Management Team
Leslie S. Minkus
Chief Executive Officer
Mr. Minkus has been Chairman of the Board, Chief Executive Officer, President and Treasurer, since the Company was founded in 1983. Mr. Minkus has been a financial advisor with a major Wall Street investment banking firm and Vice President/CFO of an international manufacturing and distribution company. Mr. Minkus was responsible for worldwide activities for operations in eight countries and served on the Board of Directors of an Australian joint venture company. Mr. Minkus was a corporate executive with a publicly held international, educational text book and video film producer. After earning his Bachelors Degree in Accounting, he studied taxation at DePaul University, and has taken Executive Management Development studies at Northwestern University, Kellogg Graduate School of Management. Mr. Minkus has actively served as a member of several organizational boards and committees, affecting legislation on primary and secondary educational issues, in the State of Illinois.
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Phyllis Minkus
Vice President, Operations
Mrs. Minkus has been a Director and Secretary of the Company, since the Company was founded. Mrs. Minkus was responsible for operations and administration of the Company during its test marketing in 1995 and 1996. She participated in the strategic design of the sales, marketing and customer service activities, as well as, product evaluation and selection, inventory control and vendor liaison. She worked for a national retailer of educational toys and games, and held a management position in their largest revenue producing retail store in the Midwest. Mrs. Minkus taught gifted reading programs to primary grade students in an elementary school in Illinois following her education studies at Roosevelt University.
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Henry Balani
Director of Business Development
Mr. Balani is a senior sales and business development executive charged with developing strategic relationships with corporate customers. Mr Balani has been a Principal with some of the largest technology firms in the world. He brings a solutions focused expertise to the company, solving significant business issues. He earned a BS in Economics from the London School of Economics, University of London, an MBA from Northern Illinois University, and has attended executive courses at Harvard Business School.
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Advisory Board
Wayne E. Baker, Ph.D.
Professor of Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management at the University of Michigan Business School. Dr. Baker has a distinguished background in human, social and network development and has authored several award winning books on these subjects, including his current book Achieving Success through Social Capital. Dr. Baker is also co-president of Humax.net, a management consulting firm.
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James Cicarelli, Ph.D.
Professor of Management and Dean of Walter E Heller Graduate Business College, Roosevelt University. Dr. Cicarelli has a distinguished background in business management and operations and serves on many Boards of Directors. Dr. Cicarelli is also a distinguished speaker and author of business management and economic topics.
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Ron Harness
Owner of Harness Advertising Design. Mr. Harness is advising on promotional campaigns and direct target marketing. Mr. Harness is also co-advising on Internet graphics, sales, marketing, trade show support and collateral consumer product and packaging materials.
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Barbara Hudgens, Ph.D., NCSP
Educational and Bilingual School Psychologist at Community Unit School District #60 in Waukegan, Illinois. Dr. Hudgens is fluent in English and Spanish and conducts psycho-educational evaluations including assessment of learning environments in both languages. Advises on cross-cultural educational needs, improved parenting skills, and social and emotional improvement skills. Dr. Hudgens is the author of several publications on family, home and workplace issues, and is a recognized speaker on topics such as linguistics and cognitive styles in diverse learners.
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Bruce Johnson, B.S., ED
Vice President of BVK, one of the nation's largest independent marketing agencies, Mr. Johnson advises KDM on marketing and branding issues. A degreed educator with a B.S. ED and former elementary school teacher, Mr. Johnson is experienced in helping organizations market a wide range of educational and operational products and services to administrators and teachers at K-12 public and private schools.
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Kirk D. Minkus, MD, MSc.
Doctor of Medicine and partner with the Medical Diagnostic Imaging Group in Phoenix, AZ in diagnostic and interventional radiology with added training in internal medicine. Dr. Minkus advises and consults on various issues relating to medical conditions affecting cognition, physiological development, family interaction, and anatomic or metabolic pathology associated with learning disability.
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Betty Jane Wagner, Ph.D.
