Jeff Villmer
Facilitator and Coach
Professional History
Over 30 years of experience in:
* Building Teams and Cultivating Positive Stakeholder Relationships
* Program and Project Management, Project Rescue
* Organizational Change Management and Digital Transformation
* High Touch Leadership Development and Mentoring
* Coaching, Youth Sports – Baseball and Basketball
Educational Background
Rockhurst University, Kansas City, MO
* BSBA, Management Information Systems
Jeff is an inspirational people leader, problem-solver and change agent. He cultivates a high-trust environment where he creates challenging, real-time growth opportunities for emerging leaders – formal and informal. Jeff applies a high-touch, adaptive feedback approach based on the Hersey-Blanchard Situational Leadership® Model. Situational leadership is a practical, repeatable process leaders can employ to enhance their effectiveness when attempting to influence others.
For more than three decades, Jeff has led technology teams and managed project portfolios for companies such as AT&T, Coram Healthcare, Edward Jones, MasterCard, Blackhawk, RGA and Save A Lot. He has also served as a solution provider for an onshore outsourcing firm and an independent consultant under his own banner, Backyard Leaders. He’s experienced the very real challenges mid- and mid-senior level managers face when trying to balance strategy and planning with execution and crisis management. While Jeff’s primary focus has been program and project management, he acknowledges that it takes more than methodology to achieve desired outcomes!
Jeff has led breakout sessions and spoken at the annual Gateway to Innovation (G2I) conference in St. Louis. He brings an inquisitive approach as a CXO panel facilitator for groups like The Society for Information Management (SIM) and he’s entering his third year as the host of the monthly Project Management Round Table (PMRT) for the Technology & Leadership Center at Washington University in St. Louis.
Jeff and his wife, Mary Grace, have been married for more than 35 years. They have led men’s and women’s spiritual retreats on behalf of their parish and hosted “Love & Respect” workshops for married couples based on the work of Emerson Eggerichs, PhD. Mary Grace and Jeff have two adult children who are both married, one teenager entering high school in the fall of 2023, and a 3-yr-old granddaughter.