Watershed Associates is a team of negotiation experts with home bases in United States and in Europe for convenient access to clients around the world.  Our program developers represent a comprehensive blend of seasoned business and sales executives, trainers, attorneys, storytellers, and theorists.  We regularly refine our programs through focused shared learning with clients and amongst ourselves.  As a result, we remain a small specialist company operating as a close-knit group of negotiation experts, each contributing their own skills to our programs.

Our team of experienced professional negotiators are talented trainers and facilitators. Our delivery is humorous, practical and focused. We enjoy teaching and coaching, so we arrive early and stay late, and offer continuing advice to workshop participants. Our programs reflect a master mix of content and performance with enormous take-away value aimed at producing lasting, desired results.

Come meet us. We’re looking forward to meeting you.

Thomas A. Wood is the president of Watershed Associates and author of the Best Negotiating Practices: Building Trust and Strong Relationships program. Tom conducts business negotiations for private industry and nonprofit organizations, delivers workshops internationally, is a contributing writer for the business press, and conducts customized executive retreats and facilitations.

With more than 25 years of experience in sales, marketing, product management, procurement and engineering, Tom brings a broad base of knowledge and practical experience to his clients. Previously, Tom worked for Wang Global, TRW, Computer Sciences Corporation, and NCR, with such responsibilities as sales executive, managing and negotiating multi-million dollar contracts, developing marketing strategies, managing an international computer network, and designing computer networking products. Tom also managed large accounts and negotiated domestic and international partnership agreements.

As a community leader and advocate, Tom facilitates public meetings among industry, government, and citizens to help promote consensus and solve problems in the community. Tom received a Governor’s Citation for his civic leadership in Maryland.

Tom holds a bachelor’s degree in business from the University of Maryland, where he also studied engineering.

Ruth Shlossman, a principal of Watershed Associates, Inc., has over 20 years experience in leadership, sales and consulting.  She has trained thousands of people in the art of innovation, negotiation, sales negotiation, and bargaining with emotional intelligence. Combining her mastery of emotional intelligence and negotiating skills, Ruth has led dialogues for conflict resolution between opposing factions in the Middle East, negotiated multi-level contracts for the telecom industry in the initial stages of deregulation, and as a school principal generated consensus among the divergent perspectives of teachers, students and the community.

Ruth brings her diverse experiences in sales and leadership to the benefit of her clients at Global 1000 companies and US government agencies, including such clients as Blue Cross/Blue Shield, 3M, Bank of Scotland, Kellogg's, Gillette, Campbell Soup, Sprint and GlaxoSmithKline. Ruth is also lead Watershed faculty for Institute for Management Studies, a worldwide leader in executive management education for the Fortune 500, and previously trained for Quest International.

Ruth holds a M.Ed. from Harvard with a specialty in leadership, and a BA in education from the University of Florida.

Ranna Parekh, M.D. is an expert in conflict resolution and highly charged, emotional negotiations in which an on-going relationship is critical. As a member of the Watershed Associates' faculty, she facilitates Best Negotiating Practice workshops as well as conducts research. Additionally, she is a physician with an expertise in child, adolescent and adult psychiatry at Massachusetts General Hospital and McLean Hospital, both primary teaching hospitals for Harvard Medical school.

Among her clinical duties, she leads a medical team that negotiates for the rights and treatments of her patients and their families. On a daily basis, she interfaces with competing interests such as the legal and court systems, educational institutions and insurance companies.

Cait has designed curriculum, managed trainings, and conducted dozens of workshops and trained hundreds of attorneys throughout the U.S. in a variety of programs, including the National Defender Leadership Institute at the National Legal Aid and Defender Association, Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government’s Executive Session on Public Defense, funded by the U.S. Department of Justice, Harvard Law School, and Loyola University School of Law in New Orleans.

Her doctoral fieldwork took her to South Africa where she studied and published on plea negotiations. She has also completed the MIT-Harvard Public Disputes Program and Harvard Law School’s Program on Negotiation for Senior Executives.

In her community work, Cait serves as a Co-Chair of the National Consortium on Community Problem Solving and served on the International Board of Advisors to Justice Without Borders.  She is extensively published, with law reviews, articles, book chapters and book reviews to her credit. She holds her S.J.D. from Harvard Law School, LL.M from Georgetown University Law Center’s Criminal Justice Clinic, J.D. from Catholic University’s Columbus School of Law, and B.S. from Villanova University’s School of Commerce and Finance.

Her executive management positions at national nonprofit organizations have included Acting CEO of a $6M organization that trains boards of directors, Corporate Secretary at American Red Cross where she built relationships between 50 board members and the management team of this $3B enterprise; and Vice President, Resource Development for a national nonprofit lobbying group, where she oversaw membership, fundraising, and the organization’s annual conference. 

At American Red Cross, Marianne also headed up human resources, where she led the conversion of 1000 Red Cross units to a nationalized health plan by influencing and negotiating with their leaders. She also provided employment law and harassment training to hundreds, including Red Cross civilians on DOD bases in Japan and Germany.

