Our Team

Bonita Matushewski, Chief Executive Officer of BJM & Associates, has over a decade of professional experience as a Lean Leader. She has worked with manufacturers, agricultural producers, educational institutions, government and the healthcare sector. Bonita has spoken nationally and internationally on quality improvement, holds a Lean Six Sigma Black Belt, two university degrees, and a project management designation. Her career started out in government as a Senior Policy Analyst with the Saskatchewan government, because her goal in life was always to make a difference.  Eventually she joined the quality improvement industry where she worked until she was recruited into LTS Consulting, the company that evolved into BJM & Associates.

Since those beginnings, Bonita has proven herself as an entrepreneur and a leader in staff engagement, quality improvement, and in business transformations across Canada. She strives to help individuals gain a voice within their organizational systems. She has planned, managed, and monitored the entire life cycle of projects, keeping every one of them on time and within budget, on contracts that ranged in size from the low five figures up to seven figures. As a business co-founder and principal, she has presided over the growth of BJM & Associates, which began as a small, regional firm, and became a national company with annual seven figure revenues and a large public and private sector client base.

As a leader, Bonita has helped shape significant capacity building projects in quality improvement in Manitoba, Ontario, Saskatchewan, and PEI. She has not only trained hundreds of people in Lean methods, but has also brought about fundamental change in the efficiency and effectiveness with which organizations perform.

Candice Bryden is a Lean Six Sigma Black Belt and a registered nurse with decades of experience as a leader in the field of quality improvement. She has an extensive, executive-level background in training, building capacity, and aligning process improvement with strategic objectives.

Candice served as Director of Quality Services for the Saskatoon Regional Health Authority from 2004 to 2015, with a specialty in the last three years as director of Kaizen promotion, managing a staff of 40 and leading dozens of successful improvement events. Improvement reviews and events that Candice led resulted in increased productivity of direct and indirect care providers giving time back for patient care with estimated savings of $1.6 million. Among her many accomplishments, she directed activities that achieved an overall reduction in defects resulting in improved patient safety with estimated annual savings of $900,000.

Maurice has over 15 years’ experience as a nationally recognized, award-winning writer and editor for the medical and technical fields, financial services, and the arts sector. He has completed many projects that involved writing, editing, proofreading, and production management, for proposals, books, magazines, on-line formats, and policy and procedure documents. He holds a Master of Arts in English from the University of Manitoba. Maurice’s expertise in producing key deliverables give him an important skill set for BJMA and for client projects.

Randy is an innovative professional with significant public sector experience.  He brings people together through team building, partnerships and integrating ideas to problem solve and create optimal solutions to organizational challenges.

An active change leader and advocate for development, Randy is skilled in strategic planning, program management, change management and communication strategies.  Utilizing his extensive experience advising and coaching senior leaders in key strategic initiatives, and with a mandate to prepare organizations and high performers for the challenges of leadership, Randy established The Leader’s Lifeguard in 2017.

Randy holds a Diploma from Red River College’s Civil Technology program.  He held various technical and senior leadership roles within Manitoba Infrastructure and was an active member and contributor to provincial and national committees.  Randy was responsible for the creation of the Transformation & Innovation Office for the Department including the development and delivery of leadership training to prepare employees for supervisory and executive roles.   Randy is a Certified Management Consultant (CMC), holds certifications in Think Transition’s Living and Leading Change, Prosci Change Management, the Canadian Manufacturer’s and Exporters’ Executive Lean for Leaders program, and is a Lean Six Sigma Yellow belt.

Scott Francis is a leadership development specialist. With sixteen years experience, he helps executives and organizational leaders to increase productivity and management effectiveness, and improve corporate culture. He works extensively with corporate clients, as well as those in the public and non-profit sectors.

Scott delivers workshops and training courses backed up by research and industry best practices. He specializes in high end, one-on-one training, having written a dissertation on the psychology of executive coaching. His most recent ventures include co-hosting the Leader.FM Podcast and serving as the Lead Program Developer of the Nautilus Leadership Development System. Watch for his upcoming book launch in mid 2019.

Scott holds his PhD in Leadership Studies from Gonzaga University and his M.A. in Organizational Leadership & Management.

