The Napa Group founded, in 1985, provides strategic planning, leadership development, organizational design and executive team coaching for universities, advancement offices, alumni associations, foundations and venture-funded start-ups.
No strategy is successful unless executed over time through leadership, staff and operating plans to deliver the promised results. We work with our clients every step of the way, from the strategic and business goals that motivate them, market assessments that define realistic expectations, communications that engage stakeholders and implementation activities through multi-year work plans and coaching. Often that means helping organizations shape the culture changes necessary to accomplishing a new vision for the future.
As seasoned professionals from complex universities and corporations, we bring a solid understanding of best practices for sustainable organizational health to assist presidents, CEOs, senior executives and boards in their decision-making. From both start-ups to mature organizations, we collaborate with our clients to implement timely, practical solutions and outcomes that engage key managers, staff and volunteers.
Principals
RJ Valentino is President and
Co-Founder of The Napa Group
RJ brings over 25 years experience as a senior executive and business consultant to his broad client base, which spans the fields of education, publishing, health care, engineering and construction, professional services and venture-backed technology start-ups. His practice focuses on institutional strategy development, planning, leadership and organizational consulting in growing and changing environments. He provides "best of breed" practices from for-profit and non-profit sectors to assist his clients in developing outcomes that achieve their goals and objectives.
Working with corporate CEOs, university presidents, boards and senior leadership, RJ has helped guide strategic planning activities that accomplish visionary change in entrepreneurial and traditional contexts and settings.
His counsel promoted alignment and integration at E*Trade during its unprecedented growth, supported rigor to repeatable management practices at ZANTAZ, Inc., as part of its transformation from start-up to industry leader and helped position the turnaround at AskJeeves during market uncertainty and emerging competition. He advised The Lance Armstrong Foundation in its rise as a leader in cancer survivorship and helped build management capacity for the successful completion of Georgetown University's historic $1 billion fundraising campaign.
RJ's recent work advising university presidents who are leading change in today's evolving and competitive higher education market has resulted in stronger brand recognition, alignment of internal and external constituencies and innovative and timely solutions. Incorporating best practices methodologies, he creates custom solutions that directly engage organizational talent, resulting in high performance and stakeholder value.
Prior to co-founding The Napa Group in 1985, RJ held management and leadership positions in financial services, corporate training and human resources in Fortune 500 companies. He is certified in Mediation, is Professionally Credentialed in Organizational Learning from the Sloan School of Business at MIT and is a member of the International Facilitators Association. RJ studied at the University of Texas, Austin, and received his B.S. in Marketing from San Jose State University.
His publications include Keeping the Sharks At Bay — Rediscovering the Values-Driven Organization and several whitepapers, such as Balancing Mission and Market in Higher Education in the 21st Century, ROI Budgeting and Surviving Turbulent Economic Times, available under Resources.
Kathy Jones, Principal
Kathy Jones is a Principal of The Napa Group. She has over 20 years experience in the management of complex organizations. Her focus has been on the development of high performance agile organizations. She has served as a member of the senior management team of two prestigious universities.
As Senior Vice President and Secretary of Georgetown University, Kathy was responsible for facilitating the work of the Board of Trustees. She worked closely with the President and the senior administration on the development and implementation of strategies related to Georgetown's academic and research mission.
Previously, Kathy served as Vice Chancellor of University Relations at the University of California, Irvine. Her responsibilities there included overseeing UCI's fundraising and communications programs.
Kathy has the ability to work at all levels of the organization to improve productivity, promote teamwork and produce results. She graduated from Stanford University.
Janis Johnson, Senior Partner
Janis Johnson is Senior Partner, Marketing & Communication, for The Napa Group. She brings a diversified career as a strategist and practitioner who has built and managed communications teams and initiatives in complex nonprofit organizations and as a journalist with major news media.
