Octave Baker, Ph.D.
Expert in Helping Foreign-Born Technical Professionals
Advance Their Careers
Octave V. Baker co-founded Communication Training Consultants (CTC) in 1981 in Sunnyvale, CA, and Moving Up in America, a division of CTC.
Communication Training Consultants offers consulting services and training programs in Managing the Multicultural Workforce and Email Excellence. Moving up in America focuses on Strategies for Career Success for Foreign-Born Technical Professionals.
Octave also teaches in the Engineering Management and Leadership Program at Santa Clara University. He was named Adjunct Lecturer of the Year in 2006 for excellence in teaching.
Experience
A psychologist, Octave has 30+ years of experience as an internal and external organizational development consultant and as a cross-cultural and communications trainer. He helps individuals and organizations develop the essential behaviors, attitudes, and policies to be effective in culturally diverse environments. He has worked with numerous high tech companies.
At Santa Clara University, he developed the unique “Strategies for Career and Academic Success” course, which provides foreign- born engineers and other technical professionals with the know-how and skills essential to achieve career success in the U.S. corporate environment. Topics include American workplace behavior, power and influence, and proactive interpersonal skills.
At Intel Corporation, Octave conducted the first project in Silicon Valley to focus on the retention and career success of foreign-born engineers. The project included an extensive assessment of the Intel corporate culture and of the effectiveness of foreign-born engineers in this culture. The project led to the development of a program aimed at helping foreign born engineers adapt to the culture and advance their careers.
He pioneered the development of training resources aimed exclusively at aiding pharmaceutical sales representatives to sell successfully to foreign-born physicians. His popular package on “Selling Successfully to Foreign-Born Physicians” contains a videotape, audiotape, and manuals, including a Culture-Specific Facts and Strategies Guide.
Expertise
Octave received his doctorate in Community and Organizational Psychology from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. He holds certificates in the Organization and Systems Development Program from the Gestalt Institute of Cleveland and in intercultural communication and training from the Stanford Institute for Intercultural Communication and from the Society for Intercultural Education, Training, and Research (SIETAR).
He has traveled extensively in Africa, the Middle East, Europe, and Asia. He served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Ethiopia for three years, where he worked in community development and taught at Haile Selassie University. He learned Amharic, the language of Ethiopia, and still speaks it fluently.
He has published extensively on cultural diversity in the workplace, including: “Meeting the Challenge of Managing Cultural Diversity” in Managing in the Age of Change and “The Managing Diversity Movement: Origins, Status, and Challenges” in Impacts of Racism on White Americans.
"Dr. Baker has served as Adjunct Lecturer in the Engineering Management and Leadership Program at Santa Clara University for 28 years, teaching interpersonal skills and career strategies for foreign-born professionals. He continues to bring his extensive experience in internal and external organization development to the classroom in developing the skills of our graduate students."
Frank Barone, Chair
Engineering Management and Leadership Program
Santa Clara University
Susan Almazol, M.A.
Expert in Helping Foreign-Born Technical Professionals Communicate with Authority
Susan co-founded Communication Training Consultants (CTC) in 1981 in Sunnyvale, CA, and Moving Up in America, a division of CTC.
Communication Training Consultants offers consulting services and training programs in Managing the Multicultural Workforce and Email Excellence. Moving Up in America focuses on Strategies for Career Success for Foreign-Born Technical Professionals.
Susan developed the core courses in technical writing and presentations for the Engineering Management and Leadership Program at Santa Clara University, where she taught for 20 years. She has also served as a Communications Coach for executives at all levels and has offered training in high tech companies.
Experience
Her writing experience stretches back to her days as a San Francisco Examiner news reporter – the first Filipina journalist for a major metropolitan newspaper in San Francisco. There, Susan learned how to write concisely and quickly to meet daily deadlines.
Based on this pivotal experience, she developed practical techniques for producing high quality documents in a short amount of time. Her pioneering techniques include a reader-centered “formula” that speeds up the writing of excellent emails.
In addition to teaching at Santa Clara University, Susan has taught writing classes at the University of California in Berkeley, Stanford University, and the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.
Since founding Communication Training Consultants, Susan has taught hundreds of engineers and scientists how to write and present their ideas clearly, concisely, and powerfully. Her skillful teaching resulted in long term relationships (10 or more years) with such diverse corporations as:
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Delta Dental Plan of California
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Hewlett-Packard Company
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Honeywell-Measurex
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GTE
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NASA Ames Research Center
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Syntex
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3Com Corporation
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Varian Inc.
Expertise
Susan has a Bachelor of Arts degree in Sociology from the University of California in Berkeley and a Master’s Degree in Speech Communication from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.
A professional speaker and writer, she has appeared on radio and television and has been featured in newspaper and magazine articles. Susan writes articles on communication. She has been included in Who’s Who of American Women, Who’s Who in California, and the National Directory of Who’s Who is Executives and Professionals in recognition of her professional achievements.
"I had my entire IT team take Susan's Email Excellence Workshop. The team learned new skills that had an immediate impact on how we compose emails. Susan taught us how to be more efficient and to the point, to write effectively and be impactful and how to format our email to be more readable. Considering how much time my team spends reading and writing email, this was, and continues to be, a great investment."
Matt Butcher
Chief Information Officer
KARL STORZ Endoskope
North America
"If you want to master the fine art of persuasion and learn how to command authority, I highly recommend working with Susan."
Cynthia Tom
Founder and Director
A Place of Her Own
