in Charlottesville, Virginia from 1982 to 1989. The Institute is the federal government's primary center for executive development. It runs intensive month-long programs for the federal government's highest-level career executives.
Dr. Pickering came to the federal government in 1976, when he was awarded a fellowship by the National Association of Schools of Public Affairs and Administration (NASPAA) to spend a year with a federal agency; he joined the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) as an in-house management consultant and program evaluator in that agency's Office of Policy Development and Research. In 1978, he decided to stay with the government and was selected by the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Multifamily Housing Programs to serve as the Program Support Officer (similar to a chief operating officer) for that organization within HUD.
Before coming to the federal government, Dr. Pickering taught at the University of Memphis, Florida State University, Lamar University (Texas), and the University of Southern Mississippi, and he was Associate Director of the Institute of Governmental Studies and Research at Memphis State University. He has consulted extensively with federal, state, and local governments, non-profit organizations, and private sector companies.
He is certified to administer and interpret the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator and has used this instrument with thousands of senior level executives to assess leadership style, improve teamwork, and enhance group problem-solving skills in the almost thirty years he has been administering it. Dr. Pickering holds a B.A. in Political Science from the University of Washington, an M.A. in Political Science from the University of Souther Mississippi, and a Ph.D. in American Government, Public Administration, and Research Methods from Florida State University.
Contact him directly at JPickering@highperformanceorg.com
Gerry Brokaw, B.S. is an Associate of CCHPO, Inc., a management consulting firm focused on improving organizational performance and managing large scale organizational change in the public and private sectors. Areas of consulting emphasis for CCHPO are large-scale organizational change, development of high-performance executive leadership teams, project management, executive coaching, emotional competence, values and ethics, organizational diagnosis and work culture surveys, integration of the continuous learning and improvement philosophy into organizational work cultures, design and implementation of product quality and service quality. Mr. Brokaw is a primary designer, presenter, and facilitator for the Building High-Performance Organizations, for the HPO Diagnostic/Improvement Model and related implementation process, for the Continuous Learning and Improvement Process workshop, and for the CCHPO Project Management Curriculum.
Mr. Brokaw has also been an adjunct faculty member at the U.S. Office of Personnel Management’s Federal Executive Institute for senior federal executives, the Naval Sea Systems Command Project Management College, and has been a guest lecturer for the Federal Quality Institute, the Naval Medical Quality Institute, and the University of Maine. Before associating with CCHPO and establishing the Charleston Center, Mr. Brokaw was Managing Associate in Coopers & Lybrand's Organizational Change Management Group (now IBM consulting) and was the Executive Director of the Management Technology Corporation. In these capacities he led major improvement initiatives for divisions of General Electric, General Motors, International Paper, Continental Telephone, Honeywell, and the Department of the Navy as well as a variety of other Fortune 100 and Public Sector organizations.
Mr. Brokaw has personally conducted numerous strategic planning efforts, team development activities, project management sessions, and individual skills workshop. He is certified to administer and interpret the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator and has used this instrument with his other skills to assess leadership style, improve teamwork, and enhance group problem-solving skills. He holds a B.S. with a double major in Chemistry and Psychology from the University of Pittsburgh.
Contact him directly at GBrokaw@highperformanceorg.com.
Kay Hudson, M.B.A. is an Associate of CCHPO, Inc., a management consulting firm located in Charlottesville, Virginia to provide services to federal, state, and local governments, non-profit organizations, and selected private sector organizations. Areas of emphasis for CCHPO are large-scale organizational change, development of high-performance executive leadership teams, building of high-performing units ("micro-businesses"), project management, executive coaching, emotional competence, values and ethics, organizational diagnosis and attitude surveys, design and delivery of executive development programs, and development and delivery of seminars for executives, including the Building High-Performance Organizations seminar. The seminar, the HPO Diagnostic/Improvement Model associated with the seminar, and implementing workshops and hands-on consulting support have been used widely in federal, state, and local governments in the private sector.
Ms Hudson came to CCHPO with more than thirty years of applied management and consulting experience. She facilitates large and small teams in improving organizational performance and managing organizational change by leading groups through vision, strategy and tactical development. Prior to joining the network, Kay was an auditor, project manager, and program evaluator at Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and General Services Administration. During her last 5 years at EPA, Kay functioned as an "in-house change agent," assisting the senior staff with an extensive organizational change. She received a B.S. degree in mathematics from Emory University and holds an M.B.A. in management from Georgia State University.
Contact her directly at Kay.Hudson@highperformanceorg.com.
For more information, contact us at: AGardner@highperformanceorg.com