Our People

“For the first time in thirty years, I love my work. I wish you had come to help us decades ago!” – Mining Projects Shift Manager at Suncor.

Mishkin Berteig has been improving the lives of managers and their staff since 1995. Mishkin co-founded BERTEIG in 2004. Mishkin is committed to helping individuals, teams and organizations to transform their way of working and achieve Real Agility™.

Mishkin has assisted organizations of all sizes to make the transformation from traditional methods (or no method at all) to Agile methods (Scrum, Lean, Kanban, OpenAgile). Mishkin has helped with culture change, change management, executive management coaching, Agile management, Agile product, project and operations management, Agile teamwork and Agile engineering practices. Mishkin is a  primary author of the Real Agility™Program, BERTEIG’s solution for organizations to achieve higher levels of organizational agility.

Mishkin has developed and delivered Agile training both in public and in-house seminars for over 15,000 people around the world. Courses have been as short as three hour intensive seminars and as long as five day immersive boot-camps, and audiences have ranged from junior team members to senior executives of Fortune 50 organizations. Mishkin has been a Certified Scrum Trainer (CST) since 2005 and is the longest-standing CST in Canada.

Mishkin writes regularly for the BERTEIG blog with hundreds of articles about management, agility, teamwork, efficiency and creating beautiful work environemnts. Mishkin is also the author of several books including the in-progress “Win As A Manager – Delivering Massive Results, Creating Beautiful Work Environments and Ending Stress”.

Leadership Coaching/Training Highlights:

• 2001: Advised the CIO of Charles Schwab, Geoff Penny, on Extreme Programming and Agile in the IT department as to how it may improve their existing Rational Unified Process implementation.
• 2003: Workshop for CTO Rich Freyberg and direct reports of Schwab Capital Markets on Agile methods, focus on XP. The highlight of this experience was telling Rich to “shut up” because he was constantly interrupting the proceedings. (We had a long pre-existing relationship before that event – I didn’t get fired.)
• 2004-2005: Consultant, coach and trainer at Capital One in Richmond Virgina. Worked closely with another consultant on a major assessment/report for the CTO Gregor Bailar and then worked with numerous senior managers as a coach and consultant. Also worked closely with a number of well-known agilists including Mary Poppendieck, Michael Hamman, Michael Spayd, and others.
• 2005-2006: Certified Scrum Master class for the Director and Senior Managers at Siemens, Trango division, co-trained with Jeff Sutherland. Followed up with them for the next 18 months as their Agile coach and trainer, working directly with their senior managers.
• 2006: Coach at RWDI working with the team on a Scrum adoption. A team-level crisis escalated to working with one of the VPs on a financial model to show the value of focus and rapid delivery.
• 2007: Custom training for Dan Lesage, Software Development Director at Adobe and his senior managers. Focus on solving change management problems.
• 2008: Lots of work with leaders and managers at Research in Motion (RIM) – BERTEIG got fired, eventually. Leadership didn’t enjoy looking at cultural issues in the organization. No names here, but it was a great learning experience for us to see how deeply culture matters in attempting to do a transformation.
• 2009: Another bad experience: delivered a private training for OpenText to the CIO Nicholas Oddson and his senior leadership team. We totally bombed it and were not invited back. Lots of learning here too.
• 2009-2011: Strategic consulting, executive presentations, Agile Coach Training for RBC and the newly-formed Agile Centre of Excellence.
• 2010: Training, coaching and consulting at Suncor in Fort McMurray. First major engagement in a non-software Agile Transformation. Worked with Darin Zandee, Superintendent responsible for 200 people on the mine site, and his senior managers. Included one-on-one leadership coaching for Darin.
• 2010-2011: Group leadership coaching and workshops for Cam Crosbie, AVP then CIO of Equitable Life, and his business peers. Focus on helping Cam and his peers function effectively as a leadership team in the context of an Agile Transformation.
• 2011-2014: Training, coaching and consulting at Schlumberger Beijing Geosciences Centre working with Pearl Chu, Technology Centre Manager, in Beijing. Included leadership coaching for Pearl, Agile Coach Training for senior and mid-level managers reporting to Pearl.
• 2012-2013: Leadership coaching and consulting over 18 months for Frank Leong, VP Business Technology and his colleagues including Michael O’Sullivan, President. Included a systematic leadership development program of our own design which has evolved over time to become the “Real Agility Leadership Track” and the “Real Agility Management Track”.
• 2013: Executive presentation on Agile Transformation for FreshBooks leadership team.
• 2014-2015: Multiple leadership presentations and workshops with Simon Palmer, CIO and his senior leadership team at LoyaltyOne. Focus on leading with integrity during their Agile Transformation.
• 2016: MAJOR HIGHLIGHT: Attended and received Leadership Circle Profile Certification™. The Leadership Circle system has informed our work with leaders ever since.
• 2016-2017: Focus on internal organizational development at BERTEIG and personal leadership development. Did no significant work with leaders in client organizations this year in order to focus on cleaning up our own house, so to speak.
• 2018-2020: Design and deliver a custom leadership program for Scotiabank over 18 months covering mindset, Agile methods, leadership development, lean thinking, community development, technical excellence, and organizational change. Roughly equivalent to an MBA focused on leadership and organizational agility. Delivered to a cohort of 21 senior and mid-level managers.
• 2019: Work with my own coaches to develop their leadership coaching ability, primarily focused on our engagement with Trader working with Steve Maidment, Chief Delivery Officer.
• 2021-2022: One-on-One management agility coaching for the senior leadership team of a global luxury brand in the hospitality industry.

