Dave Leis is President of Avantt Consulting, Inc. Avantt Consulting, The Growth Strategies Company™, works with clients to drive growth and performance, delivering increased shareholder value, by focusing management teams on developing breakthrough strategy, getting the commitment of an energized organization, one person at a time, to achieve realization of the strategy through rigorous implementation. Avantt Consulting works with Fortune 1000 and middle market companies across a broad range of industries and functions. Founded in 1991 and headquartered in Corning, NY, Avantt Consulting has grown to include consultants in 10 states and the UK. The power and success of the Avantt approach was recognized by an award from the Champions of Industry, as announced on CNN's Headline News Network in 2003. The video associated with their award may be seen on Avantt’s home page.

Prior to the most recent award, Avantt Consulting was recognized as the New York State Growth Company of the Year in 1999 by the SBCD, as unit of the US SBA. The company has distinguished itself through the development of its “New Growth Strategies” process which has been researched, developed, and benchmarked against industry best practices, a state-of-the-art strategic approach to achieving leading edge operating environments in companies positioned for growth.

Prior to founding Avantt Consulting, Dave spent twenty years in a wide variety of industries including ten years in the software and semiconductor industries. Dave's diverse experience spans government, non-profit, higher education, an entrepreneurial start-up, and a number of the Fortune 500 multinational industrial firms which included Corning, RCA, GE and Harris. His senior management responsibilities which included second in command of a $150 million dollar semiconductor division, ranged from manufacturing, engineering, marketing, sales, and quality assurance to project management and human resources. Earlier Dave spent six years as an Army officer (Airborne, Ranger and Company Commander).

Dave has extensive experience in the areas of strategic planning, marketing, new product development, sales and business development, project management, government contracting, software development, IT systems and education & training. He has authored a number of publications, including a training program for NATO for which he received the Army Commendation Medal, a new product development manual, a performance counseling and review manual, and a manual used to develop proposals for government contracts. In addition, he has authored several Human Resources courses and training programs in the areas of personal communications, marriage and family life, and an 80-hour train the trainer course in diversity.

In his current role, Dave and his organization have become trusted advisors to CEO’s and senior management in a wide variety of industries including healthcare, construction, forest products, engineering, education, public utilities and manufacturing. Their client base ranges from small entrepreneurial firms to Fortune 500 companies for services such as strategic planning, mergers and acquisitions, organizational development, executive coaching, and change management, ERP systems, business process re-engineering, systems redesign and 360 feedback.

Dave has a B.S. degree in Engineering from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, and an M.S. in Systems Management from the University of Southern California. He has done graduate work toward an MBA at Syracuse University and a PhD in Business at Rutgers. Dave also serves on a number of Boards of Directors and is involved in activities supporting his local community and its handicapped citizens.