Biography of Beau Parnell

He began as an instructor for the Instructor Training Group at the USAF Wilderness Survival School. He moved on to an Army Special Forces Academy in Utah as the chief of leadership training. Since that time he's spent the last 20 years teaching and trouble-shooting for leaders around the world in Fortune 50 companies like Cisco, and Intel. He currently heads his firm, Pathfinders, and helps leaders and their companies focus on 1) daily leadership skills, 2) building a leadership pipeline process, 3) developing stronger cultures, and 4) more effectively embracing change.

He joined Cisco Systems in 1991 to build the Worldwide Training Organization. His first few years were dedicated to taking customer education from a backroom into a multi-million dollar business. Beau also created the Sales Training Program with then SVP John Chambers as his executive sponsor. He created the Cisco Partners program that now has over 100 organizations worldwide delivering Cisco education.

In 1995 Beau joined Human Resources at Cisco to build and lead the corporate training and organizational development team. The emphasis was leadership development. In 1998 he became the director for HROD, a position responsible for up-leveling the business and consulting skills of HR managers worldwide.

Beau was the manager of training and development at Intel focused on global leadership and helping organizations from North America to the Middle East. He worked in similar organizations at Amdahl where he delivered leadership and management training across the globe as well as consulting a few of the more challenging executives.

Beau's a recipient of the Army Airborne "Iron Mike" award. He holds a Masters in Organizational Communications from Brigham Young University.