About Leader Networks

Leader Networks is a research and consulting firm that helps clients create social strategies and online communities for business. We help our clients harness the power of new digital rules and tools to drive measurable business benefits, including increased revenue, productivity, and customer loyalty; decreased costs and cycle times; and the ability to engage business buyers as co-creators in the product/service development lifecycle. Leader Networks provides a full suite of services for all stages of networking and community development – whether it's defining a Web 2.0 strategy, breathing new life into an existing network, or building a community from the ground up.

We also offer research programs to help identify market readiness, industry best practices, internal needs assessments and member feature needs inform and validate a social business strategy or develop a case for online community.

About Vanessa DiMauro

Vanessa DiMauro is the CEO of Leader Networks, a research and strategy consulting company that helps large organizations succeed in social business and B2B online community building.  DiMauro is a popular speaker, researcher and author.  With over 15 years experience in social media leadership positions, she has founded and run numerous online communities, and has developed award winning communities and social business approaches for influential companies such as Cisco, LexisNexis, HP, Palladium Group and SAP. Her work has been covered by leading publications such as the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal and CIO magazine. 

Vanessa DiMauro sits on numerous boards including research co-chair and board director for the Society of New Communications Research, Social Media Today, Conisus, LLC and Wego Health.  She is an Executive-In-Residence at Babson College's Olin School of Management, holds both a B.A. and M.A. from Boston College and blogs at http://blog.leadernetworks.com.

View her LinkedIN profile here >

PETER WARD

Peter Ward is a Managing Partner with Leader Networks responsible for helping organizations develop effective strategies for enabling internal and external stakeholders to engage with community initiatives on a peer basis.  He was one of the founders of the Palladium Execution Premium Community™ (XPC) – a global on-line forum allowing senior executives to exchange best practices and access topical content pertaining to strategy and performance management. 

He brings over 25 years of marketing and business development experience with a focus on building strategic relationships with enterprise software companies, thought leadership organizations, and clients.  Peter has held senior leadership positions at Palladium Group, Inc., Casenet, Inc. and Cambridge Technology Partners, and served on several advisory boards.

ryck lent

Ryck Lent is Partner, Content and Community Strategy, at Leader Networks.  An online community veteran with over 15 years of product development and implementation experience, he has worked with a wide range of organizations including: AARP, the AFL-CIO, the Democratic National Committee, portal services firm iBelong/Verlytics, Mainspring Communications, Monster.com. Ziff-Davis' ZiffNet and ZDNet.

Among other accomplishments, Ryck pioneered downloadable software demos, weekly tech news interviews and a distance learning initiative at ZDNet; introduced social networking for early Web experts at Mainspring; created social networking affinity groups at iBelong/Verilytics and rebuilt Monster.com's job seeker online community.  Prior to his work with online communities, Ryck was a successful newspaper and magazine publishing entrepreneur.  He earned a BA from Antioch College and a Master's in Public and Private Management from Yale University's School of Management.

ADAN ZAWEL

Adam Zawel is the creator of the Network Activator ™ . The Network Activator emplowers community managers, creating operational efficiency and strategic relevence by embedding best practices in community management. Adam Zawel is a veteran online community manager who helps B2B organizations develop and grow their online community initiatives.  He also serves as Director of Palladium Group's online community (XPC). Previously, Adam was Chief Collaboration Officer with INmobile, where he built and managed a community for the most influential executives in the wireless and telecommunications industries. 

Ryck Lent, Partner, Content and Community Strategy

Adam Zawel, Director, Network Activator ™