On the side, Scott volunteers as a firefighter and first responder in his community. He also works with minor sports teams with their mental training. Most importantly, Scott loves spending quality time with his lovely wife and two teenagers.

Allyson Friesen, Lean Six Sigma Black Belt consultant and Registered Professional Planner, has a unique and broad background, incorporating local government process improvement and corporate strategic planning experience in both operational and consulting capacities. She holds an MA in Leadership and Training from Royal Roads University, Victoria, and a BPE in Leisure & Sports Administration from the University of British Columbia. In addition she has a diploma in public sector management from the University of Victoria, and is also a registered professional planner with the Canadian Institute of Planners in Ottawa.

An enthusiastic leader and teacher, Allyson has developed her expertise in strategic planning and implementation, process improvement, project management, training and facilitation, policy development and review, program evaluation, and organizational development throughout her career, including extensive experience with BC cities and municipalities. In addition she has worked in the healthcare sector with BJMA, providing one-to-one mentoring for trainees in quality improvement programs, and in adult education, where she was director of a registered trade college.

Allyson has the ability to quickly connect with clients and provide personalized leadership and mentorship to each individual, helping them to reach their end goals.

Consultant, MA

Eileen has been leading healthcare renewal initiatives and building organizational capacity for sustainable improvements for the past twenty years. She brings experience and expertise in the areas of leadership, organizational change management, provincial and sector wide capacity building, and regional health service integration. She specializes in aligning improvements to client values and provincial accountabilities. Eileen studied at Queen’s University, where she received her Bachelor of Arts; she then went on to complete her Masters in Continuing Education, and also has a project management designation.

Eileen focuses on helping groups identify their best opportunities, and provides planning and support in the implementation of changes. She provides services to design, develop, and support delivery of quality improvement collaboratives, initiatives, and overall programs that have proven results. Her areas of expertise include leading innovations, building capacity for new service delivery models, and supporting new leadership practices for improved organizational performance. Eileen brings a high level of experience to the BJMA team. She is well recognized for her ability to capture customer values and align them with organizational strategy.

Consultant, Logistics and Modelling, PhD, LSS Black Belt

Keith is an associate dean at the University of Saskatchewan’s Edwards School of Business. He holds a doctorate in operations management from the University of Calgary, and is certified as a Lean Six Sigma Black Belt. From 2005-2008, he worked as a senior operations research specialist with the Health Quality Council, an independent agency that reports on the quality of healthcare in Saskatchewan and collaborates with partners in system improvement efforts.

Keith has also worked for the Saskatchewan government and the Saskatchewan healthcare sector on several consulting projects involving Lean and operations research applications in advanced clinical access, acute care bed modelling, data request process flows, and out-of-province/out-of-country health service requests. In addition he has consulted in the private sector, including for the Canadian Football League. Keith is an active researcher in process improvement and business analytics applications, and delivers a wealth of knowledge to the BJMA team.

Personal Leadership Effectiveness

Laurie Ford is a consultant to managers and executives in business, government agencies, and associations on organization redesign and change implementation.

Together with Jeffery D. Ford, she has co-authored The Four Conversations: Daily Communication that Gets Results (Berrett-Koehler, 2009), which identifies four types of conversations that underlie personal leadership effectiveness. It was awarded the Best Management Book of 2009 by 800-CEO-READ and was also a top-ranked Globe and Mail Business Book of the Year.

Personal Leadership Effectiveness, PhD

Jeffrey is an expert on personal leadership effectiveness at work, and a professor of management at Fisher College of Business, Ohio State University. He earned his PhD in Organizational Behaviour from Ohio State University, and a Bachelor of Science, Marketing and Statistics, from the University of Maryland. Jeffrey is an award winning author, gifted speaker, facilitator, and trainer. His research and teaching experience form the basis for his books.

Co-authored with Laurie Ford, The Four Conversations: Daily Communication that Gets Results (Berrett-Koehler, 2009), identifies four types of conversations that underlie personal leadership effectiveness. It was awarded the Best Management Book of 2009 by 800-CEO-READ. Jeffrey designs and teaches MBA courses for working professionals. His course on leading and managing change focuses on how to be personally effective when engaged in implementing change, and has students work on real changes in their workplaces. Jeffery is passionate about creating leadership effectiveness, as well as establishing a positive learning environment where individuals can succeed.