Paul L Gunn, Jr. has built a career around procurement, logistics and supply chain. His impressive track record in this domain is evidenced by the firms he has owned and their flawless delivery performance records. Some of his noteworthy capabilities include: consulting, training and project management, implementing quality management systems, and technology solutions for global organizations leading cross-functional teams in Asia, Europe, the Middle East, and America. He is also a proven leader in lifecycle and business process management. He is a USA Today and Wall Street Journal Best Selling Author.

Mr. Gunn has taken an active role in all the firms he has owned, and as such KUOG Corporation, he leverages his preferred servant leadership style and SME to drive all project phases from proposal generation to planning and execution. Notably, Mr. Gunn previously led one of his firm’s largest Quality Management System implementation projects for highly visible DoD end users. KUOG Corporation made the Inc's 2021 list of Fastest Growing Privately firms at #273.

His previous firm was listed as one Inc's Fastest Growing Privately held firm at #67. Mr. Gunn holds a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology from Georgia State University and a Master of Science in Business Administration from the University of Phoenix.

Highly talented, analytical, and results-driven senior executive complemented with more than 20 years of experience in service delivery management and information technology.

? Project and Portfolio Program Management: Expert at delivering large-scale projects within the allotted budget and period while mitigating risks in collaboration with teams of project, sustainment, and service leaders, coordinators, and technicians
? Strategic Planning and Implementation: Adept at creating and implementing strategies to increase project agility, optimize operational efficiency, and substantially reduce cost
? Business Consulting: Equipped with the ability to provide professional consulting to various clients based on their needs
? Customer Relationship Management: Effective at establishing and maintaining strong relationships with business and IT stakeholders, covering the entire commercial, risk, and opportunity development aspects of the services provided
? Interpersonal Coordination and Team Building: Efficient at serving as an escalation point for the customer, while working with service managers from outsourcing service lines based on SLAs and client expectations
? Project Management Office (PMO): Proven competency in establishing PMO for Financial and Insurance clients to adapt PMO processes and procedures to the customer
? Agile Methodologies Proven competency in managing Hybrid-Agile and Traditional Agile projects using Agile Techniques including Lean and Kanban Methods

? Business Continuity Planning and Project PPM ? Technical Support and Troubleshooting
? Organizational Change and Risk Management ? Workflow Design, Six Sigma, and ITIL Process
? CMMI, PMI-PMBOK, PRINCE2 ? Robotic Process Automation (RPA), ECM, Web Refresh
? Budget Control and Implementation ? Derivatives (Interest Rate, Equity, and Credit Derivatives)
? Quality Assurance and Regulatory Compliance ? Loyalty Management and Client Engagement Life Cycle
? Asset and Trading Systems/Insurance Domain ? RUP, Agile Methodologies, ITSM
? Banking and FX–SPOT Trading Application ? CRM Integration to Temenos, Big Data, AI (Trending & Analytics)
? Credit Card Payment Systems, POS, Commercial Banking ? SAP IS-U and CIS / CRM Cornerstone Application
? Robotic Process Automation – Automation Anywhere (v11.0)
? SAP AMS Delivery and ASAP Methodology ? Capital Markets, Investment Banking, Wealth Management
? Property and Casualty, Lotus Notes Integration
? Core Banking Technology & AML, ISO Auditing, Small Business Banking ? Digital Transformation–Legal Workspace (AWS Cloud), Records Management, Ethical Wall, IP Progress
? Green Project Management (PRISM Methodology)

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

I am a passionate change-maker, driven by providing meaningful impact for companies, clients, and society alike.

I thrive on building value—whether collaborating on building new ventures or transforming businesses into industry disruptors.

With a mission to empower everyone to become their best selves, I embrace innovation that simplifies life while staying socially responsible.

Authenticity fuels my life, work, and purpose.

I bring together technology theory and practice, uncovering, explaining and exploring technology, business and economic trends, their implications, and how to plan for them. My work in this area has included:

- Writing & managing thought leadership programmes, built on rigorous, independent research & analysis
- Exploring, defining and building product-market fit supported with actionable go-to-market plans
- Market and competitive intelligence for software vendors
- Helping organisations plan, manage and use technology to enable business outcomes
- Owning and evolving a market-leading taxonomy and the methodologies used to operate it

I’m an accomplished business leader and have worked with the full spectrum of experience levels and stakeholders, in small to large teams and businesses, distributed globally, and within matrixed organisations. Helping people see and achieve their potential is, and remains, perhaps the best thing I’ve done as a manager and executive. I continually seek out opportunities to mentor and coach.

Ensuring people can be themselves in the workplace is important to me, and I’ve helped build, manage and sponsor two LGBTQ+ groups during my career so far.

