David has more than 20 years of experience in the development of category management processes and training programs for both retailers and manufacturers within the consumer products industry. He has helped his clients change organizational behaviors and processes to sustain enterprise-wide category management capabilities. He has also helped MIS departments design strategy, evaluate software and develop their category management information systems.

Prior to founding Delta Associates, Inc. in 1995, David’s previous experiences were in Sales and as a Business Analyst. Since 1989, David has been directly involved with category management as a category consultant, national manager of strategic category development and space management. He also served as a member of two reengineering teams for a major consumer products company.

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Joe Adams - Principal

Joe has more than 30 years of experience in the consumer products industry. For 15 years, Joe served in sales, broker and sales management functions. For 14 years, he was responsible for training and organizational design for the James River Corporation, one of the nation's leading consumer paper products companies (James River merged with Fort Howard to form Fort James which was purchased by Georgia-Pacific). Joe was responsible for managing a training curriculum that included design and delivery of state of the art education and development programs for both direct and broker sales networks. He was also an integral part of James River's organizational redesign and training efforts during a shift to cross-functional and regional teams supporting customer needs.

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Steve Gerst brings 17 years of experience in statistical analysis and data-driven decision making to Delta.  He has a Ph.D. in Atmospheric Chemistry from the University of Washington where he was an award-winning teacher and changed the way scientists think about the earth's atmosphere.  After leaving academia, Steve joined 3M’s famed innovative product development team.  Later, as 3M implemented Six Sigma, he became a certified Six Sigma Black Belt focusing on the sales and supply chain management processes.  Steve successfully trained over a hundred sales representatives to be Six Sigma Green Belts and led dozens of projects on sales effectiveness, supply chain efficiency, and business process improvement.  Steve then became a business analyst manager for the Office Supply Division where he applied his mathematical and analytical talents to the data intensive, consumer-driven category management and merchandising processes.  He worked with top retail and contract accounts on category management, CPFR, and sales and marketing effectiveness.  He is an expert in store clustering, having lead and taught the clustering process for one of his largest customers. Steve was recognized both by 3M and its key customers as a top business analyst who changes the way sales organizations think. 

Cynthia Henry - Principal

Cynthia brings over 18 years of experience with a top 5 Drug Retailer – Longs Drug. Her experience includes Store Operations, Training & Development, and Marketing. Cynthia spent 4 years prior to graduate school, designing and implementing training programs for Longs. For the last 7 years, she held the position of Category Manager of the Cosmetics and Toiletries Departments, which produced over $350 million in annual retail sales.

Cynthia has been recognized for her contributions through NACDS and Glamour Magazine’s - Glammy Award honoring effective promotions, Pharmacy Management News’- Category Manager of the Year – Cosmetics 2001 and Health and Beauty Care Executive’s - Top 200 Most Influential Beauty Executives.

Cynthia holds an MBA degree from the Babcock School of Management at Wake Forest University.

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Sharyl Prom - Principal

Sharyl brings to Delta 18 years of experience working with data, and developing and leading training programs at 3M Company.  She enjoys analyzing data – in fact she took math classes for fun at college.  Sharyl worked with 3M’s consumer and office markets group for 15 years.  During that time she provided project leadership on the integration of multiple sales reporting applications and taught over 300 people how to access and analyze their data.  She also directed all aspects of sales automation for nine businesses and over 300 sales professionals.  This included designing, developing, and training on multiple sales-focused software applications.  While at 3M, Sharyl became a certified Six Sigma Black Belt – focused on business and supply chain management processes.  She also coached a dozen individuals on their business process improvement projects.  She successfully trained over 1,500 people in sales, marketing, logistics, and manufacturing positions to be Six Sigma Green Belts.  She has a Masters in Organizational Leadership where she completed her final Masters’ project on integrating the human component of change into 3M’s Six Sigma training program.  Sharyl has been recognized by both external customers and 3M as a top training professional with the ability to make the complex understandable and applicable to current business needs.

Sterling Woodard - Principal

Sterling Woodard is highly recognized for his skills in Retail Link training, business development, and database solution development. Mr. Woodard has developed report management databases that streamline the weekly reporting processes for many consumer product companies, as well as creating CPFR tools that allow companies to match internal and retailer information into a single source for analytical purposes.

At Wal-Mart Stores, Mr. Woodard had an outstanding career as a Retail Link Trainer and Training Coordinator. He was renowned for his teaching skills and ability to integrate merchandising principles and technical skills to increase sales and reduce inventory. He served as a primary contact with merchandising, (DMM's, buyers, and assistants) to train and work on special projects and IT issues.  Mr. Woodard also developed the Inventory Replenishment course for Wal-Mart, working hand in hand with the Inventory Management group to create a course that teaches suppliers to better manage inventory throughout the supply chain.  Externally, Mr. Woodard trained numerous consumer product companies, using his ability to quickly identify issues within their corporation and provide solutions that both assisted them as well as delivered enhanced customer service to Wal-Mart/Sam's.

Sterling earned a Masters of Education from Louisiana Tech University.

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	David O'Neil
	Joe Adams
	Steve Gerst
	Cynthia Henry
	Sharyl Prom
	Sterling Woodard

Delta Associates is a boutique consulting and training organization that specializes in the Consumer Products industry. We are recognized globally as a leader in the development of Category Management processes and capabilities. Our organization has delivered consulting and training services to over 350 manufacturers and retailers, representing 50+ countries.

We are considered by many to provide the best Category Management, Fact-Based Selling, Retail Link^® Software, Negotiating Skills and Presentation Skills training around.  We specialize in the CPG industry in order to bring you relevant learning.  Read what your peers have to say about our Category Management, Retail Link^® software, Fact-Based Solution Selling, Negotiating Skills or Presentation Skills workshops.

If you are looking for world class instructors for category management, retail link^® software, fact based selling, negotiating skills or presentation skills training, look no further.  Our workshops have received critical acclaim for their hands-on, real world case studies.  Delivered by industry experts.

CLICK HERE and read what they have to say.