Dr. Karen Sobel Lojeski is Chief Executive Officer of Virtual Distance International (VDI). Karen co-founded Virtual Distance International in 2004 to help organizations create meaningful, satisfying, productive workplaces where people and institutions can thrive in the Digital Age.

At a time when many people are working virtually and communicating with their colleagues primarily through e-mail and other computer-mediated means, Karen and her VDI colleagues have created a much-needed methodology for measuring Virtual Distance - a psychological gap that grows out of a heavy reliance on electronic communications - and improving productivity and innovation over distance by reducing its effects. For example, when Virtual Distance is high it can negatively impact financial performance, productivity, and innovation. And Virtual Distance can be just as high among collocated workers as it is among those who work thousands of miles apart making the need for Virtual Distance management an urgent imperative. For these reasons and more, Karen and VDI have built a solution set to achieve improved results among the virtual workforce.

Her clients include major worldwide Fortune 500 organizations as well as large governmental and non-profit associations. Karen is also a highly sought-after keynote speaker on the topic of improving performance, innovation, and leadership over distance in the new world of work. Prior to launching VDI, Karen spent 18 years in corporate America. She held leadership positions at Stratus Computer, Inc., Chase Manhattan Bank N.A., and Mercer Consulting Group. She was Chief Operating Officer for Prolifics, a JYACC company, and Vice President of North America for Xansa. Karen holds undergraduate degrees in Computer Science and Applied Mathematics and recently completed her Ph.D. at Stevens Institute of Technology where her dissertation, "Virtual Distance: A New Model for the Study of Virtual Work", won the award for Best Dissertation of 2006. Karen is a Visitor at the Institute of Advanced Studies at Princeton University, a 'collaborator' at Stanford University's MediaX Lab, and a Presidential Fellow at Polytechnic University. Karen is the moderator of the Virtual Work Forum at CIOZone.com, a new social networking site for CIOs as well as a columnist and contributing editor for CIOInsight magazine where she writes on the subject of management and leadership in the changing world of work in the Digital Age.

Virtual Distance and her groundbreaking work on making improvements to innovation and productivity have been featured in a number of major business publications and TV appearances including Business Week, The New York Times, Entrepreneur magazine, The Los Angeles Times, ABC News, and elsewhere. Karen is the author of "Uniting the Virtual Workforce: Transforming Leadership and Innovation in the Globally Integrated Enterprise," John Wiley & Sons, April 2008. The book is also one of only a select group in the new Microsoft Executive Leadership Book Series which is showcased worldwide to thousands of Microsoft employees, subsidiaries, and major global organizations. Book sales of Uniting the Virtual Workforce surpassed expectations early on. Sobel-Lojeski and Reilly are slotted to pen at least two follow-on books for publication in 2009.

Leaders from around the globe are hailing Uniting the Virtual Workforce. Said Jerry MacArthur Hultin, Former Undersecretary of the United States Navy and President, Polytechnic University, "Uniting the Virtual Workforce charts the course for competing in the 21st Century by tapping into the powers of virtual work. Any manager who ignores the virtual workforce is underperforming and any company or organization that does not appreciate virtual work is already at a competitive disadvantage."

Uniting the Virtual Workforce: Improve Productivity, Innovation and Leadership by Managing Virtual Distance

Virtual teams are pervasive in the Digital Age. Individuals working together connected mainly through electronic communications are the mainstay of today's corporate workforce. Whether separated by oceans or simply a dry-wall, most professionals rely heavily on email and other collaboration tools for a majority of their interactions.

But managing the myriad of challenges this brings is not trivial. Until now, many of the issues around communication problems, cultural differences, and the lack of a shared physical space and work context have been addressed using tactics based on prior experiences or expectations. But do they work? Can the effects of virtual workforce challenges be seen, measured and therefore acted upon in a more precise and methodical way? Up until now, this seemed unlikely.

But Sobel-Lojeski and Reilly have changed all of that. Their book, "Uniting the Virtual Workforce: Transforming Leadership and Innovation in the Globally Integrated Enterprise" takes the guesswork out of understanding virtual team and collaboration obstacles. They have discovered Virtual Distance - a breakthrough model which describes a psychological gap that grows between people who work mainly through electronic communications. Virtual Distance can be measured, quantified, and revealed so that targeted solutions can be implemented.

Sobel-Lojeski has found Virtual Distance to be prevalent among distributed as well as collocated workers. And while physical distance can certainly contribute to Virtual Distance, it is not the main cause. Virtual Distance is fueled by operational distance - the things that create day to day struggles like multitasking and competing priorities and most importantly by affinity distance - the stumbling blocks that get in the way of developing close relationships.

Using Virtual Distance metrics organizations can finally hone in on specific obstacles to virtual team success. Using her proven methods of Virtual Distance Indexing, Virtual Distance Mapping, Critical Relationship Pathing, and Virtual Distance Management Planning Sobel-Lojeski brings specific, measurable and tangible solutions to problems which up until now have been anything but clear. When companies act using these tested tools and techniques - good things happen:

• Innovative Behavior gets better by 93%
• Trust among co-workers improves by 80%
• Project success rates improve by 50% or more
• Leader Effectiveness rises by over 60%

Her engaging speaking style, myriad war stories and case studies, and her energy and optimism leave audiences ready to go out and tackle these issues with a renewed sense of energy and optimism.

Register today for BusinessWeek Broadcase event of the year, "Boosting Productivity Through Virtual Collaboration." Along with her friend and colleague, Jessica Lipnack, Karen will share her expertise on how to improve performance and innovation and give a sneak peek into her new book, Leading the Virtual Workforce.