Early Career

Two themes are woven throughout Lauraine Bifulco's diverse career: a passion for a job well done and a zest for continual learning and improvement.  Lauraine infuses Vantaggio HR with these qualities every day. When she founded the firm in 1994, Lauraine combined her rare talent in understanding what a client needs and her gift of business foresight to create a company that can service the HR and management consulting needs of small and large companies equally well.  Today, Vantaggio serves clients across the country from their offices in California, Hawaii, Colorado, and New York. 

Her Career experience helps employers realize their HR goals and adapt to the shifting HR landscape.  Lauraine is a veteran HR executive and entrepreneur with 25 years of international, corporate, and consulting experience. Her bold career has taken her to employment and business opportunities in Europe and multiple U.S. cities. She serves as co-chair of the California Small Business Administration's committee on Labor Issues which reviews and makes recommendations on pending labor/employment laws, keeping her abreast of legal developments.                                                                            

Delivering over 30 presentations and webinars each year, Lauraine is a well-respected, and highly sought after guest lecturer and speaker on a variety of business management and HR-related topics for both state and national organizations including Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), Professionals in Human Resources Association (PIHRA), American Payroll Association (APA), Next Concept HR Association (NCHRA), Paylocity annual Elevate Conference, and HR Star Conference to name a few. She has been invited to review, develop, and deliver certificate programs for SHRM, and has developed and delivered curriculum for businesses throughout the U.S.                                                                   

Lauraine received a bachelor’s degree from Wellesley College and conducted graduate level studies in linguistics at the Sorbonne in Paris.

Alan A. Malinchak is a goal-driven leader with broad strategic and tactical operational success in the private and public sectors.  Al is known for transforming organizations by crystallizing direction, addressing emergent talent and learning challenges and issues, and executing tactics to improve and enhance workforce and organizational performance.

Al is currently the Executive Advisor, Talent and Learning Practice at Deltek, leading customer facing engagements involving assessments, evaluations and recommendations to address a company's "People Challenges" employing best practice solutions in talent, learning and leadership development programs focused across all corporate and business functions to drive both employee and organizational growth.  Al conducts keynotes, leadership development seminars/workshops and consultations regarding the administration and operation of corporate universities.  Al is also CEO of two certified and verified (cVe) Service Disabled Veteran Owned Small Businesses - Éclat Transitions LLC offering “Public to Private Career Transition Services” at www.eclat-transitions.com and STRATactical LLC offering change agility, learning agility, leadership agility and knowledge agility services and solutions at www.stratactical.com.  Prior, Al was Chief Learning Officer (CLO) at Homeland Security Solutions, Inc. (HSSI) and business development executive for eLearning and instructor-led training programs and initiatives (2011-2013); VP/CL) at ManTech International (2005-2011), where he founded, developed, implemented and led the administration and operation of ManTech’s first corporate university, ManTech University.  From 1984 to 2004, Al was a FBI Special Agent (retired) with a variety of assignments, including  federal investigations of homicides, rapes, fugitives, kidnappings and skyjackings; Instructor at the FBI National Academy; Administrator of the FBI's National Executive Institute; Supervisory Special Agent of Criminal Squads focused on Organized Crime, Narcotics and White Collar Crime; Inspector; On-Scene Crisis Commander for the 2002 Winter Olympics; Chief of Investigative Training; Acting Senior Executive of New Agents Training, National and International Law Enforcement Programs, and Facilities and Security of the FBI Academy; and, lastly as the Chief of the FBI's Leadership Development Institute (LDI). In the LDI, his responsibilities included leading the administrative and operational oversight of all internal and external leadership programs for executive and middle-management FBI Special Agents and Professional Support employees; leadership services and training for 26,000 employees; leadership curriculum development; professional presentations; drafting of the FBI’s Strategic Development Leadership Plan; and, executive board member to several professional law enforcement associations.  Throughout his career, Al held a variety of academic positions - included are a tenured Associate Professor, St. Thomas Aquinas College, Sparkill, New York (1978–1984); as well as former Adjunct Professor positions at the University of Virginia (1992-1995); and both a graduate and undergraduate Adjunct Professor at George Mason University, (2002 to 2005).

