Jen Shirkani is a nationally recognized expert on emotional intelligence and a featured speaker at several national SHRM conferences and at state affiliates in Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, North Carolina, Texas, Utah, Vermont and Washington. She is the author of Ego vs EQ and Choose Resilience, guides to leveraging the power of emotional intelligence. She has spent over 25-years working with organizations as a business consultant and executive coach. In addition to emotional intelligence, she frequently speaks and writes about workplace challenges including interviewing and selection, employee engagement and motivation, generational differences, and coachability. Jen has been a frequent guest of several national radio programs, and has been featured in Bloomberg/Businessweek, Leadership Excellence magazine, Investors Daily, Business Insider, Reader’s Digest, Publishers Weekly, Fast Company, and Upstart Business Journal.  She holds a Master’s Degree in Organizational Leadership and has devoted herself to improving leadership effectiveness and on making common sense more common. 

Through his keynote presentations, interactive workshops, leadership coaching, and custom-designed facilitation service, Ian helps his clients achieve greater results from their managers and teams.

He specializes in what he calls "micro leadership," helping managers lead successfully at the "micro" level–in that vital interpersonal space between the manager and his/her individual employee. He shows managers how to generate strong results through effective conversations with staff around (1) job performance, (2) job satisfaction and motivation, and (3) ongoing development.

He began the independent consulting firm, Fulcrum Associates, Inc., back in 1988, following seventeen years of corporate experience in both the high tech manufacturing and transportation industries. His extensive client list includes some of the largest corporations in the private sector, major trade and professional associations, small business, government, and not-for-profit organizations.

Ian holds a Bachelor of Commerce from McGill University and, from Cornell, a Masters degree in Industrial & Labor Relations, majoring in Human Resources Management, and has been a lecturer in the Faculty of Business of Ryerson University. In addition, from the Gestalt Institute of Toronto he earned a (3-year) Diploma in Gestalt Theory and Methodology that significantly deepened his ability to achieve results as both a facilitator and executive coach.

He is author of Would They Call You Their Best Boss Ever?: Practical Tips and Insights for the Successful Manager.

Ian is actively involved with the community leadership organization Leadership Fairfax Inc. A graduate of LFI’s Signature Leadership program class of ’04, he has served both on the Board and as Chair of the Program Committee, and has been a keynoter in their Speakers Series. Currently he facilitates a one-day Open Space event for the Emerging Leaders program and, for the Signature program class, facilitates individual team process debrief meetings following completion of their projects.

John Austin is the P.D. Merrill Endowed Chair and Dean of the newly formed Honors College at University of New England. He also works with organizations around the world to improve the foresight skills of their leaders and future proof strategies and initiatives. Dr. Austin holds a BA in economics from The Johns Hopkins University and a PhD in management from Boston College. He is the author of Unquestioned Brilliance: Navigating a Fundamental Leadership Trap and Leading Effective Change: A Primer for the HR Professional published as part of the SHRM Foundation’s Effective Practice Guidelines Series. 

You know that scientist in the action movie who has all the right answers if only the government would just pay attention? Eric B. Meyer, Esq. gets companies HR-compliant before the action sequence. Serving clients nationwide, Eric is a Partner in the Employment Group at FisherBroyles, LLP. FisherBroyles is the first and world’s largest cloud-based law firm partnership, which has grown to over 220 attorneys in 21 offices nationwide. Eric is also a volunteer EEOC mediator, a paid private mediator, and publisher of The Employer Handbook (www.TheEmployerHandbook.com), which is pretty much the best employment law blog ever. That, and he's been quoted in the British tabloids. #Bucketlist.

Rachel founded Ascend Employee Wellness to provide professional consultancy services which enhance businesses’ ability to attract and retain staff, and connect with diverse customers. Her vision is to inspire greater authenticity, vitality, and collaboration within business communities. Because of Rachel's unique educational and work history, she excels at delivering services and programs that inspire and enthuse employees to lead more productive, positive lifestyles.

Rachel is a Human Resources professional with over 10 years of experience in nonprofit, healthcare, and university settings. Her experience includes Human Resources program development, recruiting, staff education, and management consulting. She has a Master of Divinity degree from Marylhurst University where her studies focused on counseling and world religions.

Follow Rachel on Twitter @jayaradheshyam.