Gretchen Alarcon is Vice President, Human Capital Management Strategy at Oracle. Ms. Alarcon leads the strategy team responsible for applications! that enable companies to align their workforce goals and business objectives.

Ms. Alarcon brings more than 15 years of industry experience to Oracle's strategy organization. She spent over four years at PeopleSoft working closely with customers and contributing to the direction of the company's talent management and recruiting applications.

Prior to Oracle, Ms. Alarcon was Director, Product Management at Icarian, Inc. where she designed new product roadmaps and drove strategic decisions for the company's workforce management suites. Before joining Icarian, Ms. Alarcon was with National Semiconductor where she helped redesign the company's worldwide human resource functions.

Prior to her current role, Ms. Alarcon was responsible for the strategy of Oracle's talent management applications.

Ms. Alarcon holds a Master of Business Administration from the University of Michigan and a B.A. in American Studies from Stanford University.

 

Lynne Bartusek is Senior Vice President, Corporate Human Resources, for JCPenney Company, Inc., one of America’s largest department store and e-commerce retailers.  She holds responsibility for talent management, compensation and benefits, training, succession planning, HRIS, Organizational Development, Leadership Development and Inclusion & Diversity across all Field and Home Office functions covering the firms 155,000 work force.

Lynne previously served as VP, Human Resources dedicated to Home Office generalist activity and before that as VP, Director of Associate Recruiting, Inclusion & Diversity starting in December 2005.  Prior to joining JCPenney, she held positions of increasing responsibility at Yum! Brands, Inc., including Senior Director, People Development leading Recruitment, Internal Communications, Organization and Leadership Development across 50 countries. 

Prior to joining YUM, Lynne served for two years as Senior Director of Organizational Development and Training for Vodafone, based in Prague, the Czech Republic.  For nine years preceeding that assignment, she was the co-owner and joint venture operator of more than 100 KFC and Pizza Hut restaurants throughout Poland and the Czech Republic-one of the fastest growing retail operators in Eastern Europe-and was based in Poland.

A graduate of University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Lynne holds a Bachelors in International Relations/Political Science.  Lynne lives in Dallas with her husband Petr and their four children.

Lynne serves on the Board of Directors of the Hegi Family Career Services Center at Southern Methodist University and on the Board of Trustees of Girls Inc. of Metropolitan Dallas.

 

Hollie Castro is a global business executive with experience managing multiple functions.  Currently, she is the Senior Vice President of Administration for BMC Software, an $8.5B provider of enterprise management software based in Houston, USA.  Hollie serves as an Officer of the Company and is responsible globally for Human Resources, Real Estate, Facilities, Government and Community Affairs and Employee Communications.  Her primary areas of focus include creating a compelling work culture, developing and executing BMC’s global human capital strategy and transforming the groups she manages.  She reports directly to the Chief Executive Officer.

Prior to joining BMC, she was the Senior Vice President of Corporate Services for Talisman Energy, an $18B global upstream oil and gas company based in Calgary, Canada.  Before this, she was VP of Human Resources, at Cisco Systems, where the focus of the strategic HR leadership team was to identify and develop a sustainable supply of leadership and talent from within.  Hollie led a special operational excellence team responsible for facilitating the long-term human capital strategy and driving operational excellence.

She also founded a coaching and consulting company, Global Rainmakers which specializes in acceleration coaching for Generation X/Y professionals, leveraging technology and cohort learning.

Hollie gained much of her early experience at General Electric, where she held various HR roles within the Power Systems and Transportation Systems businesses.  These roles focused on major global acquisitions and driving change.  Prior to GE, Hollie held various marketing positions at IBM, as well as successfully founding two start-up businesses.

Hollie earned her MBA from Thunderbird University, which focuses on developing business leaders for the global workplace and her undergraduate degree is from Marlboro College. She is fluent in English, Italian, Portuguese, French and Spanish, and has spent significant time living outside the USA.  She was a founding board member for Caprock Academy, a Colorado based charter school, and is currently serving a three year term on Thunderbird’s Global Advisory Council.

Hollie was identified as one of Diversity Magazine’s “2010 Women Worth Watching” and was awarded the 2011 Human Resource Excellence Award for HR Leadership from the HR Symposium in California.

 

Sid Forrest has a BS in Physics and an MS in Applied Physics from Reading University, Postgraduate Certificates in Education from Oxford University and in HR from Cranfield University, all in England. He taught Physics and Maths for a number of years and was Deputy Principal of a High School in England before moving into Industry. Since then he has  more than 20 years experience in HR and has worked for GEC, Siebe and Invensys, while based in Europe, before moving to the USA in 2002, when his company was acquired, to head up the global HR team for EnerSys. 