Janis’ focus is a comprehensive strategic approach that builds brands and customer relationships, internally and externally. For nearly 20 years she has worked as a senior executive and consultant in higher education, health care, fundraising organizations, alumni associations and community nonprofits and as communications counsel to executives and business leaders. She assists organizations in developing the communications structures and operations to effectively serve their constituencies as well as the market and best practice research, communications audits, strategic plan facilitation, whitepapers and print and electronic materials that advance their strategic goals.
As Assistant Vice President for Constituent Communications in Georgetown University’s Office of Alumni and University Relations, Janis oversaw the award-winning materials for Georgetown University's $1 billion comprehensive campaign in the late 1990s. As Assistant Vice President for Communications and Public Affairs at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles from 2001 to 2005, she was responsible for internal and external communications and a multi-year institution-wide rebranding initiative. Previously she was a staff reporter for The Washington Post and correspondent for USA Today, the Philadelphia Inquirer, Miami Herald, and the Boston Globe. She is a graduate of Duke University.
Patricia O’Brien, Ph.D., Napa Group Consultant
A university faculty member and administrator for 34 years, Patricia O’Brien is the former Professor and Executive Dean of the College of Letters and Science, the largest unit on the UCLA campus, where she was chief academic officer and responsible for the College budget, strategic planning and active fundraising. When she retired after four years in 2008, the College was successfully raising over $50 million annually and exceeded its target for the UCLA campaign.
Previously she was Dean of the College of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences at UC Riverside and worked to advance the visibility and rankings of the various departments by leveraging growth resources strategically. She was also involved in high-profile recruiting of candidates of excellence and diversity. At UC Irvine she held numerous positions, including Chair of the UC Humanities Initiative, Acting Vice Chancellor for Research, Chair of the History Department and Acting Associate Dean of Undergraduate Studies.
O’Brien is a graduate of Regis College and earned her Master’s and Ph.D. degrees from Columbia University. She began her teaching career as an instructor and assistant professor at Yale University, and also held faculty positions at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales in Paris, UC Irvine, UC Riverside and UCLA. She has received numerous awards and grants and is widely published with academic books and articles.
Susan Dwyer, Executive Assistant
Susan Dwyer has been The Napa Group’s Executive Assistant and Office Manager since 1995. She has an extensive career in administration, management, project management, customer relations and related activities in business and government. Before joining The Napa Group, Susan held positions as a paralegal, commercial and residential property manager and administrative assistant in federal and local government offices.
Alliance Partners
Jeff Gordon, Alliance Partner
As Senior Director, Program Development and External Partnerships for the San Jose State University Research Foundation, Jeff Gordon is responsible for extending and increasing research, grant and collaborative opportunities for faculty, students and other academic areas through private and public sector initiatives. Gordon has more than two decades of private sector experience in the telecommunications industry in strategy, business development, marketing and sales roles, including Vice President of Bay Area Public Sector Sales and Director of Broadband Services for Pacific Bell.
He has worked with numerous technology-based entrepreneurial ventures, including serving as Director of Industry Relations for Silicon Valley start-up IPWireless and has provided business/market development and strategic consulting services to private and public sector, as well as non-profit clients. He holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science from San Diego State University, and M.A. in Public Policy Analysis from Claremont Graduate University.
Mike Wold, Alliance Partner
Mike Wold is principal associate of Lanterna Consulting, a management consulting company providing strategic leadership development services. He is an organizational development consultant, coach, teacher and facilitator with more than 35 years of experience including over 25 years in management and project management in the private and public sectors.
Wold is a former Financial Director and Assistant Commissioner for the Minnesota Department of Economic Security, where he was responsible for the Information Technology, Human Resources, Finance, Administration and Research departments, and a former Engineering and Program Management Director at Lockheed Martin Corporation. During his management career he led major reorganizations and as a consultant he has been involved in a number of complex reorganizations. He has served on the board of directors for the Minnesota Chapter of Project Management Institute and is a certified Project Management Professional (PMP).
A former graduate level instructor at the University of Minnesota and the Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota, Wold holds an MS Degree in Mathematics from the University of Iowa and an MBA from the Carlson School of the University of Minnesota.