Leadership
FOUNDER/CEO
David Friedman
Prior to founding HPC, David was the President of RSI, an award-winning employee benefits brokerage and consulting firm that grew to become one of the largest and most successful independently-owned agencies in the country. RSI was named one of the Best Places to Work in the region seven times, and was four times named one of the Fastest Growing companies. In 2006, RSI was the only company of any size in any industry to win New Jersey’s highest award for quality – the Governor’s Award for Performance Excellence – Gold Level.
In 2011, he published his first book, Fundamentally Different, which is based on the insights he learned and taught throughout his leadership career, and in 2018 he published his second book, Culture by Design, the definitive “how to” manual for building a high-performance culture.
Today, in addition to leading HPC, David does more than 100 workshops and Keynote talks per year, sharing his experiences and wisdom with thousands of leaders across the country. Read more about David.
To inquire about David as a keynote speaker, click HERE.
Connect with David:
877.HPC.5050, x700
CO-FOUNDER/CMO
Sean Sweeney
Sean is the former Founder/CEO of CramerSweeney, a digital/web design, branding, social marketing and instructional design firm, founded in 1990. The firm grew to become one of the most highly-regarded marketing communications agencies in the Philadelphia Metro Market and gained national prominence for its instructional design work with such clients as Intel, Lancôme, JCPenney and the American Management Association.
While at CramerSweeney, Sean worked with HPC’s founder, David Friedman, for nearly a decade, at his former company, RSI. During that time, they collaborated on countless communications initiatives in support of David’s renowned corporate culture. Many of those initiatives would eventually form the very foundation of CultureWise. Today, Sean is responsible for product development, branding, corporate communications, digital design and social marketing.
Connect with Sean:
877.HPC.5050, x701
SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT
Bill Kaiser
Prior to joining HPC, Bill worked for 20+ years in the employee benefits industry. 13 years at RSI (with HPC Founder & CEO, David Friedman) followed by 7 years with Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. (AJG). Bill started in direct selling and later moved into leadership positions as Area President of Gallagher’s Mt. Laurel, NJ office and then MidAtlantic Region VP of Sales & Marketing.
Having lived and breathed the Fundamentals at RSI and championing the Gallagher Way at AJG, Bill can speak experientially to the impact a high performing culture delivers. Bill has worked with nearly 100 organizations helping them to build high-performing cultures.
To inquire about Bill as a keynote speaker, click HERE.
Connect with Bill:
Toll Free: 877.HPC.5050, x704
DIRECTOR OF OPERATIONS
Jake Friedman
Jake is a former U.S. Army paratrooper, teacher, and coach who joined High Performing Culture in 2016. As a consultant, he’s worked with key leaders from more than 75 organizations and facilitated training for thousands of employees. Jake is a graduate of the University of Florida and lives in Gainesville, FL with his wife and two kids.
Connect with Jake:
Toll Free: 877.HPC.5050, x708
Client Success Team
VICE PRESIDENT
Al Curnow
Al has over 25 years of experience in the employee benefits industry. His diverse experience includes facilitating employee engagement, corporate training, product development, sales, and sales management. Al has spoken at numerous events on the topic of culture and has worked with more than 80 organizations helping them design and sustain incredible cultures. In both his professional and personal life, Al is a consummate coach. He enjoys nothing more than bringing out the best in his corporate clients as well as the youth basketball teams that he coaches. Al is a graduate of The University of Rhode Island. He’s also completed graduate work in Business Administration at The University of Missouri at Kansas City.
To inquire about Al as a keynote speaker, click HERE.
Connect with Al:
Business Administration Assistant
Brittany Friedman
Brittany works behind-the-scenes at CultureWise, writing, editing, and proofreading coaching curriculum and associated content. She brings with her a background in education with a focus on English/Language Arts. Brittany lives in Gainesville, FL with her husband, Jake, and their two children.
Connect with Brittany:
LEADERSHIP CONSULTANT
Mary Halpin
Mary is a versatile human resource professional with more than 30 years of diverse experience in corporate roles, supporting senior leaders in the disciplines of talent management, leadership development, employee relations, performance management, and change management. She is known for quickly establishing rapport, actively listening, and collaborating to achieve win-win solutions. Mary is active within the human resources community, allowing her a view into industry trends and ongoing assessment of new delivery offerings.
