Todd Brodie, Ph.D., SHRM-SCP, CHRP, Chartered FCIPD, PCC, HRMP
employee ombudsman, The US Oncology Network at McKesson, faculty partner/adjunct facilitator
Human Capital Institute
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 Todd Brodie, PhD., SPHR, GPHR, CHRP, is an Executive Coach and Senior Human Resource Professional. He has provided strategic support and coaching to leadership teams located throughout North America, Latin America, Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom. His past experience includes Human Resource and front line leadership roles in the Insurance, Financial Services, Hospitality and Gaming industries in multiple countries. Todd has earned a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD.) degree in Management from California Coast University and is currently working towards the Master Certified Coaching (MCC) designation through the International Coaching Federation.

SESSIONS:

Seminar | Change Management: Leading Successful Transformations*

Sunday, October 22, 2017 - 8:30am to 5:00pm
Stephen Shields
Gallup
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SESSIONS:
Peta Hellman
World Bank Group
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SESSIONS:
Rodney Harrison
Ogletree Deakins
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Rodney Harrison  is a shareholder with the law firm Ogletree, Deakins, Nash, Smoak & Stewart.  He has practiced in the areas of labor and employment law since 1995.  In addition to advising clients on a wide variety of labor and employment related topics, Rodney has assisted numerous employers in developing and implementing legally defensible reimbursement programs for the use of personally owned automobiles by employees to make deliveries to customers.     In addition, Rodney has defended both franchisors and franchisees in numerous federal and state wage and hour class actions involving the alleged under-reimbursement of automobile expenses.

SESSIONS:
Mary Beth Guarisco, CMP
senior manager, Specialty Services & Programming
New Orleans Convention & Visitors Bureau
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Raised in a family with a diverse heritage with deep roots in New Orleans, dating back to 1852, MaryBeth loves the people, cuisine, and music of her city. At age 16, she developed a love for live jazz, attending concerts by Ellis Marsalis, patriarch of the Marsalis family of musicians. She published an article about this experience entitled: Waiting for Mr. Marsalis.  

MaryBeth also holds the distinction of graduating college without an understanding of basic math. 

Her passion for New Orleans drew her back home after years living in Manhattan, working in the film and art industry.  For the past 15 years, she has worked with the New Orleans Convention & Visitors Bureau’s Convention Services team, as an advocate and liaison for clients, industry partners and professionals, always with the goal of a positive experience for conventions, hosting their meeting in New Orleans. 

As a member of several industry and regional organizations, MaryBeth currently serves as Board President of the non-profit, NOLA tree Project and serves on the Board of Delgado College’s HRT program. She founded the Napoleon Avenue Association, a neighborhood advocacy group, and is a founding member of the Krewe of Stars, an all-inclusive, philanthropic Mardi Gras organization. She is also a member of the Human Rights Commission and the Gulf Restoration Project. 

SESSIONS:
Cara Banasch, MBA
senior vice president, Business Development & Strategy
New Orleans Convention & Visitors Bureau
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A long term hotelier with Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Cara held leadership roles in Global Sales for Canada and Washington DC, opened 16 New Build Hotels across many destinations in the USA, and was an Area director for multiple hotels in Boston and the South East.  Joining the New Orleans Convention & Visitor’s Bureau in late 2013, she works with a team of industry partners and professionals with a mission to grow business opportunities for the hospitality industry in the Big Easy. 
 
Continuing to belong to many industry organizations and having held a number of board positions, today Cara sits on the board of the New Orleans Ballet Association and supports local charities such as the Audubon Conservancy, the Louis Armstrong Jazz Camp, and the Louisiana SPCA. 
 
“We are all in this together” is a favorite mantra as is the constant pursuit of winning solutions for stakeholders with “different seats at the table”.
SESSIONS:
Bill Thomas
managing principal
Centric Performance, LLC
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Bill is the Managing Principal of Centric Performance, LLC, a Pittsburgh-based management consulting firm. He has over 35 years of experience in HR and OD, Total Quality Management, Customer Engagement Strategies and Operations Management. His prior experience includes national and global management roles with PricewaterhouseCoopers and Dell Computers, respectively. At PwC, Bill served as National HR Director for their Consulting division, National Practice leader for their Human Advantage Consulting practice, and was the co-architect and leader of their global Client Service Excellence program. At Dell, he served as HR Director for their Sales and Marketing division, HR Director for their Global IT division, and played a key role in designing and implementing Dell’s Quality Customer Experience initiative.  
 