When I’m researching and writing my personal focus is, usually, in data and information management, analytical technologies, and the evolution of enterprise applications. I'm curious about the role those technologies play in digital transformation, and particularly automation and customer experience, along with their privacy implications. Recently this has led to a practical and philosophical interest in AI's social and economic impact.

Presentation and storytelling is a key part of my experience. I’m a sought-after public speaker with a demonstrable track record in simplifying technology, and exploring how it can be used for creating value.

Innovation keynote speaker Gijs van Wulfen (1960) is awarded as the number one global thought leader on Design Thinking in 2024. He is the founder of the FORTH innovation method, a proven methodology for the start of innovation, which is implemented on six continents. His book ‘The Innovation Maze’ was crowned as Management Book of the Year in The Netherlands. As LinkedIn Influencer with 300.000+ followers he travels all over the world to inspire people as keynote speaker or workshop facilitator. Gijs’s lectures are straightforward, practical, inspiring and entertaining. He is a real STORYTELLER!

As business economist, Gijs worked the first fifteen years of his career as marketer in the Food sector and later as strategy consultant at Ernst & Young and Boer & Croon. At the end of 2002 he started his mission to inspire people all over the world to become better innovators. In 2006, he published ‘Creating New Products and Services’, the first of his six English books on how to start innovation effectively. He is keynote speaker at large events, such as the ‘Turkish Innovation Week’ in Istanbul or ‘Product Innovation Berlin’. And he facilitates innovation workshops for 3M in the USA, DuPont in the UK, NEC in Japan and AIRBUS in France.

Some testimonials on Gijs's keynote public performances:

"GIJS MADE THE AUDIENCE LAUGH, THINK AND WONDER”. Agata Wiewiora, Polish Innovation Day.

“HE LEADS AN AUDIENCE TO NEW KNOWLEDGE IN A FASCINATING WAY”. Chris Baldwin, European Conference on Innovation Management, Hungary.

“Gijs’s presentation was beyond amazing, brilliant! He was born to be on stage – so inspiring!”. Hristina Borisova, Innovation Explorer Conference, Bulgaria.

“GIJS’S SPEECH WAS EXACTLY WHAT MANY COMPANIES IN OUR INDUSTRY NEEDED”, Adam Ismael, Executive Director Global Organization for EPA, and DHA Omega-3, Canary Islands.

“GIJS IS TRULY INSPIRING TO A DIVERSE CROWD”. Dr. Audrey Verhaeghe, Chairman South African Innovation Summit, South Africa.

“ENTERTAINING, VERY INSPIRING AND INSIGHTFUL”
Dries Laperre, Organiser Innowiz, Belgium.

“Gijs was among our top 5 out of more than 50 speakers.” Delegates said about his performance: “Wildly inspiring and entertaining”, “Outstanding Visualizations” and “The perfect mix of great presentation, content and delivery.” Michael Ratcliffe, production director, ‘Product Innovation Berlin’.

“The lecture of Gijs was one of the most useful and worth visiting lectures at Strelka. Gijs gives his vision on how to become an innovator and shares his practical approach in a very personal interactive way.” Maria Biryukova, Executive Director of Public Program, Strelka Institute, Moscow, Russia

“Gijs has a natural ability to engage with his audience in a nice balance of anecdotes, facts, personal insights and humor.” Heather Spidell, President and CEO of the Center for Entrepreneurship Education and Development (CEED), Halifax, Canada.

Some testimonals from in-company events:

“A COLOURFUL, ENGAGING, INSPIRING STORYTELLER”. Delony Langer, 3M, USA.

“HE CREATES AN INNOVATIVE MINDSET AT THE AUDIENCE”. Anne-Laure Pardijon, AIRBUS GROUP.

“HE GAVE A BRILLIANTLY ARTICULATED PRESENTATION FULL OF PASSION, EMOTION AND METAPHORS”
Ignacio VILLOCH, Innovation Events & Activities Manager, BBVA Innovation Center, Spain.

After having gained his BSc and PhD degrees from Imperial College (1983 and 1986, respectively) and performing post-doctoral research at the University of Texas at Austin, Barron joined the faculty of the chemistry department at Harvard University (in 1987) as Associate Professor before being promoted to Associate Professor in 1991. In 1995 he Barron joined Rice University as the Charles W. Duncan, Jr. – Welch Chair of Chemistry and Professor of Materials Science and Nanoengineering. He was the first faculty member to be hired for the first nanotechnology center in the world. He is presently the Sêr Cymru Chair of Low Carbon Energy and Environment at Swansea University.

