Cleveland HR Star Conference Wednesday, July 28, 2010 Speaker Information Alan M. Rauss, Esq. is a Partner in the law firm of Kohrman Jackson & Krantz, P.L.L. and is a member of the firm’s Labor and Employment Law Group. He has been providing advice, counsel and litigation experience to businesses of all sizes - from Fortune 500 companies to small and medium-sized businesses - for thirty-six years. Alan has assisted employers to comply with all applicable employment statutes and regulations, including the recent regulations under the Family and Medical Leave Act. In addition, he has assisted companies in taking a proactive approach to dealing with employment issues, including the development of personnel policies, employee handbooks as well as employment audit and policy reviews to avoid employment-related issues. Alan has represented employers in federal and state court, in defense of discrimination lawsuits, wrongful discharge claims and related employment actions, and he appears regularly before the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and similar state agencies to defend clients against discrimination charges. Alan has been named an Ohio “Super Lawyer” in 2007, 2008 and 2009. Debbie McGrath is the CEO of HR.com, a company committed to delivering HR best practices and helping organizations build great businesses through community, collaboration, research, shared best practices and measurements. Prior to starting HR.com, Debbie owned The CEO Group, a Canadian and European entity that created job board software, talent management software, HTC career magazines and career fairs. In August of 1998, The CEO Group was sold to Kaplan (now BrassRing.com), a fully-owned subsidiary of the Washington Post Company. During her tenure, Debbie served as President of the Canadian and European operations, as well as Vice President of Worldwide Sales. Complementing her extensive background in human resources, publishing and the Internet, Debbie also holds a degree in Computer Science and Business Administration through the University of Guelph in Ontario, Canada. Jim Smith, SPHR is The Executive Happiness Coach®.  He is an executive coach, speaker, trainer, change consultant, and President of People Inc. Jim's mission is to increase the overall tonnage of happiness in the workplace, starting with the leaders - because positive cultures create better bottom lines. He draws on 20+ years of experience as a corporate executive in a variety of functional roles, from finance and operations to sales and HR. Jim currently serves as President of the Cleveland Coach Federation and is a Past President of the Cleveland Society for Human Resource Management. In addition, he is on the Board of Directors of the Northern Ohio HR Planning Society and teaches in the HR MBA program at Baldwin Wallace College. Jim is a Certified Authentic Happiness® Coach, a Professional Certified Coach through the International Coach Federation, and is grounded in Ontological coaching through the Newfield Network. Ontological Coaching focuses on coaching to the three primary domains – language, emotion, and the body. Jim’s coaching and facilitation style is one that draws from emotional intelligence, the mind-body connection, and experiential learning. Jim holds an MBA in organizational behavior from the Weatherhead School at Case and a BSBA in management and finance from John Carroll University. Jim deeply believes that, "Happiness is a decision, not an event." Robert S. Gilmore, Esq. is a Partner in Kohrman Jackson & Krantz’s Labor and Employment Law Group. Rob represents employers of all sizes, providing advice and counsel in all areas of labor and employment law, and he also represents employers in labor and employment litigation and ERISA litigation. Prior to joining Kohrman Jackson & Krantz in 2000, Rob was Assistant General Counsel, Employment and Human Resources for Verizon Communications, a Fortune 50 telecommunications company. In that role, Rob provided advice and counsel to the company’s various business units and managed the company’s employment and ERISA litigation defense. A strong believer in a proactive approach to labor and employment law, Rob also represents executives in negotiation of employment agreements and severance/separation agreements. Rob is a charter member of the American Bar Association’s Technology Committee and was named an Ohio Super Lawyer in 2005, 2006 and 2008, a distinction bestowed on the top 5% of licensed attorneys in Ohio as determined by their peers. In addition, Rob serves on the Board of Directors for the Northeast Ohio Human Resource Planning Society and the Cuyahoga County Public Library Foundation. Rob earned his B.A., summa cum laude, from the University of Cincinnati and his J.D. from The Ohio State University School of Law. Sindy Warren, Esq. is a Partner at Warren & Hays LLC and has practiced employment law for 13 years. For the past 4 years, Sindy ran Warren & Hays’ predecessor, Proactive