perspective changes everything
About Us 
Brent Snow
When you ask Brent what made him so passionate about creating perspective shifts in leaders, you’ll likely hear it was from his years working as a director of management development for a global manufacturing organization combined with his graduate studies in adult learning theory. Or he'll tell you it was from the first time he brought in a simulation to the mahogany-tabled boardroom and heard more meaningful strategic discussion in a few hours then he’d heard in several years of SWOT analysis, environmental scans and detailed dissections of business-unit P&Ls. Or maybe he'll talk about his experience of flying over an area he thought he knew well and seeing for the first time how the competing desires for proximity to a city and access to water were creating skewed patterns of development that he had only vaguely understood before.
And that’s what happens at 10,000 Feet— perspectives that seem to compete when you look from ground level – suddenly hang together when you shift perspective. Or a single provincial perspective becomes a broader, more strategic one. Or terrain that was previously not understood seems more familiar and approachable, the path forward more clear.
As 10,000 Feet’s founder, driving force, and chief instigator during intense design discussions when we're addressing a client's strategic learning challenges, Brent brings a singular ability to listen and perceive the crux dynamics of a situation, and then imagine ways to bring these dynamics to 'life.' And along the way his work has been featured in Fortune Magazine, CIO, and Fast Company, televised globally by the International Institute for Learning, and given a Best Practice award from the American Society for Training and Development.
And yet Brent would also be the first to admit that the work of 10,000 feet is on a continuous learning journey - not a literal journey like he often takes to different parts of the globe to work with clients - but a continuous journey of becoming ever more masterful in creating the best simulation tool, best perspective broadening experience, best interactive learning design that will create actionable new perspectives.
When you ask Brent what made him so passionate about creating perspective shifts in leaders, you’ll likely hear it was from his years working as a director of management development for a global manufacturing organization combined with his graduate studies in adult learning theory. Or he'll tell you it was from the first time he brought in a simulation to the mahogany-tabled boardroom and heard more meaningful strategic discussion in a few hours then he’d heard in several years of SWOT analysis, environmental scans and detailed dissections of business-unit P&Ls. Or maybe he'll talk about his experience of flying over an area he thought he knew well and seeing for the first time how the competing desires for proximity to a city and access to water were creating skewed patterns of development that he had only vaguely understood before.
And that’s what happens at 10,000 Feet— perspectives that seem to compete when you look from ground level – suddenly hang together when you shift perspective. Or a single provincial perspective becomes a broader, more strategic one. Or terrain that was previously not understood seems more familiar and approachable, the path forward more clear.
As 10,000 Feet’s founder, driving force, and chief instigator during intense design discussions when we're addressing a client's strategic learning challenges, Brent brings a singular ability to listen and perceive the crux dynamics of a situation, and then imagine ways to bring these dynamics to 'life.' And along the way his work has been featured in Fortune Magazine, CIO, and Fast Company, televised globally by the International Institute for Learning, and given a Best Practice award from the American Society for Training and Development.
And yet Brent would also be the first to admit that the work of 10,000 feet is on a continuous learning journey - not a literal journey like he often takes to different parts of the globe to work with clients - but a continuous journey of becoming ever more masterful in creating the best simulation tool, best perspective broadening experience, best interactive learning design that will create actionable new perspectives.
Ken Victor
Ken Victor has been contributing his quick mind to 10,000 Feet's solutions since the beginning. Designer and facilitator extraordinaire, poet, writer, tri-athlete, prior Director of Canadian Outward Bound's Professional Development Program and founder of The Edgework Leadership Group, Inc., Ken brings many talents to 10,000 feet. We appreciate his willingness to take on the seemingly impossible combined with his well-trained sense of the possible, a skill which helps us build and deliver solutions that are both innovative and pragmatic. Notable also is his ability to uncover the hidden and often challenging issues in an organization and then put them on the table in a way that creates positive, meaningful dialogue,
Ken lives with his wife, and three children in the Gatineau Hills of West Quebec.
