About futurethink | Leadership Team | Russ Schoen

Senior facilitator and trainer

Russ Schoen

Russ Schoen

Russ Schoen is a Senior Facilitator and Trainer for futurethink, responsible for developing and facilitating training curricula and workshops.

Russ excels as a facilitator and trainer in the areas of deliberate creativity, innovation, and leadership. He has delivered workshops and programs worldwide including programs in Singapore, Italy, Australia, England, Spain, India, New Zealand, South Africa and the US. A sampling of organizations that have benefited from his training include: T. Rowe Price, International Flavor & Fragrances, Kraft, Coca-Cola, TAP Pharmaceuticals, SC Johnson, Philips Electronics, General Mills, Praxair, Discover, Kimberly-Clark, and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.

Russ holds a Master of Science in Creativity, Innovation, and Change Leadership from The State University of New York and is a graduate of The Second City Conservatory specializing in improvisation. He is a specialist in the field of individual, team, and organizational innovation and leadership. He holds certifications in a number of additional training programs including Polarity Management and Emotional Intelligence.

In addition to his training and consulting work, Russ is currently an adjunct Professor at the International Center for Studies in Creativity at Buffalo State College where he teaches graduate courses in facilitating creative process. He is a contributing author to a number of innovation-related materials including: Your Guide Book, An Innovation Road Map and Your Tool Cards, an Innovation Catalyst published by Thinc Communications.

“This session was off the charts—thoughtful, engaging, idea generating, collaborative, practical, and useful. Russ was an excellent presenter!” – Workshop attendee, NYSE Euronext

“Russ was a very effective trainer and kept the session interesting and interactive throughout. I really enjoyed it and look forward to the next seminar.” – Workshop attendee, McGraw-Hill Companies

Client Quotes

  • “The futurethink workshop not only provided an incredible jolt of energy to our collective innovation efforts and established the common understanding of innovation concepts, but it was also a wonderful team-building event. I don’t think it could have been organized and conducted any better.”
    Michael Ripa, Manager, FRI Infomatics
  • “futurethink's proven methodology, research, and tools help ensure we're always ready to meet the evolving public service challenges of tomorrow.”
    Sandy Stosz, Rear Admiral, United States Coast Guard United States Coast Guard
  • “We need to look beyond our organization's walls to innovate.”
    Mehmoon Khan, Global Leader, Innovation Process Development, Unilever Unilever
  • “Innovation is deliberate, if done well. There is a science and process to it. futurethink has done their homework to provide a wealth of practical knowledge to their customers.”
    Senior Vice President of Innovation, Wells Fargo Wells Fargo
  • “futurethink made my leadership team think in new ways and helped us develop winning business ideas right in the room. My team now embraces innovation rather than fearing it.”
    Mary Fennoglio, Managing Director, Citigroup Corporate Investment Bank Citigroup
  • “The futurethink team did an outstanding job in designing and facilitating an innovation event for our senior leaders, many of who regarded this as the best innovation workshop that they had ever been a part of. I would recommend futurethink to any organization that is looking for clear and actionable pathways to Innovation.”
    Wayne Pethrick, Director, Marketing and Consumer Insights, Pitney Bowes Pitney Bowes
  • “futurethink is the innovation expert. They fine-tune their training to our clients' needs. I'm constantly looking for new opportunities to engage them in our work.”
    Brian Weberg, Director, National Conference of State Legislatures
  • “futurethink's research and 'how-to' tools have been essential to building our innovation program.”
    Cindy Morgan, Innovation Manager, New England Federal Credit Union New England Federal Credit Union
  • “Any innovative company must develop processes for understanding and responding to consumer needs in a very focused way. Otherwise, they're just inventors, they're not necessarily innovators.”
    Tony Tomazic, Director of Consumer Innovations, Humana Humana
  • “If you don't make innovation a strategic part of your business plan and you don't drive that into the culture, I don't think you'll have a strong innovation pipeline.”
    Mark Hausfeld, Innovation Manager, Global Business Services, Procter & Gamble Procter & Gamble
  • “futurethink's sessions included excellent examples and energizing exercises that brought innovation to life. They got us to look at our business with new eyes.”
    Joan P. Lawrence-Ross, Chief Learning Officer, AXA
  • “futurethink is always thinking ahead about learning and 'innovate' it before we ask! Their programs have been a huge success with our teams.”
    Director of Learning & Development, Sunovion Pharmaceuticals Sonovian Pharmaceuticals
  • “futurethink made the topic of innovation, which means different things to different people, real, meaningful, and actionable.”
    Steven Rubinow, Chief Information Officer, NYSE Euronext NYSE Euronext Logo
  • “futurethink is enabling us to build critical innovation skills and share best practices across our global organization.”
    Jeff Honious, Vice President of Innovation, Reed Elsevier Reed Elsevier
  • “If you don't innovate, be creative and look to the future and the possibilities of what will evolve over time, you will cease to be relevant.”
    Randy Voss, Senior Manager, Global Strategy & Business Development, Whirlpool Whirlpool
  • “Working with futurethink was a very rewarding experience for our team. They brought a great combination of provocative outside ideas, market perspective and a program design that challenged us to think of our own business in more innovative ways.”
    Jim Daly, Vice President of Human Resources, Standard & Poor's Standard & Poor's