meet our team

agile problem solvers.
industry experts.

President & Co-Founder

RJ Valentino

RJ serves as a senior adviser to major colleges and universities to guide them toward strategies and programs that achieve and maintain excellence and strengthen their positioning in times of change. Experienced in both traditional and entrepreneurial settings, for more than 30 years, he has advised university and foundation presidents, corporate CEOS, boards and senior leadership. He also applies his expertise to a select group of businesses and non-profit organizations targeting growth, leadership development and improved partnerships with their boards.

His work for two decades with university presidents and senior leaders who are leading change in today’s evolving and competitive higher education market incorporates best practices and market-driven intelligence bridging for-profit and non-profit sectors to drive custom solutions and innovation. These practices directly engage organizational talent to shape and drive solutions and result in enhanced buy-in and ownership, stronger brand recognition, alignment of internal and external constituencies and innovative and timely solutions. His lectures focus on how rapidly changing models in higher education ultimately will benefit the economy, and society at large.

RJ’s counsel promoted alignment and integration at E*Trade during its unprecedented growth, supported rigor to repeatable management practices at ZANTAZ, Inc., as part of its transformation from start-up to industry leader and helped position the turnaround at AskJeeves during market uncertainty and emerging competition.

Prior to co-founding The Napa Group in 1985, RJ held management and leadership positions in financial services, corporate training, and human resources in Fortune 500 companies. He is certified in Mediation, is Professionally Credentialed in Organizational Learning from the Sloan School of Business at MIT, and is a member of the International Facilitators Association. RJ studied at the University of Texas, Austin, and received his B.S. in Marketing from San Jose State University.

Senior Partner

Janis Johnson

Janis Johnson is Senior Partner, Marketing & Communication, for The Napa Group. She brings a diversified career as a strategist and practitioner who has built and managed communications teams and initiatives in complex nonprofit organizations and as a journalist with major news media.

For nearly 20 years Janis has been a senior executive and consultant in higher education, health care, fundraising organizations, alumni associations and community nonprofits and as communications counsel to executives and business leaders. As a Napa Group consultant, she helps leaders and organizations develop the internal and external communications programs to build market position and constituent buy-in and engagement. She also conducts best practice research, communications audits, and strategic plan facilitation and project management.

As Assistant Vice President for Constituent Communications in Georgetown University’s Office of Alumni and University Relations, Janis oversaw the award-winning mate- rials for Georgetown University’s $1 billion comprehensive campaign in the late 1990s. As Assistant Vice President for Communications and Public Affairs at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles from 2001 to 2005, she was responsible for internal and external communications and a multi-year institution-wide rebranding initiative. Previously she was a staff reporter for The Washington Post and correspondent for USA Today, the Philadelphia Inquirer, Miami Herald, and the Boston Globe. She is a graduate of Duke University.

Partner

Sloane Valentino

Sloane brings over 20 years of specialized expertise to The Napa Group’s public sector consulting including broad leadership, management, strategic planning and analytics experience.  His diverse skills and experience have translated into his ability to successfully plan, facilitate and implement innovative approaches to government and municipal services in complex and informed communities.  These include both management and direct delivery of programs involving fluctuating economic and political support requiring a balance between budgeting, value-added enhancements, service delivery and strategic talent management in a dynamic era of economic change and shifting public expectations.

Sloane is the Assistant Chief of Operations at the Irmo Fire District in Columbia, South Carolina.  He has taught several classes at Santa Rosa Junior College and is a former construction business owner in Marin County, California.  He is a graduate of the University of California at Irvine and served as a Sergeant in the U.S. Marine Corps.  Sloane earned a Leadership Certificate from the Dominican University of California and graduated from the Executive Fire Officer Program at the National Fire Academy.