General Session

Bettina A. Deynes, SHRM-SCP,  IPMA-CP , is Vice President, Human Resources at SHRM. She has more than 20 years of experience in HR.  Prior to joining SHRM, Bettina was Director of Human Resources for the City of Alexandria, Va., where she was responsible to the city manager for the effective and efficient management of all human resource responsibilities, programs and projects. Prior to that role, she was director of human resources for the National Association of Social Workers in Washington, D.C.

For two decades, Polly LaBarre has used her writing and speaking to help make organizations more resilient, innovative and inspiring - and to embolden and equip leaders at every level to make a meaningful impact. LaBarre’s work is driven by three core questions: How can organizations change the way they change in order to become endlessly adaptable and gain an advantage over time? How do you embed innovation as a DNA level capability inside an organization? How do we unleash and organize human potential in ever more powerful ways? With her partners (including Gary Hamel) at the Management Lab (MLab), LaBarre works with leading organizations to make real progress on those ideas and accelerate the development and adoption of a post-bureaucratic, 21st century management model.

LaBarre began this exploration as a founding member at Fast Company magazine where she helped shape the remarkable success of a magazine that changed the way leaders at all levels think about working and winning. She also co-authored the bestselling book Mavericks at Work: Why the Most Original Minds in Business Win which has been published in 16 languages. LaBarre is currently at work on a book about the future of management and large-scale change with Gary Hamel.

LaBarre is also the co-founder of MIX (Management Innovation eXchange), a pioneering open innovation platform launched by the MLab. Dedicated to making progress on the big challenge of reinventing management for the 21st century, the MIX is: a discovery engine for the most progressive management practices and ideas; an active community of in-the-trenches management innovators and change agents from around the world; and an experimental laboratory for developing and testing bold new ideas and equipping management practitioners with new principles, methods and models. The MIX hosts the world’s leading idea contest in the field of management (the M-Prize) and an annual gathering of the vanguard of management innovators, the MIX Mashup, which LaBarre designs and hosts.

LaBarre’s writing has appeared in numerous publications, including Fast Company, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Harvard Business Review online and the McKinsey Quarterly. Her widely syndicated blog, Fresh MIX, delivers agenda-setting ideas about 21st-century organizations. She has also been a frequent guest on radio and television programs far and wide.

A popular keynote speaker, moderator/interviewer, LaBarre has addressed hundreds of audiences around the world – from large corporate and association gatherings to intimate top-management retreats. A brilliant storyteller, LaBarre takes audiences on an inspiring journey – bringing to life the people, organizations and ideas on the fringe that are creating the future. She reveals the most practical and high-impact ways to innovate, adapt and succeed -- redefining how leadership, change, innovation, collaboration, employee engagement, organizational culture, accountability, disruptive strategy are done.

LaBarre is currently at work on a book about the future of management and large-scale change with Gary Hamel. She is on the board of advisors of TakingITGlobal, the leading online community for connecting and empowering young people to make a difference in the world. She is a graduate of Yale University.

Chai Feldblum began her service as a Commissioner of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in April 2010. She was confirmed by the Senate for a second term, which will end on July 1, 2018. During Commissioner Feldblum's service on the Commission, she has focused on all the employment civil rights issues within the jurisdiction of the EEOC. She has focused in particular on the employment of people with disabilities, pregnancy accommodation, sexual orientation and transgender discrimination, harassment prevention, the structure and process of the federal sector complaint system and strategic planning for the Commission. Prior to her appointment to the EEOC, Commissioner Feldblum was a Professor of Law at the Georgetown University Law Center. She founded the Law Center's Federal Legislation and Administrative Clinic, which represented a range of organizational clients focused on social justice. She also founded Workplace Flexibility 2010, a policy enterprise focused on finding common ground between employers and employees on workplace flexibility issues. Commissioner Feldblum played a leading role in helping to draft and negotiate the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 and the ADA Amendments Act of 2008. She has also worked to advance lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights and was one of the drafters of the original Employment Nondiscrimination Act. Commissioner Feldblum is the first openly lesbian Commissioner of the EEOC and is the fourth person with a disability to serve on the Commission. Commissioner Feldblum clerked for Judge Frank Coffin of the First Circuit Court of Appeals and for Supreme Court Justice Harry A. Blackmun after receiving her J.D. from Harvard Law School. She received her B.A. degree from Barnard College.

 

Patrick Lencioni is founder and president of The Table Group, a firm dedicated to providing organizations with ideas, products, and services that improve teamwork, clarity, and employee engagement.

Lencioni’s passion for organizations and teams is reflected in his writing, speaking, and executive consulting. He is the author of eleven best-selling books with nearly five million copies sold. His capstone book, The Advantage, is the pre-eminent source on organizational health and became an immediate best-seller. After twelve years in print, his classic book, The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, remains a weekly fixture on national best-seller lists. He is also author to The Ideal Team Player, a much-anticipated follow-up to his team book.

The wide-spread appeal of Lencioni’s leadership models have yielded a diverse base of speaking and consulting clients, including a mix of Fortune 500 companies, professional sports organizations, the military, non-profits, schools, and churches. 

Lencioni addresses thousands of leaders each year at world-class organizations and national conferences. Consistently the top rated keynote speaker at major events, Lencioni shares his insights and inspires his audiences through his accessibility, humor and story-telling.

Named in Fortune magazine as one of the ‘ten new gurus you should know,’ Lencioni and his work have been featured in USA TODAY, Bloomberg Businessweek, and Harvard Business Review, to name a few.

Prior to founding his firm, he worked as a corporate executive for Sybase, Oracle and Bain & Company. Pat lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with his wife and four sons.

 

Chris Wallace is the anchor of Fox News Sunday (FNS), Fox Broadcasting Company's Sunday morning public affairs program. He also plays a major role in  Fox News Channel's America's Election HQ coverage and is based in Washington, D.C.

Each Sunday, Wallace interviews that week’s top newsmakers—including the top Presidential candidates, senior officials in the Obama Administration, Congressional and world leaders. This summer, he was a moderator of the Fox News Republican Presidential debate, that drew an audience of 24 million viewers.  In 2016, he will report from both national conventions—and will be an anchor in Fox News’s Election Night coverage.

Over his career, Wallace has won every major broadcast news award for his reporting, including three Emmy Awards, the Dupont-Columbia Silver Baton, the Peabody Award, and the Sol Taishoff Award for Broadcast Journalism from the National Press Foundation. Most recently, he won the Paul White Award for lifetime achievement from the Radio Television Digital News Association.  Wallace has been described as an "equal opportunity inquisitor" by The Boston Globe, and "an aggressive journalist," "sharp edged" and "solid" by The Washington Post.

Before joining Fox News, Wallace worked at ABC News for 14 years where he served as the Chief Correspondent for Primetime Thursday and as a substitute host for Nightline. During his tenure with ABC News, Wallace hosted multiple groundbreaking investigations and received numerous awards for his work.

Prior to joining ABC News, Wallace was with NBC News where he served as the chief White House correspondent from 1982-1989. While at NBC, he covered the 1980, 1984 and 1988 presidential campaigns as well as the Democratic and Republican conventions in those years. Wallace anchored Meet the Press from 1987-1988, making him the only person to have hosted two Sunday talk shows. He also anchored the Sunday edition of NBC Nightly News from 1982-1984 and 1986-1987. Wallace joined NBC as a reporter with WNBC-TV in New York City in 1975.