Employment Practices, where she conducted workplace investigations, created and presented training programs on a wide variety of employment law and human resources issues, and acted as a consultant for private and public employers, both large and small. Over the years, Sindy has investigated many complaints of harassment, discrimination, retaliation, fraud and other workplace misconduct. She has also trained managers and employees on issues ranging from harassment to performance management and has provided one-on-one sensitivity training for executive and other supervisory employees. She has also created employee handbooks, revised policies and procedures, and assisted employers with discipline and termination issues. Prior to starting her consulting business, Sindy was an employment litigator for McCutchen, Doyle, Brown & Enersen in San Francisco; Foley Hoag in Boston; and Duvin, Cahn & Hutton in Cleveland. Sindy graduated with honors from Stanford Law School in 1996 and magna cum laude from Tufts University in 1993. In her spare time, Sindy tutors elementary school children in the Cleveland School District through the Cleveland Jewish Federation’s Public Education Initiative, for which she also sits on the Board of Trustees. Amy B. Shannon is the President of Pinnacle Leadership Solutions and has specialized in organizational development, human resources and training for over 20 years. For the past seven years, Amy has been an Organizational Development Consultant working with clients in the manufacturing, service, financial, non-profit and healthcare industries. Prior to her OD work, she served in Director-level positions with Western-Southern Enterprise and Kendle International. In both of these organizations, Amy built competency-based corporate universities that were nationally-recognized and noted in industry trade publications. In addition, Amy has worked with clients as an executive coach, leadership facilitator, team building consultant and strategic planning expert. She has also been a program facilitator for a city-wide leadership program for women and a lead facilitator at the annual HR Executive Summit. Amy has presented at several national conferences, including as a featured speaker at The Corporate University Week at the Disney Institute. Paul Meshanko is an author, professional speaker and seminar leader with nearly two decades of adult education experience. After a 12-year career with Honeywell Automotive, he joined Edge Learning Institute in 1997 to open and manage the company’s Cleveland, Ohio office. Edge Learning is a national provider of leadership and staff development curriculums. Over the past decade, Paul has addressed thousands of professionals across the United States, primarily in the manufacturing, healthcare and public service sectors. In addition to employee engagement, his most popular speaking topics include: change management, work life balance, high performance work teams, and organizational cultural shaping. Paul holds a degree from The Ohio State University and an M.B.A. from Baldwin Wallace College. He is an active member of the American Society for Training & Development and serves on the Board of Directors for the Boys & Girls Clubs of Cleveland. Paul's most recent book, Conversations on Success, was released in May 2005. Susan M. Pyles is a Senior Consultant and Trainer with ERC where she specializes in assisting Northeast Ohio organizations with a full spectrum of performance, training, and leadership projects and programs. Susan’s primary areas of focus are performance management and measurement systems, leadership development, and employee engagement. Susan has a diverse professional background that includes 17 years of business experience in management, learning and performance management. Prior to joining ERC, Susan spent 10 years working in the nationally acclaimed training department of AmTrust Bank (formerly Ohio Savings Bank), most recently as Vice President of Learning & Performance. During her tenure at AmTrust, Susan led a variety of leadership development and human capital initiatives, including a talent profile project designed to assess the bank’s leaders, an initiative to build a sales culture in the bank’s branches, and the creation of AmTrust’s in-house corporate university. In addition, she has designed, facilitated, and evaluated a wide variety of employee training programs and conducted various assessments and surveys measuring client satisfaction, performance, and culture. Susan holds an M.A. in Communication Studies from Kent State University and a B.B.A. from Ohio University. Gregory A. Gordillo, Esq. is a Partner at Gordillo & Gordillo LLC. As an Ohio employment lawyer who has spent his career representing employers and employees, Greg makes frequent employment law presentations and has been invited to speak at events and seminars across the nation. In addition, he has published numerous articles on employment law. His