Rick Popovic is an Executive Partner for Venia Consulting, and also the President, Indelta International. He brings more than twenty years of corporate management, strategy, and training experience. He has been a cofounder of enhancedcareMD, CEO of Study International, World-Wide Medical Solutions, LLC, Institute of Modern Economy, LLC, Indelta Learning Systems, LLC and has been interim CEO for a number of startups. In addition, he has ten years of international academic experience as the Dean for Executive Programs and a Professorial Lecturer at the William E. Simon Graduate School of Business at the University of Rochester. His lecturing and consulting interests are primarily in leadership, team theory, management and patient safety.

He has also held the positions of Dean, Vice President for International Programs and Provost for the American University in Bosnia and Herzegovina. While at the Simon School, he was also Director for Medical Management Education, a position where he learned the needs of physicians and their practices, in particular the need for Leadership training in the healthcare arena. His company provided a Leadership Certificate program for NYU and developed and delivered a 10-month physician leadership program for Rochester General Hospital aimed at developing Department Chiefs. He also developed and delivered a leadership program for residents and Harlem Hospital. He provided training for MSSNY, delivered to physicians throughout the state. The delivery of Patient Safety courses to hospitals across the U.S. included sections focused on leadership; something missing in most patient safety programs

Michael Waters is an Executive Partner for Venia Consulting. Michael retired from Xerox Corporation in November 2006 after 33 years of service. During that time, he held numerous staff and line positions with experiences in finance, field administration and control, quality, business planning, training and human resource management. During his career, he served as Chief Quality Officer for US Customer Operations, Director of Global People Development, as well as Vice President of Human Resources for both the Office Products Group and the Production Systems Group. His most recent assignment at Xerox was Director, Human Resources for the Lean Six Sigma Corporate Office, where he was responsible for the worldwide Lean Six Sigma Deployment strategy as well as all Human Resource direction and support around Black Belt selection and leadership training. In this role, Waters was also accountable for Yellow Belt and Green Belt training as well as global training administration and logistics. Prior to joining Xerox, Waters was an accounting and finance officer in the United States Air Force. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in Economics (cum laude) from Hobart College, a
Masters of Business Administration in Finance (with distinction) from Cornell University, and is a member of Phi Beta Kappa.

Waters was a key member of the team that prepared for and helped Xerox win the 1989 Malcolm Baldridge National Quality Award – – the United States government’s highest award for American industry. He also visited Japan to study quality at the JUSE Conference for Senior Management. In addition, he has been associated with the William E. Simon Graduate School of Business Administration at the University of Rochester and the Rochester Institute of Technology as a lecturer on Total Quality Management and has represented Xerox Corporation within the American Assembly of Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB). He has served on the Board of Directors of Behavioral Health Network of ViaHealth, co-chaired its Quality Improvement Committee and was a member of the Executive Committee.

Waters currently heads the Human Resources Committee as a member of the Board of the Seneca Park Zoo Society in Rochester, as well as serves on the Board Executive Committee as Treasurer for Career Development Services, a not-for-profit organization in Rochester, New York. He also serves on Boards for Bristol Harbour Village Association and the South Bristol Cultural Center Waters’ professional and volunteer experiences have focused on providing strategic perspective and practical operational guidance on helping organizations establish clear direction, deploy this direction effectively throughout the organization and manage the business to ensure planned results are achieved. He has served as an executive coach throughout the latter part of his career as well and is active in consulting engagements with Indelta International, LLC. a safety training and management consulting firm located in Charlotte, NC and London, England. Waters and his wife Jeana have two children, Jennifer and Greg, two grandchildren, Noah and Ellison, and live in Penfield, New York. He has been active in community affairs, including Scouting and Little League, as well school and church activities.

Heidi L. Polidori is a 25-year veteran of the dental industry. She is specialized across multiple disciplines such as periodontal and general hygiene, dental implant and periodontal surgeries, dental office best practices, business development strategies, dental consulting and patience acceptance. As a passionate advocate for best practices and processes of patient education, this passion has ignited a communication strategy that delivers information to improve patient health which correlates to increased revenue and profit for the practice.

Over her tenure she has worked with some of the most notable names in dental surgery, namely Dr. Michael Chan (San Francisco, CA) one of the world’s leading maxillofacial surgeons, where she assisted in learning cutting edge dental implant techniques; and Dr. Sean Meitner (Rochester, NY) a top U.S. implant and periodontal surgeon and inventor of the Guide Right ™ system, who she assisted in dental implant surgeries and periodontal care for over 20 years.

Heidi’s dedication to patient education, care and best practices has organically increased revenue in every office she has worked in. Through her approach, she has shown practices how they can increase revenue through this client-centered approach upwards of 5000% per hygiene patient.

In her spare time Heidi enjoys baking, as she was a blue-ribbon county fair apple pie winner as a teen. She also loves animals, especially her black lab and the many birds that she tends to with her bird houses. Heid lives in Penfield, NY, and is married to her husband, John, and has two children, Grace and Faith.

John J. Polidori II is a business veteran with nearly 30 years of experience in retention, engagement, leadership, communication, team building, strategy, global account sales and management, operations, and P&L management. John is the Founder & President of Venia Consulting, which is a business management and personal improvement consulting company. He is also a speaker and coach, and specializes in leadership and value positioning.

Over his career John worked for some of the most prominent global brands like AT&T and HTC, as well as many small technology and start-up entities. He has worked with a host of the Fortune 500 – for example GE, AT&T, Merck, Goldman Sachs, Verizon, Chevron, Ford, General Motors, Verizon, Deloitte, Exelon and many more. During that time, John retained clients, as well as built channels, processes and teams that well outperformed the norm. In a corporate role, John managed a P&L of over $60 million and held a 99% client revenue retention rate vs. the corporate client revenue retention rate of approximately 75%. In another role, he helped build a new channel that started with zero dollars in revenue and grew to $25 million in 2 years, securing at that time the largest corporate client for his channel partner. John is utilizing his specialized philosophies and systems to provide this same level of success for all companies who look to seek explosive gains in all aspects of their business.

He was educated by some of the world’s most renowned professors in Corporate Strategy, Organizational Architecture and Finance at the William E. Simon School of Business where he received his MBA as part of the global executive MBA program with the University of Bern in Switzerland and Nyenrode Business University in the Netherlands. He attained his BA from St. John Fisher College, where he was also a four-year member of the varsity football team.

John’s personal purpose is focused solely on helping others. Whether that is in a professional or personal setting, the goal has always been the same: Find ways to help people and better the cause. This lifelong journey of helping has endured through faith, family, and having an extremely close group of friends, many of whom are in his hometown of Herkimer, NY.

Away from work, John’s time is focused on three critical areas: Faith, Family and Friends. He spends time teaching children, coaching sports, attending family events, as well as church and volunteer activities. He resides in Penfield, NY, with his wife Heidi and two daughters, Grace and Faith.