CELEBRATING WOMEN IN THE WORKPLACE
With an all-female cast, the focus will be placed on women in the workplace and women in leadership. Join CEOs, HR/People female leaders to be part of the conversation on how to create a more inclusive, equal and fair workplace.
“Are you getting along with your eX?”, by Stephan Vincent, Founder of eX Summit and eX Podcast.
Building amazing company cultures centered around purpose, people-first mindset and love for one another.
“Three important insights from a predominantly female global fashion brand”, by Abigail Wilmore, Chief People Officer at Stella McCartney.
I will share some insights about leadership culture, inclusion and values – and the impact both positive and challenging that I’ve observed during this last year.
Q&A with Abigail Wilmore, Chief People Officer at Stella McCartney.
“Breaking through the culture ceiling – how to take bold action for change in the workplace”, by Aga Bajer, Founder and CEO at AB Culture Strategy Consulting, Author, Creator and Host of the CultureLab Podcast.
2020 has been a year of unprecedented challenges. But it’s not the pandemic, social unrest, or other newsworthy issues that prevent most of us from fulfilling our potential at work. It’s our work culture.
In this session, Aga will address three widely accepted beliefs that stand in the way of creating inclusive, energizing, and high-performing workplaces. She’ll also talk about how pioneering organizations act as a force for good and positive change and how you can follow their lead.
Q&A with Aga Bajer, Founder and CEO at AB Culture Strategy Consulting, Author, Creator and Host of the CultureLab Podcast.
“Four engagement factors for Gen Z and Millennials”, interview with Lindsay Boccardo, Founder at Lindsay Boccardo Training and Coaching.
Generations misunderstanding each other is not a new problem. In fact, every generation thinks the one that comes after them is less competent, more entitled or harder to work with in the office.
Our view of the next generation is no different. Together we’ll talk about common misleading stereotypes and how to actually engage this next generation in meaningful careers at your organization. You’ll even walk away with a checklist for onboarding your millennial and Gen Z employees while working remote.
In this session, attendees will learn:
1. The four factors that GenZ’s and Millennials will be looking for in your company culture
2. Two conflicts in the workplace that disguise themselves as generational differences
Q&A with Lindsay Boccardo, Founder at Lindsay Boccardo Training and Coaching.
“Unmute yourself: elevating your confidence & courage”, by Rachel Druckenmiller, Founder & CEO at UNMUTED.
Q&A with Rachel Druckenmiller, Founder & CEO at UNMUTED.
Break
“Bringing HUMANITY into the workplace & building culture in our ‘new future'”, by Claude Silver, Chief Heart Officer at VaynerMedia.
There are so many daily moments when humanity and empathy are needed at work. Especially now. Preparing for our “new future” demands constant reappraisal. Covid 19 has made “new thinking” the new normal – based on our collective experience requiring reinvention of how we live, work and play. Claude will empower us to contribute powerfully to our cultures by looking through the lens of being 100% human at work. You will be inspired to push your company and culture into action!
Q&A with Claude Silver, Chief Heart Officer at VaynerMedia.
“Navis people journey – game changing strategies to accelerate your business transformation”, by Sunaina Lobo, Chief People Officer at Navis.
Case for change, people and culture transformation to accelerate business results, building a GREAT HR global team, results matter!
Q&A with Sunaina Lobo, Chief People Officer at Navis.
“Momming in 2020 and beyond: epic lessons learned from the trenches of moms who are leading organizational change.” Panelists are Leticia Gastelum, Director of People Operations at CampusLogic; Lindsay Moellenberndt, Chief Business Development & Marketing Officer at Fennemore Craig, P.C.; Denise Shields, Talent Acquisition Manager at Chicanos Por La Causa, Inc. Moderated by Stacie Mallen, Director for Total Compensation, Benefits and Talent at Universal Technical Institute.
“Lessons from my journey as a female entrepreneur”, by Brenda Schmidt, CEO at Coplex.
Q&A with Brenda Schmidt, CEO at Coplex.
“How we can all be advocates in the workplace”, interview with Mita Mallick, Head of Inclusion, Equity and Impact at Carta, talking about about race, inclusion, parity, fairness in the workplace.
Talking about race, inclusion, parity, fairness in the workplace.
Q&A with Mita Mallick, Head of Inclusion, Equity and Impact at Carta.
Closing remarks, by Stephan Vincent, Founder of eX Summit and eX Podcast.
Interested in becoming a sponsor? Email us at svincent@exsummit.com
Abigail Wilmore, Chief People Officer at Stella McCartney.
Brenda is a serial entrepreneur, educator, speaker, board member and advisor focused on driving innovation through technology with a particular interest in social impact. She is the CEO and President of Coplex, a Corporate Startup Studio that partners with companies and entrepreneurs to build high growth technology companies. She is also the founder, executive chairman of Solera Health.
Brenda has received numerous awards, including the MedTech Breakthrough Award for “Best MedTech CEO” in 2018, a 2019 finalist for the EY Entrepreneur of the Year, and was named by Becker’s Hospital Review as a “Woman Health IT Leaders to Know” in 2019. She serves on the boards of the AZ Bioindustry Association, the StartUpAZ Foundation, and the City of Phoenix Workforce Development Board. She teaches entrepreneurship at the NYU Wagner School of Public Service.
Stacie Mallen has spent her career evangelizing her disruptive approach to business leadership and development, people management, and organizational evolution through fostering greater trust. With more than two decades of experience in HR management and People operations, she specializes in leading cultural climate change for high-growth companies.
As a thought-leader in HR/People practices, Stacie is a regular speaker/panelist, and author of articles for Forbes Magazine, LinkedIn and her own podcast, “OptimizedAF.” Stacie currently leads efforts for Universal Technical Institute as Director for Total Compensation, Benefits and Talent.
Connect with her on LinkedIn and Facebook, and follow OptimizedAF
Specifics of her career include:
M&A navigating, Capital Raising, Company Building expert with 8 High growth start-up companies and hundreds of developed leaders.
Fortune 50 Leader of a large national team
An expert in global leadership development
Experienced as CHRO/Chief People Officer
20+ years highly functioning as a C-Suite Coach
Denise is a native of Arizona. She attended South Mountain High School and graduated from Ottawa University with a BA Degree in Human Resources. Later, she graduated from Grand Canyon University (GCU) with a Master’s Degree in I/O Psychology. Today, Denise works for Chicanos Por la Causa (CPLC) Inc. as Manager of Talent Acquisition, and teaches psychology at GCU.
As Manager of Talent Acquisition, Denise’s key role is to lead all aspects of recruitment strategy, delivery and performance. She serves on the board for a community based organization, Faith Rising Christian Fellowship (FRCF), a Christian ministry carrying out the mission to empower communities locally and in Mexico. She is the newest member of the Black Board of Directors Project.
Throughout her career Denise has demonstrated a passion for connecting people with purposeful job opportunities, while planning and developing programs to continually improve the workplace.
Her hobbies include cooking, writing, music (mostly all genres), inspirational speaking, and watching classic black & white movies.
Lindsay Moellenberndt is Chief Business Development & Marketing Officer at Fennemore, an NLJ250 law firm that helps businesses thrive, and founder of A-Z Biz Link, an organization that inspires and empowers company leaders to continuously improve operations by challenging the status quo. A woman who wears many fashionable hats – community connector, speaker, podcast host, coach, event producer, book publisher, team builder, culture creator, strategist and philanthropist – she’s the epitome of the phrase, “if you want to get something done, give it to a busy person.” This born connector views her career as a lifestyle, and strives to support others whenever possible, which currently includes AZ Talent Coop Board of Directors, St. Vincent de Paul Vinnies Board, Luke Air Force Base/Fighter Country Partnership Blue Blazer Lifetime Member, and Valley of the Sun United Way. Lindsay is also a member of the Greater Phoenix Chamber Valley Young Professionals Board and a 2020 Greater Phoenix Chamber ATHENA Awards Young professional nominee.
Follow Lindsay on Social Media: Linkedin | Facebook | Instagram | www.azbizlink.com
Global HR leader, with a keen ability to align HR strategy with business strategy. Coaches HR, business leaders, and C-suite executives to achieve their highest potential. Capable of leading through accelerated growth, rapid change, and transitioning underperforming organizations into highly effective, top performers. Lived, worked and excelled in a number of countries and cultures
Suni has a strong ability to translate HR/Talent strategy aligned to business strategy; an excellent balance of strategic focus along with operational delivery; and superior business consultation and coaching skills in complex transformation scenarios. She also has a keen eye for talent and is focused on developing HR and business leaders, to achieve their highest potential.
Specific areas of focus include: Organizational Effectiveness | HR Innovation | Large Scale Transformation | Leadership & Assessment | Talent Development & Retention | Succession Planning | Employee Engagement
Suni has held a number of senior HR and Business leadership positions at SVB Financial Services, Cisco Systems, ANZ Bank and Standard Chartered Bank – in the US, Australia, New Zealand, India, Singapore, London and China. She currently is the Chief People Officer at Navis, LLC
Suni has Bachelors and Masters Degrees in Accounting, an Advanced Masters in Human Resources and OD and is a certified coach. She is an accomplished speaker and published author.
VaynerMedia’s —and for that matter— first ever Chief Heart Officer, Claude Silver fuses empathy with agency to unlock employee potential and foster a culture of belonging. Between her education in psychology, years as an advertising strategist, and time at Vaynermedia, she’s been studying and influencing human behavior for over three decades. Outside of VaynerMedia, she speaks globally about the need for heart-leadership in today’s workplace and the importance of treating “employees” like people, not numbers. Her success guiding client relationships, global brand strategies, operations, management, and culture is driven by an abiding passion for creating spaces in which people can thrive.
Prior to VaynerMedia, Claude held leadership positions at a handful of large advertising agencies both in the US and UK. She founded and ran an outdoor adventure & surf company in San Francisco where she was in the cold Pacific Ocean coaching 275 days a year. Simply put, her glass is always full!
Recognized as the #1 Health Promotion Professional in the U.S., a 40 Under 40 Game Changer, and one of The Daily Record’s Leading Women of 2020, Rachel is a national thought leader in the field of wellbeing and employee engagement. Through interactive virtual and live keynotes, workshops and trainings, Rachel supports leaders and their teams to be more resilient and connected, so they are more purposeful, energized and engaged. Rachel holds a Master’s degree in Health Science and a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology.
She posts inspirational videos and other content on LinkedIn. Follow her there and on her website www.UnmutedLife.com, where you can download her free Resilience Toolkit. Please help me welcome, Rachel DRUCK-in-mill-er.
Aga Bajer is a culture strategist, the author of Building and Sustaining a Coaching Culture, and the creator and host of the CultureLab Podcast. She’s currently working on her second book, The Culture Lab.
Aga firmly believes in business as a force for good. Her mission is to help mission-driven companies thrive by unlocking the power of their culture. Seeing her clients grow with purpose and amplify their impact is what gets her out of bed every morning.
Aga is the founder of a boutique consultancy, Aga Bajer & Associates.
Leading at the intersection of diversity, inclusion, and workplace culture, Stacey focuses on recruitment & development initiatives that transform workplaces. She is CEO of Rework Work, where she has delivered keynote speeches, consulted, and developed educational content that has engaged professionals globally, both in-person and in a virtual environment. She focuses on reworking how companies work; including how they inclusively recruit, hire and engage employees, effectively creating inclusion and belonging for all.
Stacey is the creator of the number one resume course at LinkedIn learning which, along with her other three courses titled Recruiting for Diversity, Awareness of Unconscious Bias, and Making a Career Change, have accumulated more than one million views. Her unconscious bias course has been translated into several languages and has been featured by LinkedIn, Microsoft, and Virgin America (now Alaska Airlines). As a consultant and career strategist, Stacey has provided career and diversity related content to SHRM, FastCompany, Skillsoft, Forbes, NPR Radio, BBC Radio, Essence Magazine, and Monster.com, to name a few. She was also a career segment guest contributor to Fox Business.
Stacey earned her MBA degree from Pepperdine University’s Business School, is a board member of Pepperdine’s Center for Women in Leadership and previously served as an Adjunct Professor teaching Diversity in Organizations at Phillips Graduate University.
Kevin Kruse is the Founder and CEO of LEADx, and a New York Times bestselling author of 9 books including Employee Engagement 2.0 and Great Leaders Have No Rules.
With over 20 years of HR experience under her belt, Robyn Jordan joined the DriveTime family in December 2018 in the newly-created position of Managing Director of Employee Experience and recently moved in to a Senior Managing Director role. As her title describes, Robyn oversees the Employee Experience Team, which consists of benefits, payroll, recruiting, talent support, organizational development and internal communications. Prior to DriveTime, Robyn spent her career in retail and hospitality from Dollar General to Dunkin’ Donuts and even spent over 4 years as a Dunkin’ Donuts Franchisee.
Outside of work hours, Robyn can be found playing golf, finding unbeatable deals online, and play video games with her two little boys.
Ken Oehler is a Senior Partner in Kincentric’s New York office. He is responsible for the strategic direction, thought leadership, technology roadmap, and operations of Kincentric’s Global Culture & Engagement Practice. Ken specializes in developing culture, leadership, measurement, technology, and rewards interventions that accelerate business performance.
Ken has 20 years of consulting experience. He has worked with clients in a variety of industries across the globe including: Avon, Best Buy, Bank of America, Baxter Healthcare, Case New Holland (CNH), Ciena, Convergys Corporation, DeVry University, Fannie Mae, Fiat, Food Lion, Freddie Mac, General Electric, General Motors, Generali, Hilton Hotels, ITT Industries, Knight Ridder, McDonald’s, Merck, Microsoft, MetLife, Nissan Motor Corporation, Pfizer, Royal Bank of Canada, and Walmart.
