About Us - Team Catalyzer

ABOUT CATALYZER

We deal with relationships, not transactions

Previously known as LGL Leadership, Catalyzer combines rigorous leadership study with unique, high-energy programs and delivered by a cadre of accomplished leadership practitioners. Our relationship-focused programs are tailored to each organization and delivered so as to ensure translation from the training room to the workplace.

Founded in 2010, the company is privileged to enjoy engagements across disparate industries, and for commercial, private and nonprofit organizations. We bring no agenda other than to work as hard as we know how to in order to maximize individual leader and organizational success.

Character

Who a leader really is at his/her core.

Empathy

How a leader of character must interact with those they lead.

Trust

Empathy filled relationships build trust.

Accountability

Trust yields the ability to hold others accountable.

Leaders Influenced

States

Modules

Dedicated Staff Members

MEET OUR TEAM

“We’re a jazz band, not an orchestra.”

We are a leadership and organizational development company led by West Point graduates and former military leaders who have successfully transitioned those skillsets into business. We focus on tailored, longer-term engagements that translate best practices for leadership development into each organization’s unique context.

Stephen A. Ingalls

President and CEO

Meet Steve

Dennis S. Passovoy

Vice President and Principal

Meet Dennis

Christopher D. H. John

Vice President and Principal

Meet Chris

Joseph Doty, PhD

Vice President and Principal

Meet Joe

Guy Hatch

Senior Facilitator

Meet Guy

Jonathan Smidt

Senior Facilitator

Meet Jon

Bob Maki

Senior Facilitator

Meet Bob

Katina Maddox

Facilitator

Meet Katina

Kevin Huggins, PhD

Senior Facilitator

Meet Kevin

Leigh Branham

Senior Facilitator

Meet Leigh

Maritza (Ritz) Ryan, JD

Senior Facilitator

Meet Maritza

Ellen Houlihan

Senior Facilitator

Meet Ellen

Let’s Start Your Journey to Greatness!

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Office

804 Hithergreen Court
Lansing, KS 66043

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Email

ingalls@teamcatalyzer.com

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Call Us

(913) 547-0665

LTC (RET) Stephen A. Ingalls

President and CEO

Stephen A. Ingalls has served as Catalyzer’s President since 2011, and its President and CEO since early 2015. In addition, Mr. Ingalls leads the organization’s program management, curriculum development, and program execution efforts. Prior to joining Catalyzer in March 2010, Mr. Ingalls led and directed operations ranging from climate research in Antarctica and Greenland to attack helicopter deployments throughout the United States, Europe, and Korea. A 1982 graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point, Lieutenant Colonel (Retired) Ingalls holds a Master of Science in Engineering Management from the University of Kansas, a Master of Military Art and Science from the United States Army Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, and a Master of Science in Aerospace Engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology. He is a former Instructor and Assistant Professor of Aerospace Engineering at West Point and an Instructor of Tactics at the Command and General Staff College.

Highlights of his 22-year Army career include: facilitating the Army’s analog-to-digital transition in the late-1990s; the distinction of being the first brigade-level aviation operations officer in the Army’s history to lead a 4,400-soldier brigade combat team to a major deployment at the National Training Center in Fort Irwin, California; serving as a Longbow Apache Battalion Commander – responsible to form, field, train, and lead the fourth AH64D-equipped organization and first to deploy outside of the United States; and developing a 15-year strategic plan for over 30,000 Army forces throughout Korea to address Army transformation through 2015.

While on active duty, then LTC Ingalls received numerous Army awards and decorations. These include: the Legion of Merit, the Meritorious Service Medal with four oak leaf clusters, the Army Commendation Medal with one oak leaf cluster, the Tribal Order of the Athapaskan for significant contributions to the Apache (Helicopter) Fighting Force, and Noble Patron of Armor by the Armor Association for contributions to the combat readiness of armor and cavalry formations. He is a qualified fixed and rotary-wing aviator, with over 1,300 hours of flight time in 11 different aircraft. Mr. Ingalls holds multiple FAA certifications.