Heather Kinzie has been an HR and Organizational Performance Professional for over 20 years and is proud of it. If you ask her what she is proud of, she'll tell you it's because she has made a positive difference. She's mentored a leader, she's salvaged a business, she's encouraged a student, and she's inspired the discouraged. This hasn't made her rich but it's enriched her career.

Heather is a writer and public speaker covering topics such as leadership, workforce engagement and collaboration, strategic planning and organizational performance. She is from the south and loves to tell stories! She is uber excited to be in Vegas speaking to professionals who are committed and dedicated to their organization’s success.

Dick Finnegan is THE global turnover expert, having cut turnover by 30% and more for healthcare, manufacturing, logistics, distribution centers, call centers, and other industries…and on all six inhabited continents.

Dick has authored the top-selling SHRM-published book, The Power of Stay Interviews, along with four other books. BusinessWeek magazine has said “Finnegan offers fresh thinking for solving the turnover problem in any economy”. He has been similarly cited by Forbes, Chief Executive Magazine, and Consulting Magazine.

He holds bachelors and graduate degrees from The Pennsylvania State University and lives in Orlando, Florida.

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.

The Houston Chronicle calls Robin Ryan “America’s top career expert.” Robin has offered advice on “Oprah,” “Dr Phil,” "CNN,"  "NBC Nightly News" and more than 1,500 other TV & radio shows. This popular speaker and bestselling author motivates people to enhance their skills, land new jobs, improve their professional lives and succeed in today’s workplace.
 
Robin’s high-energy speaking style, coupled with her informative and engaging message, has had her in front of over 1,200 audiences. She’s been a keynote speaker at numerous national and regional conferences, and is often in front of employee groups, association members, or seen on college campuses talking to alumni and students.
 
Robin Ryan is the best-selling author of seven books including:
Over 40 & You’re Hired!
60 Seconds & You’re Hired!
Winning Resumes
Winning Cover Letters
What to Do with the Rest of Your Life
Soaring on Your Strengths
What to Do with the Rest of Your Life
 
A licensed vocational counselor, Robin Ryan holds a Master’s Degree in Counseling and Education from Suffolk University and a Bachelor’s Degree in Sociology from Boston College. She is the former Director of Counseling Services at the University of Washington.

Todd is author of Better than Average: Excelling in a Mediocre World and a frequent speaker leading programs and training for corporations, associations, and colleges and universities who want to become Better than Average in order to stand out from the crowd. As a business consultant, he works with organizations and leaders to define their niche to create a strategic advantage.
His blog, www.betterthanaverageblog.com , invites readers to examine their current situation, challenge traditional assumptions, and break the mold.

Todd has served in leadership positions in worldwide non-profits, sales engineering at a major global telecommunications company, and regularly consults with businesses on strategy, marketing, and technology. This varied background helps him bring practical field knowledge to organizations, leaders, and frustrated business professionals to help them stand out from the crowd.
 

Cory Bouck is the Director of Organizational Development & Learning at Johnsonville Sausage.  He is also an author, keynote speaker, and an expert in building leaders - a reputation he has earned over twenty years of leading in the military, in business, and in politics. He is a graduate of and former leadership instructor at the U.S. Naval Academy and is a former Naval Flight Officer. Cory led brand and event marketing teams at General Mills, Newell-Rubbermaid, and Johnsonville Sausage.  He is also the author of The Lens of Leadership: Being the Leader Others WANT to Follow (2013).

 

Named a 100 Top Thought Leader in both 2015 & 2014 by Trust Across America, Nan Russell is the author of four books including: Trust, Inc.: How to Create a Business Culture that Will Ignite Passion, Engagement, and Innovation  and The Titleless Leader. Her work insights column, Winning at Working, appears in numerous publications and she blogs for PsychologyToday.com on the topic of Trust: The New Workplace Currency. Prior to moving to the Rocky Mountains to pursue a life dream to write, Nan spent 20 years in management on both sides of the HR desk – in roles transforming a corporate culture to heading a new subsidiary. Her career took her from a minimum wage employee to Vice President of multibillion dollar QVC. Today, she is an award winning author, international speaker, and President of MountainWorks Communications.