The scope of his strategy, planning, and change implementation consulting activities has included:
• Culture and business strategy alignment;
• Employee Experience strategy and lifecycle measurement;
• Employee engagement research and interventions;
• Total Rewards Strategy and Total Rewards Optimization;
• Advanced analytics and data mining;
• Mergers & Acquisitions; and
• Change management.
Ken is the author of multiple Kincentric reports, including the Global Trends in Employee Engagement Report that draws on research from Kincentric’s employee survey database with responses from over 25 million global employees. Most of this research has been covered in outlets such as Fortune, Fox Business, Human Resource Executive, Market Watch and World at Work. He has also published in outlets such as Harvard Business Manager, Harvard Business Review, Workforce Solutions Review, and Workspan.
Raj Sisodia is FW Olin Distinguished Professor of Global Business and Whole Foods Market Research Scholar in Conscious Capitalism at Babson College, and Co-Founder and Co-Chairman of Conscious Capitalism Inc. He has a Ph. D. in Business from Columbia University. Raj is co-author of the New York Times bestseller Conscious Capitalism: Liberating the Heroic Spirit of Business (2013) and Wall Street Journal bestseller Everybody Matters (2015). He was named one of “Ten Outstanding Trailblazers of 2010” by Good Business International, and one of the “Top 100 Thought Leaders in Trustworthy Business Behavior” by Trust Across America for 2010 and 2011. Raj received an honorary doctorate from Johnson & Wales University in 2016.
Raj has published eleven books, including Firms of Endearment: How World Class Companies Profit from Passion and Purpose, which was named a top business book of 2007 by Amazon.com. His most recent book is The Healing Organization: Awakening the Conscience of Business to Help Save the World. He has consulted with numerous companies, including AT&T, Verizon, LG, DPDHL, POSCO, Kraft Foods, Whole Foods Market, Tata, Siemens, Sprint, Volvo, IBM, Walmart, McDonalds and Southern California Edison. He is on the Board of Directors at The Container Store and a trustee of Conscious Capitalism Inc.
Ann is a dynamic and visionary Corporate Executive in a variety of service-based industries and is President of People Ink, her consulting company that helps organizations create unique workplace cultures based on values and performance. She held the position of Vice President of the People Department for Southwest Airlines and Executive Vice President of Team Services for Promus Hotel Corporation and most recently, the Executive Vice President of People for JetBlue Airways.
Ann has a respected reputation in the industry for her creative approach to developing high performance cultures. As one of five founding executives, Ann took responsibility for the creation of JetBlue Airways Values Based Culture. Ann is a popular speaker on the subject of creating values-based high performance cultures.
Ann currently serves on the board at the Regis Corporation, NexPhase Capital, and Chairman for Safer New Mexico Now. Ann’s former boards include JetBlue Airways, P.F. Chang’s China Bistro, HireVue, Inc., Restoration Hardware, New Mexico Appleseed, YScouts, University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center, President of University of New Mexico Alumni Board, Accion New Mexico, Albuquerque Community Foundation and the University of New Mexico- Robert O Anderson School of Business National Advisory Board.
Ann has an MBA in Management from the University of New Mexico.
Ann’s book Built on Values was released in January 2011.
Bob is currently President of TeamTelligent, LLC and Senior Director of Solutions for MatrixInsights. Both organizations are engaged in the creation of web applications for talent development.
Previously Bob was the Vice Chairman of the Korn/Ferry Institute for Korn/Ferry International. Also, as co-founder and CEO of Lominger International, Bob brings more than five decades of experience working, teaching, consulting, and coaching.
Prior to Lominger, he was with Pillsbury in Minneapolis, where he led employment, affirmative action, training, management and executive development.
Before Pillsbury, Bob was with PepsiCo in New York as the director of management development in three divisions: Pepsi-Cola USA; PepsiCo International, where he oversaw international executive development; and PepsiCo Corporate, where he led executive development across all of PepsiCo.
Before PepsiCo, he spent a decade with LWFW, a consulting firm in Texas specializing in executive assessment and development, training and development, organization development, quality and work design, and market research.
Bob has given feedback to and been the coach of 100’s of senior level executives over his career and has authored over 50 books, articles, software products, and other intellectual property around the topic of talent management and succession planning. He is the co-creator of the concept of learning agility, a leading predictor of effective leadership.
He holds a Ph.D. in industrial and organizational psychology from the University of Minnesota and is a fellow of SIOP..
Since 2006, he has spent most of his time studying NeuroLeadership with the goal of developing tools for managers and executives to manage their brain resources more effectively.
Dr. Rosie Ward is a fierce advocate for humanity who is sought-after to help rehumanize workplaces that free, fuel, and inspire people to bring their best selves to work – and home – each day. She serves as CEO and co-founder of Salveo Partners, a professional consulting and training company focused on equipping organizations to find success while putting people back at the forefront of their business. She consults with organizations of all sizes and industries and coaches and develops people so they can break past barriers, step into their greatness, and show up as a leader in all areas of their lives. Her latest book, Rehumanizing the Workplace, highlights how to future-proof workplaces while restoring hope, wellbeing and performance.
Derek is the President and CEO at LifeGuides. Derek is a proven growth-stage entrepreneur and technology maven, with a specialization in e/m-learning. In 2010, Scrimmage was founded where he served as CEO and is now Executive Chairman. Scrimmage is a global software company, focused on personalized education for corporate learners. Derek built Scrimmage without venture capital financing, and ultimately grew the enterprise to a seven-figure EBITDA, with two nominations to the “Inc. 5000 Fastest Growing Companies.” Scrimmage’s clients include a who’s-who of the healthcare industry and other leading brands. Scrimmage, and Derek, have been the recipient of 28 industry awards from organizations including: Best Places to Work, Chief Learning Officer, The Association for Talent Development, Brandon Hall, Life Sciences Training and Educator Network, and Abundance 360 by Singularity University. Scrimmage is recognized for its high employee engagement rate and satisfaction, as indicated by low employee and customer churn, high growth and its philanthropic initiatives.
Derek is a thought leader and speaker on employee growth and engagement at the intersection of technology, innovation and learning. Derek brings a wealth of relevant experience into everything that we do at LifeGuides. He was an early seed investor in LifeGuides for $100,000, and has served smartly as Vice Chairman of the Board, as well as the key strategic advisor to the CEO.
Jason Averbook is a global keynote speaker, industry analyst, thought leader and consultant in the area of human resources and workforce experience. He is the Co-founder and CEO of Leapgen, a digital transformation company shaping the Now of Work. Author of The Ultimate Guide to a Digital Workforce Experience ~ Leap for a Purpose, Jason seeks to broaden executive mindset to rethink how to better design and deliver employee services that exceed the expectations of the workforce and the needs of the business.
Prior to founding Leapgen, Jason served as the CEO of The Marcus Buckingham Company (TMBC). In 2005, he co-founded Knowledge Infusion, LLC, and served as its CEO until 2012, when the company was sold to Appirio. Earlier in his career, he served as the Chief Business Innovation Officer at Appirio Inc., where he led the HCM business. He has also held senior leadership roles at PeopleSoft and Ceridian Corporation. Jason has more than 20 years of experience in the HR and technology industries and has collaborated with industry-leading companies in transforming their HR organizations into strategic partners.
Teri Calderon leads the People Operations function at Field Nation and is also the interim leader for Customer Operations. Recognizing that the employee experience directly impacts the customer experience, Teri believes in a workplace culture that puts the employee and customer at the heart of every decision. In a rapidly-changing world of work, Teri embraces an agile approach to people operations and leadership. One in which talent management programs are developed incrementally and always with the overall company strategy and vision in mind. Passionate about mentoring less experienced HR professionals, Teri’s proudest accomplishments are those in which she has been a part of a team member’s successful career journey.
Dan Riley, Partner & Chief Client Officer at Kincentric. Dan is a thought leader, technologist, change agent, and optimist in the area of talent management, the future of work and the impact people and technology have on that future.
With a vision and commitment to change the way businesses think, act, and operate, Dan works with leaders and organizations around the world helping them transform their vision and strategy, while inspiring with insight, energy, and powerful storytelling.
He has more than 20 years of experience in the HR and technology industry. Dan co-founded Modern Survey in 1999 until 2016 when the company was sold to Aon and served as its Chief Operating Officer.
He was responsible for the innovative and disruptive vision and strategy. Dan now serves as Chief Client Officer at Kincentric.
Dan has an extensive understanding of how technology and people strategy can be successfully applied to common business problems and will help organizations achieve the benefits of such strategies while maximizing the value of their people to transform company culture and create a better working world
Heather Lehman is Senior Director of Operations at LifeGuides. Her personal mission is to help people overcome obstacles to create a happier and healthier life. She has over thirty years of experience in the health and wellness field. Her career has spanned athletics, rehabilitation, fitness, health coaching, corporate wellness, and business operations.
After conducting over 3000 health coaching sessions, she authored “Don’t Eat It. DEAL With It! Your Guidebook On How To STOP Eating Your Emotions” to help people develop a healthier relationship with food. She created Overcoming U – Mindful Corporate Wellness to bring comprehensive wellness strategies and virtual solutions to improve the health and well being of remote and diverse workforces.
She also worked in Well Being Operations at The Boeing Company providing Well Being programming focusing on efficient and effective employee experience. Heather is a TEDx speaker and enjoys helping others with public speaking.
Heather earned a B.S. in Kinesiology from Indiana University and a M.S. in Exercise Science with a thesis on eating disorders from Indiana State University.
Executive Director for Butler University’s Executive Education.
Sheila March brings more than 15 years of people related expertise. From media planning and marketing to recruiting and client relations, March had developed a set of skills that give her uniquely qualified insights in understanding and improving the human experience in technology enabled services.
March currently leads the enterprise Customer Experience (CX) programs at both the Ascension’s Ministry Service Center and Agilify™ She is the chief architect of a five year plan to transform service experience across a host of highly diverse constituents from Ascension associates to suppliers to the external clients of both organizations.
March’s CX program is now in its third year. She has brought human empathy front and center as a key success factor across all service lines.
March is a Certified Customer Experience Professional (CCXP), a leading member of the Customer Experience Professional Association (CXPA).
She holds a BS in Journalism from Ball State University and was a member of the American Advertising Federation.
Ascension (www.Ascension.org) is the largest nonprofit health system in the U.S.
Agilify™ (www.AgilifyAutomation) is Ascension’s automation services business
Deseri began coaching and leadership development work in 2004. Prior to launching Vida Aventura in Indianapolis, Deseri spent nearly 20 years in Corporate America, where she gained invaluable insight into the value of building relationships in the business world. She worked in International Business Development for Langham Transport Services for over 13 years and in operations and sales for Roadway Express for over 5 years.
Deseri is a passionate coach, facilitator, and speaker who implements creative, experiential and personalized programs that challenge, motivate, and transform clients. Her tireless pursuit of possibility gets results – tangible, solid, proof-of-purchase outcomes. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Small Business & Entrepeneurship from Ball State University.
Melanie Malott (muh-LOT) is currently a Senior Talent Acquisition Partner at Emarsys where she collaborates with hiring managers in the Americas to grow their high performing teams. With over seven years of experience, Melanie’s areas of expertise include sourcing, technical recruitment and employer branding. Melanie’s approach to talent acquisition is focused on providing a positive candidate experience that allows her to better identify candidate motivators in order to better match them with the best career opportunities.
Melanie is a graduate of Indiana University where she majored in Management with a Minor in Human Resources and a Business Foundations Certificate from the Kelley School of Business.
Steve believes that sales professionals are trained not born.
With over 30 years of sales, leadership and training experience, Steve helps to lead Salesforce’s Scout Academy program for early career professionals. Developing deep product knowledge and broad professional skills, the Scout Academy prepares recent college grads for successful Salesforce careers as Solutions Engineers, Business Value Analysts and Customer Success roles.
Steve is a lifelong resident of Zionsville where he and his wife are actively involved in Special Olympics. Steve holds a Bachelors degree in Telecommunications and a Masters degree in Information and Communications Sciences both from Ball State University where he serves on the Sales Advisory Board and the CICS Alumni Advisory Board.
Ali Cudby wrote the book on customer retention – literally. A bestselling author, Ali brings her engaging approach to business advisory, workshops and speaking to companies around the globe.
Ali honed her approach to customer retention at her company, Fab Foundations, where she created the world’s leading training and certification program for the art and science of bra fitting.
Before becoming an entrepreneur, Ali worked at The New York Times Company, Golf Digest Magazine Group and Animal Planet TV Network. She received her MBA from The Wharton School.
These days, Ali teaches Entrepreneurship at Purdue University and works with clients worldwide to incorporate her innovative customer retention strategies through her company, Your Iconic Brand.
Ms. Oviedo leads all human resources, talent acquisition, and colleague development for the Company. Ms. Oviedo and her team of professionals have successfully implemented next-generation talent and HR information systems, thereby positioning the company to effectively hire and develop world-class talent.
Ms. Oviedo’s career spans 19+ years of focused Talent Acquisition and Training & Development capabilities, she led global Talent Acquisition and Internal Mobility for PSAV, a $1 Billion private organization with over 1000 locations worldwide. Ms. Oviedo holds a Bachelor’s degree in Organizational Communication from Ball State University.
Andrea is a visionary. Her passion is coming alongside leaders to help them maximize the performance of their teams. She has an impressive 20+ year career as a business leader, executive coach and advocate in talent development and human resources. With an undergraduate and graduate degree from Indiana State University (psychology and human resource development), Andrea has spent her career exercising her passion for people. She began her career as a global leader at Premier Farnell, an electronics distributor based in London, England. She then worked as a consultant for FlashPoint based in Indianapolis. Most recently, Andrea served as the VP of Talent Development at DEFENDERS before her role as President for HRD Advisory Group.
