Ryan has 15+ years of progressive HR leadership experience in a variety of corporate and field roles with blue chip companies such as Sephora, Toyota, and Shell Oil. Ryan joined Sephora nearly three years ago as HR business leader to launch a new Southeast distribution division in Olive Branch, MS (greater Memphis area) which services Sephora’s e-commerce and retail stores. As part of the Southeast launch, Ryan championed a large scale PWD hiring initiative modeled after Walgreens, leading Sephora’s Olive Branch location to hire more PWD’s than any employer in the history of Mississippi, earning Sephora “Employer of the Year” honors from the state. He recently relocated to Las Vegas to open Sephora’s new Western region distribution hub and implement a similar PWD hiring initiative. Ryan has a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration and a master’s degree in Human Resources & Labor Relations, both from Michigan State University. He is originally from Michigan and married to his wife Sofia. They have one child, a nine-month old son named Rickey.

Bill Graebel is Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer of Graebel Companies, Inc. a global leader in corporate relocation management and commercial workplace services. 

Bill has been a part of the Graebel organization since 1975 (36 years full-time; 44 years en total, which includes his part-time summer service as a packer and driver).

Bill received a B.Sc. in Economics and Political Science from Colorado College, Colorado Springs, Colorado, and is an active member of the OMNI (Overseas Moving Network International), Worldwide Employee Relocation Council, the Rocky Mountain Relocation Council and Young Presidents Organization.  He also serves on the Board of Advisors at the University of Colorado Denver Business School and is on the Board of Directors of Leader’s Challenge and Colorado Uplift.  Additionally, Bill serves as a member of the Board of Trustees for the Denver Area Council of Boy Scouts.

Bill has also obtained the designation of Senior Global Mobility Specialist from the Worldwide Employee Relocation Council.

James Meyers founded Imagination in 1994, an award-winning content marketing agency with over 100 employees in Chicago and Washington, D.C. He currently works with some of the largest, most forward-thinking companies and associations in America, helping them futureproof their marketing and messaging. Jim specializes in developing strategies for organizations seeking to offer enduring value and relevance by transforming their marketing programs into dynamic, always-on content built to anticipate and deliver on customer and member needs. In 2019, Jim authored the book Becoming Essential which explores the challenges that associations face in today’s digital world and how they can remain essential to their members.

 Prior to the start of Imagination, Jim served as group president of Macmillan Business Publishing, senior vice president of marketing for the Chicago Sun-Times, and senior vice president of marketing at Carson Pirie Scott stores. 

Jim received a bachelor’s degree in marketing and advertising from the Indiana University Kelley School of Business. He has also completed management and leadership programs at Northwestern University and the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business.

Laura Young is the Director, Global Mobility and Immigration at Salesforce and has more than 15 years of mobility and immigration experience at the cross-section of immigration law and corporate mobility. 

Theodore Wold is a Special Assistant to the President for Policy in the Office of American Innovation.  He holds a B.A. from Georgetown University, where he studied government and English, an M. Litt. from the University of St. Andrews, where he studied English literature, and J.D. from the University of Notre Dame. Wold clerked at the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit for Judge Janice Rogers Brown and the United States District Court for the District of Puerto Rico for Judge Jose Antonio Fuste. He has also lectured at the Universidad Francisco Marroquín in Guatemala.

Over the course of his career in immigration, Austin served as assistant counsel, subcommittee on immigration, citizenship and international law, U.S. House of Representatives, and as an adjunct professor of law at New York University Law School.

Austin has testified before committees of Congress on a variety of business immigration topics.

Currently, Austin serves as Chairman of the Business Mechanism of the Global Forum on Migration and Development and has participated at a number of GFMD and UN sponsored events and proceedings, including the Global Compact on Migration. He also serves as Vice-Chair of Jesuit Refugee Services and a Board Member of the Center for Migration Studies. Additionally, Austin is an Advisory Board Member of the Investor Migration Council.

He is a co-author of the treatise Immigration law and Business, as well as a series of Handbooks published by Thomson Reuters/West.

Based in Boston, Michele is the North America Immigration Lead for Publicis Groupe, the world’s third largest communications group operating in over 100 countries with a mobile workforce of over 80,000 people.  She is responsible for developing and executing immigration compliance and case strategy for North America, overseeing the delivery of immigration case management services for the U.S. and Canada and for driving the immigration program expansion throughout Latin America.  Michele’s subject matter expertise is relied upon to evolve and scale the company’s immigration program to meet the challenges of a complex immigration environment.

In addition to Michele’s experience leading the North America Immigration Team, she was a U.S. immigration attorney whose wide-ranging experience includes working for international law firms, the Department of Justice and a nonprofit migration agency. 

Jack Phillips is a noted advisor and writer on the impact that business analytics and big data have on enterprises. Mr. Phillips founded the International Institute for Analytics (IIA) with Tom Davenport, and currently serves as its CEO. Mr. Phillips edited the 2012 book Enterprise Analytics: Optimize Performance, Process and Decisions Through Big Data.

In his work at IIA, the leading independent analytics research firm, Mr. Phillips focuses on how the adoption of data and analytics by certain firms leads to competitive differentiation and higher performance. Mr. Phillips speaks frequently on cultural changes, organizational models, talent acquisition and the requirements of new leaders in a data-driven world.

Mr. Phillips is a graduate of the Harvard Business School and Williams College, and lives with his wife and three children in Portland, Oregon.

Amber Hurdle helps professionals connect the combined value of personal brands, employer brands and business brands to bridge people strategies to business strategies. She personally understands what it takes to accelerate success as a former teen mom who evolved into a powerhouse business woman, having worked with international celebrities and Fortune 100 companies alike. Described as a, “talented and creative executive that helped create a compelling internal public relations strategy to keep the spirits of 3000 Gaylord Opryland Hotel employees high after the unprecedented Nashville flood,” Amber quickly developed a far-reaching campaign that served as the rallying point to achieve Opryland’s new and urgent business objectives. After leading the internal rebrand when Marriott acquired the iconic hotel and its attractions, Amber continued her enthusiasm for internal relations by launching her own consulting firm, serving large brands such as FedEx Ground, Loews Hotels, and Stella & Dot, as well as small to medium-sized businesses who want to play big. She was recognized in 2019 among the “Top 40 Under 40” by the Nashville Business Journal, as well as by the Nashville Area Chamber’s Nashville Emerging Leader Awards (NELA) as the winner in the Business Services category. As a professional speaker, Predictive Index Certified Partner, talent optimization certified consultant, author, and podcast host, Amber “the Velvet Machete” Hurdle creates content-rich experiences that energize leaders to boldly live their organization’s culture, attract top talent, and next-level their employee engagement.