Global & Cultural Effectiveness

Joe Gerstandt brings greater clarity, action, and impact to organizational diversity and inclusion efforts.

Joe has worked with Fortune 100 corporations, small non-profits, and everything in between. He speaks at numerous conferences and summits, and blogs at joegerstandt.com. He is a featured contributor for the Workforce Diversity Network Expert Forum and his insights have been published in Diversity Executive, HR Executive, and numerous other print and on-line journals.

A strong advocate for resetting the diversity and inclusion conversation, Joe sees these issues as poorly understood and often misunderstood.

With 20 years of experience in global talent development, Donal has  designed and delivered learning programs for more than twenty of the  world’s largest corporations. He is considered an industry leader in  designing and delivering dynamic talent management, leadership and  B2B sales and marketing learning programs that transcend borders,  languages and cultures.  Before establishing Donal Conn Associates, Donal held executive  positions with multiple Global Fortune 500 organizations. Most  recently, he served as Chief Learning & Talent Officer of Momentive Performance Materials (formerly GE Advanced Materials), an  engineered materials company with $7.5 billion in annual sales  and over 12,000 employees doing business in 119 locations in 23 countries. Previously, Donal served as Vice President of a global advertising and communications agency with clients in the consumer, pharmaceutical, medical device and manufacturing sectors and has held senior talent management roles with State Farm Insurance and KeyCorp. Throughout his career, Donal has repeatedly been honored with numerous industry awards, including winning the prestigious ‘Vanguard Executive of the Year’ award from Chief Learning Officer magazine in 2009. As a recognized thought leader, he regularly authors articles for trade magazines and frequently serves as a keynote speaker at industry conferences around the world.

Cisco Chief Inclusion & Collaboration Officer Shari Slate is responsible for building a strategy that enhances Cisco’s vision to be a world class, benchmark company for inclusion and collaboration, driving exponential value across Cisco, its partners and customers. She is promoting thought leadership across Cisco’s people strategy enabling employee engagement and inclusion outcomes to fuel innovation and market leadership. She is also directing the integration of new models of inclusion and collaboration designed to guide future workplace practices to realize the $19 billion opportunity of the Internet of Everything over the next decade.

In her previous role, Slate served as Chief Inclusion and Collaboration Strategist for Cisco’s Sales Organization. She was responsible for making inclusion relevant in the revenue generating arm of the business and incubating new strategies for fostering full spectrum participation to unleash the power and potential of people.

Slate joined Cisco in 2010. Prior to that, she was Chief Diversity Officer and Director of Global Community Affairs at Sun Microsystems. Slate has been widely recognized for her visionary leadership and her transformational views on the true value of inclusion. The YWCA recently named her a 2014 “Tribute to Women in Industry” honoree. In 2013, she was named one of Diversity Woman Magazine’s “Stars Who Mean Business”. Previously, she was honored by the California Diversity Council as one of the “Most Influential Women in California” and a “Woman Worth Watching” by Diversity Journal Magazine. She received the National Coalition of 100 Black Women 2010 Corporate Leader Award and The Network Journal's "40 Under Forty" Achievement Award. Slate serves on numerous charitable and community organizational initiatives and advisory boards.

Slate holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in political, legal, and economic analysis from Mills College.

Daniel S. Guillory, Esq. serves as CEO and General Counsel. Prior to working with Innovations, Mr. Guillory was a corporate and securities associate at Pillsbury Madison & Sutro LLP, and remains a member of the California Bar. He received his J.D. from Harvard Law School and his B.A. in international relations from Stanford University. In addition, Mr. Guillory studied international law at the Université de Paris I - Panthéon Sorbonne. He is fluent in French and conversant in German. Daniel delivers classroom training for Innovations International on topics such as leadership, diversity and empowerment for many different corporations and non-profits including the YMCA, Merck & Co, and Anheuser-Busch.

Sara Taylor, President and Founder of deepSEE Consulting, has 35 years of extensive experience, nationally recognized as in the practice of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion serving local, national and global clients. While her areas of specialty are in both Diversity and Leadership Development, Sara has become a thought leader particularly in the field of Cultural Competence. Her bestselling book, Filter Shift: How Effective People SEE the World, is used by numerous individuals and organizations to increase success and create greater effectiveness. Sara holds a Master's degree in Diversity and Organizational Development and, prior to founding deepSEE, held positions such as Chief Diversity Officer and Leadership and Diversity Specialist.

John U. Bacon has worked the better part of two decades as a writer, a public speaker, and a college instructor, winning awards for all three.

Bacon earned an honors degree in history (“pre-unemployment”) from the University of Michigan in 1986, and a Master’s in Education in1994.  In 2005-06, the Knight-Wallace Journalism Fellowship named him the first recipient of the Benny Friedman Fellowship for Sports Journalism.

He started his journalism career covering high school sports for The Ann Arbor News, then wrote a light-hearted lifestyle column before becoming the Sunday sports feature writer for The Detroit News in 1995.  He earned numerous state and national awards for his work, including “Notable Sports Writing” in The Best American Sports Writing in 1998 and 2000.