Märianne began her career as a judicial law clerk, and litigating at major Baltimore and Philadelphia firms, focusing on business disputes, settlement negotiations, and employment law.  She also served in the Red Cross’ General Counsel’s Office overseeing employment litigation.

She holds her J.D. from Catholic University’s Columbus School of Law, and B.A. in Theatre Management from Western Maryland College.

 Carrie was instrumental in developing and implementing NASA Johnson Space Center’s cross-cultural training for the International Space Station’s five international partners, and served as the intercultural negotiations consultant on a $1B international energy project.

With over 25 years’ experience in training, research and consulting, Carrie’s work has taken her to a wide range of countries, including Russia, Paraguay, Germany, Japan, Hungary, Mexico and Egypt.  She is active in community, school, and church efforts focusing on increasing community and global integration.

 Carrie received her BA in Russian from the Monterey Institute of International Studies and her Ph.D. in Linguistics from Rice University.

Matt Branam is a business and negotiations strategy consultant to Watershed Associates, advising teams in their development of an overall strategy for their approach to critical negotiations with major customers, vendors and partners.

 Matt’s negotiation experience crosses diverse areas, from his 25 years at United Parcel Service, as Chief Operating Officer  of American Red Cross’ multifaceted and heavily regulated $2.5B operations, to his ongoing business ventures. His work in these competitive industries includes hands-on operations management and strategy direction in areas as varied as multi-million dollar capital budget projects, lobbying, trade and vendor networks, materials handling operations, strategic infrastructure planning, and transportation solutions. He also co-authored UPS corporate-wide procedures for procurement of major infrastructure projects.

Matt has negotiated hundreds of agreements of every type, including major construction projects, consultant and vendor contracts, claims mitigation, legal disputes, and labor relations. As a lobbyist and executive, Matt effectively influenced state and federal policy and action through communication, negotiation and creative application of human resource.

Matt holds a BS in Civil Engineering from Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, is media trained and experienced with experience testifying before Congress, and is an experienced panelist and public speaker.

Also currently Editorial Director of World Trade Magazine, covering transportation, logistics management, finance and supply chain technology as well as international trade policy and economic development, Neil advises Watershed on industry specific issues.

Neil’s journalism and communications experience includes correspondent with Time Magazine, television writer for The Miami Herald, editor of Atlanta (GA) Magazine, Senior Vice President of Hill and Knowlton (Manager, Custom Publishing), Vice President/Marketing Inc. Magazine Business Resources, and Editor/Publisher, PRTM Consulting’s Insight Magazine. Neil has also served as a communications consultant, Adjunct Professor at Boston University, School of Communication and Associate Professor at Hampshire College, School of Language and Communication.

Neil holds a M.Phil. from Yale University and B.A. from the University of Michigan (Phi Beta Kappa), and served in the Peace Corps in the Ivory Coast, West Africa. Among Neil’s many published works are 10 Minute Guide to Negotiation, Macmillan Spectrum/Alpha Books, 1997 and Negotiate Your Way to Financial Success, G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1987 (ghost writer).

Stuart Shlossman comes to Watershed with two decades of negotiation experience on complex and high profile deals. He serves as Senior Vice President, Media and Client Relations for Madison Road Entertainment, a branded entertainment production studio. There Stuart negotiates partnerships with media powerhouses like NBC and CBS and media agencies. Stuart joined Madison Road from Masterfoods USA, where he oversaw $350M of media spend including products such as M&M’s, Snickers and Pedigree, and the successful integration of The Amazing Bar in an episode of The Apprentice.

Prior to joining Masterfoods USA, Stuart spent almost twenty years working at advertising agencies such as DDB and BBDO, on media/marketing assignments for companies across industries including McDonald’s, Pepsi-Cola, and Federal Express among others. Stuart regularly speaks at industry conferences such as Association of National Advertisers and American Association of Advertising Agencies. In 1999, Stuart was named a Media Maven by Advertising Age, and in 2003 was awarded the coveted “Make a Difference Award” by Masterfoods USA.

Stuart is very active in his community where he is chair of the municipal pool commission. Stuart holds a bachelor’s degree in advertising from the University of Florida.

Marcelo Morichi leads Watershed’s special delivery of negotiation programs in Spanish.  He brings 20 years of experience in communications, project management and operations. Throughout his carrier Marcelo has negotiated successful client acquisitions and joint ventures in new and challenging cross-cultural markets, with a focus on Latin America. He leads a media firm that manages marketing and advertising for custom publishers in the US and abroad, with advertising clients such as BMW Latin America, Intercontinental Hotel Group, LVMH Caribbean and Latin America, Porsche Latin America, and Mercedes Benz among others.

Previously he managed relationships with ten partner banks in Latin America; on-line content in three languages for a US based financial services firm addressed to visitors in the US and 8 Latin American countries, and the editorial process and production of 2 Spanish language magazines with monthly circulation and distribution in 20 countries.

Fluent in English, Spanish and Portuguese with a working knowledge of Italian, Marcelo earned his Bachelor of Arts at the National University of Cuyo, Argentina and his Master of Public Affairs at the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs University of Texas at Austin.