Bill Fournet
President & CEO
Bill Fournet is the Founder, President and CEO of The Persimmon Group. In addition to leading The Persimmon Group since its inception, he also leads the practice areas of leadership development, business transformation, and team performance.
Bill provides business strategy, project management, educational development, and information technology consulting to clients in various industry verticals, including energy, financial services, aerospace, telecommunications, government and human resources, among others. He is a sought after speaker and educator who balances this demand with continuing to be a leadership and management practitioner.
Over the past two decades, Bill has provided leadership for clients in delivery methodology, business process improvement, resource development, project management, business analysis, and training for a variety of national, international and multinational. He has led strategic programs spanning years, staffed by hundreds of people, sourced globally, and managed budgets in excess of $100M. Bill earned a bachelor\'s degree from Vanderbilt University and a master\'s degree from Oklahoma State University. He and his wife Christy have three sons and a dog. Bill is an Assistant Scoutmaster in the Boy Scouts of America, serves as Pack Chairman for his Cub Scout Pack, coaches his sons\' soccer and basketball teams, and is active in the Tulsa community. He is a member of the State of Oklahoma Governor\'s Business Roundtable, a member of the Oklahoma State Chamber of Commerce\'s Board of Directors, and member of the Oklahoma City and Tulsa Metro Chambers of Commerce. Bill was also recognized as the 2010 Small Business Person of the Year by the Tulsa Metro Chamber of Commerce.
Martin Piplits
Business Consulting Practice Leader
Martin Piplits is a Senior Consultant with AMark specializing in business consulting, strategic planning and crisis management with an emphasis on financial management.
Formerly, Martin was the Chief Financial Officer for Hilti North America. As CFO, he oversaw numerous functions including accounting, credit, budgeting and reporting. Prior to becoming CFO, Martin served in various senior management positions in Austria, Switzerland, Hungary, South Korea and Hong Kong.
During his tenure at Hilti Incorporated, Martin also served as General Manager for the company\'s Hungary division, managing a sales force of 50 direct salesmen in Eastern Europe. As such he designed the sales management process, set sales targets, developed sales training, as well as managed and coached 5 sales managers on a daily basis. He developed specific strategies and resource allocation models, assigned sales resources, and successfully implemented sales strategies.
Martin has a successful track record for situational turn-around and profit-growth strategy in international and multi-cultural markets. Martin, who is fluent in English, Spanish and German, earned his MS and his MBA from the University of Economics in Vienna, Austria.
