Alice Wastag, Senior People Science Consultant, is based in Ann Arbor, Michigan.  She has helped organizations and leaders create high performance organizations and improve employee engagement for over 10 years. Alice has presented her work at professional conferences, including the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology and the American Society for Healthcare and Human Resources Administration. Her work has been published in Chief Learning Officer business magazine. Alice has a graduate degree in Industrial and Organizational Psychology and an MBA from the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business. She has consulted with Fortune 500 organizations of various sizes and sectors.

Amy Parker is currently the Senior Global Director, Talent Development at Acquia. Amy is a builder and a connector, and energized by connecting the business to the right people solutions, and people to the business strategy. She is motivated by building people enablement programs that impact the whole of the business, and bringing a creative approach to talent development and management.

Over the past 15+ years, Amy has worked primarily in high-tech, advertising, and digital marketing environments and have built and launched programs for integrated talent development and talent management: redesigning the approach and processes for talent acquisition and performance management, selecting and deploying HRIS and Learning solutions, and building a talent pipeline through organizational design, learning, and coaching programs. Amy’s skills and experience reflect her drive and passion to focus on key business objectives and work collaboratively with peers and external partners to bring about solutions. A bit of an interesting trek for a Returned Peace Corps Volunteer focused on Fisheries in Zaire.

Amy is fluent in Spanish and English, and conversant in French, Portuguese, and Swahili. In her spare time, Amy co-teaches Black and White darkroom workshop courses at the New England School of Photography, and donate time & services to local non-profits. Amy is an avid underwater photography, always searching the sands for unusual critters.

Andrea Couto is the Sr. Director, Solutions Consulting at PeopleDoc by Ultimate Software. Andrea leads the North American Solution Consulting organization ensuring the team illustrates alignment of customer business processes to the PeopleDoc platform within our Sales organization. Andrea comes with over 18 years of Human Capital Management software experience from implementation, account management and presales.  This spans knowledge and sharing of industry-specific and general HR use cases in recruiting, succession/talent planning, performance and compensation management to HR shared service centers.

As a keynote speaker and GM for SongDivision USA, Angus Clark has established an amazing track record of proven success at uniting companies around their purpose using music. With over 10 years of experience speaking for Fortune 500 companies including Microsoft, American Express, and Spotify, Angus’ dynamic musical keynotes draw from his extensive experience in the corporate workplace and as a professional musician. He has spoken, hosted, and facilitated team building workshops in the US, Canada, Mexico, Peru, Switzerland, Finland, UK, Australia, and Germany.

What makes Angus a top choice for HR leaders and event stakeholders is his unique ability to help clients distill their core messages, including company purpose and core values, into relatable terms that instantly engage the participants. His wide-ranging experience includes almost a decade working in the non-profit and corporate sectors, for organizations such as L’Oreal USA, and over 20 years as a professional touring and recording musician. As lead guitarist for the Platinum-selling and Grammy-nominated Trans-Siberian Orchestra and the Tony-Award Winning Broadway production of “Rock of Ages” he has first hand knowledge of how collaboration yields success.

Angus’ magnetic personality, musical ability, and real-world business experience combine to create engaging, relatable keynotes that have made him a favorite among leading companies worldwide.

Angus McCarey is the CEO Hive Learning – the award-winning digital partner for putting change into action.

At Hive Learning, Angus works with enterprise and scale-up organisations to help them embed the behaviours and mindsets critical for growth – whether it’s building a more inclusive culture, adopting a growth mindset or turning learning and collaboration into daily routine.

Hive Learning was awarded the Gold award for Best use of Social and Collaborative Technologies at the 2018 Learning Technologies Awards for their work with FTSE100 Halma which contributed to record growth and profit. To find out more, visit hivelearning.com.

Ann is the Chief People Officer of Lionbridge, one of the world’s largest and most trusted communications platforms. She leads the development and execution of Lionbridge’s global human resource strategy, including talent management, performance management, employer branding, and total rewards. Ann is also responsible for articulating and advancing the company’s people-first mission across our executive leadership team and pride of Lions worldwide.