Since 2004 EnerSys has become publically traded on the NYSE and has grown both organically and through approximately 19 acquisitions, throughout the world, from $300M Sales to around $2Billion. With approximately 8,500 employees in 36 different countries, including 22 manufacturing plants, Sid has huge global HR experience and has traveled extensively across Asia, Europe and the Americas to support and direct his global team, with particular focus on globalization and the requirements of a US Public company.

Sid has a passion for sport, in particular soccer, and, many years ago, represented England when at University. He now coaches at Lehigh Valley United, one of the top clubs for boys’ soccer in the USA, is a Board Member of Junior Achievement of Berks and Lehigh County and serves on the Campaign Cabinet of United Way of Berks County.  He is married with 5 children and 4 grandchildren and lives in Pennsylvania.

 

Cathy Fraser, senior vice president of Tenet Healthcare Corporation, provides operational oversight and strategic direction for the company’s human resources organization. Fraser oversees all areas of talent management, retention, recruitment and organizational effectiveness. Fraser serves on the company’s executive management team and reports directly to Trevor Fetter, Tenet’s president and chief executive officer.

Prior to joining Tenet in 2006, Fraser served as a management consultant with McKinsey & Company, an international consulting firm. In that role, Fraser counseled senior executives at a number of large companies on organizational design, talent management and retention strategies, recruiting and related human resources topics.

Prior to her work with McKinsey, Fraser served as vice president of Sabre Holdings, a major provider of travel product distribution and technology solutions for the travel industry from 1994 to 2000. At Sabre, her responsibilities included planning, strategy, finance and marketing.

From 1991 to 1994, Fraser was a manager and analyst for AMR Corp., the parent corporation of American Airlines, in Fort Worth, Texas. From 1986 to 1991, she was an analyst for General Motors Acceptance Corp. in Detroit.

Fraser earned her bachelor’s degree in business administration from the University of Washington in Seattle and her master’s degree in business administration from the University of Michigan.  She is a board member of Workforce Solutions of Greater Dallas, and a board member of the JKU Foundation (a family non-profit foundation).  She resides in the Dallas area with her husband and daughter.

 

Glenn Gilkey is the senior vice president of Human Resources and Administration for Fluor Corporation.  He is responsible for the global Human Resources and Talent Development organization in support of all Fluor business groups, in all regions including home office, field staff and craft employees.  Gilkey also leads Fluor Corporate Affairs which includes marketing communication, employee and corporate communications, media relations and community relations including the Fluor Foundation.  In addition he is also responsible for Fluor's global real estate holdings which includes management of all owned and leased space.

Prior to this role, Gilkey was the head of operations for the Industrial & Infrastructure (I&I) group.  In that role he was responsible for driving consistency and business processes across all three business lines of Mining & Metals, Manufacturing & Life Sciences, and Infrastructure.   He was also responsible for Fluor's Greenville, S.C. Operations Center.  Before his role in I&I, Gilkey was the leader of Fluor’s Project Execution Service (PES) organization which is responsible for Fluor's Knowledge Management functions as well as all of Fluor’s Global Functional Leaders across Engineering, Procurement and Construction execution disciplines.  He also led Fluor's Business Execution Solutions Team (BEST) which is responsible for Fluor’s SAP implementation.

Since joining Fluor in 1981, Gilkey's positions have included multiple engineering roles in domestic and international projects in the chemicals, upstream, downstream oil & gas, government and industrial markets.  His past leadership roles include manager of the Vessel Engineering Department in Houston, manager of Information Technology Department in Houston, Global Excellence Leader for Computer Integrated Engineering and the Global Excellence Leader for Engineering.

Gilkey's additional executive leadership roles include General Manager of Engineering in Houston, General Manager of the Houston Operations Center and General Manager of the Haarlem, Netherlands Operations Center.

Gilkey is a University of Texas Graduate with a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering.  He is a licensed Professional Engineer in the State of Texas.

 

Lizanne (Liz) Gottung currently serves as Senior Vice President and Chief Human Resources Officer at Kimberly-Clark Corporation, a $18 billion global health and hygiene company with 53,000 employees worldwide.  Kimberly-Clark is known worldwide for such powerhouse brands as Kleenex, Scott, Huggies, Pull-Ups, Kotex and Depend.

Liz received her B.S. in Business Administration from the State University of New York at Albany.  She began her career with Kimberly-Clark in 1981 in a labor relations role at a manufacturing facility in Memphis, Tennessee. After various roles of increasing size and scope within the Human Resources function, Liz moved into line operations management, taking on increasingly larger roles over the next ten years as plant managers for several consumer products and non-wovens manufacturing facilities.

