Jeff Foley, Practice Director
The first two-thirds of Jeff's life were spent staring at a long, blue stripe on the bottom of a pool. A competitive swimmer — in fact, a seven-time NCAA Division I All-American swimmer — Jeff has churned out lap after lap, day after day. Might sound boring to some, but for Jeff, time in the pool was more than just training; it was pursuit of perfection. Stroke after stroke, he applied the lessons of dedication, attention to detail, and pure grit to become one of the fastest sprinters out of the state of Oregon.
Jeff first brought these lessons to bear in the business world for Ernst & Young after graduating from SMU with a mechanical engineering degree. Senior staff quickly recognized his analytical mind and ability to move projects along, and he was soon working on enterprise HR, A/R, and financial implementations across the country. Soon after, Jeff was leading projects at Consolidated Freightways and Hilton Hotel Corporation.
True to his nature, Jeff does many things at once. He has advanced his professional skills and knowledge with courses at PeopleSoft and Intel, and has earned an MBA from the Fuqua School of Business at Duke University, where he simultaneously earned his private pilot's license. True to form, Jeff recently completed the Portland Business Alliance's Leadership Portland program and currently serves on the Health and Safety Committee of the local American Red Cross chapter.
With his experience, Jeff has gained a deep understanding of what it takes to lead a team. His approach is to acknowledge individual achievement, set team goals, and stress the importance of each team member's contributions to the big picture. For four years prior to business school, Jeff coached the Clackamas High School swim team in his spare time using a successful team-focused, goal-oriented approach. Jeff leads every team this same way – setting individual goals for members, and making it clear how they advance the project and the team. His "celebrate success as a team, praise individual contributions" style not only gets it done, it makes the process more enjoyable.
