Ben Brooks is Vice President & Practice Leader of Human Capital Performance at Marsh Inc., the world leader in risk and insurance services and solutions. In this role Ben is responsible for the firm’s human capital strategy, workforce analytics and planning, employee engagement, culture/values, internal social media strategy including Marsh U for its 24,000 colleagues globally. Ben was recently named a 2011 "Rising Star" by HR Executive Magazine.

Prior to working at Marsh, Ben served Marsh & McLennan Companies (MMCo) corporate center (Marsh’s corporate parent company) as interim head of Talent Management. Prior to MMCo he was a management consultant at Oliver Wyman (a sister company to Marsh), with a primary industry focus in commercial aviation, and lean six sigma capability focus. While at Oliver Wyman Brooks co-founded GLOW (Gays and Lesbians at Oliver Wyman), the firm’s first global Employee Resource Group (ERG), serving LGBT colleagues and their straight allies. 

Previously Ben worked for Lockheed Martin's Information Systems & Global Solutions division in various roles including Supply Chain Management, Small Business Outreach, New Business Development and Operations Excellence. 

During his time at Lockheed Martin, Ben had the opportunity to work with various retired or reservist military personnel, which allowed him to develop a deep and personal appreciation for the service and sacrifice of those in our armed forces. As a result he is on the board of directors and co-chair of development for Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, a national legal services organization dedicated to ensuring equality for all qualified to serve in the US Military.

Ben is originally from Colorado and holds a BSBA from the University of Denver with a focus on Marketing and Leadership Studies.

He currently resides in Manhattan.

 

Tanya is Pfizer's SVP, Worldwide Talent and Organization Capability, and Chief Talent Officer. As a member of the HR Leadership Team and Pfizer’s Senior Leadership Council, she is responsible for the company’s executive talent succession and development.  Her teams lead global talent acquisition, Diversity & Inclusion, organization development, talent and learning strategies as well as enterprise-wide culture and change initiatives. Tanya owns the strategy for the company’s talent management and development processes with an emphasis on identification, retention, and development of executive-level incumbent, replacement and high potential individuals.

Prior to joining Pfizer, Tanya was Corporate Vice President for People and Organization Capability at Microsoft Corp. where she was responsible for ensuring that Microsoft maintained an exceptional work force by strengthening the company’s strategies for leadership development, talent management and organization development.  Before joining Microsoft, she was Vice President of Global Executive and Organization Capability at IBM Corp. where she was responsible for leadership development, succession planning and organization development. Tanya has also held leadership roles at Georgia-Pacific and Anheuser-Busch. Tanya earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology from the University of New Orleans and a doctorate in Industrial and Organizational Psychology from Louisiana State University.

 

Stuart is responsible for Learning & Development at Facebook, including Leadership and Manager development, Acculturation of new employees, Sales Training and Diversity & Inclusion. Prior to joining Facebook, Stuart was a Senior Consultant at The Marcus Buckingham Company, supporting strengths-based consulting and coaching assignments. Stuart is also the former Head Talent Development at Yahoo!, and ran his own consulting practice, Oxegen Consulting, specializing in international human resource development.

Originally a law school graduate, Stuart has spent more than 20 years in the international Human Resources field with Yahoo!, Oracle, Compaq and Siemens, specializing in supporting high growth and change, employee and organizational development and performance improvement. He has lived in Australia, Germany, Scotland and now the United States, although he is a native of the UK. He lives in Palo Alto California with his three daughters, and his Clifton Strengthsfinder signature themes are: Strategic, Positivity, Communication, Developer and Woo :-).

 

Sharon Daniels, President and Chief Executive Officer, has overall responsibility for the strategic direction of AchieveGlobal. She firmly promotes the concept that the quality of an organization’s interpersonal skills can determine success, and also applies that same thinking to leading AchieveGlobal and its hundreds of employees. 

In her time at AchieveGlobal, Ms. Daniels has been instrumental in work with customers from a broad array of industries, including financial services, government, retail, healthcare, manufacturing, telecommunications, and others. She leads AchieveGlobal’s Executive Advisory Board, using their feedback alongside other information resources to make well-informed decisions about the future of the company. She has sustained and developed AchieveGlobal’s extensive worldwide footprint, in over 40 countries, and capitalizes on the best practices resulting from AchieveGlobal’s long legacy, built on 40+ years in the performance improvement business.

