In-person Pass

Karl Ahlrichs specializes in helping professionals make order from chaos. He is a national speaker, author, and consultant, presenting on the people issues in all industries, and is often quoted in the local and national media. 

Karl’s experience is ideally suited to times of organizational change as he pulls on risk management and organizational development theories to replace “best practices” with “next practices”. He owes much of his communications mastery to working as a writer and editor in daily media, to on-the-job writing experience and to the process of becoming a published author.

He joined Gregory & Appel in 2010 after serving as a founding partner of ExactHire, bringing his HR, operations, diversity & belonging, and learning & development skills with him. Karl’s affinity for design, composition and learning started at a very young age, by taking and examining thousands of boring pictures with the goal of improving his craft. He loves deploying that practice-to-improve approach with all manner of hobbies including writing haiku, mastering cutting-edge technology and learning Spanish.

In 2003, he was named the SHRM Human Resource Professional of the Year for the State of Indiana. He is on the Boards of several organizations, including the Maryland CPA Society.  He has lived in Scotland and Spain and lives to explore new experiences with his wife and family.

Steve is a member of the Speaker Hall of Fame and was recognized in 2015 as one of the top 10 motivational speakers globally from over 9,000 candidates.

In addition to being one of the most sought-after speakers in North America, he has written 11 books and was named Author of the Year by Advantage/Forbes for his book Enjoy The Ride.

Steve built a multimillion-dollar company, which the Pittsburgh Business Times named one of the fastest-growing privately held companies in the region. Steve is one of SHRM’s top-rated speakers. This is his 18th consecutive year speaking at the SHRM Conference.

A member of the prestigious Speaker Hall of Fame, Barbara Glanz, CSP, CPAE, works with organizations that want to improve morale, retention, and service.  Using her Master’s degree in Adult Learning, she has spoken on all 7 continents and in all 50 states.  She has authored fourteen best-selling business books, including “The Simple Truths of Service Inspired by Johnny the Bagger®”, co-authored with Ken Blanchard, “The Simple Truths of Appreciation,” CARE Packages for the Workplace – Dozens of Little Things You Can Do to Regenerate Spirit at Work,” and “180 Ways to Spread Contagious Enthusiasm™.” She lives and breathes her personal motto, “Spreading Contagious Enthusiasm™.”  She has been a popular speaker at the national SHRM conferences since 1997.  You can reach her at www.barbaraglanz.com.

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.