Jessica Miller-Merrell, SHRM-SCP is the Founder of Workology.com and the Chief Strategist at her company, Xceptional HR. She specializes in providing HR and talent acquisition consulting and resources for organizations focused on simple solutions that leverage digital and technology. She's the author of Tweet This! Twitter for Business and The HR Technology Field Guide. Jessica has been recognized by The Economist, Forbes, SHRM Magazine and others for her contributions to HR and recruitment.

Dorothy Mankey, Certified Dare to Lead™ Facilitator, SHRM, believes people can, and should, have the space to flourish at work. Dorothy trained with Dr. Brené Brown and her team to become a certified facilitator of the Dare to Lead™ program and she facilitates this transformational program inside organizations around the US.

In tandem, Dorothy likes to joke that she earned an “MBA” in Conscious Capitalism during her time as a Mission and Culture leader at Whole Foods Market, where she helped design and launch the Academy for Conscious Leadership. Dorothy leverages design thinking and coaching methodologies to assist executive teams in designing conscious cultures infused with love, learning, and innovation. 

A serial technology CEO, strategy consultant and board member, Marylene Delbourg-Delphis was one of the first European women to found (with Guy Kawasaki) a technology company in Silicon Valley. For 30 years, she has empowered organizations to continuously innovate as a full-time CEO (4 companies), shadow CEO, board member or advisor (over 30 companies), and has negotiated several acquisitions. She currently serves on the board of several companies. In 2018, she was awarded the French Legion of Honor, the highest order of merit for military and civil accomplishments. A graduate of l’Ecole Normale Supérieure, she holds a Doctorate in Philosophy and minors in Formal Logic and History of Sciences. She studied under the tutelage of French Academician & Stanford Professor, Michel Serres.

She has written several books on fashion and fragrances and curates content about Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Human Resources. She published a new book in 2018: Everybody Wants to Love Their Job—Rebuilding Trust and Culture.

Anthony Paradiso has 15 years of HR leader experience, with an expertise in diversity & inclusion and employee relations.  He is the owner & founder of AllThingzAP, where it is his primary purpose for individuals to be your authentic self. Additionally, he works for Industrial U.I. Services.  Anthony is the Diversity & Inclusion Director for the Garden State Council-SHRM (GSC-SHRM), is the VP of Diversity & Inclusion with the North Jersey-Rockland SHRM Chapter, and is involved in the Board of Advisors with the American Conference of Diversity.  He has given a number of presentations about employee relations, D&I, inclusion, being your authentic self, unconscious bias and has facilitated workshops surrounding diversity & inclusion that include the privilege walk.  Anthony has written a number of articles for SHRM, WorkHuman, Workology, Rezoomo, Achievers, etc. and is the Bergen County Human Relations Commissioner.  He has been quoted in HR Magazine, Namely, & Bonusly.  Finally, Anthony received his BA from Binghamton University, his MS in Human Relations & Business from Amberton University, and is SHRM Certified.  

Tracie Sponenberg, SHRM-SCP, SPHR  is the Chief People Officer for The Granite Group, a full-service wholesale distributor of plumbing, heating, cooling, water and propane supplies based in Concord, NH.  Responsible for leading all People functions for 45 locations throughout New England and nearly 600 team members, she has gained a broad background across a wide range of industries in more than 20 years in HR, with much of her career focused on working with CEOs  to develop strategic people strategies to help organizations grow. She began her career in HR while in college, interning with a global public transportation company but found she could have the most impact on the business in mid-sized, private companies.  

Tracie has a BA in Psychology from Holy Cross, which prepared her amazingly well for the world of HR, and a MA in Human Resources from Framingham State University. She is Co-Founder of DisruptHR NH and HR Rebooted and a member of SHRM’s Special Expertise Panel.  Tracie is on the board of the Harvard Pilgrim Foundation; Red River Theatres (she loves movies) and The Concord Food Co-op (and also healthy food - and chocolate.) A bookworm and introvert who never spoke in class until college - and then only reluctantly - she started getting comfortable with being uncomfortable and ironically now regularly speaks on HR issues locally and nationally.  Though she now realizes she won’t die speaking in public, to the media, or on camera, she still hates parties and crowds - but loves shoes and espresso. When not road tripping, heading to Disney World, or hanging out at home with her family, you can usually find her at a local coffee shop or very slowly running 5Ks with her husband.

Cecile Alper-Leroux is vice president of product innovation at Ultimate Software. She is a keynote speaker, author of From Dissonance to Resonance, and a visionary on HR trends and global strategies. An economic anthropologist with more than 20 years of industry experience, she focuses on helping companies design person-centered experiences that enable all people to achieve highly purposeful and productive work lives. A recognized voice in the HCM industry, Cecile has been featured in Forbes, HuffPost, HR Magazine, HRD Canada TV, and The Wall Street Journal; she was named a Top HR Influencer of 2019 by FitSmallBusiness.com, a Top 100 Influencer by HR Executive Magazine, and a 2020 Great Place to Work® For All Leadership Award Honoree.

