Scott is an internationally recognized crisis negotiator, advisor, trainer and keynote speaker. He is known and respected for his experience negotiating in highly charged situations, with high stakes and when the situation requires sensitivity to the human element. Clients, audiences and students alike, find Scott’s teachings, insightful, inspiring and pragmatic.
Scott has over 20 years of law enforcement experience in the United States and retired from a Chicago area police department in 2023 at the rank of Lieutenant. In 2007, he was trained by the FBI in hostage and crisis negotiation and has been involved in the field since that time. Scott worked as a negotiator with one of the largest regional SWAT teams in the U.S. for many years before moving into the role of a negotiations speaker and trainer .
He has studied negotiation at the Harvard University Program on Negotiation, at IMD Business School, and he continues to receive training from the world’s top hostage negotiators.
Scott is a prolific trainer within the negotiation field and travels the country and around the world speaking to audiences in both law enforcement and the private sector. He has taught negotiations at Harvard University, for the FBI, and has keynoted for companies such as Microsoft. In 2016, he was invited to give a TEDx talk titled “The Secrets of Hostage Negotiators”, which has received over 1 million views. His visibility as a speaker and educator through TEDx and other venues has reached global status.
Scott currently resides in the Chicago area and is a co-founder and Partner with the Negotiations Collective.
Joanna has over 18 years of negotiations experience in the natural resource, utilities, infrastructure, health care and education sectors. During that time, she has led over $2B worth of acquisitions, divestments, and contract negotiations. She has project managed and negotiated agreements linked to over $1B in capital projects in both Canada and the United States and held senior leadership roles in commercial negotiations, project management, resource development and organizational restructuring.
Joanna has served as both director and president of volunteer and professional organizations across Canada, whereby her primary objective has been to lobby provincial governments on issues relating to the members she represented, in addition to developing and delivering education and social programs. Joanna has a BCOM from St. Francis Xavier University, is a graduate of British Petroleum's intensive in-house Conflict and Negotiations training course, holds a Graduate Certificate in Project Leadership from Cornell University, and a Graduate Certificate in Negotiations Mastery from the Harvard School of Business.
Joanna is the Managing Partner and Co-Founder of the Negotiations Collective.
Melissa Fortunato is a retired FBI Special Agent. She retired in June 2022 with over 23 years as a federal law enforcement officer. During her career, Melissa was assigned to the New York City and Cleveland field offices.
Melissa was a certified FBI Crisis Negotiator and Undercover Agent. She spent her last 15 years as an FBI Crisis Negotiator; leading FBI Cleveland’s Crisis Negotiation Team for 10 of those years. In this capacity, she successfully resolved domestic and international kidnappings, barricaded subjects, and other crisis events. Melissa planned and executed formal crisis negotiation training for hundreds of law enforcement officers. Moreover, she worked as an assessor and coach for the FBI’s National Crisis Negotiation Course. In 2020, Melissa was selected by the FBI to instruct at the International Law Enforcement Academy (ILEA) in Budapest, Hungary, where she taught crisis negotiation strategies to international law enforcement officers. In addition to her FBI training, Melissa represented the FBI in 2019 as a student at the Metropolitan Police (Scotland Yard) Hostage Negotiation Course in London, England.
As an FBI undercover agent, Melissa operated both domestically and internationally. Her undercover portfolio included transnational organized crime, public corruption, drug trafficking and counterintelligence matters. One of the cases in which she was directly involved as an undercover agent was briefed to the President of the United States and won the FBI Director’s Award.
Melissa is a Senior Associate with the Negotiations Collective. She is married with two daughters. Her husband is an Assistant Special Agent in Charge of FBI Cleveland, where he leads its National Security branch
MELISSA FORTUNATO
Senior Associate
BA, Psychology
JOANNA SHEA
Managing Partner
BCOM, CSC, Graduate Certificate: Negotiations, Project Leadership
LEIGHTON WILKS
Senior Associate
MBA
SCOTT TILLEMA
Partner
MA, Psychology; BS, Behavioral Science
KAYLA WILSON
Vice President, Business Development
Kayla Wilson is a dynamic and accomplished business executive with over 12+ years of experience in cultivating relationships and driving growth in multiple industries. Kayla has worked with some of the world's largest industries from Healthcare, Law Enforcement, Government, Social Media, Retail, Natural Resource, Technology moguls, Food processing and Financial Institutions. Kayla is driven by developing new partnerships, expanding existing relationships and creating comprehensive client success strategies that are aligned with their business goals and values.
Prior to her current role as Vice President of Business Development, Kayla began her career as a professional athlete, competing Internationally in snowboardcross and achieving XGAMES alumnus status. This experience instilled in her the values of discipline, perseverance, and teamwork, which she carried forward into her professional career.
