2021 Speakers

Chris Comrie Founder Recruiting Leaders Academy

Chris Comrie manages Recruiting Leaders, the fastest growing high quality community of recruiters on Facebook. He uses his experience to mentor and consult recruiters on how to scale and automate their business and reach so they can earn more revenue while freeing up time. His writing and videos on how to leverage the power of community in a saturated recruiting market gets over 50,000 impressions per month. He is a LinkedIn and Facebook Influencer and enjoys giving back by teaching webinars and speaking at conferences about the power of community and how others can scale their audience too.

Kristin Dudley Founder Co-Create LLC

Kristin Dudley is an award-winning Workplace Documentarian & Employment Brand Strategist. Her day-in-the-life documentaries of real jobs provide workplace transparency while attracting the most qualified candidates to apply. Through Co-Create LLC, she is taking candidate experience a step further. Passionate about building healthy teams and organizations, Co-Create facilitates collaborative content-generating exercises with employees to produce personalized solutions for the candidate experience while uncovering the authentic voice of the employment brand at hand.

Ms. Dudley formerly served as Senior Manager of Talent Brand & Attraction for Comcast NBCUniversal after many years as Manager of Comcast’s Emmy Award-Winning User Experience & Product Design team. Within her role leading Talent Brand & Attraction, she launched the social talent attraction strategy for the company and produced dozens of stories and pieces of content to support its growth. Driven by her mission to "help everyone love where they work," she has spent the last five years applying design-thinking to address all touch points of the candidate journey.

Ms. Dudley holds an MS in Organizational Dynamics from the University of Pennsylvania and a BS in Fashion Design from Drexel University. She was recently named “Disruptor of the Year” by the DisruptHR NYC community.

Karen Eisengruber Head of Customer Success Fairygodboss

Karen Eisengruber is the Head of Customer Success for Fairygodboss, a start-up company committed to improving the workplace for women through transparency.

In her role, Ms. Eisengruber spends the majority of her time innovating ways to improve the Fairygodboss offering while providing invaluable insight on how companies’ can advance gender diversity in the workplace and empower their employees to do the same.

Prior to joining Fairygodboss, she spent the past six years in a talent acquisition capacity leading and growing teams, creating new and innovative processes, and understanding what excites job seekers at some of the top performing companies in their industries including Accenture and GEODIS.

James Ellis Host The Talent Cast

James Ellis is an employer brand and recruitment marketing strategist working in Chicago. He coded his first webpage by hand nearly 20 years ago and since then has brought social media marketing to non-profits, content management systems to state governments and content strategy to Fortune 1000 Companies. At his core, he is a digital marketing strategist, helping people and businesses define their audience and message. For the last four years, he has used that thinking to help companies of all shapes and sizes hire and retain talent.

Chris W. Fitzpatrick, PHR, SHRM-CP Talent Acquisition Manager Enterprise Rent-A-Car

“No matter what business you are in, you are in a business of people and a business of relationships,” is the mantra of Chris Fitzpatrick, PHR, SHRM-CP, “and whatever your job title, we are all responsible in some way for the complete satisfaction of our customers.” This philosophy has been formed though his 12+ years with Enterprise Holdings, which operates the Enterprise, National, and Alamo Car Rental brands. More than 11 of those 12 years have been spent in Talent Acquisition, during which time he has developed ironclad relationships with a number of College and University career centers, as well as working with academic departments, athletic programs, clubs and organizations, fraternities and sororities, EOF and EOP programs, alumni associations, student support services working with veterans and students with disabilities, LGBTQA, etc. In addition to his work in Talent Acquisition, he is very passionate about workplace diversity, being named to Enterprise’s corporate Diversity & Inclusion Team from 2021-2021.

Mr. Fitzpatrick has written and delivered presentations and seminars to thousands of college students on topics ranging from “The 4 Types of Communication Skills,” “Turning Pro -from College to Career,” “Navigating the College Career Fair,” and “LinkedIntern – Social Media and Your Job Search.” A 2004 graduate of Montclair State University in Upper Montclair, NJ, he currently serves as the President of the Feliciano School of Business Young Professionals Board and is a member of the Career Center Advisory Board at the New Jersey Institute of Technology. Within the next couple of years, he hopes to have his first book published which offers job search and professional advice to job seekers and college students, while also detailing the hilarious horror stories of interviews gone awry. You can follow him on Twitter at @ChrisWFitz, as well as connecting on LinkedIn.

Pamela J. Green, MBA, SPHR, ACC President & CEO The HR Coaching and Career institute, Inc.

Pamela J Green, is a business executive, leadership consultant, executive coach, keynote speaker, and published author with more than 30 years of business leadership experience. As the former VP/Chief Membership Officer for the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) she was responsible for membership revenue and strategies to engage and retain more than 260k business professionals and now she is leveraging that robust experience to support the success of leaders and executives.