Prior to Lionbridge, Ann was the Vice President, Human Resources Business Partner at Ascend Learning, where she worked to increase employee engagement and lead key acquisitions. She is recognized by the National Retail Federation with the Silver Award for the most significant contribution to the retail industry, and received Employer of Choice by Executive Female, Diversity, Inc., and the National Retail Federation. Additionally, Ann received Ohio’s 2012 Glass Ceiling Award for her work in the advancement of women. She holds bachelor’s degrees in History and Soviet Studies from Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut.

Anthony Martin is the Executive Vice President, RPO & Talent Management, Americas.

Anthony has over 20 years of experience providing successful talent management and workforce solutions for various Fortune 500 clients. Prior to joining Hudson Global Inc., he held various senior leadership roles specializing in talent solutions, global recruitment, product development and strategy within leading global recruitment industry organizations. His experience includes the design, implementation, and delivery of diverse talent acquisition solutions in RPO, MSP, SOW, IC, and Payroll solutions across numerous industries for clients’ needs globally. Anthony holds a B.S. in Business Management from Lynn University in Boca Raton, Florida, and many industry certifications.

Bala Nagarajan is the Employee Experience Leader focusing on Employee Development and People Analytics at GE. He uses people analytics and design thinking to enhance employee experiences through intelligent, intuitive and integrated HR systems.

Bala has been with GE for over 10 years and was a Global HRBP for our Research and Product Management teams before the current role.  Prior to GE, Bala worked with HSBC in India. During his career, he has done many roles in areas of Compensation & Benefits, Talent Acquisition, HR Analytics and HR Business Partnering.

Bala blogs frequently and his posts detail the unspoken realities of career progression & organizational dynamics. They aim to help aspiring professionals of the corporate sector in their career development.

A social scientist disguised as a businessman, C. Brandon Bennett leverages his research background and MBA to create people solutions to organizational needs. Currently, he leads the HR function as the VP of Global People Operations at Mohawk Group, an AI developer and e-commerce tech company located in New York City. Prior to Mohawk, Brandon gained OD expertise and HR Generalist experience at Nature’s Bounty as he transformed the North American supply chain into a High Performing Organization. Additionally, he gained expertise in talent management while working at the Kellogg Company as a recruiter and leadership development specialist. Brandon received his MBA with an emphasis in Org Behavior and Human Resources from BYU’s Marriott School of Management.

Fascinated by the stories people and organizations tell themselves, Brandon is most engaged when helping individuals and groups do things they’ve never thought to achieve what they never thought possible. He sees the future as a cyborg, with leaders confident in leading people and technology.

Brandon learned Organizational Effectiveness by necessity to manage his family of seven. Everyone has a role and responsibilities as the family camps, hikes, and explores the country through the National Parks and Monuments.

Cara Conceller is a deeply intuitive, seasoned sales producer with a consistent track record of achieving sales goals. On a mission to build a Culture First Sales organization, learn faster through feedback, and build high performing teams where people thrive and live their best life.

Cara has been specializing in the people space for over ten years, most recently focused on helping companies build a culture of feedback and utilize employee feedback and people analytics to impact business outcomes. Cara is passionate about a world in which people decisions are a core pillar of how we grow and evolve organizations.

Catherine Murchie is senior vice president of Employee Digital Experience, where she is responsible for helping the company create positive employee experiences that will enhance their overall productivity and engagement. Catherine has been with Mastercard since 1998 in roles of increasing responsibility in the areas of digital product, finance, human resources and technology. Catherine holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of South Carolina and a Master of Arts degree from the Schar School of Public Policy & Government at George Mason University in Virginia. She also completed an advanced Human Resources executive program at The University of Michigan – Ross School of Business and executive programs in negotiation at Harvard University and Columbia Business School.

