Leadership & Navigation

Eric Peterson, MSOD
Senior Consultant
Cook Ross Inc
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Eric C. Peterson, MSOD is a Senior Consultant with Cook Ross Inc. He is a recognized facilitator and educator in the Diversity & Inclusion space with over 15 years of experience in Unconscious Bias, Diversity & Inclusion (D&I), Learning Strategies, and Organization Development. Eric is certified in the use of both the Predictive Index and the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, and is a graduate of the Facilitation Learning Partners Program of Healing the Heart of Diversity. He has been published in Profiles in Diversity Journal and Echelon Magazine, and has been sourced as a D&I expert by CNN, National Public Radio, USA Today, The Bloomberg Group, the Washington Post, the Boston Globe, and the Los Angeles Times.

SESSIONS:
Kimberly Rattley
consultant
Cook Ross, Inc.
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Kimberly Rattley is an organizational development specialist who for over 20 years has partnered with clients to bring clarity, focus and alignment to their diverse teams. She combines her expertise in business, leadership development, diversity, psychodrama and systems analysis to help them competently tackle what is next on their horizon with confidence.

In the education field, Ms. Rattley served as the Training Development Specialist for the Uniformed Services University Center for Health Disparities. In this capacity, she designed and delivered a national diversity curriculum for military medical providers. Her experiential training methodology was the basis of a five year research project that validated the power of using whole brain teaching methodology to insure learner engagement and retention. Of special note is the grant she received from Bill Cosby for her cutting edge work in identity development formation and its importance on individual self –efficacy.

In private industry, leaders are her passion.  She has designed over 100 subject matter relevant diversity training curriculum for clients like DC Chartered Health Services, Habitat for Humanity, and Washingtonpost.com.  In addition she has coached senior leadership teams across the globe on the keys to building team alignment and what pitfalls to avoid.

Her current passion is helping individual contributors catch the vision of being leaders in the global marketplace through her training in countries like Hong Kong, Italy, Australia, Brazil and Africa.

Kimberly Rattley holds a BA from Georgetown University, a Masters of Social Work from Howard University and is certified in the areas of Life Management Facilitation and Organizational Development from Georgetown University.

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Richard J. Bryan
speaker and business owner
Clifton Business Solutions
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At age 28, Richard took the reins of a $120 million car and truck dealership group when his father was forced to retire suddenly. This was a 100 year old family business and he was the 4th generation of his family to be CEO. That alone was a challenge. Worse, the business was losing $3.5 million a year. With help from his mentor Frank, Richard was able to apply creative strategies, articulate a crystal clear vision, hire the right people and forge a dynamic team. Ultimately he helped the business to survive and then prosper in a tough and competitive industry.

During his time as a CEO, Richard's leadership style matured from a controlling micro-manager to a coach and mentor. Today he shares with his audiences how they can achieve this in their own organizations.

Richard lives in Evergreen Colorado with his wife and two teenage children and likes to spend his leisure time golfing, skiing and traveling with family and friends.

Richard is a professional member of the National Speakers Association and is also a Board Member of the NSA-Colorado chapter.

SESSIONS:
Friday, October 9, 2015 - 3:00pm to 4:30pm
Richard J. Bryan
speaker and business owner
Clifton Business Solutions
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At age 28, Richard took the reins of a $120 million car and truck dealership group when his father was forced to retire suddenly. This was a 100 year old family business and he was the 4th generation of his family to be CEO. That alone was a challenge. Worse, the business was losing $3.5 million a year. With help from his mentor Frank, Richard was able to apply creative strategies, articulate a crystal clear vision, hire the right people and forge a dynamic team. Ultimately he helped the business to survive and then prosper in a tough and competitive industry.

During his time as a CEO, Richard's leadership style matured from a controlling micro-manager to a coach and mentor. Today he shares with his audiences how they can achieve this in their own organizations.

Richard lives in Evergreen Colorado with his wife and two teenage children and likes to spend his leisure time golfing, skiing and traveling with family and friends.

Richard is a professional member of the National Speakers Association and is also a Board Member of the NSA-Colorado chapter.

SESSIONS:
Thursday, October 8, 2015 - 4:00pm to 5:30pm
Greg Burns
senior vice president, Human Resources
Allstate Insurance Company
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Greg Burns is a senior vice president in Human Resources.  In this role he leads the Client Partnership organization, which provides strategic HR support to Allstate’s business areas. Greg also serves as HR business partner for the president of The Allstate Corporation, and president, Emerging Businesses.  

Greg has a deep knowledge of the business, extensive field and corporate experience, and a proven ability to collaborate and influence to drive business results. He brings a diverse  background and unique perspective to HR.   

