Multiple award-winning executive educator and author whose teaching and research interests span the globe, Dr. Mansour Javidan received his MBA and Ph.D. degrees from the Carlson School at the University of Minnesota. He is former Dean of Research at Thunderbird School of Global Management and is currently the Garvin Distinguished Professor and Founding Director of the Najafi Global Mindset Institute.

Mansour is the Past President and Chairman of the Board of Directors of the worldrenowned research project on executive performance and leadership, titled GLOBE (Global Leadership and Organizational Behavior Effectiveness). As the primary editor and writer of the recently published GLOBE book, he is the co-principal investigator of the GLOBE Phase 3 research program. The book was the recent winner of the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology’s (SIOP) award competition for “The M. Scott Myers Award for Applied Research in The Workplace.”

Follow Mansour on Twitter @MansourJavidan.

James J. McDonald, Jr. is a partner in the Irvine, California and Tampa, Florida offices of Fisher & Phillips LLP, where he is a litigator, trial lawyer and strategic advisor to employers regarding labor and employment law matters.  He is author of the SHRM-published book, California Employment Law: An Employer’s Guide, and he is a frequent speaker on employment law issues.  He is a cum laude law graduate of Georgetown University and a member of the California and Florida Bars, and he holds the SHRM-SCP certification.

Alice Kilborn, JD PHR, is an Associate Attorney at Moody & Warner, P.C., where her practice is  devoted to employment and labor law including advice and litigation in the areas of labor relations, wage and hour issues, class actions, discrimination, harassment, EEOC charges, wrongful termination, employment agreements, and other employment-related matters.  Prior to entering the legal field, Ms. Kilborn worked in Human Resources specializing in the areas of state and federal regulatory compliance and corporate training.  She has served as the State Legislative Director for the Society for Human Resource Management of New Mexico (SHRM NM) since 2009 and is a frequent, enthusiastic speaker regarding legislative activity affecting the workplace.

Follow Alice on Twitter @alicekilborn.

Allan H. Weitzman is the head of the Labor and Employment Law Department in the Boca Raton office of Proskauer Rose LLP, and is Board Certified by the Florida Bar as a specialist in Labor and Employment Law with over forty-one years’ experience – all at Proskauer. 

Based on a peer-review study, Allan has been named in the 2005 through 2015 editions of Best Lawyers in America, the nation’s definitive guide to legal excellence.  He is particularly proud that he was named by Best Lawyers as the 2013 Lawyer of the Year for Employment Law in South Florida.  From 2007 through 2015, Allan has earned a first tier Chambers ranking for his outstanding employment law work.  In 2009 and 2011 through 2015, Allan was named by Human Resource Executive magazine as one of the nation’s top 100 corporate employment attorneys. He is also a fellow in the prestigious College of Labor Employment Law Attorneys. 

Among his notable achievements, Allan submitted the amicus brief to the Supreme Court on behalf of the Society for Human Resources Management in the Faragher case.  The employer’s “affirmative defense” that was adopted by the Supreme Court in Faragher was based on an argument made by Allan and his firm. 

Allan is graduate of the Cornell Law School where he was an Editor of the Cornell Law Review, graduating with distinction and was a member of “The Order of the Coif.”

Robert A. Boonin is a member of the national law firm of Dykema Gossett and is based in its Ann Arbor office. Rob is an honors graduate from The University of Michigan Law School, holds a Masters in Labor and Industrial Relations from Michigan State University, and a BS in Economics from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School.  Practicing law for nearly 40 years, Rob has litigated employment law matters before federal and state courts across the nation, handles all forms of union matters for employers, and regularly counsels clients on such issues as discrimination, FMLA compliance, and wage and hour law. 

Rob is a recognized leader in his field.  For instance, he is: on the Chambers USA list of top employment law attorneys; listed as a Best Lawyer in Employment Law; repeatedly recognized as one of Michigan’s “Super Lawyers”; a Fellow and a Past-President of the Litigation Counsel of America; a Past Chair of  the national Wage and Hour Defense Institute; a Past Chair of the Michigan Bar Association’s Labor and Employment Law Section; and a Fellow of the distinguished American College of Labor and Employment Lawyers.  Rob also in an immediate past-chair of the American Bar Association’s Federal Labor Standards Legislation Committee (which covers FLSA matters), and serves as an Editor of the most recognized authority on the FLSA, the Bloomberg BNA legal treatise – The Fair Labor Standards Act.