Sean McIntosh is a Senior Specialist, Member Advocacy for SHRM. In his role, Sean is responsible for leading SHRM’s Member Advocacy efforts, including SHRM’s Advocacy Team.

Prior to joining SHRM, Sean worked on Capitol Hill in the United States Senate as a Correspondence Manager for a Senator from Iowa (with Sean himself being a native Iowan). During his time on the Hill, he managed all correspondence and constituent database operations for the Senator’s congressional office.

Sean’s beginnings with SHRM Advocacy traces far beyond his employment. Over the last 8 years, he has volunteered at almost a dozen SHRM events, particularly during SHRM “Days on the Hill." In college, he was president of the George Mason University (GMU) SHRM Chapter.

Chatrane Birbal is Vice President, Public Policy in SHRM national’s Alexandria, Va. office. In this capacity, she is actively involved in solidifying strategic partnerships and research to address policy issues on Capitol Hill that impact the workplace. In her role, Ms. Birbal lobbies Congress and develops policies and positions in support of workplace public policy issues including workplace healthcare, workforce development, workplace equity, workplace flexibly and leave, workplace immigration and employer-sponsored benefits (retirement, education assistance, unemployment insurance, among others).   

Prior to joining SHRM, Ms. Birbal was the director of government relations at the Council on Foundations, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit membership association of some 2,000 grant making foundations and corporations, with assets totaling more than $282 billion. During her tenure at the Council, Ms. Birbal implemented strategies and launches programs in support of the organization’s public policy and government relations work. She lobbied Congress on tax legislation relating to charitable giving, raised the Council’s profile with Congress and other nonprofit organizations, advised members on legislative activities impacting philanthropy and planned and executed the Council’s annual legislative fly-in conference, “Foundations on the Hill.”

Prior to joining the Council, Ms. Birbal was a federal legislative lobbyist at the American Psychiatric Association (APA), an Arlington, Va.-based medical specialty society with over 38,000 U.S. and international member physicians who work together to ensure humane care and effective treatment for all persons with mental disorders, including mental retardation and substance-related disorders. During her tenure at APA, Ms. Birbal lobbied Congress on behalf of psychiatrists, planned and executed the association’s annual advocacy day training session for membership as well as developed the APA’s online advocacy action center to further legislative efforts on behalf of the psychiatry profession.

Chatrane previously served on the Board of Directors for the ACT for Alexandria community foundation.  ACT for Alexandria brings the community together to elevate local philanthropic giving and engagement to new heights, supports local nonprofits working to aid the most vulnerable and develops solutions for the community’s most pressing challenges. During her tenure on the Board Ms. Birbal supported the foundation’s initiatives including ACTion Alexandria, an online civic engagement platform and Spring2ACTion, 24 hours of online giving to support local nonprofits.

Chatrane obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science from the State University at Buffalo in Buffalo, N.Y. and received her graduate degree of public administration and public policy from George Mason University in Fairfax, Va.

Ms. Birbal currently serves on the Board of Directors of Women in Government Relations (WGR) - the premier, non-partisan professional society dedicated to advancing and empowering women by fostering professional development and growth opportunities through a community that supports women’s leadership in government relations. She is a member of the Tax Coalition, which provides a forum for the exchange of ideas among professionals in federal tax policymaking to encourage the professional development of women in federal tax policy and Birbal also serves as a Director-at-large on George Mason University’s Alumni Board.

Kate Gebo is the executive vice president of human resources and labor relations for United Airlines. Kate is responsible for leading a global team of more than 500 professionals in the transformation of United’s culture. In her role, Kate and her team are the principle drivers of delivering on commitments to employees to provide a great employee experience. This includes recruiting, developing and retaining top talent, and building effective teams to put customers at the center of everything United does while working closely with our labor partners.

Kate previously served as senior vice president of customer service delivery and chief customer officer at United. She was responsible for delivering an integrated and industry-leading travel experience for customers from booking to landing. Kate also previously served as United’s vice president for the office of the CEO, where she worked with United’s CEO, Oscar Munoz, and the executive team to coordinate strategic company initiatives.