Andrea has an ability to quickly connect with others. As a Certified Executive Coach (CEC) and a Certified Professional in Learning and Performance (CPLP), Andrea focuses on the development of leaders—being an engaging and dynamic leader herself. She is a speaker and podcast host; her strengths include uniting people to execute a clear strategy. “If I set my mind to it, it will most certainly get done, and I will always have fun doing it!” she says.
Ken is a Founding Partner at Lucid Agency in Tempe Arizona. Lucid is a full service digital marketing and consulting agency with a satellite office in Chicago. Lucid works with such brands as Circle K, Best Western and Harkins Theaters. Ken is an ASU Alumni, professional hockey official in the American Hockey League, avid golfer and Jiu Jitsu practitioner. Ken is currently the Chairman of the Board for the BBB of the Pacific Southwest as well as a past National Board Member for the Council of Better Business Bureau’s.
Please let me know if this is sufficient. If you are looking for something else please let me know and I can adjust it accordingly. Especially if you need certain accolades like 40 Under 40, 20 People to know in Marketing or Google Premier Partner. I can easily add those things just not a fan of super long bios or bragging but I understand if you need things in there for your audience.
Shannon is a designer & builder of Modern HR who is deeply passionate about impacting people, business, communities. She fuses both business and people performance transforming to unified, aligned, collaborative and purpose driven workplaces for employees to be at their best and do their best work. Her background has straddled between design, operations, marketing and HR both in start-ups and Fortune 500 companies which has given her the ability to use innovative ways of thinking and doing to drive strategy into high performing organizational outcomes. She considers herself agile and thrives in growing, evolving and collaborative environments. She leads by showing up authentically, mentoring, teaching and having fun.
She is currently leading the people strategy for operations unit within WM with revenues exceeding $1B and over 3000 employees across five states. In addition she is part of a core team designing and implementing a new HR operating structure across all of Waste Management focused on a driving a people -first culture. In addition Shannon is co-founder of AZ Talent coop an organization focused on bringing together all of the people focused organizations across Greater Phoenix, is a past president of SHRM of Greater Phoenix and currently sits on the Advisory board for AZ Biz Link.
Kevin Black, MA, MBA, is a veteran US Army officer and seasoned entrepreneur, nationally recognized for learning and development services in leadership and strategy. He works with clients across a variety of industries, from start-ups to public companies, such as LifeLock, Medtronic and McKesson. Overall, his work has helped to create over $500M of value.
Kevin takes leadership education to the next level. His workshops apply eSports-like wargame competitions as a learning platform for an advanced leadership development curriculum. The process rapidly increases the value of their leaders and teams; it can also vet potential leaders for new positions. His leadership coaching services helped one mid-level manager, a high-potential leader in a multi-billion dollar company, improve her performance – and her chances for promotion – by 40% in just 14 weeks.
Kevin is a member of Forbes Coaches Council, writing on issues dealing with leadership and strategy. He is also the author of the upcoming book, “Managing Chaos: The Emergent Leader,” scheduled to come out in the Spring of 2020.
Brian is the co-founder of lifetracks, a unique and powerful personal storytelling platform focused on accelerating the breadth and depth of authentic connection amongst the members of a team. He serves on the board of Conscious Capitalism, Inc., is the co-author of ‘Hiring on Purpose’, and a passionate public speaker on the importance of infusing more authentic human connection in our ever-increasing digital world.
Denise Gredler is the Founder and CEO of BestCompaniesAZ, LLC, an organizational consulting and employer branding firm dedicated to identifying, developing and promoting great workplaces in the United States, and in Arizona.
Founded in 2002, BestCompaniesAZ provides services for present and future award winning organizations, including employee opinion surveys, best practice benchmarking, national and local award consultation and submission, culture development, employment branding, recruitment marketing and promotional services.
Prior to starting her own consulting firm, Denise served as vice president with the human resources department of FINOVA Capital Corporation (formerly Greyhound Financial Corporation). During her long tenure at FINOVA, she was instrumental in building a centralized human resource department for what was then a small subsidiary with approximately 150 employees, into a decentralized human resources department for a public company with more than 1,500 employees nationwide.
Today Denise is most proud of the fact that she is the founding business partner of the Best Places to Work in the Valley from 2003-2009 (published by The Phoenix Business Journal), founding partner of the Arizona Most Admired Companies Program (published by Arizona Business Magazine 2010-2019), consulting partner for the Careerbuilder/azcentral.com Top Companies to Work for in Arizona Program (2013-2019), founder of the BestCompaniesAZ Military Career Event and Diversity Event (15-19), and creator of two regional employer branding platforms – BestCompaniesAZ.com and BestCompaniesTexas.
Denise has guided many local and national employers to top companies status on state award lists and national awards such as Fortune 100 Best Companies to Work for in Arizona, Modern Healthcare’s 100 Best Places to Work in Healthcare, azcentral’s Top Companies to Work for in Arizona, Arizona’s Most Influential Women, AZ Business Angels, to name a few.
Denise has appeared in Business Week Magazine, the Arizona Republic, AZ Business Magazine, and the Phoenix Business Journal. In 2017, Denise was named as one of the “Most Influential Women in Arizona”.
Gint J. Grabauskas is the chief technology officer at OfferPad. He has been in the technology industry for over 20 years, in progressively more challenging roles, including software engineer, software architect, engineering director, engineering vice president, and CTO. He has worked across different industries, successfully transforming technology functions to be world-class digital enablers, accelerating growth for a myriad of businesses. Most recently Gint worked to drive a digital transformation for a technology enabled, asset and facility management company. Previously, Gint served as VP of Engineering at GoDaddy, Senior Director of Global Software Development at Savvis, and a myriad of deep, hands-on, technical roles prior to that.
Gint is a servant leader and accomplished agile coach, who believes in a technology organization that has deep empathy for the customer, is a true partner to the business, and takes care of the great technologists that work their magic. He is well versed in a modern cloud-based stack, RESTful architecture, Agile/DevOps best-practices, and knows what it takes to build a frictionless user experience.
Gint holds a bachelor’s degree in Electrical & Computer Engineering from the Illinois Institute of Technology (Chicago, IL) and a Masters in Organizational Leadership & Management from Regis University (Denver, CO).
Jeremy Bloom is the only athlete in history to ski in the Olympics and get drafted into the NFL. He is a three-time World Champion, two-time Olympian, eleven-time World Cup gold medalist and the youngest member ever inducted into The United States Skiing Hall of Fame. He was also an All-American football player at the University of Colorado and played professional football as a wide receiver and return specialist in the National Football League for the Philadelphia Eagles and the Pittsburgh Steelers. While playing with the NFL in Philadelphia for the Eagles, he completed a business entrepreneurship program at Wharton Business School where he studied real estate and finance.
Today, he is Founder/CEO of the Marketing Technology company, Integrate and founder of Wish of a Lifetime, a nonprofit organization that grants lifelong wishes to senior citizens. Through Jeremy’s vision and leadership, Integrate is transforming global marketing. The company has raised over $40M of venture capital from Comcast, Foundry Group and Liberty Global. Integrate was named as the “Best New Company” at the American Business Awards in New York City.
Jeremy was named by Forbes as 30 under 30, tech executives under the age of 30 making waves in the technology space and in 2013. Jeremy was a finalist for the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year.
Outside of business, Jeremy has continued to maintain his name within the sports world. He does commentary for College Football and is an Olympic Sports Television Analyst and has worked for ESPN, Fox, NBC and The Pac-12 Network.
Nicole is the Founder and CEO of Queen City Certified (QCC), the first employer certification and leadership program for gender equity in the US workplace.
Before launching QCC as a 2018 People’s Liberty Haile Fellow, she developed and implemented design and brand strategy for mission-driven organizations around the globe, including Franciscans International and Partners In Health.
In 2015, Nicole joined Design Impact as a Social Innovation Specialist, leading change-makers through the human-centered design process.
She now leverages her experience as a problem solver to facilitate systems change in the workplace.
Nicole holds a Bachelor of Science in Graphic Design from the University of Cincinnati and a Master of Arts from Suffolk University.
Nicole is 25-year human resources veteran who has focused her career on helping organizations create intentional cultures. Working with a variety of companies spanning from fast-growing technology firms to large global organizations Nicole has shared her passion for helping employees through change while focusing on the employee experience.
She is currently the Director of Employee Xperience at One10 where she leads a team of human resources professionals tasked with fulfilling One10’s mission of creating an employee-centric workplace. One10 believes in the power of human potential and that every employee, channel partner, and influencer can have an exponential impact on improving results. By creating unique incentive solutions One10 helps customer meet and exceed their performance goals.
In her previous position as a Strategic HR Business Leader at Cargill, Inc. Nicole led U.S. employees through the largest ever Cargill acquisition and was a member of a team tasked with creating cultural aspirations for the newly created 18,000-employee organization that spanned 30+ countries.
Nicole obtained her Bachelor of Science in Business Administration with a concentration in Human Resources Management from Aquinas College in Grand Rapids, MI. She is long-term SHRM member that currently serves on the Workforce Readiness Committee of her local SHRM Chapter. She volunteers with a local non-profit by working with local high school students helping to equip them with skills to find employment after graduation.
Tarek is the Founder of Cerkl – the solution for driving engagement through personalization. As a serial entrepreneur, Tarek saw the need for a solution to the increasing amount of data directed at individuals. Cerkl solves that problem by automatically curating content based on each person’s interests.
Prior to Cerkl, Tarek served as the Executive Director of Online Strategy for InfoMotion Sports Technology (IST). He was part of the team which launched the first “smart” basketball (available in every Apple store in North America) and was named a Consumer Electronics Show Honoree for Best Innovation in Software/Mobile.
Prior to IST, Tarek served as VP for Los Angeles-based FOX Interactive Media (a News Corp. company). During his time at FOX, Tarek oversaw all facets of the online sports-based gaming operations for the FoxSports.com Interactive Unit, including WhatIfSports.com (WIS) based in Cincinnati. WIS was founded by Tarek in February, 2000 and sold to FOX Interactive Media in September, 2005. In just 5 years, Tarek grew WIS from an idea to over 500,000 members and orchestrated partnerships with some of the largest names in sports, including ESPN, Fox Sports, MLB, NBA and the NHL. WIS was named Sports Site of the Year by the International Academy of Digital Arts & Sciences, beating out both ESPN.com and BBCSports.com. During this period, Tarek was a finalist for E&Y Entrepreneur of the Year.
Prior to launching WIS, Tarek founded Incigna Technology Solutions in 1997 — a provider of custom developed software and Internet solutions. Incigna worked with numerous Fortune 500 companies including General Electric, Anthem Insurance, Omnicare and Western Southern Financial.
Additionally, Tarek is an award-winning speaker with engagements which have included: TED, Proctor and Gamble, the Data Science Summit/Las Vegas, Sloan Analytics Conference MIT, Greater Cincinnati Chamber Small Business Awards Keynote, BoldFusion YP Conference, UnPolished, Ohio State University, the University of Cincinnati, the University of Dayton among numerous other events and conferences.
Natalie Guzman serves as Senior Vice President, Internal Communications Director for Fifth Third Bank. In her role, she is responsible for creating and distributing communications that inform, inspire and motivate the Bank’s 21,000 employees.
Most recently as regional communications director, she led communications, public relations, and reputation management for regions in 12 states. From 2013 to 2016, Natalie managed regional marketing where she focused on ensuring regional goals were met through impactful marketing, branding and reputation initiatives throughout the Bank’s regions.
She served as regional marketing director 2010 to 2013 for the Indiana region, and joined the bank in 2002 as public relations director. Her previous experience also includes sports marketing and promotions and business ownership. Natalie has a robust background in communications, public relations, marketing, corporate social responsibility and change management.
Natalie attended Ball State University and holds a bachelor of science in public relations and marketing. She is currently obtaining her master’s degree in organizational leadership and management.
Natalie is a committed community volunteer where she serves on the board of directors and governance council for United Way of Central Indiana. She recently served as a national board member for Pass the Torch for Women Foundation and Little Red Door Cancer Agency. Natalie is a graduate of the Stanley K. Lacy Leadership program and serves on its advisory council. As well, she is an active member and volunteer for Northview Church in Carmel, Indiana. Natalie is committed to mentoring and is passionate about sending the elevator back down for those who are eager enough to take the ride up.
Amy is the Vice President of Human Resources & Fair Housing Officer for Sibcy Cline Realtors. She is also the creator and host of the Golf-ish Podcast (@golfishpodcast).
She currently volunteers for Impact 100 and the SHRM Advocacy Team and has held board positions with the Greater Cincinnati Human Resources Association (GCHRA) & American Marketing Association (AMA).
You can usually find Amy soaking up any HR/Employee Engagement Innovation, consuming all things golf, renovating houses, talking about Miami University or enjoying local restaurants/breweries with her husband.
Sara Jackson wants to live in a world where the workplace inspires employees by forever reminding them of their fierce value that resides within.
As Cofounder of Cerkl, an award-winning software leader in digital personalization and Executive Director for Internal Comms Pro, Sara is known as a future of work evangelist, evolving the workplace through innovation and empathy.
When she is not engaging with employees, you can find Sara choreographing experiences that breathe life into audiences. You can also find her testing self-awareness and leadership activities on her two young daughters, Gracie and Ella.
Mat Barter started his career as an individual contributor in IT and one day made the leap to leadership to find the answer to “why do they make us do these things”. Over 20 years later and he’s still seeking that answer, however, it’s because it’s still a challenge to seek new solutions to new, and old, problems.
Currently, Mat is the Founder and CEO of CloudPires (build your digital empire in the cloud), a full-service, ServiceNow consulting company. Working with his clients, and explosive growth of his own company, gives Mat plenty of opportunity to pursue his passions of process improvement and organizational change management.