Bill is a consultant, trainer, facilitator and coach who helps organizations accelerate growth and improve results at the company, business unit, department, team and individual level. He has designed and implemented high-impact growth and performance initiatives for a wide variety of large and small organizations – both for-profits and non-profits.  He has also served as an external personal coach to dozens of front-line, mid-level and executive level leaders. Bill brings to his clients a rich experience of having managed such areas as HR, Finance, Administration, Operations, Sales, Marketing, Business Development, Communications and Customer Service. 
He has lead various business performance and change management efforts including: strategy performance acceleration and implementation support; building execution-based or high-performance cultures; sales, marketing, customer service, HR and IT function effectiveness reviews; leadership and enterprise talent and capability reviews; compensation, performance management and pay-for-performance practices; customer-employee engagement and branding alignment projects; M&A due diligence and post-deal integrations; business unit consolidations, restructurings and reorgs; process improvement initiatives; customer and user experience, CEM and VoC initiatives.
 
Bill is the creator of the Customer Focus Maturity Model ® and of Value Chain Labs ®, a cross-boundary workout process used to improve customer-supplier relationships, integrate merged or acquired organizations, and improve the effectiveness of cross-boundary teams. He is the co-author of the book “ANTICIPATE: Knowing What Customers Need Before They Do” (John Wiley & Sons; 2012). The book helps leaders build an effective customer-focus into their growth strategy, develop the capabilities needed to execute it and shape the culture that sustains it.
 
He has a BA in Business, a Master's degree in Human Resources, and holds his SHRM – SCP certification. He is a senior member of The American Society for Quality (ASQ) and currently serves on SHRM’s HR Disciplines Expert Panel. Bill has also served SHRM in top leadership roles at the local, state and national levels. He is a nationally-recognized speaker and author whose work has been featured in CEO magazine, ASQ’s Quality Progress, ASQ’s Partnership News, Human Resource Executive magazine, and others. 
Bill’s clients include: AFL Telecom, AT&T, Baker Hughes International, Baylor University, Bristol Myers Squibb, CenterPoint Energy, Champion Technologies, Deloitte, FCC Environmental, GE Health Care, Hess Oil, Highmark Blue Cross-Blue Shield, Impress North America, Marriott International, Matthews International, Medrad, Inc., Michael Baker Corporation, Mylan Labs, Oberg Industries, Oncology Nursing Society, Pediatric Alliance PC, Peoples Natural Gas, Range Resources, the State of Texas, the University of Pittsburgh, the University of Texas, Westinghouse Electric, and others. 
 
SESSIONS:

Transforming Performance Management One Company at a Time

Tuesday, August 8, 2017 - 11:00am to 12:00pm
Bill Thomas
managing principal
Centric Performance, LLC
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Bill is the Managing Principal of Centric Performance, LLC, a Pittsburgh-based management consulting firm. He has over 35 years of experience in HR and OD, Total Quality Management, Customer Engagement Strategies and Operations Management. His prior experience includes national and global management roles with PricewaterhouseCoopers and Dell Computers, respectively. At PwC, Bill served as National HR Director for their Consulting division, National Practice leader for their Human Advantage Consulting practice, and was the co-architect and leader of their global Client Service Excellence program. At Dell, he served as HR Director for their Sales and Marketing division, HR Director for their Global IT division, and played a key role in designing and implementing Dell’s Quality Customer Experience initiative.  
 
Bill is a consultant, trainer, facilitator and coach who helps organizations accelerate growth and improve results at the company, business unit, department, team and individual level. He has designed and implemented high-impact growth and performance initiatives for a wide variety of large and small organizations – both for-profits and non-profits.  He has also served as an external personal coach to dozens of front-line, mid-level and executive level leaders. Bill brings to his clients a rich experience of having managed such areas as HR, Finance, Administration, Operations, Sales, Marketing, Business Development, Communications and Customer Service. 
He has lead various business performance and change management efforts including: strategy performance acceleration and implementation support; building execution-based or high-performance cultures; sales, marketing, customer service, HR and IT function effectiveness reviews; leadership and enterprise talent and capability reviews; compensation, performance management and pay-for-performance practices; customer-employee engagement and branding alignment projects; M&A due diligence and post-deal integrations; business unit consolidations, restructurings and reorgs; process improvement initiatives; customer and user experience, CEM and VoC initiatives.
 