Chris is an author, Professor, and a Vice President at American Express. Having built high performing teams at American Express and Microsoft, he leverages his front-line experience from Fortune 50 companies to share how to make smarter decisions without drowning in information. Too often he has seen decisions are often made by consensus reflecting a flight to safety rather than to catalyze growth. His passion is to change the outcome. Through various techniques he teaches how to cut through the data noise to arrive at sharp insights. He recipient of The Wall Street Journal Achievement Award, co-author of Drinking From The Fire Hose, writes for Forbes, and serves as chair of the board of advisors for Stevens Institute School of Management.

Dhiren Master has held a number of CEO and Marketing Director positions in different industries globally: telecommunications, sporting goods, oil and gas, food retail, automotive services and worked in Brazil,  Canada, USA, India, Sri Lanka and the UK. Prior to this he was Head of Global Strategy for BG Group which he joined after 8 years as a strategy consultant. He has also been the Chairman of a number of not for profit charities. He is an award winning Marketing Director, has a patent pending on a new type of charcoal oven, and has written a book to help people ‘to think about what they think’. He started life as Telecoms research engineer and has an Engineering degree from Cambridge and an MBA from INSEAD.

As the Vice President of People Planning, Design and Analytics, Elaine Mason leads a transformation function at Cisco that works with senior executives on executive talent and performance management, workforce analytics and planning, organization effectiveness and design thinking. Since joining Cisco in 2016, Elaine has lead two transformation initiatives – one focused on building management capabilities focused on people planning and a second focused on reinventing the company’s talent strategy. Prior to joining Cisco, Elaine was the Vice President of Organization Effectiveness and Workforce Planning at American Express (2012-2016) and Vice President of Planning and Education at Viacom/MTV Networks (2002-2007). Outside of her business experience, Elaine serves on the board of Imperative (a B-Corporation focused on enabling purpose driven work). Previously, Elaine has served as a National Board Member for the Taproot Foundation as well as the Board of the Organization Development Network of New York. Elaine holds a Master of Science in Organization Development from Pepperdine University.

Elizabeth Pierce is an established talent industry professional dedicated to driving a progressive learning culture throughout organizations to meet company, customer, and employee goals for strategic growth. She has over 18 years of in-depth knowledge focusing on employee development, talent lifecycle design, and leadership evolution. Currently serving as the Global Director of Learning & Development at Eventbrite, her experience ranges from large scale organizations such as Oracle and Walmart eCommerce to hyper-growth startups Uber, Glassdoor and Zenefits.

Eric Hutcherson leads the NBA’s Human Resources department, managing a team that drives the NBA’s global workforce strategy built on a commitment to attracting, retaining, developing and engaging top talent for the NBA, WNBA, NBA G League and NBA 2K League. With a focus on people, culture and innovation, Hutcherson is responsible for leading global projects, processes and analytics that address business needs. He partners with the leagues’ senior leadership to enable, empower and develop employees in 13 U.S. and international offices guided by the league’s strategic direction.

Prior to joining the NBA in July 2014, Hutcherson was Managing Director and Chief HR Officer for the U.S. and Canada Division of Marsh, a leading global insurance brokerage firm. Before that, he held several leadership positions at Mercer, a financial services and human resource consulting firm, including Chief Human Resources Officer – Americas, and Global Leader for Mercer’s Outsourcing and Global Operations and Shared Services businesses.

Earlier in his career, he worked for Foot Locker and served as Assistant Director of Public Relations for the Boston Celtics.

Outside of the NBA, Hutcherson is a motivational speaker and created a career development training program, “Say Yes to Success.” He serves on the Board of Trustees for The Hun School of Princeton, the Board of Directors for Covenant House and the Senior Advisory Council for the National Association of African Americans in HR.

Hutcherson earned a bachelor’s degree in Political Science from New York University and a master’s degree in Sports Management and Administration from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst. He resides in Freehold, N.J. with his wife Linda and their two sons, Austin and Myles.