Restructuring Associates - Professional Staff

RAI professionals have broad functional and industry expertise in fields as varied as healthcare and manufacturing. Each member of our team brings a highly effective skill set and a demonstrated ability to apply those skills in any industry. The professional staff of Restructuring Associates can be characterized by its outstanding accomplishments, commitment to results, strong integrity, and friendly professionalism.

Dr. Thomas J. Schneider is the President, CEO and Founder of Restructuring Associates Inc. in Washington, DC and is the Chairman and CEO of Schneider (Australia) Consulting Pty. Ltd., based in Melbourne, Australia. He was Partner then Of-Counsel to the law firm of O’Connor & Hannan in Washington, D.C. Dr. Schneider is a member of the Boards of the J. Craig Venter Institute, the Florey Neuroscience Institutes, the National Underground Railway Freedom Center, the Citizens Development Corps (CDC), and the American Australian Educational Leadership Foundation where he is also the treasurer.

Over the past 30 years, Dr. Schneider has acted as a management consultant for many of the largest companies and organizations in the USA, Canada and Australia, across industry, government, not-for-profits, and healthcare. He has published widely and lectured around the world on corporate competitiveness, high performance organizations, change management, innovative industrial relations and on biotechnology.

He was a member of the Secretary of Energy’s Advisory Board from 1994-2000, and was the Science and Technology Policy Advisor for Presidential candidate Bill Clinton in 1992 and for General Wes Clark in 2003-04.

Dr. Schneider received his A.B., magna cum laude with highest honors from Harvard University, and his J.D. from Harvard Law School. He obtained a Doctor of Philosophy Degree from Oxford University in industrial and organizational sociology.

In 1999 he was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Laws degree from Deakin University in Melbourne, Australia “for the leadership in the restructuring of industrial relations in the United States of America.”

He was given the “2009 Outstanding Practitioner Award” by the Labor Employment Relations Association (LERA). Dr. Schneider was designated a “Nationally Recognized Expert” (NRE) by the United States Government, Office of Personnel Management (OPM) in October 2009.

Former Deputy Under-Secretary of Labor Dr. John R. Stepp has been involved in labor-management relations for over thirty years as a mediator, administrator and consultant. Dr. Stepp has attained national and international recognition as an advocate of improved labor-management relations and high performance organizations in unionized environments. As Deputy Under-Secretary, he created the Bureau of Labor-Management Relations and Cooperative Programs. Before joining the Department of Labor, Dr. Stepp directed the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service's preventive mediation program and served as a Federal mediator.

Dr. Stepp received his Bachelor of Science degree in industrial management from Georgia Tech and earned his M.B.A. degree from Emory University. He obtained his Doctor of Business Administration degree from the University of Georgia.

In 1990, Dr. Stepp received the American Society for Training and Development National Award for "Outstanding Achievement in Employee Involvement in the Workplace." He has authored some two dozen journal articles addressing the future of labor-management relations.

At the National Academy of Sciences, Cornell University’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations, and as a consultant, Dr. Michael Gaffney has for 25 years focused his research and teaching on organizational change in industry, with particular emphasis on the negotiation of change. He has provided on-site consulting, training, and facilitation services to more than 500 companies and unions throughout North America and abroad.

A graduate of the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy, Dr. Gaffney worked for several years as a licensed officer and pilot aboard deep-sea and Great Lakes commercial vessels (Masters, Mates & Pilots, MM&P-- ILA, and Marine Engineers Beneficial Association, MEBA District II). He later became an anthropologist, receiving his MA degree from the New School for Social Research, and his Ph.D.from Ohio State University concentrating his studies on the linkage between technology, work, and occupational culture.

As a consultant and as a human resource executive, Gary Bergel has worked in North America and Australia on the design and implementation of high performance organizations and labor-management cooperative efforts.

In 1997, Mr. Bergel was the first Managing Director of Schneider (Australia) Consulting, RAI's Australian management consultancy, and served in that capacity until 2002. Prior to joining Restructuring Associates Inc., Mr. Bergel was a consultant with Sibson & Company, and a human resource director for General Mills, Inc. While at General Mills, he also served in a variety of other human resource generalist positions, including as a human resource manager for specialty manufacturing plants.

Mr. Bergel has lectured and taught seminars on labor-management cooperation, interest-based negotiations, non-traditional work systems, salary broad-banding, and alternative compensation. He served as an Adjunct Professor of Business in Deakin University 's Faculty of Business and Law in Melbourne, Australia, and is a member of the faculty of WorldatWork (formerly the American Compensation Association), where he co-authored WorldatWork's skill-based pay training program and is a member of its technical review panel. Gary 's work has been published in Compensation & Benefits Review , the Journal of Business and Professional Ethics, and Perspectives on Work.

