Business (Behavioral)

Gennady Babankov
Manager, Exchange Visitor Program
SHRM
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Gennady Babankov, J.D. is a Manager of SHRM Exchange Visitor (J-1) Program. Babankov oversees two private sector exchange programs for foreign trainees and interns and helps develop, implement, and promote SHRM benefits portfolio for global mobility and immigration members.

Babankov has more than 20 years of experience building and managing global education and training programs for students and professionals. He has experience in teacher training, study abroad, cross-cultural training, and language acquisition, and has directed field operations in Russia, Central Asia, Middle East, and the Caucasus.

Prior to joining SHRM in 2019, Babankov managed several education and training programs sponsored by the federal government, including the Flagship Overseas Language Program (U.S. Department of Defense), Fulbright Teacher Exchange Program (U.S. Department of State), and the Open World Program (Library of Congress).

Babankov earned his J.D. degree from the Antonin Scalia Law School at George Mason University, a master’s degree from the Johns Hopkins University, and a bachelor’s degree from the Lomonosov Moscow State University in Russia.

Babankov has lived in the United States since 1994 and currently resides in Fairfax, VA.

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Lindsay Bongi
Senior Specialist, J-1 Visa/Exchange Visitor Program
SHRM
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Ms. Bongi is the Senior Specialist, Exchange Visitor Program, working with SHRM’s intern and trainee program participants and sponsor organizations.  Ms. Bongi comes to SHRM with years of experience assisting young professionals and host companies in the J-1 intern and trainee visa sponsorship process.  She has been involved with the Exchange Visitor program since 2012 and in her free time, counsels and monitors J-1 high school exchange students and host families as a Local Coordinator.  In addition to her work in international exchange, Ms. Bongi previously has also created a Department of Labor registered culinary apprenticeship program and has experience teaching Talent Management Training and Train the Trainer courses.  Her background is in financial reporting and accounting and she spent the early part of her career working for companies such as JPMorgan and America Online.  Ms. Bongi earned her MS in School Counseling from Long Island University and her BS in Finance from Pennsylvania State University.

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John Carrozza
Personal Pronouns
He/Him/His
Principal Consultant
Riviera Advisors
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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.

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Sean Hinton
Founder & CEO
SkyHive
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Sean is a recognized thought leader and innovator in labor economics and the Future of Work, having invented Quantum Labor Analysis that marries economic theory with artificial intelligence to produce the most advanced real-time knowledge graph of jobs, skills, training, and labor market intelligence in the world.

Sean is the Co-Chair of the Entrepreneurs Circle of the Canadian American Business Council (CABC) and a member of OECD's Future of Work Forum Engagement Group. In 2020, Sean was invited by the Government of Canada to join the Global Partnership on Artificial Intelligence (GPAI) and represent Canada as one of the 15 founding countries. GPAI is one of the most extensive collaborations on AI policy and the first international standard for AI.

Prior to founding SkyHive, Sean led a $250 million multinational company with 500 employees and 23 global offices.

SESSIONS:
Monday, June 13, 2022 - 1:30pm to 2:30pm
Kelly Lockwood Primus
Personal Pronouns
She/Her/Hers
CEO
Leading NOW
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Kelly Lockwood Primus, Chief Executive Officer, oversees the strategy, research development and client relationship management to help our clients reach their global diversity goals.

Prior to being appointed CEO of Leading NOW, Kelly was CEO & President of its Leading Women brand.

Prior to joining Leading Women, Kelly was a member of the executive team for WFF, a national non-profit women’s leadership organization. As Vice President for Marketing & Communications, Kelly was instrumental in returning the organization to prominence in the foodservice industry as the authority for women’s leadership development, and drove participation in the organization’s live and virtual events to “sell-out” status.

Before her time working within women’s leadership development organizations, Kelly was a member of the executive team at Primo Water, a publicly held CPG company, in the role of Vice President, Marketing & Communications. Recruited pre-IPO, Kelly was challenged with articulating the brand promise, creating the brand communication strategy and instituting integrated marketing campaigns to drive retailer and consumer brand preference.

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Matt Baxter
CEO
WedgeHR
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Matt Baxter is a serial entrepreneur. He started his first business at the age of 15, owning and operating Stony Pointe Lawn Care for over six years, before selling the company in July 2015. From this experience, Baxter experienced firsthand the hiring process's pain points, which led him to launch his current venture, Wedge, shortly after graduating from Hope College.

Today, Baxter is the CEO of Wedge, the one-way recorded video screening solution that enables job seekers to show off their true selves. Earlier this year, Wedge closed its seed funding round, raising $1 million in total. Baxter is focused intently on driving success and further establishing himself as an industry leader, building out the Wedge development team, and scaling its partnerships and integrations.

Baxter hosts "The Matt Baxter Show," dedicated to people finding their purpose. The show is an opportunity to have conversations spanning purpose related topics with people who love what they do every day.

SESSIONS:
Monday, April 11, 2022 - 1:00pm to 2:00pm
Dan Staley
Personal Pronouns
He/Him/His
HR Technology and Transformation Leader
PwC
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Dan is a Partner and leader of PwC’s HR Technology and Transformation practice. He has more than 30 years of consulting history delivering process and technology solutions to solve client business problems across multiple industries. His engagements have primarily been in the Human Capital Management (HCM) strategy, HR business transformation and HR systems implementation areas.

Dan has led over 40 HR strategy, HCM solution selection and HCM roadmap projects. He has led over 75 HR technology-enabled transformation implementation projects with half of those using Cloud HCM solutions. He holds a BS in Computer Science from the University of Alabama.

