Communication

Brad is the Founder and CEO of JB Training Solutions. An accomplished public speaker and executive coach, Brad has been featured on CNN, CNBC, and Dr. Phil, and has been quoted in: The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Fortune, and USA Today. Brad is also the author of three business books including the critically acclaimed Manager 3.0: A Millennial’s Guide to Rewriting the Rules of Management, which you can read in Mandarin (assuming you can read Mandarin).

Prior to creating JB, Brad spent 15 years at advertising agency Leo Burnett in Chicago. Today, Brad presents for major organizations including Eli Lilly, Securitas, Top Tier Capital Partners, and Saint Laurent. When he’s not enjoying a robust buffet, you can find Brad playing racquetball or drafting the perfect fantasy football roster. Brad is left-handed.

Jessica Miller-Merrell is the Founder of Workology, a workplace resource for HR, recruiting professionals and business leaders, and host of the Workology Podcast. The site has been listed twice as a top 75 career resource by Forbes. Jessica is the president and CEO of Xceptional HR, a human capital strategy and consulting agency. Because of her industry expertise and knowledge, Jessica’s expertise is sought after and sourced by publications and media including: The Economist, Forbes, CIO Magazine, CBS, Entrepreneur Magazine, and SHRM’s HR Magazine. Her new book, Digitizing Talent: Creative Strategies for the Digital Recruiting Age was published in 2023 by SHRM.

May Speck joined WageWorks in 2008. She served as Director of Global Human Resources of Zilog, Inc.; as Project Manager for the restructuring of North America Hallmark Cards, Inc.; and as Human Resources & Organizational Consultant responsible for the strategic alignment of people systems in Hallmark’s IT Division. She has a Senior Professional Human Resources certification and is President Elect of the Northern California Human Resources Association Board of Directors. May holds an M.S. in human resources from Loyola University, Chicago and a B.S. from the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana.

Dianna Booher, an expert in executive communications, is the author of 45 books, published in 26 countries and 20 languages, with nearly 4 million copies sold.  Her latest books include Creating Personal Presence: Look, Talk, Think, and Act Like a Leader and Communicate with Confidence, the Revised and Expanded Edition. As CEO of Booher Consultants, an executive communication training firm, Dianna and her staff travel worldwide to help organizations improve the effectiveness of their communication:  oral, written, interpersonal, and cross-functional. National media frequently feature her work and interview her on critical workplace communication issues—Good Morning America, USA Today, the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Bloomberg. Successful Meetings magazine has named her to its list of “21 Top Speakers for the 21st Century.”  

Follow Dianna on Twitter @diannabooher.

Richard is a Certified Master Facilitator™ and Principal with Leadership Strategies, Inc., a firm specializing in providing clients with professional facilitators to lead sessions in strategic planning, process improvement, information needs analysis, and issue resolution. The organization also focuses on teaching leadership training classes in group facilitation, consulting, strategic planning, project planning, team building and management excellence.

Prior to Leadership Strategies, Inc., Richard was an executive with software services companies where he had responsibility for the delivery, training and support of complex systems including customer relationship management, finance and human resources, and enterprise requirements planning. In these roles Richard had in-depth experience facilitating sessions with clients, vendors/partners and staff in the design, implementation and support of mission critical projects. In these roles he led the training of over 10,000 professionals and administrative support personnel.  

Earlier in his career, Richard was a consultant with Andersen Consulting (now Accenture) for eight years where he worked on engagements in the area of strategic planning, profit improvement, change management and systems development. He was part of the team that developed the firm's training materials for facilitation and leadership programs as well as project management.

Americus Reed, II is the Whitney M. Young Jr., Professor of Marketing at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, where he has served on faculty since 2000. He received a Ph.D. (Consumer Behavior and Social Psychology) from the University of Florid a’s Warrington College of Business after receiving two master’s degrees (Organizational Behavior and Market Research Methods) and a B.B.A (Strategy) from Georgia State University. Professor Reed’s primary research and consulting areas are in brand equity and specifically identity driven marketing – the study of creating and fostering “brand communities” that transcend the utilitarian aspects of products; connect to deep levels of emotional and social affiliation, and cultivate lifelong loyalty with consumers (http://americusreed.com/). 

In 2005, his academic work in this area received honorable mention for the prestigious Robert Ferber Award for academic impact in the Journal of Consumer Research (JCR) and in 2009 he received JCR’s Best Paper Award. Professor Reed has authored more than 40 articles and book chapters on the topic. He teaches courses in customer analysis, branding and consumer psychology to undergraduate, graduate, doctoral and executive students.

The exclusive teacher of improvisational comedy at the DC Improv for more than eight years, Shawn Westfall teaches classes in beginning improv, advanced short-form and long-form improv, as well as improv workshops focusing on character, long form, and non-traditional improv techniques. His classes (and the numerous performances they've generated) have been featured in the pages of The Washington Post, The Washington Post Express, Washingtonian magazine, as well on Washington Post Radio, DC 101, WTOP Radio, Mix 107.3's "The Jack Diamond Morning Show," on The Food Network's "Dinner: Impossible!," as well as on such local media outlets as K Street Kate's video weblog, and other local blogs, including WeLoveDC.com, among many others. Not only has Shawn taught the principles of improv to individual students, he's also taught improv as a strategy for fomenting creativity, teambuilding and organizational development to various private, public and non-governmental organizations, including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Discovery Channel, B'nai Brith Youth Organization, Touchstone Consulting, Booz Allen Hamilton, and The Washington Post Company, among numerous others.

Follow Shawn on Twitter @shawnwestfall.

Tim Sackett, SCP, is the CEO of HRUTech.com, a leading technical recruiting firm. Tim has over 20 years of combined executive HR and talent acquisition experience working for Fortune 500 companies. Tim is a highly sought-after international speaker on leadership, HR &TA Tech, talent acquisition, and HR execution. Tim is currently a Senior Faculty member with the Josh Bersin Academy. He is also an Angel investor and advisor and sits on multiple HR Technology corporate boards.

Tim is the author of the newly released book The Talent Fix, Vol. 2. He also writes daily on his blog, the Tim Sackett Project. Tim is married to a hall-of-fame wife, has three sons, and his dog Tucker. In 2023, he was named a Top Global HR & Recruitment Influencer by HR Executive. He has more Twitter (X) followers than his 3 Gen Z sons and is sponsored on stage by diet Mt. Dew.