Janie is the Culture Practice Lead at TENFOLD LLC. TENFOLD is a strategy and creative firm that reveals and reflects the magic of brand and culture for clients. TENFOLD enables clients to “live the brand” through the creation of an inspired culture narrative and branded space design.
TENFOLD’s solutions incorporate brand and culture strategy, environmental graphic design and interactive digital-display technology to create spaces that educate, inform and inspire, connecting people to place in a meaningful way. As an entrepreneurial start-up, TENFOLD has quickly become an industry-leading, award-winning firm. In 2018, TENFOLD received top honors for excellence in creativity and strategic impact from the American Advertising Federation. The company was also included by Business First on its Fast 50 list of the fastest-growing companies in Central Ohio and was named to the prestigious Inc. 500 as one of the fastest-growing private companies in the nation. TENFOLD brings the brand and culture story to life for clients like ESPN, NBCUniversal, Big Lots and Huntington National Bank among many others.
Janie’s professional career spans nearly 20 years. She graduated from The George Washington University with a Bachelor of Business Administration specializing in Marketing and began her career leading Alternative & Print Media Marketing for America Online. In 2005, Janie made the jump into the retail sector focusing on customer marketing and customer loyalty for Bath & Body Works. From there, Janie then spent several years launching a new retail-focused customer marketing & loyalty strategy agency focused on mid-market retailers. After realizing CRM wasn’t her passion, Janie moved into a role leading a brand strategy and consumer research agency. It was in this role that Janie was able to learn about and help cultivate the narrative science based research technique that has become the foundation of her work ever since. Janie has since led marketing and brand strategy for large healthcare coordination firms, financial services firms, CPGs, retailers, B2B service providers, and the list goes on.
It wasn’t until Janie had the opportunity to launch the Culture Practice at TENFOLD that she truly found her calling. Working with executives to better articulate corporate culture, drive culture transformation, and be a part of helping organizations become the best workplace for its employees is what truly lights her professional fire, and she feels privileged to be doing this work for a living.
Mark has specialized in “impact” enterprises, “conscious capitalism” and “triple bottom line” economics for 30 years. His passion is to bring regenerative, healing and sustainable models to much-greater scale in our world. He is expert in sales, strategy, design, teaching, consumer products and finance.
In January of 2019, LifeGuides, PBC, where Mark is Founder/CEO, received the Grand Prize in the prestigious “Abundance Impact Challenge” from Dr. Peter Diamandis, Singularity University and the Abundance 360 leadership network.
In April 2019, Mark was appointed to Fast Company’s Impact Council, which is “300 leaders that will redefine the future of enterprise.”
In January of 2011, Mr. Donohue was honored as one of the “Top 100 American Thought Leaders in Trustworthy Business Behavior,” by the organization Trust Across America.
He was Entrepreneur-in-Residence for over five years, and subsequently Senior Fellow in Social Innovation for three years, at Babson College, which is consistently #1-rated in the world for Entrepreneurship education.
Mark’s past roles have included: Chairman/Founder of a Silicon Valley $100M+ “impact” venture fund; Chairman/CEO of a 200-employee pharmaceuticals enterprise; President of a $100M revenue e-commerce company; CEO of a NASDAQ member Investment Bank, Professor of Entrepreneurship (adjunct), Technology Strategist for a $30B PE/VC fund group, and Board roles for a dozen businesses, including Chair of a 240-employee Internet-of-Things enterprise.
In the non-profit realm, he has served on Boards including: Babson College, the Social Venture Circle, The Temple of Understanding (USA’s oldest interfaith education organization), and as Treasurer of the Foundation for Conscious Evolution.
Margaret Dwyer, Senior Director of People Operations, leads human resources, recruiting, and culture initiatives at SiteCompli. Margaret joined SiteCompli in 2013 when the company only employed 16 people, and has helped to grow the team significantly over the last 6 years. Additionally, Margaret is proud of securing SiteCompli a spot on the Crain’s Best Places to Work in New York City list for 5 years in a row. Prior to SiteCompli, Margaret was a professional actor in Los Angeles, CA, where she performed in plays and musicals, most notably winning the 2011 Stage Scene LA Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress for her role as Mayella in To Kill A Mockingbird. Margaret graduated cum laude from Vassar College and received her HR certification from the Society of Human Resource Managers. In her spare time, Margaret enjoys seeing theater and playing strategy board games.
MeredithFerguson is the Managing Director of DoSomething Strategic—the consulting arm of DoSomething.org, the largest global organization for young people and social impact. DoSomething Strategic uses data-driven insights from DoSomething’s 5+ million members to help brands and organizations build a relationship with young people (under 30!) around purpose and social impact.
Meredith’s career has spanned both client and agency roles, where she’s led youth-focused engagement and business-driving strategies for national retail, health, and restaurant brands. She speaks globally on the power of young people and purpose at conferences including ANA, YMS, PSFK, PromaxBDA, &Then, IEG, and Brand ManageCamp.
Meredith is an adjunct professor of Public Interest Marketing at Fordham University and has served as a judge for the Positive Change Effie Awards and the D&AD Impact Awards. She is a graduate of Vanderbilt Law School where she was a founding member of the Vanderbilt Child & Family Law Clinic and later served as a board member for Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA).
When not striving to bake the perfect chocolate chip cookie, Meredith can be found watching a musical or play in New York City with her husband and two girls.
Jason Ashlock is Senior Vice President for Customer and Employee Experience at Kuehne + Nagel, a global logistics company with more than 80,000 employees in more than 100 countries. In his work in organizational development, he uses tools sharpened as a partner in an organizational transformation firm, deploys communications strategies shaped by his time as founder and principle of an intellectual property management company, and leans heavily on research into behavioral economics, environmental psychology, Lean Startup, and narrative intelligence.
Work Experience
I’ve had an amazing career in Human Resources with most of my time spent as a Human Resources Business Partner. In addition, I’ve spent time in other HR areas including Mergers and Acquisitions, Compensation, and Talent Management. I have worked in the Automotive, Consumer Products, Semiconductor and Technology industries.
My goal, and why I come to work each day, is to develop a culture where people feel positive about their impact to the business. I enjoy working for leaders who support, encourage and invite their employees to be heard. Through partnership, we prioritize creating a trusting and supportive environment, which allows people to excel and bring their whole selves to work.
Background
I have a master’s degree in Labor & Industrial Relations from the University of Illinois and a Bachelor’s in Sociology from the University of Texas. I live in Austin, Texas with my husband and two sons. Our time is spent running (literally as well as figuratively) to Chinese, golf and acting lessons. Outside of my family, I participate in Camp Gladiators, enjoy a glass of wine on the patio and dress up for Halloween. Finally, I would not work for a travel company without a love to travel. This summer’s trips include New York, Tokyo/ Kyoto, Japan and Frisco, Colorado.
PHILOSOPHY
I believe that most organizations, as living and breathing organisms, have the opportunity to define, test and validate their own formula for success. EX, as both a practice and a tool, guides the design of high quality and relevant experiences, events, spaces and products that promote strong organizational health and brand. Employees are our first customers. They are the ones who will grow the business, help predict and influence change, and shape the culture of the company. At the end, it is about knowing yourself better, discovering new things and ultimately living a richer and more fulfilling life. It is about the customer, the individual and the organization on their journey towards who they want to become; at work, at home and in their community.
WORK EXPERIENCE
I am an organizational psychologist with both a business and a clinical background. I have been a practitioner for over 18 years in the field of OD, eX, Learning and Change. I have worked alongside inspiring leaders in technology, product, media and consulting with a solid record of coaching them towards individual and team success. I have also lead digital organizations with revenue, team and product responsibilities. While eX and Coaching is agnostic to any industry, it does give me a unique view into your world.
BACKGROUND
I have a Masters Degree in Organizational Psychology from Columbia University and an Executive Coaching Certification from New York University. I speak product, marketing, Geek and Agile. I live in Brooklyn, New York with my family and love to travel and eat. I like the texture of real books, synchronized laughter of watching a movie together, funny giffs from a friend and the
anticipation of starting a great project that impact others.
At DigitalOcean, Matt was responsible for leadership in the practice areas of people operations, talent acquisition, talent development, and employee experience.. In 4 years Matt helped scale the company from under 100 employees to over 500. DigitalOcean has received a number of external recognitions for its innovative People practices, was recently profiled in Harvard Business Review for its agile approach to performance development, and was named as one of the 2017 Best Places to Work in NYC by USA Today, and the #1 Best Midsized Company to Work for in NYC by BuiltinNYC in 2019.
Prior to DigitalOcean, Matt was the Senior Director of People Operations at Return Path, a global leader in email solutions which was named the #2 Best Place to Work in the US by Fortune Magazine in 2014. Matt has held a number of HR and people leadership roles at Fortune 500 companies including JPMorgan Chase and Avon, serves on the advisory board of several early stage startups, and is a founding member and the NY lead of PeopleTech Partners. He received his undergraduate degree from Cornell University and his graduate degree in Organizational Psychology from NYU.
Stuart Thompson is the Chief People Officer at Trilogy Education Services, one of the fastest growing EdTech companies ever, where he leads the people strategy in support of the execution of our business plans with a focus on talent management, organizational performance, compensation, and the development of an incredible culture where teams bring their very best to work each day.
Stuart brings over 18 years of human resources leadership having led people operations teams with a number of technology companies. Immediately before Trilogy, Stuart led the people operations teams for Autotrader, Dealertrack, Kelly Blue Book, and a host of software products for Cox Automotive. His prior experience includes leading progressive HR/Peope teams at Scripps Networks, McGraw-Hill Companies, and Take-Two Interactive Software.
He earned his bachelors and masters degrees from Baylor University and also studied at National University of Ireland, Galway. Stuart lives in New York and is a huge fan of live indie music.
After serving as Chief People Officer in a couple of global tech companies (MediaMath and Shutterstock) Peter Phelan hung out a consulting shingle as a Culture Doctor, as he wanted to help more than one company at a time. He’s enjoying sharing lessons learned along the way to getting MediaMath to be the only East Coast or West Coast <1,000 employee company to ever make the Glassdoor Employees’ Choice Best Place Places To Work list three years in a row. He’s was delighted to have since seen multiple clients join Crain’s NYC Best Places To Work 2018 list and Glassdoor’s Best Places To Work 2018 list.
Kerri Warner leads global employee communications at Mastercard. In this role, she leads the team responsible for employee communications and events, creative campaigns and engagement technologies. Her team develops communications that inspire, engage, educate and connect employees to drive business outcomes–and be the company’s strongest, most credible brand advocates.
Prior to Mastercard, Kerri was senior vice president, employee engagement, for MSL (a Publicis Groupe agency), where she worked with global clients across multiple industries to develop and lead a range of internal engagement and communications programs, including organizational changes, customer experience transformations, culture shaping, sustainability initiatives and much more. Earlier in her career, Kerri held roles in communications, HR, marketing and partnerships at American Express. Prior to American Express, she was a management consultant in the strategy practices at PricewaterhouseCoopers and Deloitte.
Kerri started her career as a clinical social worker, counseling adolescents in a private high school for troubled teens, and supporting families through home-based intervention services.
She lives in Westchester County with her family. When not working, she can be found cheering from the sidelines of her son’s soccer games, watching rom-coms with her daughter, wine-tasting with her husband or running along local trails to the music of Dave Matthews.
Lindsay Bousman the Senior Director of Talent Management at Expedia Group. Bringing her expertise in organizational psychology, global employee surveys, talent management, and organizational development, her focus is on providing evidence-based solutions for global talent management needs for Expedia Group to enhance the employee experience. She oversees enterprise-wide manager and leadership development, culture and engagement, and performance and talent planning. She has previously held internal talent management roles at Microsoft and Starbucks, and also been an external consultant in Paris Phoenix Group. She received her M.A. and Ph.D. in industrial/organizational psychology from University of Nebraska at Omaha.
Lyndi-Paige Pyle is the Managing Director of the Pacific Northwest for O.C. Tanner. She has worked with some of the world’s largest companies to enhance their employee experience. Lyndi-Paige specializes in helping to build and celebrate great cultures through recognition, wellbeing, and continuous feedback. A strong believer in the power of positive thinking in the workplace, Lyndi-Paige partners with organizations to determine a solution that works best for them, leaning heavily on research, industry insights, and best practices to ensure meaningful culture change and implement successful solutions.
Elizabeth Gartner, Employee Experiences Leader at Microsoft, has always been passionate about challenges that improve processes and experiences. After almost 7 years with Microsoft, 6 different roles, and 3 HR organizations – there was always one thing in common with the job description. Curiosity was required.
Elizabeth strives to empower globally diverse teams to find creative solutions to the ever-changing modern workplace. She’s now focused on the challenge of incorporating her team’s Employee Experience strategy throughout Microsoft HR to influence company policies for over 120,000 employees. In her free time, she enjoys horseback riding, volunteering, traveling the world to try whiskey, and gardening.
Laura Dowling Grealish is a senior consultant and executive coach with PeopleFirm and has spent the past two decades studying and applying the disciplines and science that help clients create thriving environments, high-performing teams, modern performance management techniques, improved organizational effectiveness, and customized learning and development programs.
Her career experiences have allowed her to embrace a “craftsman mindset” as she gathers insights across industries and people disciplines. Before partnering with Tamra at PeopleFirm, Laura’s career path included stops at organizations like GE Capital, Genworth Financial, the Cleveland Clinic, and Russell Investments.
Laura has a Bachelor of Arts degree in business management from the University of Montana and an MBA from Pacific Lutheran University. She and her husband, Jeff, live in the Pacific Northwest and enjoy having their two adult children, Evann and Logan, nearby, along with a growing tribe of little grandpeople.
