Relationship Management

 

Amy Hirsh Robinson, M.B.A., is Chief People Officer for King’s Hawaiian, a global producer of irresistible Hawaiian food. Amy was brought on to King’s Hawaiian to re-envision the employee experience and transform the People function from traditional HR to a strategic driver of business growth. During her time at the company she has worked to radically redefine the purpose, structure and activities of HR with significant results. Prior to her role as CPO, Amy ran a successful human capital consulting firm, The Interchange Group, helping executives and HR professionals retool and adapt their strategies to rapidly changing workforce expectations and business landscapes.

 

Dr. Jamie Velazquez is the Director of Staff Development for Crittenton Services for Children and Families, in Southern California.  With over a decade of adult education, training, and leadership development experience in higher education and in the non-profit sectors, she has led the development and implementation of robust training programs that meet the requirements of national standards, licensing, accreditation, and/or the various county, state, and federal contracts for the various agencies or institutions. A background in psychology, education, and leadership led to a passion for social justice, rooted in critical theory, which greatly impacted her endless journey toward cultural competency.

 

Jennifer Lee is an experienced keynote speaker, engaging educator, and talented facilitator. Jennifer has over 15 years of learning and development experience with a robust background in luxury hospitality, human resources, and training. As the former Learning and Development Director at the AAA Five Diamond-rated Waldorf Astoria Chicago and the former Learning Manager at The Four Seasons Hotel in Chicago, Jennifer brings a rich perspective in leadership, management, service, hospitality and presentation skills training. When she’s not presenting, Jennifer can be found checking items off her bucket list, which still includes attending the Oscars at least once in her lifetime.

Bert Alicea is a Licensed Psychologist with over 27 years of experience in the EAP field. Bert specializes in conducting trainings locally and on a national level on topics including harassment awareness; violence prevention; drug free workplace; DOT compliance training; and supervisor EAP awareness training. Bert also has a specialization with executive coaching; conflict mediation; and management and supervisor consultations in assisting with difficult workplace situations. Bert obtained a Masters of Arts in Industrial Psychology from West Chester University, West Chester, Pa., and he also has his Bachelors of Science in Psychology from St. Joseph’s University, Philadelphia. He is a Certified Employee Assistance Professional (CEAP) and a U.S. Department of Transportation qualified Substance Abuse Professional.

Karl Ahlrichs specializes in helping professionals make order from chaos. He is a national speaker, author, and consultant, presenting on the people issues in all industries, and is often quoted in the local and national media. 

Karl’s experience is ideally suited to times of organizational change as he pulls on risk management and organizational development theories to replace “best practices” with “next practices”. He owes much of his communications mastery to working as a writer and editor in daily media, to on-the-job writing experience and to the process of becoming a published author.

He joined Gregory & Appel in 2010 after serving as a founding partner of ExactHire, bringing his HR, operations, diversity & belonging, and learning & development skills with him. Karl’s affinity for design, composition and learning started at a very young age, by taking and examining thousands of boring pictures with the goal of improving his craft. He loves deploying that practice-to-improve approach with all manner of hobbies including writing haiku, mastering cutting-edge technology and learning Spanish.

In 2003, he was named the SHRM Human Resource Professional of the Year for the State of Indiana. He is on the Boards of several organizations, including the Maryland CPA Society.  He has lived in Scotland and Spain and lives to explore new experiences with his wife and family.

 

Tim Sackett, SCP, is the CEO of HRUTech.com, a leading technical recruiting firm. Tim has over 20 years of combined executive HR and talent acquisition experience working for Fortune 500 companies. Tim is a highly sought-after international speaker on leadership, HR &TA Tech, talent acquisition, and HR execution. Tim is currently a Senior Faculty member with the Josh Bersin Academy. He is also an Angel investor and advisor and sits on multiple HR Technology corporate boards.

Tim is the author of the newly released book The Talent Fix, Vol. 2. He also writes daily on his blog, the Tim Sackett Project. Tim is married to a hall-of-fame wife, has three sons, and his dog Tucker. In 2023, he was named a Top Global HR & Recruitment Influencer by HR Executive. He has more Twitter (X) followers than his 3 Gen Z sons and is sponsored on stage by diet Mt. Dew.

Randy Anderson has a true passion for teaching the “how’s” and “why’s” of engaging, equipping, and empowering people in work and life. He teaches ideas and strategies that he learned from working for and managing in organizations ranging from 5 to 35,000 employees. Over the last 25 years, he has developed and taught these principles to tens of thousands of people in all sizes of organizations from front line to back office to upper management. Whether learning to improve your performance, or so you can train others to improve theirs, Randy will transform your thinking, your productivity, and your influence. 

Dr. Jody Janati teaches in the Communication Studies Department at the University of Minnesota. She has an Ed.D. degree in Organizational Leadership and her primary interest area pertains to interpersonal conflict resolution strategies. As an author and independent consultant, she offers a variety of public and professional workshops on conflict reduction tactics and effective interpersonal communication skills. Follow Jodi on Twitter @jjanati.