Numerous press outlets have taken recent interest in Ms. Daniels’ accomplishments and point-of-view, including Fortune.com, Harvard Business Review, Chief Executive Magazine, Fox Business News, Selling Power Magazine, and others. She regularly participates in speaking engagements around the world, with recent sessions delivered in the U.S.

(Argyle Executive Forum, University of Florida’s Miller Center) and Asia (Commonwealth Magazine’s Human Capital Event).

Under her watch, AchieveGlobal has won a number of awards, including Chief Learning Officer’s Excellence in Customer Service award (silver), The American Business Award’s Best new Product/Service of the Year (Finalist), and Tampa Bay Business Journal’s Best Place to Work honor.

Ms. Daniels originally joined Kaset International in 1991, and served in the roles of Consultant, VP of Operations and General Manager of Field Operations. In 1997 and 1998 she held a leadership role involved in the integration of the three companies: Learning International, Kaset International and Zenger Miller, which together became AchieveGlobal.

Prior to returning to AchieveGlobal, she served as President and CEO of Communispond, a corporate communications company headquartered in New York. She was introduced to Communispond through her work with Frontline Group, a roll up of eight individual performance improvement companies.

Ms. Daniels’ career prior to her work in the training industry was in the field of banking. She joined Southeast Bank, headquartered in Miami, Florida, after college and held numerous roles in operations, the mergers and acquisitions team, branch management, and training and consulting. She was with Southeast Bank for fifteen years. Ms. Daniels holds a bachelor of education degree from the University of Florida, and a Master’s in Training and Organizational Development from the University of South Florida, and has over twenty-five years of experience in general management and sales leadership roles.

On the personal front, Ms. Daniels is married and has three children. In her spare time she enjoys volunteering in her community as well as hiking.

 

Liviu Dedes is Vice President, Organizational Effectiveness & Development for ARAMARK Corporation.  His areas of practice include performance management, succession & talent management, learning, employee engagement, human capital metrics, and corresponding systems.

Based in Philadelphia, ARAMARK is a $13 Billion dollar professional services organization, providing world-class environments, experiences and outcomes for clients and customers in 20 countries.

Prior to joining ARAMARK Liviu was Sr. Director of Training & Organizational Development at The Pep Boys - Manny, Moe & Jack (NYSE: PBY), the nation's leading automotive aftermarket retail and service chain.  During his 9 year tenure with the company, he held position of increasing responsibility in operations and human resources where he led the talent management  and development initiatives. 

Liviu’s work has been featured in numerous human resources publications and industry conferences including Chief Learning Officer Magazine, Human Capital Institute, The Conference Board, Bersin & Associates, and the International Human Resources Technology Conference.

 

Don has more than twenty years of experience in business management, leadership, sales and consulting in the performance improvement industry. As a Business Development Director for Insights he is responsible for building client relationships and helping them implement solutions that improve the effectiveness of their people and the performance of their organizations. 

He began his career in corporate training as a consultant and account executive with Zenger Miller/Achieve Global and then moved into a management role, leading the Northeast business unit through the post-merger integration of three companies. 

Prior to joining Insights Don was a principal consultant with Axialent (www.axialent.com), an Argentine based consulting firm, doing culture alignment, executive coaching and leadership development with Fortune 500 clients.  He coached executives and leaders at Google, Yahoo!, Microsoft, AXA Equitable, Crowe Horwath, and other firms. 

Don’s interest in leadership and personal transformation began while completing his undergraduate degree at Ohio Wesleyan University. During his senior year he explored eastern studies and soon joined Élan Vital, an international personal transformation organization. He traveled extensively throughout the world for several years teaching principles of self-discovery and then joined the management team as President of the corporation. 

He is a competitive tennis player, certified tennis coach and collegiate referee. He also plays guitar and writes and records music. Don has two children and lives in suburban Philadelphia with his wife Ellie and their cat, Mr. Jones.

 

Tess Kristensen leads Client and Associate Development at TD Ameritrade Institutional. Her area of expertise lies in aligning education platforms with overall business strategy and building the appropriate organizational structures to support them. She has over 11 years of experience in the financial services industry and has launched and managed corporate universities at Janney Montgomery Scott LLC and Raymond James Financial. At Raymond James she implemented a new online training platform and increased usage by over 100% in the second year of the implementation. She created the corporate university at Janney Montgomery Scott where previously no such organization had existed, and also launched the prestigious one of a kind Wealth Management Certification Program in conjunction with the Wharton School. Tess possesses M.B.A and Master's of Education degrees. In addition she is Series 7 licensed and holds the Accredited Wealth Management Advisor designation.

