Avid Learner, Inc. - About Us


	About Us Who We Are Avid Learner, Inc. is a privately held global consulting organization based in Pittsburgh, PA. We're a virtual organization—staffed by seasoned performance consultants, each with at least 20 years of experience in the Training and Development field. Our Partnership with the University of Pittsburgh Mellon Financial Corporation Hall, one of the nation's premier educational facilities, is a magnificent setting for our leadership development courses. This state-of-the-art facility within Alumni Hall opened in February of 2000, and is situated along Oakland's stately Fifth Avenue corridor within the area's Cultural District. Alumni Hall, formerly the Masonic Temple, is a nine-story limestone building constructed in 1914-1915. It was acquired by the University of Pittsburgh in the early 1990s. The $16 million renovations to the structure restored the building to its original 1915 splendor while incorporating modern functions, comfort features, and safety amenities. Avid Learner training programs are offered in partnership with the Center for Executive Education in the University of Pittsburgh's Joseph M. Katz School of Business. The Center for Executive Education (CEE) is one of the nation's first university-based management development facilities. Since 1949, the CEE has offered graduate level business instruction and is now partnering with us to offer a Certificate in Leadership and Organizational Effectiveness. This certificate will be comprised of the following three programs: C-Level Communications, Leadership, Followership and Star Performance, and Cross Organizational Influence. As part of the partnership, Avid Learner and Pitt's Katz School of Business will co-market Avid Learner's development programs, and participants in Avid Learner's programs will receive a Certificate of Achievement from the Center for Executive Education, one of the first and leading executive education centers in the world. For more information about the Center for Executive Education, go to: http://www.business.pitt.edu/cee/ What We Do When it comes down to it, we design and deliver training programs that help you unleash talent—your own, and everyone else’s on the team. We work with all kinds of folks, but we spend most of our time developing knowledge workers—the brain-powered workers your organization relies on for their technical competence, intelligent analysis, innovative solutions and problem-solving ability. Knowledge workers come from many different functional areas—like Engineering, R&D, Finance, Marketing and IT. These are the people who monitor trends, analyze problems, define the specifications, explore options, select tools and technologies, conduct tests, make recommendations and develop solutions. They’re the ones you really count on. We understand knowledge workers and knowledge work. We've worked alongside and studied the high-productivity work strategies of the star performers. We know the kind of work they do and the pressures under which they operate. They're the ones who get the complex and poorly defined problems. The unreasonable deadlines. The constantly changing requirements and information. Under ambiguous and often chaotic conditions, they're expected to figure it out, exercise very good judgment and produce exceptional results. Our Consulting Staff David Binder David Huffner David Huffner and David Binder are Principal Consultants and co-founders of Avid Learner. With more than 40 years of combined experience in the Training and Development field, both consultants have worked extensively with organizations in industries including manufacturing, high technology, banking, service, health care and government. They have wide-ranging experience in developing and delivering training on leadership, organizational change, team building, problem solving, productivity, performance management and selection skills to employees and all management levels. To support the demand for our training programs and consulting services, Avid Learner relies on a network of top-notch performance consultants across the country. Biographies of our performance consultants are available below: Biographies David Binder Amy Foster David Huffner Cate Meyer Pam Owens Alice Pescuric Lisa Weinmann Our consultants share their insights on workplace productivity issues in Output, our blog.