Lara McLeod is the Equity & Belonging Pathways Program Manager at Zillow Group, providing multiple pathways for employees to learn, grow, and drive Equity & Belonging. Prior to joining Zillow Group, Lara started her career at Microsoft. A writer by trade, she spent her 4 years at Microsoft working as a UX writer before changing her career trajectory to focus specifically on workplace culture and employee development as a Business Program Manager and the head of Career Development for BAM (Blacks at Microsoft).
Originally from Washington D.C., Lara has always been passionate about and engaged in equity, belonging, and social justice efforts. She serves as a mentor and Seven Generations member for City Year, an education nonprofit dedicated to helping students and schools succeed. Lara is also a board member and lobbyist for Rise, a national civil rights nonprofit. She continues to lobby alongside the CEO and other members of Rise to pass groundbreaking federal legislation protecting sexual assault survivors’ civil rights.
Lara earned her Bachelors in Professional and Technical Writing from Carnegie Mellon University with minors in both Vocal Performance and Social Psychology. In her free time, you’ll find her singing with her Seattle-based A Cappella group or performing in local Musical Theater productions.
Rebekah Bastian is Vice President of Community & Culture at Zillow Group, leading efforts around Equity & Belonging, Social Impact Products and Cultural Engagement. Rebekah was one of Zillow’s first employees, coming over from Microsoft in 2005, and spent her first 12 years leading product development across many areas of the company.
Rebekah serves on the Board of Directors of Bellwether Housing and the Advisory Board for the University of Washington School of Mechanical Engineering. She is also an advisor to technology startups, a respected thought leader and community partner. She writes articles in multiple publications including Forbes.com and is a frequent speaker at conferences and community events. She has been recognized in the Puget Sound Business Journal 40 Under 40, the Inman 33 People Changing the Real Estate Industry and the Female Founders Alliance Champion Awards.
Rebekah earned her Masters of Mechanical Engineering from UC Berkeley and Bachelors of Mechanical Engineering from the University of Washington. She is also a mentor, a mother to two boys and an aerial acrobat.
Angela R. Howard currently serves as the Director of Talent Management & Culture for Kaiser Permanente’s Washington (KPWA) region. In this role, Angela oversees a team of organizational development, talent management and learning professionals that help build capability and drive culture change across KPWA.
Prior to joining Kaiser Permanente. Angela has spent over a decade of her career advising organizations and coaching executives on how to build businesses that thrive though people that thrive. Her dedication to and strong philosophy around the untapped potential of the workforce of tomorrow is grounded in intersecting individual passion with company purpose. She coaches, educates and speaks about transforming organizations into catalysts for hiring, retaining, engaging and developing their most capable and energized employees. Her personal mission is to bring passion and purpose back into the workplace. She leverages her knack for transforming research and best practice into enterprise-wide and business-specific localized programs and solutions impacting individuals, small teams and entire global organizations of 300,000+ employees in the areas of employee engagement, strategic talent development, organizational effectiveness and company culture.
Angela received her M.A. in Industrial/Organizational Psychology – a highly specialized field focused on rigor and research around behavior and human potential in the workplace.
Sam Crumley is Vice President of Employee Experience at Panopto, the fastest-growing provider of video software for training, teaching and presenting. In this role, Sam has broad responsibility for talent planning, recruiting, learning, compensation, HR administration and work environment. Before joining Panopto, Sam led the talent management consulting practice at PeopleFirm with a particular focus on talent strategy, HR transformation, performance management and HR technology. Prior to that, he served as a global manager for HR outsourcing at Accenture and has a background as a Federal agent.
Amy Strande is an experienced Senior Director with a demonstrated history of working effectively across large enterprise organizations – with 20+ years at Microsoft. She has a strong passion for Employee Experiences with a special place in her heart to make moments matter.
Skilled in Employee, Customer, and User Experience; Education/Learning; Business Management; Strategic Planning; and Marketing Strategy. She is a strong professional with a Bachelor of Arts Education focused in Mathematics and Computer Science from Concordia University-River Forest.
In her own words …
“With age, I feel, comes clarity – and my clarity is that I love being there for others. Service is in my DNA. I find career joy in working together towards a collective mission, supporting teams, and helping employees and customers…making each moment they have matter.”
John Patton is a Manager in Lilly’s Global Diversity and Inclusion Office.
Before joining Lilly, Patton held human resource leadership positions across a number of different industries, including Human Resource Manager at Jones Plastics & Engineering in Jeffersontown, KY and Human Resource Director at Hurstbourne Care Center in Louisville, KY. Patton joined Lilly in 2002 in the biotechnology discovery area of Lilly Research Laboratories providing administrative, operational, and recruiting support. After a three year educational leave, John returned to Lilly as a Medical Writer, supporting commercial and regulatory disclosures and publications.
Patton began his current role as Global Diversity Manager in 2014. In this role, Patton manages Lilly’s external diversity benchmarking strategy, including Lilly’s representation on national and global “Best” lists. Patton is also responsible for Lilly’s work life strategy and managing Lilly’s corporate employee resource group program.
Patton earned his bachelor’s degree from Indiana University-Purdue University at Indianapolis and his Master of Public Health and Master of Health Administration degrees from Indiana University School of Medicine.
Patton also holds leadership roles on the boards of Brothers United and Indiana Youth Group here in Indianapolis.
As EVP Marketing & Innovation, Partner, Robert oversees Tallwave’s Branding practice, as well as the marketing, thought leadership, innovation, and communications programs to help drive the company’s growth. He is particularly passionate about the overlap between brand and product.
In addition to his managerial responsibilities, Robert has led some of Tallwave’s largest engagements for clients including FindLaw, AudioEye, Baker Tilly, and AppointmentPlus. Robert has spent his career working with startups and fast growth companies in industries including business services, marketing technology, e-commerce, footwear, and retail. He is a frequent contributor at Forbes, Entrepreneur, and Tech.co.
Robert has an MBA from the University of Pittsburgh. When he’s not working, Robert enjoys writing, making candy with his daughter, and boxing.
Michele Shuey, advocate for the Employee Experience, is the Director of Learning, Leadership Development & Employee Engagement at Unitedweb | Nextiva. People focused and results driven, Michele has spent two decades fueling her career with a passion for identifying, growing and engaging top talent to help companies become an “Employer of Choice.” She has spent that last 5 years building programs that turn the focus of the customer experience inward on the employee experience. Michele’s innate ability to quickly connect and build trust allows her to successfully influences all levels of an organization to prioritize the employee experience above all else. In doing so, Michele validates the belief that every interaction is an opportunity to build relationships, create unique experiences and leave lasting impressions.
“At Nextiva, we put rigor around the Employee Life-Cycle and get intentional about creating amazing experiences at all significant touch points of the employee’s journey.” – Michele Shuey
Kate brings high energy and a results-focused approach to facing challenges. She’s responsible for leading and innovating the hiring processes, developing talent acquisition strategy, and overseeing candidate experience for Infusionsoft’s candidates and hiring leaders. In her time with Infusionsoft, she and her team have hired over 500 people, implemented multiple new innovations, and trained 150+ Infusionsoft leaders to our talent best practices.
Prior to Infusionsoft, Kate led a team of recruiters and managed accounts in the U.S. and Canada for Target Training International. At Insperity, she consulted with clients like Girl Scouts, Wounded Warrior Project, and K12 on talent management, engagement programs and strategy execution.
Kate holds a Master’s degree from Pepperdine in Organization Development with an emphasis on job benchmarking, retention, and talent selection. When not strategizing on people and process at Infusionsoft, she is busy collecting passport stamps, throwing dinner parties, and chasing her 1 year old twins!
As host of the popular “Great Work Insights” podcast, weekly contributor to both Forbes.com, and Inc.com, Director for the O.C. Tanner Institute and co-author of the book Appreciate, Todd Nordstrom’s career is full of insight based on thousands of in-depth interviews from around the globe. He has spoken to a wide range of audiences, from introducing rock bands in arenas, to countless on-air interviews with C-suite leaders from a plethora of industries, to all types of executives attending conferences around the world.
Kate is passionate about people, building companies & communities and inspiring others to harness their unique strengths and potential, both in and out of the office. She has been working with startups since 2005 and has served as the Head of Talent and People for companies based in Silicon Valley, Boston, Austin, Denver, New York and Phoenix. In February she launched her new startup: CoVibe, where she and her team partner with Founders/Co-Founders/CEOs to build their startups with a people-first mindset. She prides herself in building and shaping companies through culture, developing and enhancing programs that empower people, building authentic teams and coaching new managers/founders as their businesses scale and grow.
Along those same lines, Kate lends her time and talent to supporting many local nonprofit and community organizations for entrepreneurs, (not least being Startup Week PHX). Outside of her work, she’s also the proud mother of a 5-year-old who is a constant reminder of the importance of inspiring the next generation of future leaders and innovators and celebrating the daily joys of life. She’s known for her approachability, authenticity, enthusiasm and natural ability to bring out “the fun” in groups she’s leading.
Katee Van Horn is a human resource strategist and international keynote speaker focused on strengthening corporate cultures. She inspires leaders, employees and human resource teams by showing people how to build a diverse and inclusive culture where everyone succeeds.
Katee is the founder and CEO of Bar the Door Consulting & Coaching, where she provides practical solutions for teams to thrive through an inclusive environment. She previously worked at GoDaddy as their Vice President- Global Engagement & Inclusion. Katee uses her 20+ years in HR and her innate ability to quickly assess the individual, organization and leadership development needs to create appropriate and operative solutions. She is a reputable leader known for building and sustaining trusting, collaborative relationships to achieve business goals.
Joe Carella has over 20 years of experience in helping executives and corporations in talent development, inclusive workplaces, managing change, strategy formulation and execution.
His academic and research engagements have seen him focus on corporate strategy, talent development and business performance with a variety of corporate clients including Hershey’s, Chevron, Fender Musical Instruments Corporation, Intel, Essilor, BBVA, Produce Marketing Association, Xenel Industries, P.F. Chang’s, Raytheon, Wallenius Wilhelmsen Logistics, DP World and Discover Financial Services. He is also responsible for designing, developing and delivering successful executive education programs for global corporations.
Joe has also been keynote speaker on the state of the industry at the annual congress of the FITCE – the Forum of European Technology Professionals, the Society for the Plastics Industry, the Association for Talent Development and Disrupt HR. Joe has been a contributor to the Harvard Business Review focusing on the challenges of leadership.
Specialties: organizational change, talent development, diversity, business strategy, innovation, business intelligence, facilitation, coaching, leadership development, executive education, global business,
With a combined 15 years of experience in human resources and theatre production, Beth is passionate about crafting world class employee experiences within innovative technology companies. She believes HR should be about helping people achieve their goals, progress in their careers, and creating an environment where people can bring their whole selves to work.
Outside of the office, she loves spending quality time with her television, discussing spatio-temporal crime patterns with her criminologist husband, and making everything from scratch in her small South Philly kitchen.
Ileana Monts de Oca, MBA has over 20 years of service with Lilly, her professional background include roles in Finance, Sales, Managed Healthcare Services and most recently Consultant for Global Diversity and Inclusion. Ileana received her MBA from Universidad Interamericana in Costa Rica where she began her career at Lilly. Ileana is also an active member of Prospanica, and The National Association of Professional Women. Ileana enjoys a wide range of music, cooking and learning new skills such as playing the cello and flamenco dancing. She has moved to Carmel, IN last year with her husband Mark and 3 year-old son, Jorge.
Danielle Vetter currently works for Cummins. In her role, Danielle coordinates implementation of the company’s diversity and inclusion strategy. At Cummins, diversity & inclusion is about recognizing and valuing differences and using those differences to deliver superior results. Her work focuses on data analysis, support of Cummins leadership, and managing Cummins’ network of 100+ global employee resource groups.
In her previous role with Cummins, Danielle managed $12 million of charitable spending annually through the Cummins Foundation Community Development Grant program. Danielle coordinated grantmaking over 30 countries, including the regions of Europe, Latin America, Africa, China, the Asia Pacific and more.
Danielle has a Master of Public Affairs from the top-ranked School of Public and Environmental Affairs at Indiana University. Danielle is passionate about data-driven programs that empower and strengthen communities. Previous work experience includes working for the national nonprofit KaBOOM! and the Indiana University Alumni Association.
In the Indianapolis committee, Danielle is an active volunteer with the United Way of Central Indiana, Planned Parenthood of Indiana and Kentucky, and IndyHub. She also teaches yoga at Invoke Studio. She loves live music, travel, and enjoying the fantastic restaurants in the city.
Christine “Chris” Krull is Head of Diversity and Inclusion and a member of the Diagnostics HR Leadership team at Roche Diagnostics in Indianapolis. Chris has spent most of her nearly 20-year career at Roche in leadership roles providing oversight to operations, developing service- and customer-focused strategies, and championing inclusive leadership to build high-performing teams.
As Head of Diversity and Inclusion, she consults with others across the Diagnostics organization to develop strategies that will increase diversity and inclusion within the business. This includes influencing workforce talent management strategies and workplace practices, and implementing corporate initiatives that have demonstrated positive impact on Roche’s culture and workforce diversity. Chris has a passion for creating an inclusive environment where all employees feel a sense of belonging and purpose. She believes this kind of environment is necessary in order for people to contribute at their fullest potential.
Chris is a Purdue graduate and resides in Carmel with her husband Brian and daughters Kaelin and Kamden. She is an outdoor enthusiast and enjoys camping and hiking with her family in her free time.
For more than a decade, Lindsay has been coaching, researching and developing programs for millennials. Fascinated by the intersection of four unique generations in the workforce, Lindsay’s expertise now spans across industries and age groups to focus on creating meaningful experiences at work.
As a nationally-recognized generational expert, Lindsay has partnered with organizations such as Cars.com, Thrivent, Roche and the Indiana Supreme Court, and works frequently with both college campuses and companies of all sizes around the country to enhance their effectiveness through building successful multi-generational teams.
