Business Acumen

For over 20 years, Allison West has used her employment law background in delivering customized workplace training, conducting investigations, coaching executives/managers, serving as an expert witness, and specializing in conflict resolution and facilitated discussions to create more collaborative work environments. 

Allison is a top-rated speaker at the SHRM Annual Conference as well as other HR/diversity conferences, and is a national expert on harassment, discrimination and investigations. She has appeared on PBS, CBS This Morning and in O Magazine discussing workplace harassment issues. 

She is a member of the State Bar of California and holds her SHRM-SCP certification and AWI-CH (investigation) certificate.

Chris Murdock is a veteran of the recruiting and talent acquisition industry with twenty years of experience spanning across multiple industries. Murdock founded IQTalent Partners in 2009 and now leads search execution and client relationships for his 150- person firm. Prior to establishing IQTalent Partners as a talent acquisition leader, Murdock worked with Yahoo!’s internal executive recruiting team, gaining in-depth experience across the technology recruiting sphere. He began his career working in recruiting and sourcing roles for Heidrick & Struggles and with TMP Worldwide. Murdock earned his bachelor’s degree from Vanderbilt University and resides in Nashville, TN.

With 6000+ research citations, 50+ patents, 35+ peer reviewed research publications, and the outstanding PhD thesis award from UIUC for his PhD thesis in Machine Learning, it’s fair to say that Ashu is one of the world’s experts in machine-learning. After his time managing Search and Personalization efforts at both Google and IBM Research, Ashu founded Bloomreach, a Visionary vendor on Gartner’s magic quadrant for Digital Experience Platforms. Now, he is applying his experience to the problem he is most truly passionate about – helping the world’s talent find their most meaningful and fulfilling work.

Dawn Burke, founder of Dawn Burke HR, is an HR leader, speaker and writer specializing in new HR practices, engagement and workplace culture. Her HR and leadership career has spanned the last 20 years, most recently serving as VP of People for Birmingham, AL, award-winning technology company, Daxko.

During her tenure as VP of People, Dawn was responsible for finding great talent, developing team members, and preserving company culture - a culture recognized in Fortune Magazine as one of the “50 Best Small and Medium Workplaces.” Recognized as a Top HR Innovator, she is creator of DawnHBurke.com, and a contributor to a variety of national blogs including SHRM Next and Fistful Of Talent.

Paula H. Harvey, MBA, SHRM-SCP, SPHR, GPHR is the VP of Human Resources & Safety for Schulte Building Systems in Hockley, TX. She has worked in the retail, services, construction and manufacturing industries. Mrs. Harvey has over 30 years’ experience in Human Resources. She earned her Bachelors of Business Administration in International Marketing and Operations Management from the University of Texas at Austin. She has also earned her MBA with a concentration in HR Management from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.

She is a Senior Global Certified Professional of Human Resources through SHRM and HRCI. She is an authorized OSHA 501 trainer and has achieved the Manager of Environmental Safety and Health Programs (MESH) certificate and the Advanced Safety Certification (ASC) from the National Safety Council.

Paula teaches several business and leadership related topics especially to HR professionals. She is also an internationally recognized speaker on global and strategic business issues. She has published or been quoted in several articles on HR topics and co-authored three books with other HR professionals.

She is an active member of the Society for Human Resources Management (SHRM) currently serving on the board of the SHRM Foundation and on the SHRM Talent Acquisition Panel. She has also served as the SE Membership Advisory Council Representative (MAC), NCSHRM President and President of Union County HR Association and Charlotte Area SHRM. She is a member of HR Houston mentoring students on the University Liaison committee. She is a past recipient of NCSHRM HR Professional of the Year and NCSHRM HR Humanitarian of the Year.
 

Ira S Wolfe is a “Millennial trapped in a Baby Boomer body” and president of Poised for the Future Company, founder of Success Performance Solutions, a TEDx Speaker, Certified AQai Practitioner, Top 5 Global Thought Leader on Future of Work and HR (Thinkers360), and host of Geeks Geezers Googlization podcast (selected as one of the top 50 podcasts to listen to in 2021).  His most recent book Recruiting in the Age of Googlization was selected as one of the top 50 books to read in 2021 by Thinkers360 and recognized as one of the best Recruiting books of all-time by Book Authority. He is also Chief Googlization Officer and founder of the Googlization Nation community.

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.

John Carrozza is a Principal Consultant with Riviera Advisors, Inc., a global Human Resources management consulting firm that helps organizations improve and enhance their internal talent acquisition and staffing capabilities.

Before joining Riviera Advisors in 2014, John spent 15 years leading talent acquisition and staffing teams in many business areas of The Walt Disney Company, CHIMES and On-Demand Software Consultants.  He has also managed independent consulting engagements, including projects at Universal Studios Hollywood and DirecTV.

Based in Southern California, John has also spent time producing film, video and web content and still dabbles in his spare time.

Cy Wakeman is a drama researcher, global thought-leader, and New York Times best-selling author who is recognized for cultivating a counter-intuitive, reality-based approach to leadership. Backed by 20 years of experience, Wakeman’s philosophy offers a new lens through which employees and executives alike, can shift their attention inward, sharpen their focus on personal accountability, and uncover their natural state of innovation simply by ditching the drama.

Deemed “the secret weapon to restoring sanity to the workplace,” Wakeman has helped companies such as Google, Facebook, NASA, Pfizer, Bank of America, and United Healthcare learn to harness energy wasted in workplace drama and reinvest that effort into achieving profound business results.

Dan Schawbel is a New York Times bestselling author, a Partner and Research Director at Future Workplace. He is the author of three career books: Back to Human, Promote Yourself and Me 2.0. He is the host of “5 Questions with Dan Schawbel”, a podcast where he interviews a variety of world-class humans by asking them 5 questions in less than 10 minutes. He has been recognized on several lists including Inc. Magazine’s “30 Under 30”, Forbes Magazine’s “30 Under 30”, Business Insider’s “40 Under 40”, BusinessWeek’s “20 Entrepreneurs You Should Follow,” and as one of Workforce Magazine’s “Game Changers”.

Ben Eubanks is a bestselling author, speaker, and researcher living in Huntsville, AL. He spends his days as the Chief Research Officer at Lighthouse Research & Advisory, developing groundbreaking research on workforce trends and examining the talent technologies and People practices that set great organizations apart from the rest. 

His latest book Talent Scarcity explores why companies are having difficulties finding quality talent and how they can solve it. His first book, Artificial Intelligence for HR, is the world’s most-cited resource for leveraging technology to create a more human experience at work. His new book The Payroll Promise (March 2025) examines how HR and payroll teams can create workplace trust and do more meaningful work at the same time. He also hosts HR Summer School, a virtual event focusing on improving human resources, one HR pro at a time. When he's not speaking or writing, he spends time with his five kids and runs in a variety of outlandish races for fun.