Since launching her consultancy in 2012, and now as President and CEO of The HR Coaching and Career Institute, she has been serving as a leadership consultant to global corporations, small businesses, and non-profit organizations and their teams developing strategies that lead to greater collaboration and productivity through training and conflict coaching. Clients, who include Walmart, Pepsico, WilmerHale, The Ohio State University, AARP, ICMEC, and the American Society of Association Executives, call her to help them achieve breakthrough performance with their HR strategies, leadership initiatives, and professional careers.

She is excited about the release of her current book, Think Like a Brand! To connect with her, you can follow her on Twitter @pamelajgreen, Like her Facebook Page: www.facebook.com/thehrcoachinginstitute or connect with her through LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/pamelajgreen/.

Keynote Speaker - John Hall CEO Influence & Co.

John Hall is the author of Top of Mind, a best-selling book published by McGraw Hill and the co-founder of Influence & Co., the largest creator and distributor of expert content to major media. Inc. has called Mr. Hall “one of the most powerful people in media who you’ve never met” and dubbed him a “must-see keynote speaker.” Mr. Hall and his company have been recognized extensively for his contributions. He was the recipient of the EY Entrepreneur of the Year Award for Best Emerging Company in 2021 and was recognized as one of the Business Journal’s Top 100 Visionaries. Influence & Co. Ho also was ranked No. 239 on the Inc. 500 and No. 72 on Forbes’ list of the Most Promising Companies in America in 2021. Influence & Co. was also recognized at the United Nations for being Empact’s Best Marketing and Advertising Company of 2021.

Mr. Hall is consistently recognized as a top influencer, leader, and speaker. He writes weekly columns for Forbes and Inc. and has contributed to more than 50 online publications, including Harvard Business Review, Entrepreneur, Fast Company, and Mashable.

Gail Houston Senior recruiter Intuit

Gail Houston brings over 20 years of recruiting experience working for companies like Intuit and EDS and has been a conference speaker at TalentNet, Sourcecon and Recruiting Trends. In addition, she is the Director of Education for the Dallas Fort Worth Recruiters Network where she is one of the original founders. She also is the co-lead for the Stonebriar Career Transition Network where she has trained over 18k applicants on how to find their next career. She has a degree from Texas A&M in Psychology and Marketing.

David L Johnson Partner Butler Snow, LLP

David Johnson is a member of the Firm’s Labor and Employment Group, Appellate and Written Advocacy Group, and Intellectual Property Group and works from the firm’s Nashville office. He focuses his practice on business litigation, employment litigation, non-compete and trade secret matters, appellate issues, and intellectual property litigation.

Mr. Johnson is AV-rated by Martindale-Hubbell, and his work in labor and employment has been recognized by The Best Lawyers in America® and Mid-South Super Lawyers®. He serves as Editor-in-Chief of BNA’s Employment at Will state-by-state survey treatise and is the Tennessee chapter author for BNA’s Covenants Not to Compete, Trade Secrets, and Employee Duty of Loyalty state-by-state survey treatises.

He obtained his J.D. from Vanderbilt University and is admitted to the Tennessee State Bar, the U.S. District Courts for all districts of Tennessee, the U.S. Courts of Appeals for the Sixth, Eighth and Federal Circuits and the U.S. Supreme Court.

Keynote Speaker – Bob Kelleher President and Founder The Employee Engagement Group

Bob Kelleher is a best-selling author and consultant and travels the globe sharing his insights on employee engagement, leadership, and workforce trends. He is the author of the best-selling books Louder Than Words: 10 Practical Employee Engagement Steps That Drive Results; Creativeship, A Novel for Evolving Leaders; Employee Engagement for Dummies, and the recently released I-Engage, Your Personal Engagement Roadmap.

Mr. Kelleher can be seen or heard on national media (most recently on CNBC, CBS, NBC News, Business Week, Forbes, and Fortune), and is a frequent guest writer and contributing editor on many national publications. Mr. Kelleher has also presented to the leadership teams of many of the world’s top companies including Lockheed Martin, Cannon, Ceridian, Dana Farber, Cumberland Farms, Gulf, TJX, The Cheesecake Factory, Prudential, Abbott Labs, Fidelity, Dale Carnegie, amongst many others.

Mr. Kelleher is also the founder and president of The Employee Engagement Group, a global survey, products, and consulting firm working with leadership teams to enhance their leadership and employee engagement effectiveness.