Liz’s current role is Senior Vice President and Chief Human Resources Officer. She reports to CEO Thomas J. Falk and is a member of Kimberly-Clark’s executive team.

Today Liz leads the design and implementation of all enterprise human capital strategies for the corporation. She advises the CEO, his deputies, and the Board of Directors on issues and initiatives relating to Human Resources, including global compensation and benefits, talent management (recruiting, employee and leadership development, performance management, succession planning), diversity and inclusion, internal communications, organizational effectiveness, and corporate health services and medical affairs.

Liz resides near Atlanta, Georgia, with her family.  She serves as a board member for the Compensation & Benefits Committee of the American Heart Association, and the University of Georgia Terry College Dean’s Advisory Council.  In 2007 she was elected to the Board of Directors of Louisiana Pacific Corporation serving on the Compensation and Environmental Committees.

 

Sherry is responsible for expanding Harvard Business Publishing's portfolio of leadership development offerings and strengthening its impact for organizations worldwide. Her background in learning and development spans twelve years, with a specialized focus on designing technology-enabled leadership development solutions.

Before joining Harvard Business Publishing, she served as Senior Vice President for the Solutions Group at Vitesse Learning, where she was responsible for the performance consulting, solution architecture, and product management. She initially served as Director of Instructional Design where she pioneered the design team, methodology, and practices. Prior to Vitesse, Sherry designed multimedia-based leadership programs at The Ninth House Network.

Her entry into the instructional design field began with Accenture’s Change Management practice where she gained expertise in designing interactive learning simulations for global organizations such as GE, DuPont, Corning, Johnson & Johnson, and others. Sherry is an active member of the International Society for Performance Improvement (ISPI), the New England eLearning Association (NELA), and the Babson College Women in Business Mentoring program. She holds degrees from Penn State in Marketing and Advertising, and earned additional formal training from Northwestern University’s Institute for Learning Sciences.

 

Robert joined the company in June 2009.  Robert has nearly 20 years of experience in human resources in the telecommunications industry.

Prior to joining Nokia Siemens Networks, Robert was the vice president of human resources for Nortel’s enterprise solutions and global operations organization, which included 13,000 employees. In this role, Robert was responsible for leading all human resource activities, including management of the human resources team, driving the overall talent strategy, workforce planning, maximizing organizational effectiveness, improving leadership quality and ensuring timely and effective HR initiatives and programs. Robert started with Nortel in 1992 as a part of its human resources leadership development program. 

Prior to joining Nortel, Robert was a senior systems analyst at Electronic Data Systems (EDS) for two years.  Before that, he spent two years working at Procter & Gamble managing the Crest toothpaste operations at a manufacturing plant.

Robert holds a master’s degree in business administration from the Kelley School of Business at Indiana University, and a bachelor’s degree in computer engineering from The Ohio State University.  He is based at Nokia Siemens Networks’ offices in Irving, Texas.

 

Jean Lee currently serves as Senior Vice President of Human Resources for Safety-Kleen Systems, Inc., North America’s premier provider of oil recycling and re-refining, environmental services, and responsible cleaning solutions.

Jean oversees the development and execution of human capital strategies to support profitable business expansion and she is responsible for managing HR service delivery, process improvement and program ROI. She and her team have instituted a sales force top-grading process, executed pay re-alignment for critical customer-facing roles, re-designed the annual incentive plan, mitigated benefits plan costs, established a centralized sales, regulatory, and operations training function and built a cost-effective in-house staffing function. Jean is currently sponsoring several cross-functional strategic talent management projects to improve talent bench strength, employee engagement and productivity.

Jean’s prior leadership roles include Vice President, Talent Development at Safety-Kleen, Vice President, Human Resources for Armstrong Cabinet Products, a division of Armstrong World Industries, Vice President, Human Resources for Overhead Door Corporation, and various management roles within Human Resources for United Healthcare Corporation, United States Fidelity & Guaranty Corporation, and The Travelers Group.

Jean received her Bachelor of Science in Psychology from the State University of New York, College at Oswego and earned her Master of Science in Organizational Behavior from the University of Hartford. Jean is a lifetime-certified Senior Professional in Human Resources (SPHR).

 

Rhonda Piar MacAndrew serves as senior vice president of human resources for Greyhound Lines, Inc., joining the company in 2007. MacAndrew is responsible for management of all human resources, labor relations, corporate communications and training activities in the United States and Canada.

