As a Business Strategist and Executive Coach, LaFern Batie leads The Batie Group, LLC, a business consulting and leadership development firm serving organizations around the globe. With extensive Fortune 500 corporate leadership experience and widely recognized expertise, she works with international organizations and leaders across diverse industries to maximize their collective and individual performance. Leaders value her high business acumen, ability to quickly connect with teams, thorough and efficient approach to identifying challenges and commitment to helping them achieve results that exceed their expectations. 

Follow LaFern on Twitter @LaFernBatie.
 

Emma Geist, MSc., SHRM-SCP, GPHR, has been an Leader in the field of Human Resources for over 18 years, having lived and worked on all five continents and contributed to various industries.  Emma is an expert in fostering and delivering change for business alignment and operational efficiency across multiple countries and cultures for global organizations.

Over the past 10 years, she has focused mainly on Human Resources Management and Organizational Development for the extractive industry in Africa and South America, where one of the main challenges is to build efficient teams made of employees from various cultures and backgrounds while taking into consideration the local environment.

She holds a BA from University Stendhal (Grenoble – France) and a MSc. in International Human Resources management and Globalization from University of Leicester, UK.

As President of DFA, Dean Foster conducts cross-cultural training worldwide and consults on intercultural business issues with most Fortune 500 companies in the United States and around the globe. For over twenty-five years, Dean has played a major role in the development of the intercultural training field. Formerly, he was founder and Managing Director of Berlitz Cross-Cultural Worldwide, Vice President GMAC/Windham Intercultural, and founder of Cross-Cultural Consulting Associates, New York. Dean is a frequent guest on CNN, CNBC and other TV and radio shows, and keynotes at major international professional conferences.

Dean has written many articles, the four-part Global Etiquette Guide book series, as well as Bargaining Across Borders, which the American Library Association voted as one of the top ten business books of 1994.

He is a Contributing Editor for National Geographic Traveler, writing the CultureWise monthly column, and Senior Contributing Editor for the International webpage of Monster.com. Dean presents at many educational institutions such as Harvard and is on faculty at the Intercultural Management Institute at American University. Dean has a Master’s Degree in Sociology from the Graduate Faculty of the New School for Social Research in New York City.

Mike Aitken has worked at SHRM since 2003 and currently serves as the Senior Vice President of Government Affairs. Prior to joining SHRM, he served for 14 years as associate director for Governmental and External Relations at the College and University Professional Association for Human Resources (CUPA-HR). Previously, Aitken worked on state public policy issues at Bonner & Associates, a public affairs firm in Washington, DC. Currently, he is based in Alexandria, VA.

Jathan Janove, a former state bar Employment Lawyer of the Year and now Executive Coach and Organization Development consultant, writes SHRM’s “Putting Humanity into HR Compliance” column, and is a Master Coach and Practice Leader with the Marshall Goldsmith Stakeholder Centered Coaching organization, including writing its Ask the Coach column. He’s the author, most recently, of “Hard-Won Wisdom: True Stories From The Management Trenches” (HarperCollins 2017). He’s currently working on his next book, “From Compliance Cop to Culture Coach: Transforming the HR Profession.”

Hunter Lott is an HR problem solver. He has delivered over 4000 “on stage” events, over 17,000 presentation hours and reviewed over 1200 employee handbooks. Hunter won accolades as a senior course leader for the American Management Association. Hunter is an award winning speaker with Vistage and has earned Speaker of the Year, Impact Speaker of the Year and Top Performer Vistage honors.

Hunter attended Tulane University in New Orleans, graduated from Iowa State and has a Master’s Degree in Employment Law from NSU Shepard Broad College of Law.

Joseph (“Joe”) Beachboard is a nationally recognized employment lawyer who also closely tracks the most important developments at the U.S. Supreme Court impacting the business community. He has more than 30 years of experience representing management in a wide variety of employment and labor matters in perhaps the most challenging state in the nation for employers – California.  Mr. Beachboard speaks regularly before human resource and employer groups on cutting edge employment law topics.  He is a member of SHRM and has been an annual presenter at both the SHRM Annual Conference and the Employment Law and Compliance Conference for two decades.  Mr. Beachboard is frequently quoted in such leading publications as HR Magazine, National Law Journal, Los Angeles Times, NY Times, HR Executive and Workforce, and has been published in dozens of legal and business journals. Throughout his career in Los Angeles, Mr. Beachboard has represented dozens of studios and entertainment properties.  He cites his most interesting project as working with the cast and crew of the television show The Office, from its pilot through the final season.

Kevin Cope is the #1 Wall Street Journal and New York Times bestselling author of Seeing the Big Picture: Business Acumen to Build Your Credibility, Career, and Company. A renowned trainer and speaker, Kevin has spent the last 25 years working with top organizations including 30 Fortune 50 companies. His 5 Business Drivers model and ideas, shared with millions through his book, articles, and courses, have been praised for being relevant and actionable; they help you come to the table prepared.

Kevin Cope is the #1 Wall Street Journal and New York Times bestselling author of Seeing the Big Picture: Business Acumen to Build Your Credibility, Career, and Company. A renowned trainer and speaker, Kevin has spent the last 25 years working with top organizations including 30 Fortune 50 companies. His 5 Business Drivers model and ideas, shared with millions through his book, articles, and courses, have been praised for being relevant and actionable; they help you come to the table prepared.

Stacey Carroll is the President of HR Experts On-Call. HR Experts On-call provide strategic HR consulting services to business owners and HR professionals. Prior to establishing HR Experts On-Call, Ms. Carroll served as the Director of Professional Services & Education for PayScale. As Director of Professional Services, Stacey created and managed the compensation consulting business for PayScale, a venture-backed SaaS provider of compensation resources to HR and business leaders.  Prior to her  work at PayScale, Stacey spent over 12 years in various positions within Human Resources for Trendwest Resorts, Nordstrom, and Western Washington University. Stacey’s specialty areas in HR include: compensation, benefits, training & development, and strategic human capital management.  She earned her BA and MBA from Western Washington University. Stacey has been certified as a Senior Professional in Human Resources (SPHR) and as a Certified Compensation Professional (CCP). In addition to her regular full time responsibilities, Stacey has taught HRM classes for Western Washington University, Seattle Research Partners, and Tacoma Community College. She also speaks at many local, regional and national conferences.

Follow Stacey on Twitter @HRStacey.