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Ginni Rometty was the ninth Chairman, President, and Chief Executive Officer of IBM. Under her leadership, the 100-year-old company reinvented 50 percent of its portfolio, built a $25 billion hybrid cloud business, and established leadership in AI and quantum computing. Rometty also drove record results in diversity and inclusion and supported the explosive growth of an innovative high school program to prepare the workforce of the future in over twenty-eight countries. 

Through her work with the Business Roundtable, Rometty helped redefine the purpose of the corporation. She has been named Fortune’s #1 Most Powerful Woman three years in a row, is a member of the National Academy of Engineering, and has been honored with the designation of Officier in the French Légion d’Honneur. Today, Rometty serves on multiple boards and cochairs OneTen, a coalition committed to upskilling, hiring, and promoting one million Black Americans without four-year degrees by 2030 into family-sustaining jobs and careers. She is married to Mark Rometty, and the author of the bestselling book Good Power: Creating Positive Change in Our Lives, Work and World.

John Ferguson is the Chief Human Resources Officer at NASCAR, the No. 1 form of motorsports in the United States.

In this role, Ferguson oversees the development and execution of NASCAR’s human resource planning, aligning it with the overarching business plan and strategic direction of the organization. This includes cultivating a "people-first" company culture across more than 20 office and race-track locations throughout the U.S.

Ferguson serves on the Board of Directors for the SHRM Foundation, Alumni Board of Directors for Furman University, and the UNCF Orlando Leadership Council.

Ferguson holds Bachelor’s in Political Science from Furman University, Executive Certificate in Strategic Diversity & Inclusion Management from Georgetown University, and a Master’s in Business Administration from the Howard University School of Business.

Eric M. Dunleavy, Ph.D., is a Principal Consultant at DCI Consulting Group, where he is involved in equal employment opportunity audit and litigation consulting. He also serves on staff with the Center for Corporate Equality (CCE), which is a national nonprofit employer and research association based in Washington, DC, whose mission is to promote proactive affirmative action, equal employment regulatory compliance, and other human resource management strategies to create diverse organizations free from workplace bias. Eric's primary areas of expertise are in employee selection, employment testing, validation research, adverse impact analyses and other quantitative methods. His most recent work has focused on advanced quantitative analyses for assessing adverse impact and on selection procedure validation research in the context of OFCCP enforcement. Eric received his M.A. (2002) and Ph.D. (2004) in Industrial/Organizational Psychology with a concentration in data analysis from the University of Houston. He received an Honors B.A. (2000) in Psychology from St. Anselm College.

Savanna L. Shuntich, Esq. is an associate attorney with Fortney & Scott, LLC in Washington, D.C.  She advises businesses on employee policy matters, OFCCP compliance, and the use of artificial intelligence in hiring.  Prior to joining Fortney & Scott, Ms. Shuntich focused her practice on employment litigation and appeared before federal and state courts and administrative agencies.  She was named a Super Lawyers Rising Star in the field of Employment Litigation.  Ms. Shuntich received her bachelor’s degree from Davidson College and her law degree from the American University Washington College of Law.

Jocelyn Samuels is Vice Chair of the Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), appointed by President Biden in 2021 and confirmed for a second term ending in 2026. Prior to joining the Commission, she served as the Executive Director of the Williams Institute, the leading research center on sexual orientation and gender identity law and public policy. During the Obama administration, she served as the Director of the Office for Civil Rights at the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services and as the Acting Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights at the U.S. Department of Justice where she supervised enforcement of civil rights laws through litigation, rulemaking, policy development, and public education across a range of civil rights issues and was an architect of numerous government policies applying federal law to remedy discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. She previously served as a Vice President of the National Women’s Law Center, Labor Counsel to Senator Edward M. Kennedy, and a senior attorney at the EEOC in the Office of Legal Counsel. She received a J.D. from Columbia Law School and a B.A. from Middlebury College.

Paul is a Senior Litigation Counsel for the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice. He litigates and tries civil and criminal cases charging federal antitrust law violations. Cases he has litigated implicate billions in commerce and a broad range of industries including health care, agricultural equipment, poultry, publishing, and household appliances.

During his time at the Antitrust Division, he was detailed to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Eastern District of Virginia, where he served as a Special Assistant U.S. Attorney. He prosecuted fraud, drug trafficking, and other federal crimes. He participated in jury trials, and briefed and argued appeals in the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond.