He won a NASA-American Society of Engineering Educators Fellowship to Johnson Manned Spaceflight Center in the summer of 1994, where he analyzed next-generation space shuttle designs. In 2010, Mr. Ingalls was admitted into Sigma Gamma Tau, the National Honor Society in Aerospace Engineering, and he received his certification as a Project Management Professional (PMP) from the Project Management Institute in 2011.

Today, his greatest joys are his marriage to Cara, mentoring his children into adulthood, and serving gleefully as Elijah’s and Adalynn’s grandfather.

Dennis S. Passovoy

Vice President and Principal

One of Catalyzer’s original plank holders, Dennis Passovoy brings over 35 years of business experience in various roles and diverse industries, including over 15 years in the Financial Services industry. He has a long and distinguished track record of founding and running businesses, including advising other business leaders. Dennis provides foundational business advice and supports Catalyzer’s Information Technology (IT) activities and initiatives.A Sam Walton Fellow in Free Enterprise in the Department of Management, Red McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas-Austin, Dennis teaches courses in organizational behavior, negotiations, corporate strategy, and social entrepreneurship. Other academic interests include: entrepreneurship and the workplace environment. He additionally serves on the Enactus USA Faculty Advisory Council, where his teams have been repeatedly acknowledged for their accomplishments at the regional and national levels.

Previous business experiences include:
- President, RFG, Inc., a leading, nationwide employee benefits advisory firm
- Co-Founder and Managing Director, CEO Partnerships, LLC, an organization focused on providing executive-level advisory services to technology companies
- Co-Founder and President/CEO, Amicus, Inc., a leading Internet ASP that provided technology and services for the financial services business sector
- Vice President-Advanced Systems, Dell, Inc.

Mr. Passovoy also serves on the board of several organizations, both commercial and non-profit in the Austin (Texas) area. Dennis earned Bachelor and Masters of Arts Degrees from the University of California-Los Angeles. He and his wife, Dell, a high-school science teacher, live in the metro-Austin area and have one son.

Christopher D. H. John

Vice President and Principal

Chris John serves as a Vice President and member of the Board of Directors for Catalyzer; he is one of our original founders. On the Board, he represents the entrepreneurial perspective and balances Directors as the designated “exit champion.”Mr. John is an accomplished consultant and is often asked to speak to organizations on various topics related to servant leadership, the financial services industry (where he spent over 30 years), and Scouting. On the latter point, he is an Eagle Scout, father to another Eagle Scout, and remains active in the Western Colorado Council, recently serving as its President. Chris’ business experiences led to his co-founding United Benefits Advisors (UBA), an alliance of the Nation’s premier independent benefit advisory firms. UBA grew to be one of the five largest employee benefits advisory organizations in the United States in only eight years. Prior to this he founded RFG, Inc. (1984), an employee benefits advisory firm and led that organization until its sale in 2014.

Leadership roles he has been privileged to hold include:
- President, Western Colorado Council (WCC), Boy Scouts of America (BSA)
- Vice President-Innovation, WCC, BSA
- Co-Founder, Summit Youth Network Cooperative
- Chair, Western Colorado Exploring Program (BSA)
- CEO and Founder, UBA, Inc.
- CEO and Founder, RFG, Inc.
- National Director, Society of Financial Service Professionals
- President, Austin Chapter of the Society of Financial Service Professionals
- Advisory Board Member, FSC Securities Corporation
- Founding and Executive Committee Member, Austin Technology Council

Chris earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science from Austin College (Sherman, Texas). He and his wife, Dr.Tina Schroeter, live in Breckenridge, Colorado, where Chris makes optimum use of the outdoors to enjoy back-country skiing (“skinning”) and cycling, his passions. They have three children: Reena, Dorje and Tenzin.

