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Home > Our Experts
Our Expert Change Management Consultants 
James D. "Murph" Murphy, the Founder & CEO of Afterburner, Inc., has a unique and powerful mix of leadership skills in both the military and business worlds. Murph joined the U.S. Air Force where he learned to fly the F-15. He logged over 1,200 hours as an instructor pilot in the F-15 and accumulated over 3,200 hours of flight time in other high-performance aircraft. As the 116th Fighter Wing's Chief of Training for the Georgia Air National Guard, Murph's job was to keep 42 combat-trained fighter pilots ready to deploy worldwide within 72 hours. As a flight leader, he flew missions to Central America, Asia, Central Europe and the Middle East.
Prior to his service in the U.S. Air Force, Murph had a successful career in imaging equipment sales, where he helped increase his company's sales by 500%. Years later, he became Director of Sales for a small paint company. The concepts he developed and utilized in business and the U.S. Air Force would become known as Flawless Execution®. Applying Flawless Execution's continuous cycle of planning, briefing, executing, and debriefing, he increased his new employer's sales from $5 million to $52 million per year. Realizing that all companies and organizations could benefit from these same concepts, Murph started Afterburner Incorporated in early 1996.
Through his leadership, Afterburner landed on Inc. Magazine's "Inc. 500 List" twice. Murph has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, BusinessWeek, Inc. Magazine, Newsweek, Meetings & Conventions Magazine and has appeared on CNN, Fox News, and Bloomberg News. He was also named as one of Atlanta's top 50 entrepreneurs by Catalyst Magazine. To date, the Afterburner team of elite military professionals has led over 1 million executives, sales professionals, and business people from every industry through Afterburner's Flawless Execution Model℠, and its unique, high-energy programs.
Murph and Afterburner have shared the podium with notable speakers like Bill Clinton, Condoleezza Rice, Marcus Buckingham, Colin Powell, J.W. Marriott Sr. and Terry Bradshaw. Murph serves as a panel member of the League of Extraordinary Minds with business and self-improvement gurus such as Tony Robbins and Stephen Covey. He is the author of the groundbreaking books Business Is Combat and Flawless Execution through Harper Collins publishing and has spoken at many of the world's most notable business schools to include Harvard, Wharton, Cornell, Emory, Duke and Fudan University in Shanghai, China.
 Michael Kenny is one of the most experienced members of the Afterburner Team. Since 1997 he has worked with hundreds of different companies providing Flawless Execution℠ solutions. He has been called upon by some of the top CEO's in the Global 1000 to facilitate their Strategic planning, Project Management, Product Launches & Standard Operating Procedures. He is also our Subject Matter Expert and a leading authority in the area of Corporate Debriefing. His clients include companies such as Kellogg, Bank of America, New York Life, Union Pacific, Bausch & Lomb, Pfizer, H&R Block, CIBA Vision, & TIBCO, to name few. Michael is also a contributing author of Afterburner's 2005 release Flawless Execution (Harper Collins).
After graduating from the US Naval Academy with a degree in Mathematics, He went on to be a Marine Pilot for over 20 years. For 5 years he flew the AV-8B Harrier and then the F/A-18 Hornet for the last 15 years, accumulating over 3800 Tactical flight hours. His Combat experience includes 36 missions during Desert Storm and combat operations in Somalia.
In 1992 he was handpicked to attend the elite Marine Aviation Weapons and Tactics Squadron (MAWTS) course or the Marine equivalent of "Top Gun". From 1993-1997, he was an instructor at the Naval Strike and Air Warfare Center (NSAWC); A Naval Aviation training center of excellence in Fallon, Nevada. These Top notch training environments afforded him the requisite skills to teach Businesses how to lead, train and standardize their Teams.
Michael has over 23 years of leadership experience as a Marine Corps Officer and is now a Colonel in the Marine Corps Reserve. At Afterburner he is our Senior Consultant and Solutions Director.
Charles "Chaz" Campbell is the Director of Afterburner University. He is retired from active service having achieved the rank of Brigadier General and accumulating over 30 years of service in the US Air Force and the Florida Air National Guard. He now shares his experiences and leadership lessons with Afterburner clients and students in the Afterburner University.
During his career Chaz has commanded at all levels of the Air Force structure. None more demanding than his last assignment as the Vice Commander of Air Forces North, First Air Force where he dealt with the "Can't fail" high pressure environment of Air Defense of the entire United States airspace...helping ensure "9-11" will never happen again! Chaz is not only a graduate of the US Air Force Fighter Weapons School; but, was also selected as an instructor in the most elite of the Air Force fighter schools. He has been combat ready in the F-4, F-16 and the F-15 with over 3,700 hours of flight time.
Chaz was handpicked in 2007 to lead the Afterburner University.
In that capacity he develops and executes the highly successful curriculum
of the Flawless Execution University (FLEX U) program. During 2008 alone,
he delivered Leading Flawless Execution℠ to over 300 business leaders.
Chaz has worked with cutting edge companies crossing all industry sectors
such as Northrop Grumman, Bank of America, Bausch and Lomb, Champion Enterprises,
Sea Ray, Brinks Security, Humana, Lockheed Martin and Tree Island Industries....
Helping each improve execution and close their Execution Gap.
 Bob
Branyon joined Afterburner in 1996 and has provided his leadership
experience to such companies as Pfizer, Honda, IBM, Home Depot,
GM, Minolta, Century 21, Terminix and Eli Lily, helping to
develop their senior leadership teams.
