Institute for Corporate Productivity Adds Chris Marsh and Elliott Masie to Board of Directors
SEATTLE – January 3, 2008 – Chris Marsh, former chief executive of Unicru, a recruiting software company purchased last year by Kronos, and Elliott Masie, a researcher, futurist and thinker on learning and workplace productivity, have joined the board of directors of The Institute for Corporate Productivity (i4cp) www.i4cp.com. Marsh and Masie will join existing board members Jeffrey Bussgang of IDG Ventures, Patricia Nakache of Trinity Ventures and Kevin Oakes, founder and CEO of i4cp.
“Chris and Elliott are two of the leading thinkers and most accomplished business leaders in the field of human capital,” said Oakes. “Their experience lends perfectly to our focus of providing corporate executives with a safe and private peer community, anchored by decades’ worth of industry-leading research, on all issues related to workforce productivity. I’m looking forward to working with both Elliott and Chris as we become the de facto destination for corporations interested in improving the productivity of their workforces.”
As CEO of Unicru, Chris Marsh spearheaded the development of an industry leading talent management solution that led the company to be recognized three out of four years as one of the 500 fastest-growing and most successful companies in the United States, as ranked by Inc. magazine and Deloitte & Touche. His acumen for strategy and management grew sales at Unicru by 40 percent per year and led to the $150 million purchase of Unicru by Kronos, a global provider of human capital management solutions. Marsh became president of Kronos’ Talent Management Division in 2006. The performance of Kronos and its vision for the human capital markets was a key factor in leading private equity firm Hellman & Friedman Capital Partners to acquire Kronos for $1.8 billion in June 2007.
“i4cp is unique among research organizations in the industry today,” said Marsh. “The Institute is marrying research, online communities, technologies and measurement tools in a way that lets top executives anticipate and capitalize on the trends that will shape tomorrow’s workforce.”
Elliott Masie is an internationally recognized futurist, author and researcher whose focus is the nexus of learning, technology and business. He leads the Learning Consortium, a coalition of more than 230 Fortune 500 companies, and the Masie Center, a Saratoga Springs, N.Y.-based think tank. Masie’s learning-industry accolades include lifetime achievement awards from the American Society of Training and Development and U.S. Department of Defense. He has spent more than 25 years showing major corporations how to tap learning and collaborative technologies to spur profitability.
“I was impressed and intrigued by the opportunity that i4cp has created to build an array of communities of practice that are predicated on a range of research and best practices for business leaders,” said Masie. “I’m focused on how organizations can support learning and knowledge within the workforce. While I have historically not served on corporate boards, my long-standing relationship with Kevin Oakes made me feel this was an important venture. I’m excited to be asked to be part of the growth of i4cp.”
View an interview with Elliot Masie
About i4cp, inc.
Building on the 35-year history of its predecessor (the Human Resource Institute), the Institute for Corporate Productivity (i4cp) improves corporate productivity through a combination of research, community, tools and technology focused on the management of human capital. With more than 100 leading organizations as members, including many of the best-known companies in the world, i4cp draws upon one of the industry's largest and most experienced research teams and executives-in-residence to produce more than 10,000 pages annually of rapid, reliable and respected research and analysis surrounding all facets of the management of people in organizations. Additionally, i4cp identifies and analyzes the upcoming major issues and future trends that are expected to influence workforce productivity and provides member clients with tools and technology to execute leading-edge strategies and “next practices” on these issues and trends. i4cp is a for-profit company headquartered in Seattle, with research offices in St. Petersburg, Fla.