Relationship Management

Karen Rylander-Davis is an accomplished senior human resource executive with over 35 years of international experience. She specializes in transforming organizations, developing talent, and supporting culture change to achieve business strategies. Her work in management development includes project leadership, instructional design, development and delivery of training programs.

Karen’s consulting focuses on offering strategic organization and leadership development solutions to a wide variety of firms in diverse industries.  Her approach to clients is customized to each situation, culture and team dynamic. She motivates, facilitates, and challenges people to rethink what is possible for themselves and the organization. Recognizing that the organization is a system, she considers potential impacts and contingencies in her work to ensure that recommendations and deliverables are practical, actionable and value-adding.

Of note is Karen’s development of a comprehensive leadership curriculum for a global French wire and cable manufacturer, built on management and functional competency models and company values.   A global course for high potential senior leaders involved building the design around corporate values and competencies, incorporating appropriate action learning, and ensuring strong partnership between internal and external resources.  A course for Plant Managers required integration of design by multiple internal subject matter experts and preparation for delivery by internally trained facilitators. A short-course targeted transversal leaders whose virtual teams did not report directly to them and were located around the world.

Other instructional design and delivery projects include:

• Comprehensive instructional design curriculum, including a variety of training modules, materials and video, to support process transformation in a multinational family-owned food products company

• Redesign of a senior leadership development program for a chemical manufacturing company

• Diversity awareness training for all employees of a regional newspaper
• Local customer team development curriculum for sales and service staffs of a medical imaging equipment manufacturer 

Prior to becoming an independent consultant, Karen held human resource positions of increasing responsibility with Knight Ridder, General Electric Medical Systems, Ryder System, Inc. and Goodyear Aerospace Corporation. Most recently, as Corporate Vice President, Training and Career Management for Nexans, worldwide leader in cables and cabling systems, headquartered in Paris, she engaged senior leadership worldwide in creating and implementing Nexans’ Management Competency Model, followed by the development and delivery of an expanded leadership development curriculum.

Experienced in working effectively in multiple regions and cultures, including North and South America, Europe, Asia and the Middle East, Karen has lived and worked in the US,  Canada, and France and is fluent in English and French. She holds dual US and Canadian citizenship.

Karen holds a Ph.D. in Educational Administration and Counselor Education, an M.Ed. in Counseling in Higher Education from Kent State University, and a B.A. in French, with honors, from the College of Wooster.

Global Speaker Sonia Aranza has presented on the international stage from Spain to Singapore.  She brings 27+ years of experience in Diversity, Inclusion & Global Leadership. Her clients include Boeing, CIA, McDonald’s and more. The U.S. Department of Labor describes her work as “Outstanding” and was selected to execute programs for landmark cases. SHRM featured her as a Diversity & Inclusion Expert in HR Magazine and she is a LinkedIn Top Voice in Leadership. She serves on the Faculty of Howard University’s Executive Diversity Program; named “100 Most Influential Filipina Americans in the United States” and honored “100 Most Influential Filipina Women in the World.”

Bill’s diversity journey began in 1987 when he attended a two-hour presentation on the topic at the suggestion of a friend. It led to a mentoring relationship that fundamentally transformed his life, personally and professionally. Bill pioneered white male only workshops in the mid-90s after repeatedly noticing that white male leaders disengage from diversity efforts. His provocative work seeded creation of White Men as Full Diversity Partners.

For more than 30 years, he has served as a consultant, coach and facilitator to countless companies and organizations on issues of team effectiveness, diversity and leadership development. He is the founder of the ETD Alliance, a small trade association for experiential training and development consulting firms, and was president of the Association for Experiential Education for two terms.

An energetic contributor to global solutions toward poverty, injustice, education and personal empowerment, Bill has been taken part in interventions such as getting relief supplies to the Burmese people devastated by Cyclone Nargis; assisting displaced monks and leaders of the Saffron Revolution in Burma as they seek asylum in the United States; and helping individual and family micro-business enterprises in northern Laos and Thailand.

These and other efforts arise from Bill's love of adventures down remote rivers and untraveled roads. Many of his most gratifying cross-cultural learning experiences have occurred in remote corners of the developing world. These experiences inform and enrich his leadership work and consultation.

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.

Mister Manners, Thomas P. Farley, is an etiquette expert, speaker and author who’s helping America’s professionals master essential manners for success in the workplace—and in life. His workshops for banks, law firms, universities and Fortune 500 companies are engaging and memorable, offering employees strategies for getting along and getting ahead.

Mr. Farley is a regular and popular guest on the Today show, where he speaks on matters of modern-day etiquette—subjects from “avoiding awkward hugs” to “what not to wear at a company beach outing.” His insights appear regularly in other media outlets as well, including the CBS Early Show, the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, Wired and Money magazines, USA Today, CNN, ABC and on radio stations across the country.

