Thomas Posey Email & Phone Number

Greater Minneapolis-St. Paul Area

“Pure Posey” is how one client describes the aha moments that surface from strategic collaboration and listening. 👏 Another said, "Working with Posey Associates is like breathing pure oxygen. It's clear, energizing, and clarifies the next steps." 👏At Posey Associates, we specialize in providing strategic counsel and expert guidance in Human Resources, Organization Design, and Executive Coaching. Our mission is to empower leaders, optimize organizational effectiveness, and foster a culture of continuous improvement.Our track record exemplifies our commitment to delivering results:✅ Successful Organizational Design: We collaborated with a $135M corporation's manufacturing division to redesign operations, sales, customer service, installation, and financial organizations. This initiative introduced six new profit-generating customer solutions positions, achieving an estimated ROI of 320%. Our client anticipates a 10-15% increase in sales and a 20% reduction in guaranteed service contract costs.✅ Executive Coaching Excellence: Our executive coaching practice has empowered leaders across diverse industries, including Hospitality, Food, Financial Services, and Manufacturing. We've partnered with senior executives, from SVPs to CEOs, to facilitate their professional growth and enhance their leadership impact.✅ Interim HR Leadership: We've also provided interim HR leadership for various organizations for 6 to 18 months, ensuring continuity and strategic HR management during transition periods.

My co-authors and I have taken the lessons learned through our work and written the book: “Negotiating High Performance-Focused Partnerships - The 5 Stages of Effective Labor-Management Negotiations.” https://tinyurl.com/zvkkww7zThe book continues our efforts to provide training and insights into the strategies, processes, and nuances crucial for effective labor-management contract negotiations.📖 Drawing from our extensive experience—leading hundreds of negotiations and training over 5,500 negotiators—we offer a deep dive into the strategies, processes, and nuances crucial for effective labor-management contract negotiations. Our insights are rooted in real-world scenarios, learned through trial and error, and refined over 25 years of testing and revision.📘 This book follows a structured approach we've honed over decades—the "5 Stages" model. It begins with strategic alignment, emphasizing integrating HR and labor strategies with business goals. We then guide readers through preparation, opening negotiations, navigating the back-and-forth dynamics, and closing with economic package bargaining.👩‍💼 This narrative unfolds through the story of Melanie Grayson—a fictitious EVP and CHRO—as she navigates the hurdles of negotiations alongside her company's executives and local negotiation teams. Charged with transforming workplace systems into high-performance operations, Melanie strategizes to build lasting union-management partnerships that achieve a competitive advantage. The characters can come alive, and scenarios can be studied through role-play or training seminars. 📈 We've crafted this resource to engage a broad audience of professionals, from seasoned negotiators to those new to the field. Whether you're directly involved in negotiations or influence collective bargaining strategy, we aim to equip you with practical insights and strategies to navigate negotiations effectively, foster productive partnerships, and achieve organizational success.

The Foibles comics are a humorous and light-hearted take on the often serious topics of workplace negotiations and operational improvements.Each cartoon series revolves around a central theme comically and thematically, highlighting the foibles that are ‘plaguing’ that particular comic strip’s characters. Why write cartoons? Foibles, like all altruistic humor – when observed with a kind heart and an appraising eye – are informing and instructive. They help us learn, help us navigate.I hope you enjoy them.

Rapid City, South Dakota, United States

As the Chief Strategy Officer and Interim Executive at B9Creations, I drove strategic initiatives to position the company for significant expansion and/or a potential sale. My work involved orchestrating transformative changes that stabilized the company, set the stage for future growth and success, and helped position the company as a leader in the digital manufacturing technology space.Key Responsibilities and Achievements:✅ Strategic Planning: Developed and executed a comprehensive strategic plan, including market analysis and growth strategies to enhance market presence.✅ Executive Recruitment: Recruited key executives to drive company vision, focusing on aligning skills with strategic objectives.✅ Organizational Development: Implemented leadership training and growth pathways to develop organizational capability and individual careers.✅ Organizational Design: Optimized structure to support strategic goals, manage change processes, and foster innovation.✅ Strategic Alignment: Ensured all business aspects aligned with priorities, refining talent management and decision-making frameworks for high performance.✅ Executive Coaching: Provided coaching to enhance leadership effectiveness and team dynamics, fostering collaboration and unified goal achievement.✅ Cultural Transformation: Addressed cultural factors impacting effectiveness, enhancing engagement, and aligning values with the company mission.

East Lansing, Michigan

As an Adjunct Professor at Michigan State University's renowned School of Human Resources and Labor Relations, I collaborated closely with Dr. William Cooke. We co-developed the innovative High Performance-Focused Negotiations curriculum, which aims to transform the dynamics within unionized companies. Key achievements include:📚 Co-Architect of Curriculum: I played a pivotal role in designing the "Negotiating Labor/Management Agreements for Competitive Advantage" curriculum, recognized as one of the top-ranked programs in the United States. This curriculum equips students with essential skills to foster productive, performance-driven partnerships through effective negotiation strategies.📚 Lead Instructor: As the lead instructor, I guide students through this transformative educational experience, preparing them to navigate complex labor relations challenges with confidence and proficiency.

