Melissa Dawn Simkins, affectionately known as "The First Lady of Personal Branding," is a pioneer in personal brand leadership with a proven track record of advising Fortune 100 organizations, CEOs, C-suite executives and influencers. She is a sought-after strategist on how to lead change in the face of adversity. Relevance and readiness are core to her approach as she gives insight around future-ready talent development, bridging the diversity divide and brand leadership innovation.

She is CEO of Velvet Suite® (www.velvetsuite.com) an award-winning leadership innovation firm advancing the future of profit through people. She is the Founder of The She-Suite®, the female focused platform of Velvet Suite on a mission to break the outdated paradigm of work by empowering working women to boldly design a career and life with purpose (theshesuite.com). The She-Suite Brand Leadership Institute (BLI), is the only online leadership readiness platform community with proven results to ready, retain and advance all women and women of color who work for large enterprises. 

Melissa is a former contributor to Inc.com and has been a frequent guest on media outlets such as CNN, CNBC and more. She is the author of Brand Me. Make Your Mark: The Ultimate Playbook for Personal Branding. Melissa is a sought-after keynote speaker on leadership innovation.

As an innovator, Simkins was the first African American female advisory board member for the World Brand Congress. Velvet Suite created the NFL Player Brand University in partnership with the National Football League, the first personal brand development academy of its kind in all professional sports. Other Velvet Suite clients have included: Boston Scientific, UBS, Lincoln Financial, Allstate, Home Depot, Southern Company, the National Basketball Association, CEOs, C-Suite executives, celebrities, pro-athletes and more.

She has been recognized by NAMD as their Entrepreneur of the Year, The Atlantan's Women of Power & Influence and her firm is a finalist for the Greater Washington Innovation Award. She currently serves on the Board of Directors for The SHRM Foundation (Society for Human Resource Management).

I'm passionate about building high-quality content ecosystems from the ground up. I consider myself a content generalist that can think of and execute big ideas while also tackling the small details.

I have extensive experience in establishing editorial brands, from founding and growing a college-centric publication (Fresh U) to 100,000 monthly unique visitors and 300+ nationally distributed writers, to my work at RippleMatch, where I have established and continue to grow our entire editorial brand from the ground up.

Claire Stroh, MBA, SHRM-CP is currently the Manager, of Managed Talent Services at Lighthouse Technology Services and CEO of Claire is Coaching. She has used LinkedIn, Twitter/X, and networking to build her personal brand and uncover new opportunities for herself and the companies she’s worked for. She’s passionate about helping others do the same! Claire has more than 10 years of successively diverse human resources management experience with privately-owned and publicly-traded global leaders. She is an active member and blogger for SHRM and served on SHRM’s Emerging Professional Advisory Council (EPAC) for four years. Claire was named a 2022 HR Impact Award Winner by Buffalo Business First and 2022 Community Catalyst Award Winner by HRUnite!.

Mary Cheddie, SHRM-SCP is Divisional Director, Membership Community. 

Cheddie has more than 35 years of domestic and international experience in all aspects of human resources and training. She has extensive experience with strategic planning, M&As, and in starting and turning around businesses.

Prior to joining SHRM, she served as senior vice president of human resources for Interval Leisure Group, Inc. and its affiliated companies. The company was publicly traded on NASDAQ and the leading provider of vacation services with a global consumer membership base of nearly 2 million member families, more than 2,500 member resorts in over 75 countries worldwide, and has oversight for about 14,000 employees. 

Cheddie also served as senior vice president, people with PRC, as well as vice president, human resources, strategic planning, office services, and facilities for The Orvis Company, Inc. in Manchester, VT.

She earned her MBA from Upper Iowa University, a bachelor’s degree from Thomas Edison State College in Trenton, New Jersey, and is certified as a SHRM-Senior Certified Professional.

Cheddie received the HR Award of Excellence, Hospitality in 2016 from South Florida Business & Wealth. Business Leader Magazine named Cheddie one of the 2011 Women Extraordinaire and in 2012 the National Diversity Council awarded her the Glass Ceiling Award.

She serves on the Board of Trustees for Upper Iowa University, Chairs the Human Capital Committee and is a member of the Governance and Advancement Committees, Chaired the Keiser Career College’s Advisory Board, was a member of the Board of Directors for the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) from 2003-2008 and chaired SHRM’s governance and compensation committees. Cheddie has more than 35 years of SHRM volunteer leadership experience at the national, regional, state, and local levels.  She also served on the Waldorf College Alumni Board from 2004 through 2008 and was the President of the Dallas HR Association in 2000 (one of the largest affiliated SHRM chapters). She resides in South FL.