About Us

For over 20 years, Benchmark Learning International has focused on winning! Our programs and consulting are geared to help your team develop your market, identify opportunities, create winning proposals and presentations, and perform to win even more work.

We have worked with clients across the country and in over 20 countries, using our models, workshops, and consulting to help you clearly differentiate yourself to potential customers as the best choice for their projects. Our focus is in the A/E/C industry (architecture, engineering, and construction).

We know how to win work in this industry and we encourage you to learn more about our approach by reading about our processes and white papers. Simply reading this information will give you ideas on how to make your business development performance better.

Ben McDonald

Ben McDonald has been working with companies to create winning proposals for over 30 years. Although focused on the A/E/C industry, he has also worked with telecommunication companies, technology firms, and higher education. Ben enjoys problem solving and seeking creative ideas that will differentiate a client’s proposal and presentation from the competition.

Ben has facilitated workshops for thousands of participants in over 20 countries and many U.S. companies. He especially enjoys auditing a company’s processes and redefining them as needed to build a culture to maximize business growth.

Ben is the co-author of three books on leadership and is currently completing his fourth book, Business Development Roadmap, which will prove to be the seminal volume on business development processes, including account management, proposal development, and presentation skills and behaviors.

Sidney McDonald

Sidney was a performance improvement leader for over 10 years prior to co-founding Benchmark Learning International in 1999. She has received several awards for her forward thinking principles in developing and delivering adult learning programs. Sidney’s focus has been in developing customized leadership development assessments and consulting with leaders in academia, including IIT, Dartmouth College, and the University of Chicago. She also successfully led large organizational consulting and business development projects with clients such as CB & I, Lore International Institute, Jacobs Engineering, and Westinghouse.

An expert in leadership development and project management, Sidney McDonald has designed and developed workshops and presentations that focus on performance improvement for teams and organizations. She is co-author of three leadership books and numerous blogs on both this website and at www.renewleadership.com.

When not pursuing her professional interests and continued learning, Sidney enjoys traveling, hiking, kayaking, and spending time with her family.