Consultation

Laura Stack is America's Premier Expert in Productivity™. In 1992, Laura founded her company, The Productivity Pro, Inc., which specializes in business performance, strategy execution, and employee productivity. As a highly-regarded speaker and author, Laura shares her vision and methodologies around the globe on creating Maximum Results in Minimum Time®. A sought-after thought leader, Laura writes on high-performance cultures, human potential, and peak performance in her columns in The Business Journal, Success, Training, Productive, and Time Management Magazines. Widely regarded as one of the leading experts in the field of human performance and workplace issues, Laura has been featured in the New York Times, USA Today, the Wall Street Journal, Entrepreneur, and Forbes magazine. Laura is bestselling author of six books by major publishers including Random House, Wiley, and Berrett-Koehler, most recently Execution IS the Strategy.

Follow Laura on Twitter @laurastack.

Scott Burrows is living proof your life can change in an instant. By the age of 19, he was playing college football at Florida State University as a wide receiver and a top-ranked kick-boxing champion, with his last fight broadcast by ESPN. On November 3, 1984, Scott’s life took a dramatic and irreversible turn. He was involved in a serious automobile accident that left him paralyzed from the chest down and diagnosed a quadriplegic.  

Despite his grim diagnosis, Scott refused to be sidelined. He made the decision to take action, to focus on the positives of the experience as opposed to dwelling on the obvious and overwhelming negatives. With the tremendous clarity provided by his singular focus, Scott resolved to thrive in his life by using three principles:  

• Vision helped him see complete success in his mind’s eye first.
• Using Mindset, he let go of the past and focused 100% on what he could control.

• With Grit, he determined to take action and persevere until he succeeded.  

Scott’s application of these innovative concepts boosted and enhanced his recovery, and he achieved results that astonished doctors, therapists, family and friends alike. After graduating from college, he qualified for the Million Dollar Round Table in the insurance and financial industry, a 100% commission-driven award achieved by fewer than 8% of agents worldwide. He also developed into a wheelchair athlete and became a best-selling author with his book, Vision Mindset Grit: How to Stand Up When Life Paralyzes You. Employing his paralysis as a visual metaphor, Scott encourages his audiences to stand up to their challenges—regardless of circumstances—using the dynamic principles of Vision, Mindset and Grit. His presentations are inspirational, focused and enthusiastically received. Scott has presented to hundreds of associations and corporations in the U.S. and around the globe. He has also shared the stage with iconic celebrities such as Rudolph Giuliani, Terry Bradshaw and Neil Armstrong. Speaking to more than 100,000 people a year, he influences the lives of millions as well through his keynote speeches, books, CDs and DVDs.

Greg Hare has been an employment lawyer at Ogletree Deakins his entire career, since 1991. He assists companies with human resources and employment-related litigation matters, including wrongful termination claims, sexual harassment, employment discrimination, employment contracts, trade secrets, and non-compete agreements. He advises clients on a wide range of human resources topics, such as drug testing, employee discipline and discharge, severance planning, independent contractor classifications, wage payment, family and medical leave, disability law, military leave, joint employment issues, affirmative action, and reductions in force. Mr. Hare also counsels clients on traditional labor relations and matters involving the National Labor Relations Board.

Hunter Lott is an HR problem solver. He has delivered over 4000 “on stage” events, over 17,000 presentation hours and reviewed over 1200 employee handbooks. Hunter won accolades as a senior course leader for the American Management Association. Hunter is an award winning speaker with Vistage and has earned Speaker of the Year, Impact Speaker of the Year and Top Performer Vistage honors.

Hunter attended Tulane University in New Orleans, graduated from Iowa State and has a Master’s Degree in Employment Law from NSU Shepard Broad College of Law.