After Bacon covered the 1998 Nagano Olympics, he moved from the sports page to the Sunday front page, roaming the Great Lakes State finding fresh features, then left the paper in 1999 to free-lance for some two dozen national publications, including stories on Formula One racing in Australia for The New York Times, on Japanese hockey for ESPN Magazine, and on Hemingway’s Michigan summer home for Time.

He has authored or coauthored six books on sports and business, including Walgreens: America’s Corner Store in 2004, Cirque du Soleil: The Spark in 2006, Bo’s Lasting Lessons: The Legendary Coach Teaches the Timeless Fundamentals of Leadership, which hit The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal’s Business Best Seller lists.

Bacon delivers speeches on the themes in his books — including leadership, creativity and diversity — to corporations, universities and other groups around the country and the world.  In 2011, the Michigan Chapter of Meeting Planners International (MMPI) named him “Speaker of the Year.”

Bacon has also pursued his passions for radio, television, coaching and teaching.  In 2002, he launched a Sunday morning sports talk show on WTKA (1050 AM, wtka.com, in Ann Arbor/Detroit) called “Off the Field,” and in 2007 he was invited to give weekly sports commentary on Michigan Radio every Friday morning, and he still does both.  He has also appeared on HBO, ESPN, and the Big Ten Network, where he is a frequent contributor to both “Icons” series.

Bacon teaches at Northwestern’s Medill School of Journalism and the University of Michigan, where the students selected him for the 2009 Golden Apple award, given annually to the University’s top teacher.

A powerful storyteller with a powerful story to tell, Dr. Steve L. Robbins has an uncanny ability to inspire people even in the midst of disrupting and challenging the way they think about the world. Born in Vietnam, Dr. Robbins immigrated with his mother to the United States where they faced many challenges during a time when there was much anti-war and anti-Vietnamese sentiment.

Working through and rising out of the challenges of poverty, discrimination and the tough streets of Los Angeles, Dr. Robbins now brings insightful perspectives on issues of inclusion & innovation, leadership, and the power of caring.  Drawing upon a compelling life journey, his talks and workshops are filled with intriguing stories, laugh-out-loud humor and a keen understanding of human behavior.

Dr. Robbins uniquely knows how to simultaneously challenge and motivate people with a dynamic use of storytelling, humor and extensive knowledge of pertinent issues and concepts. The inclusive power of his message are why organizations like Coca-Cola, Disney, Ford Motor Company, Walmart, Lululemon, Pixar, NASA, The NBA,  Michelin, Bank of America, Mercedes-Benz,  and numerous others call on Dr. Robbins to inspire, educate and prepare their people for the exciting challenges of dynamic and diverse environments.

A thought leader and innovator, Dr. Robbins' unique, science-based approach to inclusion and diversity has captured wide acclaim from numerous audiences and organizations across the the world. His approach does NOT blame or point fingers. It uses neuroscience and the science of human behavior to encourage individuals and organizations to be more open-minded, mindful and intentional about inclusion and valuing people for their unique gifts, abilities and experiences.

Dr. Robbins earned an undergraduate degree in Communication from Calvin College, and his masters and doctorate in Communication Science from Michigan State University.  His background in communication, social-psychology and cognitive neuroscience drives his work with individuals and organizations – the core of the work is about understanding human behavior and leveraging human differences in an ever-changing, fast-paced 21st world.

James Wright of JamesWantsToKnowYou.com is a dynamic and compelling leader with a track record of delivering practical roadmaps for increasing Inclusion and Diversity in global corporations such as Apple Inc., LinkedIn, NBCUniversal, and Time Warner (now WarnerMedia). A featured guest on NBC and FOX, Wright’s articles and commentary appear frequently on LinkedIn and his expertise has been included in The Washington Post as well as several SHRM articles. 

In his practice, James offers transformative training solutions on Gender Equality, Unconscious Bias, Improving Race Relations, and Generational Diversity. In addition, James introduced The Language of Inclusion - a free download of over 135 key terms and definitions to help organizations find a common language to Inclusion. With increased focus on gender and LGBTQIA+ equality, James believes it is important to update these terms to signal where we are today in our journey to ensure diverse communities are truly seen, heard, and valued.

James attended Erskine College in SC & The Catholic University of America in Washington DC.

Alessandro Bonorino is Global Vice President of Recruitment/Talent Acquisition for IBM Corporation. He is responsible for defining, executing and operating strategies regarding recruitment programs and policies across the 170 countries where IBM operates. 

With extensive experience in HR, prior to his role, he was HR Director of Latin America, which comprises more than 25,000 employees in 11 countries;  Brazil HR Director (2005-2008), Spanish South America HR Leader (2002-2005), GTS HR Leader for Latin America (2001-2002). He also worked for Glaxo Wellcome and KPMG. 

A Brazilian born in Rio de Janeiro, he is graduated in Economics from UFRJ (Federal University of Rio de Janeiro) and has specialization in Business for Managers and an Executive MBA. He started his career in finance, but 18 years ago moved to HR. Also, during his professional career, outside Brazil, he had the opportunity to live in Miami (USA), Buenos Aires (Argentina) and Shanghai (China).