 

Cheryl came to AECOM in late 2007 as Vice President, HR Director for America’s Transportation Group (ATG) and has been instrumental in effectively bridging the business partnership of HR with Operations.She has also been responsible for helping to create and integrate HR policies and procedures across the organization.  

She was promoted in January 2009 to the position of Senior Vice President, Human Resources for the North America Group  

Over the past 2 1/2 years, Cheryl has championed the launch across AECOM of the ACE Mentoring Program, which focuses on the fostering and mentoring of our next generation of architects, engineers and construction management staff.  Prior to AECOM, Cheryl was Managing Director of human resources for the Securities Automation Corporation (SIAC), the technology arm of the NY Stock Exchange and American Stock Exchange, where she held a variety of senior level HR positions with the most recent being responsible for mergers-and-acquisitions, organization & leadership development, performance management, employee engagement and succession planning - all with a focus on high technology and engineering.

Cheryl is a graduate of the three-year SIA Program at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School and Sacred Heart University in Bridgeport, Connecticut from which she earned a B.S. in Personnel Management. She is an acknowledged leader in the HR community, as well as with the renowned Global Institute for Leadership Development (GILD) where she has been a certified executive coach and executive team leader for the past 10 years. In addition to the above she has done numerous speaking engagements on the future state of human resources and executive development.  Most recently at the PSMJ Executive HR Summit. She has held various board positions and is currently a member of the National Leadership Council for ACE Mentoring of America.

 

Global Talent Management executive with more than 17 years of progressive experience in highly visible corporate and consulting positions. Expertise in developing scalable global programs and interventions.  Extensive experience with managing large global teams including Talent Management, Talent Acquisition, Diversity, Leadership Development, Metrics, Universities, and Shared Services.  Areas of expertise include leadership development, succession planning, talent assessment and development, performance management, selection, 360 feedback, competency modeling, change management, Six Sigma, Workout, HIPO accelerated development programs.  Senior leadership work including governance, talent workshops, high performing teams, and targeted sessions.  Ted recently returned from spending 2 years working and living in Brussels, Belgium for Westinghouse Air Brake Company (WABCO). 

 

Susan is the Vice President, Executive Development and Chief Learning Officer for GE.  In this capacity, she is responsible for talent identification, leadership development, training, performance management, and succession planning for all GE executives worldwide.

Susan joined GE in 1979 on the Human Resource Management Program and had assignments in Louisville, Kentucky and Columbia, Maryland.  Subsequently, she held Union Relations and HR leadership roles in several GE businesses.  As an HR executive at GE, she has worked in Bergen Op Zoom in The Netherlands, managing human resources for GE Plastics’ manufacturing sites across Europe.  She returned from her overseas experience to a role at GE corporate headquarters in Fairfield, Connecticut, leading HR Staffing and Development.  In September 1991, she was promoted to Manager, Human Resources, GE Plastics, Americas in Pittsfield, Massachusetts.  She moved to Louisville, Kentucky in October 1993 to become the Senior Human Resources Manager for GE Appliances.  Susan was appointed a Company Officer in January 1997.  She became the Executive Vice President, Human Resources for NBC in June 2000, and became the Vice President of Executive Development for all of GE in 2001.  She assumed responsibility for Crotonville, GE’s Management Development Institute, and all leadership training, in January 2007. 

Susan is a founding member of the GE Women’s Network and continues to be active in its leadership.  She is a member of the GE Volunteers Advisory Board.  Susan is also currently serving on the national Board of Directors of Girl Scouts USA.

Susan graduated from St. Mary’s College, Notre Dame, with a BA in English Literature in 1975 and from the University of Virginia with a Master of Education in 1978.  She is married and has one daughter. 

 

Arturo Poire is the Global Head of Talent Management for Marsh & McLennan Companies (MMC). MMC is the parent company for Marsh, Mercer, Guy Carpenter and Oliver Wyman. MMC is made up of 50,000 employees located in over 90 countries.