LTC (RET) Joseph Doty, PhD

Vice President and Principal

Catalyzer has been fortunate to enjoy Dr. Joe Doty’s engagement and expertise since our very earliest days as a company. Joe brings a level of intensity, curiosity, and intellect to our programs that substantively influences curriculum development and program execution for the better. He is considered one of our most accomplished senior facilitators. In 2017, Joe was selected as a Director for the organization and will serve in that role through 2018.In addition to his Ph.D. from the University of Northern Colorado, Dr. Doty has received two other Master’s-level degrees, one from Indiana University and a second from the U.S. Naval War College. When not involved in Catalyzer activities, Dr. Doty currently serves as the Executive Director of the Dr. John Feagin Leadership Program, and Associate Director of the Leadership Education and Development (LEAD) curriculum at the Duke University School of Medicine. The Feagin Leadership Program is dedicated to developing ethical leaders of character, a mission that closely follows Joe’s passions and unique personal and professional background. Formerly, Dr. Doty worked as a leadership and ethics advisor in the Centre for Leadership Development, Singapore Ministry of Defence (MINDEF). Joe lived in Singapore for three years. (2010-2013).

During his 28 years in an Army uniform, Dr. Doty served in a series of operational and academic assignments, each increasingly difficult in terms of both mission and responsibilities. Highlights include leading a battalion-level, field artillery organization in Europe (400 Soldiers) as its Commander, serving as an Associated Professor of Physical Education at West Point (2007-2008), and then promotion to become the Deputy Director, Center for the Army Profession and Ethic, where he served until retirement in 2010. His military awards and decorations include the Ranger tab and U.S. Army Airborne wings.

An avid reader and writer, Joe enjoys thinking, learning, and helping others to think and learn, in turn. Dr. Doty is a frequent contributor to the Military Review on a variety of leadership and character development subjects. He is an avid sports and current affairs fan, and enjoys yard work, fitness, and a good cup of coffee.

Guy Hatch

Senior Facilitator

A West Point graduate, Guy brings significant corporate expertise to Catalyzer that nicely balances the military experiences of many of our facilitators. He was particularly well suited to support our business development efforts, and has supported us in that role over the last two years. In addition to his Bachelor’s Degree from the United States Military Academy (1982), Guy received a Master of Business Administration from the MIT Sloan School of Management in 1994.Leaving uniform in 1987, Mr. Hatch began a distinguished career in business. His first opportunity, for Ethicon Endo-Surgery and Ethicon, Inc. (Johnson & Johnson Companies), involved Guy leading teams and introducing manufacturing and management processes to produce Class II and III medical devices for surgical use. Subsequently, and over an eight-year period while at United Technologies Corporation (UTC), Guy oversaw Product Development and Manufacturing, led the Management of Technology, United Technologies Research Center (UTRC), graduated to become the Director, Financial Planning and Analysis at the corporate-level, and was again promoted to serve as General Manager, Residential Business, UTC Fuel Cells. These UTC experiences offered Guy rich experience in manufacturing, supply chain management, Lean manufacturing, human resources/talent management for high potentials, and business strategy.

In 2002, Mr. Hatch left UTC to join the Connecticut Center for Advanced Technology (CCAT) as its Chief Operating Officer and Director of Innovation and Enterprise. In this capacity, he was additionally responsible to serve as the Executive Director for the Connecticut Regional Innovation Center. During his time at CCAT, he led efforts that resulted in $30M in federal funding, founded the Connecticut Business Incubator Network, directed Connecticut’s Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program, and led an industry panel focused on fuel cells, an industry Connecticut had begun to establish prominence in over preceding years.

