Senior-Level

Shawn Kent Hayashi is the founder and CEO of The Professional Development Group and a global expert in developing inspiring leaders and high performing teams. Growth, innovation, and elevated performance and profits are the results of Shawn’s work as an executive coach and consultant.  Shawn facilitates growth in leadership ability, emotional intelligence, communication skills, collaboration, and building trust and stronger relationships.  Her clients include entrepreneurial companies, Fortune 500, and associations around the globe. The author of six business communications books, Shawn has also been a feature expert in The New York Times, Forbes, and FastCompany.

Mike brings over 35 years of business experience having held senior positions in Fortune 500 companies and as the head of his own consultancy. His experience spans more than 25 industries including consumer packaged goods, manufacturing, financial services, energy, transportation, retail, advertising, and technology.  Mike is a highly skilled instructor and trainer and serves as senior faculty at the Center for Creative Leadership.  He is responsible for a variety of open enrollment programs and is also involved in early discovery, development and program delivery for a diverse portfolio of custom clients on all aspects of innovation, including innovation leadership. 

Danielle Vanderzanden is a Shareholder in the Boston office of Ogletree Deakins. She is CIPP/US certified by the International Association of Privacy Professionals and Co-Chair of Ogletree’s international privacy and cybersecurity practice.  She is an active trial lawyer who frequently litigates high-stakes matters involving privacy, information security, discrimination, harassment, and wage and hour claims. She regularly audits clients’ information security policies and practices, compensation practices, and work place policies and procedures.  She is an active speaker on issues such as information security, the wave of recently enacted pay equity laws, and the #MeToo movement’s impact in the workplace. 

Debra Lyons is Principal Strategist, Workforce Engagement.  In this role, she uses her experience and entrepreneurial skills to successfully launch a new, national external engagement effort focused on workforce advancement.  She also serves as Executive Director to the National Workforce Solutions Advisory Board, an organization of senior business leaders who provide guidance to ACT on navigating the national workforce development landscape.  Most recently, she served as Vice President of Community and Economic Development for ACT, Inc.  In this position, she led a national effort to provide community based workforce solutions to states to drive economic growth and greater productivity.  Lyons is the chief architect for ACT Work Ready Communities, a unique opportunity ACT, as a 501c3 public trust, provides to all states.  ACT Work Ready Communities is a data driven approach designed to take ACT workforce solutions to help states and communities to align resources, establish goals, use information to close skills gap and develop a workforce aligned to the needs of employers.  She oversaw the initiative from its conception to currently being active in twenty four states and hundreds of counties.  Under her leadership, ACT Work Ready Communities was the recipient of the International Economic Development Council’s Human Capital Award – Populations greater than 500,000 in October 2014. 

Prior to this role, she served as the Executive Director for the Governor’s Office of Workforce Development for Governor Sonny Perdue. She was responsible for advising the Governor on workforce development policy and implementing initiatives to strengthen the state’s workforce development enterprise. Lyons oversaw not only the start-up of the Governor’s Office of Workforce Development, but was the pioneer and architect of Georgia Work Ready, a one-of-kind workforce development system that links education and workforce development and aligns to the economic development needs of the state, its regions and communities. Georgia Work Ready was recently honored with the Governor’s Award for Customer Service – 2008 Team Excellence, the Technology Association of Georgia’s Excalibur Award, 2008, the Georgia Bio Community Award, 2009 and the ACT Community Award, 2009.

Before joining ACT, she served as Executive Director for Workforce Development Strategies for the Technical College System of Georgia. Lyons is the former owner of Debra Lyons Technical Consulting, a consulting firm specializing in providing training solutions focused on improving manufacturing productivity.  Prior to starting her own business, she worked as an industrial training specialist for a local technical college. Lyons also previously held the position of associate professor in engineering technology and worked as a design engineer for a major defense contractor.

Lyons previously served on the state board for the Technical College System of Georgia where she helped establish a cross-education board committee to help build more collaboration among Georgia’s education partners. She was appointed to the Southern Growth Policies Board’s Council for a New Economy Workforce by Georgia Governor Perdue in May, 2010 and was nominated to the Board for the Georgia Chamber of Commerce in 2011.  Lyons most recently served on the Board of Directors for EdLink until 2013 when the company was acquired by Bright Horizons.  She has several published papers and articles on workforce development with the two most recent papers being Understanding and Solving the Skills Gap – A Call to Action [2017] and ACT WorkKeys National Career Readiness Certificate Crosswalk to Lumina beta Connecting Credential Framework [2017].  She holds a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from Lehigh University and a master’s degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Maryland.   Lyons is the mother of four grown children and one granddaughter.  She resides in Macon, Georgia with her husband, Dr. Anthony V. Lyons.

Somen Mondal is the General Manager, Talent Intelligence, at Ceridian (NYSE:CDAY). Most recently, Somen served as the CEO and Co-Founder of Ideal, which was successfully acquired by Ceridian in 2021. Prior to Ideal, Somen served as Co-Founder & CEO of Field ID until it was successfully acquired by Master Lock LLC (a subsidiary of NYSE:FBHS). In 2012, Somen won the Ontario Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year award in the “Emerging Entrepreneur” category.

Joe Urbanski believes an Undeniable Culture™ inspires its people to unleash their best selves, take home more wins and less stress to their families, and create incredible value for the company, its customers, and community. For more than two decades, he has worked with HR and training departments, consulting and coaching 750+ executives and leaders at 400+ global organizations, and facilitating 800+ kickass trainings, strategic retreats, and leadership programs for 480,000 people. Joe has a remarkable understanding of how to transform the workplace experience. Plus, you’ll have more fun and laughs than you’d expect.

Alan Fine is considered the pioneer of the modern-day coaching movement and is the co-creator of the widely recognized GROW® Model. Alan is a New York Times Bestselling Author, international performance expert, and well-respected business executive and professional athlete coach. He has dedicated the past 35 years to helping people elevate their performance and unlock potential. From the golf course to the boardroom, Alan has worked with many respected athletes and organizations.

Cheryl Pinarchick is a partner in the Boston office of Fisher & Phillips, LLP and a founding Co-Chair of the firm’s Pay Equity Practice Group.  She represents employers in all areas of employment law, with a particular focus on helping employers navigate and comply with rapidly changing pay equity laws across the country.

Cheryl has extensive experience defending employers in cases in state and federal courts throughout the United States. She also routinely counsels U.S. and foreign-based companies on compliance with state and federal law and litigation avoidance.

Kathie Caminiti is a partner in the firm's New Jersey and New York offices, and co-chair of the Pay Equity practice group.  She has extensive experience handling employment litigation matters, having successfully defended cases alleging civil rights violations, race, sex, age and handicap discrimination, sexual harassment, whistle-blowing, wrongful discharge and retaliation.  Kathie currently is the lead counsel on a number of nationwide class and collective actions and has obtained favorable outcomes for clients in various wage and hour matters, including class and collective actions arising under the FLSA and various state laws.