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Our team
Our team has extensive experience with both leading corporations and start-up ventures, and combines a rigorous analytical approach with true entrepreneurial vision and drive.
Michael Lurie, Founder and CEO
Moshe Engelberg, Partner
Richard Lawrence, Partner
Pertti Visuri, Partner
Michael
Lurie
Founder and CEO
Michael is Founder and CEO of Agile Strategy Institute and the creator of agile strategy. Michael has more than twenty years experience as an entrepreneur, executive and consultant. He has founded and built three companies, helped grow dozens of early-stage businesses, and successfully led strategic business initiatives for many large corporations throughout North America and Europe.
Michael began his career in London, England, as a strategy consultant with international management consulting firm McKinsey & Company, Inc. He then co-founded Goodman Lurie Ltd., the United Kingdom's leading firm specializing in European market entry for technology companies. After successfully selling Goodman Lurie, Michael co-founded and grew Conneq, Inc., an award-winning web application software and services company in San Diego, California. Since launching Agile Strategy Institute in 2002, he has helped hundreds of founders, innovators and executives design successful companies and business models across a wide range of technologies and industries.
Michael’s community involvement has comprised several board positions with non-profit organizations, including founding and serving as co-Chairman of CONNECT’s CEO Strategy Forum in San Diego. Michael holds Bachelor of Commerce and Master of Business Administration degrees from the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa.
Moshe Engelberg
Partner
Dr. Moshe Engelberg is founder and CEO of ResearchWorks, a strategic marketing and consulting firm that helps companies in the business of health improve their performance through better marketing knowledge, branding, communications, management, and innovation.
Dr. Engelberg leads strategic, sophisticated, and innovative applied research and consulting projects ranging from branding & identity building (CMS, CDC, March of Dimes, Stanford), product development (Welch Allyn, Philips, KPBS), vision and strategic planning (CDC, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, UCSD Healthcare), communication research, and consumer testing.
Dr. Engelberg excels at working with complex organizations on tough issues, focusing on results and ROI. As a board member, partner, consultant, or mentor, Dr. Engelberg fuses marketing, communication, health expertise, and innovation to develop strategies that help organizations advance their mission and improve their bottom line. With the firm belief that objectives dictate methodology, Dr. Engelberg blends research methodologies in order to best achieve the project objectives. An expert in qualitative techniques, Dr. Engelberg designs and moderates dozens of focus groups every year, along with in-depth interviews, phone interviews, and the like. In addition to classic qualitative methodologies, he has pioneered novel, proprietary qualitative techniques and methodologies.
Dr. Engelberg earned his PhD in Communication from Stanford University, with an emphasis in health communication research. Prior, he earned his MPH from San Diego State University and a Masters in Counseling Psychology. He teaches graduate courses for executive education, MBA, MPH, Marketing, and Communication Programs at San Diego State University, the University of San Diego, and the University of California, San Diego.
Richard
Lawrence
Partner
Richard is Managing Director of Crest Capital Group, a professional services firm assisting clients with start-ups, mergers and acquisitions, and competitive strategy development. He formed Crest Capital after a lengthy career in financial services, information technology, and management consulting in banking, information services and chemicals in the U.S., Latin America, Asia and Europe.
Over a 25 year career as a Management Consulting Partner with Bank Street Consulting, Coopers & Lybrand, PricewaterhouseCoopers, and IBM Business Consulting Services, Richard focused on major corporate clients in banking, credit management and information technology services, and completed more than 300 consulting projects. An expert in financial services, business strategy, back-office process, information technology, and product development, he has led the development of business, product and market strategies, cost reduction programs, productivity improvement initiatives, and technology strategies for both new entry and mature business entities. He has developed launch strategies for both web-based and bricks & clicks businesses in financial services and health care, and provided due diligence, integration management, and advisory services for U.S. and foreign mergers and acquisitions. His clients have included global corporations and mid-size companies, both public and private, NGOs, Associations, money-center and regional banks, insurance companies, suppliers of commercial, and personal credit, IT services, and major software vendors.
In addition to consulting, Richard has held a number of executive roles. He served as CIO for a major U.S. auto finance company, and a banking and real estate conglomerate in Brazil. As EVP for Latin America Business Development for the world’s largest credit and marketing services company, he played a major role in the US $1.2 billion acquisition of the 4th largest credit bureau in the world located in Brazil.
Richard has an MBA from Columbia University and a BS in Economics from the University of Oregon.
Pertti
Visuri
Partner
Dr. Pertti Visuri is the founder and CEO of Sopivin, Inc. a professional services firm helping leadership teams of technology companies effectively address their operational needs and achieve their strategic objectives for growth and profitability. Pertti has more than 25 years of experience in top level executive positions both in technology product companies and in consulting firms. He has been the CEO of two companies and board member in several startups.
Pertti started his career doing research on man-machine interaction for his PhD thesis on real time artificial intelligence in Halden, Norway with an international team from twelve OECD countries. He finished the thesis while leading PI-Consulting’s business in control solutions in Helsinki, Finland. He was then selected to manage a consulting group for the Finnish Ministry of Trade and Industry in Los Angeles, California where he facilitated licensing and IP transactions between European and US companies. After that he joined Ahlstrom, a global multi-billion dollar industrial products firm and was promoted to Chief Technology Officer in charge of technology strategy, R&D and venture investments. Seven years later Pertti returned to consulting when he joined SAIC in San Diego. He served as the CEO of SAIC’s subsidiary Tenth Mountain Systems and led major engagements for the music industry and for Visa and MasterCard on the impact of Internet on their business. He then founded and grew the business consulting practice at Stellcom, Inc. focusing on wireless technology. Moving back to a product company in 2003 he took over a shut-down wireless technology business as the CEO and built it into the leading company in embedded and smart antennas, Airgain Inc., with global operations serving the world’s largest in-home wireless networking product companies in North America, Asia and Europe.
Pertti focuses on business success in changing environment with deep understanding of technology and of business strategy. He has published several research papers and has authored seventeen patent applications. He speaks five languages, holds a Ph.D. in Engineering Physics and a business degree from Aalto University in Helsinki and is a graduate of the Executive MBA program at the University of Michigan.