Dr. Jamie Velazquez is the Director of Staff Development for Crittenton Services for Children and Families, in Southern California.  With over a decade of adult education, training, and leadership development experience in higher education and in the non-profit sectors, she has led the development and implementation of robust training programs that meet the requirements of national standards, licensing, accreditation, and/or the various county, state, and federal contracts for the various agencies or institutions. A background in psychology, education, and leadership led to a passion for social justice, rooted in critical theory, which greatly impacted her endless journey toward cultural competency.

Dr. David Rock coined the term 'Neuroleadership’ and is the CEO of the NeuroLeadership Institute, a global initiative bringing neuroscientists and leadership experts together to build a new science for leadership development. With operations in 24 countries, the Institute also helps large organizations operationalize brain research in order to develop better leaders and managers. David co-edits the NeuroLeadership Journal and heads up an annual global summit. He has written many of the central academic and discussion papers that have defined the Neuroleadership field.

In the last 2 years has been stdying the exponencial economy and the Sillicon Valley best practices on People, Culture and Performance. On this matter went to Stanford Graduate Scool of Business, Singularity University, Zappos Cuture Camp and took a Human Resources misson with Startse, visiting companies such as Facebook, Google, Uber and others. AUthor of the famous book Leader of the Future- the Leader Coach way.  Specialist in Executive Coaching and Leadership with certficates from schools like Kellogg, Insead, MIT, Center for Creative Leadership and Harvard Business School. Graduated in Economics from PUC-RJ and MBA from Columbia Business School em Nova York. Elected in december,2001 one of the 20 CEO's of the Future in a joint evaluation by KornFerry, Revista VOCÊ SA and FIA-USP. Former executive of Price Waterhouse, Citibank, Unibanco, Deutsche Bank and Grupo Santander Banespa. Acted as Strategic Planning Director at Santander.

Alexander Alonso, PhD, SHRM-SCP is the Society for Human Resource Management's (SHRM's) Chief Data & Insights Officer leading operations for SHRM's Certified Professional and Senior Certified Professional certifications, research functions, and the SHRM Knowledge Advisor service. He is responsible for all research activities, including the development of the SHRM Competency Model and SHRM credentials.

During his career, he has worked with numerous subject matter experts worldwide with the aim of identifying performance standards, developing competency models, designing organizational assessments, and conducting job analyses. He was also responsible for working on contract task orders involving the development of measurement tools for content areas such as job knowledge (like teacher knowledge of instructional processes) and organizational climates (like organizational climate forecasting in military health care).

Dr. Alonso received his doctorate in Industrial-Organizational Psychology from Florida International University in 2003. His works have been recognized for their contribution to real-world issues. They include being recognized by the Society for Industrial Organizational Psychology (Division 14 of the APA; SIOP) with the 2007 M. Scott Myers Award for Applied Research in the Workplace for the development of the federal standard for medical team training, TeamSTEPPS; being awarded a 2009 Presidential Citation for Innovative Practice by the American Psychological Association for supporting the development of competency model for team triage in emergency medicine; and receiving the 2013 SIOP Distinguished Early Career Contributions for Practice Award.

Throughout his career, he has published works in peer-reviewed journals such as Industrial and Organizational Psychology: Perspectives on Science and Practice, Journal of Applied Psychology, International Journal of Selection and Assessment, People and Strategy, Personality and Individual Differences, Quality and Safety in Health Care, and Human Resources Management Review. He has also authored several chapters on community-based change initiatives in workforce readiness, as well as co-authoring Defining HR Success: A Guide to the SHRM Competency Model in Practice.

Dr. Alonso also served as a columnist analyzing major trends in the workforce for The Industrial Psychologist and HR Magazine. In addition, he has served on several professional society boards including the SIOP and the Personnel Testing Council of Metropolitan Washington.

