Business (Behavioral)

Ryan Gottfredson, Ph.D. is a cutting-edge leadership development author, researcher, and consultant. He helps organizations vertically develop their leaders primarily through a focus on mindsets. Ryan is the Wall Street Journal and USA Today best-selling author of Success Mindsets: The Key to Unlocking Greater Success in Your Life, Work, & Leadership. And, he is the author of the upcoming book, The Elevated Leader: Leveling Up Your Leadership Through Vertical Development. He is also a leadership professor at the College of Business and Economics at California State University-Fullerton.

Laura Maffucci is Sr. Director of Global Total Rewards & HRIS at Globalization Partners and has over 20 years of human resources leadership experience. She specializes in innovative, strategic total rewards solutions that attract and engage rockstar talent.

Laura’s experience encompasses many aspects of the human resources arena including HRIS, HR operations, culture and engagement, compensation, employee care and wellbeing, executive compensation, and people analytics.

Laura is passionate about the future of work, normalizing the value of work everywhere, and enabling employees across the globe to be their best selves and add value wherever they go and whatever they do.

Named a top 100 HR Professional of 2020, Dr. Allessandria Polizzi has 20 years of experience leading HR teams across multiple industries. Following recovery from burnout in 2021, Allessandria left her CPO position to focus on helping companies with resiliency, burnout prevention and psychological safety. Verdant offers programs designed around neuroscience, cognitive behavior theory, and the ISO 45003 standards by training practical, simple skills that help teams flourish. She also co-founded the Kite HR wellbeing app for HR teams and shares discoveries on all of these topics via the Be Verdant podcast.

Erika Sandoval (she/ella) is Partner with the Strategic Advisory Group at UKG and has spent 15 years in the areas of people and organizational practice, specifically in DEI, L&D, HR, organizational and professional development, and facilitation and consulting. Having lived and worked across North America, South America, Europe and Asia, Erika has experience in leading and guiding strategic and cross-cultural initiatives that impact organizations and drive business success.

Erika is multilingual and holds various DEI and training certificates; she received an MSc in Human Rights Law from the University of Birmingham in the UK and has an MA and BA.

As the Senior Director of Partnership Development at Disability Solutions, Kevin works directly with employers on developing programs to actively attract, hire and retain talent with disabilities, which includes Pepsi Beverages’ Pepsi ACT – Achieving Change Together and the expansion project Frito ACT for Frito Lay.  Kevin trains employers to educate them on the benefits of hiring talent with disabilities and provides tools to help them best engage and support potential and current employees.  He is also responsible for developing and managing relationships with talent partners to meet the hiring needs of Disability Solutions’ employer clients. Kevin also regularly contributes to blogs and hosts Disability Solutions’ podcast “Changing Minds and Changing Lives.”

Ms. Walters has more than 30 years’ combined experience in management, HR administration, employment law practice, and teaching.

She has presented at conferences across the country, been engaged as an expert witness, and testified before U.S. Congressional and state legislative committees on employment issues.

Her book, “From Hello to Goodbye: Proactive Tips for Maintaining Positive Employee Relations” is in its 2nd edition and was one of the SHRMStore’s “Great 8” best-sellers for eight consecutive years.

Today, Ms. Walters works as an independent consultant doing business as FiveL Company, “Helping Leaders Limit their Liability by Learning the Law.”SM

Been there – done that!  With 30 years of HR and business experience – Lori has walked in your shoes.  A recovered HR Generalist, she built a consulting company that she sold to Arthur J Gallagher after 7 years and then reinvented her current business – HR Topics -  training, speaking and developing content for HR professionals.  Lori delivers facts, tips, tricks and best practices in a way that appeals to human resource and business leaders: with a sense of humor, a bias toward actions that improve their operations right away, and practical resources and tools to support their progress.  As an annual speaker at the National SHRM conference, she has leveraged her masters in HR, SPHR and SHRM-SCP background to elevate the position of all HR professionals!

Recognized by Engagedly as a Top 100 Global HR Influencer and among the most influential HR voices by Nestor, Vivian is a sought-after leadership expert and thought leader. She works with the world’s top brands to build better, more resilient workplaces, equipping leaders to solve pressing burnout, turnover, and workplace culture challenges. 

Her impact is felt as a keynote speaker, and in delivering transformative leadership development, executive and team coaching, and corporate consulting.

Vivian is the author of four books, including the Amazon #1 best-seller Resilience Ready: The Leader’s Guide to Thriving Through Unrelenting Crises, and Influence in Talent Development.

Recognized by Engagedly as a Top 100 Global HR Influencer and among the most influential HR voices by Nestor, Vivian is a sought-after leadership expert and thought leader. She works with the world’s top brands to build better, more resilient workplaces, equipping leaders to solve pressing burnout, turnover, and workplace culture challenges. 

Her impact is felt as a keynote speaker, and in delivering transformative leadership development, executive and team coaching, and corporate consulting.

Vivian is the author of four books, including the Amazon #1 best-seller Resilience Ready: The Leader’s Guide to Thriving Through Unrelenting Crises, and Influence in Talent Development.

Lester S. Rosen is an attorney and Founder  of Employment Screening Resources (ESR) a service offering of ClearStar.   He is the author of, “The Safe Hiring Manual,”  (3d Edition 2017), the first comprehensive book on employment screening.  He is also a consultant, writer, expert witness and frequent presenter nationwide on safe hiring and due diligence.  He is both a former prosecutor and criminal defense attorney.  Mr. Rosen was the chairperson of the steering committee that founded the Professional Background Screening Association (PBSA) and served as the first co-chairman in 2004. He  received the  PBSA Lifetime Achievement Award in 2019.