Concurrent Session

Brad is the Founder and CEO of JB Training Solutions. An accomplished public speaker and executive coach, Brad has been featured on CNN, CNBC, and Dr. Phil, and has been quoted in: The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Fortune, and USA Today. Brad is also the author of three business books including the critically acclaimed Manager 3.0: A Millennial’s Guide to Rewriting the Rules of Management, which you can read in Mandarin (assuming you can read Mandarin).

Prior to creating JB, Brad spent 15 years at advertising agency Leo Burnett in Chicago. Today, Brad presents for major organizations including Eli Lilly, Securitas, Top Tier Capital Partners, and Saint Laurent. When he’s not enjoying a robust buffet, you can find Brad playing racquetball or drafting the perfect fantasy football roster. Brad is left-handed.

Matt Adam serves as Chief Talent Strategist for NAS Recruitment Innovation, a leading Employment Branding & Recruitment Marketing firm. He has been an innovator and thought leader in the space for over 25 years. Today, his role is national in scope and designed to lead major account implementation and support strategic project consultation for many high-profile organizations.

With his finger on the pulse of the industry, Matt has shared knowledge on topics such as Employment Branding, Career Site Best Practices and The Future of Recruitment Marketing to audiences at SHRM, NAHCR, AAPPR, etc.

Matt has a Marketing Degree from Boston College and resides in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Mary Ann Downey, Principle and Co-Founder of HR Metrics Coach, and known as “Mad” to friends and colleagues, founded HR Metrics Coach because (she thinks) she knows what she should do when she “grows-up”. 

Mad has always been a renaissance woman, and is more interested in the connections between disciplines rather than specializing in a specific subject. Her non-traditional professional path and keen problem-solving aptitude make her uniquely qualified to help organizations maximize their human capital for the benefit of the enterprise and the individual. 

Mad has had the privilege of working with organizations from a variety of industries, sizes, and global footprints. She has provided in-house and virtual training to organizations such as GE, the Federal Reserve Board of Governors and ConAgra on a variety of human capital topics like Workforce Planning, Diversity and HR Analytics. 

Mad’s clients appreciate her sometimes irreverent, and always practical approach to solving their challenges. Her philosophy is that in a global, yet flat world the only source of competitive advantage is through people. While her undergraduate Economics professor was attempting to make a joke, she realized there is truth in the punch line that “the only asset that appreciates is human.”

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.

Lester S. Rosen is an attorney at law  and CEO of Employment Screening Resources (ESR), a national background screening company.  He is a consultant, writer, expert witness  and frequent presenter nationwide on pre-employment screening. He is the author of “The Safe Hiring Manual,” (3d Edition 2017/826 pages), the first comprehensive book on background screening.  He served as the chairperson of the steering committee that founded the Professional Background Screeners Association (PBSA),  served as its first co-chair and received the PBSA Lifetime Achievement Award in 2019. 

Peter Weddle has been the CEO of three HR consulting companies, a Partner in the Hay Group and the recipient of a Federal award for leadership-related research.  Described by The Washington Post as "... a man filled with ingenious ideas," he has authored or edited over two dozen books and been a columnist for the interactive edition of The Wall Street Journal, National Business Employment Weekly and CNN.com.

His most recent books include A Prescription for the Soul: A Historical Novel About Boomers & the American Dream, A Multitude of Hope: A Novel About Rediscovering the American Dream, The Career Fitness Workbook: How to Find, Win & Hang Onto the Job of Your Dreams, The Career Activist Republic and Next Practices: How to Be Better Than Best in Online Recruitment. 

Weddle is also the CEO of TAtech: the Association for Talent Acquisition Solutions.  TAtech is the global trade association for the talent acquisition technology industry.  Collectively, its Members power or operate over 60,000 sites worldwide and provide state-of-the-art products and innovative services for virtually every facet of talent acquisition.

An Airborne Ranger, Weddle is a graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point.  He has attended Oxford University and holds advanced degrees from Middlebury College and Harvard University.

Dick Finnegan is THE global turnover expert, having cut turnover by 30% and more for healthcare, manufacturing, logistics, distribution centers, call centers, and other industries…and on all six inhabited continents.

Dick has authored the top-selling SHRM-published book, The Power of Stay Interviews, along with four other books. BusinessWeek magazine has said “Finnegan offers fresh thinking for solving the turnover problem in any economy”. He has been similarly cited by Forbes, Chief Executive Magazine, and Consulting Magazine.

He holds bachelors and graduate degrees from The Pennsylvania State University and lives in Orlando, Florida.

As Vice President of Corporate Marketing and Branding, Womack directs the development of strategic marketing for the corporate marketing team and focuses on the recruitment needs of employers of all sizes. This includes overseeing business-to-business strategy including communications, advertising, promotions, events, and customer lifecycle and loyalty. In addition to leading corporate marketing efforts, Womack manages the sales training program at CareerBuilder. She works closely with her team of trainers to clearly communicate sales strategies, tactics, product developments and overall company goals to CareerBuilder’s sales force. Womack has been with the CareerBuilder organization for seven years. Prior to her role as vice president of marketing, Womack worked as a vice president in the sales training department and as a marketing team director. Before joining CareerBuilder, Womack worked in the real estate and mortgage industry. She has a bachelor’s degree from Florida State University and is pursuing her masters of business administration from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management.

Martin began his unique path towards “leveraging difference” at Harvard, earning his AB in Psychology & Social Relations in 1983. His PhD in Psychology was received from Stanford University in 1988, where his emphasis of study was on Personality and Social Psychology. The topic of his dissertation, entitled Distinguishing Repressive Coping from Impression Management, served as the beginning of his career-long exploration into emotion, conflict, and differences in identity. That work evolved into his current work—a unique approach to managing diversity, leveraging difference, and developing talent in organizations.

Martin’s captivating and thought-provoking teaching style has earned him praise and recognition from MBA students and Executive Education participants he has impacted at two of the top-ranked business schools in the country—currently at the Darden School of Business at the University of Virginia, and previously at the Amos Tuck School of Business Administration at Dartmouth College.

Martin teaches Leadership and Organizational Behavior at Darden, and has served as the Faculty Leader for the Leadership and Diversity section. And he served two years as the Associate Dean and Chief Diversity Officer for the Darden School, where he is worked to create a more diverse and inclusive environment for faculty, administration, staff, and students.

Michele Whitehead is Senior Manager of Client Services at Berkshire Associates. In her position, Michele is responsible for overseeing, developing, and implementing training and consulting services related to affirmative action and pay equity analysis.

With over 20 years in the human resource industry, Michele is an expert in HR practices and procedures. This experience allows her to develop and present training sessions to educate clients on the latest affirmative action, applicant management, compensation, and workforce analysis topics and trends. She has a true passion for educating fellow HR professionals, which is why she has been an active speaker throughout the country at conferences and meetings including the Society for Human Resource Management’s (SHRM) Talent Management and Annual Conferences.

Michele has a Master of Business Administration in Human Resource Management and Management Skills from New York State University at Buffalo. Michele holds both SPHR and SHRM-SCP Certification and is a member of the national Society for Human Resource Management.