Attorney James P. (“Jim”) Reidy is a management-side labor and employment lawyer. He is a partner in the New England based law firm, Sheehan Phinney Bass & Green, PA, where he is the Chair of the firm’s Labor and Employment group. His practice focuses on prevention, training and compliance but he also handles matters when claims arise.

He has more than 35 years of experience in the field and been a media resource on workplace law for media outlets including CNN, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times Business Magazine, Bloomberg, NPR, The Associated Press, NPR Market Place, Buzz Feed, Law 360, Inc. Magazine, The HR Power Hour, HR Breakroom, SKI Magazine and HR Magazine as well as several local/regional publications.

In 2020 Jim was inducted as a Fellow in the College of Labor and Employment Lawyers. 

Chambers USA and New England Super Lawyers have ranked Jim in the Top Tier of management-side employment lawyers for each year of the last 15 years. Best Lawyers USA named Jim the 2022 Lawyer of the Year for Labor and Employment Law (Manchester, NH) and the NH Business Review named him one of the top 200 most influential business leaders in New Hampshire.

Jim has been a presenter regularly at SHRM’s Legal and Legislative Conference in Washington, DC as well as SHRM’s annual conferences.

Jennifer Lee is an experienced keynote speaker, engaging educator, and talented facilitator. Jennifer has over 15 years of learning and development experience with a robust background in luxury hospitality, human resources, and training. As the former Learning and Development Director at the AAA Five Diamond-rated Waldorf Astoria Chicago and the former Learning Manager at The Four Seasons Hotel in Chicago, Jennifer brings a rich perspective in leadership, management, service, hospitality and presentation skills training. When she’s not presenting, Jennifer can be found checking items off her bucket list, which still includes attending the Oscars at least once in her lifetime.

Michele Hester is Senior Manager of Client Services at Berkshire Associates. In her position, Michele is responsible for overseeing, developing, and implementing training and consulting services related to affirmative action and human resources management.

With more than 20 years in the human resource industry, Michele is an expert in HR practices and procedures. This experience allows her to develop and present training sessions to educate clients on the latest affirmative action, applicant management, compensation, and workforce analysis topics and trends. She has a true passion for educating fellow HR professionals, which is why she has been an active speaker throughout the country at conferences and meetings including the Society for Human Resource Management’s (SHRM) Talent Management and Annual Conferences.

Michele has a Masters of Business Administration in Human Resource Management and Management Skills from New York State University at Buffalo. Michele holds both SPHR and SHRM_SCP Certification and is a member of the national Society for Human Resource Management. 

Executive Director, partner and founder of MOT Training and Development, Inc a consulting company based in Miami, USA and Sao Paulo, Brazil, that holds a portfolio of international large companies since 1995.

Recognized by the T&D international community as one of the top professionals in the global industry, he is a leader in pioneering new models of learning and performance and people development at workplace, generating improvement of the business results in global companies. Alfredo is a multi-lingual Euro-Brazilian consultant, keynote speaker, board director, MBA professor and business books writer.

Amongst his extensive experience at global/international arena, evidenced through awards and invitations to make presentations at international T&D conferences, Alfredo Castro has travelled the world spearheading leadership models and learning solutions at business environment, mainly in the areas of change management, storytelling, corporate governance and consultative sales.

His 35 years of professional experience has given him the recognition from international T&D professionals and associations, after designing and implementing blended learning programs in more than 120 companies in more than 25 countries (Asia, Africa, Europe and Americas). His business agenda makes him travel about 40% of the year, making presentations or MBA classes, coach, consult and lead international projects at diverse cultures. After having a successful career as an executive (highlighted by a fast upward trajectory from consultant to international partner-director) along 17 years, in 1995 he became a founder of MOT Training and Development.

His top-notch expertise fully justified his nomination as the Chairman of the 2010 ATD Advisory Committee. He is the only non-north American T&D consultant who chaired the largest T&D association advisory committee, in 70 years of ASTD history.

Passionate about art, like performing humanitarian work for NPOs and carries out free coaching for professionals beginning their careers, in order to guide new gen-professionals on their goals.