Beverly Beckstead Rice is the President and Founder of The Rice Consulting Group headquartered in Irvine, California. Her company provides training, facilitation and consulting services to business, industry, and the public sector. She is widely known for her excellent skills in executive-level facilitation, team development, strategic business planning, and leadership development. Some of her notable clients include Xerox, Nissan, Toshiba, Sun Microsystems, AT&T, US West, PacifiCare and Varco International.

Ms. Rice has worked in a variety of industries including banking, aerospace, healthcare, computer technology, telecommunica-tions, administration, automotive, universities and local governments. She specializes in the areas of organizational effectiveness, human resource management, and organization communication. She is in demand throughout the US as an accomplished and effective speaker, trainer and facilitator.

Ms. Rice worked as a member of the senior management team of a large financial institution. While there, she served as the Director of Training for a specific business unit and the Director of Quality for the corporation. She was also appointed to direct all organization planning and HR transitions for a new division, including the start-up of a new training department, and implement Quality processes within each department of the division.

In 1988 Ms. Rice was hired to consult and train for Xerox at their Western Region Customer Administration Center. Her responsibilities included facilitating Quality Teams, project teams and a quality network of departmental representatives. The Malcolm Baldrige Selection Committee visited this site and Ms. Rice's work was instrumental in their decision to present Xerox with the 1989 Malcolm Baldrige Quality Award.

Ms. Rice has been a faculty member at the University of Southern California, California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, Orange Coast College, Coastline Community College and Utah State University.

Ms. Rice is a member of the Society of Human Resource Managers, the Organization Development Network, the International Society of Performance Improvement and the American Society of Training and Development. She is also on the Board of Directors of the Irvine Public Schools Foundation.

Ms. Rice is currently pursuing a doctorate degree in Human Performance Technology from the University of Southern California. She graduated cum laude with a Bachelors degree in Public Relations and Spanish from Utah State University. She also graduated cum laude with a Masters degree in Organizational Communication and Behavior from the University of Southern California, where she attended on a full fellowship.