Before becoming a speaker, author and entrepreneur, Mr. Kelleher was the Chief Human Capital Officer for AECOM, a Fortune 500 global professional services firm, with 45,000 employees located in 450 offices throughout the world, and CHRO and COO for ENSR, a 3,000-employee global consulting firm, and now a subsidiary of AECOM. During his years at AECOM and ENSR, both designed and spearheaded award winning engagement and leadership initiatives.

Rob Long VP Product Marketing Workable

Rob Long, VP of Product Marketing at Workable, is responsible for Product Strategy, the most popular recruiting software for mid-size companies globally with over 6,000 customers in 80+ countries. With a background in recruiting himself, Mr. Long joined Workable in its infancy and held senior roles in Sales and Marketing before taking responsibility for product strategy.

Leslie Mason Executive recruiter Intuit

Leslie Mason is an Executive Recruiter and part of the award winning recruiting team at Intuit. She started as a member of the Candidate Generation team where social networking plays a large part and her focus now is on recruiting top talent for Intuit’s Executive Talent Community globally. Ms. Mason has been successful in both agency and corporate environments wearing multiple hats of project manager, sourcer, recruiter and account manager.

She is a social media enthusiast, an avid LinkedIn networker, long time blogger and an active member of several local recruiting organizations. She has been interviewed and contributed as guest blogger multiple times as a recruiting thought leader. She is a public speaker for Crossroads Career Transition workshops, a presenter for TheRecruiting Conference and TalentNetLive as well as co-hosted webinars and been featured on a live video chat on Social Media and Recruiting. Connect with her on LinkedIn http://www.linkedin.com/in/lesliemason or follow her on Twitter @leslie12002.

Kara E. Shea Practice Group Leader, Labor & Employment Group Butler Snow, LLP

Kara Shea serves as the Firm’s Labor and Employment Practice Group Leader and focuses her work on employment counseling, employment litigation. She has extensive trial and appellate experience and regularly counsels clients in financial services, healthcare and home health industries on employment law compliance. She has conducted dozens of workplace investigations for public and private employers and drafts and assists in enforcement of non-compete agreements.

Her work has been recognized by Chambers USA, The Best Lawyers in America® and Mid-South Super Lawyers®. She has been named “Best of the Bar” by Nashville Business Journal and “Nashville’s Top 101 Lawyers” by Nashville Post Magazine.

Ms. Shea obtained her J.D. from Vanderbilt University and is admitted to the State Bar of Tennessee, the U.S. Court of Appeals Sixth, Seventh, Tenth and Eleventh Circuits and the U.S. Supreme Court.

Mack Munro Founder & CEO Boss Builders

Mack Munro is Founder and CEO of Boss Builders and is an experienced speaker, consultant, and coach who has worked with executive and management teams in companies of all types, sizes, and industries. He is also the author of How to Be a Great Boss.

He holds a Master of Arts degree in Organizational Leadership from Chapman University and a Bachelor of Science degree in Health Care Management from Southern Illinois University. He is a qualified facilitator of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator® and has also written and developed a number of personality and behavioral assessments and online tools.

His background is primarily in Healthcare, Manufacturing, Consulting, Information Technology, Entrepreneurship, Leadership & Management, and Marketing. His typical clients come from these areas.

Prior to starting his company, Mr. Munro created training and professional development programs at U.T. Medical Group, Inc. in Memphis, TN, Holy Cross Hospital in Silver Spring, MD, and Contract Services Association of America in Arlington, VA. He has been an adjunct Professor of Business and Management at Vincennes University in Bremerton, WA and Crichton College in Memphis, TN. He a retired United States Navy dental technician who served tours in Australia, Guam, Long Beach, California, and Bremerton, Washington.

Mr. Munro’s clients include Pratt & Whitney, UTC Research, Qualifacts, Premier Medical Group, Munters Corporation, COCC, CU Direct, numerous Federal agencies, and all 4 branches of the United States Military.

In addition to his latest book on management development, he is also the author of: How to Win at Performance Management and 11 other business books. He has been featured as a career expert on radio, television, and printed and electronic media, including a monthly column in Men’s Fitness magazine.

Marlin Smith, SHRM-SCP, SPHR Founding Partner Mandrake HR Consulting, LLC

Marlin D. Smith is a dynamic HR professional who is passionate about helping employees and companies find common ground for success. As a founder of Mandrake HR Consulting, LLC, he has a solid background for leadership, safety, and employee culture deriving from over 15 years in human resources leadership. He believes that the key to a successful employer/employee relationship is commitment; on the part of the employer to provide the best environment for the employee to thrive, and on the part of the employee to bring the whole of their skills to the table to fulfill their given roles. He belives that when both parties bring their best, anything can happen!

