Ron Bates

Managing Principal

With +30 years of industry experience, Ron’s management background includes full P&L responsibility, sales management and consulting management, hardware and systems product development management roles with Hewlett-Packard, TRW, Raytheon, Mentor Graphics and Computer Vision. He has sales and engineering experienced in hardware and systems development, process assessment, IC and DSP design services, IP Core deployment, DFT/verification/emulation, semiconductor automated test platforms, custom automated test platforms, and design software consulting. Uniquely, Ron has +18 years of experience in Human Capital Executive Coaching, Consulting, and Acquisition as a Partner with Heidrick & Struggles, StratfordGroup, and Executive Advantage Group.

With +23 years of career sales experience, Ron developed VisionMapping - RedCard's strategic sales/client partnership alignment platform. Ron has been trained in, and taught, multiple main stream strategic, consultative, solution selling paradigms when he was at Hewlett-Packard and Mentor Graphics. Ron has also taught Executive Call Planning, and a course he created and taught at Hewlett-Packard, Mentor Graphics, Computer Vision, Schlumberger, et. al., called "Critical Path Selling" an executive level sales and tactical execution training course. Ron has also coached and mentored from a sales management perspective the execution of deals that ranged in size from $100K - $10M via many of these techniques especially in his roles managing consulting sales at Mentor Graphics and Computer Vision.

In addition to his sales, coaching, human capital, and consulting management background, what is most unique about Ron is that he possesses a deep technical background spanning a broad range of hardware and software technology disciplines. After obtaining a degree in Physics from the University of Oregon, and co-authoring "Far Ultraviolet Laser Resonance Raman Studies of Electronic Excitations": Advances in Laser Spectroscopy, Vol. 3, 1986, John Wiley & Sons Ltd., Ron worked for companies such as Hewlett-Packard, TRW, Raytheon, Mentor Graphics and Computer Vision. From 500 MHz – 45 GHz, he has been responsible for multi-million dollar development programs ranging from waveguide, stripline, MMIC devices and antennas for satellite communications, secure military and covert satellite reconnaissance systems, threat identification, anti-missile electronics counter measures, and radar jamming systems. He has developed verification strategies for MMIC T/R modules, High Power analog, mixed-signal, ASIC, and 50 MHz - 1.5 GHz digital IC and MCM semiconductor devices used in wireline and wireless terrestrial and space based Telecommunications applications. Ron has also designed custom automated test platforms for airborne radar, electronic counter measure, avionics and flight control systems, in addition to having developed antenna characterization and production test strategies for satellite, ship and airborne antennas. He has delivered product development process assessments for technology clients engaged in Concurrent Engineering and process/workflow product development Reengineering programs. Ron has also provided product development and DSP design support to clients engaged in applications of CDMA and TDMA communications technology; JPEG, MPEG video; voice compression, electronic surveillance, PDA, paging, embedded IP and programmable core applications. He has also provided LAN/WAN network performance assessments, network design, optimization, integration services, remote network monitoring, customer premise equipment installation & maintenance client services.

Uniquely possessing +18 years of executive coaching experience, Ron has coached hundreds of executives responsible for multi-billion dollar business units at companies such as Avaya, Dun & Bradstreet, Cisco, Ciena, Diebold, Deloitte Consulting, EMC, Ericsson, ESPN, E&Y, Flextronics, Fujitsu, Harman International, Harte Hanks, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Lear Corporation, Neiman Marcus, Medtronic, Merck, MTV, Northrop Grumman, Oracle, PerkinElmer, Red Hat, Sanmina-SCI, SAP, Skype, Tower/JAZZ, TRW Automotive, Victoria's Secret, WorldCom, Xerox, et al. In addition to his roles at RedCard Solutions, and Executive Advantage Group, Ron was also the Executive Director, Talent Acquisition Network with ExecutiveNetworks.com. With a 25-year legacy as a leading provider of executive peer networks to more than 225 large mostly global corporations - Executive Networks is focused on building the world's foremost constellation of HR-related executive peer networks.

With +40,000 direct contacts on LinkedIn, CNN's Maggie Lake referred to him as "the most plugged in man in the LinkedIn world" (CNN/LinkedIn IPO Interview). You can view his detailed networking profiles on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter. Feel free to invite Ron to connect with you on the on-line networking platforms you use.

As recognized expert in viral network marketing, on-line networking, and personal branding, Ron has been an invited speaker at venues such as Marketing Executive Networking Group, British America Business Council, the Human Capital Institute, Talent Acquisition Network Conference (Washington D.C.), Global Recruiting Network Conference (hosted at Pepsico World Headquarters), Expert Connections, Business of Success Radio, and has been a regular guest on Netshare’s "Ask the Coach". In addition to Ron's interview being included in Leadership Without Borders: Successful Strategies From World-Class Leaders, by Ed Cohen, © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ron has been quoted in numerous articles and blogs regarding on-line networking.