Business Acumen

Hunter Lott is an HR problem solver. He has delivered over 4000 “on stage” events, over 17,000 presentation hours and reviewed over 1200 employee handbooks. Hunter won accolades as a senior course leader for the American Management Association. Hunter is an award winning speaker with Vistage and has earned Speaker of the Year, Impact Speaker of the Year and Top Performer Vistage honors.

Hunter attended Tulane University in New Orleans, graduated from Iowa State and has a Master’s Degree in Employment Law from NSU Shepard Broad College of Law.

Kevin Cope is the #1 Wall Street Journal and New York Times bestselling author of Seeing the Big Picture: Business Acumen to Build Your Credibility, Career, and Company. A renowned trainer and speaker, Kevin has spent the last 25 years working with top organizations including 30 Fortune 50 companies. His 5 Business Drivers model and ideas, shared with millions through his book, articles, and courses, have been praised for being relevant and actionable; they help you come to the table prepared.

Kevin Cope is the #1 Wall Street Journal and New York Times bestselling author of Seeing the Big Picture: Business Acumen to Build Your Credibility, Career, and Company. A renowned trainer and speaker, Kevin has spent the last 25 years working with top organizations including 30 Fortune 50 companies. His 5 Business Drivers model and ideas, shared with millions through his book, articles, and courses, have been praised for being relevant and actionable; they help you come to the table prepared.

Stacey Carroll is the President of HR Experts On-Call. HR Experts On-call provide strategic HR consulting services to business owners and HR professionals. Prior to establishing HR Experts On-Call, Ms. Carroll served as the Director of Professional Services & Education for PayScale. As Director of Professional Services, Stacey created and managed the compensation consulting business for PayScale, a venture-backed SaaS provider of compensation resources to HR and business leaders.  Prior to her  work at PayScale, Stacey spent over 12 years in various positions within Human Resources for Trendwest Resorts, Nordstrom, and Western Washington University. Stacey’s specialty areas in HR include: compensation, benefits, training & development, and strategic human capital management.  She earned her BA and MBA from Western Washington University. Stacey has been certified as a Senior Professional in Human Resources (SPHR) and as a Certified Compensation Professional (CCP). In addition to her regular full time responsibilities, Stacey has taught HRM classes for Western Washington University, Seattle Research Partners, and Tacoma Community College. She also speaks at many local, regional and national conferences.

Follow Stacey on Twitter @HRStacey.

Ryan Estis is the former Chief Strategy Officer for the $100 million People Marketing division of McCann-Erickson World Group Advertising and now serves at the Chief Experience Officer in a growing speaking and consulting practice. Recently recognized as one of the Top 100 keynote speakers in America alongside Tony Robbins, Bill Gates, Al Gore and Marcus Buckingham, Ryan is a leading expert on Leadership & Culture, Workforce Trends and Communication. He serves as the USA Sr. Associate with Employer Brand International, an advisory member on the SmartBrief Workforce Council, is a certified Human Capital Strategist and professional member of the National Speakers Association.

His consultancy develops strategy and communication design to help companies more effectively connect to their two most important audiences: employees and customers. He shares his thoughts on culture, engagement and leadership on his blog passiononpurposeblog.com.

Internationally recognized as an expert in the field, Mr. Kushner is one of the nation's most sought after speakers on HR strategy and employee benefits. He has advised four U.S. Presidents on health care and has testified before the U.S. Senate Finance Committee, the U.S. House Ways and Means Committee and the U.S. House Small Business Committee on employee benefit issues.

A frequent resource to the media, Mr. Kushner contributes to the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, AP, Knight-Ridder, the Kiplinger Washington Newsletter, CNN News, Fortune, MSNBC and Good Morning America among others. More importantly, he and his wife Tamis have five children and four wonderful (and amazing!) grandchildren.

Dr. Loren Murfield is a disruptive thinker who serves as an Executive Coach, Author, Filmmaker, and Speaker. Working with entrepreneurs and organizational leaders, he stretches their thinking to sense and seize cutting-edge opportunities. Dr. Murfield has authored over 30 books, including Pivotal Thinking, Pivotal Leadership, and Pivotal Power. He has also penned eight plays, a screenplay and produced his first movie short in 2020. He holds a Ph.D. in Communication Studies from the University of Nebraska and taught 23 undergraduate and graduate courses in Leadership and Communication.

Alex Hagan is an Instructor at The Futures School, and the Founder and CEO at Kienco, a boutique workforce strategy consultancy. Kienco helps organisations to shape the future of their organisations and workforces, by blending Workforce Analytics with Strategic Foresight in a way that provides both evidence-based and future-focused insights that inform strategy. Hagan has advised Global Fortune 500 organisations, NGOs, and government departments on every continent except for Antarctica, and is frequently engaged as a corporate speaker and trainer to help companies and governments stay relevant in times of unprecedented change.