Lindsay earned a degree in psychology and public communication from Syracuse University, and a professional coaching certification through the International Coach Federation. She has been seen on WISH-TV, Fox 55 Fort Wayne (Indiana) and most frequently on her wildly popular interview series, The Porch.
By providing education through one-on-one programs, group training and keynote speeches around the country, Lindsay empowers organizations to maximize the talent of their diverse workforce and helps individuals find the joy in understanding why every generation matters.
Chris Byers is the CEO of Formstack, a SaaS company with a mission to empower its users through simple, elegant tools that remove complexity from everyday business processes. Formstack offers a versatile online form solution with a suite of workflow automation tools, including HIPAA compliant data collection, offline forms, and a native Salesforce app.
Since joining Formstack, Chris has led the company through high growth and transformation. When he took the helm in 2010, the team consisted of eight local Indy grads serving mostly small businesses. Today, the Formstack family is made up of over 100 remote workers who are scattered across the United States and other parts of the world. The company has also expanded its customer base to include large and well-known organizations like the National Hockey League and Franciscan Health.
Prior to Formstack, Chris co-founded an international nonprofit that was built via remote relationships among partners in Europe, Africa, and the United States. His experience has greatly contributed to Formstack’s growth, as well as its successful transition to a remote culture. Under his leadership, Formstack has earned numerous honors, including multiple placements on the Best Places to Work in Indiana list, the Inc. 5000 list of fastest growing companies, and the Indianapolis Business Journal’s Fast 25 list.
Ryan McCarty is an author, speaker, storyteller, and the co-founder of Culture of Good, Inc.
As the former director of customer and employee relations at TCC, the largest Verizon Authorized Retailer in the nation, Ryan McCarty is no stranger to empowering employees through a powerful cultural movement.
With more than 20 years of leadership experience in full-time ministry and in nonprofit work, Ryan teaches for-profit companies how to lead their businesses with a meaningful “why.” He has a passion and a determination to guide businesses into profitable purpose: strong growth, high-value returns, and meaningful philanthropy! His book, Build A Culture of Good, teaches companies to unleash results by letting their employees bring their souls to work.
Ryan’s work has been featured in Huffington Post, Inc.com, People, Forbes and more. He is regularly featured on podcasts, sharing his profound message on operating your business and living your life with joy, success—and most importantly, soul.
Ryan believes that every leader and employee can discover their life calling by leveraging their daily work, building a thriving Culture of Good, and making the world a better place.
Tamara M. Rasberry, SHRM-CP, PHR, is the Principal HR Consultant for Rasberry Consulting, LLC and currently serves as the HR Manager for a national nonprofit organization. Her 15+ years of HR and nonprofit experience have included roles with the American Bankers Association and the American Public Transportation Association as well as serving as an HR consultant to several other local nonprofit organizations. Tamara is an active member of the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) and has previously held multiple Chair positions with her local chapter, DC SHRM. She is a passionate advocate for going beyond representational diversity to creating inclusive workplaces and putting people first. Tamara can be found on LinkedIn, Twitter @tmrasberry and writes a blog on HR and life at tamaramrasberry.com.
Kristin Dudley is an award-winning Workplace Documentarian & Employment Brand Strategist. Her day-in-the-life documentaries of real jobs provide workplace transparency while attracting the most qualified candidates to apply. Through Co-Create LLC, she is taking candidate experience a step further. Passionate about building healthy teams and organizations, Co-Create facilitates collaborative content-generating exercises with employees to produce personalized solutions for the candidate experience while uncovering the authentic voice of the employment brand at hand.
Ms. Dudley formerly served as Senior Manager of Talent Brand & Attraction for Comcast NBCUniversal after many years as Manager of Comcast’s Emmy Award-Winning User Experience & Product Design team. Within her role leading Talent Brand & Attraction, she launched the social talent attraction strategy for the company and produced dozens of stories and pieces of content to support its growth. Driven by her mission to “help everyone love where they work,” she has spent the last five years applying design-thinking to address all touch points of the candidate journey.
Ms. Dudley holds an MS in Organizational Dynamics from the University of Pennsylvania and a BS in Fashion Design from Drexel University. She was recently named “Disruptor of the Year” by the DisruptHR NYC community.
Kelly has spent her 15+ year career helping organizations and individuals kick ass and become better versions of themselves. Coaching, training, recruiting – you name it, she’s done it, and in a variety of industries ranging from advertising to behavioral health to tourism and beyond. She’s a secret weapon for combatting employee engagement challenges and guiding individuals to achieve their dreams in all areas of their lives. Be it supporting new managers in their journeys from uncertain supervisors to rock star bosses, helping lost newbies zero in on what they want from their careers or enabling leaders to be more self-aware in their management styles and more skillfully interact with those around them, she’s done it all. Outside of pushing to make people and organizations better, Kelly spends most of her time marathoning Netflix programming with her mutt, Dexter.
Talia Edmundson is the Director of Human Resources for Philadelphia-based ecommerce company, RevZilla.com. Since joining the company as their first HR Leader, Talia has driven employee growth by 85% in just over 5 years. Her day to day focus is motivating awesome and imparting wisdom to those who seek HR knowledge, even if that means saying, no it’s not illegal, yes, that’s too dangerous, and maybe we should have a waiver for that.
Talia has been instrumental in building RevZilla as one of Philly.com’s Top Workplaces for five consecutive years, Fortune Magazine’s number 10 best workplace for millennials, and Fortune’s number 5 best place to work in retail mid-sized companies.
Lisa has been the Global Head of Employer Branding and Diversity Talent Acquisition at RELX for the past 2 years. With over 15 years of marketing experience in the financial service industry, she’s held various leadership roles with increasing responsibility at American Express, NatWest Bank, and Bancorp Bank. Her marketing experience covers consumer direct marketing, ethnic marketing, and brand awareness. Lisa successfully transferred her marketing skill set to the HR Employer Brand arena over 12 years ago where she led and delivered Employer Brand and candidate attraction programs at AstraZeneca Pharmaceutical and Ericsson. Lisa recently was selected for the Fairy God Boss’ list of Black Women Leading the Way in Corporate America. Lisa has been the recipient of several Employer Brand awards including the CIPD, Recruitment Marketing and others. She received her World Class Employer Branding certification and placed on the Black Enterprise Top Execs in Corporate Diversity List in 2016. She is a frequent guest speaker on Employer Branding, Recruitment Marketing, Social Advocacy, and Diversity Branding at various professional and HR conferences.
Lisa is the recipient of the YMCA Adult Achiever Award and the Trailblazer Award from the National Association of Negro Business and Professional Women’s Club Inc. Lisa is a graduate of Springfield College, and has an MBA from Temple University and Business Marketing certificate from Northwestern’s Kellogg School.
Jamahal C. Boyd, Sr. is the Director, Diversity, Inclusion, and Language Services for TriHealth (Cincinnati). In this capacity, Jamahal leads a team of direct reports in the developing and implementing TriHealth’s Diversity and Inclusion strategy. His key responsibilities include operationalizing the strategic direction and providing vision and leadership to TriHealth’s diversity and inclusion function. As a key member of TriHealth’s leadership team, he advances TriHealth’s work on establishing the business case for diversity through a focus on healthcare disparities and workforce development. Additionally, Jamahal plays a vital role in TriHealth’s efforts to strengthen its supplier diversity strategy in collaboration with the executive team and supply chain leadership.
Jamahal brings a wealth of experience after more than 22 years as a progressive professional in the healthcare industry. He recently joined TriHealth from the Mercy Health System, where he last served in the role of Director of Operations for the Clinically Integrated Network (Cincinnati). During his tenure with Mercy Health, he also served in the role of Director, Multicultural Equity for several years. Prior to his tenure with Mercy Health, he was the Director, Office of Health Equity for the Pennsylvania Department of Health.
He is a former National Board Member, serving as the Co-Chair of the Public Policy Committee and Past President of the National Association of Health Services Executives (NAHSE) – Delaware Valley Chapter. Currently, the Chairman of the Trustee Board for the Lincoln Heights Missionary Baptist Church, Board Member for the National Underground Freedom Railroad Center, Board Member for the Family Nurturing Center (FNC) and Board Member for The HealthCare Connection (a Federally Qualified Health Center serving the Cincinnati Region). In 2006, he received the Young Executive of the Year Award from NAHSE. Jamahal holds a B.S. in Business Administration from Delaware State University. His proven ability to collaborate with community leaders, physicians, executives and team members at all levels of the organization, will prove invaluable as he leads TriHealth’s Diversity, Inclusion, & Language Services function into the next phase of its progression. He is the proud husband of 16 years to Mrs. Eboni Boyd and father to 3 children: Jamahal Christopher Jr. (14), Jayla Cymone (9) and Jace Christopher (6).
Carolynn Johnson was promoted to Chief Executive Officer of DiversityInc Media LLC in May 2019. She previously served as the company’s COO and Chief Revenue Officer for the past 16 years during which she was responsible for operations, all major corporate partnerships, web properties and events. She was also responsible for sales management, information technology, circulation, business development and the development and execution of the annual DiversityInc Top 50 competition.
Prior to joining DiversityInc in 2003, Ms. Johnson was the marketing coordinator, pharmaceutical and science groups, for Advanstar Communications. Prior to Advanstar, she was an account manager at Correct Communications, a full-service marketing and communications agency.
Carolynn completed an executive management program at the Tuck Business School at Dartmouth College and earned an MBA from Rutgers Business School.
She has been director of the DiversityInc Foundation for the past 10 years and is on the Board of Trustees at Bennett College for Women in Greensboro, NC. She is also on the National Board of Directors at INROADS and Chairwoman of the Development Committee. While completing her MBA, Carolynn was an elected class officer and was a recipient of the Ted Marousas Award for Expanding the footprint of the Rutgers EMBA.
She lives in New Jersey with her husband and two children.
Marty leads the Insights team at Fuse, Cardinal Health’s innovation center, focusing on user and market research as well as user experience design. With more than 20 years as an information architect, interaction & visual designer, and creative director, Marty has held multiple design and user experience leadership roles. Over that time, he built UX teams at 4 companies—along the way co-founding, running, and eventually selling his own technology/design start-up. At Fuse, Marty has built out his 5th UX team and together they’re imagining, researching, and designing products they truly believe will make people’s lives easier, better, and longer.
Rachel is Founder + CEO of TENFOLD LLC. TENFOLD was born out of a personal dream to own
and build a great company with great company culture…and the belief that the two go hand in
hand. TENFOLD is an award-winning, strategy and creative firm that reveals and reflects the magic
of brand and culture for clients. We enable our clients to “live the brand” through the creation of an
inspired culture narrative and branded space design.
TENFOLD’s solutions incorporate strategy, environmental graphic design and interactive digital display
technology to create spaces that educate, inform and inspire…connecting people to place in a
meaningful way. As an entrepreneurial start up, TENFOLD has quickly become an industry leading
firm. TENFOLD brings the brand and culture story to life for clients like ESPN, NBCUniversal,
Big Lots and Huntington National Bank among many others.
Rachel’s professional career spans over 25 years. As a graduate of the University of Michigan with
a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Design, Rachel started her career as a designer in 1992. In 1997
Rachel joined the furniture industry innovator, Herman Miller. While managing Global Accounts at
Herman MIller, Rachel helped numerous Fortune 500 clients align their workplace strategy with
their business strategy. Through this work she learned that although she had always been
passionate about design, her true passion was business. As a result, in 2000 she enrolled at The
Ohio State University Fisher College of Business, while working full time, to earn her MBA. In 2006,
$120M contract interiors provider Continental Office Environments hired Rachel as Executive Vice
President, Marketing and Sales. Rachel resigned in 2014 to pursue her dream of owning her own
business.
Rachel Roman is the Director of Talent, HR, and Culture at Updox — Updox is a Dublin, Ohio based software company and the industry-leading healthcare care coordination solution. Named for the past three consecutive years to the Inc. 5000 list of America’s fastest-growing private companies, Updox is integrated with more than 100 electronic health records (EHR) and serves more than 300,000 users and 72 million patients.
Rachel has been an HR professional for 6 years and has worked in the Finance, SaaS Software, Telephony, and Healthcare IT industries in various HR roles. She specializes in growing talent for both private and public companies in hyper growth phases by: bringing in top technical and executive talent, retaining top talent, identifying high potential performers, curating effective performance management philosophies, and ensuring the company culture remains strong and scalable.
Rachel lives in downtown Columbus with her hound dog Roca and in her spare time volunteers for Habitat for Humanity ReStore and Pets Without Parents.
J. Forrest believes that toxic workplace cultures kill us slowly. J. and the team at Employee Strategies utilize their responsiveness, results-focused and fun approach to improve workplace cultures across several industries.
J. has more than 20 years of experience working in Organization Development. He has been employed by the two-time World Champion Minnesota Twins, St. Olaf College, inSOURCE HR Consulting and Xcel Energy Inc. In 2006, he started his own organization – Employee Strategies. In 2011, he started as a software firm Alignamite to take the pain out of performance management.
Forrest holds a bachelor’s degree from St. Olaf College in Political Science and Speech Communication & a Master’s degree from the University of Minnesota in Human Resource Development.
A dad, a husband, a son, a brother, an uncle and a neighbor, J. lives with his family in Minneapolis Minnesota.
President and Founder of Eklund Consulting.
Nate Eklund holds fast to the notion that life is too precious to spend it not liking your job. That conviction bears out in his enthusiastic partnerships with organizations to ensure companies engage in the hard work of making work work.