Kate joined United in 1998 and also held roles leading the corporate real estate organization and in procurement. Prior to joining United, Kate worked at Continental Airlines. Kate is a board member of Youth Guidance and also a Leadership Greater Chicago Daniel Burnham Fellow. She. received her bachelor’s degree in finance from Chicago’s DePaul University and earned a master’s degree from the Graduate School of Business at Loyola University of Chicago.

John Mazzone is an experienced finance professional with over 20 years of technical accounting and operational finance experience. John spent the first half of his career with PwC and KPMG as an auditor of companies ranging from small startups to large SEC reporting entities. He also led due diligence teams and advised private equity and strategic buyers on a variety of transactions. After his public accounting career, John held key finance positions at a large international public biotechnology company and large international financial investment firms.

Over the last 10 years, John has led large international accounting finance teams and implemented best in class practices. With John’s vast international finance experience across a broad spectrum of companies, he is well aware of the challenges company’s face when contemplating international expansion.

John earned his CPA license in the state of Massachusetts.
 

Giselle is the Practice Lead in Optimus SBR’s Learning & Development Group with over 25 years experience as a sought after resource to industry leaders across the private, public, and not-for-profit sectors dedicated to building strategies and programs that help clients target, motivate and engage employees in order to increase performance and productivity.

Giselle has devoted more than 20 years to researching the impact that generational differences have on organizational performance, creating solutions and programs in four areas – leadership, high performance teams, early career talent, and reinforcement & sustainment of learning. Giselle has co-authored two books and completed her Master of Arts Degree in Communications Studies at the University of Windsor.

She is Chair of the Board at The Institute for Performance and Learning (I4PL), co-chair of the Cross Academy Association and Advisory Council member at the Ted Rogers School of Management at Toronto Metropolitan University.

Joseph (“Joe”) Beachboard is a nationally recognized employment lawyer who also closely tracks the most important developments at the U.S. Supreme Court impacting the business community. He has more than 30 years of experience representing management in a wide variety of employment and labor matters in perhaps the most challenging state in the nation for employers – California.  Mr. Beachboard speaks regularly before human resource and employer groups on cutting edge employment law topics.  He is a member of SHRM and has been an annual presenter at both the SHRM Annual Conference and the Employment Law and Compliance Conference for two decades.  Mr. Beachboard is frequently quoted in such leading publications as HR Magazine, National Law Journal, Los Angeles Times, NY Times, HR Executive and Workforce, and has been published in dozens of legal and business journals. Throughout his career in Los Angeles, Mr. Beachboard has represented dozens of studios and entertainment properties.  He cites his most interesting project as working with the cast and crew of the television show The Office, from its pilot through the final season.

Kate Lister is a recognized workplace thought leader and president of Global Workplace Analytics, a research-based consulting firm that has been helping communities and organizations optimize flexible and distributed workplace strategies for more than fifteen years. She has written or co-authored five business books including the U.S. chapter of “Telework in the 21st Century” (Edward Elgar, 2019), a multi-country peer-reviewed study on remote work. Her perspectives on how COVID-19 will change the way people work have appeared in the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, Newsweek, and dozens of other respected news outlets. In July of 2020, she was one of only three witnesses invited to testify before a U.S. Senate committee on the expansion of telework in government post-COVID-19.

Karen M. Gustin, LLIF, is the Executive Vice President for Ameritas Group Dental and Eye Care in Lincoln, Nebraska.  Gustin began her career at Ameritas in 1983. In January 2016, Karen was promoted to her current position.  She is a member of the Ameritas of New York Board of Directors and is also the Dental Select President, CEO and Chair of the Board. 

Ms. Gustin is involved with the National Association of Dental Plans (NADP) and has served as past Chair of both the NADP Board of Directors and the National Association of Vision Care Plans (NAVCP) Board.

Karen graduated from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in 1983 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Education.