Who We Are


Leonard J. Shine
Principal & General Manager, Connecticut, USA
Leonard J. Shine is principal and general manager of The Canton Group, LLC, which he formed in March 2002. He travels extensively to provide services in Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. Throughout his career, Lenny has helped large, complex organizations address tough issues and overcome seemingly intractable problems.

Lenny was one of the original Work-Out consultants to the General Electric Company. In this role, he was a key designer, facilitator, and deliverer of this renowned change acceleration process, which is today a hallmark of GE excellence. In addition to his GE experience, Lenny has held executive positions at CIGNA HealthCare, where he led national HR organizations in customer service and sales; he has served as an internal consultant in the Mayor's Office for The City of New York; and he has been an organizational development consultant whose clients include state and municipal government agencies, not-for-profit organizations, the Long Island Rail Road (LIRR), and GE. A native New Yorker, he holds bachelors and masters degrees from The City University of New York (CUNY) and numerous certifications, including Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, Hermann Brain Dominance Instrument, ISO 9000/9001 quality assessor, and Organizational Dynamics Master Facilitator. Lenny has been a member of the Human Resource Planning Society, the American Society for Public Administration, and the American Society for Training and Development.


Annmarie Sorrow
Consultant, New Hampshire, USA
Annmarie Sorrow is a consultant with a focus on facilitation, leadership development, coaching, and training. Previously, she worked for GE for 17 years holding functional and managerial positions in Human Resources.

Annmarie holds both undergraduate and MBA degrees augmented by multiple corporate human resource training programs. She also has extensive facilitator training and certification in quality tools and principles, Myers Briggs, Benchmarks from the Center for Creative Leadership, and the Axelrod Large Group Conference Model.

Ivan Hickmott
Consultant, London, England
Ivan's entire professional career has been dedicated to helping business leaders and HR functions to enhance business performance and implement transformation initiatives, being part of or consulting to management teams, supporting and coaching senior executives and leadership teams, very often in periods of turbulent change. He joined the GEC group - one of the UK`s largest manufacturing organisations - as a graduate entrant in 1979 and spent 10 years in a variety of HR generalist/operational roles within its computer manufacturing and defense electronics businesses.

Ivan joined the Unisys Corporation, a global IT services organisation, in April 1989 as a Human Resource Manager, again in a generalist role, supporting Sales Divisions and the Professional Services organisation. In 1993 he took up the position of Director of Human Resources for the Unisys UK subsidiary subsequently moving across to the European HR function with responsibility as HR Director for the Information Services business. From 1996-2000 Ivan was Head of Organisational Development / Business Effectiveness - Unisys Europe. Ivan graduated in History from Leeds University in 1976 and completed a Post-graduate Diploma in Personnel Management from Leeds Polytechnic in 1978. He recently completed an MSc in Organisational Consulting at Ashridge Management College.

John DiTaranto, Consultant, Connecticut, USA
John DiTaranto is a consultant with a focus on process improvement, cost out, change acceleration, leadership development/training and executive coaching. A certified Master Black Belt, John had been involved with the application and training of Six Sigma within a variety of businesses in the General Electric Corporation since its introduction in 1994. He has worked globally, helping to introduce Six Sigma into a manufacturing acquisition in Florence, Italy. He has also worked extensively with global businesses in insurance, banking and education.

John has earned a Bachelor of Engineering Degree and an MBA in International Marketing. He received his Master Black Belt certification in 1998 and has instructed more than 2000 employees in GE Capital and NBC at all levels of Six Sigma learning. Known for his ability to promote change in a number of diverse operations, John also instructs sessions in Change Acceleration, Project Management, Leadership Skills and Strategic Communication.

Mirco Bosi
Consultant, Milan, Italy
Mirco has been an independent consultant dedicated to human resources and organizational development since 1997. He holds a University Degree of Law and, prior to his consulting career, spent five years in team leader and deputy officer roles in a leading Italian bank, Rolo Banca. Fluent in Italian and English, MircoÂ’s expertise includes business process analysis and improvement, organizational analysis, change management, training needs analysis, curriculum design and delivery, facilitation, and coaching.

Mirco has performed consulting assignments with Bridgestone, Abbey National Bank Italy, Citroen, and British American Tobacco. He has designed and delivered training programmes in English for Pirelli. Mirco is keenly focused on the alignment of personal and organizational values and coaches individuals and groups to capitalize on this alignment and channel their energies in support of organizational strategy and change initiatives. Mirco focuses his interventions equally in two areas, both the hard (processes) and the soft (values and competencies) where can be found the best leverage to improve the organisationÂ’s performance and increase its competitive advantage. Mirco is a certified practitioner of Myers-Briggs.

Claudia Pietrantoni
Consultant, Milan, Italy
Claudia is a consultant driven by strong beliefs in human potential and organizational development and training. She has worked with various multi-national companies, including four years as a HR professional with Citigroup, and consulting assignments with Pirelli, Auchan, and Conde Nast. Claudia has a university degree in Economics and is fluent in both Italian and English.

She has designed and conducted numerous training programs in both languages, focused in such areas as facilitation skills, presentation and communication skills, train the trainer programs, coaching, teambuilding in both indoor and outdoor settings, and various human resources skill areas. Claudia has facilitated change management and strategy workshops and she is also experienced in organizational and training needs assessments. Claudia is certified in Myers-Briggs.