Chatrane Birbal is Vice President, Public Policy in SHRM national’s Alexandria, Va. office. In this capacity, she is actively involved in solidifying strategic partnerships and research to address policy issues on Capitol Hill that impact the workplace. In her role, Ms. Birbal lobbies Congress and develops policies and positions in support of workplace public policy issues including workplace healthcare, workforce development, workplace equity, workplace flexibly and leave, workplace immigration and employer-sponsored benefits (retirement, education assistance, unemployment insurance, among others).   

Prior to joining SHRM, Ms. Birbal was the director of government relations at the Council on Foundations, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit membership association of some 2,000 grant making foundations and corporations, with assets totaling more than $282 billion. During her tenure at the Council, Ms. Birbal implemented strategies and launches programs in support of the organization’s public policy and government relations work. She lobbied Congress on tax legislation relating to charitable giving, raised the Council’s profile with Congress and other nonprofit organizations, advised members on legislative activities impacting philanthropy and planned and executed the Council’s annual legislative fly-in conference, “Foundations on the Hill.”

Prior to joining the Council, Ms. Birbal was a federal legislative lobbyist at the American Psychiatric Association (APA), an Arlington, Va.-based medical specialty society with over 38,000 U.S. and international member physicians who work together to ensure humane care and effective treatment for all persons with mental disorders, including mental retardation and substance-related disorders. During her tenure at APA, Ms. Birbal lobbied Congress on behalf of psychiatrists, planned and executed the association’s annual advocacy day training session for membership as well as developed the APA’s online advocacy action center to further legislative efforts on behalf of the psychiatry profession.

Chatrane previously served on the Board of Directors for the ACT for Alexandria community foundation.  ACT for Alexandria brings the community together to elevate local philanthropic giving and engagement to new heights, supports local nonprofits working to aid the most vulnerable and develops solutions for the community’s most pressing challenges. During her tenure on the Board Ms. Birbal supported the foundation’s initiatives including ACTion Alexandria, an online civic engagement platform and Spring2ACTion, 24 hours of online giving to support local nonprofits.

Chatrane obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science from the State University at Buffalo in Buffalo, N.Y. and received her graduate degree of public administration and public policy from George Mason University in Fairfax, Va.

Ms. Birbal currently serves on the Board of Directors of Women in Government Relations (WGR) - the premier, non-partisan professional society dedicated to advancing and empowering women by fostering professional development and growth opportunities through a community that supports women’s leadership in government relations. She is a member of the Tax Coalition, which provides a forum for the exchange of ideas among professionals in federal tax policymaking to encourage the professional development of women in federal tax policy and Birbal also serves as a Director-at-large on George Mason University’s Alumni Board.

Kelly is responsible for SHRM legislative activities on employment and labor issues, including the Americans with Disabilities Act, the National Labor Relations Act, the Fair Labor Standards Act and other federal employment issues as they affect the management of human capital.

Prior to joining SHRM, Kelly worked as the legislative director for Congressman Lou Barletta (PA), a member on the House Education and the Workforce Committee. In this role, Kelly developed an overall legislative strategy for the office and managed the Congressman's legislative team. She specifically focused on Congressman Barletta's Committee portfolio of issues including, labor, health, and education policy

Attorney James P. (“Jim”) Reidy is a management-side labor and employment lawyer. He is a partner in the New England based law firm, Sheehan Phinney Bass & Green, PA, where he is the Chair of the firm’s Labor and Employment group. His practice focuses on prevention, training and compliance but he also handles matters when claims arise.

He has more than 35 years of experience in the field and been a media resource on workplace law for media outlets including CNN, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times Business Magazine, Bloomberg, NPR, The Associated Press, NPR Market Place, Buzz Feed, Law 360, Inc. Magazine, The HR Power Hour, HR Breakroom, SKI Magazine and HR Magazine as well as several local/regional publications.

In 2020 Jim was inducted as a Fellow in the College of Labor and Employment Lawyers. 

Chambers USA and New England Super Lawyers have ranked Jim in the Top Tier of management-side employment lawyers for each year of the last 15 years. Best Lawyers USA named Jim the 2022 Lawyer of the Year for Labor and Employment Law (Manchester, NH) and the NH Business Review named him one of the top 200 most influential business leaders in New Hampshire.

Jim has been a presenter regularly at SHRM’s Legal and Legislative Conference in Washington, DC as well as SHRM’s annual conferences.