Donna Rogers, instructor of management, graduated with a Masters of Education (MEd.) in Human Resources Development (HRD) from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) with honors. While studying at U of I she was initiated as a member of the International Honor Society in Education: Kappa Delta Pi and the Professional society of Vocational Education: Omicron Tau Theta. Her Human Resources career began in 1991 and ten years later she was certified as a Senior Professional in Human Resources (SPHR) from the Human Resources Certification Institute (HRCI) and has continued to recertify currently through February 2019. After being certified, she was professionally qualified to teach at the college level and joined the University of Illinois Springfield (UIS) as an adjunct faculty member in 2002. She continued teaching on an “as needed basis” at both UIS and Robert Morris College until 2008 when she joined the UIS College of Business and Management (CBM) full-time. There she serves as an instructor of Human Resources Management (HRM), Organizational Development (OD), Organizational Behavior (OB), and Strategic Human Resources Management. She teaches online, blended and face-to-face classes. She also mentors job seekers and has previously taught a Career Management (CM) course. Additionally, she “practices what she preaches” as the owner of Rogers HR Consulting which was founded in 2001 winning the 2008 Small Business Award of the Year for Home Based Business from the Greater Springfield Chamber of Commerce. In January 2008, HRCI awarded Rogers HR Consulting the designation of Pre-Approved Provider of HR recertification programs which was been reactivated through December of 2014. Additional professional awards include: Lifetime Achievement in HR Award and the HR Professional of the Year from the Central Illinois Chapter of SHRM (CIC-SHRM); 40-Under-40 Selectee for Springfield Business Journal; and Supervisor of the Year from Springfield Public Schools. Most recently she earned the new senior certified professional certification from the Society of Human Resources Management (SHRM) which is good through 2018.  She regularly delivers numerous presentations among professional groups and has guest lectured at Benedictine University/Springfield College in Illinois. She humbly serves her peers in the Human Resources profession as the Illinois State Council of the Society of Human Resources (ILSHRM) College Relations Director and is a Past North Central Region - Membership Advisory Committee Representative (NCR – MAC Rep) and Past Director for ILSHRM.  Finally, she proudly served our great country in the military for eight years retiring as a Ground Safety Inspector for the Illinois Air National Guard. Donna may be contacted online via Website-www.RogersHR.com, LinkedIn-http://www.linkedin.com/in/donnarogers, Twitter @HRWarrior, and she Blogs-http://www.donnarogershr.blogspot.com/ at HR Warrior via Donna Rogers HR google blogspot.

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.

Margaret is CEO for The HR Edge, Inc., an international management consulting and training company. Her clients have included Lockheed Martin, Chevron, Time Warner, U.S. Secret Service, Sara Lee Foods, Home and Garden Television, Roche, Nationwide Insurance, NAPA Auto Parts, Homeland Security, New York Presbyterian Hospital (Cornell & Columbia Medical Centers), U.S. Marine Corps, Deloitte, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Vanderbilt University, Comcast, Intercontinental Hotel Group, National Institutes of Health, McKee Foods, Skanska, Fox Broadcasting, Schwarz BioSciences, Fifth Third Bank, Verizon, SAS (computer software), The Nashville Predators national hockey franchise, Northrop Grumman, Miami University, Wells Fargo, TECO Energy, AmSurg, Quorum Health Resources, the U.S. Naval Nuclear Submarine Group and various local and state governments. Previous to owning her own company, Margaret was Sr. Vice President, Human Resources Consulting for a national consulting firm out of Winston-Salem, North Carolina. She has a BS degree from the University of Alabama and a JD degree from the Vanderbilt University School of Law. She has worked as an attorney, specializing in employment law as well as been Vice President of Human Resources for three large companies and served on the Board of Directors for Aegis Sciences Corporation. She is often quoted as a business expert in newspapers and magazines across the country including Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Chicago Tribune, USA Today, CBS Money Watch and Entrepreneur and appears regularly on local ABC, CBS and Fox television affiliates. She is the author of the business books, “Management Courage – Having the Heart of a Lion” and “The Hidden Language of Business – Workplace Politics, Power & Influence.”

Paul Karlzen (JD, MBA, and PMP) serves as the Director, HR Information & Analytics at Catholic Health Initiatives (CHI). One of the nation’s largest health systems, Englewood, Colorado-based CHI operates in 19 states and comprises 105 hospitals, including four academic health centers and major teaching hospitals and 30 critical-access facilities; community health-services organizations; accredited nursing colleges; home-health agencies; and other facilities that span the inpatient and outpatient continuum of care. Paul is responsible for HR Information metrics, service level agreements, information standardization and researching/implementing leading information practices including predictive analytics, text analysis, and big data.  

Previously, Paul held various leadership roles at The Coca-Cola Company, American Airlines, Ball Corporation and Accenture. Paul is licensed to practice law in Colorado, Georgia and Texas and obtained concurrent Juris Doctorate (J.D.) and Masters in Business Administration (M.B.A.) degrees from Southern Illinois University, magna cum laude. 

Paul is a voting member of SHRM’s National HR information standards taskforces and has been an active member of the Colorado Bar Association’s Communications & Technology section. He is a first time presenter at SHRM’s Annual Conference & Exposition and has previously presented at the Project Management Institute’s Global Congress.