Business Acumen

Wellington O. Hepburn is a Senior Human Resources Leader with 24 years of business experience. Mr. Hepburn is the President of Wellington Hepburn International (WHI), which is an international talent management advisory company focused on training and development, talent acquisition, employee development, organizational development, leadership development, succession planning and career pathing. WHI has provided talent management solutions in numerous countries worldwide, some of which include The US, Canada, The Bahamas, Malaysia, Spain, Africa, Turks and Caicos, Europe, The British Virgin Islands and Jamaica.

Mr. Hepburn has earned over twenty awards for his leadership, communication and Human Resources expertise. Wellington is also a Past President of The Bahamas Society for Human Resources Management, a Distinguished Toastmaster (DTM) and a two-time book author.

Wellington is married to his beautiful wife Rose, and they have three children: Sienna, Myles and Caleb.

He is the CEO of HR Metrics and SHRM Partner in Pakistan. His core expertise are HR data/metrics/analytics. He is the only HR Leader from South Asia to become a member ISO Technical Committee 260 for developing global HR Standards. The Committee then comprised of 11 countries including USA, UK, France, Germany, Sweden, Switzerland, Austria, Norway, Netherlands, Portugal and Pakistan. Zahid has actively contributed in HR standards meetings in Washington, London, Melbourne, Rotterdam, Paris, Singapore, Bali and Milan. He also served as global Convener ISO TC 260 HR Metrics Working Group and during his leadership, TC 260 published two standards on HR Metrics including “Quality of Hire” and Impact of Hire”. Zahid is also member Board of Directors, The Centre for Inclusion USA. His company “HR Metrics” is SHRM partner in Pakistan. He trained more than 100 people on SHRM-CP/CP certifications.

Ken Carrig retired from Corporate Executive Vice President and Chief Human Resources Officer for SunTrust Banks, Inc. in February, 2017 and is President of KJC Advisory Services, a firm providing advice on issues related to strategy execution, acquisition integration, and executive succession planning.  In his CHRO role, he oversaw human resources strategy, talent management, merger integration, compensation, benefits, staffing, human resources systems/payroll, compliance, SunTrust University, and leadership development.  Ken helped lead a significant transformation of the company and helped create a powerful purpose that engaged the entire teammate population.  SunTrust market cap grew from $14BN to $25BN during this 6 year term, and efficiency ratio improved by over $1 billion from 72 percent to less than 62 percent.

Prior to joining SunTrust in June 2011, Mr. Carrig was Executive Vice President, Chief Administrative Officer with Sysco Corporation for 10 years overseeing Strategy, Operations, Merger & Acquisitions (35 acquisitions completed), Communications, Legal, and HR.  He also led Human Resources for Comcast, Continental Airlines’ turnaround and PepsiCo during his 30-year human resources career.

Mr. Carrig earned his undergraduate degree in Labor Economics from Cornell University, and participated in executive development programs at Columbia University and Yale University.  He was a member of the advisory board of the Cornell Center for Advanced Human Resource Studies, a National Academy of Human Resources Fellow (2004), and was named the Academy of Management Distinguished Human Resources Executive (2010).  He was also a member of the advisory board of PearlHPS, a predictive execution analytics software company.  He also co-chaired the Board of Operation HOPE and served on the Board for Atlanta Botanical Garden.

Mr. Carrig co-authored the book, “Building Profit Through Building People” in 2006, the proceeds of which benefit Share Our Strength, an organization dedicated to fighting childhood hunger.  In addition, Mr. Carrig has led Business Strategy and Leadership Development Programs at Darden, Cornell, Emory, and USC.

Tim Sackett, SCP, is the CEO of HRUTech.com, a leading technical recruiting firm. Tim has over 20 years of combined executive HR and talent acquisition experience working for Fortune 500 companies. Tim is a highly sought-after international speaker on leadership, HR &TA Tech, talent acquisition, and HR execution. Tim is currently a Senior Faculty member with the Josh Bersin Academy. He is also an Angel investor and advisor and sits on multiple HR Technology corporate boards.

