Consultation

 
Friday, November 17, 2017 - 2:00pm to 3:15pm
 
Friday, November 17, 2017 - 10:15am to 11:45am
 
Friday, November 17, 2017 - 10:15am to 11:45am
Jeff Smith
partner
Fisher Phillips, LLP
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Jeff Smith is a partner in the Cleveland office and a member of Fisher Phillip's Employee Benefits Practice Group. He works with clients to create, implement and maintain their retirement and health plans.
He also advises employers on the impact of the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act (COBRA) and the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), as well as Multiple Employer Welfare Arrangements (MEWAs) and Voluntary Employer Beneficiary Associations (VEBAs).
 
While in law school, Jeff served as Executive Notes Editor and earlier as Associate Editor of the Health Matrix: Journal of Law-Medicine. He has been selected for inclusion in Ohio Super Lawyers -Rising Star three times. He was also listed in Best Lawyers in 2017.
 
SESSIONS:
Monday, August 7, 2017 - 11:00am to 12:00pm
Stephen Ligus
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SESSIONS:
Monday, August 7, 2017 - 9:45am to 10:45am
Gary B. Kushner, CBP
Chair and President
Kushner & Company
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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.

 

SESSIONS:
Susan White, SHRM-SCP
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Susan White has a reputation for identifying, developing, coaching, and retaining talent. Her experience includes 30+ years as Senior Vice President & HR Executive at JP Morgan Chase. Susan consults with executives in a variety of industries, government entities and non-profits. Susan earns trust quickly, builds relationships and provides constructive coaching that enables companies to achieve results.

Susan is a SHRM-SCP who earned a B.S. in Business from Indiana University. She has been an adjunct faculty member for the University of Indianapolis.

SESSIONS:
Monday, October 2, 2017 - 8:30am to 5:00pm
Thursday, October 5, 2017 - 8:30am to 5:00pm
Bill Thomas
managing principal
Centric Performance, LLC
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Bill is the Managing Principal of Centric Performance, LLC, a Pittsburgh-based management consulting firm. He has over 35 years of experience in HR and OD, Total Quality Management, Customer Engagement Strategies and Operations Management. His prior experience includes national and global management roles with PricewaterhouseCoopers and Dell Computers, respectively. At PwC, Bill served as National HR Director for their Consulting division, National Practice leader for their Human Advantage Consulting practice, and was the co-architect and leader of their global Client Service Excellence program. At Dell, he served as HR Director for their Sales and Marketing division, HR Director for their Global IT division, and played a key role in designing and implementing Dell’s Quality Customer Experience initiative.  
 
Bill is a consultant, trainer, facilitator and coach who helps organizations accelerate growth and improve results at the company, business unit, department, team and individual level. He has designed and implemented high-impact growth and performance initiatives for a wide variety of large and small organizations – both for-profits and non-profits.  He has also served as an external personal coach to dozens of front-line, mid-level and executive level leaders. Bill brings to his clients a rich experience of having managed such areas as HR, Finance, Administration, Operations, Sales, Marketing, Business Development, Communications and Customer Service. 
He has lead various business performance and change management efforts including: strategy performance acceleration and implementation support; building execution-based or high-performance cultures; sales, marketing, customer service, HR and IT function effectiveness reviews; leadership and enterprise talent and capability reviews; compensation, performance management and pay-for-performance practices; customer-employee engagement and branding alignment projects; M&A due diligence and post-deal integrations; business unit consolidations, restructurings and reorgs; process improvement initiatives; customer and user experience, CEM and VoC initiatives.
 
Bill is the creator of the Customer Focus Maturity Model ® and of Value Chain Labs ®, a cross-boundary workout process used to improve customer-supplier relationships, integrate merged or acquired organizations, and improve the effectiveness of cross-boundary teams. He is the co-author of the book “ANTICIPATE: Knowing What Customers Need Before They Do” (John Wiley & Sons; 2012). The book helps leaders build an effective customer-focus into their growth strategy, develop the capabilities needed to execute it and shape the culture that sustains it.
 
He has a BA in Business, a Master's degree in Human Resources, and holds his SHRM – SCP certification. He is a senior member of The American Society for Quality (ASQ) and currently serves on SHRM’s HR Disciplines Expert Panel. Bill has also served SHRM in top leadership roles at the local, state and national levels. He is a nationally-recognized speaker and author whose work has been featured in CEO magazine, ASQ’s Quality Progress, ASQ’s Partnership News, Human Resource Executive magazine, and others. 
Bill’s clients include: AFL Telecom, AT&T, Baker Hughes International, Baylor University, Bristol Myers Squibb, CenterPoint Energy, Champion Technologies, Deloitte, FCC Environmental, GE Health Care, Hess Oil, Highmark Blue Cross-Blue Shield, Impress North America, Marriott International, Matthews International, Medrad, Inc., Michael Baker Corporation, Mylan Labs, Oberg Industries, Oncology Nursing Society, Pediatric Alliance PC, Peoples Natural Gas, Range Resources, the State of Texas, the University of Pittsburgh, the University of Texas, Westinghouse Electric, and others. 
 
SESSIONS:
Tuesday, August 8, 2017 - 11:00am to 12:00pm
Michele Burns
director of Classification and Compensation
University of Arkansas
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Michele Burns is a human resource practitioner and educator specializing in the areas of compensation, benefits, and workforce development.  She is employed as the Director of Classification and Compensation at the University of Arkansas where she is responsible for providing strategic oversight of classification, position management, job analysis, job documentation, and job evaluation and compensation processes as well as serving as liaison with state agencies such as the Arkansas Department of Higher Education (ADHE).

Michele is currently ending her course work phase for her Ed. D. in Human Resource and Workforce Development at the University of Arkansas.  Additionally, she is completing a graduate certificate in Educational Statistics and Research Methods, an area that she finds specifically suited for the statistical side of human resources like job analysis, job evaluation, and compensation management.  In addition to holding the generalist certifications of SHRM-SCP and SPHR, she holds various specialist certifications such as CCP (Certified Compensation Professional), CBP (Certified Benefits Professional), and GRP (Global Remuneration Professional).

During her human resources career, which has spanned over twenty years, she has worked both as an HR generalist and as a Compensation and Benefits Specialist in manufacturing, food processing, financial, healthcare, and higher education sectors.  Additionally, she has taught as an adjunct professor at John Brown University, Webster University, and the University of Arkansas.  She has taught courses such as Freshman Success; Human Resources Management; Legal Issues in HR; Introduction to Research, Introduction to Organizational Management, Principles of Management and Leadership, Organizational Communications; Integrative Strategies in Marketing and Written Communications.

Michele recently completed a three-year term as the State Council Director for the Arkansas SHRM State Council. She is passionate about the field of Human Resources and has been actively involved in the field of Human Resources both as an HR professional and as a volunteer.  Michele has served in various positions including MAC Representative alternate for the Southwest Central Region, ARSHRM Arkansas State Council Director Elect, State Council Chapter Advocate Director, Certification Chair, WAHRA (Western Arkansas Human Resource Association) President, President-Elect, Treasurer, and Certification Chair.

SESSIONS: