Concurrent Session

Patti Perez is on a mission to transform workplace culture. She is the founder of PersuasionPoint Inc. and combines her experience as a licensed California attorney, a professionally-certified HR executive, a tech company leader, a specialist in the prevention and resolution of workplace drama, an expert witness in state and federal court, a state regulator and as an entrepreneur to create a revolutionary shift in the way we communicate and connect at work.

Patti is the author of The Drama-Free Workplace: How You Can Prevent Unconscious Bias, Sexual Harassment, Ethics Lapses, and Inspire a Healthy Culture (Wiley 2019), a one-of-a-kind, informative resource that explains what it takes to build and sustain an equitable, inclusive and healthy workplace culture.

The Inclusive Leadership Speaker

Melissa Majors is a crowd-pleasing speaker who masters brain-friendly talks that engage her audiences and spark not just inspiration but action as well. Melissa Majors, CEO of Melissa Majors Consulting is an innovator and optimizer of education, inclusion, and leadership strategies. She has dedicated her career to maximizing the business impact associated with these areas of focus.

Her firm has extensive experience and a proven reputation for driving better business outcomes through innovative and inclusive strategic planning. They bring deep expertise in improving profitability and innovation, boosting team and organizational
performance, and optimizing inclusion strategies. Melissa formally studied strategy and innovation at Harvard University. Melissa is featured in publications such as Forbes Magazine, Smart Meetings, The Meeting Professional, NorthStar Meetings Group's Eventful Podcast, The Event DR, and on the keynote stage at events such as Meeting Professional's International's WEC, The Northwest Event Show, Catalyst Events, Legg Mason's DEI Conference, and many more. Melissa delivers talks on various subjects associated with leadership learning, and"blameless" inclusion. She differentiates her content by blending research, neuroscience, purposeful stories, and fun.
 

Angela M. Clements is the Principal Attorney and Founder of Clements Employment Law. Angela is an experienced advocate for entrepreneurs and individuals with challenging employment law issues. Angela services include: employment law counseling and training; workplace investigations; litigation/claims; and traditional labor law (labor negotiations and grievance arbitrations). Angela’s clients include entrepreneurs, large companies, public agencies, and start-up executives. Angela’s firm has offices in Santa Rosa, CA and in San Francisco, CA, but serves clients throughout the state. Angela has been named a Northern California Super Lawyer Rising Star in 2017, 2018, and 2019. Angela graduated from the University of California Berkeley (Boalt Hall) School of Law, where she received academic distinction for coursework in labor and employment law. Prior to starting her own firm, Angela was Senior Counsel at Hanson Bridgett LLP in the Labor and Employment group. Angela also served as counsel to the Berkeley Law Center on Health, Economic & Family Security. In this role, Angela developed model legislation for national paid family leave. While in law school, Angela was as a law clerk in the City Attorney's Office of the City and County of San Francisco. Prior to law school, Angela was a Congressional lobbyist for the Human Rights Campaign in Washington, D.C. Angela maintains an active pro bono practice, including representing asylum-seekers and advising local nonprofits on employment law issues. She is an active member of the Bar Association of San Francisco and the Sonoma County Bar Association. Angela is admitted to practice in state and federal court throughout California. Originally from the Great Plains, Angela maintains a deep love of the outdoors and wild, open space. When she is not practicing law, you can find her hiking a trail or camping with her wife and two daughters, usually somewhere in beautiful Sonoma County.

Richard J. Simmons is a partner in the Labor and Employment Practice Group in Sheppard Mullin's Los Angeles office.

Richard is a lawyer’s lawyer and represents employers in wage-hour, discrimination and wrongful discharge lawsuits. He has represented employers in over 100 class action lawsuits and landmark decisions. When the California IWC was sued, it asked Richard to defend the case over all other firms.

Richard represents employers in various employment law matters involving litigation throughout the country and general advice regarding state and federal wage and hour laws, employment discrimination, wrongful discharge, employee discipline and termination, employee benefits, affirmative action, union representation proceedings, and contract arbitrations.

Michael Mulqueeney, Johnson & Dugan, has over 20 years of experience in employer benefits helping organizations tailor benefits solutions for small to mid-size firms seeking to optimize their employee benefit resources.

Sean helped start Lyra Health in 2015 and leads Lyra's new partnership efforts with employers and other partners. Prior to Lyra, Sean worked at Castlight Health, The White House's National Economic Council, The Brookings
Institution's Health Care Reform Center, and Khulisa Management Services. Sean earned a bachelor's degree in economics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, a Master in Public Policy from the Harvard Kennedy School, and a Master in Business Administration from the Harvard Business School.

As founder of Corporate Advisors Group, Kevin Mahoney joined Raymond James as a Managing Director, Investments and Senior Institutional Consultant in 2015. Kevin brings over 25 years’ experience in the financial services industry. His areas of expertise include fiduciary risk management, ERISA issues, qualified and non-qualified retirement plans, liability driven investing, philanthropic services, employee education and communication. 

Kevin led the launch of SHRM 401(k) Solutions by Raymond James. SHRM 401(k) Solutions by Raymond James offers fiduciary investment advisory services to SHRM’s ecosystem.  We help employees make meaningful progress towards their financial goals and employers meet their fiduciary responsibilities.

Lorne Epstein, SHRM-SCP, MSOD, is a social scientist, keynote, and Vistage speaker who consults with senior leaders on improving decision-making outcomes by reducing biases. Over 50,000 professionals have taken his workshops worldwide. He has been quoted in Forbes, Cosmopolitan, Christian Science Monitor, and other publications. His research focuses on improving decision-making and reducing the impacts of unconscious bias in the workplace. Lorne has been leading experiential workshops since 1993. His book, You're Hired! Interview Skills to Get the Job has been downloaded over a half-million times worldwide. Lorne is currently studying cognitive neuroscience at the master’s level at George Mason University. He was admitted to the Phi Kappa Phi Honor Society and Psi Chi, The National Honor Society of Psychology.

I was a talent acquisition leader for 23 years supporting teams in the United States, Brazil and India. Many of my teams won awards for their performance. I wrote the National Talent Acquisition and Diversity Hiring plan for the United States Forest Service.

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.

Rick Altman has been hired by hundreds of companies, listened to by tens of thousands of professionals, and read by millions of people, all of whom seek better results with their presentation content and delivery. He covers the whole of the industry, from message crafting, through presentation design, slide creation, software technique, and delivery. He is the host of the Presentation Summit, now in its 18th season as the most prominent learning event in the world for the presentation community.

Shola Kaye is the author of two books and an award-winning international speaker on Communication, Inclusive Leadership and Empathy at Work. She’s passionate about helping organisations create an atmosphere of belonging for their people and for those individuals, in turn, to be given the skills and opportunity to communicate with power and clarity. Shola’s Empathy to Equity Blueprint programme helps organisations improve staff inclusion and engagement. When individuals have the confidence and tools to share their brilliance, amazing things happen. People are transformed into leaders. Teams and groups perform better. Everyone gains. Shola’s work has appeared in a variety of industry journals, she’s a LinkedIn Learning instructor, and her clients include The United Nations and Deloitte.