Concurrent Session

Mr. Rittof is the President and CEO of Modern Management, Inc. and an employee relations consultant His proactive approach to employee relations has roots in a broad spectrum of activities including organizational re-design studies, employee opinion surveys, communication audits, and labor relations seminars. As President/CEO, he leads a team of dedicated professionals in helping executives, managers, and supervisors face the challenges of the future. A graduate of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Mr. Rittof holds a B.A. and M.A. in Organizational Communication. He has taught at the university level and is co-author of Quality Circles, a textbook utilized by several universities and businesses. Since joining the firm over 33 years ago, he has consulted in virtually all aspects of employee relations. His experience encompasses healthcare, manufacturing, gaming, hospitality, banking, services, insurance, and government. A few of Mr. Rittof’s many accomplishments include successfully assisting numerous organizations in maintaining non-union status; providing preventive management training programs regarding the union campaign process; developing identification and action planning processes for responding to employee morale issues; and implementing communication plans for organizations in transition. He has also provided coaching and guidance for executives wishing to improve their public speaking skills and frequently facilitated executive retreats for strategic planning and team building.

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.

 

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.

Josh Miller is the foremost authority on all things regarding the Gen Z workforce. As the 18-year-old founder and CEO of Deciding Edge, a research consultancy helping organizations define and adapt to the next generation, he is frequently called upon by trade associations and Fortune 500 companies to offer nuanced and authentic insights into the next-generation workforce.

Josh was formerly director of Gen Z studies at XYZ University, a generational research firm, where he co-authored two groundbreaking research papers and helped conduct an international research study. In addition to his role as CEO of Deciding Edge, Josh is a student at the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University, where he studies journalism and economics.

Autumn Anderson, Sr. Marketing Manager of Talent Acquisition at Sodexo, is responsible for the company’s employment brand strategy in the U.S. She and her team of Employment Brand Managers work together to develop candidate-focused content for social media, email campaigns, a careers blog and the company website. Additionally, her team also oversees the strategy for several HR technology platforms, including those focused on text communication, employee advocacy, the candidate journey and more. Autumn’s past experience includes recruiting, job optimization and recruitment marketing at Careerbuilder, as well as managing a social media strategy for Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.

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.

Michelle Reed is the chief marketing officer of SkillSurvey, she’s a results-oriented, hands-on marketing and communications executive with more than two decades of experience working for technology companies.  She’s held leadership roles in product development, corporate communications, HR, college recruiting and organizational development before finding her “home” in marketing.

She’s a passionate leader who enjoys working for organizations that help customers drive performance and results. She was drawn to SkillSurvey given its commitment to helping customer improve their hiring and helping individuals find the right opportunity to flourish and contribute.

Jon Drogheo, MEd. CTRM, Director of Talent Acquisition at Empowered Partnerships, LLC, a 100% dedicated mental and behavioral health national recruiting firm based in Colorado. Jon has a 20-year career in Human Resources and Talent Acquisition in corporate, agency and RPO organizations enhancing employment brand, candidate experience and TA performance. Jon has built and managed data driven recruitment marketing practices, leveraging social media and analytics to target, attract and hire top talent. Jon has a Masters Degree in Organizational Performance and Change from Colorado State University and earned his Certified Transform Recruitment Marketer (CTRM) designation from the Transform Academy.

Tim Sackett, SCP, is the CEO of HRUTech.com, a leading technical recruiting firm. Tim has over 20 years of combined executive HR and talent acquisition experience working for Fortune 500 companies. Tim is a highly sought-after international speaker on leadership, HR &TA Tech, talent acquisition, and HR execution. Tim is currently a Senior Faculty member with the Josh Bersin Academy. He is also an Angel investor and advisor and sits on multiple HR Technology corporate boards.

Tim is the author of the newly released book The Talent Fix, Vol. 2. He also writes daily on his blog, the Tim Sackett Project. Tim is married to a hall-of-fame wife, has three sons, and his dog Tucker. In 2023, he was named a Top Global HR & Recruitment Influencer by HR Executive. He has more Twitter (X) followers than his 3 Gen Z sons and is sponsored on stage by diet Mt. Dew.

Kathleen is currently the President of The HeaRt Group, a human resource consulting firm, with expertise in organizational development, talent acquisition and management, employee engagement, performance leadership, compensation and benefits. She is the former Assistant Vice Chancellor of Human Resources at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences in Little Rock, Arkansas. Prior to that, she was Corporate Vice President of Human Resources at Edgewater Technology in Fayetteville, AR for five years, helping with the acquisition of 44 companies to form Staffmark Inc., later becoming Edgewater. Prior to this position she held various executive human resources positions at Acxiom Corporation, Express Human Resources and M.M. Cohn. In her last position, she was responsible for the human resource function in the UAMS Medical Center, which has over 6500 employees, as well as campus responsibility for the operation functions that includes compensation, HR analytics, recruitment, organizational development, employee relations, affirmative action, immigration, compliance, benefits, employee services, and performance management for 11,000 employees. The HeaRt Group’s focus is to work with small to mid-sized business owners and executives to develop Human Resource practices best aligned with their business objectives and strategic plans. The HeaRt Group provides common sense human resource advice by solving Human Resource challenges, handling Human Resource issues and partnering with clients to enhance their organization. Ms. McComber has over 40 years’ experience in the human resource profession and has done extensive work in the areas of compensation, benefits, employee relations, performance leadership, diversity and organizational development 30 of those at the senior level. She is a member of the Central Arkansas Human Resource Association (CAHRA) and the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) for many years. She has served on the CAHRA board of directors twice serving as Chair. She has also served on the SHRM Board of Directors for seven years and held the top volunteer position as Chair in 1998. She served four years on the Human Resource Certification Board and six years on the SHRM Foundation Board serving as chair in 2006. She holds a B.S. in Education from the University of Arkansas and a M.A. in Management from Webster University. She is on the faculty of the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences in the College of Public Health and Webster University teaching leadership and human resource classes at the graduate level.