scholarly work has been cited and relied upon by the New Jersey Supreme Court and the Second Circuit United States Court of Appeals, among others. Greg's views on employment law appear in his widely read and highly regarded “EEOAttorney” blog. Greg is the past Chair of the Cleveland Bar Association's Labor and Employment Law Section, a current member of the Ohio State Bar Association's Labor and Employment Law Section's Council, one of the original "Master Benchers" in the Cleveland Employment Inn of Court, and an Adjunct Professor of Law at Cleveland State University's Cleveland-Marshall College of Law. Greg is a graduate of Northwestern University and earned his J.D., magna cum laude, from Cleveland State University. Amy Petrus, SPHR is an Independent Compensation Consultant where she specializes in assisting organizations with a wide variety of HR-related projects and programs. Amy’s areas of expertise include compensation, performance management, employee handbook development, staffing assistance, and employee relations and communication activities. Amy has over 17 years of human resources experience, including Senior Human Resources Consultant with ERC and Compensation and Benefits Consultant with KPMG Peat Marwick. During her career, Amy has been instrumental in working with organizations to create and implement successful compensation and performance management programs, including bonus and incentive plans, job evaluation systems, market-based compensation plans, sales and executive compensation, performance appraisal systems and management and executive-level training. Amy serves a client base that represents a wide range of industries including manufacturing, public utilities, service and non-profit organizations. Amy earned a Masters Degree in Human Resources and Labor Relations from Cleveland State University and a B.S. Degree in Business from Miami University. Thomas Wirbel is Vice President of Corporate Plans, Inc. (CPI). Originally joining CPI as a Benefits Consultant, through innovative and successful strategies, Tom has achieved notable results in aiding client-companies manage the escalating costs of health insurance. Motivated by client feedback that continues to point to health insurance as the number one HR concern, Tom focuses his expertise on developing and designing employee benefit plans. Throughout his career, Tom has also acted as an HR consultant to small and medium-sized businesses in Northeastern Ohio. A native of Cleveland, Tom graduated from John Carroll University with a B.S.B.A. and earned an M.B.A. from Cleveland State University. Jennifer Hays Gorman, Esq. is a Partner at Warren & Hays LLC and has been practicing employment law for almost 20 years. Jennifer brings legal expertise and experience from both an outside and in-house counsel perspective. For the past 10 years, Jennifer has served as Senior Attorney for a privately-held company based in Cleveland with worldwide operations. There she investigated and successfully resolved numerous employee claims, ranging from sexual harassment to employee theft. In this capacity, she has extensive experience with HR and employment law issues and has conducted training in a number of areas, including harassment and discrimination in the workplace and legal issues surrounding recruiting, interviewing, hiring and firing. In addition, Jennifer has negotiated, mediated, arbitrated and litigated employee claims in court in numerous jurisdictions. She has experience also in handling and responding to EEOC and other administrative claims and implementing affirmative action plans. Previously, Jennifer was a business and employment litigator for Ulmer & Berne in Cleveland where she represented employers in a variety of disputes both in and out of court. Jennifer has served on the NE Ohio Board for the American Corporate Counsel Association for a number of years. Jennifer graduated from Cleveland State University law school with honors in 1989 and earned a B.A. from Miami University in 1986. Braden L. Albert is the Founder and President of the HR Star Conference and its parent company, Abbington Court Media. A graduate of Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, Braden began organizing job fairs and trade shows in the mid-1990's. Intrigued by the idea of bringing people together for a shared, learning experience - and impressed by the impact such an experience can provide - Braden organized his first HR Star Conference in 1999. Today, the scope of the HR Star Conference includes annual events in Los Angeles, California; Atlanta, Georgia; San Francisco, California; and Cleveland, Ohio. Over 2,750 HR professionals attended an HR Star Conference in 2008. Ever eager to explore new formats and innovative concepts, Braden recently added the HR Executive Summit to his event line-up. The HR Executive Summit is a roundtable, discussion-based forum designed exclusively for VPs of HR and Directors of HR that takes place in early June.