His last corporate engagement was with On Site Gas Systems, Inc., where Mr. Hatch was the Owner and Chief Executive Officer. On Site’s business involved manufacturing oxygen and nitrogen generating equipment for myriad applications worldwide. During Guy’s tenure, the company was awarded two patents, won nine consecutive Deloitte Technology Fast 50 Awards, was named to the U.S. Fast 500 (2007 and 2009), received the Connecticut Quality Improvement Award (CQIA) Platinum Innovation Price (2008), received the 2010 NIOSH Bullard-Sherwood Research-to-Practice Mine Safety Intervention Award, and received the 2011 Connecticut and New England Region Small Business Administration Exporter of the Year (2011). He sold his On Site interests in 2014 and retired to Colorado with his family. Guy is now energetically engaged in Catalyzer Leadership’s expanding business, and an active participant in our programs.

COL (RET) Jonathan Smidt

Senior Facilitator

Jon Smidt supports Catalyzer as a gifted, Senior Facilitator who brings patient insight, high energy, and rich experience. Having taught English at the United States Military Academy at West Point and Leadership at the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College, Jon is a seasoned facilitator at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. His three decades of teaching experience, primarily with adult learners, is leveraged for curriculum development and program delivery (facilitation and coaching) support to the team.

Colonel (Retired) Smidt was commissioned a Second Lieutenant in 1982 and for more than 26 years, served in command and staff positions across the United States, Europe, the Middle East, and the Far East. He was a Senior Army Aviator and earned both Airborne and Air Assault wings. Additionally, he earned the French Commando badge; awards include the Legion of Merit, Bronze Star, and Air Medal for Valor. While part of the Command and General Staff College’s faculty, Jon was selected to co-author the Army’s leadership manual. In addition to disseminating that doctrine to Army units around the world, he published a journal article and a book chapter as part of the project. Jon subsequently served as Managing Editor for the Army’s professional journal, Military Review, which involved him in rich discussions about the Army’s future and military professionalism.

Jon was graduated with an AB in English and German from Washington University in St. Louis, but also spent a semester studying at Eberhard-Karls Universität in Tübingen, Germany. While in college, he lettered in both football and track. Jon later earned Master’s degrees in International Relations from Boston University and in English from Northwestern. Following military retirement, Jon was the Director at Big Oak Girls’ Ranch, a 320-acre facility with eight homes for abused, neglected, and abandoned children; he left that position in 2015 after 6 ½ years. Now in the Chattanooga area, and in addition to his time supporting Catalyzer, he works with a homeless shelter for families, renovates homes, and travels periodically to provide media training for Army leaders. He and his wife, Joyce, have been married 37 years and enjoy six children and three grandsons. Jon enjoys reading, exercise, playing piano, and working with wood.

Bob Maki

Senior Facilitator

Following his retirement from Utility Trailer Manufacturing, Bob joined Catalyzer as a Senior Facilitator and expert in manufacturing leadership.Mr. Maki was raised and educated in Ogden Utah. He received his Bachelors- level degree from Weber State University, and except for a three-year leave
of absence to serve in the U.S. Marine Corps, spent his entire working life of 47 years – employed by a national-level, family-owned manufacturing company that makes semi-truck trailers.

Bob began his career with Utility attaching wooden flooring to trailers, working a second shift while attending college and starting a family. During his earliest days, he mastered numerous assembly and welding positions. After graduation, Bob was commissioned a Second Lieutenant in the Marine Corps where he led a 50-man Communications Platoon.

Returning to Utility Trailer in 1976, Mr. Maki quickly picked up where he’d left off – receiving promotions to area foreman positions and eventually rising to second-shift Superintendent where he supervised 150 production employees at the company’s Utah-based production facility.

In 1981, the company relocated Bob to Utility's primary manufacturing plant in Southern California, where he eventually took over as Plant Manager for a 400-person, unionized facility. Here, he gained substantive labor-relations experience – with the unions and in contract administration, binding arbitration, mediation, and contract negotiations, as well as exposure to California OSHA, the Southern California Air Quality Management District, and the EPA.

