Employee Development Strategies, Inc. President & Executive HR Consultant Suzanne Kirk, MS, SPHR has worked with clients across multiple industries on a variety of performance management and strategic human resources initiatives.

As Associate Director of Global Learning and Development for a Boston-based marketing and technology professional services firm, Suzanne was responsible for the learning and development strategies for a global workforce of over 1200 employees. She drove the implementation of an organization-wide competency model and redesigned the performance management process in support of the initiative.

As Director of HR Services at a level-one trauma center teaching hospital, Suzanne led the Organizational Development, HR Business Consultant and Recruiting teams with a customer-centric approach to healthcare HR.

Earlier in her career, Suzanne was a Performance Improvement Consultant in the utility business during the deregulation of Georgia’s natural gas industry.

Emma Geist, MSc., SHRM-SCP, GPHR, has been an Leader in the field of Human Resources for over 18 years, having lived and worked on all five continents and contributed to various industries.  Emma is an expert in fostering and delivering change for business alignment and operational efficiency across multiple countries and cultures for global organizations.

Over the past 10 years, she has focused mainly on Human Resources Management and Organizational Development for the extractive industry in Africa and South America, where one of the main challenges is to build efficient teams made of employees from various cultures and backgrounds while taking into consideration the local environment.

She holds a BA from University Stendhal (Grenoble – France) and a MSc. in International Human Resources management and Globalization from University of Leicester, UK.

Jennifer Lee is an experienced keynote speaker, engaging educator, and talented facilitator. Jennifer has over 15 years of learning and development experience with a robust background in luxury hospitality, human resources, and training. As the former Learning and Development Director at the AAA Five Diamond-rated Waldorf Astoria Chicago and the former Learning Manager at The Four Seasons Hotel in Chicago, Jennifer brings a rich perspective in leadership, management, service, hospitality and presentation skills training. When she’s not presenting, Jennifer can be found checking items off her bucket list, which still includes attending the Oscars at least once in her lifetime.

As President of DFA, Dean Foster conducts cross-cultural training worldwide and consults on intercultural business issues with most Fortune 500 companies in the United States and around the globe. For over twenty-five years, Dean has played a major role in the development of the intercultural training field. Formerly, he was founder and Managing Director of Berlitz Cross-Cultural Worldwide, Vice President GMAC/Windham Intercultural, and founder of Cross-Cultural Consulting Associates, New York. Dean is a frequent guest on CNN, CNBC and other TV and radio shows, and keynotes at major international professional conferences.

Dean has written many articles, the four-part Global Etiquette Guide book series, as well as Bargaining Across Borders, which the American Library Association voted as one of the top ten business books of 1994.

He is a Contributing Editor for National Geographic Traveler, writing the CultureWise monthly column, and Senior Contributing Editor for the International webpage of Monster.com. Dean presents at many educational institutions such as Harvard and is on faculty at the Intercultural Management Institute at American University. Dean has a Master’s Degree in Sociology from the Graduate Faculty of the New School for Social Research in New York City.

Richard Schepp, chief administrative officer, oversees Kohl's human resources, legal, risk management and compliance, real estate and business development functions.

Schepp joined Kohl’s in 2000 as senior vice president, general counsel/secretary. He was promoted to executive vice president in 2001 and senior executive vice president in 2011. In 2013, he became senior executive vice president, human resources, general counsel/secretary. He was promoted to the principal officer position of chief administrative officer in 2015.

Prior to joining Kohl's, Schepp, a 23-year retail veteran, served as senior vice president, general counsel/secretary for Shopko. He began his career as an attorney for Quarles & Brady, LLP.

Chris founded Discovery Learning in 1990. As the company’s head product designer, he manages the research and development processes and is always coming up with new ideas to ensure Discovery Learning’s products remain innovative and effective in a changing world. He also works with clients on program and training design to make sure Discovery Learning’s products fit their needs.

Chris served as a Kellogg Fellow (1987-1990) and has worked in organizational and leadership development for more than 30 years. He has developed numerous programs covering leadership development, creativity and innovation, change management and team building for some of the most well known and respected companies in the world. He has designed and delivered programs in North America, Europe, Asia, and Africa, including countries such as The Netherlands, Germany, India, China, Japan, Malaysia and Ethiopia. He has also helped create seven simulations and nine innovative assessment tools.

Pavneet Singh Uppal is a partner in the Firm’s Phoenix office and has litigated in state and federal courts in Arizona, California, New Mexico and Illinois. He regularly represents national, regional, and local clients in a variety of complex civil litigation matters. As lead trial counsel, Pavneet has litigated employment cases, including class actions, in federal and state trial and appellate courts, at arbitration and before administrative agencies. He focuses his practice on labor and employment disputes with an emphasis on unfair competition, trade secrets, wrongful discharge and equal employment opportunity litigation and arbitration.

Shayna Balch is a partner in both the Phoenix and Los Angeles offices. She represents employers in employment and labor litigation matters before federal and state courts as well as before administrative agencies. She handles matters across all facets of labor and employment law including employment discrimination, sexual harassment, retaliation, wrongful termination, restrictive covenants, preventive counseling, employee training, personnel policies, and employment agreements. Shayna has represented clients before trial and appellate courts, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the Arizona Civil Rights Division, and United States Department of Justice Office of Special Counsel (OSC).

Cheryl Mohr, is Head of HR Global Operations & Global Functions HR. In this role she has responsibility for the delivery of HR programs and services, Workforce Planning, HR Systems, Labor & Compliance and MADO. In addition, Cheryl leads HR for Global Functions which includes Finance, Legal, Marketing and HR. She is responsible for Business HR support, for both Global Functions and our Go-to-Market organization. Cheryl is a member of HP’s Human Resources Leadership Team reporting to Tracy Keogh.

Cheryl has had responsibility for leading a number of major initiatives for HP which included the separation of the HR function as part of the company split and was responsible for leading the HR PMO for HP’s Make It Better initiative.

Cheryl has been with HP for over 33 years, and during this time has served in a number of key HR leadership roles. Cheryl’s prior roles include Sr Vice President for Global Functions; Vice President of Global Labor Relations and HR Compliance, where she was responsible for creating the Labor Relations Function, delivering HP’s labor relations strategy, managing HR Compliance as well as HP’s Contingent Workforce program. Prior to that role, Cheryl was the Vice President of HR for the Americas Region, providing HR leadership to ensure the world class delivery of HR programs and services for the U.S., Latin America and Canada.

Cheryl began her career at Hewlett Packard in 1991, when HP acquired Avantek. Since joining HP, Cheryl has held regional and worldwide HR positions, including HR Manager for Global Support Logistics, HR Manager for the Hardware Services Organization and HR Manager HP Services North America.

Cheryl has a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration from San Jose State University.