Who Is Thiagi?

Thiagi Raja Thiagarajan Matthew Richter Kat Koppett

Dr. Sivasailam "Thiagi" Thiagarajan is the Resident Mad Scientist at Workshops by Thiagi, Inc., an organization with the mission of helping people improve their performance effectively and enjoyably.

Thiagi's long-term clients include AT&T, Arthur Andersen, Bank of Montreal, Cadence Design Systems, Chevron, IBM, Intel, Intelsat, United Airlines, and Liberty Mutual. On a short-term basis, Thiagi has worked with more than 50 different organizations in high-tech, financial services, and management consulting areas. For these clients, Thiagi has consulted and conducted training in such areas as rightsizing, diversity, creativity, teamwork, customer satisfaction, human performance technology, and organizational learning.

Thiagi has published 40 books, 120 games and simulations, and more than 200 articles. He wrote the definitive chapters on simulations and games for ISPI's Handbook of Human Performance Technology, ASTD's Training & Development Handbook, and the American Management Association's Human Resources Management and Development Handbook.

Thiagi currently writes a monthly online newsletter, Play for Performance. This newsletter, now in its third year, features Thiagi's training games and other creative interventions that deliver results quickly and effectively. He served as the editor of NSPI Journal and Performance & Improvement for more than 10 years. He currently edits the simulation/game section in Sage Publication's journal, Simulation & Gaming. He is also a contributing editor of the monthly journal, Educational Technology.

Thiagi has made hundreds of presentations and keynote speeches at professional conferences. At ISPI, Thiagi holds the "records" for making the most presentations, conducting the most preconference workshops, and being invited to make the most Encore presentations. Thiagi is also a regular presenter at Lakewood's TRAINING Conferences and the annual conferences of American Society for Training and Development (ASTD) and North American Simulation and Gaming Association (NASAGA).

Thiagi has been the president of the North American Simulation and Gaming Associating (NASAGA), International Society for Performance Improvement (ISPI), and Association for Special Education Technology (ASET). He has received 17 different awards and Presidential Citations from ISPI, including the society's highest award, Honorary Life Member. He also received an Honorary Life Member award from NASAGA as well as its highest award, Ifill-Raynolds Award.

Internationally recognized as an expert in multinational collaboration and active learning in organizations, Thiagi has lived in three different countries and has consulted in 21 others.

Raja Thiagarajan is the Resident Computer Wiz at Workshops by Thiagi. He has developed and designed many of our computer game shells and software such as Zingo, PuzzleMaker, and the Thiagi Timers. His technical expertise and innovative mind have added immense value to such clients as Agilent, Cadence Design Systems, and Pfizer. He is an expert game designer and facilitator who has co-delivered programs all over the world for such organizations as ASTD, ISPI, and NASAGA. Currently Raja is on the Board of Directors for NASAGA.

Raja is also a frequent contributing author. Not only has he co-authored a myriad of books with his father, Thiagi, but he has also co-written dozens of articles for books, periodicals, and magazines. His work has been seen in likes of Performance Intervention Maps, a collection of articles co-published by ISPI and ASTD, and the Training Sourcebook, edited by Mel Silberman and published by ASTD.

Raja is an amateur astrophysicist and a minor expert in science fiction.

Matthew Richter is a facilitator, game designer, instructional designer, and consultant for Workshops by Thiagi. He has consulted with Fortune 500 organizations, including Silicon Graphics, Ralph Lauren, Global Crossing, Carolina Power and Light, Cadence, Aceva Technologies, Xerox, The Sutherland Group, Guidant, and Olympus, in order to enhance their overall productivity through the successful management of people using coaching systems, human performance technology, and training. Along with Thiagi and Susan M. Rundle, Matthew has co-authored a book of games and instructional jolts called Performance and Learning Styles.

He is a sought after public speaker and has delivered keynotes and conference presentations nationally for such organizations as: the International Alliance for Learning (IAL), North American Simulation and Gaming Association (NASAGA), Influent, International Society for Performance Improvement (ISPI), American Society of Training and Development (ASTD), and the National Society for Black Engineers. He currently serves on the Executive Board of NASAGA and is the most recent past President.

Matthew and his colleague, Kat Koppett, are featured in The 2001, 2002, and 2003 Training and Performance and/or Team and Organization Development Sourcebook, published by McGraw Hill. They have also written several articles on the applications of storytelling in technical training, instructional design, and organizational development.

He is the co-developer of MESA, the Motivation and Employee Satisfaction Assessment, a tool for measuring intrinsic and extrinsic motivation in the workplace, and is also the co-author of PIIE, the Program Initiative Impact Evaluation, a process for measuring the return on investment of strategic and organizational development interventions.

Kat Koppett is the resident improviser and storyteller for Workshops by Thiagi and co-owner of StoryNet, LLC., an organization dedicated to the use of storytelling and improv theater techniques in business. Kat is the author of Training to Imagine: Practical Improvisational Theatre Techniques to Enhance Creativity, Teamwork, Leadership and Learning, published by Stylus Publishing Inc. in May, 2001. Kat has designed and delivered training for companies including Oracle, Sony, Global Business Network, Cadence Design Systems, Roche Molecular Systems, Kaiser-Permanente, Price-Waterhouse, and Microsoft.

Kat holds a B.F.A. in Drama from New York University and an M.A. in Organizational Psychology from Columbia University. She was instrumental in creating the corporate training wing of Freestyle Repertory Theatre, in New York, and is a performer, head coach and the Corporate Division Director of BATS Improv, one of the premiere improvisational theater companies on the West Coast, with the biggest improv training school in North America.

A member of the National Speakers' Association, Kat has presented for the American Society for Training and Development (ASTD), the North American Simulation and Gaming Association (NASAGA), Influent, International Society for Performance Improvement (ISPI), the Rotary Club and the Young Presidents’ Organization.

In 1995, TheaterWeek Magazine named Kat one of the year's "Unsung Heroes" for her creation of the improvisational theater format, Spontaneous Broadway , which is now performed regularly all over the world. She has been seen in television ads for Pillsbury, Quaker Oats, and Dr Pepper (she was a Pepper!). In 1998, her short play, Don't Get Around Much Anymore , was a winner in Playground's Emerging Playwrights Festival.