Our Team
Bio of Jim and Ann Marie Kwaiser
Communication and emotional issues as well as a lack of planning can destroy family businesses and family relationships. These are the key reasons Jim and Ann Marie, founded C.H.A.L.L.E.N.G.E.S.® in 1993. Jim and Ann Marie are known to “break the rules” by caring and getting emotionally involved with each member of their family business clients. They believe “family” MUST come before business and each family in business must find the direction that is right for him or her. There are no “off the shelf” solutions. The Kwaiser’s have experienced how love, respect and treating each other as equals’ results in flourishing businesses and families.
Jim Kwaiser, CMC
Jim Kwaiser is a Certified Management Consultant (less than 1% of all consultants have attained this designation) and a recognized advisor and consultant on family in business issues. Jim is one of a small number of consultants quoted as an expert’s expert in Alan Weiss’s book “The Ultimate Consultant.” Jim has a proven reputation of effectively resolving relationship, performance, transition and planning issues related to families in business. Jim has over three decades of assisting many hundreds of successful individuals and family businesses. Through his caring attitude his teaching, consulting, and straightforward facilitations and presentations has enabled families to become stronger and family business more successful. Mr. Kwaiser can relate to each family’s business and individual needs due to his practical experiences in working with family businesses in positions including: General Manager, Executive Vice President, and President of local and regional Family Businesses, Fortune 500 corporations that serviced family businesses, as well as owning his own Family Businesses in Michigan and Pennsylvania. Jim has served as a member of the Board of Directors or Board of Advisors for a number of families in business. Jim is a professional member of the National Speakers Association, a featured author of the book “The Communication Coach … Business tips from the pros” and his new book “The Roadmap to Success” written with Steven Covey and Ken Blanchard.
Email Jim at jim@challengesinc.com
Insight Pipe Contracting, L.P. Testimonial Letter
Ann Marie Kwaiser, R.N.
Ann Marie Kwaiser has devoted over three decades of her life in the areas of physical and relationship health as a registered nurse, teacher, trainer and consultant. She brings a unique understanding of personal sensitivity to each family business. Ann Marie incorporates a unique perspective of “Family First” when assisting families in business with their communication and relationship issues. By working with and being a member of a family in business she experienced firsthand the need for selflessness if a family and their business are to be truly successful. Her compassion for family is obvious in every consultation, presentation or working session. In working with families in business Ann Marie always keeps the following two premises in mind:
- 1. The major goal MUST be betterment of the family and the business.
- 2. Strong family relationships MUST be the foundation for a successful family business.
The families that have experienced Ann Marie’s sensitivity understand that these two premises really do strengthen family relationships and in turn improve the overall condition of the family business.
Email Ann Marie at ann@challengesinc.com
Jill Marburger Testimonial Letter
Lauren Owen Biography
Lauren is president of Lauren Owen, LLC, a licensee of C.H.A.L.L.E.N.G.E.S. ® Your business mostly likely represents your single most important investment of your time, money, and energy. Helping create and preserve company value, while strengthening family relationships, is Lauren’s highest priority for her clients.
Lauren’s 25+ years of experience of working with closely-held and family businesses in a diverse area of industries has given her keen insights into the underlying causes beneath the symptoms of poor performance. Once those are identified and acted upon, her clients often realize immediate results.
Lauren helps families in business achieve superior results by clarifying individual, family, and business goals and integrating these goals into core business practices.
Lauren’s specific areas of expertise include:
- 1. Designing and implementing succession plans;
- 2. Identifying and improving the key drivers to cash and profitability;
- 3. Understanding how to work on and not just in the business;
- 4. Improving productivity by assessments, coaching, and benchmarking;
- 5. Implementing communication and management structures to monitor, measure, and increase performance
Lauren holds an MBA in Organization Design and Human Resource Management from the University of Washington and an A.B. Degree in Public Policy from Duke University. She completed the Core Essentials program from Coach U, a leading coach training organization. She also considers herself a lifelong learner, and counts among her best teachers the many business owners and families she has had the privilege to work with over her career.
Prior to establishing her own practice, Lauren was a partner with Business Resource Services, a Seattle-based company that specializes in financial training, research, and performance groups for closely-held and family-owned businesses throughout North America and Australia.
Lauren would be pleased to meet with you and your family and explore where her experience and expertise would be of service to your company.
She can be reached at Lauren@redpointcoaching.com or 206.427.2856.Nathaniel "Smitty" Boros Biography
Nathaniel “Smitty” Boros is the President of The Boros Company, a licensee of C.H.A.L.L.E.N.G.E.S. ®. Smitty’s passion is preserving the legacy of the family business by assisting them in strategically looking at their inter-personal relationships as well as their business direction. He has over 20 years working in, for and with family businesses as an advisor, marketing strategist, and branding consultant. Smitty has over a decade of experience in family and marriage ministry. His experiences include sales and leadership positions with local and national companies in the medical, broadcast and construction industries as well as ownership of a consulting firm.
This blend of experience enables Smitty to help families effectively communicate and build relationships based upon trust and respect, elevating family businesses to consistently greater levels of success. Smitty offers specific areas of practical support to families in business including communication, conflict resolution, organizational development, marketing, branding and the utilization of assessment tools that effectively place the right people in the right role.
Smitty would be honored to have the opportunity to meet with you and your family to discover if his services are a “fit” with the needs of your family and your business. He looks forward to speaking with you soon.The BOROS COMPANY (licensee of C.H.A.L.L.E.N.G.E.S.®) Nathan "Smitty" Boros Phone: 412-585-0342 or by email at SBOROS@zoominternet.net
Contact us or call us at 724-475-3787 or 1888-273-8307 and learn how Jim and Ann Marie Kwaiser can benefit your family, organization or family business.