Jessica Shanor

Managing Partner | Senior Performance Consultant

For more than 20 years, Platinum Performance Partners’ Managing Partner Jessica Shanor has been helping small businesses, Fortune 500 companies and nonprofit organizations align employee strengths with leadership and business objectives.

She views herself as a strategic partner to her clients and provides the extra bandwidth most companies and organizations seek to bridge the often-present gap between leadership expectations and employee performance. Trustworthy and optimistic, Jessica quickly gains the confidence of the employees and leaders she encounters and provides a roadmap to shared success.

A certified Master Performance Consultant, Jessica embeds herself within her clients’ business environments to study employee behaviors, the tools they use to accomplish their tasks and the outcomes produced from their work, while also identifying barriers and influences that impact the achievement of necessary tasks and strategic goals. 

Using her experience with Performance DNA™ Analysis – the gold standard in performance improvement methodologies, Jessica helps executive leaders gain the most out of their employees by finding the highest performers within the organization and developing strategies and training tactics to model the approach of these “key performers” throughout the workforce. This proven process helps increase success for employees and profitability for their companies. 

Notable clients include Dell, Microsoft, the Virginia Department of Transportation, TruGreen, Service Master, health insurance companies, private universities and clients in the oil and gas industry. 

Jessica also facilitates strategic leadership retreats and offers performance improvement presentations and leadership coaching to organizations seeking to initiate corporate and strategic change. 

Jessica lives with her children and husband in Western North Carolina. She enjoys reading, exploring new foods and cooking, traveling and staying active by hiking the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains.

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Dennis Mankin

Founder | Senior Performance Consultant

Dennis Mankin, the founder of Platinum Performance Partners, has an extensive professional background in Human Performance Improvement (HPI) spanning more than 30 years. His experience includes roles in senior management, consulting, coaching, training and consultative positions working in and with organizations worldwide.   

Throughout his career, Dennis has helped countless companies and organizations meet and exceed aggressive and competitive goals by exercising the principles of HPI, including performance analysis, training and performance improvement processes and innovative technologies. Clients include Fortune 500 companies such as Walmart, Boeing, Cisco Systems, FedEx and Merck. 

​​In 2003, Dennis became a Certified Performance Technologist (CPT) through training provided by the International Society for Performance Improvement (ISPI) and the Association for Talent Development (ATD). He was instructed and sponsored by Dr. Joe Harless, a founding father of the Human Performance Improvement industry.

​He co-authored and co-published with the ATD the acclaimed Performance DNA™ methodology and the industry tools used by more than 7,000 HPI analysts worldwide. He also co-wrote with Dr. Karen McGraw, the book “Breaking Tape – 7 Steps to Winning at Work and Life,” which examines how to successfully set and meet breakthrough goals. He has been a guest author for several other books published domestically and abroad and has written numerous articles about performance improvement. 

Additionally, Dennis represents Platinum Performance Partners and the Association for Talent Development, delivering public and corporate workshops about building top performers and leadership development internationally.  

​Dennis lives in the mountains north of Asheville, North Carolina, where he hikes, canoes and enjoys spending time with his wife and two dogs. He also likes to rebuild classic automobiles in his garage.

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Dr. Karen McGraw

Senior Performance Consultant

Dr. Karen L. McGraw, “The Performance Doc,” is the President and a Principal Consultant at Silver Bear Group and Partner with Platinum Performance Partners. She is an accomplished consultand and coach specializing in business consulting, organizational effectiveness, performance improvement, leadership development, change and training. For over 30 years, she has helped clients improve the value of their most important asset – their people – by finding and removing barriers to peak performance at organizational, process and individual levels.

Dr. McGraw specializes in Human Performance Improvement (HPI), leadership development, change management and technology optimization. She is a co-developer of Performance DNA™, the leading methodology for analyzing and improving human performance, EASE, a practical organizational change management model and methodology, and the Human Capital Capability Scorecard (precursor to the McBassi Index.) She has published 6 books and over 50 articles or white papers on topics ranging from knowledge engineering and performance support to employee collaboration, change management and performance improvement. Her most recent book (2014) is Breaking Tape: 7 Steps to Winning at Work and Life, which was co-authored with Dennis Mankin.

Dr. McGraw is a Facilitator in ATD’s Human Performance Improvement Certificate Program. Previously, she has been an adjunct faculty member for the University of Texas, Arlington and the University of Maryland. She holds doctorate and master’s degrees from Texas Tech University, where she studied cognitive and educational psychology, psycholinguistics, and curriculum and instruction. She is a proud Chickasaw and lives in Austin, TX with her husband Bruce and her friendly cats and dogs. 

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