Greg joined Allstate in 1985. His Allstate career has included a variety of roles in Claims, HR and Business Insurance. As the regional commercial manager for the Northeast Regional Commercial Center in New York, he was responsible for the profit and loss for the Commercial Center. Most of his career has been in HR, with roles supporting Business Insurance, Allstate Personal Property & Casualty, the Illinois Region, the Southern California Region, Encompass, and Allstate Personal Lines Eastern and Western Territories. In 2012, he was promoted to senior vice president, with responsibility for HR’s field organization and Claims support. He took on his current position in January of 2015.  

Greg earned a bachelor’s degree in Finance from the University of South Florida and an MBA from the

University of Illinois at Chicago.  He earned his CPCU in 2007. 

Greg is a board member for Countryside Association and the Lake County Workforce Investment Council.

SESSIONS:
Monday, June 29, 2015 - 10:45am to 12:00pm
Grace A. Odums
strategy consultant
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Grace A. Odums, an independent strategy consultant, has a growing consultancy spanning over fifteen years.  Her impressive client list boasts Fortune 500 and Fortune Global 500 companies including: Disney ABC Media NetWorks, Waste Management (PA/WVA Area), Fairmount Southampton Resorts, Chevron-Phillips, Siemens Medical Solutions, Wells Fargo Bank.  

A much sought after international speaker, Grace welcomes the opportunity to partner with organizations and professionals in the areas of management coaching, revenue recapture, change leadership, optimum customer care, talent performance enhancement, productivity improvement, increased efficiencies, balanced scorecard architecture, and diversity strategy creation with diversity scorecard and strategy map development and system-wide implementation.

SESSIONS:
Howard J. Ross
partner
Udarta Consulting
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Howard Ross is lifelong social justice advocate, and is considered one of the world’s seminal thought leaders on identifying and addressing unconscious bias.  Howard has delivered programs in 47 states and over 40 other countries to audiences including Fortune 500 companies, colleges and universities, and major institutions within healthcare, government, and non-profit sectors. He authored the Washington Post best seller, Everyday Bias:  Identifying and Navigating Unconscious Judgments in Our Daily Lives, ReInventing Diversity: Transforming Organizational Community to Strengthen People, Purpose and Performance. His latest  book, Our Search for Belonging: How the Need for Connection Is Tearing Our Culture Apart, published by Berrett-Koehler in 2018, received the Nautilus Gold Medal for Social Change and Social Justice. His next book, Building Belonging: 9 Pathways to Creating Inclusive and Joyful Organizational Communities, will be published in 2020.

 

SESSIONS:
Minjon Tholen
senior consultant
Cook Ross Inc
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Minjon Tholen is a Consultant and Training & Development Lead at Cook Ross Inc. She has over a decade of experience in facilitation & curriculum design, and specializes in creating and facilitating trainings on diversity and inclusion, unconscious bias, leadership development, and cultural competency. Minjon has developed and led workshops for corporations, educational institutions, nonprofits, healthcare organizations, and other clients in the US and around the world. Her clients include EMC-EMEA, the Royal Bank of Canada, T. Rowe Price, Bank of America, Genentech-Roche, Johnson & Johnson, Mitre Corporation, USDA, Kellogg’s, Tata Communications, George Washington University, Community Health Network of Connecticut, the Roosevelt Institute, and the Human Rights Campaign. Minjon has been a speaker at a number of conferences, such as the United Nations Women’s Empowerment Principles annual event, SHRM Diversity & Inclusion Conference, and Linkage Institute for Leading Diversity & Inclusion. She also served as an international witness at the first European diversity conference dedicated to addressing racial and ethnic differences in the European Diversity & Inclusion space. Minjon’s other responsibilities at Cook Ross include the onboarding and learning & development programming for consultants, delivering Train-the-Trainers, curriculum design, and managing the pro-bono and charitable giving initiative of the organization. Born in Sri Lanka, raised in the Netherlands, and further educated in the United States, Minjon graduated cum laude from the University of Utrecht for her Bachelor’s degree, and holds a Master’s degree in Gender and Women’s Studies from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Prior to joining Cook Ross, Minjon was a New Leader at the Center for Progressive Leadership and the National Council of Women’s Organizations. She has also worked at the Institute for Women’s Policy Research in Washington D.C., and served as a Pipeline Fellow at the Roosevelt Institute in New York.

SESSIONS:
Shirley Davis, SHRM-SCP
President and CEO
SDS Global Enterprises, Inc.
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Dr. Shirley Davis, CSP, President of SDS Global Enterprises, a global workforce solutions firm, is an award-winning Human Resources expert, with over 30 years of business experience in a variety of senior executive roles for several Fortune 100 companies, as well as her last role of Vice President of Global Diversity and Inclusion for the Society for Human Resource Management. She’s also a best-selling author of 5 books, serves on the National Speakers Association and the NSA Foundation Boards, and the Make A Wish Foundation Board. She is a popular facilitator for eight LinkedIn Learning leadership courses.

