Shirley Poertner
President
Poertner Consulting Group LLC
www.poertner.com
(515) 224-6494
Shirley Poertner is president of Poertner Consulting Group LLC, a leadership development firm headquartered in Des Moines.
She has more than 20 years of experience working in the private, public and not-for-profit sectors. Poertner’s focus is helping executives and their organizations achieve their full potential, accomplishing the results they want for themselves and for those whom they lead.
Her areas of expertise include facilitation of group processes, strategic planning, team development and executive coaching. She has experience in a variety of industries: finance, energy, research, advertising, manufacturing, publishing, insurance, telecommunications and agribusiness.
Poertner is an authorized and licensed associate of VitalSmarts LC, an innovator in best practice training and consulting research, bringing about systematic and lasting change.
More than 300 Fortune 500 companies are realizing quick, hard-hitting results through VitalSmarts’ award-winning training programs: Crucial Conversations® and Crucial Confrontations™. Both training programs are based on New York Times bestselling books by the VitalSmarts authors. The authors awarded Poertner the status of “Master Trainer,” certifying her to deliver and promote their programs which are based on three decades of applied research.
Prior to starting her own company in 1994, Poertner was a training and development manager with Pioneer Hi-Bred International Inc., a DuPont Company. At Pioneer, she was responsible for providing expertise and leadership in the assessment, design, delivery and measurement of training and organization development initiatives worldwide.
Prior to her time with Pioneer, Poertner was a staff consultant at Meredith Corp., which publishes Better Homes and Gardens magazine, Ladies Home Journal magazine and dozens of other magazines. She consulted with corporate officers and profit-center managers regarding their succession plans, the leadership needs of their publishing and broadcasting managers, and the development needs of their high potentials.
In the 1980s, Poertner was a vice president of human resources with First Interstate of Iowa Inc. She has a master's degree in leadership and adult development from Drake University.