Mr. Bergel received his B.A. degree in political science from Columbia University and his M.B.A. from Northwestern University 's J.L. Kellogg Graduate School of Management, where he was selected by the faculty as the outstanding student in Organization Behavior. Mr. Bergel is a certified Senior Professional in Human Resources (SPHR). He was designated a “Nationally Recognized Expert” (NRE) by the United States Government, Office of Personnel Management (OPM) in October 2009.

Scott Camlin has consulted to major corporations and unions throughout North America. Prior to joining RAI, he was Assistant to the President for Labor Management Participation at Continental Steel in Kokomo, IN, and a consultant to the International Union of Bricklayers.

Mr. Camlin received his B.A. degree from Brown University. He also studied at Harvard University's Ph.D. program in Organizational Behavior, and while there co-authored a five-year study of union-management partnerships in the U.S. integrated steel industry at Harvard Business School. He has also written and lectured on union-management partnerships, team performance and work re-design. His research background includes fellowships on work redesign and industrial democracy in Sweden, and on work and human development at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government.

Ms. DeYoung has over 20 years designing and leading organizational transformation and redesign projects through strategic alliances, with a specialization in labor-management partnerships. Her industry experience includes healthcare, public utilities, manufacturing, and telecommunications. Her expertise is in developing and implementing alliance-based performance improvement. The scale of her project management and integration of best practices has ranged from optimizing factory work teams to the senior executive level, yielding enterprise-wide transformation impacting large businesses in the public and private sectors. She has developed innovative compensation schemes, has created and delivered training and development plans, and redesigned work processes to support organizational change. She also regularly facilitates conflict resolution sessions and has led multiple bargaining teams (covering 8 International and 26 local unions) through an Interest Based Negotiation process yielding a National Agreement historical in scope.

She is a sought after speaker and workshop leader at conferences in the U.S. on creating strategic alliances to improve performance based on interest based processes. She also speaks at international venues on topics ranging from economic and social development to best practices in the business arena.

Michelle received her Master of Science in Economics with Distinction and a Post Graduate Diploma, in International Relations with Distinction from the London School of Economics. She received a Bachelor of Science with Honors from James Madison University.

Prior to joining RAI, Michelle spent nine years abroad in Australia, South Africa, Great Britain and Spain working in both non-profit and for-profit organizations. She speaks Spanish and continues to volunteer her skills, time and resources to enterprises in developing countries, with her most recent endeavors in India and Nigeria.

Charles Huggins has extensive experience leading joint union-management groups in the development of high performance partnerships, advising clients across a broad range of industries. Prior to joining RAI, Mr. Huggins spent 21 years in the labor movement as Executive Director of the United Association of Office, Sales and Technical Employees, and as Business Agent and Field Representative, respectively, for the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers and the Wisconsin Nurses Association.

Mr. Huggins received a B.A. and an M.S. in industrial relations from the University of Wisconsin, Madison.

Madeline Kellner has more than 25 years of experience as a consultant and administrator working with private and public sector service organizations and their employees to improve operations and implement major change efforts. She brings expertise in facilitation, organizational redesign, workforce development, and strategy and implementation planning.

Prior to working with RAI, Ms. Kellner served as public health director for Marin County, CA and held a variety of management and planning roles during her 12 year career at Kaiser Permanente, including work with the Kaiser/AFL-CIO Labor Management Partnership.

Ms. Kellner received her B.A. in social welfare from the University of California, Berkeley, her M.S. in public health from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, and her M.B.A. from California State University, Sacramento.

Michael Zientek has more than 25 years of experience both as an industry practitioner and consultant, providing leadership, strategic direction, facilitation, and coaching in support of the development of high performance organizations. Mr. Zientek has designed, developed and delivered training in effective communication, problem solving, conflict management, team building, joint governance, decision-making, high performance work systems and process improvement. He has assisted unions and management in joint planning, work redesign, six sigma/lean improvement efforts, and has advised on and facilitated interest-based approaches to collective bargaining. Mr. Zientek has broad experience in manufacturing (food, auto and chemicals), utilities (power generation [fossil and nuclear], call center operations, service planning and construction), healthcare (hospital start-up and staffing and re-design), and education (research).