 

 

SESSIONS:
Grace A. Odums
strategy consultant
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Grace A. Odums, an independent strategy consultant, has a growing consultancy spanning over fifteen years.  Her impressive client list boasts Fortune 500 and Fortune Global 500 companies including: Disney ABC Media NetWorks, Waste Management (PA/WVA Area), Fairmount Southampton Resorts, Chevron-Phillips, Siemens Medical Solutions, Wells Fargo Bank.  

A much sought after international speaker, Grace welcomes the opportunity to partner with organizations and professionals in the areas of management coaching, revenue recapture, change leadership, optimum customer care, talent performance enhancement, productivity improvement, increased efficiencies, balanced scorecard architecture, and diversity strategy creation with diversity scorecard and strategy map development and system-wide implementation.

SESSIONS:
Howard J. Ross
partner
Udarta Consulting
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Howard Ross is lifelong social justice advocate, and is considered one of the world’s seminal thought leaders on identifying and addressing unconscious bias.  Howard has delivered programs in 47 states and over 40 other countries to audiences including Fortune 500 companies, colleges and universities, and major institutions within healthcare, government, and non-profit sectors. He authored the Washington Post best seller, Everyday Bias:  Identifying and Navigating Unconscious Judgments in Our Daily Lives, ReInventing Diversity: Transforming Organizational Community to Strengthen People, Purpose and Performance. His latest  book, Our Search for Belonging: How the Need for Connection Is Tearing Our Culture Apart, published by Berrett-Koehler in 2018, received the Nautilus Gold Medal for Social Change and Social Justice. His next book, Building Belonging: 9 Pathways to Creating Inclusive and Joyful Organizational Communities, will be published in 2020.

 

SESSIONS:
Minjon Tholen
senior consultant
Cook Ross Inc
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Minjon Tholen is a Consultant and Training & Development Lead at Cook Ross Inc. She has over a decade of experience in facilitation & curriculum design, and specializes in creating and facilitating trainings on diversity and inclusion, unconscious bias, leadership development, and cultural competency. Minjon has developed and led workshops for corporations, educational institutions, nonprofits, healthcare organizations, and other clients in the US and around the world. Her clients include EMC-EMEA, the Royal Bank of Canada, T. Rowe Price, Bank of America, Genentech-Roche, Johnson & Johnson, Mitre Corporation, USDA, Kellogg’s, Tata Communications, George Washington University, Community Health Network of Connecticut, the Roosevelt Institute, and the Human Rights Campaign. Minjon has been a speaker at a number of conferences, such as the United Nations Women’s Empowerment Principles annual event, SHRM Diversity & Inclusion Conference, and Linkage Institute for Leading Diversity & Inclusion. She also served as an international witness at the first European diversity conference dedicated to addressing racial and ethnic differences in the European Diversity & Inclusion space. Minjon’s other responsibilities at Cook Ross include the onboarding and learning & development programming for consultants, delivering Train-the-Trainers, curriculum design, and managing the pro-bono and charitable giving initiative of the organization. Born in Sri Lanka, raised in the Netherlands, and further educated in the United States, Minjon graduated cum laude from the University of Utrecht for her Bachelor’s degree, and holds a Master’s degree in Gender and Women’s Studies from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Prior to joining Cook Ross, Minjon was a New Leader at the Center for Progressive Leadership and the National Council of Women’s Organizations. She has also worked at the Institute for Women’s Policy Research in Washington D.C., and served as a Pipeline Fellow at the Roosevelt Institute in New York.

SESSIONS:
Stéphane Mallette
consultant
The Medici Group
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Stéphane Mallette is a consultant with The Medici Group. He is a well recognized consultant in Strategic Innovation and Continuing Medical Education. He graduated with honours mention from ''Université du Québec à Montreal'' in Biochemistry and did post-graduate fundamental research in Environmental Toxicology at University of Montreal. Over the last 20 years, Stéphane held multiple strategic positions in sales management, training management and medical education in the pharmaceutical industry with Eli Lilly, Janssen Ortho, Lundbeck and Fournier Pharma. He has demonstrated significant innovativeness and energy in his training abilities during his time as training manager by being accountable for a major sales force expansion at Fournier Pharma.  

In the last few years, Stéphane successfully developed numerous medical education programs for Canadian physicians and pharmacists. He joined the Medici Group in 2010 as a strategic innovation consultant. He is certified as a Medici trainer and has had the opportunity work with Boehringer Ingelheim, Pfizer, Chugai, Metlife and other Canadian based companies. 

Stéphane has the ability to understand people and what motivates them along with a solid business sense and fine tuned comprehension of the corporate world. These are only a few of the reasons that have made Stéphane highly successful.

Stéphane is bilingual, French and English. He is also a musician and performer at a professional level.

 

SESSIONS:
Saturday, October 10, 2015 - 8:30am to 5:00pm