Internationally recognized as an expert in the field, Mr. Kushner is one of the nation's most sought after speakers on HR strategy and employee benefits. He has advised four U.S. Presidents on health care and has testified before the U.S. Senate Finance Committee, the U.S. House Ways and Means Committee and the U.S. House Small Business Committee on employee benefit issues.

A frequent resource to the media, Mr. Kushner contributes to the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, AP, Knight-Ridder, the Kiplinger Washington Newsletter, CNN News, Fortune, MSNBC and Good Morning America among others. More importantly, he and his wife Tamis have five children and four wonderful (and amazing!) grandchildren.

 

Dr. Kristin Charles, Ph.D., SPHR, is an Assessment Scientist at Kronos, Inc where she supports the development and validation of assessments used in the personnel selection process. Dr. Charles consults with clients in the retail, food services, and healthcare industries on selection strategy issues, including job analysis, validation, and behavioral interviewing. Additionally, she is an adjunct faculty member in the Psychology Department and School of Business Administration at Portland State University. Dr. Charles regularly presents at academic and industry conferences on her primary research areas of personnel selection, work schedules, employee turnover, and occupational safety and health. She completed her B.S. at James Madison University and her M.S. and Ph.D. in the Industrial/Organizational Psychology program at Portland State University.

Glen  E. Kraemer, a founding and managing partner of the employment law boutique firm Hirschfeld Kraemer LLP, is nationally recognized for his “best practices” training programs relating to workplace harassment, bullying, violence prevention, and investigations.  From 2005 – 2021 Glen has been voted a California employment “Super Lawyer,” and in 2020 and 2021 ranked by Chambers USA as a top Labor & Employment Law attorney.  Named by Lawdragon as one of 500 Leading U.S. Corporate Employment Lawyers, he has also received the “Elite Boutique Trailblazer” award from the National Law Journal, and garnered “Top Speaker” recognition for each of his SHRM Annual Conference presentations from 2009 - 2019.

Jill Kopanis is the vice president, Human Resources for Dynamic Dies, Inc. based in Toledo, Ohio where she leads human resource initiatives for manufacturing and sales locations nationwide Ms. Kopanis has been involved in the field of Human Resources for over 20 years working with both Fortune 500 and International companies. She was nominated for the Excellence in HR Management Award and was a finalist in the 2007 Benny Awards – awarded for outstanding benefit initiatives. She has served in a variety of SHRM leadership roles at the state and local level include Chapter President and State Director of Certification. Jill holds a Masters Degree in Organizational Leadership and earned both PHR and SPHR certification. A speaker on several human resource topics, she has spoken at numerous national conferences enlightening her audiences and receiving top audience ratings along with writing a monthly HR column for a national magazine.

Follow Jill on Twitter @JillKopanis.

 

Candy Knowles, a veteran health system human resources executive, is senior vice president for human resources and chief human resources officer for the University of Maryland Medical Center and its parent organization, the 12-hospital University of Maryland Medical System. In this newly-created position, she has oversight of all human resources functions throughout the system and serves as part of the senior leadership team.

 

Before joining the University of Maryland Medical Center/System, Knowles was the chief human resources officer at Parkland Health and Hospital in Dallas. Prior to her role at Parkland, she served in senior human resources positions at Parkview Health in Fort Wayne, IN, Phoebe Putney Health System in Georgia, and Battle Creek Health System in Michigan.

 

Candy is certified by the Society of Human Resources Management and is a fellow of the American College of Healthcare Executives.  

Eun Y. Kim is the founder of CEO International and has over 25 years of coaching, consulting, and training in the fields of global leadership, executive presence, cross-cultural communication, and change management. Dr. Kim has done extensive work with executives in various industries in Americas, Asia, Europe, and the Middle East, and helped them develop self and others, and build strategic partnerships across cultures and functions. Having been one of the first women professionals hired by a Korean conglomerate (Hyundai) after college, she has facilitated numerous individual/group coaching sessions for female executives as well. She also worked as a change management consultant at a prestigious US multinational consulting firm.

Aaron Kesher, Principal Consultant at deepSEE Consulting, brings a great deal of energy and a necessary sense of humor to the discussion around difference. He comes from a background in education, having taught English and Theater to high school students in both inner-city and suburban schools. He has also worked with adults learning English at the Lehmann Center in Minneapolis, as well as in a variety of after-school programs serving academically struggling students. A certified Intercultural Development Inventory (IDI) Administrator, his training work has centered on issues of diversity, with a special focus on managing across differences. He has authored articles for diversity-centered websites and newsletters, including co-authoring a manager’s toolkit for dealing with religious diversity in the workplace and a half-day workshop on both leading and working across generational difference.

Matt is the Director of Talent Acquisition at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta – one of the nation’s leading pediatric healthcare systems and consistently ranked as one of the “100 Best Companies to Work For” by Fortune magazine. With the support of a strong team, Matt is working to evolve and optimize the recruitment platform at Children’s.

Prior to working at Children's, Matt helped reshape talent acquisition at Ericsson, the world's leading provider of communications technology and services, operating in 180 countries and employing more than 100,000 people. In his five years with Ericsson, Matt lived in both Australia and Singapore. He drove innovation in the employer branding, sourcing and recruitment strategy for Ericsson regionally and globally.

He has past experience as a senior strategy consultant with a U.S. recruitment communications firm, helping leading organizations implement innovative employer branding and digital strategies to attract top talent. Matt is a graduate of The Florida State University in the USA. He is an author and featured industry speaker on best practices in Talent Management at international HR events.

Jun is an HR professional with nearly 20 years of deep HR body of knowledge and experience (10+ years of which are Japan-focused) across the entire HR value chain gained from both the public and private sectors and various industries such as manufacturing, academe, training, recruitment, and HR consulting. He is not only considered as Japan's premier HR-focused search consultant but also a practicing HR consultant providing services and solutions in various HR areas like performance management, compensation & benefits design, organizational design and development, change management, coaching, and career counseling. He holds a Japan-focused MBA from the University of Hawaii at Manoa and an MS Industrial Engineering degree from the University of the Philippines. He also completed his HR Studies Certificate from Cornell University.