Business Acumen

John Fillingham is Director of HR qualifcations and HR performance for Matchett whose role in partnership with SHRM for Northern Europe, is to raise brand awareness of the SHRM proposition, grow membership and create development opportunities for HR professionals through SHRM certification, re-certification and high quality education opportunities.

A bilingual HR leader and HR development expert, John has had a 27 career in HR and learning and development at senior levels in strong commercial environments with  large FSTE 100 companies such as Sainsbury’s, Debenhams, The Bullough Group and now Wilmington PLC.

Mike Aitken has worked at SHRM since 2003 and currently serves as the Senior Vice President of Government Affairs. Prior to joining SHRM, he served for 14 years as associate director for Governmental and External Relations at the College and University Professional Association for Human Resources (CUPA-HR). Previously, Aitken worked on state public policy issues at Bonner & Associates, a public affairs firm in Washington, DC. Currently, he is based in Alexandria, VA.

Matthew has practiced at Laner Muchin his entire career, joining the firm as an associate in 2011.  Matthew has an extensive employment litigation practice, defending lawsuits in federal and state courts, representing both private and public sector clients.  Matthew litigates cases involving discrimination, harassment, and retaliation claims, FMLA and ADA claims, Section 1983 and United States Constitutional claims, Illinois Whistleblower Act and common law retaliatory discharge claims, and common law claims, such as defamation, tortious interference with contract and civil conspiracy claims. 

Matthew has a concentrated wage and hour practice, which includes litigation of complex class and collective actions, representing employers in audits conducted by the United States and Illinois Departments of Labor and performing wage and hour compliance audits.  He also litigates and provides counseling on issues involving wage garnishment, overtime, minimum wage, bonuses, tips and commissions.

Additionally, Matthew has extensive trial experience in both bench and jury trials in federal and state court, which has included delivering opening statements and conducting direct and cross examinations of key witnesses. Matthew also counsels clients, on a near daily basis, on a broad range of employment issues.  Matthew represents clients across a broad range of industries, and he has extensive experience working with clients in the restaurant and hospitality industries.

Sabrina is the founder of Acacia HR Solutions, an HR consulting firm headquartered in Los Angeles. While the firm offers a variety of services, Sabrina spends her days providing training, leadership development and team building workshops for clients across the country. Sabrina is certified in the Myers Briggs Type Indicator and is fascinated with how personality type plays into our interactions in the workplace. Sabrina is also the co-founder of DISRUPTHR Los Angeles, an information exchange designed to energize, inform and empower people in the HR field. 

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.

Sharlyn Lauby is an author, writer, speaker and consultant. She has been named a Top HR Digital Influencer and is best-known for her work on HR Bartender, a friendly place to talk about workplace issues. HR Bartender has been recognized as one of the Top 5 Blogs read by HR professionals by the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) and best business blog by the Stevie Awards.

Publications such as Reuters, The New York Times, ABC News, The Wall Street Journal, and Mashable have sought out her expertise on topics related to human resources and the workplace. Sharlyn is the author of “Essential Meeting Blueprints for Managers,” and ”Manager Onboarding: 5 Steps for Setting New Leaders Up for Success,” which are available in the SHRM Store.

Her personal goal in life is to find the best cheeseburger on the planet.