Nate started his with 15 years as a high school English teacher, authored a book on workplace cultures in schools, founded his (cleverly named) company Eklund Consulting in 2011, and now works throughout a variety of industries to develop thoughtful leaders, engaged employees, and workplace cultures that are vibrant and fulfilling places for all. His Twitter handle summarizes him and his work thusly: “I like bringing people and organizations into their uncomfortable truths and realities and then getting us out alive together.”
Mary Sellke is an Executive Director who engages the Twin Cities craft beer community and beyond to kick in, lend a hand and give back to a multitude of non-profits. Mary believes that everyone deep down wants to be part of something a little bit bigger than themselves and if you make it easy for people to help, they will, in full force.
Mary has garnered a wealth of knowledge creating partnerships and working hand in hand with organizations that have a direct impact to the environment, health and human services, education and the arts. For her work in these area’s you will find the People Incorporated Community Partnership Award and the Memorial Blood Center Community Sponsor of the Year Award sitting on her mantle. Mary studied Physical Education and Gerontology at the University of Wisconsin, Eau Claire.
When she is not trying to save the world one beer at a time she is outside running, biking or watching her kids play whatever sport event happens to be in season.
Sophia joined Medtronic in April 2016 and currently leads the development of strategies for inclusion, diversity, and employee engagement. In collaboration with HR and business leaders, she is responsible for ensuring an integrated approach to building a diverse talent pipeline and engaging our global workforce.
Prior to joining Medtronic, Sophia was the Vice President, Organization Effectiveness and Development, and Global Strategic Diversity and Inclusion at Wells Fargo. Before that, she served as Senior Global Diversity and Inclusion Strategic Manager for 3M Company. She also worked at PepsiAmericas and Wells Fargo Home Mortgage in both diversity and inclusion capacities and HR business partner roles. Sophia earned her bachelor’s degree in American Studies, with a concentration in Economics and Cultural Pluralism, from the University of Minnesota, and a Master of Arts in Human Resource Development with a concentration in Global Organizational Development.
John is deeply passionate about helping others to recognize and invest in their own passions and potential. He and his team currently drive Best Buy’s Diversity & Inclusion efforts, partnering with leaders across the organization to create sustainable strategies for recruiting, developing, engaging, and retaining diverse leaders across the enterprise.
Prior to his work in D&I, he was a member of the supply chain business team, partnering with the world’s leading home computing companies to supply electronics to over 1,000 Best Buy stores nationwide. John coordinated the inventory strategy of nearly 100 computing products at any given time, managing annual budgets between $250-500 million.
Outside of the workplace, John spends his time composing/producing records, mentoring, and building relationships with creative minds across the country, crafting hundreds of musical concepts that have been featured on albums, in commercials, and at music festivals. Over the last 12 years, he’s been involved in a plethora of academic, creative, and professional organizations, developing a diverse set of relationships, while picking up various leadership skills (and positions) along the way.
John is a proud North Minneapolis native and self-appointed “Twin Cities Ambassador”, advocating for the great state of Minnesota while traveling the nation in search of talented people. He seeks to strike a perfect balance between the creative, analytical, and strategic in his everyday life.
Clare Jacky is the People & Culture Partner at local SaaS start-up, Leadpages. She serves as co-chair of the organization’s Diversity and Inclusion Group (DIG). DIG seeks to learn and elevate through training, programming, and content creation, working towards a more just and inclusive work culture, community, and tech space.
Erin Hargrove is a Senior Consultant for Human Resources Solutions for Salo LLC, the leader in driving business outcomes in finance, accounting and human resources. Erin works with a diverse group of clients throughout the Twin Cities supporting all facets of Human Capital Management from vendor selection to service delivery to process improvement.
Rodd Wagner is a Forbes columnist and the New York Times bestselling author of Widgets: The 12 New Rules for Managing Your Employees As If They’re Real People. He is employee practice leader for BI Worldwide.
Scott is the CEO & Co-Founder of St. Paul based Structural, an all-in-one people directory used by organizations to humanize data and unleash the potential of people and teams.
Scott previously co-founded software company, GovDelivery, which grew from the basement to 250 people. GovDelivery became the #1 provider of digital communications for the public sector in the U.S. and U.K. serving over 1,000 governments including many of the largest and most complex enterprises in the world. GovDelivery was sold for over $150 million and merged with another company in 2016.
In addition to Structural, Scott is an investor or advisor in a number of projects that are enabling the future of work including When I Work, Branch, Learn to Live, Recovree, and the Osborn370 building in St. Paul that is bringing together the most innovative companies in the east metro in a modern work community.
Scott Dorsey is currently the managing partner at High Alpha, an Indianapolis-based venture studio, and he is the former co-founder, chairman and CEO of ExactTarget, the leading SaaS email marketing service provider, which he grew from 2000 to 2012, took it public on the NY Stock Exchange, and was later acquired by Salesforce in 2013 for $2.7 billion to become the Salesforce Marketing Cloud. Scott played the prominent role in building the culture of “orange” throughout his tenure – a thriving employee experience that was so key to ET’s success that it was listed as a competitive advantage in the company’s S1 filing.
Jeremy Miller is an 18 year old nationally known entrepreneur, speaker, marketer, and pioneer.
Jeremy started inventing things at the age of 7.
By 16 he had already created his first company. Fortunately, as he explains, his first company failed. By the age of 18 he turned around and built a successful digital media marketing agency called Inspired Blue Media. Jeremy is also the Co-Founder and CMO of IDEAvize.
Jeremy helps teach and inspire young entrepreneurs from around United States of America.
Jeremy Miller has been Featured in Inc. Magazine, The Huffington Post, BuzzFeed, Mashable, and Future Sharks.
Karlene Kurtz is the Director of Learning & Development at Cummins, Inc. where they believe learning happens all the time. The goal of the Learning & Development team is to equip all employees with the knowledge, tools and support to leverage development opportunities that enhance personal and professional development while contributing to the success of Cummins.
Karlene has served in a variety of global Human Resources roles during her 14 years at Cummins and recently moved into the Learning & Development space.
Chip is Chief Marketing Officer at Structural, and a marketing executive with over 25 years of direct and digital marketing experience.
Previously Chip was CMO of Four51 OrderCloud, a leading B2B eCommerce platform. Prior to that, he was one of the first executives at ExactTarget, which they grew to be one of the largest cloud IPOs on the NYSE in 2012, and was followed by Salesforce’s $2.7 billion acquisition in 2013. At ExactTarget, now the Salesforce Marketing Cloud, he built multiple teams and formerly led business efforts in customer and relationship marketing. While at Salesforce, he formed and scaled many teams in marketing, customer experience, strategic services, email deliverability, industry/ISP relations, and privacy to support thousands of customers globally.
Chip has significant experience in product marketing, PR, advertising, SEO and lead generation. Product and partnership initiatives he initiated and managed now add millions of dollars of revenues annually.
Early in his career, Chip held senior marketing roles at cloud-based eCommerce company Digital River, and built his marketing career as an analytical marketer and merchandiser at cataloger, Fingerhut Corporation.
Craig P. Anderson is the president of Student Connections. Student Connections provides schools with products and services designed to help students successfully complete their postsecondary education and transition to the workforce. Anderson has 25 years of experience in higher education finance and student financial aid.
Prior to joining Student Connections in January 2014, Anderson was senior vice president, student loan sales, customer support and servicer management, for J.P. Morgan Chase. He previously held leadership positions with Sallie Mae, Bank One Education Finance and USA Group. Anderson served on the Consumer Bankers Association education funding committee.
He is a past vice chairman of the board for Education Loan Management Resources. Additionally, Anderson is a board member for the International School of Indiana. He holds master’s and bachelor’s degrees from the University of Florida.
As Sr. Director of Talent at Appirio, Julie oversees the HR Business Partner and Recruiting functions of the global organization – a company that has more than tripled in size in the four years that Julie has been there. Appirio is a global services company that helps customers create next-generation Worker and Customer Experiences using the latest cloud technologies. Julie leads all of the International HR and Recruiting/Recruitment Marketing teams including Europe, Japan and India with a focus on next generation worker experiences internally.
Julie has been a speaker and panelist at LinkedIn Talent Connect, TRaD Works Forum (Remote Work Summit) and was the 2015 recipient of the Indiana SHRM Professional Excellence Award. She graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration with concentrations in HR Management from Indiana University. Currently, Julie serves as a chair for DisruptHR locally in Indianapolis. Disrupt is an information exchange designed to energize, inform and empower people in the HR field.
Prior to Appirio, Julie built her tech-focused career through companies such as Interactive Intelligence, Teradata, and Aprimo in roles spanning across all areas of HR operations, recruiting, employee experience and talent management.
After four years at Purdue, Tiffany Sauder (then Tiffany Schwab) walked away from the Krannert School of Management and into her very first gig – as a financial analyst with pharmaceutical heavyweight Eli Lilly. That’s right. The founder of one the fastest-growing marketing agencies in the Midwest began her career not as a star creative or digital mastermind. But as a number cruncher.
“Agencies have spent years making people believe that results-driven marketing is a secret recipe. But one lesson I learned early on is that marketing is not magic. No matter how often the what and the where may change, the how will always stay the same – by uncovering your story, crafting a game plan and reacting to the results in real time.”
When Tiffany took over Element Three in 2006, she was 25. In twelve years time, she’s changed her last name to “Sauder,” had three daughters, and boosted annual revenues by over 1000 percent.
The latter has gotten Element Three into the Inc. 5000 four consecutive times, seen E3 named the largest full-service marketing agency in Indianapolis by the Indianapolis Business Journal, and had Tiffany recognized as a member of the IBJ’s Forty Under 40. The former has given her a renewed sense of fulfillment.
“I truly believe I am supposed to be a mom. I also believe that I am supposed to be the president of Element Three. I have the opportunity to play two great roles in life. I’m lucky.”
Forever a student of the big picture, running a marketing agency gives Tiffany the ability to take her love of real-time data and use it to develop highly distinct marketing strategies.
“Your brand is your strongest form of currency, and those bold enough to tell disruptive stories will be rewarded with control over the marketplace narrative. Generic voices don’t get to carry the mic. And cookie-cutter solutions are no longer enough to satisfy your customers.”
Of course, it takes a team of like-minded individuals to make it all happen, a fact that is far from lost on Tiffany.
“Element Three is built to use business to grow people, not the other way around. If we serve our people first, the business will show up. It doesn’t work when that formula is reversed.”
Randy is CEO and Co-Founder of One Click. Founded in 2005, One Click is on a mission to be the world’s most people-focused eyewear company through its family of brands: Readers.com, Sunglass Warehouse, and felix + iris.
Prior to co-founding One Click, Randy held a variety of technology roles with Angie’s List, Aprimo, and Digital Insight (VIFI).
In addition to his current work at One Click, Randy enjoys supporting other entrepreneurs as an investor and advisor. Randy received a bachelor’s degree in computer information systems from Franklin College.
Jenny Banner has been practicing amateur psychology since middle school. This interest in what makes people tick, led Jenny to careers Sales, HR, and consulting as well as a graduate education in I/O Psychology (the psychology of the workplace).
In her ~15 years of HR and consulting experience, Jenny has worked with companies from Fortune 500 to start up, and observed similarities across them all. As a consultant and coach her focus has been on leadership development, career transitions, and training.
She recently joined Smallbox, a local creative agency, as Director of Strategic Initiatives. She is applying her unique skill set to help organizations align their internal and external brand perceptions, and is working to refine educational offerings around problem solving using Design Thinking.
A native of Goshen, Indiana, Max lives in Indianapolis serving as the Co-Founder and CEO of Lessonly and founding director of its non-profit arm, The First Fund.
Max and Lessonly are focused on building and delivering team learning software that helps people do better work. Every day, Max is grateful for being cut from the basketball team two years in a row.
Jeffrey Moss is the Founder and CEO of Parker Dewey LLC. Parker Dewey executes short-term engagements on behalf of its clients, working with its network of career launchers (college students and recent graduates) who not only generate income from their work, but also demonstrate their skills, gain practical experience, and explore careers paths. Companies also benefit beyond the engagement outcomes as they can identify individuals with the skills and fit to thrive within their organization.
Prior to founding Parker Dewey, Jeffrey served in senior operating roles with Educational Testing Service (ETS) and Specialized Education Services (acquired by Catapult Learning). Jeffrey spent much of his career as a venture capital investor with Summit Partners, Sterling Partners, and Susquehanna Growth Equity, supporting technology-enabled organizations in the education, business services, and software sectors. Jeffrey led investments including Connections Education (acquired by Pearson), Ashworth College, Progressus Therapy (acquired by Invo HealthCare), Fleetcor (NYSE: FLT), ProClarity (acquired by Microsoft), Avectra (acquired by Abila), and The SAVO Group.
Some of Jeffrey’s other Board responsibilities have included: Chairman of the Board of Workstream (Nasdaq: WSTM), a software provider for human resources departments; OneGoal, a non-profit focused on college accessibility and persistence; the Chicago American Marketing Association; and the Illinois Venture Capital Association.
Paul Darwish has served as the Chief Business Development Officer & Director of Marketing at Graydon for nearly five years, and played an instrumental role in their recent office move, in addition to directing the creation of a new brand and website for the 146 year-old law firm at the time of their move, last October. Prior to his work at Graydon, Paul has started three different companies, one of which was recognized by the Greater Cincinnati Chamber of Commerce as the Emerging Entrepreneur of the Year in 1996. He also served as President of Closson’s, one of Cincinnati’s most iconic and upscale brands in the art, design and home furnishings industry. Paul began his career 30 years ago at Procter & Gamble, where he managed a $40 million promotional budget for one of their largest brands (Crest). A Cincinnati native, he earned a BA from Xavier University in English and International Affairs, and an MBA, with honors, from Harvard Business School, with a concentration in business ethics. He has taught entrepreneurship in Xavier’s MBA program and served as a mentor, advisor, and consultant to dozens of start-up companies and small businesses.
