John Cox
John is currently an Assistant Professor at the University of North Texas (UNT). He directs and teaches Master Degree candidates in the areas of Training & Development and Human Performance Technology. John is also a facilitator for ASTD’s HPI certificate program.
Dr. Cox’s research interest includes employee retention and the application of research to the practice of human performance improvement. His research project “New Ideas for Retaining Store Level Employees” won the 2004 ASTD Excellence in Research to Practice award.
Dr. Cox is also the president of the Cox Learning Group. His firm helps companies select, develop, and retain their human resources talent.
He is a pioneer in the application of self-directed workplace learning methods. With over 20 years' experience, he has completed more than a hundred initiatives for clients in the Retail, Hospitality, Distribution, and Manufacturing industries.
He has held executive positions as Director of Education at ClubCorp and Corporate Manager of Training and Development for The Southland Corporation.
John has published for ASTD Journal and Training Magazine. His approach to Job Aid development was published in the ASTD Handbook for Technical and Skills Training.
Dr. Cox was awarded a Leadership Grant to attend North Carolina State University where he worked with Malcolm Knowles and received a Doctorate of Education.
Jim Irvine
Jim Irvine is Senior Project Manager for Superior Selection System (S3) responsible for the Talent Management functions. His experience includes high potential identification, selection systems, succession planning, and performance management. His research and practice has focused on identifying the key factors that differentiate average from superior performers and developing selection, training, and development systems based on those unique factors.
Some of Jim’s clients include Atmos Energy, Citizens Telecom, G.E.Aircraft, Lennox, Memorex-Telex, Midas, SeaLand/CSX Lines, Texas Instruments, TransAmerica, and Trinity Industries.
Jim holds undergraduate and graduate degrees in both Business and Psychology and will complete a Doctorate in Management in early 2007.
Blake Frank, Ph.D.
Blake Frank is a licensed industrial/organizational psychologist and the Associate Dean, Academic Operations in the Graduate School of Management at the University of Dallas.. He is also the founder of C & E Strategies, a consulting organization specializing in organizational research and development. Recent work includes national and international employee opinion surveys; and selection by the National Association of Convenience Stores as the consulting firm to develop an industry-specific store manager selection system.
Dr. Frank was the director of Personnel Research and Organization Development for The Southland Corporation. During his tenure at Southland, Dr. Frank developed or supervised the development of all the company’s pre-employment and management assessment testing programs, oversaw the company’s opinion survey process.
