GWEN STERN, PhD
Gwen Stern is a cultural anthropologist who has worked as an organization effectiveness consultant for over 25 years. She helps companies diagnose and remove barriers to organization performance, use employee research to drive organization and behavior change, design and implement organization change and communication initiatives, and enhance leadership team effectiveness. Gwen spent 13 years as a senior leader with Watson Wyatt (now Towers Watson).
Gwen has helped companies design and implement a wide range of change efforts, e.g. merger integration, change communication strategies, re-engineering of staff functions, and internal restructuring. She has conducted employee research projects with Fortune 100 and smaller organizations. While at Watson Wyatt, Gwen created and directed a number of international studies on work attitudes, Human Resource practices, and best practices in change management. The international studies — WorkUSA, WorkUK, and WorkCanada — became a Watson Wyatt brand product, and Gwen provided technical assistance (strategic, methodological and statistical) to replicate them in the Philippines, Hong Kong and elsewhere.
Gwen has worked with a wide range of industries including pharmaceutical and healthcare, financial and professional services, high tech, utilities, and manufacturing as well as community-based non-profits. Projects have been both national and international in scope.
A sample of Gwen's clients over her 25-year career include Akzo Nobel, Baxter Healthcare, Kraft Foods, Dade Behring (now Siemens), The Joint Commission, Caterpillar, Owens-Corning, Peoples Energy, Ameritech (now ATT), PalmOne, Towers Perrin, and Accenture.
Education and Certifications