Ken Victor has been contributing his quick mind to 10,000 Feet's solutions since the beginning. Designer and facilitator extraordinaire, poet, writer, tri-athlete, prior Director of Canadian Outward Bound's Professional Development Program and founder of The Edgework Leadership Group, Inc., Ken brings many talents to 10,000 feet. We appreciate his willingness to take on the seemingly impossible combined with his well-trained sense of the possible, a skill which helps us build and deliver solutions that are both innovative and pragmatic. Notable also is his ability to uncover the hidden and often challenging issues in an organization and then put them on the table in a way that creates positive, meaningful dialogue,
Ken lives with his wife, and three children in the Gatineau Hills of West Quebec.
Melinda Matzell
Melinda Matzell has been a member of the 10,000 Feet creative design team since the beginning. As the firm's lead graphic designer she has this wonderful ability to turn a complex idea or concept into a simple, elegant and compelling visual that gives real meaning to the expression "a picture is worth a thousand words".
Melinda is always stimulated by the 'next' design challenge and her inquisitive spirit keeps her continually pushing the boundaries of the possible using the latest creative and technological Products. She also believes that she herself must keep growing her perspectives and skills if she expects her designs to help other people grow theirs - a belief that keeps her work fresh and frequently surprising.
Her greatest skill is something else, however, one that partly comes from Melinda and partly comes from the rigors of eight years of art school (BFA / MFA) and the process of collective exploration and 'critique' that is so much part of that training. Melinda is simultaneously able to be both excited about one of her designs and also able to take a critical stance toward it - a skill that facilitates rich and open dialogue with the rest of the 10,000 feet design team and the client, and often leads to more elegant and powerful visual Products.
Melinda Matzell has been a member of the 10,000 Feet creative design team since the beginning. As the firm's lead graphic designer she has this wonderful ability to turn a complex idea or concept into a simple, elegant and compelling visual that gives real meaning to the expression "a picture is worth a thousand words".
Melinda is always stimulated by the 'next' design challenge and her inquisitive spirit keeps her continually pushing the boundaries of the possible using the latest creative and technological Products. She also believes that she herself must keep growing her perspectives and skills if she expects her designs to help other people grow theirs - a belief that keeps her work fresh and frequently surprising.
Her greatest skill is something else, however, one that partly comes from Melinda and partly comes from the rigors of eight years of art school (BFA / MFA) and the process of collective exploration and 'critique' that is so much part of that training. Melinda is simultaneously able to be both excited about one of her designs and also able to take a critical stance toward it - a skill that facilitates rich and open dialogue with the rest of the 10,000 feet design team and the client, and often leads to more elegant and powerful visual Products.
Bert Snow
Bert is a creative director and interactive designer with extensive experience designing interactive experiences for education, entertainment and business. His work has included award-winning PC and Playstation games, interactive museum exhibits, and web-based projects. He has extensive experience working with national and international clients and building creative and engineering teams.
Bert was a founder of the game company Virtual Music, where he helped pioneer the genre of music videogames, designing the award winning Playstation/PC games Quest for Fame (starring Aerosmith) and Stolen Song. Virtual Music was acquired by Namco in 2000, and Bert creative-directed the web-music project MusicPlayground for Namco.
His latest project is Making History, the Calm & the Storm, a "smart" historic strategy game designed to be used in history classrooms as well as enjoyed by fans of strategy games like Civilization. Bert has been the content director and game designer for Making History.
In addition to his game design and software work, Bert has designed interactive museum exhibits for The Boston Children's Museum and the New York Hall of Science, and has created multimedia projects for clients including Microsoft, IBM, Fujitsu, Intel, and others.
As a sculptor, he has created public sculpture projects for galleries, universities and museums in New England and beyond. He spent a year as visiting artist at Harvard University, working with students to create a public art installation for the University.
