Katherine Radeka

Katherine Radeka is a seasoned new product development leader with a track record of successful products and successful product development transformations. She is known for her ability to identify the things that keep great ideas stuck inside research & development, and provide effective strategies to get the development pipeline flowing to deliver more value to the business and its customers.

Prior to starting Whittier Consulting Group, Ms. Radeka worked as a consultant for Hewlett-Packard's product development teams. She spent her last three years at HP adapting Lean Product Development principles and practices to increase R & D capacity and the number of new products released per year for one of HP's major businesses.

Ms. Radeka became a consultant only after successfully leading product development teams of her own for HP's Imaging and Printing Group. This direct experience keeps her work grounded in the realities of new product development.

Ms. Radeka has a BA in Chemistry from Reed College and an MBA from Portland State University. She is a certified New Product Development Professional through the Product Development Management Association.

Our Company Name

Whittier Consulting Group, Inc. is named for Mount Whittier, a 5883' peak in the Mount Margaret backcountry, north of Mount St. Helens in the state of Washington. When Mount St. Helens erupted on May 18, 1980, Mount Whittier was directly in the line of fire. The blast knocked down all the trees and coated everything with layers of grey ash. A forest became a wasteland.

In 1996, Katherine visited Mount Whittier for the first time, and she has returned many times.

She says, "When I first visited, I could still see how desolate it must have been after the eruption. The landscape was covered with charred tree trunks and standing dead forests. But life had begun to return. There were more wildflowers than I had ever seen, bringing birds and other wildlife. Small trees had begun to sprout up on their own.

"Every year, the new trees grew taller. Today, it's a healthy young forest with elk, deer, bears and many small animals. I feel privileged to have been able to witness its rebirth. It is my favorite place on earth."