Leadership & Navigation

Elizabeth Brown is currently the Chief People Officer at Unity Technologies. Prior to Unity, she led HR at Trulia, an online real estate website. She spent several years helping grow Trulia including playing a critical role in the Zillow/Trulia acquisition integration.

Prior to joining Trulia, Elizabeth spent two years at LinkedIn leading HR for the Global Sales and Operations group and the HR International team. In this role, she was at the forefront of hyper-growth and led the team to deliver 100 percent year-over-year headcount growth and opened several international LinkedIn offices. Elizabeth also served as an industry thought leader on recruiting, scaling organizations, culture, and leadership. Previously, she held several HR leadership positions at Microsoft Corporation and Intuit. Elizabeth received her bachelor’s degree from the University of California, Berkeley. She was recently honored as one of San Francisco’s Most Influential Business Women.

Eric Ellis is President and CEO of Integrity Development Corp. Since 1991, his firm has served businesses, law enforcement agencies, and organizations by building cultures where Diversity, Inclusion and Respect flourish, driving business results.

One of our nation’s leading strategists on Diversity & Inclusion, Eric and his firm have won numerous awards, including the State of Ohio's Minority Business of the Year, and the NAACP President’s Award. Eric is a member of the SHRM Inclusion & Diversity Expert Panel.

Eric is author of the book, Diversity Conversations, 3rd edition, and co-hosts a weekly broadcast of the same name at www.1320thevoice.com or facebook live, every Saturday, 9:30 am EST @elliseric.

Anne Comer is a Vice President with Senn Delaney, a Heidrick & Struggles company. She has helped clients ranging from small non-profits to Fortune 500 companies shape healthier, higher performing cultures in Canada, the US, Europe and Asia. With over 25 years of experience in human resources and corporate leadership, consulting and education, Anne now focuses on her passion for guiding leaders, organizations and teams to create a healthy environment in which all people can thrive and enjoy the satisfaction of achieving strong and sustainable results.

Celia Swanson is notably recognized as the first female executive vice president at Walmart Inc., breaking the glass ceiling for women throughout the Fortune 1 company. Her deep expertise in retail, large-scale transformation, company culture, and multi-generational workforce engagement serves as the cornerstone of her career legacy. Celia was hand-selected by the Walmart U.S. CEO to co-lead a cost-savings and associate engagement strategy transforming store operations for 1.4 million associates. Learn more about Celia and her book, Gracious and Strong, at celiaswanson.com.

Celia Swanson is notably recognized as the first female executive vice president at Walmart Inc., breaking the glass ceiling for women throughout the Fortune 1 company. Her deep expertise in retail, large-scale transformation, company culture, and multi-generational workforce engagement serves as the cornerstone of her career legacy. Celia was hand-selected by the Walmart U.S. CEO to co-lead a cost-savings and associate engagement strategy transforming store operations for 1.4 million associates. Learn more about Celia and her book, Gracious and Strong, at celiaswanson.com.

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Johnny C. Taylor, Jr., SHRM-SCP, is President and Chief Executive Officer of SHRM. With nearly 340,000 members in 180 countries, SHRM impacts the lives of more than 362 million workers and their families globally.

As a global leader on the future of employment, culture and leadership, Mr. Taylor is a sought-after voice on all matters affecting work, workers and the workplace. Recognized as one of the “300 Most Influential Executives in Corporate America” for 2024 by Savoy Magazine and one of the “Most Influential People Shaping Public Policy” in our nation’s capital by Washingtonian Magazine, Mr. Taylor is frequently asked to testify before Congress on critical workforce issues and authors the weekly USA Today column, "Ask HR."

Mr. Taylor's career spans more than 20 years as a lawyer, human resources executive and CEO in both the not-for-profit and for-profit spaces. He has held senior and chief executive roles at IAC/InteractiveCorp, Viacom's Paramount Pictures, Blockbuster Entertainment Group, the McGuireWoods law firm and Compass Group USA. Most recently, Mr. Taylor was President and Chief Executive Officer of the Thurgood Marshall College Fund.

He is the author of the national bestseller, RESET: A Leader’s Guide to Work in an Age of Upheaval, which immediately upon its release in September 2021, was in the top three of The Wall Street Journal’s list of best-selling hardcover business books.

Mr. Taylor is a member of the United Way Worldwide Board of Trustees and serves on the corporate boards of XPO Logistics (NYSE: XPO), Flores & Associates, and Guild Education. He previously served on the White House American Workforce Policy Advisory Board and as chairman of the President's Advisory Board on Historically Black Colleges and Universities during the Trump Administration.

The Women Business Collaborative (WBC) named Mr. Taylor as one of its 2023 Trailblazers in Gender Equity and Diversity for his work to achieve equal position, pay and power for all women in business. In 2020, he received the Distinguished Executive of the Year Award from the Academy of Management, and he was named 2021 ALA Professional Society CEO of the Year by CEO Update.

He is a Fellow of the National Academy of Human Resources and is licensed to practice law in Florida, Illinois and Washington, D.C.

