J. Jeff Kober

As author, facilitator, consultant, and subject matter expert, Jeff has focused on training & development initiatives for the private and public sector. Those diverse activities have ranged from providing leadership programming for executives at GE to transforming Federal Student Aid for The Department of Education. Clients previously have included Federal Express, Office Depot, MetLife, New York City Department of Finance, and Volkswagen of North America. Topics have ranged from leadership to performance accountability; from customer loyalty to team building. Jeff was formerly a leader with the Disney Institute, a best-practices institution modeled on America's first corporate university. While there, Jeff was responsible for working across the entire Walt Disney World Resort and designing Disney's customer service programs. The models, concepts, and examples of those programs were later introduced to corporate America in Be Our Guest, a popular benchmarking title published by The Disney Institute, with a forward by CEO Michael Eisner. Jeff played a key role in developing other programs at The Disney Institute to include Disney's Approach to Customer Loyalty, and Disney's Approach to Customer Service for the automotive and healthcare fields. The programs he has created has been seen by scores of thousands of participants in hundred of organizations across the world. He continues to be the benchmarking watchdog for best-in-business practices throughout the Walt Disney Company. Jeff is now president of Performance Journeys, a training and development group devoted to developing and implementing performance improvement and learning in the workplace. He is also a partner and CEO of World Class Benchmarking, where he provides a programming series that benchmarks many of America's greatest corporations. In addition to being an online columnist and a blogger, he has written "The Wonderful World of Customer Service at Disney" along with "Lead With Your Customers: Transforming Your Culture and Brand into World-Class Excellence." He has also created the "Disney at Work" interactive app series available via iTunes for the iPhone & iPod touch. These focus on best-in-business practices at both Disneyland and Walt Disney World. Organizations across the public and private sector spectrum tap into his background to improving excellence in their organization, and he spends much of his time helping organizations in attaining greater results.