Ken Lizotte CMC is author of seven books including his newest The Speaker’s Edge: The Ultimate Go-To Guide for Locating and Landing Lots of Speaking Gigs (Maven House Press) as well as The Expert’s Edge: Become the Go-To Authority that People Turn to Every Time (McGraw-Hill). He is also a columnist blogger with Huffington Post.

He is Chief Imaginative Officer (CIO) and founder of emerson consulting group inc., a consulting firm that transforms individual business experts, companies, executives, law firms and professional services firms into “thoughtleaders.” Since 1996, emersongroup has guided over 350 “client thoughtleaders” toward publication of books and articles, toward speaking opportunities at targeted business events and toward media opportunities such as print interviews and guest appearances on business radio and podcasts.

A Certified Management Consultant (CMC), Ken speaks regularly at national and regional business events, including ongoing appearances at the CEO Club of Boston, Harvard University, the National Speakers Association, and the Concord Festival of Authors, to name a few.

A thoughtleader in his own right, Ken’s been interviewed by The Wall Street Journal, Fortune Magazine, Newsweek, Financial Times, Investors’ Business Daily, National Public Radio, CBS-TV, the Boston Globe and Writer’s Digest Magazine. He’s also co-founder of the National Writers Union, a graduate of Alan Weiss’s Million Dollar Consulting College, a longtime member of the CEO Club of Boston, a member of the Society of Professional Consultants, and former chapter president and national board member of the Institute of Management Consulting.

Ken resides with his wife and daughter in Concord, Massachusetts where he also serves in a pro bono capacity as President of Thoreau Farm Trust, the birthplace of Henry David Thoreau.

Kate Victory Hannisian has extensive experience as a writer, editor and content developer. Kate works with emersongroup clients on a variety of projects, including book manuscripts, book proposals, articles for professional and trade journals, and content for websites, special reports, blogs and e-newsletters. Her journalism background allows her to tackle projects related to a wide range of business and financial subjects.

In addition to her work with emersongroup, Kate has taught copyediting and book publishing classes at Emerson College, and has conducted workshops on business writing and social media at the Enterprise Center at Salem State University and North Shore Community College. She also implements projects as an independent consultant, including a policy report for the National Women’s Business Council and book proposal development for The Great Penguin Rescue by Dyan deNapoli (Free Press/Simon & Schuster 2011).

Before switching to freelancing (and parenting) in 2000, Kate spent 9 years as editor of Cutter Information Corp.’s monthly newsletters Business and the Environment and ISO 14000 Update. She also served as editor of several newsletters on corporate mergers and acquisitions, including Cambridge Corporation’s Merger Management Report.

She began her career as a reporter for Donoghue’s Money Fund Report, later serving as editor of Donoghue’s MONEYLETTER. She has been a contributing editor to the policy journal Global Change and the Bowne Review for CFOs & Investment Bankers. She was also editor of the Bank Administration Institute’s Bankers Middle Market Lending Letter.

When not working with clients, Kate enjoys writing novels and serves as an active community and parent volunteer. She earned a BA degree in English Literature and Speech Communications from Boston College.

Henry has been a public relations professional since 1980. Before founding Stimpson Communications, he was an account executive with Schneider Parker Jakuc Public Relations in Boston, where he specialized in high-tech PR. Previously, he was a spokesman, writer and editor with Commercial Union Insurance Companies.

A widely published writer, he has written for Public Relations Tactics, Direct Marketing, PR Week, Boston Business Journal, The National Underwriter, Financial Planning, Mass High Tech, Fidelity Focus, Fidelity Stages, Insurance Review, Independent Agent, Human Resource Executive, Risk & Insurance, The Boston Globe, Philadelphia Inquirer, Rolling Stone, Yankee, Bostonia and Poets & Writers.

He received his master’s degree from Simmons College and his bachelor’s degree from Boston University, where he also completed graduate courses in public relations and communications.

Henry holds the Public Relations Society of America’s APR designation, granted after passing rigorous written and oral examinations. He has served as a director and treasurer of the Boston Chapter of the PRSA.

Henry’s clients have been featured in dozens of media outlets, including The New York Times, Forbes, The Wall Street Journal, The Boston Globe, USA Today, MarketWatch, Bankrate.com, Physician’s Money Digest, WNBC TV, Kiplinger’s Personal Finance, Consumer Reports, Kiplinger’s Retirement Letter and hundreds of websites and trade publications.

Keith brings a multitude of unique skill-sets to his work as a writer. He has written for Barry Sussman on a groundbreaking article published by Harvard’s Nieman Foundation for Journalism. Barry was the Washington Post’s Watergate editor for Woodward and Bernstein. Keith’s narrative was the most read feature article in Nieman’s history.

He is regularly invited to speak at college audiences, lawyers’ bar associations, and business organizations to share his journalist’s perspective on issues that span the range of business, culture, and law. Keith enhances the message, story, and brand that his clients want to share. His collaborative style is an adventure that opens new landscapes and new perspectives on the journey we call ghost writing.

Keith likes to think of his writing as collaborative, although most describe it as ghostwriting. There is no subject or story narrative he has not mastered. He does PhD level research and writing on a broad range of issues. Besides Harvard, Keith’s book on investments has been published by Random House, and he has written Op-Eds for The Financial Times. His articles on popular culture was published by Empirical Magazine, a Library Journal “best 10 new magazines” award winner in 2011.

When Keith is not writing, he volunteers with a multitude of non-profit organizations like the famous Big Cat Rescue Reserve in Florida.

emersongroup’s Deputy Imaginative Officer, Elena Petricone is passionate about ensuring the publication of our client thoughtleaders’ ideas. Her daily tasks might include editing books and coaching our client authors, editing and pitching our clients’ article ideas, researching book publishers and self-publishing options, negotiating with editors on our clients’ behalf, arranging media interviews and crafting our weekly eblasts.

She’s personally written for The Writer’s Chronicle, The Concord Journal, Top Consultant, and The Peevish Penman; her short fiction pieces have been featured in Slice Magazine, Mused, The Medulla Review, Apocrypha and Abstractions, and Trapeze Magazine. She’s also won an Honorable Mention in WOW! Women on Writing’s Flash Fiction Contest.

Elena graduated with her MFA in Creative Writing from Lesley University. She earned her BA from Hampshire College, concentrating in creative writing, anthropology, and media studies.

She admits she probably drinks too much coffee! Her favorite drink is a Haute Latte from Haute Coffee in Concord.

Chance The Dog, our official food taster, is a true thoughtleader in the realms of food and more food and more food still. She willingly gulps small and medium bites of whatever we throw her way. Her list of favorite eating spots and foods vastly exceeds the space availability of this website.

As emersongroup’s Social Media Expurrt, Nike the cat has her own absurd (and popular!) Twitter handle.

@NikeTheCat currently has over 3800 followers. Her Twitter profile declares, “I look like Batman and I’m awesome.”

Nike’s daily tasks might include scamming for treats, flopping on her back, meowing to go out, meowing to come in, meowing to go out, knocking things over with her butt, and sleeping on important documents.

Nike was adopted by Elena Petricone in November 2009 from the Lowell Humane Society in Massachusetts. You can read the full story of Nike’s adoption from The Cuddly Friends, a blog that advocates for shelter cats.