Select Client List:

• Banking: Scotiabank, RBC, BMO, TD Canada Trust, CIBC, HomeTrust, Capital One, Charles Schwab, Key Bank
• Energy/Resources: Schlumberger, Bruce Power, Suncor Energy, Geosoft
• Insurance: Great West Life, Liberty Mutual, Equitable Ins., Empire Life, Economical Ins. Grp.
• Telecom: Ericsson, Blackberry, Siemens, Telus, Rogers, Bell, Nortel
• Media: Globe and Mail, Shaw Media, ZU, Canoe.ca, CBC, Glacier Media, Post Media, TV Ontario, Comcast
• Loyalty: LoyaltyOne, AIMIA, Points.com, Empathica
• Technology: Adobe, Blueprint, Freshbooks, Intuit, Irdeto, Kijiji, MyPlanet Digital, OpenText
• Education: Xello/Career Cruising, Desire2Learn, Queens University, University of Guelph
• Government: Goverment of Canada, Government of Ontario, City of Fort McMurray,
• Other: App Annie, Modernizing Medicine, Trader.ca, D+H, Workopolis, 407ETR, British Counsel, PHH, Ganz, RWDI

Certifications and Accreditations:

Mishkin has been trained by the gurus in the Agile movement including Ken Schwaber, Jeff Sutherland, Mary Poppendieck, Esther Derby, and Mike Cohn.

Additionally, Mishkin has co-trained with or co-consulted with Ken Schwaber, Jeff Sutherland, Mary Poppendieck, Sanjiv Augustine and Michael Hamman,

• Certified Scrum Trainer^®, Path to CSP Educator^®, CSP-PO, CSP-SM, SAFe Program Consultant
• ICAgile Authorized Instructor, ICAgile Certified Professional (ICP)
• Leadership Circle Profile Certified, Master of OpenAgile, Team Kanban Practitioner
• BSc, Computational Science

Testimonials:

An engaging, thorough look at best practices behind true product ownership and working within Scrum. Expert instruction that was never boring and full of insightful learnings. It goes without saying that Mishkin knows his stuff, and is eager to teach Real Agility and Scrum to the world. – Matthew Parkinson, Director of Digital Product Management, Investors Group/ IGM Financial 2019

Mr. Berteig is a wonderful trainer and presenter of the materials covered. His experience in leading discussions around the various concepts and facilitating exercises used to feel the effect of Scrum were appropriate in relation to the audience’ prior experience and knowledge of the topic. – Simonne Cormier, Training Development and Coordinator, Veterans Affairs Canada, 2019

Experience Summary

• Over 23 years practising, managing and coaching Agile Process and Development
• Over 14 years experience teaching Scrum (and Agile) in a classroom
• Over 11 years experience applying Agile outside of technology environments

Published Books

Other Interesting Facts about Mishkin Berteig

Mishkin has four children. His oldest is nearly 24 and his youngest is 12. Mishkin is, of course, extremely proud of his children who are all artists of various types… following firmly in the family tradition. Mishkin’s parents, step-parents and siblings are also mostly artists.

Mishkin worked for Peters Surveys Ltd. as a junior surveyor’s assistant in the late 80’s and early 90’s on and off. One of the big projects Mishkin assisted with was the Husky Oil Upgrader project just outside of Lloydminster, SK. Mishkin did both field work and site map calculation work for the grading of the site prior to construction.