Her passions are in coaching all levels of leaders. In addition, Mary is an expert at working with management in organizations to ensure that their human capital strategy is appropriate to meet their business goals and objective. She seizes every opportunity to assist others in the acceleration of their ability to realize their potential and push beyond their comfort zone.
Mary is currently focused on putting together the knowledge she has gained during her long career in human resources to help impact individuals or organizations. She does this by relying on her many years of working with leaders and their teams to become as effective as possible. Some of the tools she uses are performance management process, culture building, team dynamic enhancement and many more. During her long career she has had the opportunity to work in every aspect of human resources, including payroll, recruiting, talent management, employee relations, and benefit administration.
Mary most recently was the Chief Human Resources Officer at Centreville Bank in West Warwick RI. While there she ran all aspects of the HR function. She also spent 19 years at Fidelity Investments in a variety of human resources roles, including her last role where she was a Human Resources Vice President for the Workplace Investing business. Prior to joining Fidelity Investments, Mary worked in business partner roles at other financial services companies as well as many retail organizations. Mary is also a very active coach in a variety of programs in several different industries as well as within her community, coaching senior level executives and graduating college students on how to maximize or start their careers.
Mary holds a bachelor’s degree from the College of Holy Cross with a major in psychology. In addition, Mary is a certified professional coach and has a certificate from Bentley University in compensation management.
Connect with Mary:
DIRECTOR OF MARKETING
Tyler Howard
Before joining the HPC team, Tyler worked as a digital marketing account manager for various B2B and B2C companies at a visual marketing agency. His most recent experience at the agency provided him with excellent opportunities to dive deeper into various marketing channels and avenues related to a wide variety of industries. He focused on maximizing clients’ goals and bringing great ROI for each individual client.
Tyler brings a high level of knowledge in the digital marketing industry, including being highly proficient in HubSpot and a wide range of digital ad platforms. Tyler’s primary focus is growing the CultureWise brand and expanding market share.
Tyler holds a BA in Marketing & Economics from The University of Maine, at Orono and is an avid lacrosse and football fan.
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SALES EXECUTIVE
Logan Nance
Logan is a United States Army veteran who joined High Performing Culture in 2020. Logan has worked with 100+ companies in just about every industry develop and implement a systematic methodology to foster a high performing culture within their organization. Having lead training for thousands of employees both in-person and virtually, Logan brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to his clients and he’s obsessed with delivering legendary service to each and every one of them.
Logan is a graduate of the University of Kentucky and resides in Kentucky with his wife Samantha and their three daughters. Logan serves on his city council, on the board of The Toy Chest children’s charity, and within his church.
Connect with Logan:
IMPLEMENTATION MANAGER
Kevin Sullivan
Kevin comes to CultureWise from a beverage start-up, Super Coffee, while he assisted their rapid growth in retail sales, distributor management and consumer events. Prior to joining Super Coffee Kevin spent over a decade involved in collegiate basketball, as a student-athlete and assistant coach. Kevin was a four-year member of the DePauw University men’s basketball program where he majored in Education Studies and minored in Interpersonal and Rhetoric Communication. After a successful playing career Kevin worked as an assistant men’s basketball coach at Defiance College, Kenyon College, and most recently at Emory University. While at Emory, Kevin was recognized by the National Association of Basketball Coaches and Under Armour as one of the top 30 coaches in the United States under the age of 30. In 2021, he completed his masters at the University of Missouri in the Positive Coaching and Leadership program, a unique program that represents the fusion of performance psychology, positive psychology, and coaching and leadership theories.
Kevin lives in Austin, TX with his amazing wife Elysha and their beautiful daughter. He enjoys spending time with his family, traveling, and watching sports. In his free time, you can find Kevin paddleboarding on Lake Travis, playing basketball and pickleball, or walking their goldendoodle, Oliver. Kevin is very excited to be a part of the CultureWise team to share the power of perspective and that people are not a means to an end but the end itself.