Educational and Child Development Specialist, from the College of Education at Roosevelt University. Advises on children's reading, writing and educational drama. Dr. Wagner is the author of many books, including: Building Moral Communities through Educational Drama, Dorothy Heathcote: Drama as an Educational Medium (1999), and Student-Centered Language Arts, K-13, co-authored with James Moffett (1992).
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Ulwyn L. J. Pierre, Ph.D.
Doctorate in Human Resource Management and Organizational Development. Dr. Pierre is the Principal and CEO of Pierre & Associates, Inc. Advises on HR, business development, marketing and children's educational issues with a focus in mathematics.
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Robert Rodriquez, Ph.D.
Dr. Rodriquez is a Principal of eVenture Leaders, LLC and President of TechPeople Leaders and has earned a Doctorate in Organizational Development and a masters degree in Human Resource Management. Advises on human resource management issues, business development opportunities, the development and implementation of Performance Management Systems, and how to deliver our unique work/life family education program to companies, as an effective performance tool.
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Patricia A. Scherer, Ph.D.
Renowned psychologist specializing in deafness, hearing impaired and the visual learning processes of deaf children. Dr. Scherer is the President of the International Center on Deafness and the Arts and advises on matters relating to challenged children.
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Kenneth H. Silber, Ph.D.
Instructional Technology Psychologist and Adjunct Professor of Human Performance Improvement at Roosevelt and DePaul Universities. Advises on issues relating to human performance improvement and instructional technology.
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George E. Smith, Ed.D.
Expert in Counseling Psychology and Educational Psychology, and Executive Director of the Management Planning Institute. Special emphasis on at-risk children, teaching parents child development skills, assessments and evaluation in educational and clinical issues. Advises on issues related to ethnic and racial educational and developmental needs and experiences.
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Steven H. Kaminski, Ph.D.
Educational Psychologist with an emphasis on communication skills and technology. Adjunct Professor at Webster University in Greensville, SC. Advises on strategic marketing communications, and communication technology.
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Joan Caton, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor at National Louis University (NLU) and Director of the West Suburban Center for Learning at NLU. Expertise in Brain-base learning, learning disabilities, bilingual special education, neuropsychology, modifications of methods and strategies for challenged students, reading disabilities, math disabilities, art in special education, psycho-educational assessment, developmental IEP's, research designs and procedures, especially thematic analysis of qualitative observations. Advises on meeting the needs of special education and alternative program settings, especially those with learning disabilities, second language acquisition issues, and cross-cultural educational needs through development of essential parenting and teaching skill. Dr. Canton is a speaker on special and bilingual education at the local, state, national, and international levels.
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Theodore J. Eischeid, CPA, MBA, JD
Business executive and senior management advisor in the educational toy and game industry and in on-line and off-line educational curriculum. Ted has been Director, President, CEO, COO and CFO of several publicly traded and privately owned companies in these sectors. He has successfully completed IPO's in the USA and Europe and has recently joined KDM's Board of Advisors. Advises on business growth and development in consumer, institutional and academic markets.
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Cary Pearlman
Founder of eClick Performance, a web development, design, marketing and optimization company in Chicago, IL. Cary has been involved in eCommerce for over 15 years and has worked for the largest Internet Backbone providers and Search Engine vendors including: BBN, ANS, GTE, Worldcom, and Autonomy. His customers have included Johnson Controls, Motorola, SBC Ameritech, Hewitt, ACNeilsen, Bank One, DaimlerChrysler, Thompson Publishing, State Farm, St. Paul Insurance, Clarian Health, and USG. Cary and his staff advise KidsDadsMoms.com on Internet marketing, optimization, customer acquisition, reaching performance metrics and state of the art website presentation.
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Daven Morrison, MD
Dr. Morrison is a Board Certified Psychiatrist with Morrison Associates, LTD, and is an executive consultant to private industry and city government organizations. These organizations range from small manufacturing to large multinational global conglomerates to elite capital management groups. Dr. Morrison advises and consults on various issues relating to mental health and sociological conditions affecting family interaction and adult/child issues, cognition, social and emotional development, and associated learning disorders.
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