Gregg Lederman is a professional speaker, professor at the University of Rochester Simon School of Business, and the President of Employee Engagement for Reward Gateway.  Over the past decade, Gregg’s clients have witnessed more than 90% employee engagement, nearly three times the national average, and more than 65% have been noted on “best place to work” lists. 

In addition to being a sought-after, highly engaging keynote speaker, Gregg has written three award winning books and is a New York Times, USA Today and Wall Street Journal bestselling author.

Gregg lives in Rochester, NY, with his wife, Karyn, and three wonderful daughters.

Executive Director, partner and founder of MOT Training and Development, Inc a consulting company based in Miami, USA and Sao Paulo, Brazil, that holds a portfolio of international large companies since 1995.

Recognized by the T&D international community as one of the top professionals in the global industry, he is a leader in pioneering new models of learning and performance and people development at workplace, generating improvement of the business results in global companies. Alfredo is a multi-lingual Euro-Brazilian consultant, keynote speaker, board director, MBA professor and business books writer.

Amongst his extensive experience at global/international arena, evidenced through awards and invitations to make presentations at international T&D conferences, Alfredo Castro has travelled the world spearheading leadership models and learning solutions at business environment, mainly in the areas of change management, storytelling, corporate governance and consultative sales.

His 35 years of professional experience has given him the recognition from international T&D professionals and associations, after designing and implementing blended learning programs in more than 120 companies in more than 25 countries (Asia, Africa, Europe and Americas). His business agenda makes him travel about 40% of the year, making presentations or MBA classes, coach, consult and lead international projects at diverse cultures. After having a successful career as an executive (highlighted by a fast upward trajectory from consultant to international partner-director) along 17 years, in 1995 he became a founder of MOT Training and Development.

His top-notch expertise fully justified his nomination as the Chairman of the 2010 ATD Advisory Committee. He is the only non-north American T&D consultant who chaired the largest T&D association advisory committee, in 70 years of ASTD history.

Passionate about art, like performing humanitarian work for NPOs and carries out free coaching for professionals beginning their careers, in order to guide new gen-professionals on their goals.

As Executive Vice President, Human Resources, Gautam oversees all aspects of UMG’s global human resources operations spanning more than 60 countries, including workforce and leadership planning, employee relations, organizational development, recruiting, people development, diversity initiatives, compensation, benefits, pensions and retirement, union and regulatory frameworks, and information systems.

During a career that spans more than 25 years, Gautam has held leadership positions in management consulting, technology, and entertainment, as well as early growth start-ups and larger, global companies.

Gautam’s career started with SCA Consulting, a boutique executive compensation consultancy focused on value-creating incentive plans, in Los Angeles and New York. He left SCA to join i-drive.com, a social, online storage startup, as Vice President, Finance in San Francisco, where he was responsible for raising venture capital and financial operations. He then joined On2.com, as Vice President, Business Development, a startup focused on the development and sale of compression algorithms for video on the Internet. Following i-drive.com and On2.com, he helped to start, and then eventually wind down, Starbox Systems, which sought to bring peer ratings to video store rental shelves. He later returned to consulting as Principal, Mercer Human Resources Consulting, where he worked with numerous technology company clients to develop incentive plans to focus executives on growth.

In 2004, Gautam joined Advanced Micro Devices and held several general operating positions through 2008, including Vice President, Compensation and Benefits; Vice President and Chief of Staff, Sales and Marketing; and Vice President, Sales and Marketing and Managing Director, Middle East Africa and Pakistan, based in Dubai, where he was responsible for driving corporate, retail, and channel sales; marketing; and public affairs.

In 2009, Gautam joined LSI, a semiconductor company, based in Milpitas, California, as Senior Vice President and Chief Human Resources Officer, and in 2011, he was also named Chief Marketing Officer. He was part of the management team that transformed LSI into a leader in datacenter storage and networking with more than $3B in sales, operations in more than 30 countries, and over 5,000 employees; and later sold LSI to what is now Broadcom, for $6.6 billion. In 2014, he was named Senior Vice President and Chief Human Resources Officer, Shutterfly, where he helped prepare the company to go private, which it eventually did not.

In 2016, Gautam was appointed UMG’s EVP of Human Resources and a member of the company’s Executive Management Board which advises on UMG’s global business strategy development. UMG’s purpose is to develop and bring artists, songwriters, and their music to fans across the world. The company’s business is comprised of recorded music from our iconic labels, Interscope, Republic, Capitol, Motown, EMI, Deutsche Grammaphon, Island, Def Jam, Mercury, Verve, Decca, and Virgin, to name a few; music publishing; merchandising; and audio-visual content. UMG is the world’s leading music company, with nearly $7B in sales, operations across 60 countries, and more than 8,600 employees.

Gautam is based at the company’s headquarters in Santa Monica, where he lives with his wife and their teenage sons.

Bernée is a Gallup-certified talent development coach committed to helping people transform their innate talents into strengths which allow them to do what they do best every day. In her current role at SHRM, she is excited about being a part of the transformation of workplaces into places where employees look forward to going and where they thrive and are actively engaged. Since work is where people spend the vast majority of their waking hours, Bernée believes that when we get work right, the world will be a better place!