Prior to joining Greyhound, she was vice president of human resources for Lewisville, Texas-based Overhead Door Corporation, developing HR strategy and reorganizing the function to align with the overall company’s strategy. Prior to that position, MacAndrew served as vice president of human resources for Dallas-based Builders FirstSource.

She has more than 23 years of experience managing various HR functions, including union contract negotiations, employee development, compensation and benefits.

MacAndrew earned her bachelor’s degree in education from Ohio Wesleyan University in Delaware, Ohio and completed coursework toward her MBA at Dayton University in Ohio.    

Rhonda lives in Dallas, Texas with her husband Jim.  Rhonda’s personal interests are boating, traveling and gardening.

 

Toyin Ogun is the Senior Vice President for Human Resources and Customer Service for Zale Corp based in Dallas, Texas; a position he has held since March 2011. In this role, he is responsible for all human resource activities as well as the guest / customer service experience.

Prior to this assignment, Toyin was the Vice President, Human Resources at LL bean, where he served on the leadership team he has revamped the performance management structure and established a learning infrastructure linked to an evolution of L. L. bean’s culture.

Prior to this assignment, Toyin was the Senior Vice President and Chief Talent Officer for Sears Holdings in Hoffman Estates, IL where he was responsible for all aspects of human resources including talent acquisition, performance management, leadership development, internal communication and organizational strategy. During his tenure in this role, he introduced a performance management system linked to core productivity measures and key performance indicators and led teams to reduce manufacturing costs, reengineer the stores, online and restaurant processes and created multi tiered compensation programs for the executive and non-exempt populations.  He also leveraged technology to produce individual store (2300 stores), pharmacy (1100 pharmacies) and restaurant (1000 Kmart restaurants) talent and performance dashboards.

Formerly, Toyin was a human resources executive with Limited Brands, the leading specialty retailer where he was in a variety of positions during his 10-year tenure ending as the Senor Vice President, Victoria Secret stores. He had a wide range of experiences while at Limited Brands including the integration of acquisitions, creation of successes profiles for store leadership, creation of Limited Brands University, talent acquisition at the leadership and non-exempt levels and development of human capital metrics.

Toyin is a graduate of North Dakota State University with a Bachelors’ degree in Business Administration, Troy University with a Master’s degree in Human Resources and Nova University with a Doctorate in Business Administration.

Toyin is an advocate against domestic violence issues and currently serves on the board of House of Ruth – a domestic violence and family issues agency in suburban Chicago. Additionally he has testified at the state legislative level in Ohio, Illinois and Maine on the impact of domestic violence in the workplace.

An avid sportsman, he has hiked the 100-mile wilderness section of the Appalachian Trail and has completed several charity century bike rides.

Toyin resides in Chicago with his wife Rose and son Christopher.

 

Sue Ortenstone is executive vice president and chief administrative officer for El Paso Corporation. In her current role, Ortenstone oversees Human Resources, Communications and Community Relations, IT, Facilities and Real Estate functions for the company.  A major focus for her is driving the company’s culture transformation across the organization.  The new performance driven culture focuses on talent management, leadership development, recognition and the employee experience and achieving the company’s vision of being the Place to Work, the Neighbor to Have and the Company to Own.

Ortenstone began her career as an engineer in training for Tennessee Gas Pipeline, a division of Tenneco, Inc.  She has held various positions with increasing levels of responsibility in engineering, operations, marketing, business development and strategy.  Her most recent previous position was chief executive officer of Epic Energy, Australia’s largest natural gas pipeline company at that time. 

Ortenstone earned a Bachelor of Science degree in civil and environmental engineering from the University of Wisconsin and is a registered professional engineer.  She is on the Board of Junior Achievement, the Houston Area Women’s Center, the Advisory Board for the University of Texas College of Engineering and the Business Advisory Council for Goodwill Industries.

 

Barbara Raxter is Vice President, Human Resources (HR) for Dell Services, an $8 billion business unit of Dell Inc. Prior to joining Dell, Ms. Raxter served as chief talent officer for TXU Energy and Aetna, Inc.  She also spent 20 years in the services industry with EDS, where she held multiple positions including head of HR for the General Motors account, chief talent officer and vice president of Shared Services for the company.  

Ms. Raxter brings more than 25 years of business experience to her current role, the past four with Dell.  Ms. Raxter has held several key roles with Dell; HR business partner for the Large Enterprise sales business unit where she key contributor to the transformation of the sales teams, HR business partner for one of Dell’s strategic pillars, Best Value Solutions, and HR business partner for the CIO function.  She also has experience in leading large Managed Service Deals and Mergers and Acquisitions.  