Paul began his DOJ career as an Antitrust Division Honors’ Attorney in 2003. Prior to joining DOJ, He served as a law clerk to the Honorable James T. Moody, judge of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Indiana. He received a J.D. magna cum laude from St. John’s University School of Law.

Janet Jackson is one of the most influential entertainers of the modern era. Her music has won her 5 GRAMMY® Awards, 2 Emmy Awards, a Golden Globe Award, a nomination for an Academy Award along with dozens of American Music Awards, MTV Video Music Awards and Billboard Music Awards. She has received accolades as an actress as well, including the NAACP Best Supporting Actor award. Janet is a published author, dancer, businessperson, philanthropist and one of the biggest-selling artists in popular music history. With sales of over 180 million records worldwide, Janet Jackson stands as one of the best-selling artists of all time with a string of hits that have left an indelible impression on pop culture. She is the record holder for the biggest selling debut tour in history and is the first woman to debut in the Top 10 of the Hot 100 charts. She also stands as one of only four artists to have a #1 album for four successive decades alongside Barbra Streisand, Bruce Springsteen and U2. Even today she continues to make an undeniable impact. In 2018, her single, “Made for Now” with Daddy Yankee, released by her own Rhythm Nation Records, hit #1 on the Dance Clubs Songs chart making it her 20th single on the chart in the span of her career. In 2019, she was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame alongside her brothers and in that same year her critically acclaimed Las Vegas residency, “Metamorphosis” closed out to record breaking ticket sales with only 18 dates at the Park MGM's Park Theater. As reported by Billboard Boxscore, the legendary singer, dancer, songwriter, producer, and actress is among the biggest Vegas performers of this decade, ahead of Celine Dion (2011), Britney Spears (2013) and the Backstreet Boys (2017).

On February 4, 2021, Janet Jackson’s iconic mega platinum-selling third album Control turned 35. The album also returned to the top of the charts, hitting #1 on the Apple Top 40 US Pop Album chart. Led by five chart-busting hit singles — “What Have You Done for Me Lately,” “Nasty,” “Control,” “When I Think Of You,” —with their complementary, tightly choreographed music videos — and “Let’s Wait Awhile,” Control became Jackson’s first No. 1 Pop album. The album also made Billboard chart history for having the longest continuous run on the Hot 100 with singles from one album, ultimately tallying a remarkable 65 consecutive weeks from that perch. To date, Control has sold more than 10 million copies worldwide.

On, January 28, 2022, Janet Jackson’s self-titled documentary event averaged 3.1 million total viewers across its premiere airings on Lifetime and A&E. Janet Jackson. is cable’s best non-fiction debut in three years. The doc also accrued 3.7 million video views across Lifetime and A&E TV Everywhere On-Domain platforms. With the all the airings on linear and video views on digital, the documentary has now reached over 30 million total viewers worldwide. On social media, #JanetJacksonDoc ranked #1 across all broadcast and cable television on during its premiere nights. The program garnered 1.1 million interactions throughout airings over the weekend, according to

Talkwalker*. #JanetJacksondoc was the top social program over the last year for Lifetime and A&E, and the most social program for Lifetime and A&E, and the most social program for Lifetime since Surviving R. Kelly. #JanetJacksonDoc was also the #1 trending hashtag on Twitter on 1/28.

As a testament to Janet Jackson’s legacy, her album Control rose to #1 on the iTunes US pop chart following the premiere of the doc. Currently, three of her albums – Control, Design of a Decade and Rhythm Nation – have entered the Top 10 on the iTunes US Chart. Eight albums in the Top 20 iTunes US Pop Chart belong to Janet with Control #1, Design of a Decade ranking as #2, The Velvet Rope as #5, Best of Number Ones as #5, Unbreakable as #7 and Damita Jo #10 in the top 10 alone. Additionally, on the US R&B and Soul chart, Rhythm Nation and self-titled Janet albums took the top two positions. Janet Jackson’s music videos filled all slots of the top 10 US pop videos on the iTunes downloads following the airing of the documentary with That’s the Way Love Goes, All for You, Rhythm Nation, If, You Want This, Again, Control, Miss You Much, Escapade and The Pleasure Principle. Janet Jackson also debuted the new song Luv I Luv, at the conclusion of the documentary.

 

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.