Bill is the creator of the Customer Focus Maturity Model ® and of Value Chain Labs ®, a cross-boundary workout process used to improve customer-supplier relationships, integrate merged or acquired organizations, and improve the effectiveness of cross-boundary teams. He is the co-author of the book “ANTICIPATE: Knowing What Customers Need Before They Do” (John Wiley & Sons; 2012). The book helps leaders build an effective customer-focus into their growth strategy, develop the capabilities needed to execute it and shape the culture that sustains it.
 
He has a BA in Business, a Master's degree in Human Resources, and holds his SHRM – SCP certification. He is a senior member of The American Society for Quality (ASQ) and currently serves on SHRM’s HR Disciplines Expert Panel. Bill has also served SHRM in top leadership roles at the local, state and national levels. He is a nationally-recognized speaker and author whose work has been featured in CEO magazine, ASQ’s Quality Progress, ASQ’s Partnership News, Human Resource Executive magazine, and others. 
Bill’s clients include: AFL Telecom, AT&T, Baker Hughes International, Baylor University, Bristol Myers Squibb, CenterPoint Energy, Champion Technologies, Deloitte, FCC Environmental, GE Health Care, Hess Oil, Highmark Blue Cross-Blue Shield, Impress North America, Marriott International, Matthews International, Medrad, Inc., Michael Baker Corporation, Mylan Labs, Oberg Industries, Oncology Nursing Society, Pediatric Alliance PC, Peoples Natural Gas, Range Resources, the State of Texas, the University of Pittsburgh, the University of Texas, Westinghouse Electric, and others. 
 
SESSIONS:
 

Emerging Trends in Performance Management and Compensation

Tuesday, August 8, 2017 - 8:30am to 9:30am
Michele Burns
director of Classification and Compensation
University of Arkansas
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Michele Burns is a human resource practitioner and educator specializing in the areas of compensation, benefits, and workforce development.  She is employed as the Director of Classification and Compensation at the University of Arkansas where she is responsible for providing strategic oversight of classification, position management, job analysis, job documentation, and job evaluation and compensation processes as well as serving as liaison with state agencies such as the Arkansas Department of Higher Education (ADHE).

Michele is currently ending her course work phase for her Ed. D. in Human Resource and Workforce Development at the University of Arkansas.  Additionally, she is completing a graduate certificate in Educational Statistics and Research Methods, an area that she finds specifically suited for the statistical side of human resources like job analysis, job evaluation, and compensation management.  In addition to holding the generalist certifications of SHRM-SCP and SPHR, she holds various specialist certifications such as CCP (Certified Compensation Professional), CBP (Certified Benefits Professional), and GRP (Global Remuneration Professional).

During her human resources career, which has spanned over twenty years, she has worked both as an HR generalist and as a Compensation and Benefits Specialist in manufacturing, food processing, financial, healthcare, and higher education sectors.  Additionally, she has taught as an adjunct professor at John Brown University, Webster University, and the University of Arkansas.  She has taught courses such as Freshman Success; Human Resources Management; Legal Issues in HR; Introduction to Research, Introduction to Organizational Management, Principles of Management and Leadership, Organizational Communications; Integrative Strategies in Marketing and Written Communications.

Michele recently completed a three-year term as the State Council Director for the Arkansas SHRM State Council. She is passionate about the field of Human Resources and has been actively involved in the field of Human Resources both as an HR professional and as a volunteer.  Michele has served in various positions including MAC Representative alternate for the Southwest Central Region, ARSHRM Arkansas State Council Director Elect, State Council Chapter Advocate Director, Certification Chair, WAHRA (Western Arkansas Human Resource Association) President, President-Elect, Treasurer, and Certification Chair.

SESSIONS:

Using Job Descriptions as a Strategic Tool in Effective Compensation and Performance Management

Tuesday, August 8, 2017 - 9:45am to 10:45am