Mishkin travelled to Belize on a one-month service project with a number of other youth in early 1990. Mishkin’s flights were eventful including a last-minute aborted landing due to a storm around Cancun. Mishkin travelled throughout Belize including Corazal, San Ignacio and Dangriga.

Mishkin has a few hobbies and past-times that generally follow in a 10-year cycle: custom Lego building, robotics, coin collecting, mathematics, and music composition. Of these, Lego and mathematics are currently at the fore of his attention.

Mishkin grew up in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan and loves that city very much. He hasn’t lived there for many years, but when he returns he often is overwhelmed by emotion as he visits favourite spots such as the University of Saskatchewan campus, the bridges and river valley, and the Broadway strip.

Selected Presentations

“Leadership Agility – Luck, Love and Truthfulness” – 20181011 – Agile North Meetup

“Agile Architecture Master Class” – 20180515 – Private Client

“Scrum vs. Kanban vs. ADKAR vs. Kotter – Which Is Best For You?” – 20171031 – Global Scrum Gathering Dublin

“Real Agility for Everyone” – 20170921 – Private Client

“Doubling Productivity with Real Agility” – 20170613 – Project Management Institute SWO Chapter

“Launching Agile Teams – The Skills Matrix” – 20161114 – Toronto Agile Conference

“I absolutely love my work and the amazing team of people I work with.”

Melanie oversees and manages the finances of Berteig including invoicing, accounts receivable, payroll, bookkeeping, reporting and investing. She serves our clients by assisting with receipts, refunds, payments and invoicing.  Melanie’s money management skills helped Berteig survive its early years as a small business, created financial stability, and over a decade later continues to help Berteig grow and thrive. As a partner, Melanie enjoys co-creating and guiding the future direction of Berteig and continuously learning more about leadership, culture and high-performance teams.  Melanie has been busy lately overseeing the rebranding of Berteig.

Melanie homeschooled her four children for thirteen years. She’s a trained Montessori teacher, a trained doula and has a university degree in Psychology.  Her ongoing interests include knitting, gardening, and healing through nutrition.

Melanie spent a year in the Marshall Islands creating a youth social development project which served to address gang violence in the country. She then went on to study education at the University of the South Pacific in Fiji while continuing her work with Pacific Island youth communities. Melanie continues to be passionate about supporting vulnerable women and children around the world.

David Vicentin has delivered Operational Excellence and Agile implementation for the past 20 years as a management consultant.  His clients come from diverse industries in North America, South America and Europe.

Working at different organizational levels from staff to senior management, his focus is to achieve sustainably higher results.  David has trained, mentored and coached thousands of people for many businesses, with a focus on increasing performance and improving business results.  David is a consultant, coach, facilitator, and trainer at all organizational levels.

As an Industrial Engineer, Master in Economics and Finance and Master Black Belt in Lean Six Sigma, his ability to evolve people results in service delivery which increases value, reduces cost and improves both quality and productivity for his clients.

Facilitator of more than 250 projects using DMAIC, DMADV, RCA, Kaizen, FMEA and SCRUM, he focuses on cost reduction, quality and productivity improvements, cash flow improvement and customer satisfaction.

Recently, David has increased his focus on business results with coaching and training on design thinking, lean startup, marketing, sales, product management and business strategy.

David has lead projects and workshops in marketing, materials/logistics, manufacturing, purchases, finance, sales, R&D and information technology areas.  David specializes in Productivity Techniques, Management Systems and, Finance focused to increase business results.

David coordinates and leads projects in many countries as he is fluent in English, Portuguese and Spanish.

David joined BERTEIG in July 2017.

Select Client List:

• Financial Services: HSBC, Mastercard, Scotiabank, Great West Life, Concentra, BMO
• Automotive: Honda, Volkswagon, Rolls Royce, Trader.ca, Alberta Motor Association (AMA)
• Healthcare: Sick Kids Foundation, Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI)
• Other: Coca-Cola, LoyaltyOne, SITA, HOOPP

Certifications and Accreditations:

• Accredited Kanban Trainer (AKT), Team Kanban Practitioner (TKP), Kanban Management Professional (KMP)
• Certified Scrum Professional (CSP-SM), Advanced Certified Scrum Product Owner (A-CSPO), Certified Scrum Master (CSM) and Product Owner (CSPO)
• Lean Six Sigma Master Black Belt (LSSMBB), Design Thinking Trainer (DTT)
• Leadership Circle Profile (LCP), Agile Certified Practitioner (PMI-ACP), ICAgile Certified Trainer
• BSc. Production Engineering (POLI-USP), Master in Finance and Economics (Fundacao Getulio Vargas – FGV)

Experience Summary:

Over 20 years’ experience in designing and delivering training, coaching, consulting and mentoring on business topics, Lean Six Sigma and Agile Methods.