Bob graduated from the US Air Force Academy
with a Bachelor's Degree in Electrical Engineering. After a
year of pilot training he was selected to fly the F-4 Phantom
followed by the F-5 Tiger and F-16 Falcon. As an Aggressor
pilot in the large-scale mock combat exercises known as ‘Red
Flag,' he simulated "enemy" aircraft and tactics
to help train US and NATO pilots. Bob was also named USAF "Instructor-of-the-Year" for
the F-5 Tiger.
He is currently the Wing Commander of the
125th Fighter Wing in the Florida Air National Guard. He earned
a MBA degree in Strategic Leadership and is a Six Sigma Blackbelt.
Bob is consistently called upon by some of the world's top
corporate leaders and business schools to guide them through
strategic planning and leadership initiatives. Bob's passion
lies in leadership development and scalable process management.
Jim Demarest joined Afterburner, Inc. in 2002 as a main speaker and international corporate consultant delivering his leadership and consulting experience to companies including Sara Lee, Genworth, Kohler, Motorola, Meridian Gold, Wet Design, Lockheed Martin and GMAC.
After four years at the United States Air Force Academy, Jim graduated as class president. From there he went on to graduate at the top of his pilot training class in 1984, when he began his operational flying career as an F-15 fighter pilot. Jim completed tours flying the F-15 at Bitburg Air Base in Germany and Holloman Air Force Base in New Mexico. During his military career Jim was an F-15 Instructor Pilot and Mission Commander recognized as a Distinguished Graduate of the prestigious Air Force Fighter Weapon School "Top Gun" program. Jim's Air Force service ended in 1992 following a tour in Desert Storm.
In 1995 Jim graduated from Cornell Law School as the Managing Editor of the Cornell Law Review, and thereafter spent over 9 years as a Commercial Litigation attorney in Florida. In addition to his work at Afterburner, Jim is also pursuing his entrepreneurial interests with several companies in Southern Florida.
Will Duke is Afterburner's Knowledge Manager. His duties include coordination of the management and development of intellectual property, software, and training materials. He also serves as a consultant to process and continuous improvement management programs.
Will graduated from Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee, while earning his commission as an officer in the U.S. Navy from nearby Vanderbilt University NROTC. As a bridge officer and engineering officer on active duty, he logged over 1,800 hours piloting the world's most complex machine, a Nimitz-class, nuclear-powered, Super Carrier. After leaving active duty in, Will earned a second degree in education and taught for several years before serving 8 years as a Regional Operations Manager at Sears Product Repair Services.
His 19 years of professional experience has focused heavily upon management methods and training. He practiced Total Quality Management, Statistical Process Control and Just-in-Time management during his active duty Navy career. He also became deeply involved with Six Sigma projects and training, and ISO 9001 certification and auditing in his eight years in operations for Sears. Will currently serves as a Commander in the U.S. Navy Reserve and has held numerous command and command-staff positions throughout his career.
Advisors
 John
A. Warden III is an executive, strategist, planner, author, and motivational
speaker whose work has had a worldwide impact in business, in the military,
in government, and in education. Warden was not only a Vietnam combat pilot,
but a successful author whose books include The Air Campaign and Winning
in Fast Time.
Norman Schwarzkopf and Colin Powell credited Warden
as the architect of the Desert Storm Air Campaign. He was Special Assistant
to the Vice President of the United States, Commandant of the Air Force's
Command and Staff College, and currently a successful business founder
who has capitalized on his studies and experience to create the Prometheus
Process, a unique approach to strategy and success applicable wherever
competition exists.
He has written numerous articles on the future, new
strategy (business and military), aerospace power, acquisition reform,
and campaign planning. The Desert Storm Air Campaign was based on his revolutionary
concept of "the enemy as system" in which military forces are
considered parts of a much larger whole. He wrote the seminal work on modern
airpower theory, The Air Campaign: Planning For Combat, which has been
translated into at least seven languages.
He has appeared on FOX, CBS, CNN, MSNBC, PBS, the Discovery
Channel, the History Channel, the National Geographic Channel, the BBC,
NPR, numerous radio talk shows around the country and is frequently featured
or cited in newspapers and magazines with global circulation such as Forbes,
Time, the Economist, USA Today, and Newsweek.
John Gamble founded Tenacity® in 1986 shortly after serving as Vice President of Marketing for the Healthcare Nutrition Services division of Aramark Corporation, Philadelphia, PA.
While at Aramark, John was confronted with a lack of available third party consulting expertise in helping service companies stem client attrition and improve their relationships with their existing client base. He founded Tenacity® and developed the Clients for Life® client retention process to fill this specific need. Today, he is widely regarded as one of the nation's leading authorities on client retention overseeing Tenacity's training and consulting services to companies throughout the world.
John published his first book "What Your Clients Won't Tell You ... And Your Managers Don't Know" in 1995. His second book, "Why Good Clients Fire Great Companies", was published in 2001. His third book, "Vendors sell hot dogs, not management services" will be published in 2009. He continues to devote himself to research into client retention and to lending his expertise to Tenacity's clients.
He holds an undergraduate degree from Robert Morris College and did his graduate work at the State University of New York. John is a valuable member of the Afterburner advisory board and regularly assists Afterburner's leadership and contributes to our intellectual property.
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