2021 Strategic Leadership Conference

12th Annual Strategic Leadership Conference

October 20-21, 2021 | Virtual and On-Demand

Join us Wednesday, October 20 and Thursday, October 21 for the 12th Annual Strategic Leadership Conference. The conference offers two half days of compelling speakers, virtual networking, and both SHRM and HRCI credit opportunities – especially those hard to obtain business credits. We pride ourselves on bringing speakers to you who are true thought leaders including national keynote speakers and break-out speakers.

Can’t join us on October 20 and 21? No worries. Content will be available on-demand for 2 weeks after the virtual event.

Conference Agenda

Session Overviews

Sponsorship Opportunities

Our Sponsors

Closing Keynote Sponsor

Video Sponsor Day 1

Video Sponsor Day 2

General Session Sponsors

Supporting Sponsors

Sponsor Event

Opening Keynote

Amy Jen Su

Author
Managing Partner & Co-Founder
Paravis Partners

Amy Jen Su is Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Paravis Partners, a boutique executive coaching and leadership development firm. For almost two decades, she has partnered with investment professionals, CEOs, and executives to sustain and increase their leadership effectiveness as they drive organizational change and transformation. Amy is the author of the Harvard Business Review Press book, The Leader You Want to Be: Five Essential Principles to Bringing Out Your Best Self – Every Day (2019), which draws on her extensive experience serving industries such as private equity, financial services, biotechnology, software, consumer, and media. She is also currently a Board Member of SRS Distribution Inc., a portfolio company of Leonard Green & Partners and Berkshire Partners.

Amy is a frequent contributor to Harvard Business Review online and has written for many publications including Huffington Post and Leader to Leader magazine. She is also co-author of the Washington Post bestseller Own the Room: Discover Your Signature Voice to Master Your Leadership Presence (Harvard Business Review Press 2013) written with Muriel Maignan Wilkins. Her work and thinking have been featured in media outlets including the Wall Street Journal, Fast Company, Forbes, Inc. and Marketwatch.

Clients cite Amy’s business judgment, commercial instincts, and enterprise-wide perspective combined with her knowledge and respect for the process of human growth and actualization as key differentiators.

More about Amy Jen Su.

Session Speakers

Brandon Chrostowski

Founder, EDWINS Leadership & Restaurant Institute

Brandon Edwin Chrostowski is on a mission to change the face of re-entry in the United States. In 2007, he founded EDWINS Leadership & Restaurant Institute with the belief that “education wins” and that every human being - regardless of their past - has the right to a fair and equal future. Under Chrostowski’s stewardship, EDWINS has grown to include culinary education and life skills training at its flagship French eatery and haute dining concept, edwins too, in Cleveland, Ohio; a Butcher Shop and Bakery and Diner; a nearby Second Chance Life Skills Center campus for additional learning, housing, and support services; an on-site program at Grafton Correctional Institute and curriculum for inmates at all Ohio state prisons.

A classically trained chef and sommelier, Chrostowski honed his skills at fine dining establishments in Paris, New York, and Chicago, including Lucas Carton, Chanterelle, Picholine, Le Cirque and Charlie Trotter’s. Recognition of his culinary and mission-driven efforts include IFMA’s 2020 Silver Plate, CNN 2016 Heroes and Crain’s “40 under 40” awards; being featured as the subject of the Academy Award nominated documentary Knife Skills; and The Richard C. Cornuelle Award from the Manhattan Institute for Social Entrepreneurship. Chrostowski earned an Associate’s degree in Culinary Arts and a Bachelor’s degree in Business and Restaurant Management from The Culinary Institute of America. He resides in Cleveland with his wife Catana and their children, Leo, Lilly and Lynx.

More about Brandon Chrostowsky.

Michael Farley

Founder, Proper Walk
Retired CEO, Elk Hill

Michael Farley has spent the past 40 years living his life’s personal mission of Doing Good and Having Fun! From his early days of living in a mud hut while serving with the Peace Corps in Kenya to leading Elk Hill - a nonprofit human services organization - for 21 years, he has always strived to have a positive impact on the world and enjoy doing it.

Michael has returned to Kenya over 30 times. Since 2002, he has organized and led 12 Proper Walks in Kenya’s Great Rift Valley trekking over 3,000km and raising $900,000 for the Makindu Children’s Program. This US based organization supports 560 orphans and is located in the same village where Michael served in the Peace Corps. He has known three generations of Kenyans and has seen firsthand the impact of the HIV/AIDS pandemic in sub-Sahara Africa and the orphans left in its wake.

Michael refers to his Walks as Adventures for a Cause. And they are real Adventures, complete with wild animal encounters, indigenous tribes, and ornery camels. Over the years, the Cause has provided thousands of children hope for a much better future.

The Proper Walks have been featured in National Geographic Adventure Magazine and Newsweek.

More about Michael Farley.