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Thomas Brunskill
Personal Pronouns
He/Him/His
CEO
Forage
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Tom Brunskill is the co-founder and CEO of Forage, a job simulation platform that helps students bridge the gap between education and work opportunities. On a mission to make education-to-workforce pathway more equitable, Tom co-founded Forage in 2017 to provide the ability to preskill through virtual job simulations produced by the world’s top companies, including J.P. Morgan, Lyft and Walmart, to name a few. By breaking down barriers to gaining workplace-specific skills, Tom hopes to level the opportunity playing field and empower anyone to pursue their dream career. Tom started his career as a corporate lawyer at a multinational law firm in Australia before moving to San Francisco and has been featured in Business Insider, Financial Times and TechCrunch, among others.

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Roselle Rogers, SHRM-SCP
Vice President for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
Circa™
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Roselle Rogers, SPHR, SHRM-SCP, is the Vice President for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at Circa™ with responsibility for leading its DEI strategy and thought leadership initiatives. She is a subject matter expert in HR/OFCCP Compliance and diversity and frequently speaks on these topics at various HR conferences and webinars. Prior to this role, Rogers was responsible for the company’s OFCCP compliance operations for its federal contractor clients. She has more than 30 years of HR experience and holds senior level professional certifications with HRCI and SHRM. She currently serves as the Vice President and Secretary of the Milwaukee Industry Liaison Group (ILG), a member of the Chicago ILG, a presenter on the Circa OFCCP webinar series, is the lead editor of the Circa publication, The OFCCP Digest, and an in-house expert on the online forum Ask the Experts. Roselle has served as a Director on the Metro Milwaukee (MM) SHRM Board, chaired the MM SHRM Certification Committee, and facilitated the SHRM SPHR/PHR Certification course for three years.

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Michelle Jackson
Personal Pronouns
She/Her/Hers
Director of Product Management
Circa™
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Michelle Jackson is an enthusiastic wearer of many hats who found her calling as a Product leader. After an early career in social service work following earning a Liberal Arts degree from Rockford University, and spending over 20 years in the Insurance Technology field, Michelle heads up Product Management for Circa – bringing her love of problem solving to work towards a mission dear to her heart, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. Outside of work you can either find Michelle performing operations and marketing functions for her son’s growing cabinetmaking company, reading, hiking, or listening to music by Prince. Michelle is also a member of a multigenerational home, and she and her family are all avid Milwaukee Bucks fans. Go Bucks!

SESSIONS:
Tuesday, April 12, 2022 - 3:00pm to 4:00pm
Rick Grimaldi
Author of "Flex" and Partner
Fisher Phillips
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Rick Grimaldi is the author of “Flex” and a partner at Fisher Phillips, one of America’s preeminent labor and employment law firms representing employers, where he works with companies both large and small on solving their most complex workplace challenges. Rick has served employers and employees in Pennsylvania in high-ranking public service positions, worked as a human resources professional, and spent years in private practice partnering with companies to help them adapt to the ever-changing business environment, achieve their workplace goals and become better employers that are ultimately rewarded by the market.

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Josh Christianson
Project Director
Partnership on Inclusive Apprenticeship
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Josh Christianson is Project Director for the Partnership on Inclusive Apprenticeship (PIA) where he leads efforts to create a more diverse and inclusive workforce through apprenticeship. Josh has extensive experience in supporting the diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility (DEIA) efforts of non-profit organizations, private companies, and government agencies.
 
He is the former director of the Partnership on Employment & Accessible Technology (PEAT), where he built cross-sector partnerships to shape the policies and practices contributing to the development of accessible emerging technologies in the workplace.
 
Before coming to PEAT Josh was a Senior Consultant at Deloitte where he provided talent strategies, change management, and leadership development support to federal agencies.
 
Prior to Deloitte he spent several years with The Posse Foundation as the Career Program Manager where he cultivated relationships with companies and organizations to provide career development opportunities for Posse Scholars and Alumni.

SESSIONS:
Mary Wright
Manager, Apprenticeship
SHRM Foundation
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Mary V. L. Wright leads one of the SHRM Foundation’s four pillars of work: Skill Building - Preparing People for Today’s and Tomorrow’s Workplaces.  A critical part of that effort is leading the implementation of the US DOL funded HR Registered Apprenticeship Program, the first national HR apprenticeship program. As such, she is responsible for all parts of the program – development, marketing, sales, budget and evaluation.  In addition, she leads the Foundation’s work on the role of credentials in achieving an organization’s diversity, equity and inclusion goals and is an integral part of the team in promoting the inclusion of untapped talent in the workforce.

Ms. Wright has many years of experience connecting the public and private sectors in municipal finance, government affairs, and workforce development as a project leader, facilitator and subject matter expert.

Previously, Ms. Wright was a director at Jobs for the Future (JFF) where she designed and supervised the completion of foundation, government and employer-funded projects on topics including: expanding employability skills, developing apprenticeship and work-based learning strategies, utilizing labor market information to determine educational focus, better hiring and training practices for people with disabilities, improving entry level jobs for the retail sector, determining the correct educational focus for specific geographic areas including the state of Florida and Columbus Ohio, and an in-depth analysis of green infrastructure jobs.

Prior to joining JFF, she served as director at The Conference Board in New York City, driving its work in workforce readiness, business, and education partnerships. She also focused on improving the employment outcomes for people with disabilities through research and convenings. Ms. Wright co-authored or acted as project director on several key Conference Board reports regarding workforce readiness skills, including Are They Really Ready to Work? and The Ill-Prepared Workforce.

She serves on the Board of Directors of the Institute for Work & the Economy and the Fort Myers Beach Community Foundation.

Ms. Wright received a Master of Business Administration in public/nonprofit management from Columbia University and a Bachelor of Arts in Urban Affairs from Connecticut College.

 

 

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