Shirley_2 Shirley Poertner
President
Poertner Consulting Group LLC
www.poertner.com
515-224-6494

Shirley Poertner is President of Poertner Consulting Group, a leadership development firm headquartered in Des Moines, Iowa. She has over 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, L.C. VitalSmarts is an innovator in best practice training and consulting research, bringing about systematic and lasting change. More than 300 of the Fortune 500 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, Ms. Poertner was Manager, Training and Development at 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 role at Pioneer, Poertner was a Staff Consultant at Meredith Corporation in Des Moines, publisher of Better Homes and Gardens, Ladies Home Journal 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 1980’s, Poertner was VP, Human Resources for First Interstate of Iowa, Inc. (now Bank of America, Iowa.) She has a Masters in Leadership & Adult Development from Drake University.