Leadership & Development

Dr. Kelvin McCree is a globally recognized thought leader, six - time author, with an expertise in change management, mental agility and cultivating an agile workforce. His work is focused on helping teams to thrive in the midst of disruption. His ground breaking new book "The Pivot: Leading the Future of Work" provides organizations and businesses the trends, trajectories, challenges and opportunities in the changing workforce.

He has impacted hundreds of organizations from Wells Fargo, Hilton Hotels, Marriott, Department of Defense, Urban League, Bristol Myers Squibb and South University just to name a few. 

Dr. McCree is a SHRM  Recertification Provider, holds a Masters of Executive Leadership and a Doctorate in Strategic Leadership, Certifications in Diversity, Equity & Inclusion, Inclusive Leadership, as well as multiple Advanced Executive Coaching Certifications recognized by the International Coaching Federation.

Justin Reinert is an experienced Talent Leader with 20 years of corporate learning experience. He holds an MA in Educating Adults from DePaul University, along with multiple industry leading certifications, including the SHRM-SCP, CPTD, and SPHR. He has led learning at organizations as large as HSBC and Oracle and built award winning learning functions at smaller high-growth firms. He is currently the Founder & Principal of Performance Accelerated Learning, providing executive coaching and bespoke talent development programs across multiple industries. In 2022, he published his first book, Creating Belonging, and is currently working on the 2nd edition.

Josh Gottesman is the Chief Human Resources Officer for the Orthodox Union. He plays an integral role in all people strategies, global recruitment efforts, professional development activities, and compliance across the organization. He has been a corporate trainer and facilitator for 7+ years and is especially skilled at building effective, productive, and working relationships with client and staff. He has an MBA in Industrial Organizational Psychology and HR Management and is a Senior Certified Professional in the Society for Human Resources Management.

Chris Dotson is the CEO of Holistic Leadership Solutions. He is a seasoned leadership professional with a rich 20-year career spanning hospitality, healthcare, and education. His coaching style is strength-focused, collaborative, and reflective. His core values are curiosity, learning, growth, resilience, and kindness. Chris has an MS in HR and Organizational Development from Eastern Michigan University. He holds several coaching and team certifications including Gallup-Certified Strengths Coach, Workplace Big 5 Advanced Team Building, DiSC, and the LEA 360 Suite. He is the current President of Greater Ann Arbor SHRM. He supports leaders and organizations with leadership coaching, team development, and talent management strategy.

Shari Harley, author of How to Say Anything to Anyone, is known globally as an engaging, funny, content-rich business speaker. Her international training firm, Candid Culture, is making it easier to tell the truth at work. Shari is bringing candor back to the workplace. A former HR practitioner and operations leader, Shari’s practical approach has led her to speak and train in Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, India, Dubai and Australia. From “Making Meetings Work” and “Delegating Better” to “Managing Your Career” and “Saying Anything to Anyone,” Shari’s tips are sure to delight and inform in a real, direct and very funny way. Watch videos and learn more about Shari at www.candidculture.com.

Prudence Pitter is a business executive with 27+ years of broad Human Resource leadership expertise across several industries. In addition to her HR and consulting experience she previously served as Adjunct Professor of HR, for 9+ years. She is currently a Board Member for the Women Mentoring Network, and volunteers her time to help junior HR professionals learn the skills needed to succeed in their career. Her passion is delivering leadership development presentations to HR and business leaders while also inspiring these leaders to align people practices to business priorities while keeping the employee experience as a key focus. Prudence enjoys writing about HR trends, and influencing leadership behaviors that enhance the employee experience.

Podcast
 

As CEO of the Learning Guild, David Kelly constantly explores the convergence of learning and technology, demonstrating a profound commitment to transforming workplaces and enriching lives through innovative learning strategies. With over two decades of experience in learning and performance consulting, he brings his passion to life in his daily work building events and resources with the Guild and as a dynamic speaker and writer, inspiring others to view their work through a fresh, technology-enhanced lens.

Scott is an internationally recognized crisis negotiator, advisor, trainer and keynote speaker. He is known and respected for his experience negotiating in highly charged situations, with high stakes and when the situation requires sensitivity to the human element. Clients, audiences and students alike, find Scott’s teachings, insightful, inspiring and pragmatic.   

Scott worked as a hostage/crisis negotiator with one of the largest regional SWAT teams in the United States for many years before moving into the role of a negotiations speaker and trainer. He has over 20 years of law enforcement experience and retired from a Chicago area police department in 2023 at the rank of Lieutenant. He was trained by in negotiation by the FBI and has studied at the Harvard University Program on Negotiation, at IMD Business School, and he continues to receive training from the world’s top negotiators.  

​Scott is a prolific trainer within the negotiation field and travels the country and around the world speaking to a wide variety of audiences. He has taught negotiations at Harvard University, for the FBI, and has keynoted for companies such as Microsoft and Bosch.  In 2016, he was invited to give a TEDx talk titled “The Secrets of Hostage Negotiators”, which has received over 1 million views.  His visibility as a speaker and educator through TEDx and other venues has reached global status.  
 
Scott currently resides in the Chicago area and is a Partner and co-founder with the Negotiations Collective, where he works with organizations and their leaders on how to have difficult conversations to resolve conflict and increase their influence.    

Kate Frear, PhD, SHRM-SCP has over 15 years of experience in human capital innovation and leadership development. She is Co-Founder and CEO of Joyntly, which is a soft skills learning platform that combines behavioral science and algorithms to generate personalized learning plans targeted to each learners’ specific needs. As a former professor of management, and research scientist in organizational behavior, her mission is to use the latest science and technology to help people work better together in teams and organizations.

David studies the keystones for success and achievement in the areas of Leadership, Communication and Personal Performance.  He studied over 3,000 top performers to find what the top leaders, salespeople and employees do.  And more importantly, he discovered the roadblocks that hold people back.  For over 25 years, David has worked with hundreds of clients of all sizes in many industries such as technology, banking, communications, healthcare, manufacturing and distribution.  He specializes in leadership, communication, emotional intelligence, sales and personal development and brings his insights to you to create breakthrough solutions.