A Training & Development veteran for 30+ years, Jim Knight facilitates on a variety of interactive topics, including sessions around amping up organizational culture, world-class differentiated service, building rock star teams, hiring & retaining “rock stars”, employee branding, performance management and philanthropy.

Jim cut his teeth in the training field through the Hospitality industry, starting out in the snack bar at Gatorland Zoo, as a restaurant staff-level employee for Olive Garden and then as a host & manager at Hard Rock Cafe. He eventually became the head of the School of Hard Rocks, running point on all global learning & development functions for Hard Rock International.

Although part of a small training group that supported all cafe, hotel & casino properties, Jim Knight’s role at Hard Rock involved many facets of organizational training, including: creating/managing all staff & management training materials & programs, facilitating its corporate university, overseeing management training locations, producing training videos, directing company e-Learning initiatives, facilitating leadership transitions and traveling to properties to deliver on-site classes & measure standards.

Jim has put his experience and creativity to work, which has consistently developed cutting-edge training concepts. During his time with the Hard Rock brand, his team won coveted video Telly Awards (“Guest Service” in 2000, “Menu Rollout” in 2007, “Harassment & Discrimination Prevention” in 2008), garnered Training Directors Forum’s 1998 prize for “Reengineering Training” and won Brandon Hall’s Gold Best in Class Award for their “Service Recovery” e-Learning course.

Jim Knight was also recognized by Training Magazine as representing one of the Top 125 training companies in the world out of all industries & businesses. Jim has since been featured in Forbes Magazine, Inc. Magazine, Entrepreneur Magazine, Nation’s Restaurant News, Business News Daily and Fox Business News.

Jim has a music degree in Vocal Performance & Education and taught in the Florida public school system for 6 years, before catching the “hospitality bug”. He is a lifetime member of CHART (an Association of Hospitality Trainers), previously sat on the Certification Governing Board of the National Restaurant Association and started a local networking group (The Training Summit: CHART’s 1^stRegional Training Forum) with over 100 active members in Central Florida, to share best practices and discuss common issues with other industry professionals. Networking is a big part of his success.

Jim is the Owner & CEO of Knight Speaker, which positions him to facilitate at any association or company event, in any industry, as a keynote or breakout speaker. He is also the best-selling author of Culture That Rocks: How to Revolutionize Your Company’s Culture, now in its 2^ndedition, which was featured in Entrepreneur Magazine as one of the “5 Books That Will Help You Transform How You Do Business”.

Along with his business partner, Brant Menswar, Jim also hosts a weekly leadership podcast called, Thoughts That Rock, which includes a rock star guest and presents 2 life-changing pieces of advice in 30 minutes. Finally, Jim and Brant offer a leadership training program called, Certified Rock Star, as an edu-taining, Rock ‘n Roll-inspired experience for leaders looking to amp up their business in a variety of areas.

A portion of Jim Knight’s book sales, podcast revenue, speaking fees and training program proceeds goes to No Kid Hungryto eliminate childhood hunger in the U.S. and Cannonball Kids’ cancer, which funds innovative, accessible research for children fighting cancer with better treatments, quality of life and options for those told they have run out of options.

Ann has a background as a clinical social worker, healthcare director, college professor, speaker, executive/ leadership coach, author.  She has an MSW in Social Work and is a Professional Certified Coach (PCC) through the International Coach Federation

For the last 20+ years, she has worked as an executive coach to high-level leaders in domestic and global corporations. Some of the companies she has coached in, include:

FedEx Ground, Genzyme, Ilex Oncology, KPMG, Markem-Imaje, TCEQ, W.P.Carey, McLane Company.

Ann brings her maturity, her engaging style, her sense of humor and her heart to bring you topics that touch, inspire and maybe even make you laugh.

Alicia Maples superpower is helping women in leadership chunk the junk that minimizes the strength of their position, and teaches them to take control of their power and credibility in the workplace. Alicia is a 12-year coach, TEDx speaker, consultant to the Disney Leadership Institute, Dish Network as well as a myriad of Fortune 5 executives. And all her clients agree: Alicia Maples will launch you into radical results IF you are willing to get uncomfortable in the most transformational and empowering way. 

Thomas Wedell-Wedellsborg is the author of the newly published "What's Your Problem?" (Harvard Business Press, March 2020). He is globally recognized expert on innovation and problem solving, and was named a "Top 20 International Thinker" by Britain's HR Magazine.

Thomas has shared and refined his reframing method with clients like Cisco, Microsoft, Citigroup, Time Warner, AbbVie, Caterpillar, Amgen, Prudential, Union Pacific, Credit Suisse, Deloitte, the Wall Street Journal, and the United Nations.

His first book, Innovation as Usual, with Paddy Miller (Harvard Business Review Press, 2013), was translated into five languages.

With 28 years of human resources experience, John’s passion of setting contributors and companies up for success is still going strong.  John is a keynote for US and International Conferences where he shares content and thoughts on leadership, collaboration and innovation, employee success, organizational design and development as well as inclusion and diversity.  He is a previous winner of the Delaware Valley HR Person of the Year award. John is currently the President of Humareso, a global human resources consulting firm, and the proud dad of 3 amazing young adults.