Waukegan, Il

I had the privilege of serving as Vice President of People and Development at Pfanstiehl, Inc., a bio-pharma manufacturing company renowned for producing the world’s purest excipients and active ingredient pharmaceuticals. I played a pivotal role in shaping organizational strategy and fostering a culture of excellence.Helping heal the world:One of the highlights of my career was during the COVID-19 pandemic when Pfanstiehl rose to meet global challenges. I was honored to witness our team's dedication firsthand as our small company rapidly expanded our clean room production capabilities, independently financed, to support vaccine development efforts. Our efforts did not go unnoticed; receiving personal recognition from the Operation Warp Speed team was a testament to our collective commitment to global health.Ultimately, Pfanstiehl's excipients, the highest-purity products in the world, ended up in over 2 billion doses of COVID-19 vaccines. It was an unbelievable journey.Consultancy work:Although I formally retired in October 2022, I remain closely connected to Pfanstiehl as a consultant through Posey Associates, LLC. In this capacity, I continue to collaborate with Jim Breckenridge, Owner/CEO, and the exceptional Pfanstiehl team. It's truly fulfilling to contribute to an organization that continues to innovate and set new standards in biopharmaceutical manufacturing.Pfanstiehl, Inc. underwent a transformative journey under new ownership in 2013, solidifying its position as a global leader in cGMP-produced, high-purity injectable grade excipients and bioprocessing solutions. I am immensely proud of my role in this journey and look forward to continuing to support Pfanstiehl's success in the years to come.

Greater Minneapolis-St. Paul Area

Founded in 2003, Present Values understands the unique challenges that business owners and corporate leaders face. We are results-oriented, problem solvers with deep experience in a variety of industries including Leveraged Finance, Real Estate, Healthcare, Manufacturing, Consumer Packaged Goods, Mergers & Acquisitions, and Creative Services. Capabilities and expertise:- Strategy & Growth- Organizational Health- Business Performance

Lafayette, Louisiana Area

Company: Full-service consulting firm that collaborates with clients on a strategy-to-execution process that delivers sustainable results. Practice based on a great reputation for execution with a 97.6% repeat business. Recruited to build a Human Resources practice and strengthen the firm’s practice on Change and Organization Design.  Strengthened a $3B, U.S.-based product company’s competitive positioning within a rapidly changing global market by completing the second phase of an organization design, alignment and planning cascade. As a result of this major transition, revenues grew from $25MM to $300MM in 2 years.  Redesigned a $30B global food corporation’s human resources worldwide as HR Practice Leader.

Lemars, Iowa

Company: Privately held $1.3B producer and marketer of ice cream (BlueBunny) and frozen novelties.Recruited in 2004 by then CEO, Gary Wells, who had placed Wells’ Dairy Inc. on an aggressive growth strategy to become one of the top 3 brands in the dairy industry, competing with brands like Nestle and Unilever.Served as strategic business partner, trusted advisor and sought-out confidant to the CEO, senior executive team, managers and employees in supporting a 3,000-employee organization (3 union, 2 non-union U.S. production facilities). Established a performance culture by overhauling existing executive compensation and total rewards practices.  Served as a key executive team member in M&A and divestiture strategy, executing the sale of the Omaha Yogurt Facility to Ya Ya Brands and the spin off and sale of the LeMars Milk plant to Dean’s.  Defeated Teamster’s organizing drive. Maintained union-free status of St. George, Utah and Omaha, Nebraska manufacturing facilities. Results:  Grew the business from $720MM in sales with 3,500 employees to $1.3B in sales with 2,900 employees.  Increased branded sales by 42%.

White Bear Lake, Mn

Company: A $6.8B division of American Standard, providing air conditioning systems and services.Led the HR function for a multi-facility supporting the company’s 2 largest divisions representing 6,000 employees and 13 manufacturing facilities (4 unionized, 9 union free) with $4B in sales.  Based on performance, given the additional responsibility of VP HR for Global Unitary Systems within 2 months.  Partnered with sales in designing new incentive plan. New sales strategy, incentive plan and customized sales training resulted in a 10-month improvement of 28%. Partnered with Finance and Operations to implement a “Hub and Spoke” organization structure that consolidated 13 satellite facilities into 3 centralized hubs resulting in a 12% SG&A cost reduction.

Greater Atlanta Area

Company: $29B telecommunications public company with 100,000 employees. As Vice President, Business Process Management Group and member of the five-member, newly created, cross-functional executive leadership team, responsible for developing an assessment framework and business process improvement methodology across the BellSouth operational divisions.  Delivered first-year annualized savings of $135M following the implementation of business process improvements. As Executive Director, Corporate Labor Relations, led labor-relations activities for a $29B business with 100,000 employees across 9 southeastern states. During this time, BellSouth was experiencing contentious management and union relations, including an imminent work stoppage with the CWA publically announcing their intention to strike BellSouth in the upcoming 1998 negotiations. Within 4 months of joining BellSouth, negotiated labor agreement for new start-up company, BellSouth 411.  Strategized and negotiated an innovative ‘skinny’ contract that provided a labor cost structure at 18% less than existing call center agreements.  Served as the chief strategist and spokesperson in leading a 135-person internal negotiations team to negotiate a landmark agreement with reduced labor costs.

Saint Louis, Mo

Directed labor relations for 10 ABI breweries and HR/Labor functions for 2 wholesale operations. Co-chairman multi-plant Arbitration Committee.

Williamsburg, Va

Directed human resources policies, practices, programs and employee relations for 1,300-employee brewing facility.

B.A, Philosophy/Logic

Diploma, Scenarios Programme