Prior to joining RAI, Mr. Zientek was the Manager of Organizational Development for Hunt-Wesson, Inc., and before that he was Manager of Training and Development for LaChoy Food Products, both part of the Conagra organization. Mr. Zientek started his career as a high school educator and coach, and served as president of the local teachers’ union.

Mr. Zientek received a B.S. in Agriculture from Ohio State University and a Masters’ in Educational Technology/Human Resource Development from the University of Toledo. He has presented his work on “Joint Decision-Making” at the Center for Collaborative Organizations, and on the “Design of an Innovative High Tech Laboratory” at the national FMCS Conference. Mr. Zientek is an American Society for Quality (ASQ) certified Six Sigma Greenbelt.

Dr. Jim Kimple has been a consultant and trainer in organizational effectiveness and workforce development since 1980. Dr. Kimple started his career consulting in joint union-management partnerships in 1984. Since then he has served clients in the metals, automotive, medical products, and consumer goods industries, as well as public education, government, and social service agencies. Dr. Kimple has developed and delivered training in process analysis, quality systems, effective communication, problem solving, emotional intelligence and conflict management to support those efforts. He has assisted unions and management in joint planning and work redesign initiatives, and has served as a neutral during preparation for contract negotiations. Dr. Kimple has recently concentrated on assisting health care organizations address quality, customer service, and culture change issues.

Dr. Kimple has presented his work at national conferences including the American Society for Quality, the American Association of Homes and Services for the Aging, and the FMCS National Labor-Management Conference. He has been an adjunct professor in the MBA program at Mount Saint Mary College.

Dr. Kimple received a BA from Earlham College in English, an MA in English from the University of Chicago, and a Ph.D. in Educational Psychology from Yeshiva University.

Michael Belmont has more than 18 years experience in the fields of Healthcare Administration and Labor/Management Relations. Prior to joining RAI, Michael worked with Kaiser Permanente, serving in leadership positions covering both Hospital and Medical Group Operations. Michael also served for 5 years as the Director of Labor Relations for Kaiser Permanente’s Southern California operations, with responsibility for 17 Collective Bargaining Agreements covering over 35,000 employees. As Labor Relations Director, Michael successfully co-led the bargaining process that merged the contracts of SEIU Locals 250 in Northern California and 399 in Southern California, creating the largest single Bargaining Unit within the Kaiser Permanente system. Michael was integrally involved in the implementation and growth of the landmark Labor Management Partnership between Kaiser Permanente and the Coalition of Kaiser Permanente Unions (CKPU), participating both at Local and National levels of Partnership activity. As part of this work, Michael was a recognized leader in the transition of the Labor Relations function from a traditional to a collaborative environment.

Michael received his B.A. in Economics from Denison University, and his Masters in Health Administration with concentrations in Marketing and Finance from The Ohio State University. Michael is an American Society for Quality (ASQ) certified Six Sigma Green Belt.

Scott Adams has over 16 years of diverse domestic and international experience in providing dispute resolution, management consulting, and training services. His clients and industry experience include the non-profit sector, government, higher education, utilities, health care, biotechnology, and international development. As an organizational and strategy consultant, Mr. Adams has consulted private and public sector organizations on strategic planning, organizational restructuring and transformation, business process redesign, stakeholder engagement, and change management. As a neutral, he has mediated and facilitated over one hundred complex disputes and negotiations, both domestically and internationally. Mr. Adams has extensive experience with organized labor, including advising unions and employers on restructuring to improve performance, mediating and facilitating collective bargaining negotiations and client problem-solving groups, and designing and delivering training.

Mr. Adams has previously served as an adjunct faculty member at George Washington University Law School and Country Director for Russia and Ukraine at Search for Common Ground. He is currently a mediator for the Superior Court of the District of Columbia and serves on the Board of Directors of the Northern Virginia Mediation Service.

Mr. Adams received his B.A. (Bachelor of Arts) in Political Science and Russian from Emory University and an LL.M. (Master of Laws) in Public International Law from Leiden University in the Netherlands.

Ms. Comfort has consulted to a wide range of organizations, both public and private, in her more than 17 years with Restructuring Associates. She has extensive experience advising and facilitating joint union-management groups in the redesign of existing organizations to achieve higher performance. She has consulted in the development of innovative governance, pay and training systems, and advising clients on the implementation of such change. She has a wealth of experience developing and delivering the training in group and interpersonal skills needed to function effectively in high involvement, high performance environments. Ms. Comfort is also skilled in the application of interest-based principles in venues ranging from contract negotiations to process redesign.