Advisory Board

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.

Chuck Heaton joined Keane in June 2018 as Vice President of Human Resources. He holds a B.S. in Human Resources Management from Auburn University and has his SPHR & SHRM-SCP certification. Chuck has 30 years of human resources experience and started his career with Shaw Industries in Corporate Recruiting.  In his 23 year experience in the Oil & Gas industry, he has held a variety of regional & global leadership positions with companies such as Pennzoil, Intertek, Dresser, GE Oil & Gas and FMC Technologies. Chuck was most recently the Vice President of Human Resources & Communication-North America for TechnipFMC.

Chuck has a passion for HR and extensive experience in the fields of employee engagement, talent pipeline, organizational design and development, labor relations and integrations.

VaynerMedia’s —and the ad industry’s for that matter— first ever Chief Heart Officer, Claude Silver fuses empathy with agency to unlock employee potential and foster a culture of belonging. Between her education in psychology, years as an advertising strategist, and time at Vaynermedia, she’s been studying and influencing human behavior for over three decades. Outside of Vaynermedia, she speaks globally about the need for heart-leadership in today’s workplace and the importance of treating “employees” like people, not numbers. Her success guiding client relationships, global brand strategies, operations, management, and culture is driven by an abiding passion for creating spaces in which people can thrive.

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.

Harsha Jalihal is the Vice President of Human Resources for Unilever’s US Operations – she oversees HR for Unilever’s largest market, which includes an ambitious transformation agenda.

Prior to this, she was VP HR Future of Work at Unilever, and on secondment to the World Economic Forum (WEF). In this role, she supported the creation of Unilever’s strategy to build a sustainable future of work and contributed to the WEF’s own thought leadership in this space through her involvement in various projects which included re-imagining HR for the Fourth Industrial Revolution and as a member of the Consumer Industry Task Force of the Future of Work.

Harsha joined Unilever in 2014 after 15 years in the technology services industry in a variety of HR and business roles from HR Business Partner to M&A Specialist to Chief of Staff in the office of the CFO/COO.
Harsha’s career exemplifies her purpose to help people and organizations write and rewrite their stories by seeking experiences that push people outside their comfort zones.

Harsha has an undergraduate degree in statistics and an MBA. She lives in picturesque Randolph, New Jersey, with her husband, a 10-year-old son and a 6-year-old daughter. She loves books, food, wine and travel.

Jill Christensen is a former Fortune 500 business executive, who led Global Internal Communications at Avaya and Western Union.  She is a best-selling author, international keynote speaker, and holds a Six Sigma Green Belt. Jill was named a Top 100 Global Employee Engagement Influencer, and her popular weekly blog was named a Top 100 Corporate Blog alongside of Apple and Microsoft.

Jill has worked in 16 industries, partnering with the best and brightest leaders around the world to improve productivity, retention, customer satisfaction, and revenue growth by re-engaging employees.  Her proven approach to increase engagement has led her to speak throughout the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Malaysia, the Czech Republic, Singapore and India.

Jill grew up in multiple U.S. states, but now calls Denver, CO, her home thanks to her pioneering spirit and love of majestic mountains, skiing, U.S. football, and live music.

Global Industry Analyst and Thought Leader, Founder of Bersin ™ by Deloitte

He founded Bersin & Associates in 2001 to provide research and advisory services focused on corporate learning. Over the next ten years, he expanded the company’s coverage to encompass HR, talent management, talent acquisition, and leadership and became a recognized expert in the talent market. He sold the company to Deloitte in 2012, when it became known as Bersin™ by Deloitte. He continues to serve as a senior advisor to Deloitte, advising large organizations and contributing to major research initiatives. He also sits on the board of UC Berkeley Executive Education.

Bersin is frequently featured in talent and business publications such as Forbes, Harvard Business Review, HR Executive, FastCompany, The Wall Street Journal, and CLO Magazine. He is a regular keynote speaker at industry events and a popular blogger with more than 700,000 followers on LinkedIn.

Prior to founding Bersin & Associates, Josh spent 25 years in product development, product management, marketing, and sales of e-learning and other enterprise technologies. His education includes a BS in engineering from Cornell University, an MS in engineering from Stanford University, and an MBA from the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley. He is the author of two books, The Blended Learning Handbook and The Training Measurement Book, along with dozens of studies on corporate HR, learning, and talent technologies. He currently has a third book under contract with Harvard Business Publishing.

