Avner Barnea is a former senior member of the Israeli Intelligence Community holds a MA from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and graduated from the Top Executive Program in Marketing Management from the Tel Aviv University Graduate School of Business Administration. He is a strategic consultant in the field of competitive intelligence and business strategy in Israel and abroad. He is lecturer on competitive intelligence in the MBA program of the Ono Academic College and a guest lecturer on competitive intelligence at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem Business School, and in various business executives training programs. Avner has an intensive experience in the integration of competitive intelligence systems into Israeli corporations. Avner can be reached at: avnerpro@netvision.net.il.

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Babette Bensoussan is Managing Director of The MindShifts Group, a company specialising in competitive intelligence, strategic planning and strategic marketing projects in the Australasia region. Babette is widely recognised and sought after for her international expertise in competitive analysis, and has provided mentoring and training to executives and organizations to assist with the delivery and process of competitive decision risk management.

Babette has undertaken over 300 projects and consulted to a wide range of industries and markets including aerospace, information technology/computers, transport, financial services, waste services, pharmaceuticals, utilities, mining and manufacturing operations - to name just a few.

She is a recipient of the prestigious SCIP Meritorious Award and has taught Competitive Intelligence at both the Sydney Graduate School of Management, University of Western Sydney and at Bond University in the undergraduate business and MBA programs. Babette has co-authored four leading books on business analysis; "Strategic and Competitive Analysis", "Business and Competitive Analysis", "Analysis without Paralysis" and "The Financial Times Guide to Analysis for Managers".

Babette can be contacted through The MindShifts Group website, by email at hello@mindshifts.com.au and on Twitter (@BabetteBen).

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Valerie Shuman is the Principal at SCG, LLC, a consultancy which specializes in translating market-level vision into effective initiatives. SCG’s services include Strategy and Business Planning, Market Intelligence, Industry Relations, and Product/Service Management.  Over the last two decades, she has partnered with global leaders to deliver ground-breaking new products and ventures in the automotive, call center, telecommunications, quick service restaurant, IT professional services, location-based services, telematics, and online content and services arenas.  Her prior roles include leadership positions at SEI, NAVTEQ, Verety, and Ygomi LLC. 

Ms. Shuman has broad experience in working with evolving industries, and has successfully led many domestic and international standards activities for organizations such as ISO, ITU, GSC, IEEE, ANSI, ITSA, TRB, and SAE.  She is currently working with the Intelligence Collaborative, an umbrella organization for cooperative initiatives in the Competitive Intelligence community.  Ms. Shuman is a published author, patented inventor and dynamic public speaker. 

Valerie can be reached at vs@shumangroupllc.com.

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