J. JEFF KOBER
CEO, WORLD CLASS BENCHMARKING
PRESIDENT, PERFORMANCE JOURNEYS
For nearly thirty years years Jeff has focused on training & development initiatives for the private and public sector. Those diverse activities have ranged from providing leadership programming for executives at GE to elevating the Starwood Hotel brands of Westin, Sheraton and St. Regis. Clients previously have included Federal Express, Office Depot, MetLife, New York City Department of Finance, and Volkswagen of North America. Topics have ranged from leadership to performance accountability; from customer loyalty to team building.
Jeff was formerly a leader with the Disney Institute, a best-practices institution modeled on America’s first corporate university. While there, Jeff was responsible for working across the entire Walt Disney World Resort and designing Disney’s customer service programs. The models, concepts, and examples of those programs were later introduced to corporate America in Be Our Guest, a popular benchmarking title published by The Disney Institute, with a forward by CEO Michael Eisner. He continues to be the benchmarking watchdog for best-in-business practices throughout the Walt Disney Company, having recently released his second edition of The Wonderful World of Customer Service at Disney. He has also written Lessons From Epcot: In Leadership, Business & Life; and Disney’s Hollywood Studios: From Show Biz to Your Biz. Additionally he has created the Disney at Work interactive app series.
Jeff is now president of Performance Journeys, a training and development group devoted to developing and implementing performance improvement and learning in the workplace. His work has reached any number of groups, from ski resorts to museums; from financial institutions to zoos. His multiple year efforts with the City of Sammamish have supported the city in being labeled by Forbes as the #1 friendliest in America.
He is also a partner and CEO of World Class Benchmarking, where he provides a programming series that benchmarks many of America’s greatest corporations, such as Google, Jet Blue Airlines, McDonalds & the Mayo Clinic. Along with his business partner, Mark David Jones, he has co-authored Lead With Your Customer: Transform Culture and Brand into World Class Excellence.