As the company continued to grow, Mr. Maki grew with it, moving to Virginia to help build, staff, and manage a “green-field”, 365,000 square foot facility. This plant, located in Marion, Virginia and still operating today, grew from zero to 1,200 manufacturing professionals producing over 50 trailers/day. He remained in this position for 14 years before being called again by the company to return to California in 2002 as its newest Director of Manufacturing. Bob subsequently led Utility’s five manufacturing plants, leading over 4,000 employees and producing over 200 trailers/day.

It was in this role that he partnered with the corporate Human Resource Director to initiate the first formal leadership development effort in the
company’s then 100-year history. From 2013 until his retirement, Bob rekindled his own leadership thinking, attending hundreds of hours of leadership development work with the company’s more than 250 supervisory personnel across the five production facilities.

He retired from that role in 2017 but is routinely called upon to continue supporting the company’s growth in a consulting role. Bob resides in Southern California with his wife Christine. He is the proud father of three and dotes on his three granddaughters as often as is possible.

Katina Maddox

Facilitator

Katina Maddox is a 1997 graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point. First joining Catalyzer for a program in January 2011, she took several years off to focus on raising children and supporting her active duty husband, she has recently rejoined the team as a Facilitator.Her military career spanned 18 years and began with service as an enlisted Soldier, where Katina was selected to serve as a member of the Army’s Personnel Reliability Program, affecting special weapon systems reduction in Europe. She later attended the Military Academy’s Preparatory School before entering West Point in the summer of 1993. As a cadet, she earned the distinction of being the first African American female cadet company commander in the Academy’s history.

Following graduation, Katina was commissioned a Second Lieutenant in the Aviation branch, where she later became a CH-47 “Chinook” pilot. Assignments took her to various locations around the world, including: Albania, Kosovo, Macedonia, and Afghanistan. As a Company Commander at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, she commanded and deployed a multi-component unit (containing both Active and National Guard Soldiers) to Afghanistan, where she oversaw air and ground operations at Kandahar Airfield during Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF) II.

Once again, she returned to West Point, but this time as a member of West Point’s officer cadre, responsible to lead and develop cadets during their 47-month transformation. Beyond her assigned Tactical Officer responsibilities, she supported the women’s lacrosse team and served as the Officer-in-Charge of the West Point Running Club. Katina departed the Army in 2008 for her next substantive leadership challenge: parenthood.
Katina earned a Master’s Degree in Mental Health Counseling from Long Island University and is a national, board-certified counselor.

She and her husband, Fred, have three children and currently reside in Carlisle Barracks, Pennsylvania, where Katina supports developmental programs for senior military spouses. This program at the U.S. Army War College, Facilitating Leadership and Group Skills (FLAGS), engages her as a volunteer emotional intelligence facilitator.

COL(R) Kevin Huggins, PhD

Senior Facilitator

Dr. Kevin Huggins is a Soldier-scholar who enhances the Catalyzer team with diverse leadership experiences derived from his military, academic, and international backgrounds. He supports Catalyzer’s efforts as a coach and Senior Facilitator for both domestic and international clients.A West Point graduate, Kevin spent the early part of his military career in military intelligence, with extensive experience in Latin America. He later served as a computer scientist at Fort Huachuca (Arizona) where he helped develop prototype software systems for the Military Intelligence branch. Dr. Huggins later served in a joint inter-agency organization with a counterdrug mission in Latin America. While there, he led an intelligence analysis team that supported interdiction operations by monitoring and predicting the movements of illicit drugs throughout South America.

The remainder of his military career was dedicated to academia, primarily as a faculty member in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the U.S. Military Academy. While there, Kevin served as the Director of Research in Network Science, as well as the Director of the Information Technology Program.

Now retired from the military after 20+ years of service, when not on the road with Catalyzer, Kevin is currently a Professor of Computer Science and Analytics at Harrisburg University of Science and Technology. Fluent in Spanish and French, he is especially interested in international engineering education; Kevin is currently involved developing partnerships in Europe and Latin America that enhance and increase international engagement opportunities for students at Harrisburg University.

