The Leadership Hour II

You asked for more after last year's session!

Its a time when leadership is critical at all levels of organization and community. The changing economic, political, and social times bring tough challenges and call for sound leadership. Join ASTD St Louis in this discussion with leadership development professionals who will share tested ideas, methods, and techniques as well as next-best practices that will help you develop yourself and others into better leaders.



If you are responsible for the performance of others or their development, you cannot afford to miss this event.

Nadine Louise Kouba, Ph.D., Boeing Leadership Center

Nadine Louise Kouba (Nadine) joined the Leadership Development team at the Boeing Leadership Center in July 2011. Prior to joining Boeing, she worked as the Talent Development Manager for North America at GKN Aerospace where she lead the succession planning process, coached high potentials, conducted in-tact plant leadership team building sessions and designed and delivered leadership development programs. She worked as an internal organization effectiveness consultant for Mallinckrodt Inc., a medical manufacturer and was the Director of Organization Development for the Famous Barr division of The May Company. Nadine also has experience in the service, utility, travel, education and healthcare industries where she partnered with managers to assess needs and implement strategies to meet their objectives. These strategies included conducting knowledge and skill assessments; designing, developing and delivering training in numerous technical and management areas; training trainers; developing job competencies; leading work process development as well as quality process improvement efforts; facilitating strategic planning processes; conducting team building sessions and serving as a personal employee/manager coach.

Nadine earned a PhD in Education - Higher Education Leadership from St. Louis University, as well as a Masters and B.S. in Education from Kent State University in Ohio. Nadine is a past president and former board member of the American Society for Training and Development - St. Louis Chapter and a former board member of the St. Louis Organization Development Network. Nadine volunteers at the Missouri Botanical Garden and is a former president and board member of Therapeutic Horsemanship, a 501c non-profit.

Monica Tapp, Director, Organization and Leadership Development, Express Scripts Inc. 

Monica Tapp currently serves as Director, Organization and Leadership Development for Express Scripts, a company that provides integrated pharmacy benefit management services headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri.  In her role, Monica directs the development and implementation of corporate programs and client-focused interventions to better utilize human capital and deliver improved business results.  This has included the design and delivery of Express Scripts’ frontline leader and mid-level leadership development programs as well as the selection and implementation of the company’s learning management system.  Currently, she is responsible for the integration of all performance management, leadership development and learning programs and systems resulting from Express Scripts’ $29.1 billion acquisition of Medco Health Solutions. 

Prior to joining Express Scripts, she worked at The Growth Partnership and Ameren Corporation.  She holds a Masters degree in Industrial/Organization Psychology from Southern Illinois University Edwardsville and a Bachelors degree in Psychology from Eastern Illinois University.  She lives in St. Louis with her husband, Jason, and their two daughters, Reagan and Addison. 

Jim Sokolowski, Director, Global Learning and Leadership Development, Savvis

As the Director of Global Learning and Leadership Development at Savvis, Jim is responsible for the enterprise global leadership development strategy in tandem with the enterprise global learning and development strategy. The scope of his role encompasses global end-to-end enterprise leadership and learning including: leadership development, hard skills, soft skills, technical skills, sales training, alliance partner training, process training, systems deployment readiness, product training, compliance training, and new employee onboarding. With the mission: To partner with the business to enable performance through transformational learning focused on organization goals, Jim’s team is positively impacting global organizational leadership capability and readiness, and increasing productivity, effectiveness, and engagement of the workforce through learning and leadership development strategies that directly link to organizational strategies.

Jim was born and raised in Schaumburg, Illinois (a northwest suburb of Chicago), spent time in the United States Army, is married to Tracy, has a three year old daughter named Annika, and two Jack Russell Terriers (Zoe and Bingo).

Azfar Mir, Managing Partner, A.I. MIR

Azfar Mir is the Managing Partner with A.I. MIR - a Consulting, Outsourcing, and Training firm servicing Fortune 100 and Small Single City operations in North America, Europe and Asia. A founding partner, he has developed the firm’s Strategy, Learning, Technology and Medical Outsourcing divisions.

Azfar's core area of expertise is Strategy and Leadership Development. Since 2001, he has trained and coached more than 10 thousand people, including CEOs, managers, physicians, educators and sales professionals within diverse industries in the United States, Europe and Asia. His clients include Abbott Laboratories, ABInBev, Accenture, Bayer, PEPSI, Pfizer, Shell, Siemens and Unilever amongst many others. 

He has authored the Leadership Advantage Program which has become the preferred method for leadership development within many of the world's most well renowned organizations and is currently carrying out research titled: "Leadership Development - What REALLY works?" with organizations and leaders across the globe. 

• Networking with the panel and other participants
• Refreshments
• Parking
• Panel discussion
• Q&A session

Event Sponsors:

August 23rd
5:30 PM - 7:30 PM
Charles F Knight Center, Washington University

NOTICE: The chapter may take photographs or videos during this event and post them on the chapter website or elsewhere. By attending, I agree that ASTD St. Louis may use my name and image and/or comments made at this event in all forms and media for education, promotion, and any other lawful purposes.