Relationship Management

Dr. Michael Baran is the CEO of Iris Inclusion, a global diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) firm. Dr. Baran draws on his own social science research to inform his DEI speaking engagements, writings, consulting, leadership development, and eLearning. After teaching at Harvard University, he has been supporting DEI in organizations for 20 years. His work has been covered in the New York Times, BBC, Forbes, CNN, NPR, and more.

His recent book, Subtle Acts of Exclusion, was named by Forbes as one of “The 11 Books To Read To Be A More Inclusive Leader” and has won several awards.

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.

Tony Lee recently retired as vice president of content for the Society for Human Resource Management, where he oversaw all editorial functions and staff and focused on evolving SHRM's content strategy globally. Lee hosts two award-winning podcasts, All Things Work and People + Strategy, and is a recognized authority on recruitment trends.

Lee is a frequent conference speaker in the U.S. and internationally, and has appeared as a career guidance authority on a range of television and radio programs, such as those produced by NBC, ABC, CNN, FOX, NPR, CNBC, Huffington Post, WCBS and The Wall Street Journal, including “The Today Show” and “Good Morning America.”

Lee is co-author of “The Jobs Rated Almanac” (Barricade), and “Career Choice, Change and Challenge” (JIST Pub.), and has published more than 15 books through his career. He also is a columnist for a range of industry web sites, including RecruitingTrends, Jobboarders and Staffing Stream. He has written The Wall Street Journal's “Managing Your Career” column, and his articles have appeared in hundreds of newspapers and magazines globally. Lee also has served on the board of directors of the International Association of Employment Web Sites for many years.

Prior to joining SHRM, Lee was editor and publisher of CareerCast.com, an award-winning site he created for job hunters and the HR community. He also served as chief alliance officer of CareerCast’s parent company, Adicio Inc..Lee also is the founder and former publisher of The Wall Street Journal Online Vertical Network and all of the sites within that network, including CareerJournal.com, OpinionJournal.com, StartupJournal.com, RealEstateJournal.com, CollegeJournal.com and “Political Diary,” a paid email newsletter about politics. Under his leadership, those sites won a range of awards and accolades. Combined, the Network sites attracted an average of 2.5 million unique visitors and 20 million page views each month. Lee also was one of two finalists for the Newspaper Association of America’s annual Online Innovator Award. Prior to moving online, Lee was editor in chief of the National Business Employment Weekly and of Managing Your Career, both published by Dow Jones & Co. Lee started his career as Director of Publications for the Chicago Chapter of the American Diabetes Association.

Alex envisions a world where work is effortless and teams are drama-free.

Standing side by side since 2015 with New York Times best-selling author and thought leader Cy Wakeman, Alex collaborates with organizations and leaders globally to help them ditch the drama from the workplace, hardwire accountability in their teams and turn excuses into results.

Everything he does is designed to help people understand that success and happiness is their natural state as a human being—once the drama is gone. With this core belief, Alex’s passion is revealing to those he works with that once people carve away drama from their lives, the same job they found themselves upset with today becomes the job they look forward to and love tomorrow.

As a keynote speaker and trainer, he helps organizations exchange the endless argument for a DIFFERENT workplace reality for a shifted perspective that enables them to start achieving more success and fulfillment in their CURRENT workplace reality.

In addition to sharing the reality-based philosophy from the stage, Alex is also a quintessential part of Cy Wakeman’s content creation and media team, spreading the ditch-the-drama message online. Over the last three years, his expertise, insights and execution have helped to balloon her  online community of raving fans from 15,000 to 150,000 followers across multiple platforms.

As the host of The Carvery Podcast with Alex Dorr (available on Apple iOS, Google Play and Simplecast), he shares his journey, stories and insights as a reality-based speaker and practicing drama defuser to help others carve away their own drama and start calling those they lead to greatness.

Although Alex stands at 6’6” tall and is commonly told at events, “you look a lot taller up close,” he prides himself on being down-to-earth or, better yet, grounded in reality.

An advocate for mental minimalism and a former professional basketball player, Alex holds a MSc in international business from the University of Derby (England) and his client list includes the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Adobe, Carnival Cruise Lines, Ely Lilly, Kohler, Emory Healthcare, Methodist Healthcare (San Antonio), Nationwide, the U.S. Department of Commerce, NetJets, Allina Health, Delaware North, AMC Theatres, Washington Department of Transportation, Our Lady of the Lake Medical Center, Providence Medical Center, the University of Oregon, Baton Rouge General Medical Center, CH Robinson, Intact Insurance, National Association of Credit Management and Credit Institute of Canada, among others.

Elizabeth Bille is an employment law attorney and currently serves as the subject matter expert on the prevention of harassment and discrimination in the workplace for EVERFI. Prior to joining EVERFI, Elizabeth was general counsel and chief ethics officer of the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM); served as a legal and policy advisor to the Vice Chair of the EEOC; and counseled employers at the law firm of Hogan & Hartson (now Hogan Lovells). Elizabeth's work has been cited by several news outlets such as National Public Radio, the Wall Street Journal, and the New York Times.

Heather Tinsley-Fix is a Senior Advisor at AARP, where she leads the organization’s work on employer engagement and helps drive AARP’s focus on providing workers 50+ with the tools they need to thrive in today’s work environment.  With a background in marketing, innovation, and program management, Heather works with employers and job seekers, external partners, and academics to provide thought leadership on 50+ labor market issues and create practical resources that enable employers to capitalize on the value of experience. 

Rehana works cross-departmentally to implement and support the successful hiring, onboarding, and retainment of Fair Chance Talent at Checkr. Checkr has over 5% full-time engagement of Fair Chance Talent with an 85% retention and 34% promotion rate throughout the organization. Rehana works one-on-one with Checkr's Fair Chance Talent to support their personal and career growth and to develop leadership.

CaMesha Reece is an HR Consultant and Coach with over 10 years of experience managing a full spectrum of human capital management initiatives and coaching executives. CaMesha earned a Bachelor’s of Art degree from the University of California, Berkeley and continued her education with a Master’s of Art degree in Organizational Management from Antioch University Los Angeles. She utilizes a strengths based, pragmatic, and results oriented approach to help her clients achieve their organizational and individual goals. By day, she is an HCM Strategist and Relationship Manager for a Fortune 500 company responsible for a book of business valued at over $2 million dollars and growing. By night, she is living her passion of helping other professionals love the work they do through Executive and Career Coaching with her Signature Coaching Program, The Elevation Academy.  When she is not working on her own growth or others, she can be found spending time with her family, reading, volunteering, or traveling the world.