Jim M. Clemmer

His keynote presentations and workshops/retreats, five best-selling books, columns, and newsletters have helped hundreds of thousands of people worldwide. Jim is a popular columnist and a regular guest on radio and television programs. He is listed in half a dozen Canadian, American, and international Who’s Who directories. Among his many achievements, he’s especially proud of tripling the size of his forehead!

The VIP Strategy: Leadership Skills for Exceptional Performance was Jim's first book. It became a Canadian bestseller and was published in Europe and Japan. His second book, Firing on All Cylinders: The Service/Quality System for High-Powered Performance, was both a Canadian and an American bestseller with over 100,000 copies sold. Jim’s third book was Pathways to Performance : A Guide to Transforming Yourself, Your Team, and Your Organization . His next book – focused on personal growth/leadership – was Growing the Distance: Timeless Principles for Personal, Career, and Family Success. Based on the popularity of the approach and leadership framework in Growing the Distance, Jim’s most recent work is a companion book entitled The Leader’s Digest: Timeless Principles for Team and Organization Success. Leadership guru, Warren Bennis, says “If you're looking for a book that illuminates the topic of leadership in a useful, readable and lively way, this is it.”

Jim has delivered over two thousand customized keynote presentations, workshops, and retreats, as well as consulted to and coached executive teams in hundreds of major companies, the public sector, universities, family businesses, and healthcare organizations. One of his goals, on his many business trips, is to have half as much fun as his family thinks he’s having!

Jim holds the prestigious Certified Speaking Professional (CSP) designation. This is the highest earned designation in Professional Speaking. Based on rigorous criteria and Client ratings, CSP is awarded by the International Federation for Professional Speakers to less than 3% of the estimated 15,000 speakers in the world. Jim is also a Practitioner in Residence for the masters (MASc) and doctoral (PhD) students in the University of Waterloo’s Industrial/Organizational Psychology program.

Jim writes and speaks from plenty of “hands-on” experience. Applying the improvement and effectiveness principles he teaches, Jim co-founded and led The Achieve Group to become Canada’s largest training and consulting company. Achieve was purchased by Times Mirror and merged with Zenger Miller, Learning International, and Kaset, to form AchieveGlobal. Prior to developing Achieve, Jim established a very successful performance record with an international water treatment company. Starting in sales, he quickly became sales manager, trainer, and the company’s youngest general manager.