Throughout 2011, he served as an ongoing guest-host for the daily call-in program Living Today on the Martha Stewart Living Radio network. He also helped launch that channel’s “Manners Monday” segment, which focused on matters of contemporary etiquette.

Mr. Farley was the “Social Graces” editor for Town & Country magazine for the better part of a decade and has been a guest lecturer at New York University’s School of Continuing Education and Professional Studies. He is also the editor of the anthology “Modern Manners: The Thinking Person’s Guide to Social Graces.”

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.

Liz Bentley is the founder of Liz Bentley Associates, a consulting firm specializing in leadership development programs for both individuals and companies.  Drawing upon her background in psychology, 10 years of experience in sales and management, and a lifetime of experience in competitive sports, Liz has a unique appreciation of mindset and the power it has to change patterns of behavior. To her presentations, seminars, and one-on-one coaching, she brings her own experience and insights and combines this with the most current research on how people perform best. 

Liz works with high-level corporate executives and entrepreneurs within organizations and corporations of all sizes across a range of industries. She helps companies with their leadership development by providing team skill-building workshops, management training, communication skills seminars, mentoring programs, and 360º feedback reviews. Recent clients include PricewaterhouseCoopers, Wells Fargo, IBM, Newsday, Sotheby’s International Realty, KORG-World Leader of Musical Instruments and Farmingdale State College. 

Liz received her coach training from the New York University Certificate in Organizational and Executive Coaching program, and the David Rock Results Coaching System. She received her BA in Psychology from the University of Virginia. Prior to coaching, Liz worked in advertising sales for Condé Nast Publications and CBS Network.  She has also been a competitive athlete her whole life. She played Division I Soccer and Lacrosse at the University of Virginia. She taught skiing at Aspen Highlands in Aspen Colorado, has run the NYC Marathon twice, and currently plays competitive tennis, platform tennis and ice hockey. 

What makes Liz so effective as a coach, consultant and speaker is her deep insight into people’s behavior patterns along with her straightforward, yet tactful style. She provides clients with the focus, insight, accountability and support system they need to achieve success.

For more than twenty years, David Maxfield has led high-leverage research initiatives that uncover causes of and solutions to managerial, cultural, and operational inefficiencies that directly affect the bottom line. David’s career began with his doctoral work in psychology at Stanford University. Since then, his impact on organizational performance has been wide-reaching as he’s helped clients such as General Mills, Harvard Medical School, Pizza Hut, and Spectrum Health increase organizational effectiveness and become measurably more vital.

 Career Highlights:

5. 16 years as a Human Resources Executive; 9 years as HR Executive in the NBA and 7 years as an HR Executive in Banking
5. Past 8 years of her career focused on executive recruiting and leadership development
5. Entering 17^th season at the Orlando Magic, previously spent 16 years in Banking industry with Barnett Bank & Sun Bank
5. Serves on Advisory Board for Center for Leadership Development, Crummer Graduate School of Business
6. Co-Founder, Always Wear Your Seatbelt Foundation, non-profit 501©3, founded in 2011 in memory of my 19 year old son, and his 17 year old girlfriend
5. 34 years of experience in human resources

Tim Arnst is the Senior Vice President of Human Resources for Universal Parks and Resorts.  Mr. Arnst oversees various human resources activities for Universal Orlando Resort, Wet’ n Wild, Universal Studios Japan, Universal Studios Singapore and future international developments including Dubai, Moscow and China. 

Mr. Arnst began his human resources career with Yosemite Park & Curry Co. in Yosemite National Park, California in 1975.  With responsibility for 2,000 employees, Mr. Arnst led the various disciplines of Human Resources including, staffing, employee housing and recreation, and labor relations. 

In 1990, Mr. Arnst was asked by Yosemite’s management company, Music Corporation of America (MCA), to move to Orlando as Director of Human Resources to help launch Universal Studios Florida.  He later went on to lead human resources teams in the successful expansion of Universal Orlando Resort, which includes Universal Islands of Adventure, CityWalk and Loews Hotels. 

Mr. Arnst is currently Universal Parks & Resorts’ lead human resources executive associated with the development of international parks.  He was instrumental in the 2001 start-up of Universal Studios Japan, located in Osaka, Japan.  And more recently, provided human resources and operational direction on the opening of Universal Studios Singapore in March, 2010. 

Mr. Arnst is committed to the Orlando community and has served on numerous boards in central Florida including the Chamber of Commerce, YMCA, the Foundation for Orange County Public Schools, the Employers Association of Florida, and the executive board for Junior Achievement of Central Florida.

Mr. Arnst lives in Orlando with his wife Marilyn and has grown children, Sarah and Bryan.  His interests include travel, reading, photography, and a variety of sports, including rock climbing, tennis, golf and softball.