Testimonials:

“Derived from the fact that our organization has approximately 100,000 employees, it is an organization with a lot of structure, processes, protocols, therefore the projects carried out have long and bureaucratic project flows, however, due to needs and priorities we challenge ourselves to be able to perform a disruptive technological tool, with the objective that thousands of our employees are empowered and have a virtual library of contents and information that will help them to fulfill their roles.
With this Agile accompaniment we have broken paradigms, in this specific project, Agile techniques (Scrum) has given us the necessary support to convince employees that change of mentality, mainly with a collaboration approach, incremental deliveries, better way in the form of negotiation with internal clients, external (suppliers) and the most important thing as we do from day 1 more tangible results.
Thanks to Coach David we have found the right paths in the way that intervenes and guides us promptly in the project.” (translated from Spanish) – Andrés L Nava, Talent Development Leader, Coca-Cola

Shradhdha Parsana has extensive experience writing scalable code in Java, Python, PHP, MySQL, MongoDB, and JavaScript/NodeJS and coaching/training in other technologies. She is an able developer and has experience building responsive websites and in using JavaScript, HTML, and CSS.  Shradhdha enjoys ensuring that systems are working correctly and addressing the needs of customers and users.

At BERTEIG, Shradhdha is committed to supporting the team by using Agile Engineering practices such as Test Driven Development to make BERTEIG’s websites and apps as high-quality as possible.  Shradhdha is responsible for the BERTEIG e-commerce system and classroom management system that our trainers and consultants use.  Shradhdha also assists with training and coaching our clients on Agile engineering practices and software development quality.

Certifications and Accreditations

Bachelor Of Engineering in Computer Science

Graduate Certificate in Software and Information System Testing

Agile Scrum Developer (non-certified)

Certified Scrum Master (CSM), Team Kanban Practitioner (TKP)

Experience Summary

5.5 years of technical work experience

1.5 years experience of Agile engineering practices, such as Test-driven Development, Pair Programming, Unit Testing, Acceptance Testing (Selenium), Refactoring

Technical Expertise:

• NodeJs, JavaScript, Python, PHP, Java, Objective-C, MongoDB, and MySQL
• CMS, Open source ERP (ERPNext), REST APIs, Android and IOS application

Projects Summary

E-commerce CMS, android and IOS apps for Leading equity research company – Equity Pandit

CMS and ERP for Optical fiber infrastructure company – R. K. Infratel

ERP for Internet broadband services provider – AirLink

CMS for Technical training and tutorials website – Kanssfer.guru

Website and Android app for Real estate company – Glorinaa Valley

Keisha is an expert in Agile frameworks, including Kanban and Scrum, and supports companies and their leaders to implement Agile principles to improve their work environment. Keisha is a strong communicator with a passion for humanitarian and global betterment. Her unwavering work ethic to empower teams makes her a competent coach. Keisha has personally supported the learning Scrum and Kanban practitioners from dozens of organizations.

She facilitates Kanban for Scrum Masters and Kanban for Product Owners Micro-learning events. She also supports, and facilitates topics during the Scrum Master Bootcamp and Product Owner Bootcamp. Recently, she has worked with Berteig’s top clients for consulting work.

Keisha supports clients in North America and the Philippines and is fluent in English and Tagalog.

Keisha joined BERTEIG in June 2021.

Select Client List:

• BMO

• Veterans Affair Canada

• Loyalty

• IGM Financial

• Sun Life Canada

• Canada Life

• Enverus

• Scotiabank

• University of Toronto

• Royal Canadian Mounted Police

Certifications and Accreditations:

• Certified Scrum Master® (CSM)
• Certified Scrum Product Owner® (CSPO)
• Advanced Certified Scrum Master® (A-CSM)
• Advanced Certified Product Owner® (A-CSPO)
• Team Kanban Practitioner® (TKP)
• ICAgile Certified Professional® (ICP)
• BS in Psychology, MS in Psychology in progress

Testimonials:

“The Kanban for Scrum Masters Training with Keisha was a great introduction for anyone coming from a Scrum background wanting to dip their toes (and those of their team) into the world of Kanban. The course was engaging and practical with the right mix of examples and interactivity.” Sascha Guenther, Agile Coach, Meltwater

 

“I am recommending Keisha’s Kanban for Scrum Masters course to my colleagues, you guys are doing great.” – Zaur Aliyev, Senior Product Manager