ACCESS Leadership is a group of experienced professional consultants who are committed to the vision and reality of outstanding leadership in organizations and the communities they serve. Our mission is to create self-sustaining leadership structures and cultures in which all who lead and aspire to lead are able to ACCESS the best in each other.
Our product is a leadership infrastructure with the tools that are needed to create and sustain it. The infrastructure includes tangible building blocks that define and support:
Awareness
Character
Community
Empowerment
Service
Sustainability
Our clients are both not-for-profit and for-profit organizations that provide essential services to their community of customers and stakeholders. We specifically seek clients who are situated to act decisively on a commitment to customer and community service through outstanding leadership.
We believe that the creation of outstanding leadership infrastructure is a growth business in public and private sector organizations, driven by the imperative to make a positive difference in people’s lives while making effective use of all resources.
R. John Miner, P.E.
John Miner is an accomplished executive manager, engineer, educator and consultant with over 40 years of experience in the utility industry.
John is a Registered Professional Engineer and an accomplished executive manager and educator with over forty years of experience in the electric utility industry. He is President of Collaborative Learning, Inc. of Austin and San Antonio Texas, a firm that presents management and technical education programs and, through Collaboration Unlimited, provides management consulting services to the electric utility industry.
Before forming his own company in 1995, John worked as a management consultant with two nationally recognized consulting/engineering firms, served as Chief Operating Officer for the Austin, Texas, Electric Utility Department, as General Manager of the Rochester, Minnesota Public Utilities, as an Assistant Professor on the faculty of the University of Houston’s College of Technology, and as a Senior Engineer at the Toledo Edison Company.
John has been an instructor of technical and management courses for the American Public Power Association for 30 years and for the University of Wisconsin Madison for 20 years. He was also involved for 20 years in the accreditation of engineering technology degree programs as a member of the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET) and the IEEE Committee on Technology Accreditation Activities.
John has conducted educational programs for utility organizations in thirty-five states, the District of Columbia, Canada, and six overseas locations. His technical seminars and workshops for utilities have covered such topics as application of the National Electrical Safety Code (NESC), overhead and underground distribution systems, electric system planning, construction, operations and maintenance. He has also served as an expert witness on litigation involving electrical accidents and compliance with the NESC and OSHA regulations. During his career, John has been responsible for transmission and distribution projects ranging in voltage from 2.4 kV to 500 kV and for the operation of transmission and distribution systems totaling more than five hundred miles of transmission and ten thousand miles of distribution lines.
John Miner earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering, with honors, and a Master of Science degree in Engineering Science, both from the University of Toledo. He is a member of Tau Beta Pi and Eta Kappa Nu engineering honorary societies. John is a Senior Life Member of the IEEE.
Elizabeth L. (Betsy) Aylin, Ph.D
Dr. Betsy Aylin is an Executive and Management consultant with background in organization development, strategic planning, management and leadership development, and human resources.
Specialized Professional Capability
Betsy has over 20 years domestic and international experience working with organizations on organization change, strategic and business planning, leadership and management development, executive team effectiveness, and building human resource capabilities. She specializes in helping leaders set direction, build strong work teams, and drive results. She provides coaching and consultation on such organizational issues as structure, culture change, performance evaluation and improvement, leadership and management development, work group conflict, and performance benchmarking. She designs and facilitates corporate strategic and business planning processes and a range of leadership and management development programs for domestic and international audiences.
Experience / Background
Betsy has worked with leaders from virtually every type of organization ranging from public utilities to energy and high-tech to non-profits. She has served as an internal organization and management development consultant for a public utility, a Fortune 500 company, and as the senior Human Resources executive for a high tech company. In addition, she has provided consulting and coaching expertise as an external consultant to utilities across the US and internationally. Betsy has also served as adjunct faculty in graduate level programs at the University of Texas-Austin and St. Edward’s University.
Clients
Betsy’s clients include public utilities, electric cooperatives, city departments, high-tech companies, engineering and construction companies, energy corporations, and a variety of non-profit organizations. A full list of clients is available upon request.
Education /Professional Achievements
Betsy holds a Ph.D. from the University of Texas-Austin in adult education and human resource development, an MA in Religion from Southwest Seminary, and a BA from Randolph College. She has numerous presentations and publications on a variety of work topics including professional assessment and development, program review, training and program design, employee turnover, and leadership. In addition, Betsy is certified in the About-U (Birkman driven assessment), and has extensive experience with the DiSCTM and Myers-Briggs Type IndiciatorTM. She is also a certified in Technology of ParticipationTM facilitation methods.
Michael G. Renquist
Michael G. Renquistbrings 25 years of experience as a change agent and trainer to ACCESS Leadership. He has a wealth of learning and organizational development skills including a unique mastery in understanding human behaviors.
With a BA from Austin College, a Masters of Divinity and Doctorate of Ministry from Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary, Mike’s training and consulting skills are treated with a compassion – and fun! – that makes his training unique to the person and the company, not the skill.
Mike has a reputation for analyzing communications for process improvement, change management and merger integration. Programs that he has designed and implemented throughout the country include strategic planning, process re-engineering, managerial and leadership development, integration strategies, performance assessment, project management, curriculum development, coaching and programs on transitional management.
As an independent consultant, companies and organizations like Pennzoil, Chrom-Alloy, Gulf-Chevron and First Presbyterian Church, Arlington, TX, engaged Mike to initiate and implement organizational audits, including data-gathering, devising diagnostic instruments, interpreting results, providing recommendations and change strategies, enhancing competitive or mission advantages. He conducted major organizational analysis leading to corporate restructuring of a national mortgage-banking corporation and developed effective, strategic plans for multiple team environments, virtual and single-site.
Mike has served as a consultant to management in the human resource arena including position profiles, recruitment, outplacement, policy and procedure manuals, exit interviews, job descriptions, training and development programs, discipline and termination issues, team-approached problem solving, quality circles, and union-management strategies. He has trained in Cisco Systems, Fidelity Investments, TXU and Blue Cross Blue Shield of Texas to name but a few of the over one hundred and fifty different organizations in which he has delivered curriculum. For eleven years, he was adjunct faculty for SMU’s Business Leadership Center of the Cox Business School working with MBAs in communication arts (presentation, writing, speaking, listening, and providing feedback).
Mike is a certified practitioner in neuro-linguistic programming (NLP), or rapport building, and is the author of more than 30 training curricula. His book on personal and professional identity and ethics, Facing the Mirror, (PublishAmerica, 2004) serves as material for keynotes.