David E Shaner

Dr. David Edward Shaner is the Principal of CONNECT Consulting LLC specializing in strategy, business development, organizational development, and management training. Over the last thirty years David Shaner has been behind cultural change and performance improvement at Champion Aviation, Nissan/Autecs Automotive, Wonderware Software, Slazenger Sporting Goods, Umbro USA, Pet Foods, Atlanta Dairies, Caesar’s Palace, Ryobi Motor Products, Millennium Cell, Mitsubishi Chemical, Torrington/Ingersol-Rand, The Mirage Casino and Resorts Hotels, Milliken, Frito-Lay, Bic Pens, Mita Copiers, The Nationwide Insurance Corporation, Synthetic Industries, Duracell, Gillette, Owens Corning Composites, and JW Afluminum.

He is the originator of the Seven Arts change process that draws upon lessons learned from world-class athletics, cross-cultural approaches to performance improvement, as well as cross-disciplinary approaches based upon an understanding of the biological basis of behavior (sociobiology).

Dr. Shaner also serves as Professor emeritus at Furman University in Greenville, South Carolina where he taught for thirty years. He is a former world-class skier, an internationally recognized martial artist, an author of four books, and an editor of thirty-seven volumes in his “Philosophy and Biology” book series with SUNY Press.

Dr. Shaner’s interest in performance excellence and international business began as a result of international travel and competition as a member of the Olympic Valley U.S.A. Ski Team in the early seventies.

After his skiing career, he attended graduate school for his M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in Comparative Philosophy From the University of Hawaii where he specialized in Japanese Philosophy. His doctoral thesis on Japanese Bodymind Development was written at Harvard University under the direction of Thomas Patrick Kasulis. Dr. Shaner's thesis culminated in the book The Bodymind Experience in Japanese Buddhism: A Phenomenological Study of Kukai and Dogen.

As a martial artist, Dr. Shaner is an 8th Degree Black Belt (hachidan) and has trained for over 45 years in the Japanese arts of Ki Development and Aikido, Shin Shin Toitsu Aikido (心身統一合氣道). Dr. Shaner is the Chief Instructor of the Eastern Ki Federation (Eastern United States) and is the Japan Headquarters’ Advisor to the Eastern Europe/Russia Ki-Aikido Federation where he has taught each year since 1999. He also holds the rank of Okuden, Shinshin Toitsudo (心身統一道, Ki development) Also, he was uchi deshi (live-in student) at Ki Society HQ in Haramachi, Shinjuku-ku, Japan under Koichi Tohei Sensei in 1979.

After completing his doctorate in 1980, Dr. Shaner served as a sworn Deputy Sheriff Law Enforcement Officer in Pitkin County, Aspen, Colorado where he developed the first Ki-Aikido based arrest control and quarterly qualification program in Colorado.

In 1981, Dr. Shaner founded The Far East Fact Sheet, a Washington DC based monthly newsletter focused upon Asian business practices. He also served as a management consultant with the Alexander Proudfoot Consulting Company, which specialized in improving manufacturing productivity and overall organizational efficiency.

In the summer of 1982, Dr. Shaner was a Fulbright Scholar in India studying the effects of certain indigenous village belief systems upon peoples' willingness (or lack thereof) to accept change and modernize various aspects of their lives. Later that year he began teaching and writing at Furman University, Greenville, SC.

In 1985 and 1986, Dr. Shaner received a “Harvard-Mellon Faculty Fellowship in the Humanities” where he taught in the Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations and the Department of Philosophy at Harvard University.

In 1986-87, Dr. Shaner founded his book series with the State University of New York Press with emphasis upon understanding the biological basis of productive learning and behavior. To date, thirty-seven volumes have been released. Contributing authors are from all over the world including Austria, Australia, Canada, Czechoslovakia, Israel, Japan, The Netherlands, Peoples’ Republic of China, and New Zealand.

In 1988, Dr. Shaner was honored with a personal audience with His Majesty, Emperor Akihito in Akasaka Palace. In 1979 he was granted the title “Crown Prince Akihito Scholar.” In July 2009, Dr. Shaner (along with other Akihito Scholar alumni) participated in a celebration with His Majesty in Honolulu, HI. The celebration commemorated His Majesties’ 50th wedding anniversary as well as the 50th anniversary of the Crown Prince Akihito Foundation.

In 1989, Dr. Shaner wrote his second book Science and Comparative Philosophy (written with Shigenori Nagatomo and YUASA Yasuo) documenting that the worldview of mind and body oneness is a basic characteristic of Indian, Chinese, and Japanese Buddhist philosophical and religious tradition.

Dr. Shaner is a frequent speaker in the U.S., Japan, Europe, and Russia. He has appeared on National Public Television, CNN, and NBC as a commentator upon U.S./Japan cultural and business relations.

Dr. Shaner also wrote The Seven Arts of Change: Leading Business Transformation That Lasts and Living With The Wind at Your Back.

Dr. Shaner was instrumental in bringing the Place of Peace to Furman University. It is believed to be the first authentic Japanese temple ever to be dismantled and fully reconstructed in the United States. The Place of Peace was donated to Furman University by the Tsuzuki family.