In his current role, Arturo is directly responsible for Global Talent Management for the enterprise. This includes: Succession Management, Talent Reviews, Leadership Development, Organizational Development and Executive Coaching across the 4 Operating Companies.

Previous to joining the MMC family in early 2007, Arturo spent 12 years with Citigroup in HR Generalist, Staffing and Talent Management roles and projects globally. The main areas of focus during his years at Citigroup were M&A Integration, Organizational Restructuring, Strategic Staffing and Talent Management.

Arturo holds a degree in Sociology from the University of Buenos Aires (Argentina), and a Master of Business Administration from New York University’s Stern School of Business. In addition he is currently certified as a Senior Professional in Human Resources (SPHR) with the Society of Human Resource Management and has graduated from the Coaches Training Institute (CTI) professional coaching program.

In 2006 Arturo co-authored a career success book for Latinos in the US, “The Latino Advantage in the Workplace – Use who you are to get where you want to be”, published by Sphinx publishing. He lives in New York.

 

Bror Saxberg is responsible for the research and development of innovative learning strategies, technologies and products across Kaplan's full range of educational services offerings. He also oversees future developments and adoptions of innovative learning technologies and maintains consistent academic standards for Kaplan's products and courses.

Saxberg most recently served as Senior Vice President and Chief Learning Officer at K12, Inc., where he was responsible for designing both online and off-line learning environments and developing new student products and services. Prior to joining K12, Inc., he was Vice President at Knowledge Universe, where he co-founded the testing and assessment division that became known as Knowledge Testing Enterprise (KTE). Saxberg began his career at McKinsey & Company, Inc. and later served as Vice President and General Manager for London-based DK Multimedia, part of DK Publishing, and education and reference publisher. 

Saxberg holds a B.A. in Mathematics and a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Washington. As a Rhodes Scholar, he received an M.A. in Mathematics from Oxford University. He also received a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from M.I.T. and an M.D. from Harvard Medical School. 

 

Martha Soehren is the Chief Learning Officer and Senior Vice President for Comcast University and Comcast Cable.  She holds undergraduate and graduate degrees in business, and a PhD in Educational Leadership and Policy Studies.  Martha has ten years of experience with the Telecommunications Industry, 25 years with the Defense Industry, and 13 years experience as an adjunct professor, research advisor and academic advisor.  She is the recipient of the Liberty Award for Leadership from the Philadelphia Chapter of Women in Cable and Telecommunications. Martha serves on the Board of Directors for ASTD, the doctorate of learning board for the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, and serves as Comcast’s National Board Member for Women in Cable and Telecommunications.  She also serves as a member of the Society of Cable Telecommunications Engineers, Cable and Telecommunications for Marketing, National Association for Multi-ethnicity in Communications, Academic Advisory Board for the Cable Industry for the Society of Cable Telecommunications Engineers, Member of the Advisory Board for Chief Learning Officers for Marcus Evans, and serves as a Learning Leader with the Elliott Masie Learning Consortium.  Martha was recently named to CLO’s LearningElite Advisory Board.

 

Thomas Stone has been in the Talent Management industry for a dozen years, most recently joining Taleo as a Senior Research Analyst. In this role with Taleo Research, Tom conducts research in various talent management subjects, writes whitepapers, speaks at industry conferences, and writes for Taleo’s Research's talent management blog. Prior to joining Taleo, Tom held several roles with learning solutions provider Element K for over 11 years. There he focused on  innovation areas such as social learning and mobile learning, and for several years has been a frequent and popular speaker at international and regional events including ASTD, CSTD, SHRM, NHRA, Learning Technologies, Training Magazine, eLearning Guild, and more.

 

Melissa joined Under Armour in January 2007 to lead the Talent Team.  Her responsibilities include supporting all of the UA business leaders through talent acquisition, learning and development, compensation and benefits, compliance, recognition and associate relations.  She and her team have enjoyed the challenge of recruiting hundreds of teammates over the last three years and support UA growth globally through performance management and succession planning.  

Prior to joining Under Armour, Melissa served as Vice President of Human Resources for Party City Corporation for five years, was SVP, HR for Ann Taylor and VP, HR for Liz Claiborne.  She also served as Director of HR for United Retail Group Inc. and Mandee and Annie Sez Stores.  She began her career as a store manager with The Gap. 

Melissa is a graduate of Montclair State University with a BS in Psychology.