In addition to his undergraduate degree from West Point, Kevin also holds a M.S. and Ph.D. in Computer Science from the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California and MINES ParisTech in France, respectively.

Leigh Branham

Senior Facilitator - Employee Engagement

Leigh Branham is dedicated to assisting organizations in engaging their workforces, and helping individuals to keep themselves engaged, so as to balance the achievement of organizational and individual goals. He is a strong proponent of the idea that investing in people is the surest path to business success and profitability. He brings 30 years experience in business, education, and management consulting to his mission of helping employers implement best practices in employee engagement and retention. Catalyzer benefits significantly from Leigh's extensive research on employee retention and engagement. His standard-setting survey and assessment tools help organizations measure and assess foundational issues impacting performance. Using Leigh’s considerable insight, Catalyzer is able to develop clear and comprehensive action plans that help our client partners achieve transformational growth and engagement.

Leigh is co-author (with Mark Hirschfeld) of Re-Engage: How America's Best Workplaces Inspire Extra Effort in Extraordinary Times (McGraw-Hill, 2010). He also authored The 7 Hidden Reasons Employees Leave: How to Recognize the Subtle Signs and Act Before It’s Too Late (AMACOM Books, second edition, 2012) and Keeping the People Who Keep You in Business: 24 Ways to Hang On to Your Most Valuable Talent (AMACOM, 2001), which consistently rank on Amazon.com among the best-selling books on employee retention.

Leigh was Vice President, Organizational Consulting with Right Management Consultants in Kansas City and leader of the firm’s Talent Management practice in the Heartland region. Prior to that, he was a Senior Consultant with Lee Hecht Harrison in Irvine, California. In these roles, Leigh has consulted in a wide range of industries, including manufacturing, retail, banking/finance, telecommunications, hospitality, insurance, government, health care, energy, architecture, engineering, and construction.

He has been widely quoted in the media, including Fortune, Business Week and The Associated Press, as an expert on employee retention. Leigh travels and speaks frequently and has presented to audiences in Europe, Asia, and Latin America. He publishes a quarterly newsletter, Keeping the People Report.

BG (RET) Maritza Ryan, JD

Senior Facilitator

Brigadier General (Retired) Maritza “Ritz” Ryan retired from the U.S. Army in December 2015, and quickly transitioned her considerable talents to a number of professional and philanthropic endeavors, including Catalyzer Leadership. She began facilitating programs with us in 2016.A member of the West Point Class of 1982 – the third class to include women – she was commissioned into the Field Artillery and assigned to the 1st Armored Division Artillery in Nuremberg, West Germany. Selected for an Army scholarship under the Judge Advocate General’s Funded Legal Education Program, General Ryan received her Juris Doctorate from Vanderbilt Law School, Order of the Coif, in 1988. She holds a Master of Laws in Military Law from the Army Judge Advocate General’s School and a Master of Arts in National Security & Strategic Studies from the Naval War College.

General Ryan is the first woman USMA graduate and first Hispanic to be selected as an Academic Department Head (Department of Law) in the history of West Point.

Ellen Houlihan

Senior Facilitator

Another of our 1982 West Point classmates, Ellen Houlihan supports the organization as a facilitator and coach, leveraging her substantive expertise in organizational transformation and manufacturing.She was graduated from the United States Military Academy in 1982 as a Field Artillery Officer and served in a variety of positions, including representing the 4th Infantry Division (Mechanized) on the Defense Advisory Committee on Women in the Services.

Leaving the military for a multi-decade career in industry, Ms. Houlihan’s experience spans both commercial electronic product development and defense acquisition. She has led every manufacturing process function from raw material qualification and selection to final acceptance shipment. She has a Master of Business Administration from Rivier College, where her field of study focused on process development and integration.

Ms. Houlihan is the first female West Point graduate to be selected by her peers as class president, and currently serves as Vice-Chairman for the West Point Association of Graduates (WPAOG) Board of Directors.

She and her husband reside in Allen, Texas.