Ralph Palmen has spent his business career helping individuals and organizations grow.  In 1965 he went to work for an employment agency.  His experience in the employment industry provided him the opportunity to learn about effective employers and employees.  He began to organize his observations into a set of principles he was able to apply to his own workplace.  He had soon built the largest-producing employment agency in company history and was tasked with developing an Executive Recruiting Division for the company.  Within five years he built a division that had 18 branches.

He then was recruited by Sherwood & Roberts, a major Northwest-based real estate and mortgage banking company, to run their real estate division.  Using the concepts he had been learning he grew the company’s annual sales from $59 million to $242 million.

In 1979, Ralph became a full-time speaker and consultant.  He has subsequently given over 2000 speeches throughout the world and consulted with scores of companies on how to grow and expand their organization.  In 1983 he helped found Express Personnel Service which has become one of the world’s largest employment companies with over 600 franchises.

He is the author of three books, Professionals at Their Best, Principles and Success Strategies for Everyday Living, and 8 Critical Lifetime Decisions.  He wrote, recorded, and marketed five successful cassette training albums.  He produced three video programs, one of which, Interview Smart—Hire Right, was nominated for a Vincent award as the Best How-To Video of the year by the American Library Association in 1994.

Ralph has served as President of Pinnacle Forum since May 2005.  He is an alumnus of Northwest Nazarene University, where he serves on the University’s Foundation Board.  He and his wife Darlys have two grown children and two grandchildren and mostly divide their time between Washington State and Arizona.

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