Leadership & Navigation

Sharlyn Lauby is an author, writer, speaker and consultant. She has been named a Top HR Digital Influencer and is best-known for her work on HR Bartender, a friendly place to talk about workplace issues. HR Bartender has been recognized as one of the Top 5 Blogs read by HR professionals by the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) and best business blog by the Stevie Awards.

Publications such as Reuters, The New York Times, ABC News, The Wall Street Journal, and Mashable have sought out her expertise on topics related to human resources and the workplace. Sharlyn is the author of “Essential Meeting Blueprints for Managers,” and ”Manager Onboarding: 5 Steps for Setting New Leaders Up for Success,” which are available in the SHRM Store.

Her personal goal in life is to find the best cheeseburger on the planet.

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.”

Bob Kelleher is a best-selling author, keynote speaker, and consultant on employee engagement, leadership, and workforce trends. Bob is the author of the bestselling book, LOUDER THAN WORDS: 10 Practical Employee Engagement Steps That Drive Results, CREATIVESHIP, A Novel for Evolving Leaders, EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT for Dummies, and I-Engage, Your Personal Engagement Roadmap.   

Bob can be seen or heard on national media (most recently on CNBC, CBS, NBC News, Business Week, Forbes, and Fortune, and has presented to many of the world’s top companies

Bob is also the founder of The Employee Engagement Group, a global survey, products, assessment, consulting firm.  

Steve Browne, SHRM-SCP is the Chief People Officer for LaRosa's, Inc., a regional Pizzeria chain. He has 35+ years working as an HR professional in a variety of industries. He has a globally recognized HR blog and author of three books, HR on Purpose !!, HR Rising !! and HR Unleashed !! He is a past member of the SHRM Board of Directors. Steve also runs a global HR network called the HR Net which reaches 15,000+ HR and business professionals weekly.

Avish Parashar is the world's only “Motivational Improviser.” He works with groups that want their people to be more flexible and with organizations who want to increase innovation. Avish uses his 20+ years of experience performing, teaching, and studying improv comedy to show organizations and individuals how to improvise, adapt and innovate in an ever-changing world. He specializes in helping professionals access and develop their creativity and apply those skills to think quickly and deal with change.

Avish grew up in Poughkeepsie, NY, and now makes his home in Philadelphia, PA. Though he performed all through high-school, he decided to stop performing when he went to college to “focus on his studies.” That resolve lasted only a few months, as the first time he saw an improv comedy show he fell in love. One week later he auditioned for the campus improv group, got in, and the rest is history. After graduating, he started Polywumpus Improv Comedy, which did regular performances in and around Philadelphia for 7 years. Avish closed up Polywumpus to focus on the speaking and training side of the business – using improv comedy as a tool to teach valuable business skills such as creativity, innovation and adaptability. Avish is the author of “Improvise to Success!” and the Amazon best-selling, “Say 'Yes, And!'”

Nick Craig is the President of the Authentic Leadership Institute, a leadership consulting firm committed to creating leaders and organizations with a deeper purpose and the courage to transform their business impact.

Nick’s insights and approach comes from over 25 years working with top teams, senior leadership programs, executive coaching and architecting results focused change initiatives. Nick is the co-author of “From Purpose to Impact” with Scott Snook in the May 2014 Harvard Business Review.  He co-authored “Finding Your True North” with Bill George of Harvard Business School. His work in the area of leadership purpose has been used in corporate and academic settings, including GE, Unilever, and Wharton’s Advanced Management Program. Nick’s work as a Wharton Fellow is documented at Wharton@Work. His article “Confidence is an Inside Job” is one of the most requested articles in the last five years.

Beyond his involvement with Bill George, Nick has worked with Michael Beer, Director Emeritus of Harvard Business School’s Organizational Change practice, helping top teams have honest dialogues that drive strategic implementation. He has also worked with MIT’s Sloan School to develop their Leadership Center and executive coaching program based on the Distributed Leadership Model.

For the last three decades, Jack Smalley has devoted his career to the field of human resources. His experience includes executive-level management in a number of different industries such as oil, chemical and packaging with an emphasis in manufacturing, engineering, sales, logistics and corporate management.

Jack serves as the director of HR learning and development for Express Employment Professionals. He provides human resource training and consulting for nearly 600 Express offices and clients in the U.S. and Canada. Jack offers clients preventive measures that minimize the threat of allegations emanating from workplace problems and employee relations issues.

Jeremy is CEO of Hive Tech HR (formerly Gaucho Group). His team of HR Technologists find, implement and enhance systems for their clients. Prior to founding the Hive Tech, Jeremy served as Team Lead at NuView Systems, Senior Software Engineer at Fidelity Investments and International Systems Consultant at Maximus.

Ryan is the Founder and CEO of ApplicantPro, a hiring software company founded in 2006. Ryan and his team have grown the small startup into a leading provider of hiring software for over 7,000 companies around the nation. Ryan's mission is to help companies, managers, and HR teams improve their hiring results. To do this, he and his team strive to create educational content, tools, integrations, and software to help businesses drive their hiring results. In addition, he is an HRCI and SHRM-CP Approved Provider and conducts weekly, free webinars and presents at SHRM events around the country.