Bert brings this wide base of experience with multimedia game design and visual communication to 10,000 Feet, and appreciates the challenge of creating meaningful learning in today's fast-paced and often distracted organizations.
Bert is a creative director and interactive designer with extensive experience designing interactive experiences for education, entertainment and business. His work has included award-winning PC and Playstation games, interactive museum exhibits, and web-based projects. He has extensive experience working with national and international clients and building creative and engineering teams.
Bert was a founder of the game company Virtual Music, where he helped pioneer the genre of music videogames, designing the award winning Playstation/PC games Quest for Fame (starring Aerosmith) and Stolen Song. Virtual Music was acquired by Namco in 2000, and Bert creative-directed the web-music project MusicPlayground for Namco.
His latest project is Making History, the Calm & the Storm, a "smart" historic strategy game designed to be used in history classrooms as well as enjoyed by fans of strategy games like Civilization. Bert has been the content director and game designer for Making History.
In addition to his game design and software work, Bert has designed interactive museum exhibits for The Boston Children's Museum and the New York Hall of Science, and has created multimedia projects for clients including Microsoft, IBM, Fujitsu, Intel, and others.
As a sculptor, he has created public sculpture projects for galleries, universities and museums in New England and beyond. He spent a year as visiting artist at Harvard University, working with students to create a public art installation for the University.
Bert brings this wide base of experience with multimedia game design and visual communication to 10,000 Feet, and appreciates the challenge of creating meaningful learning in today's fast-paced and often distracted organizations.
Brenda Kephart
Brenda loves to organize. She is the heart and soul of 10,000 feet's production and fulfillment operations. For Brenda, it is all in the details, and she knows that no matter how wonderful or creative or impactful the Learning
Design, getting the details right is essential to success.
Originally from New Mexico and Texas, Brenda brings a bit of southwest spice to 10,000 feet, constantly cracking jokes in the midst of the most boring and repetitive production task, and she somehow always is finding a way to better organize and/or streamline things.
Up before dawn each day and off to the gym, Brenda brings an irreverence for life and a reverence for perfection that is a critical component of 10,000 Feet's ability to deliver great results
Brenda loves to organize. She is the heart and soul of 10,000 feet's production and fulfillment operations. For Brenda, it is all in the details, and she knows that no matter how wonderful or creative or impactful the Learning
Design, getting the details right is essential to success.
Originally from New Mexico and Texas, Brenda brings a bit of southwest spice to 10,000 feet, constantly cracking jokes in the midst of the most boring and repetitive production task, and she somehow always is finding a way to better organize and/or streamline things.
Up before dawn each day and off to the gym, Brenda brings an irreverence for life and a reverence for perfection that is a critical component of 10,000 Feet's ability to deliver great results
Stephen French
Stephen is 10,000 Feet's IT guy. A System's Administrator by profession with a variety of technical skills, you can give him any IT challenge and he somehow figures out how to get it done, solve the problem, make it happen. One of Stephen's great strengths is his world-wide network of other IT experts, who in the spirit of 'open source' collaboration often provide hints, fixes, and other ideas that help 10,000 feet keep its systems running.
Always willing to pass on his knowledge and also admit what he doesn't know, Stephen embodies a constant desire to find a 'better way' that keeps us on our toes.
Active in the central NY running scene, Stephen also manages a great 'community' website sponsored by a local running store.
Stephen is 10,000 Feet's IT guy. A System's Administrator by profession with a variety of technical skills, you can give him any IT challenge and he somehow figures out how to get it done, solve the problem, make it happen. One of Stephen's great strengths is his world-wide network of other IT experts, who in the spirit of 'open source' collaboration often provide hints, fixes, and other ideas that help 10,000 feet keep its systems running.
Always willing to pass on his knowledge and also admit what he doesn't know, Stephen embodies a constant desire to find a 'better way' that keeps us on our toes.
Active in the central NY running scene, Stephen also manages a great 'community' website sponsored by a local running store.