Erika Frank is a well-respected employment attorney with a passion for advising and educating employers about California's complex workplace laws. Leveraging more than two decades of legal, regulatory and legislative experience, Erika offers a practical and insightful approach to helping clients deal with the effects of California's employment laws on employee relations and workplace policies. Prior to joining the Shaw Law Group, Erika served as the General Counsel and Executive Vice President of Legal Affairs at the California Chamber of Commerce, the largest broad-based trade association in California. With a focus on employment law compliance, Erika oversaw CalChamber's Labor Law Helpline and assisted countless members with their labor and employment law questions. She also played an integral role in the launch and success of CalChamber's The Workplace podcast.

Sam Kabert is a successful serial entrepreneur turned spiritual seeker and keynote speaker. He is known for his ability to put together teams to execute the vision. He is the Author of the #1 Bestselling book SOUL/Life Balance, Founder of SwagWorx & Clone Yourself University, and hosts the Soul Seekr Podcast. Despite all of Sam’s ventures and business success and being recognized as one of Silicon Valley’s “40 Under 40” at just age 31 years old and “Rising Star” in the promotional products industry, he soon recognized that something was missing. Sam realized that despite his success, he was unhappy. This understanding catapulted him on his most recent exploration of his life’s purpose. 

He is on a mission to bridge the gap between the way we conduct ourselves in business, mindful practices, how we communicate with everyone, especially oneself, all through prioritizing psychological safety and mental health first.

The need to transform their recruiting tactics and elevate the candidate experience should be a pressing concern for any company. The fact is, we're all perpetual candidates as well as potential customers regardless of generation or gender, skill set or experience, and negative experiences could add up to millions of dollars of lost revenue. By using the platform of the CandE Awards and the research data, we can help more organizations uncover the process changes and tools that enable them to deliver on improving candidate experience and their business bottom line.

Nathan Low is a partner in the firm's San Francisco office. He represents employers in all areas oflabor and employment law. His practice focuses on defending employers in wage and hour classand collective actions, PAGA claims, single-plaintiff claims, and retaliation and wrongful terminationclaims. While in law school, Nathan was a judicial extern for the Honorable David O. Carter of the UnitedStates District Court, Central District of California and the Honorable Gregory Keosian of theCalifornia Superior Court. Nathan was an officer and member of UCLA’s Moot Court HonorsProgram and competed throughout the country. He was also an editor for the Los Angeles PublicInterest Law Journal.

Dr. Sherrie A. Johnson is an expert in organizational leadership, communication, and how authentic leader behavior affects employee job performance. She is an authority on leading and communicating in a global environment and competency in leadership. As a teacher, consultant, and executive coach, Dr. Johnson shows individuals, universities, and companies how to communicate, develop talent, to provide organizational effectiveness. Her research focuses on authentic leadership and how it positively affects employees' job performance in an organization. Dr. Johnson has served in a leadership capacity as a director for local government, secondary and K-12 public education organizations, and corporate communications. She has also served as part of the executive management team in leadership roles. This involved overseeing the Communications and applying advanced management principles with a critical impact on citizens and the organization. Dr. Johnson supervised award-winning teams and managed all facets of communication. She is also an Emmy award-winning broadcast journalist with 20 years of experience in the reporting/anchoring field with local and national news organizations. She attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and majored in Journalism and Mass Communication, received her master's degree from Johns Hopkins University in Communications, and obtained a Doctor of Education at Grand Canyon University in Organizational Leadership. In her spare time, Dr. Johnson enjoys reading, traveling, and spending time with her family and her dog Shayla.

Lisa M. Sanchez has been in HR management and leadership positions since 1995 in hotels, higher education, non-profit, public and private sectors and union and non-union environments. Since March 2015, she is the Vice President, Employee Experience and Engagement (HR), at ArtCenter College of Design. She leads a team dedicated to enriching the experiences and engagements for faculty and staff. Critical to this work is Sanchez's direct work in ABIDE: access, belonging, inclusion, diversity and equity. As a change agent, she leads organizational development and culture because they have a direct impact on how individuals perform, contribute and thrive personally and professionally.  She received her bachelor's degree in Communication Studies from California State University, Northridge and a master's degree in Organizational Management from the University of Phoenix. She is SHRM and HRCI HR-certified as well as a certified professional life coach.

Marco Rosa is a certified communication and leadership executive coach supporting C level and Director-level executives in human resources management. He is a former Vice President of Human Resources and Corporate Services for several companies in reputable (pre/post public) life sciences and technology. A seasoned executive, he assists our clients in both coaching and consulting in human resources management, executive team leadership facilitation, performance management systems, and bonus plan/equity plan administration design. A seasoned human resources executive who has worked in three multinational public companies and key start-ups preparing for an IPO, Marco assists clients in both coaching and consulting for as little as an hour and as comprehensive as setting up entire HR departments. His search expertise and capabilities at the director & VP level are "spot on with timely results!" As an Adjunct Professor both at Hult International Business school and Palo Alto University, Marco is a certified instructor at UC Santa Cruz and UC Berkeley teaching courses such as Best Practices in Performance Mgt, Comprehensive Employee Benefits Design, and Effective Employee Relations. He is past president and member of the Bay Area Human Resources Executive Council (BAHREC), and Financial Board Member at Bay Area Adoption Services (BAAS). He has held key positions at General Electric Company, Sony Electronics, ReplayTV, COR Therapeutics (acquired by Millennium Pharmaceuticals), Carl Zeiss Meditec AG, and MAP Pharmaceuticals (acquired by Allergan, Inc).

Sejal Thakkar is on a mission to educate and empower people to create a world where everyone is treated with dignity and respect. Sejal is a former employment law attorney, a 2X TEDx speaker, and the Founder and Chief Civility Officer at TrainXtra, where she helps leaders create positive, safe, and respectful workplaces through customized training and coaching. She is responsible for cultivating a people-first culture at Nobody Studios.

Jenny is a global executive taming complexity for distributed global technology firms. She’s been a Chief People Officer, Chief Talent Officer and Chief Learning Officer at companies like SuccessFactors, SAP, Hewlett-Packard, Sun Microsystems/Oracle, Klaviyo and Sum Total Systems.  An international thought leader in HCM, she is acknowledged as one of the 50 most Powerful Women in Tech. She is also the author of two best-selling business books, “Data Driven: How Performance Analytics Delivers Extraordinary Sales Results,” and “The Data-Driven Leader: A Powerful Approach to Delivering Measurable Business Impact Thought People Analytics.”  She’s an advisor to Education and HR technology firms and sits on the Board of Directors of talent assessment firm Plum and compensation management firm Beqom.