Kris Safarova is a Wall Street Journal & USA Today bestselling author. She is the founder and CEO of FIRMSconsulting.com and its OTT arm, StrategyTraining.com: the world’s largest strategy streaming channel. She works with a network of ex-McKinsey, BCG, et al. partners to produce original strategy/leadership training videos, podcasts, and books. She manages several of the top podcast channels worldwide for strategy and management consulting, ranked in the Top-10 for careers in many countries, and is the author of five books on business strategy.

Kris believes in the power of logic, critical thinking, and storytelling to help our clients solve mankind’s toughest problems.

FIRMSconsulting is a private equity firm that partners with governments and past clients to take ownership and operating control of businesses. We deploy seasoned ex-McKinsey, BCG, et al. partners to manage each business. This process is documented to produce original programming - books, analysis slides, videos, and podcasts - for the streaming platforms. Recent investments include digitizing a miner in Asia, an electric car business in China, a luxury brands boutique in Europe, and a new-age cosmetics start-up in California. 


Kris Safarova received a Dipl. in Music with a concentration in Classical Piano from DG Shatalov Music College, a B.Comm from UNISA, cum laude with highest distinction and an MBA from Ivey Business School, University of Western Ontario in Canada, on the dean's list with highest distinction, where she was President of the Public Sector Club and Editor of the Public Sector Journal. Prior to obtaining her business degrees, she worked in management consulting and post-MBA she was a banker and consulting engagement manager in Toronto, Canada. 

Prior to consulting Kris was a master classical concert pianist and official music representative of the Russian Federation who toured Europe. She joined FIRMSconsulting.com as a Partner, Corporate Finance in 2015 and was appointed Presiding Partner in 2016.

Alice Qinhua Zhou is an executive in EY FSO’s Profit Improvement practice. She advises senior executives from leading financial institutions on corporate and business unit strategy, efficiency improvement, and enterprise transformation. Prior to joining EY, she served Banking and Private Equity clients at McKinsey. She holds a Ph.D. degree in Computational Biophysics from Yale University and a B.S. degree in Biological Sciences from Fudan University in Shanghai, China.

Richmond Wong works directly with founders and senior leadership of international start-ups on their highest ROI leadership, product and growth initiatives.

Having launched multiple enterprise-grade B2B platforms for Reuters and LexisNexis in 10+ developed and emerging markets including Hong Kong, Singapore, Korea, Taiwan, Malaysia and throughout Southeast Asia, Richmond brings both a high-level and “from the trenches” perspective on product management, growth and leadership.

His clients include a growing list of software and hardware companies from the US, Australia, Hong Kong and Canada.

Richmond is also a Teaching Assistant for MBA-level courses taught by handpicked Wharton, Cornell, New York University and UC Berkeley professors at Section4, a NYC-based edtech startup founded by CNN’s Scott Galloway.

Richmond has lectured on product principles at Royal Dutch Shell's LiveWIRE accelerator and at San Francisco-headquartered Product School.

Before moving into tech, Richmond trained as a corporate lawyer with one of the world’s ten largest law firms, Hogan Lovells, serving Fortune 500 clients on their most mission critical mandates.

Richmond started his career as a journalist with Rogers Publishing, part of one of Canada’s largest media companies.

For free articles, updates and case studies on how to improve your personal and professional leadership skills, visit www.richmondwong.com

Rishab Shah is a product leader, management consultant, and

venture capitalist. He runs a next-generation advisory firm helping

large corporations and earlier-stage companies develop superior

digital products and services. Under his guidance, companies and

executives realize their full potential by staying relevant, growing

their existing business, and generating new revenue streams.

As a product leader, Rishab specializes in the early stages of taking

products from idea to first market. He develops SaaS products at

a health-tech unicorn start-up valued at $4 billion, using artificial

intelligence to reduce the administrative burden for patients and

medical practices. He serves as the strategy director of a non-profit

that conducts validation trials to determine the impact of new digital

health solutions.

Previously, he served executive clients in the healthcare and

technology industries, and the government sector for the world's

largest consulting firm. His leadership resulted in the generation of

over $100 million in value. He also co-founded a venture fund to help

portfolio companies build digital products that not only had a positive

effect on thousands of lives, but raised millions in funding.

Rishab has spoken at major conferences around the world on new

venture models, investment theses, practical leadership, corporate

strategy, and building differentiated products. Rishab is based in

Georgetown, Washington D.C. with his wife and twin sons. He is a

fervent fan of tennis, travel, and coffee shops.

Discover more of the author’s books, see similar authors, read author blogs and more

Takahiro Ajimizu is a global financial strategist in Japan, specializing in business strategy and financial analysis, with many years of international experiences.

In 2021, he launched the “Zen Consulting” internet service, which integrates his various experiences and provides high-quality financial strategies that help our customers succeed in their businesses.

He co-authored “NINE LEADERS IN ACTION” published by “FIRMSconsulting” company in the United States in 2022. Became a new release bestseller in multiple categories on the US Amazon site.

He designed and developed corporate website as a leader in e-commerce project. It has grown into a site visited by an average of 15,000 unique users per month within a few years.

In the agricultural project, Takahiro cultivated Chinese and Western herbs, translated technical materials for cutting-edge environmental control systems imported from overseas, and offered operational support for those systems.

He not only developed new products and created marketing plans for existing products, but also designed guidelines with reference to HACCP (Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point) for food safety.

In government and local government subsidies, Takahiro compiled the materials and all applications have been accepted so far.

He graduated from Queensland University of Technology in Australia with a major in electrical and computer engineering. He participated in a microsatellite development project, commonly known as JAESat, as a leader in the telemetry subsystem.