Professional Services
Turn insights into action with
expert guidance
Mark Daniel Suwyn
Consultant
A respected executive advisor, Dan helps clients create their own culture-performance connections.
His clients include companies in the Inc. 5000 and the Fortune 500. He specializes in working with fast-growth companies, mergers and acquisition and leadership training and coaching.
Experience:
• From 2014 to present, Dan has worked with Energage clients to use data, sentiment analysis and neuroscience to successfully execute mergers and acquisitions, adopt OKR models, build organic growth and create performance cultures that have a considerable return on training investment.
• From 2005 to 2013, Dan was CEO of RapidChange Group, a consultancy of cognitive science researchers and former business executives that focused on change management. Clients included Coca-Cola, Mercedes-Benz, Ballard Power Systems, Louisiana-Pacific and Cerberus Capital Management. Energage purchased RapidChange in 2013 and Dan became a partner.
• Before joining RapidChange, Dan spent 20 years as an internationally recognized, award-winning journalist, editor and news executive who pioneered data-driven civic journalism and some of the industry’s first forays onto the internet, including real-time coverage of the 1996 Olympic Games.
• In 2002, he was named an innovator of the year by the Pew Charitable Trusts and a Top 50 Leader by the Poynter Institute.
• That same year, Dan was diagnosed with Parkinson’s, a chronic condition that limits movement and causes tremors. He left journalism to study neuroscience and the biology of decision-making. He had Deep Brain Stimulation surgery in 2013 and has been working full-time ever since.
Areas of expertise:
Dan is known for his TEDx talks, where he connects the dots between neuroscience and performance, from explaining why traditional forms of feedback are useless to demonstrating how the brain processes new information. He has written extensively on the neuroscience of leading people.
Dan makes things practical, relatable and actionable. Here is how his clients describe him:
• “Dan, through his data analysis, emotional intelligence and common sense, has an exceptional depth of insight into what’s really happening, including specific, actionable culture enhancing initiatives we have executed,” shared the CEO of a $1.3 billion software company.
• “Dan and his team have been game changers for us,” a regional SVP for a large media company said. “He helps our organization identify what barriers are getting in our way and then guides us to finding solutions. He has had a lasting impact on continuously improving performance and employee retention.”
• An HR director from a professional sports team added: “Dan has truly propelled the executive team to take the lead on everything culture. Dan is most trusted. Not an easy task in a sports organization.”
Personal:
Dan serves on the Patient’s Council of the Michael J. Fox Foundation. He is active in Citizen Advocacy, a movement that pairs those on thick ice with those on thin ice. He and his family are involved in finding jobs for the differently abled, advocating for the rights of gay, lesbian and transgender people, promoting writing, emotional literacy and financial literacy in public education.
“The deeper analysis of the data gave us a better overall understanding of where the issues were. That allowed us to engage where we needed to make changes in a more focused way.”
“Energage is the one system that consistently gives me reports that are digestible, that are asking the right questions. Because some of these surveys, quite honestly, don’t ask the right questions.”
“Our wins are a direct reflection of our team and the great work they do every day. And frankly, it’s about how accountable they hold all of us for creating a great experience for their peers, for candidates, for alumni, and for our customers.”