ABOUT Us
INTRODUCING THE TEAM
Ruth Shlossman
For over 25 years, Ruth Shlossman has revolutionized professional negotiation — training more than 7,000 people across 25 countries and consulting for NASA, TaylorMade Golf, Impossible Foods, and Fortune 500 giants. Her Harvard-trained strategies are forged in real-world crucibles: from billion-dollar boardroom standoffs to conflict resolution in the Middle East.
Raised by Lithuanian parents who negotiated everything from dinner to gas prices, Ruth entered the ultimate proving ground: teaching first-graders. She jokes, “If you can persuade a 6-year-old to eat vegetables, you can negotiate anything”. But after surviving every negotiation disaster imaginable during her sales career, her hard-won expertise became so sought-after she began training colleagues — thus, the genesis of Castle Negotiations.
Today, she arms executives with trial-by-fire frameworks that have closed “impossible” deals, defused tense conflict, and built long-term trust. As a result, her clients get win-wins that strengthen relationships while delivering millions in profits year after year — making Ruth Shlossman one of the most trusted names in negotiation worldwide.
Michele Mandryk
For the last four decades, Michele has worked her way up from Associate Buyer to Sourcing and Procurement Process Manager in the volatile steel industry. She has successfully led procurement teams to negotiate multi-million dollar contracts with an annual $400 million dollar budget.
Michele understands first-hand the need for affordable, practical, easy to implement, negotiation training and systematic follow up for procurement professionals at all levels. She has extensive experience addressing the negotiation challenges faced by everyone, including Fortune 500 procurement teams. She has personally implemented the Castle Negotiations Consulting Group negotiation strategies with tremendous success.
Michele has a unique ability to help procurement professionals of all levels consistently improve their negotiation skills and obtain the best agreement possible, while maintaining strong and positive relationships. This is her super power.
After 39 years as a procurement leader, she has joined Castle Negotiation Consulting group to help procurement teams successfully negotiate the best agreements possible.
Dr. Chiraag Nithin Hegdekar
Chi brings a rare blend of precision, playfulness, and results-driven focus to Castle Negotiation Courses. Trained as a medical doctor, computer scientist, and copywriter, he leads the design and online representation of Castle’s flagship negotiation programs — helping executives, entrepreneurs, and teams around the world become more persuasive, confident, and creatively equipped in high-stakes conversations.
He’s known for turning complex negotiation methodology into simple, actionable insights online. Chi lives somewhere between Europe and Asia, and when he’s not developing negotiation curricula, you’ll find him meditating, cooking for his family, or playing guitar by the ocean.