He is the author of over 550 publications, 50 Patents, 25 books (in chemistry and project mangement), and has graduated 33 PhD students. He has an h-factor of 82 and over 25,00 citations. His early research focused on the chemistry of aluminum and related elements and spanned catalysis, electronic materials and nanotechnology. His current research involves the fundamental problems in energy and climate change, including projects involving water purification and carbon dioxide mitigation.

Prof. Barron is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC), and the recipient of several awards, including the Star of Asia Award. In 2009 Barron was appointed as the Prince of Wales Visiting Innovator. In 2011 he won the World Technology Award at the same time as Steve Jobs.

Barron is the co-founder of several companies over a diverse range of industries: Oxane Materials, Natcore Technology, Apex Water Solutions, MiDAS Green Innovations, Algae Products International, C-Zero, and FXI, Inc. He has just founded a program for water purification in developing regions of the world in order to create agriculture ready land from desert.

In addition to teaching in chemistry and materials science, Prof. Barron created the first educational programs at Rice University to span the schools of Science, Engineering and Management. He was a co-founder of the Rice Alliance which is now the highest ranked entrepreneurship program in the US as well as the highest ranked business plan competition in the world. For relaxation Barron races cars on both sides of the Atlantic.

Named as one of the most influential people in banking and a Top 5 Fintech Influencer to Follow, Jim Marous is an internationally recognized financial industry strategist, co-publisher of The Financial Brand and the owner and publisher of the Digital Banking Report. Marous advises on innovation, portfolio growth, customer experience, marketing strategies, channel shift, payments and digital transformation within the financial services industry.

As a sought after keynote speaker, author and recognized authority on disruption in the financial services industry, Marous has been featured by CNBC and CNN, The Wall Street Journal, New York Times, The Financial Times, The Economist, The American Banker, Accenture and the Irish Tech News and has spoken to audiences worldwide. Jim has also advised the White House on banking policy and is a regular contributor and guest host for the Breaking Banks broadcast hosted by Brett King.

Sam Gupta has been an ERP thought leader in the digital transformation space for nearly two decades, with the primary focus on financial systems and ERP. He has been part of large transformation initiatives for fortune-500 corporations but now spends his time consulting with SMEs as a Principal Consultant at ElevatIQ.

He is involved with digital transformation projects ranging from enterprise technology selection, integration, upgrade, implementation, and training.

Sam regularly speaks at industry conferences and contributes his experiences through many popular blogs and publications.

He also hosts a podcast called WBSRocks focused on business growth through digital transformation and ERP where he interviews top influencers and executives from ERP, Supply Chain, Digital Transformation, Supply Chain, and Accounting.

Tommy Swanhaus ranked as the #1 Thought Leader Overall in the World (Thinkers360 - March 2022). The Duke Alumni was an awardee of "The Top 100 Entrepreneurs of 2022," by Alumni Spotlight. Tommy Swanhaus, who is ranked among the “Top 100 Marketing and Advertising Leaders in the World,” is a creative genius whose original content and amplification take companies to the top of their industries. Swanhaus, known throughout the business world as a bold, innovative thinker, is described as one of the Top 30 Best Content Creators for Marketing Campaigns on Instagram in the world.

Swanhaus is also a highly popular author whose international best seller, Amplify Your Marketing, Career, and Company, has reached an estimated 750M people worldwide. His thoughts on marketing, its changing methods, and its impact on business have also been published in The New York Times, Reuters, and USA Today.

Today, Swanhaus continues to dominate marketing through his company, Tommy Swanhaus Co., named in 2018 as one of “The Leading Companies of the Year” by The Silicon Review. Tommy Swanhaus Co. was also named "The Top 10 Smartest Companies" in 2019 by The CEO Reviews.

John Hagel III has more than 40 years’ experience as a management consultant, author, speaker and entrepreneur. After recently retiring as a partner from Deloitte, McGraw Hill published his new book, The Journey Beyond Fear, that addresses the psychology of change and he is developing a series of programs to help people navigate through change at many levels. John has founded a new company, Beyond Our Edge, LLC, that works with companies and people who are seeking to anticipate the future and achieve much greater impact, focusing on business transformation.

While at Deloitte, John was the founder and chairman of the Silicon Valley-based Deloitte Center for the Edge, focusing on identifying emerging business opportunities that are not yet on the CEO’s agenda. Before joining Deloitte, John was an independent consultant and writer and prior to that was a principal at McKinsey & Company and a leader of their Strategy Practice as well as the founder of their E-Commerce Practice. John has served as senior vice president of strategy at Atari, Inc., and is the founder of two Silicon Valley startups.

John has published 8 books, drawing on his research and experience as a management consultant and entrepreneur.