Alison French

Managing Director
Alto Solutions

In an increasingly impersonal world, Alison French is passionate about helping organizations and individuals make the right connections to create harmony and success. As managing director of Alto Solutions, LLC, she employs brain science in her approach to organizational change, communications, and leadership. An experienced facilitator, trainer and coach, Alison has helped clients within the education, government, and private sectors for more than 20 years, facilitating strategic planning meetings, corporate retreats, and skills training workshops, as well as in-depth change, leadership, and team assessments and strategic communication campaigns.

Past accomplishments range from being rated as a top instructor for the Deloitte Consulting Milestone Program and launching a career mentoring program for BearingPoint, to building and deploying a comprehensive change plan for a major Defense technology initiative with more than 7,000 end users, which, through direct engagement with top leaders, significantly influenced positive perception of the initiative and elevated its change management program to become recognized as a model within the agency.

A former specialist master at Deloitte and graduate of Cornell University and the Kogod School of Business at American University, Alison has been published in ATD Links, is an authorized DiSC facilitator, and has worked with groups around the country to help them improve their leadership and engagement by better understanding the connections between their people and within their brains.

More about Alison French.

LaCinda Glover

Senior Principal
Mercer

LaCinda Glover is a Senior Principal in Mercer’s Career business who specializes in total rewards. LaCinda has been with Mercer for over 17 years. In addition to her consulting role, she is the Career practice leader for Tennessee, Kentucky, and Virginia. LaCinda’s experience includes the benchmarking, strategy, design, implementation, and communications of staff and executive total rewards programs. She assists clients with compensation and benefits design and competitive assessments, employee listening/engagement, job architecture/career frameworks, and total remuneration competitiveness and strategy alignment. In addition to her consulting role, LaCinda manages Mercer’s North America Severance Survey and is part of Mercer’s Flexible Work SME group. LaCinda is a frequent speaker at HR forums throughout the Southeast as has recently been quoted in articles by the Wall Street Journal and CNBC. In 2019 she was named Louisville Business First’s 40 Under 40. She holds a BS in Mathematics/Actuarial Science and a BA in Economics.

More about LaCinda Glover.

Stephanie Hubka

Managing Partner
Protos Learning

Stephanie Hubka wants to live in a world where learning is exciting and inspiring and training is recognized as a natural driver of an organization’s strategy. For the past 14 years she has provided strategic leadership and expertise on professional learning and organizational performance solutions to companies in more than 50 countries. As the managing partner of Protos Learning, LLC, she specializes in developing strategies and products that advance a company’s mission, vision, and professionalism.

Known for innovative solutions that initiate immediate organization-wide growth, Stephanie has developed hundreds of instructor-led, eLearning, virtual, social, and blended learning programs for nonprofits and associations and is a recognized expert and sought-after partner when developing new programming and refreshing legacy trainings.

Stephanie holds a Bachelor of Science degree from Carnegie Mellon University’s Dietrich College of Humanities and Social Sciences. She is a Certified Professional in Talent Development (CPTD), a credential conferred by the Association for Talent Development (ATD). She volunteers on the Metro DC ATD board of directors and served as the chapter president in 2016, and she was appointed as a National Advisor to Chapters by the ATD Board of Directors from 2017-2019. She is a regular volunteer for ATD’s Certification Institute and has contributed to ATD’s work in credentialing, competency modeling, and test specifications.

Stephanie’s passion for training is equaled only by her love of exploring the globe; an avid traveler, she has visited all 7 continents, 70 countries, and all 50 US states. She is the co-founder of Road Unraveled, a human capital organization that encourages businesses to embrace the connection between paid time off and professional success.

More about Stephanie Hubka.

Sarah Scarbrough

Founder and Director
REAL LIFE

Dr. Sarah Scarbrough is the founder and director of the REAL LIFE, a non-profit birthed from her program in the Richmond City Justice Center (jail) after continually seeing the obstacles and hurdles those exiting incarceration continued to faced. Her vision was to more comprehensively serve those in adverse situations and through REAL LIFE and the corresponding Community Center and recovery house, she and her staff are able to do just that. Serving hundreds of clients a year, REAL LIFE has continued to grow and expand.

Prior to REAL LIFE, she worked in the Richmond jail for 10 years. For the latter five, she was the Program Director in the Richmond City Justice Center (jail) for 5 years, where programming under her umbrella received international and national attention due to the innovative approaches and proven effectiveness. Prior to this, she conducted 5 years of research on programming in the jail.

Dr. Scarbrough has received several awards and recognitions for the impact her work has had on the community. Most recently, she was named a “Hometown Hero” by Allen, Allen, Allen, & Allen. In 2018. Dr. Scarborugh was one of the People of the Year honorees from the Richmond Times Dispatch. She was awarded the Edward Peoples Award for Social Justice from Virginia Commonwealth University, and was named one of the Top 40 under 40 in Richmond, VA.

Dr. Scarbrough received her PhD and Master’s from Virginia Commonwealth University and bachelor’s degree from UVA Wise. When not working, she stays busy with her three young children and husband.

More about Sarah Scarbrough.

