Meet Our Negotiation Experts
Melissa Fortunato is a retired FBI Special Agent. She retired in June 2022 with over 23 years as a federal law enforcement officer. During her career, Melissa was assigned to the New York City and Cleveland field offices.
Melissa was a certified FBI Crisis Negotiator and Undercover Agent. She spent her last 15 years as an FBI Crisis Negotiator; leading FBI Cleveland’s Crisis Negotiation Team for 10 of those years. In this capacity, she successfully resolved domestic and international kidnappings, barricaded subjects, and other crisis events.
Melissa planned and executed formal crisis negotiation training for hundreds of law enforcement officers. Moreover, she worked as an assessor and coach for the FBI’s National Crisis Negotiation Course. In 2020, Melissa was selected by the FBI to instruct at the International Law Enforcement Academy (ILEA) in Budapest, Hungary, where she taught crisis negotiation strategies to international law enforcement officers. In addition to her FBI training, Melissa represented the FBI in 2019 as a student at the Metropolitan Police (Scotland Yard) Hostage Negotiation Course in London, England.
As an FBI undercover agent, Melissa operated both domestically and internationally. Her undercover portfolio included transnational organized crime, public corruption, drug trafficking, and counterintelligence matters. One of the cases in which she was directly involved as an undercover agent was briefed to the President of the United States and won the FBI Director’s Award.
Melissa is a Managing Director with the Negotiations Collective. She is married with two daughters. Her husband is an Assistant Special Agent in Charge of FBI Cleveland, where he leads its National Security branch.
Inés Piccinino retired from the British Columbia government in 2023, after more than 25 years as senior executive in both South and North America. Having worked in energy, environment, climate change, economics and regulatory, Inés developed strategic public policy requiring deep and complex engagement and negotiations with communities, industries, stakeholders, other governments, and international and indigenous partners.
Inés was a professor of Economics at the University of Buenos Aires (Argentina), Camosun College, and the University of Victoria’s Masters of Public Administration (British Columbia, Canada).
With a degree in Economics from the University of Buenos Aires, Inés has consulted for the World Bank, the United Nations Development Program and the Inter American Development Bank and provided advice to the private, public and non-governmental sectors in her 30+ year professional career.
Inés started her own consulting company, Aldea Global Insights, in June 2023, and joined the Negotiations Collective in August 2023, offering seminars in both English and Spanish.
Gary Luefschuetz is an Attorney, Certified Public Accountant, and Negotiation and Dispute Resolution Specialist with 30 years of general management, operations, pricing, sales capture, negotiation, contract management, quality assurance, and risk management experience in the software and professional services industries at Accenture, Booz Allen Hamilton, Unisys, and PeopleSoft.
Gary is an accomplished commercial negotiator with a proven track record—more than $6.5 billion in contracted sales—of serving as the lead negotiator for and executing large, complex, highly-competitive, and strategic consulting, systems integration, and outsourcing agreements within the public and private sector. In addition, Gary has successfully remediated problem projects and client disputes that resulted in the avoidance of $300 million in write-downs.
Prior to leading the Negotiations Collective, Gary served as the lead of the Accenture Negotiations Center of Excellence, a global team responsible for developing and executing interest-based negotiation strategies across all commercial industries and the public sector, advising account teams on negotiation strategy, facilitating the resolution of client disputes, developing thought leadership, and delivering negotiation training to Accenture’s 700,000 personnel.
Gary received a Bachelor of Science in Management degree from Tulane University, a Master of Business Administration degree from The American University Kogod College of Business and is a Magna Cum Laude graduate of The American University Washington College of Law. He is admitted to the Bar in Maryland and the District of Columbia.
Kelly Liberti is a former Special Agent with the Federal Bureau of Investigation. In her 23 years with the FBI, she led complex criminal investigations, and served as a crisis negotiator, child abduction specialist and adjunct instructor.
Kelly was the lead agent on many of Northeast Ohio’s high-profile, multi-agency criminal cases. She ran the Cleveland Division’s Crisis Negotiation Team and spent 13 years on the FBI’s elite Child Abduction Rapid Deployment (CARD) Team, the last three of which as Team Leader for the Central United States.
Kelly also served as a certified law enforcement instructor, turning her investigative experiences into learning tools for Federal, State and Local law enforcement agencies in the areas of crisis negotiations, crimes against children, media relations and interview and interrogation techniques.
After retiring, Kelly spent three years as a Child and Adolescent Forensic Interviewer. In addition to the Negotiations Collective, she now conducts investigations for educational outlets, consults with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and instructs child abduction courses for the National Criminal Justice Training Program.
Siddharth Kumaria is a diligent and committed lifelong learner who is focused on enhancing operations and strengthening teams. A graduate of the University of Alberta, Siddharth holds a Bachelor of Management focusing on Economics. Siddharth is recognized as a graduate with distinction, an honor given to students who displayed a hard work ethic and secured exceptional grades.
During his final academic year, Siddharth and his team secured first place in a capstone case competition centered on improving the operations of a Canadian Brewery. His education has enabled him to complete rigorous market analysis by using tools such as Porter’s five forces. While his knowledge covers important areas such as organizational behavior, marketing, corporate strategy, and international economics, he has developed a passion for client care and market expansion. For Siddharth, the key to success is to make meaningful lifelong relationships.
Siddharth’s dedication extends beyond academics. From an early age, he has actively engaged in volunteering and has worked across several industries, including hospitality, mechanical, security and event management. This diverse background has provided him with deep insights into operations and allows him to understand the unique needs of a wide range of clients.
In his current role as scheduling and operations coordinator, Siddharth leverages his education and experience to ensure seamless operations and drive success.
Real Results, Real Impact
— P. Eng. MBA, EGBC Member
“Excellent. I love the focus on the emotional side of people in the workplace. The process is organized and easily deployable once put in a practice. Highly recommend!”
— P. Geo, MBA, APEGA Member
“Provides structure to a subject matter that we are all afraid of and face everyday at work or personal life. The steps give me the confidence to push for more.”
— Team Lead, Spartan Controls, EGBC Member
“Learning how to classify the source of influence with shocking. I have realized with sections I rely on to drive influence and which I've never fostered. I am looking forward to deploying these in real life, immediately.”