Rudman Wink Associates, LLC was originally founded by William (Bill) N. Rudman as William Rudman Associates, Inc. Bill started the company after retiring from the federal government in 1993. In his over 26-year career, including 22 years as a criminal investigator, he held every management position from first-line supervisor to the Deputy Under Secretary of Defense and Director of the Defense Technology Security Administration.
Using his experience as a federal manager and expertise as an attorney, Bill developed an entertaining seminar full of real-life anecdotes about the federal personnel discipline system. The seminar was designed to arm managers and supervisors with the tools needed to deal with the most challenging employees and personnel situations. Bill dedicated his energy to building a training business based on this seminar. He instilled in our federal leaders the necessary knowledge and confidence to avoid “taking the easy way out” in these difficult cases. As business grew, Bill recruited additional instructors, hand-picking folks with an extensive knowledgebase in federal personnel as well as a love of teaching.
Robin Wink, the current owner and lead trainer, joined the company after meeting Bill at a training session at The Brookings Institution. Bill saw a bit of himself in Robin. She had substantial management experience as well as legal expertise in federal personnel cases. She also had proven credentials as a trainer, having been a regular and favorite instructor for the U.S. Department of Justice. In July 2006, Bill coaxed Robin to retire from the federal government to become a full-time instructor. Before Bill passed away in September 2006, he went to great lengths to lay the groundwork to continue the business. He put complete faith in his associates in the hope that his bedrock courses would continue to inspire managers throughout the federal government. In October 2007, Robin formally purchased the company and began operating it as Rudman Wink Associates, LLC.
Now celebrating our tenth year, Rudman Wink Associates continues Bill’s fine tradition–engaging seminars that educate federal managers, supervisors, and team members. From our experience and intimate understanding of the federal workforce, our instructors strengthen attendees’ knowledge with in-depth understanding of leadership principles and how to apply them within the unique federal personnel system. We also fortify participant experience by introducing practical tools and strategies based on real-world experience that can be immediately implemented. We have listened to participant feedback from the more than 1,000 presentations we have conducted to keep our seminars up-to-date and to continuously add more courses and content to meet the needs of a continually changing workforce. We have also added more services, including executive coaching, strengths-based coaching, and team training, as well as recruited highly experienced and enormously talented instructors and coaches to stimulate our participants and meet federal agency needs.