 

Scott Spreier knows firsthand the challenges of today’s business leaders and the pressures they face during these economically troubled, rapidly changing times. As a senior principal in Hay Group’s Leadership and Talent Practice, Scott helps executives around the globe cope with these challenges while continuing to drive organizational growth and performance.

Scott focuses primarily on helping executives more effectively address key organizational and business issues, including sustainable growth, strategic alignment, and mergers and acquisition integration.

Working with individual executives and senior teams, he helps clients focus on how -- by refining their behavior, actions, and image -- they can create climates and cultures that embrace change and enhance performance throughout their organizations to better drive business results. 

Scott’s clients include a number of Fortune 500 companies and represent a wide range of sectors,  including government, technology, telecommunications, and pharmaceuticals. Clients he has worked with include IBM, Microsoft, Freescale Semiconductors, Intelsat, BAE Systems, Pfizer, Unilever, and the Obama Administration. Initiatives have included:

• Helping executives at a large technology company make an effective transition from a research / entrepreneurial culture to a more strategic, growth-oriented one.
• Assisting the leadership of a high-profile technology company rapidly create a performance-driven culture following its buyout by a large private equity firm.
• Assisting the CEO and senior leadership team of a small bio-tech firm prepare to lead through a period of rapid growth and change.

In addition to working with executives and senior leadership teams, Scott also assesses and coaches executives and advises organizations on succession planning. For the past five years, he also has worked with the McClelland Center for Research and Innovation, where he partnered with researchers studying various aspects of leadership roles and behavior, including working with Harvard’s Richard Hackman, a leading expert on teams. 

Scott writes and speaks frequently on leadership. His work has appeared in Harvard Business Review, FORTUNE, Leader to Leader, and Businessweek.com. He co-wrote Senior Leadership Teams (Harvard Business School Press 2008), and People, Performance, & Pay (Simon & Schuster, 1997), and was a contributing author to Culture Shift (AHA Press, 1997) and The Executive Handbook of Compensation (Free Press, 2001). He earned a BS degree from the University of Kansas.

 

Sherry Vidal-Brown is Executive  Vice President Human Resources (Chief People Officer) of Accor Hospitality, a French based hotel business with over 100,000 employees world-wide supporting over 6 hotel brands from luxury to economy segments.  As the EVP of Human Resources for North America, developed strategic objectives to support 4 brands and 20,000 employees.   Accor North America generates over $500M in revenue and leads the competitive marketplace in the economy segment with the Motel 6 brand.  Human resources has been a key partner for the CEO and executive team to help lead the organization through a variety of changes including improving operating and customer metrics as well as continuing to maintain a positive employer relationship in a traditional union based industry.  Key accomplishment has been transforming the HR organization from a traditional transaction role, with inefficiencies to creating a more proactive organization that has improved its operations and provided direct impact to key business initiatives.

Vidal-Brown’s duties also include providing strategic direction in areas of training and development, change management and organizational effectiveness. She will also play an important role in furthering and promoting unity among all company levels and departments, from employees at headquarters, to the more than 1,000 individual hotel properties in the Accor North America network.

A seasoned and talented executive, prior to joining the team at Accor North America in September 2009, Vidal-Brown held senior positions at DFW International Airport, FedEx-Kinko's, American Airlines and Personnel Decisions International. She holds a doctorate in psychology from Texas A&M as well as an MBA from The University of Houston.  Vidal-Brown was also recognized by the Dallas Business Journal in 2009 as one of the “Top 25 Women to Watch” in Dallas as part of the publication’s annual Women in Business Awards in 2009.

 

Shawn Williams is the vice president of human resources for HP Enterprise Services. Williams’ team has and continues to develop much of the workforce methodologies that have become the industry standard.

Prior to this role, Williams was the vice president of workforce planning & strategy, responsible for developing HP’s workforce strategies to maximize the company’s multibillion-dollar human capital investment. In this role he was able to take the workforce planning function to new levels of performance from both an efficiency and effectiveness perspective.

Williams also led the HR transformation and was chartered with developing and executing strategies to build a global, world-class HR organization for HP. His key focus areas include championing the HR transformation, driving career development for HR professionals, leading talent management and succession planning initiatives for the HR function and strengthening HR leadership staffing and development.

Previously, Williams led the Learning & Development, Compensation and HR Operations team for HP’s Personal Systems Group. In this role, Williams was responsible for overseeing several HR functions, including strategic workforce planning, workforce development, organizational effectiveness, business compensation and HR data management globally.

Prior to joining HP in 2000, Williams was with Dell Computer Corporation and Chase Manhattan Bank. Williams is a member of numerous industry councils and forums on workforce planning and strategy. Williams holds a Bachelors of Business Administration from University of Houston.