After her sports career, Kayla founded and managed her own business, which gave her a deep understanding of the challenges and opportunities facing entrepreneurs and start-ups. She successfully navigated the complexities of financing, product development, and sales, building a profitable and sustainable enterprise.
With a proven track record of business development success in the telecommunications, corporate social responsibility, and cyber-security industries, Kayla's innovative approach to problem-solving and her ability to build trust with clients has helped her to consistently exceed sales targets and drive revenue growth.
Overall, Kayla's dynamic background has prepared her well for her role as Vice President of Business Development with the Negotiations Collective and the clients it trains and supports.
INES PICCININO
Senior Associate
Leighton is an Associate Professor (Teaching) at the Haskayne School of Business at the University of Calgary where he focuses on translating current research into effective negotiation training programs. He has over ten years of experience designing and teaching negotiation courses within Executive MBA, MBA, and undergraduate programs. Leighton’s is a passionate educator; in 2019 he was inducted into the University of Calgary Students' Union Teaching Excellence Hall of Fame and also received a Calgary Award for Community Achievement in Education. Leighton has a significant consulting background in diverse areas including negotiations, strategic planning, and cross-cultural management.
Leighton holds an MBA (thesis-based) and a BA in Psychology from the University of Calgary. His MBA thesis looked at cultural differences in the use of ethically questionable negotiation behaviors.
GARY McDOUGALL
Senior Associate
Gary McDougall is a crisis negotiations expert and retired police officer who has 25 years of experience with the Calgary Police Service. For nine years of his career, Gary was a member of the Calgary Hostage/Crisis Negotiation Team, including holding the positions of team leader and training coordinator.
Upon retiring in 2006, Gary founded Conflict Solutions where he speaks, teaches, and trains on negotiation and conflict management in both the public and private sectors. He is a sought after speaker who has graced stages internationally with his knowledge, stories, and warm delivery. He delivers training in several disciplines which include effective negotiation skills, conflict management, dealing with difficult clients, ethics in the workplace, and workplace violence issues.
Gary is also a member of the Canadian Speakers Bureau as well as a lead instructor for the National Tactical Officer’s Association. In this capacity, he travels North America teaching crisis intervention and hostage negotiation skills to law enforcement agencies. Gary served as an Instructor at the Canadian National Police College in Ottawa teaching negotiation skills to students from across Canada and around the world.
His work has been featured in a variety of publications, including most recently, being featured and authoring a chapter in the best-seller, “The Book of Real-World Negotiations”, by Joshua N. Weiss, Cofounder of the Global Negotiation Initiative at Harvard University.
Gary is both a graduate of the FBI Crisis Negotiators Training School and has also served as an instructor at the FBI Training Academy in Virginia, assisting in the training of new FBI hostage and crisis negotiators.
The Negotiations Collective is proud to welcome Gary as a Senior Associate.
Inés Piccinino retired from the British Columbia government in 2023, after more than 25 years as senior executive in both South and North America. Having worked in energy, environment, climate change, economics and regulatory, Inés developed strategic public policy requiring deep and complex engagement and negotiations with communities, industries, stakeholders, other governments, and international and indigenous partners.
Inés was a professor of Economics at the University of Buenos Aires (Argentina), Camosun College, and the University of Victoria’s Masters of Public Administration (British Columbia, Canada).
With a degree in Economics from the University of Buenos Aires, Inés has consulted for the World Bank, the United Nations Development Program and the Inter American Development Bank and provided advice to the private, public and non-governmental sectors in her 30+ year professional career.
Inés started her own consulting company, Aldea Global Insights, in June 2023, and joined the Negotiations Collective in August 2023.
SAMANTHA SPERLE
Scheduling and Operations Lead
Samantha Sperle is a creative and enthusiastic administrator with a passion for achieving efficiency and business success through streamlined logistics and processes. Samantha is a recent graduate from the Bisset School of Business at Mount Royal University with a specialization in Logistics and International Business.
As a young adult, Samantha excelled in the Royal Canadian Air Cadet Program. She utilized her leadership and conflict management skills to develop a team of young leaders to ensure the goals of the Squadron were effectively met. She quickly rose through the ranks, and was awarded the position of Warrant Officer 1st Class where she was responsible for up to 200 cadets.
In her free time, Samantha is very active and participates in sports, outdoor activities, and gold prospecting. She trained and competed with Netball Canada, which gave her the opportunity to take her love for the sport abroad. This experience provided exposure to international cultures. She would later take courses in international marketing, cross cultural negotiations, and international trade while she studied abroad in Switzerland. She also participated in an International Business conference, hosted by X-Culture.
Since graduating, Samantha has developed her administrative skills in multiple industries including: staffing, restaurant management, and skilled trades. She brings a fine attention to detail and a dynamic organizational style in order to support the growth and development of the Negotiations Collective.