Tim is the author of the newly released book The Talent Fix, Vol. 2. He also writes daily on his blog, the Tim Sackett Project. Tim is married to a hall-of-fame wife, has three sons, and his dog Tucker. In 2023, he was named a Top Global HR & Recruitment Influencer by HR Executive. He has more Twitter (X) followers than his 3 Gen Z sons and is sponsored on stage by diet Mt. Dew.

Amy is SVP & CHRO at Symantec. In addition to serving on the executive team and managing Symantec’s global human resources function, she leads Symantec’s Workplace/Workforce Strategy and Planning, Real Estate and Facilities organizations. Amy has over three decades of experience leading companies across high tech, entertainment and consumer products industries through complex transformations. She was recently named one of the top 50 most influential women tech leaders by the National Diversity Council. Amy publishes regularly and is a frequent speaker at industry-related conferences. Amy is also an Official Member, Forbes Human Resources Council since September 2018.

Mr. Henri Tan is an experienced HR Consultant and training facilitator. He has 18 years of experience in HR primarily from the infrastructure/engineering industries.

Besides sharing his HR expertise through the delivery of HR workshops, Henri Tan provides HR solutions to Singapore’s SMEs (Small-and-Medium Enterprises) with projects ranging from employment compliance, recruitment and selection, performance management, employee engagement and leadership development.

Henri Tan holds a Master of Arts from Nanyang Technological University (NTU), a post Graduate Diploma in Human Capital Management from Singapore Human Resource Institute (SHRI) and a Bachelor of Social Sciences from National University of Singapore (NUS). 

Jeanne Meister is Founding Partner, Future Workplace, an HR Advisory and Research firm dedicated to educating HR leaders on what's next in preparing for the future workforce and workplace.

Jeanne's recent book is, The Future Workplace: 10 Rules For Mastering Disruption in Recruiting and Engaging Employees

Some of her articles on the impact of AI on HR are: AI Plus Human Intelligence Is The Future of Work, How Using AI Creates An Enhanced Candidate and Employee Experience  and Three New HR Roles In Age of Artificial Intelligence

Future Workplace has created the first online course to train HR leaders on impact of artificial intelligence entitled Using AI 4 HR To Enhance The Employee Experience.

Shane A. Yount is a nationally recognized thought leader, author, and President of Competitive Solutions, Inc. (CSI), an international Business Transformation consulting firm that pioneered the acclaimed organizational development system known as Process Based Leadership® - A business transformation methodology designed to create a sustainable culture of clarity, connectivity, and consistency through the use of Non-Negotiable Business Processes. Since 1991 he has led the offices of CSI in becoming one of the nation’s most recognized Business Transformation consulting firms,  personally working with such organizations as Michelin, Genentech, Pfizer, Lockheed Martin, the Department of Defense, and many others.

Shawn Kent Hayashi is the founder and CEO of The Professional Development Group and a global expert in developing inspiring leaders and high performing teams. Growth, innovation, and elevated performance and profits are the results of Shawn’s work as an executive coach and consultant.  Shawn facilitates growth in leadership ability, emotional intelligence, communication skills, collaboration, and building trust and stronger relationships.  Her clients include entrepreneurial companies, Fortune 500, and associations around the globe. The author of six business communications books, Shawn has also been a feature expert in The New York Times, Forbes, and FastCompany.

Karl Ahlrichs specializes in helping professionals make order from chaos. He is a national speaker, author, and consultant, presenting on the people issues in all industries, and is often quoted in the local and national media. 

Karl’s experience is ideally suited to times of organizational change as he pulls on risk management and organizational development theories to replace “best practices” with “next practices”. He owes much of his communications mastery to working as a writer and editor in daily media, to on-the-job writing experience and to the process of becoming a published author.

He joined Gregory & Appel in 2010 after serving as a founding partner of ExactHire, bringing his HR, operations, diversity & belonging, and learning & development skills with him. Karl’s affinity for design, composition and learning started at a very young age, by taking and examining thousands of boring pictures with the goal of improving his craft. He loves deploying that practice-to-improve approach with all manner of hobbies including writing haiku, mastering cutting-edge technology and learning Spanish.

In 2003, he was named the SHRM Human Resource Professional of the Year for the State of Indiana. He is on the Boards of several organizations, including the Maryland CPA Society.  He has lived in Scotland and Spain and lives to explore new experiences with his wife and family.