Communication

Scott Lesnick is a sought-after global leadership keynote speaker. He presents powerful keynotes and interactive sessions at 30+ events a year and is an author. Also, Scott earned his CSP (Certified Speaking Professional) designation from the National Speakers Association. Only 12% of speakers world-wide have this designation! Scott is also a Certified Virtual Presenter.

Scott recently presented at TEDx. And, he’s run the equivalent of 2X around the planet. That’s 50,000 miles! In addition, Scott spent 24 award-winning years leading sales teams at Shaw Industries, a Berkshire Hathaway Fortune 500 company.

Scott served as the Academy Dean for Professional Speakers and the National Speakers Association. He is a graduate of The University of Miami, Florida. His memoir, Kidjacked – A Father’s Story and his book Lifejacked: Life Lessons on Leadership were published to critical acclaim.

Founder of The Brave Initiative, Carol empowers audiences globally, and works with numerous Fortune 500 companies, International Associations, and individual leaders to get their brave on! She is committed to building braver workplaces - where every person brings all they are to all they do.

A dedicated mental health advocate, she’s the creator of the Brave Beyond Diagnosis community, and author of The Brave Healing Journal, a guided journey to find your brave and empower your life, one day at a time.

She’s lived in 16 countries, completed marathons and triathlons, bungee jumped in her birthday suit, and is a serious carpool karaoke-er!

Giselle is the Practice Lead in Optimus SBR’s Learning & Development Group with over 25 years experience as a sought after resource to industry leaders across the private, public, and not-for-profit sectors dedicated to building strategies and programs that help clients target, motivate and engage employees in order to increase performance and productivity.

Giselle has devoted more than 20 years to researching the impact that generational differences have on organizational performance, creating solutions and programs in four areas – leadership, high performance teams, early career talent, and reinforcement & sustainment of learning. Giselle has co-authored two books and completed her Master of Arts Degree in Communications Studies at the University of Windsor.

She is Chair of the Board at The Institute for Performance and Learning (I4PL), co-chair of the Cross Academy Association and Advisory Council member at the Ted Rogers School of Management at Toronto Metropolitan University.

Matt Verdecchia, MS, CEAP, is Senior Trainer/Organizational Development with Health Advocate’s EAP+Work/Life division. Matt specializes in the development and delivery of customized training programs at all organizational levels, as well as risk assessment, consultation, and mediation.

Matt has more than 30 years of experience in the behavioral health field, including clinical, consulting and administrative duties in various settings. Previously, Matt worked as Senior Clinical Manager and Account/Marketing Executive for several different hospitals’ and facilities’ Employee Assistance Programs.

Matt received his BS in Psychology from St. Francis College and his Masters of Science in Organizational Science/Human Resources from Villanova.

Randy Anderson has a true passion for teaching the “how’s” and “why’s” of engaging, equipping, and empowering people in work and life. He teaches ideas and strategies that he learned from working for and managing in organizations ranging from 5 to 35,000 employees. Over the last 25 years, he has developed and taught these principles to tens of thousands of people in all sizes of organizations from front line to back office to upper management. Whether learning to improve your performance, or so you can train others to improve theirs, Randy will transform your thinking, your productivity, and your influence. 

Dr. Lepora is a well sought-after keynote speaker on People and Process topics worldwide. She is the CEO and Executive Coach of Nextgen People, a cutting- edge firm that specializes in Executive Coaching and Talent Management Next Practices in a global and multi-generational environment.

Dr. Lepora has partnered with many global business leaders and organizations to help them be more effective in their transformational efforts. She is especially passionate about elevating leader performance and seeing individual and organizational potential realized. She also has a special focus on Intentional Culture and the Globalization of work.

Dr. Lepora has worked and led teams as an internal executive leader and consultant in Fortune 500 companies to achieve positive transformational change in people and processes. Some companies, with which Dr. Lepora Flournoy has partnered include Delta Airlines, ManpowerGroup, Randstad, Capital Blue Cross, Deloitte, and Coca- Cola.

Dr. Flournoy is dedicated to innovative people practices and creative ways to help leaders better perform. She is the author of Journey to Authentic Joy and is currently working on a second book.  Aside from writing, she also enjoys hiking, traveling and photography.

While you can find her on most social media vehicles, feel free to follow Dr. Lepora on Twitter @drlepora and connect with her on linkedin/in/drlepora

www.nextgenpeople.com

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.

Alexander Alonso, PhD, SHRM-SCP is the Society for Human Resource Management's (SHRM's) Chief Data & Insights Officer leading operations for SHRM's Certified Professional and Senior Certified Professional certifications, research functions, and the SHRM Knowledge Advisor service. He is responsible for all research activities, including the development of the SHRM Competency Model and SHRM credentials.

During his career, he has worked with numerous subject matter experts worldwide with the aim of identifying performance standards, developing competency models, designing organizational assessments, and conducting job analyses. He was also responsible for working on contract task orders involving the development of measurement tools for content areas such as job knowledge (like teacher knowledge of instructional processes) and organizational climates (like organizational climate forecasting in military health care).

Dr. Alonso received his doctorate in Industrial-Organizational Psychology from Florida International University in 2003. His works have been recognized for their contribution to real-world issues. They include being recognized by the Society for Industrial Organizational Psychology (Division 14 of the APA; SIOP) with the 2007 M. Scott Myers Award for Applied Research in the Workplace for the development of the federal standard for medical team training, TeamSTEPPS; being awarded a 2009 Presidential Citation for Innovative Practice by the American Psychological Association for supporting the development of competency model for team triage in emergency medicine; and receiving the 2013 SIOP Distinguished Early Career Contributions for Practice Award.

Throughout his career, he has published works in peer-reviewed journals such as Industrial and Organizational Psychology: Perspectives on Science and Practice, Journal of Applied Psychology, International Journal of Selection and Assessment, People and Strategy, Personality and Individual Differences, Quality and Safety in Health Care, and Human Resources Management Review. He has also authored several chapters on community-based change initiatives in workforce readiness, as well as co-authoring Defining HR Success: A Guide to the SHRM Competency Model in Practice.

Dr. Alonso also served as a columnist analyzing major trends in the workforce for The Industrial Psychologist and HR Magazine. In addition, he has served on several professional society boards including the SIOP and the Personnel Testing Council of Metropolitan Washington.

John A. Rubino, SHRM-SCP, CCP, CBP, GRP, WLCP, is founder and president of Rubino Consulting Services, a global human resources consulting company based in Pound Ridge, New York. His areas of expertise cover all areas of Human Resources program design. An internationally acclaimed speaker for SHRM and WorldatWork, John is the author of numerous human resources articles, and is frequently quoted in professional publications. He holds BA and MBA degrees, as well as a lifetime Achievement Award from WorldatWork. John works with a wide variety of organizations and his consulting practice takes him all around the world; in fact, he has visited one hundred and nine countries!