About Us

At Workplace Options, we pride ourselves on the quality of our people. The relationships we develop with our clients and your employees through world-class service delivery and account management is the key reason for our success.

C. Dean Debnam, Chief Executive Officer
Dean Debnam has over 40 years' experience turning ideas into successful businesses and stills acts as CEO of several of them. In 1993 he became CEO of Workplace Options, Inc. and over the years has transformed Workplace Options from a consultancy and management company, into the one of the largest global work-life companies.

Alan King, President and Managing Director
Alan King brings over 20 years of business development, marketing and operations experience to Workplace Options, with much of this time spent in Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) delivery and management. He has a Bachelor's degree from Colby College and a Master's degree from the University of Rhode Island.

Mary Ellen Gornick, MA, Senior Vice President Global Products
Mary Ellen Gornick, MA, is a nationally recognised expert in the field of work-life. Mary Ellen leads the Work-Life Consulting Practice and the Global Training Centre. Work-life innovation is the focus of the Workplace Options Consulting Practice, assisting clients in designing creative approaches to investing in human capital. Ms. Gornick helps clients determine new directions through organisational assessments, impact studies, strategy development and unique programme initiatives. Comprehensive personal and professional development programmes are delivered through an international network of trainers in traditional and on-line venues.

Prior to joining Workplace Options, Ms. Gornick founded the CPA Group a US work-life consulting and training organisation. Ms. Gornick is a founding board member and past President of the Alliance of Work-Life Progress (AWLP). She is an instructor in the Boston College - AWLP certificate programme and currently serves as a subject matter expert on the EAPA Work-Life Committee. Ms Gornick earned a Master's Degree from the University of Chicago, School of Social Service Administration and is currently associated with the Entrepreneurship Center, housed in the School of Management at Purdue University-Calumet.

Darrell Shipley, Vice President of Global Service Delivery
Darrell Shipley brings more than 15 years of call centre management experience to his role of Vice President of Service Delivery. He has gained a vast knowledge of the work-life industry through his tenure with Workplace Options. Before assuming his current position, Darrell was in the role the Director of Service Delivery at Workplace Options' Raleigh service centre. He is currently responsible for managing Global Service Delivery in the Raleigh, London and Dublin offices. His primary goal is to continue developing the service delivery management staff at all of our service centres while instilling the mission of "First Serve the Customer" through excellent customer service. Prior to joining Workplace Options, he was a Qualitative Project Manager at Campos Market Research. Darrell has a marketing degree from Pennsylvania State University.

Tim Cuthell, Vice President of Global Account Management
Tim Cuthell is responsible for the sales and account management of our EAPs and related services. He is an acknowledged expert in the EAP field and is a regular commentator on counselling and workplace mental health issues in the national press, broadcast media and industry publications and has chaired professional conferences on Employee Assistance Programmes and work-life balance. In addition to his business experience, he has an Advanced Diploma in Counselling and Interpersonal Skills from the University of London.

Dirk Hansen, Vice President of Global Clinical Quality and Outcomes
Dirk Hansen is responsible for the management of the clinical aspects of our EAPs and related services, including counselling, case management and critical incident interventions. His previous positions have included working as a mental health case manager, counsellor, clinical manager and counselling programme director. He received his counselling training in the USA and is also a British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP) accredited counsellor in the UK. His training includes specialist areas such as solution-focused counselling, Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) and Family Systems Therapy.

Kassandra Smith, Special Advisor to the President
Kassandra Smith is responsible for liaising closely with the President, Alan King to ensure our clinical model and standards are sustained globally. She has extensive experience in the EAP field and has worked for the company since 1996. During this time she has worked as an affiliate provider, counselling case manager, clinical supervisor, assistant clinical manager and clinical manager, prior to moving into her current role. She completed her clinical training in the UK and has BACP senior accreditation as a Humanistic Therapist qualified to work both long term and short term with clients. She has over her varied and extensive clinical career worked in voluntary, statutory and business environments as a front line therapist, clinical supervisor and trainer. Thus she has extensive experience of working with individuals, couples and groups from a diversity of backgrounds and cultures. She has specialist trainings in Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP), Family Systems Therapy and Solution-focused Therapy to name but a few. She is also a Certified Trauma worker with many years experience in this field. She also specialised in the field of HIV and AIDS working with those infected and affected over the years.

Jean-Baptiste Gruet, Senior Vice President of
Global Business Solutions
Jean-Baptiste is responsible for Workplace Options’ overall global products sales revenue. He works in conjunction with the Account Management and Sales Teams as well as our partners around the world to develop sales strategy and identify new business opportunities across all markets. Jean-Baptiste brings to WPO over 15 years of business development experience in the human support services industry. He joined WPO in 2007 as Vice President of Business Solutions. Prior to joining WPO, he was Director of Global Business Solutions at FGI (now Morneau Shepell), where he played a key leadership role in the evolution of their global EAP, expatriate services and cross-cultural training offerings. Once a co-founder of a language and cultural publication in Paris, France, he has also lived in London, UK, where he launched his sales career working for an executive language and training enterprise. Following eight years’ expatriate experience in the US, he now resides with his family in Toronto, Canada.

Clare Robinson, M.Econ, MSc, BA, Dip, Mgt, EAPA
Director of European Services
Graduating with a BA from University College Dublin (UCD) in 2001, Clare holds post-graduate qualifications in Research and Economics from UCD and Trinity College. She has excellent research skills in both quantitative and qualitative research, having completed Master's Degrees in Applied Social Research and Economic Science. Following roles in research and information analysis, Clare worked for the European Commission Employment and Social Affairs Directorate where she completed a number of key research programmes funded by the European Union. She has extensive experience of EAPs and work-life services both in the UK and Ireland and also plays a key role in the development of our International EAP service.

Peter O’Toole, BA (Hons) in Psychology; Msc (Distinction) Counselling and Therapeutic Communication – Team Leader, Ireland
Peter had worked as a case manager and telephone counsellor in the service centre, Clonskeagh for two and a half years before being appointed Team Leader for the organisation. He is a member of British Psychological Society (BPS) and also an accredited EAP Practitioner with EAPA Ireland.  Peter also has many years experience working within the voluntary sector.

Clark Adams, Vice President, Strategic Growth

Formerly CEO of Mulberry Child Care, Clark’s responsibility is to develop and negotiate business partnerships between Workplace Options and complementary enterprises within the work/life industry. Such partnerships include acquisitions, mergers, joint ventures and cooperative marketing strategies. While at Mulberry, he grew the company from $4 million to $65 million in annual revenue, prior to completing a sale to Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co., in 2001.

As an early participant in the development of employee-supportive work environments, Clark was co-founder of Alliance of Work Life Professionals (AWLP), the pre-eminent professional membership organisation advocating the advancement of work-life benefits as a critical factor in the continuing improvement of workplace productivity. He has an undergraduate degree from University of Maine, with a Master’s degree from University of Massachusetts.

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