Johnny C. Taylor

President and Chief Executive Officer
Society for Human Resource Management

Johnny C. Taylor, Jr., SHRM-SCP, is President and Chief Executive Officer of SHRM, the Society for Human Resource Management. As a global leader on the future of employment, culture and leadership, Mr. Taylor is a sought-after voice on all matters affecting work, workers, and the workplace. He is frequently asked to testify before Congress on critical workforce issues and authors the weekly USA Today column, "Ask HR."

Mr. Taylor's career spans over 20 years as a lawyer, human resources executive and CEO in both the not-for-profit and for-profit space. He has held senior and chief executive roles at IAC/Interactive Corp, Viacom's Paramount Pictures, Blockbuster Entertainment Group, the McGuireWoods law firm, and Compass Group USA. Most recently, Mr. Taylor was President and Chief Executive Officer of the Thurgood Marshall College Fund.

He is the author of the national bestseller, RESET: A Leader’s Guide to Work in an Age of Upheaval, which delivers a candid and forward-thinking vision for leaders to reimagine their company cultures in a time of global upheaval and presents data-driven strategies to make the necessary foundational reset of all things work.

In 2020, Mr. Taylor received the Distinguished Executive of the Year Award from the Academy of Management, and he was named 2021 ALA Professional Society CEO of the Year by CEO Update. He is a Fellow of the National Academy of Human Resources and is licensed to practice law in Florida, Illinois and Washington, D.C.

More about Johnny C. Taylor.

Andre Thornton

CEO
Whitman Consulting

Andre W. Thornton is a Consultant, EQ-i 2.0 Certified Coach, Keynote Speaker and the Founder & CEO of Whitman Consulting. After becoming an engineering executive through an 18-year career at Lockheed Martin, he founded the company with a vision of changing lives by helping people reach their full potential through purpose-driven leadership.
Since 2016, Whitman Consulting has become a sought-after partner in the leadership development arena. They have worked with a growing list of companies that includes Microsoft, IBM, E*TRADE, EY, Lockheed Martin, SunTrust Banks, SNC-Lavalin, and Republic Services, among others. Their brain-based behavior change techniques are delivering the measurable results that organizations have been looking for in a leadership development solution.

Andre holds a bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from the Virginia Military Institute, and Master of Business Administration in Finance from the Georgia State University Robinson School of Business. He sits on the board of the VMI Keydet Club, is a founding board member of the non-profit Promaji Alumni Impact, and serves as President of the VMI Alumni Association Maryland Chapter. He and his family reside in Germantown, Maryland.

More about Andrew Thornton.

Ron Carey

Founder/CEO
Tilt Creative & Production

Ron Carey has had a diverse career; spending time in consumer packaged goods, pharmaceuticals, media and advertising. He began his career with M&M/Mars, during his tenure with Mars he spent significant time in both Sales and Human Resources. Well into his Sale’s career, Ron made the shift into Human Resources; while in HR, he worked across numerous functions; Starburst and Skittles brand team, manufacturing and R&D.

In 2004 he decided to return to his native Richmond joining Wyeth Consumer Healthcare (now GlaxoSmithKline). Ron became a champion and supporter in the Richmond community for organizations that support disadvantaged kids. His desire for disadvantaged youth to chart a positive course for their lives drives his involvement with organizations such as ChildSavers, Junior Achievement and Chippenham Johnston Willis Hospital (HCA). His work at the Richmond Times-Dispatch resulted in his selection as a Top 20 leader under 40 by Press Time Magazine. Two years into his career with the RT-D, he established the Innovation Group and spent the next three years developing, building and rolling out new products.

In 2011 he joined the Martin Agency as SVP/Director of Human Resources and in 2014 he joined Studio Squared, a digital agency (a IPG company) where he served as President for four years. In 2018 he founded Tilt Creative + Production(TiltCP.com), a Content Marketing firm with offices in Richmond, VA focused on developing content for some of the largest brands in the world.

More about Ron Carey.

Eva Hartmann

Chief Human Resources Officer
Schnabel Engineering

Eva Hartmann leads the Human Resources organization at Schnabel, joining the firm in 2018 with the goal to advance HR strategy and services to support company growth and drive the employer brand. She is responsible for HR strategy, talent management, leadership development and succession planning, compensation and benefits, diversity & inclusion, and employee engagement. Eva is a member of the Operations Team and is an integral partner to the business to support Schnabel’s human capital initiatives.

Eva started her professional career as a consultant at Andersen Consulting (now Accenture), where she was introduced to the concepts of individual and organizational performance – key tenets of HR. Eva believes that employees are the number one asset in any company, and she is focused on building both employee and company performance at Schnabel. Eva is a firm believer in the core value of stewardship, and works every day to build a culture of learning and engagement that will benefit both current and future generations of the firm.
During her career, Eva has held leadership roles in domestic and global firms, including Tredegar Corporation and Wachovia Securities, and was the founder of Trellis LLC, a HR consulting firm. Eva is Past President of the Richmond chapter of the Society for Human Resources Management (SHRM), and is an Adjunct Professor at the University of Richmond’s Robins School of Business, teaching MBA-level Organizational Behavior and serving as an MBA advisor in both their capstone and mentoring programs.

More about Eva Hartmann.