The History of Guide Star Consulting.
Guide Star Consulting derives their name from Guide Star technology used to assist astronomers with capturing images of the universe. Atmosphereic dust obscures astonomers’ view of the night sky through image bluring. By creating a star from atmospheric dust, the Guide Star, astronomers receive a clear view of the night sky.
Similarly, Guide Star Consulting provides a clear view of the organization. The team quickly determines root causes and partners with your team for solutions development. Short term & long term strategies are used to ensure quick wins result in long-term change success.
Shanna remembers the night her electronics engineer mother ‘accidentally’ succeeded. Her mother was the leader of engineering teams which brought Guide Star from vision to success.
It was accidental success. The first attempt was expected to fail. Shanna’s mother prepared a press release, as a precaution.
The first test shot succeeded. A giant laser shot into the sky and created an artificial star. Startled San Fransciso residents began flooding emergency phone lines in the middle of the night. The Star Wars movie, Return of the Jedi was released just a few years prior. Residents thought a real ‘Star Wars’ was occurring.
The precautionary press release was needed. Guide Star was the front page news later that morning.
Guide Star remains in use on the Subaru Telescope at Mauna Kea Observatory, Hawai’i.
Shanna McGovern, EdD, MS
Shanna has over 30 years of Pharmaceutical GxP experience across the drug pipeline. The past 20 years focused on quality team change management, procedures revision, and computer system integration using CSA strategies. She’s led QC and QA teams to high achievement levels both as a team leader and project member. Although Shanna is a proven and capable project manager, her passion is in bringing all teams together for efficient, lasting change management.
Ian Kosman, BA (s)
Ian has over 10 years of game design and animation experience. While he enjoys programming in Scratch and Visual Basic, his passion is for storytelling and game strategy. Ian has experience with post-production video editing, animation, project management, and client communications. His high attention to quality ensures a value added product which meets the mission goal.
Guide Star Consulting, 2026
Guide Star Pharma, Guide Star Productions, 2026