Concurrent Session

Sean is a recognized thought leader and innovator in labor economics and the Future of Work, having invented Quantum Labor Analysis that marries economic theory with artificial intelligence to produce the most advanced real-time knowledge graph of jobs, skills, training, and labor market intelligence in the world.

Sean is the Co-Chair of the Entrepreneurs Circle of the Canadian American Business Council (CABC) and a member of OECD's Future of Work Forum Engagement Group. In 2020, Sean was invited by the Government of Canada to join the Global Partnership on Artificial Intelligence (GPAI) and represent Canada as one of the 15 founding countries. GPAI is one of the most extensive collaborations on AI policy and the first international standard for AI.

Prior to founding SkyHive, Sean led a $250 million multinational company with 500 employees and 23 global offices.

Kelly Lockwood Primus, Chief Executive Officer, oversees the strategy, research development and client relationship management to help our clients reach their global diversity goals.

Prior to being appointed CEO of Leading NOW, Kelly was CEO & President of its Leading Women brand.

Prior to joining Leading Women, Kelly was a member of the executive team for WFF, a national non-profit women’s leadership organization. As Vice President for Marketing & Communications, Kelly was instrumental in returning the organization to prominence in the foodservice industry as the authority for women’s leadership development, and drove participation in the organization’s live and virtual events to “sell-out” status.

Before her time working within women’s leadership development organizations, Kelly was a member of the executive team at Primo Water, a publicly held CPG company, in the role of Vice President, Marketing & Communications. Recruited pre-IPO, Kelly was challenged with articulating the brand promise, creating the brand communication strategy and instituting integrated marketing campaigns to drive retailer and consumer brand preference.

Matt Baxter is a serial entrepreneur. He started his first business at the age of 15, owning and operating Stony Pointe Lawn Care for over six years, before selling the company in July 2015. From this experience, Baxter experienced firsthand the hiring process's pain points, which led him to launch his current venture, Wedge, shortly after graduating from Hope College.

Today, Baxter is the CEO of Wedge, the one-way recorded video screening solution that enables job seekers to show off their true selves. Earlier this year, Wedge closed its seed funding round, raising $1 million in total. Baxter is focused intently on driving success and further establishing himself as an industry leader, building out the Wedge development team, and scaling its partnerships and integrations.

Baxter hosts "The Matt Baxter Show," dedicated to people finding their purpose. The show is an opportunity to have conversations spanning purpose related topics with people who love what they do every day.

Dan is a Partner and leader of PwC’s HR Technology and Transformation practice. He has more than 30 years of consulting history delivering process and technology solutions to solve client business problems across multiple industries. His engagements have primarily been in the Human Capital Management (HCM) strategy, HR business transformation and HR systems implementation areas.

Dan has led over 40 HR strategy, HCM solution selection and HCM roadmap projects. He has led over 75 HR technology-enabled transformation implementation projects with half of those using Cloud HCM solutions. He holds a BS in Computer Science from the University of Alabama.

Joe Urbanski believes an Undeniable Culture™ inspires its people to unleash their best selves, take home more wins and less stress to their families, and create incredible value for the company, its customers, and community. For more than two decades, he has worked with HR and training departments, consulting and coaching 750+ executives and leaders at 400+ global organizations, and facilitating 800+ kickass trainings, strategic retreats, and leadership programs for 480,000 people. Joe has a remarkable understanding of how to transform the workplace experience. Plus, you’ll have more fun and laughs than you’d expect.

Tom Brunskill is the co-founder and CEO of Forage, a job simulation platform that helps students bridge the gap between education and work opportunities. On a mission to make education-to-workforce pathway more equitable, Tom co-founded Forage in 2017 to provide the ability to preskill through virtual job simulations produced by the world’s top companies, including J.P. Morgan, Lyft and Walmart, to name a few. By breaking down barriers to gaining workplace-specific skills, Tom hopes to level the opportunity playing field and empower anyone to pursue their dream career. Tom started his career as a corporate lawyer at a multinational law firm in Australia before moving to San Francisco and has been featured in Business Insider, Financial Times and TechCrunch, among others.

Kerri Nelson, Ph.D., is the Director of Mission Research at SHRM. She is responsible for leading, developing, and designing strategic, public-facing research that provides organizations, business leaders, and policymakers with evidence-based insights at the intersection of people and work. She also partners with public and private organizations to produce research related to work, worker, and workplace. Kerri has led research on a variety of topics including pay equity, skills-based hiring, untapped talent pools, workplace culture, and the global workforce. Her work has been featured in top news outlets, on podcasts and webinars, and on the Hill.

Roselle Rogers, SPHR, SHRM-SCP, is the Vice President for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at Circa™ with responsibility for leading its DEI strategy and thought leadership initiatives. She is a subject matter expert in HR/OFCCP Compliance and diversity and frequently speaks on these topics at various HR conferences and webinars. Prior to this role, Rogers was responsible for the company’s OFCCP compliance operations for its federal contractor clients. She has more than 30 years of HR experience and holds senior level professional certifications with HRCI and SHRM. She currently serves as the Vice President and Secretary of the Milwaukee Industry Liaison Group (ILG), a member of the Chicago ILG, a presenter on the Circa OFCCP webinar series, is the lead editor of the Circa publication, The OFCCP Digest, and an in-house expert on the online forum Ask the Experts. Roselle has served as a Director on the Metro Milwaukee (MM) SHRM Board, chaired the MM SHRM Certification Committee, and facilitated the SHRM SPHR/PHR Certification course for three years.

Rick Grimaldi is the author of “Flex” and a partner at Fisher Phillips, one of America’s preeminent labor and employment law firms representing employers, where he works with companies both large and small on solving their most complex workplace challenges. Rick has served employers and employees in Pennsylvania in high-ranking public service positions, worked as a human resources professional, and spent years in private practice partnering with companies to help them adapt to the ever-changing business environment, achieve their workplace goals and become better employers that are ultimately rewarded by the market.

James A. Paretti, Jr. is an experienced management-side employment and labor relations attorney with in-depth political and policy knowledge of labor, pension, healthcare and employment law, regulations and legislation. Jim is well versed in all aspects of legislative and political processes with demonstrated knowledge in the substance of federal labor and employment policy. He has over two decades of experience working with federal legislators and policymakers, including former Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, Chairmen of the U.S. House Committee on Education and the Workforce, and senior level administration officials.

Prior to joining Littler, Jim was chief of staff and senior counsel to the acting chair of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. He provided legal and political counsel with respect to all aspects of agency business, administered and managed the Office of the Chair where he was responsible for over 2,200 employees and a 375 million dollar annual budget, and served as primary liaison to regulated stakeholders and Capitol Hill. His extensive experience includes developing policy and providing legal counsel on the Committee on Education and Labor in the U.S. House of Representatives as well as coordinating external communications and media relations for a senior member of Congress. Jim represented corporate and nonprofit clients in employment litigation in federal and state court, before administrative agencies and in private arbitration while with two Boston firms.

During law school, he held positions as editor as well as note and comment editor for the New York University Law Review