Lindsay Stanton Chief Client Officer Digi-Me

Lindsay Stanton is Chief Client Officer for Digi-Me, a Video Technology Company for talent acquisition that helps organizations add new dimension to their job and employment brand messaging. In her time with the company, Ms. Stanton has facilitated relationships with many partners, including the largest recruitment advertising agencies, global recruitment process outsourcers, and staffing firms. These partnerships magnify the organization’s reach into the Global Fortune 1000, providing an effective and innovative solution to the largest global employers, including KellyOCG, TrueBlue, Aureon Staffing, Advanced RPO, USG Corporation, Prudential, and LG Electronics. A subject matter expert on the use of video technology as a recruitment tool, Ms. Stanton works closely with industry leaders, creating new and better ways to connect jobs and jobseekers.

Paul Slezak Cofounder, Head of Marketplace RecruitLoop

Paul Slezak is a cofounder of RecruitLoop – a global marketplace of expert sourcers and recruiters available on-demand.

With nearly 25 years in the recruitment industry and having worked for both an international publicly listed group as well as a global niche recruitment business, Mr. Slezak has been a hands-on recruiter, manager, trainer, coach, mentor, and regular speaker for the industry across Australia, the USA, Asia, and Europe.

He has seen international success in the highly competitive recruitment industry by applying his professionalism, drive and creativity to develop and deliver solutions that exceed business expectations, and push the boundaries to create innovative solutions.

He is also an avid writer and blogger. One day he would still really like to host his own talk show! He holds Bachelor of Economics from the University of Sydney and a Masters of Arts from Macquarie University.

Mark Tortorici Founder, Training Expert Transform Talent Acquisition

Mark Tortorici is an expert technical sourcer and recruiter. Since 1997, he has trained thousands of staffing professionals including those at Google, Apple, Facebook, Disney, Pinterest, Twitter, Nvidia, eBay, Yahoo, AppNexus and many other companies. He has worked in both corporate and agency roles and has also managed staffing teams with great success.

Mr. Tortorici is the Founder and Training Expert at Transform Talent Acquisition. Although he trains in every aspect of the staffing process, he is known for his sourcing methods, ability to turn technical reqs into sourcing strategies, and an easy to understand teaching style. He is also a big believer in research, learning, and technology when it comes to sourcing and recruiting. He currently resides in California with his family and also plays a variety of instruments and sings in two bands.

Elena Valentine CEO Skill Scout, Inc.

Workplace storyteller, #HRAgainstLame movement builder, and design researcher, Elena Valentine spends her days leading the team at Skill Scout to bring jobs to life on video. Every workplace has a story to tell about the team, skills, environment, and output. She is passionate about bringing company and candidates’ stories to life as a way to make meaningful hiring connections. She believes that empathy is the foundation for change. And, that clear communication and storytelling is key to making that change stick. Ms. Valentine helps tell those stories to attract the right candidates for the job, and showcase candidates' skills. As CEO, she wears many hats, but really geeks out on: new media (360, VR, POV videos, silent storytelling), partnerships, and building Skill Scout’s diverse workforce.

Angie Verros Founder Vaia Talent

Angie Verros is the founder of Vaia Talent. A passionate, strategic and innovative talent acquisition leader, she has a unique combination of successful recruiting leadership coupled with talent brand and operations experience. She has an impeccable work ethic and proven track record of success in identifying, recruiting and hiring outstanding talent. With experience in fast-paced entrepreneurial and start-up environments, she excels at designing and implementing recruiting programs to build social and brand awareness. In her 13-plus year career in the recruiting space, she has been responsible for managing and executing overall company talent acquisition strategy to meet firms’ high growth people needs, improve policies, procedures and tools for effective and seamless candidate sourcing. She has also led employment branding and social recruiting efforts to create candidate awareness and engagement.

Susan Vitale Chief Marketing Officer iCIMS

As Chief Marketing Officer at iCIMS, Susan Vitale is ultimately responsible for shaping and sharing the iCIMS story across various audiences, including prospective and existing customers, the media, industry thought leaders, employees and candidates. She is also responsible for iCIMS’ brand strategy across public relations, events, advertising, product marketing and content marketing.

After graduating from Lehigh University in 2005, Ms. Vitale began her career as a marketing coordinator at iCIMS. She quickly grew alongside the company, becoming the director of marketing, and by the age of 30 was promoted to chief marketing officer.

Ms. Vitale takes pride in converging the worlds of recruitment and marketing, and incorporating this passion into the company’s own recruitment marketing strategy. Given iCIMS’ role in talent acquisition, she has a deep understanding of how to effectively manage recruitment advertising investments, social recruiting strategies, candidate relationship management (CRM) and recruitment events. As a member of several online mentoring communities, she provides career advice and insight on finding the right career fit for young professionals. She also serves on the board of advisors at Switch, a job matching technology, and Oodi, a marketing services marketplace, and is a member of the board at NY/NJ Baykeeper Association.