Karen is an HR professional with over 20 years of experience in employee engagement, teaming, organizational change, talent management, communication, facilitation, coaching, cultural transformation, process and organizational redesign, and learning and development.  She began her career doing organization development at EY before leaving in 2012 to become the head of People at Seamless (and then GrubHub).  She is currently the Chief People Officer at Pond5- the most filmmaker friendly marketplace for the licensing of content.  There she leads efforts to attract, develop, engage, and retain a talented team that works every day to help filmmakers fulfill their creative vision.  Karen has an undergraduate degree from Tufts University and a Masters in Organizational Psychology from Columbia University.  She lives in NJ with her husband and two teenage daughters.

A versatile global leader with 20+ years HR experience gained in fast paced, transformational environments, 7 of which have been with the Financial Times. A successful strategic business partner adept at developing, designing, leading and measuring people strategies to maximise commercial impact. An innovative problem solver with significant experience in advising and influencing senior stakeholders and navigating successfully through complex, matrixed organisations. In addition to managing HR for the FT in the US, Kirsty also lead on global HR projects, most recently designing and implementing a new global HR structure to ensure teams are most effectively supporting the transformation which our business and industry continues to go through. Kirsty’s passion is Global HR and she is GPHR certified.

Marcy Axelrad is Head of Talent Management and Talent Operations at Wayfair, one of the world’s largest online destinations for the home. She is responsible for maintaining the company’s strong culture and driving the creation of an exceptional employee experience across the company’s rapidly expanding global footprint. Through an employee-centric lens, Marcy ensures Wayfair is a sought after employer for top talent and a recognized leader in workplace culture. She oversees performance management and employee calibration, data and analytics, operational excellence, immigration, benefits and wellness initiatives, and DEI programs. With the tremendous growth at Wayfair, every day she looks at ways to build Wayfair’s team with the best people and how to recognize, reward and retain great talent across the organization. Marcy joined Wayfair in 2011 as Director of Talent Management when the company had approximately 700 employees in 4 locations. Wayfair now has more than 14,500 people with locations across North America and Europe.Prior to joining Wayfair, Marcy practiced employment law within two New-England based firms (Hinckley Allen and Gesmer Updegrove) counseling companies on all aspects of employment law, employee relations, compensation, benefits and employment related business strategies. She then went in-house at Corporate Realty Investment Capital as Managing Director and Head of Talent where she focused on both the acquisition of real estate assets across the US and rapidly growing the company through recruiting and training employees in all aspects of the business.Marcy is a graduate of McGill University and holds a JD from Boston University.

Rob Doodian was formerly the executive vice president and chief human resources officer of AMC Networks.  As CHRO, Rob oversaw all Human Resource functions including talent acquisition, employee relations, compensation, benefits, diversity and inclusion and HR technology, for AMC Networks Inc. and its business units: popular and award-winning national cable television networks AMC, IFC, SundanceTV, WE tv, and BBC AMERICA (operated through a joint venture with BBC Worldwide); feature film label IFC Films; and AMC Networks International, the company’s global division. In addition, he was also responsible for oversight of the Real Estate, Facilities and Security functions.  He was in this role from July 2011 through June 2019.

Doodian has more than 25 years of experience in human resources.  Prior to AMC Networks, he served as senior vice president of corporate human resources for Cablevision Systems Corporation.  He joined Cablevision in 1999 as area director of corporate employee relations and was subsequently promoted to vice president in 2002. He was named senior vice president in 2008.

Prior to Cablevision, Doodian was with the international accounting and consulting firm of PricewaterhouseCoopers where he was the director of human resources for the metro regions’ assurance practice.  Doodian was also with the Long Island Lighting Company (now PSEG) where he held a variety of human resources roles in the labor/employee relations, compensation and management development areas.

Doodian began his professional career in 1985 with the New York office of Coopers & Lybrand as part of the audit staff providing assurance services to clients in the financial services industry. He subsequently moved into the firms’ human resources organization and managed their college recruiting function.

He served as the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the T. Howard Foundation, a non-profit, charitable organization dedicated to increasing diversity in the multimedia and entertainment industry.  He was the Chairman from 2015 – 2018.

Doodian earned his Bachelor of Science degree from New York University in Accounting and a certificate in Human Resources from Cornell University.