Ken Shepard

Ken Shepard, PhD., is the Founding President of the Global Organization Design Society, a world-wide professional association of academics, business users, and consultants practicing the application of Requisite Organization concepts.
Distinguishing experiences that provided the foundation for his RO-related roles
- Work experience as a senior manager, academic, and consultant with roles in business, government, not-for-profits and education.
- A doctorate in management specializing in organization behaviour, organization development - his research including building a network and community in the field of organization development.
- An early meeting with Elliott Jaques in 1978
- Experience in building leadership networks, designing multi-stakeholder consultations, creating learning experiences, and designing and moderating conferences.
- Dr. Shepard founded the management of change program at the Niagara Institute in 1981 and directed it for a decade before leaving to found the Canadian Centre. In that role, he benchmarked best practices at major Canadian corporations and designed a wide range of senior management development programs at the VP level. Dr. Shepard has designed and led the following workshops often tailored for application within a corporation.
- Creating the CEO Role
- Strategic Planning
- Strategy Implementation
- Organization Design
- Talent Pool Design and Management
- Leadership and the Management of Change
- Public Affairs, both fundamentals and advanced.
- Working Effectively with External Stakeholder Groups
- International experience - residential periods in Mexico, Brazil, and Argentina plus extensive travels in Latin America and Europe -
- As a consultant and Principal of the Canadian Centre for Leadership and Strategy for 24 years, Dr. Shepard worked with CEO's, Deputy Ministers, and seconds-in-command responsible for major change projects in Canada and abroad.
- Ken's practice was largely based on Requisite Organization concepts developed by Elliott Jaques complemented by state-of-the-art organization development processes.
Contributions to the field of Requisite Organization
Ken met Dr. Jaques in l978, brought him to Toronto in l992 and produced 3500 participant days of public workshops in Requisite Organization with Dr. Jaques introducing these concepts to senior consultants and line managers.? Over time he benefited from Dr. Jaques's advice on his major consulting projects.
He was the chief editor and a contributing author of the book, Organization Design, Levels of Work Complexity and Human Capability: Executive Guide.
Contributions to the Global Organization Design Society
A member of the Toronto Legacy Group that began meeting after a memorial service for Dr. Jaques in 2003, Dr. Shepard retired from consulting work to dedicate his volunteer energies full-time to preserving Dr. Jaques's legacy. He incorporated the GO Society as a non-profit and served as its founding president from 2003 to the present. He also chaired the Society's Editorial Board for that same period.
He networked to build a community of RO practitioners worldwide.
He produced and moderated five world conferences in 2005, 2007, 2009, 2012, 2014
He developed the GO Society's website and managed the transition through three platforms and countless revisions.
Contact info
Email: [email protected]
Telephone: +1-647-570-6805
Webpage: https://globalro.org/
Linkedin URL: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ken-shepard-51915111/
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B.A. In Earth Sciences, Antioch College
Certificate in Natural Resource Planning, The Organization of American States, Project #29, Universidade Rural, Brazil
M.C.P. Master of City Planning, University of Pennsylvania, School of Fine Arts
Ph.D. in Organization Behavior, Andersen School of Management, UCLA
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