Connect with Kevin:
CLIENT SUCCESS MANAGER
Deneen Sweeney
Deneen comes to CultureWise after a decade in the real estate industry, both as Director of Sales and a nationally ranked top agent for the Matt Fetick Real Estate team powered by Keller Williams. While at Keller Williams, Deneen personally sold over 600 homes and as Director of Sales helped the team grow both in agent size and sold volume year-over-year. As Client Success Manager, her goal is to make sure that each and every client has all the support and tools they need to grow and sustain a high-performing culture within their organization. Deneen joins her husband Sean, who Co-Founded CultureWise with David Friedman.
Connect with Deneen:
IMPLEMENTATION MANAGER
Lucas Tindell
Lucas Tindell is a seasoned Keynote Speaker, Corporate Trainer, Mental Performance Coach and Podcast Host. Lucas has spent decades working in key leadership positions focusing not only on organizational development but primarily on the development of people.
Lucas is highly regarded for his ability to simplify life’s most difficult problems and help people reach the success that has often eluded them. Whether he is facilitating a training for a large group, or giving one on one advice, Lucas focuses on helping people connect the dots between their goals and what it takes to reach them. Through the use of various facilitation methods, engaging materials, and relevant data, individuals have gained valuable insights that were instantly applicable. Lucas is also known for his exuberant delivery style in which he engages the audience with enthusiasm, passion, and purpose from start to finish. He is also known for his use of analogies and stories that paint memorable pictures, that ultimately create an ongoing frame of reference. His ultimate goal is to plant the seeds of knowledge that will grow into deeper understanding as each participant begins applying what they’ve learned to their own life and work.
Connect with Lucas:
IMPLEMENTATION MANAGER
Grayson Vandegrift
Grayson Vandegrift joined CultureWise in January of 2023. He loves guiding clients through the fundamentals process and then presenting engaging rollouts to their employees. He also serves as his town’s mayor and has done so for over 8 years. Prior to that, he ran his family’s restaurant for eight years. He attended Wittenberg University where he majored in English composition, and plays piano and guitar.
Grayson has been married since 2015 to his wonderful wife, Katie, and they have two children, a boy and a girl. He loves meeting new people and prides himself on a wide variety of interests, including history, physics, and sports. Grayson loves being a part of the CultureWise team, so he can be a part of helping each and every client achieve a high-performing culture.
Connect with Grayson:
DIRECTOR OF VIDEOGRAPHY
Rolando Vega
Before joining the HPC team, Rolando worked as a video director and producer for 8 years in the non-profit world helping organizations promote their missions through effective video storytelling. His most recent experience at a boutique brand strategy and design studio provided him with excellent opportunities to dive deeper into business strategy, content marketing, and account management for these same mission-minded organizations.
Influenced by his independent filmmaking background, Rolando brings a high level of production value and a deeply relational approach to his video production process. The HPC mission and vision resonate strongly with Rolando as he is passionate about helping to build cultures that can help creatives thrive and do their best work.
Rolando holds a BA in Film and Media Arts from Messiah University and is currently pursuing his Master of Business Administration in Strategic Leadership.
Connect with Rolando:
Bi-lingual Specialist
Arturo Wolf
Arturo Wolf has forty years of experience in the food industry both in the corporate world and as an entrepreneur. He has a Bachelor’s and a Master’s degree from Texas A&M University. His experience includes Operations, Marketing, Product Development and Sales.
A native of Costa Rica, his professional career spans across several countries mostly in the custom manufacturing of cooked food products serving major national and multi-national food brands and restaurant chains. He has served on several boards and has been active as an industry consultant and speaker.
VICE PRESIDENT
Rob Wolff
Rob’s career prior to joining the HPC team focused on key sales and operations management roles at two Fortune 50 organizations in the healthcare space. In each of these organizations, Rob’s specialty and focus was in turning around under-performing teams through a focus on leadership, personnel development, and the creation and application of success-driving processes and procedures. Rob led teams ranging in size from 10 to over 400 people, and continues to have a passion for helping teams and team members attain the highest levels of success. Rob is a graduate of Penn State University and holds a B.S. in Business Logistics.
Connect with Rob:
Toll Free: 877.HPC.5050, x702
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