Steve Browne is the Executive Director of Human Resources for LaRosa’s, Inc. – a regional Pizzeria restaurant chain in Southwest Ohio with 14 locations and over 1,100 Team Members. Steve has been an HR professional for 30 years and has worked in the Manufacturing, Consumer Products, and Professional Services industries in various HR roles. He is currently a member of the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) Board of Directors and has been a member of the Membership Advisory Council (MAC) representative for the North Central Region of SHRM and Past Ohio State Council Director. He facilitates a monthly HR Roundtable as well as an HR internet forum called the HR Net which reaches over 8,300 people globally each week. Steve is an accomplished speaker who has been featured at local, regional and national Conferences, Chambers of Commerce, HR chapters and businesses. He’s very active in Social Media and has a nationally recognized HR blog – Everyday People.
Jason Seiden is Co-Founder at Brand Amper, a brand communication platform that captures employee stories for use in marketing and recruiting… and was one of 6 “Awesome New Start Ups” at the 2014 HR Technology Conference. He is also an advisor to Lever, the fast-growing, venture-backed, modern Talent Attraction Suite that has already won over 1,200 clients.
His cross-functional background—he has worked in talent acquisition, talent development, employer branding, marketing/strategy, and management—has given him deep expertise in communications and positioning, skills he brings to bear on behalf of his clients. He earned his MBA from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of management and his BA from the University of Pennsylvania.
As the HR business partner at LPK, Steve Bowling is responsible for making a great first impression on those interested in joining the company. He leads recruiting, placing and nurturing the talents of both career candidates and student interns alike.
In his 10 years at LPK, Steve has mastered the ability to build meaningful relationships. He recognizes the value of connecting the right talent with the right team, fostering enduring partnerships and helping people connect to the right opportunity.
Steve graduated from Campbellsville University with a bachelor’s degree in mathematics. He is a member of both the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) and its regional affiliate, the Greater Cincinnati Human Resources Association (GCHRA).
A graduate of Indiana University’s Herron School of Art and Design, Sam Julka is an enthusiastic and compassionate design researcher who is committed to the belief that design can change the world. Sam is a listener, and she’s incredibly empathetic—two skills that make her incredibly good at what she does.
If you tell Sam a sad story do not be surprised if you see a tear well up. Fear not: she has a firm grip on reality. She is just passionate about her work and thinks the key to making change in a complex world is listening to people’s struggles and enabling them to become positive change agents.
Sam lives in an historic downtown Indianapolis neighborhood with her husband Chris, their twin boys—Jasper and Henry—and their dog, Porter. Though she doesn’t consider herself a professional photographer, she loves taking photos and is never without her camera. She also spends her rare moments of spare time playing golf, shopping locally, and walking to nearby restaurants.
Throughout the course of her education, Sam worked on several people-centered projects that helped inform the collaborative Design Thinking process she uses to this day. With this process, she helps empower people—especially people who don’t consider themselves designers—to improve their workplaces.
Rick brings 24 years of management, finance, and consulting experience to Fusion Alliance. He leads an executive team responsible for: establishing and executing the strategic direction of the firm, sales, and management of client relationships, assembling and providing executive oversight for delivery teams, managing internal operations, and driving Fusion’s continued growth and success. Throughout his career, Rick Mariotti has focused on helping companies achieve results by transforming business goals and objectives into actionable solutions.
Prior to Fusion, Rick was a partner and president of Quick Solutions, Inc., one of Central Ohio’s largest privately held IT consulting firms. He was credited with helping the company expand its reach into new markets and industries, leading strategic sales and overseeing the successful delivery of Quick Solutions’ largest implementations.
Rick is passionate about serving the community and holds multiple leadership roles, including: chairman of the Operations Board of the Buckeye Ranch; founding committee member of the Bobby Rahal Foundation Rally for the Ranch; treasurer of TechServe Alliance (Ohio Chapter), and trustee of the Sandra Mariotti Pancreatic Cancer Fund. Rick currently resides in Lewis Center, Ohio, with his wife, Lori, and sons, Kilar and Lucas.
Senior Vice President, Human Resources, 84.51°
At 84.51° Beth Giglio brings a broad expertise of human resources, overall business expertise and a successful track record of driving strong cultures, redesigning organizations, and development and retention of key talent. Working closely with the 84.51° executive team and the Kroger HR Leadership Team, Ms. Giglio oversees all organizational human resource functions including people management, benefits, change management best practices, talent acquisition and retention strategies and people analytics.
Ms. Giglio spent over a decade serving various medical device businesses within Johnson & Johnson’s Family of Companies, including Ethicon Endo-Surgery, Inc., Sterilmed, Inc., and Acclarent, Inc., in roles of increasing responsibility in supply chain, research and development and human resources. In her roles with Johnson & Johnson, she was human resources lead for three startup businesses where she lead the divisions through significant change during early lifecycle and business model evolution. She was a key driver of several significant change management initiatives that impacted talent retention and development, created organizational engagement strategies, succession planning and creating and executing cross-functional processes.
Prior to joining Johnson & Johnson, Giglio held leadership roles at Deloitte Consulting’s Cincinnati office for nearly ten years where she served in the Health Care, Consumer Products, Financial Services, and Oil & Gas Industries, focused on change management and organizational design and development.
Ms. Giglio holds an MBA from the Fuqua School of Business at Duke University and a Bachelor of Science in Business from Miami University, Oxford. Ms. Giglio has been very involved in the Greater Cincinnati community both as a volunteer and serving on a number of non-profit boards.
My personal mission: disrupt the status-quo and help organizations find their unique way to differentiate themselves from the pack.
By nature, I am an explorer, excited by things I haven’t seen before, people I haven’t met before. Whereas others may be intimidated by the unfamiliar or unknown, I am intrigued by it. It fires up my curiosity and stimulates my senses. Change is an opportunity, not a threat or a fatality.
Todd Richardson brings more than 15 years of experience in human resources, legal, real estate, and risk management to Emplify (powered by Bluebridge), where he oversees the employee engagement strategy as Chief People Officer. Most recently, he founded and served as the Chief Culture Officer of Cadence Consulting, which was acquired by Bluebridge in 2016. Prior to that, Todd was the EVP of Administration for ExactTarget (Salesforce), where he helped grow the business to 3,000+ employees across 15+ global offices. Todd is a regular contributor and speaker for employee-focused publications and events such as the Young Presidents’ Organization and the Resolve Conference.
In her current role as Senior Vice President of Product for Angie’s List, Shelly Towns is responsible for innovation and the end to end experience for more than three million members and service providers.
Shelly joined Angie’s List in 2005 as a staff writer for Angie’s List Magazine, where she earned multiple reporting awards from the Indiana Society of Professional Journalists. In 2007, Shelly became a Senior Marketing Manager and later the Director of Marketing, where she is credited with the creation and scale of the company’s SEO program, which experienced triple digit, new member sales increases each year. Shelly earned the 2013 Mira Award for Marketing Technology and Innovation for her team’s achievements in this area. Shelly also lead the company’s rebranding effort in 2010, culminating in a national TV and print campaign which helped catapult Angie’s List into a household name.
Prior to joining Angie’s List, Shelly was an editor for Midwest Parenting Publications and the North American Retail Hardware Association. She is a graduate of Indiana University, where she earned a BS in Journalism.
Shelly lives in Indianapolis with her husband and two young daughters. She’s an active member of the local tech community and serves on the board of the United Way and TechPoint.
Sam is a professional training and coaching consultant in practice for the past 13 years. He has facilitated training in 8 countries on 4 continents and is passionate about creating opportunities for people to explore ideas and find ways to continuously grow and improve. Sam specializes in leadership and interpersonal communication training and is also well equipped for customer service and sales training. His client list includes both small and large companies from a wide range of industries including; Beck’s Superior Hybrids, Roche Diagnostics, Anthem Inc.
Defenders, and Simon Property Group. Sam earned a Bachelor of Science degree from Purdue University with double major in Financial Planning and Consumer Affairs.
A dynamic and enthusiastic leader, Shawn Herring built and managed the global demand generation team at ExactTarget. His team helped increase return on investment across all marketing channels and was instrumental in ExactTarget becoming one of the fastest growing SaaS companies in the world before being acquired by Salesforce.com. Shawn holds an MBA from Indiana University and has previously been in marketing roles at Harlan Laboratories and Roche Diagnostics.
Rod was the COO of Signpost, a NY-based marketing automation platform for local businesses, prior to which he held leadership positions at two high-growth ad tech companies, AppNexus and Magnetic. He has also been a consultant for Bain & Company, and an equity analyst for Wells Capital Management and Morgan Stanley. Rod earned his MBA at the Kellogg School of Management and his BS at Duke University. He grew up in Indianapolis and now lives in Carmel with his wife and two children.
As the Chief Operations Officer, Nanci ensures MOBI’s customers experience world-class service. Responsible for the Support Center, Implementation Team, and Logistics, she heads day-to-day and strategic support to some of the nation’s most innovative companies. She joined MOBI when its customer base expanded, and gladly took on new roles with varying responsibilities across the Operations team, which included supporting customers from the Public Sector to Fortune 100 Companies. Prior to MOBI, she was the District Customer Service Manager for Bed Bath & Beyond for central Indiana, where she was responsible for service levels, bridal and gift registry programs, and new hire orientation and training programs. She received her Bachelor’s degree in Biology from Franklin College.
Nanci lives in Avon with her husband (Scott), daughter (Abbie), and two sons (Zack and Avery). She fills her spare time with family activities, which include Cub Scouts, Awana, Glee Club, and various sports.
As President of BLASTmedia, Lindsey is responsible for new business development and helping oversee the strategic direction and operations of the agency. Over the past decade with BLASTmedia, Lindsey has managed PR campaigns and brought key clients on board for the agency, including Philips, adidas, Long John Silver’s and hhgregg.
In addition to her role at BLASTmedia, Lindsey is Principal of STATWAX – a digital advertising agency – and BLASTmedia Ventures, an investment company providing capital and marketing support to technology start-ups.
Prior to joining BLASTmedia, Lindsey worked at Fleishman-Hillard Chicago in the consumer marketing practice group. At F-H, she was responsible for executing national PR campaigns for global brands like Nike, Quaker Oats, Gatorade and Abbott Labs.
Doug Brown has over 32 years of experience as a strategic business executive and entrepreneur. He is the CEO and co-founder of Fusion Alliance which was founded in 1994. Doug led Fusion’s regional expansion effort by opening the Cincinnati, Ohio, office in 2003 and in 2014 Fusion Alliance combined companies with Quick Solutions, now branded as Fusion Alliance in the Columbus, Ohio, market. Doug is passionate about serving the community and sits on the board of the Center of Leadership Development at the Indiana University Kelley School of Business Dean’s Council.
Jeb Banner is CEO and co-founder of SmallBox, an Indianapolis based creative consultancy founded in 2006 as well as CEO and co-founder of Boardable, a board management software company founded in 2016 . He graduated from Indiana University Bloomington in 1996. Jeb is the founder of Musical Family Tree, a nonprofit dedicated to spreading Indiana music, as well as a co-founder and past chair of the Speak Easy, an entrepreneurial co-working non-profit located in Indianapolis. Along the way Jeb has co-founded or invested in a number of other Indianapolis based businesses. Jeb lives on the north side of Indianapolis with his wife Jenny and their three lovely daughters. In his spare time he collects vinyl records, records music and cooks as much as possible.
Kelly serves as Chief Operating Officer for American Health and Wellness Group and assists clients with compliance, employee benefit options and cost evaluations, online enrollment technology and wellness results. She has enjoyed being in the health and wellness group benefits industry for over 25 years. Kelly’s diverse leadership background includes business operations, client management, sales and marketing, product development, reporting, wellness and onsite employer clinics.
Kristen is Vice President of Corporate Strategies at American Health & Wellness Group. Within her role, she works with companies in order to better the health of their employees to result in benefit premium reductions while increasing productivity and reducing absenteeism. By integrating wellness with insurance, Kristen is able to put a strategy behind employee insurance to position her clients for premium programs and ensure they are not losing by default. Her background includes human capital management, employee engagement and employee acquisition and retention.
As President of Studio Science, a design and innovation consultancy in Indianapolis, Nathan Sinsabaugh leads a talented group of designers and strategists committed to helping brands develop an authentic understanding of the people they serve in order to design truly meaningful products, services and experiences. From product prototypes, to brand identities, to IPO investor presentations, Nathan and his team has been honored to work with companies like ExactTarget, Angie’s List and many more during some of the most pivotal moments in their histories.
After 19 years of experience working for Steelcase and Nurture, in 2010 Carla began serving as Business Furniture’s Vice President of Healthcare and Director of Healthcare Markets. Carla is responsible for leading Business Furniture’s Healthcare and New Business Development teams. Her Steelcase experience combined with her recent work with healthcare organizations provides her with a passion to find healthcare solutions and a unique perspective on the challenges facing healthcare organizations today. She recently received her Evidenced Based Design Certification (EDAC) through the Center for Health Design.
Carla began her career with Steelcase in San Francisco, California in 1991 and held several positions within the company including: Dealer Market Manager, Learning & Development Consultant and Liaison to the Architecture and Design Community
Brian Deyo is the Head of Employee Engagement Research at Emplify (powered by Bluebridge), where he leads the company’s effort in researching and defining employee engagement, while building a model of measurement and improvement for customers.
Brian began his career as an analyst delivering executive reporting and analysis at ChaCha. After brief stints running his own software startup and as a digital marketer, he managed design, development, and launch for a half dozen software products in two years as a consultant at Developer Town.
This diverse experience combined with a B.A. in Economics enables Brian to lead the Bluebridge effort researching and defining Employee Engagement and building a model of measurement and improvement we use with our customers.