The following speakers have been confirmed for this year's HR Leadership Summit. Find
the conference's entire list of speakers and event schedule below.
2021 Speakers
Bradd Craver
Bradd Craver is the Managing Director of the Carolinas Consulting Practice for Deloitte Consulting
LLP. He has nearly thirty years of experience in developing organizational capabilities
within the Talent and Human Capital arena. Bradd has worked in a variety of industries
including oil and gas, consumer and industrial products manufacturing, retail, automotive
and public sector. He focuses on areas within HR such as: talent acquisition; development;
competency modeling and assessments; career path development and workforce planning.
Prior to joining Deloitte Consulting in 1998, Bradd led the HR function for a consumer
products manufacturing facility where he was responsible for hiring, on boarding,
labor relations, OSHA and EPA compliance and quality. Bradd is a graduate of Wake
Forest University School of Business and Accountancy. He is active in youth missions
work, loves to play golf, and enjoys spending quality time with family.
Michael Arena Ph.D.
Michael Arena Ph.D. is the Vice President of Talent & Development at Amazon Web Services, where he is
responsible for the global talent practices, leadership development and learning,
organizational effectiveness, new employee success strategies, executive recruiting,
and the organizational research activities to enable the growth and innovation for
AWS. He was nominated to the Thinkers50 Radar class of 2020 for his work leveraging
network roles in creating adaptive organizations: brokers, connectors, energizers,
and challengers. Prior to joining Amazon, Arena was the Chief Talent Officer for
General Motors Corporation where he was responsible for enterprise talent management,
cultural transformation, leadership development, talent acquisition and people analytics.
While at GM he launched GM2020, a grass roots initiative designed to enable employees
to positively disrupt the way they work, which was highlighted in Fast Company and
Fortune Magazine. This initiative and others are highlighted in his best-selling book,
Adaptive Space: How GM and Other Companies are Positively Disrupting Themselves and
Transforming into Agile Organizations.
Dan Krug
Dan Krug is General Manager of Talent Development and Information and Digital Technology. Dan
is responsible for Enterprise Information Technology and leads Nucor’s Digital efforts.
Dan began his career with Nucor in 2002 as Manager of Employee Relations, and he was
named General Manager of Human Resources in May 2013. Dan was named General Manager
of Digital Innovation in 2016. He became General Manager of Information and Digital
Technology in 2019 and added the role of General Manager of Talent Development effective
April 19, 2020. Dan was elected to his current position of Vice President effective
January 1, 2021. Dan holds a bachelor’s degree in industrial Relations from the University
of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a Master of Business Administration from Virginia
Tech.
Bonnie Kelly
Bonnie Kelly is the Vice President of Total Rewards & Org Effectiveness at Sealed Air Corporation.
As a member of the HR Leadership team, Bonnie is responsible for Compensation, Benefits,
Well-being, Employee Experience and Performance Management across 50 countries. Through
her career, she has built global total rewards programs at companies such as Hilton,
Cox Automotive and Capital One Financial. She has served on multiple HR professional
boards, including Conference Board and World at Work, where she is also part of the
teaching staff for Executive Compensation Education. Bonnie earned her BA in Finance
from Washburn University.
Kati Keith
Kati Keith is the Senior Global Benefits Manager at Sealed Air Corporation, where she manages
the Health and Welfare and Wellbeing programs across the globe. Kati earned her BA
in International Relations from the University of North Florida. She has spent the
majority of her career within Human Resources where she has built international and
domestic programs for the employees she serves, including the Global Mobility programs
for Sealed Air, Family Dollar and Dollar Tree. She has also served as the President
of the Charlotte Metro Area Relocation Council where she continues to invest in others
as she voluntarily leads continued education courses.
Dr. Will Sparks
Dr. Will Sparks is the Dennis Thompson Chair & Professor of Leadership at the McColl School of Business
at Queens University of Charlotte, where he also serves as the Director of the Office
of Leadership Initiatives. In 2008, he founded the McColl School’s M.S. in Organization
Development (MSOD) Program and served as Director until 2013. Will has published
numerous research papers and book chapters and has appeared on several media outlets,
including the CBS affiliate WBTV Channel 3, News Carolina Channel 14, and on NPR.
His TED Talk “The Power of Self Awareness” was released in 2018. He is the author
of “Actualized Leadership: Meeting Your Shadow & Maximizing Your Potential” (2019,
SHRM Publishing), which debuted as an Amazon #1 Best Seller and is based on the “Actualized
Leader Profile,” a leadership assessment that he designed and validated and that has
been translated into nine languages. He is the co-author (with Peter Browning) of
the book “The Director’s Manual: A Framework for Board Governance” (2016, Wiley).
Dr. Carole Isom-Barnes
Dr. Carole Isom-Barnes is president and owner of Xperience Leadership, LLC, located in Huntersville, NC.
She is also an assistant professor of strategic communication at Queens University
and a retired Bank of America executive. Xperience Leadership, LLC, supports business
with strategic planning, leader/organizational development, and training. She is certified
in Diversity and Inclusion via Cornell University.
2021 Agenda
Session 1
8:30-9:30 a.m. | 60 Minutes
The Social Enterprise in a World Disrupted: An Overview of Deloitte’s 2021 Global
Human Capital Trends
Bradd Craver, Managing Director of the Carolinas Consulting Practice, Deloitte Consulting
LLP
Deloitte’s research showcases an intensifying combination of economic, social, and
political issues challenging business strategies worldwide. In last year’s Global
Human Capital Trends Report, Deloitte emphasized the power of the social enterprise
that lies in its ability to bring human focus to everything it touches, empowering
people to work productively with technology to create lasting value for themselves,
their organization, and society at large. This year making the shift from “survive
to thrive” depends on an organization becoming distinctly human at its core.
Being distinctly human at the core is the essence of what it means to be a social
enterprise. The human focus is what puts the social enterprise in a position to thrive,
to continually reinvent itself on the back of perpetual disruption. This session will
provide an overview of the 2021 Human Capitol Trends Report that complies the survey
results of more than 6,000 HR and business leaders. HR professionals will explore
the social enterprise at work through a shift from surviving to thriving. The sessions
that follow will take a deeper dive into key trends including well-being and the whole
employee, inclusive teams and unconscious bias, the impact of a hybrid workforce,
importance of talent development in recruitment, retention and retainment of employees,
and the evolving role of HR.
Break
9:30-9:45 a.m. | 15 minutes
Session 2
9:45-11:45 a.m. | 120 minutes
HR Disrupted and the Agile Hybrid – Two Types of Social Capital
Michael Arena, Ph.D., Vice President of Talent & Development, Amazon Web Services
Remote work, employee well-being, social injustice, digital transformation, the great
resignation, the role of HR has never been more important. These are truly extraordinary
times. This session will focus on the shifting role of HR, while diving deeper into
the future of hybrid work that has put us at risk for social disengagement and has
threatened to deplete one of our most important and relevant resources—our social
capital.
Perhaps more than ever, how we are connected is essential for determining productivity,
innovation, learning and individual well-being. Based on years of organizational network
research, and a comprehensive fifteen-month analysis, this session will share tested
methodology for enabling tacit learning and innovation, even in a hybrid working world.
Lunch
11:45-1:00 p.m. | 75 minutes
Session 3 | Sponsored by Nucor
1:00-2:00 p.m. | 60 minutes
Transforming Talent at Nucor
Dan Krug, General Manager of Talent Development and Information and Digital Technology,
Nucor
Leon Topalian was elected CEO of Nucor Corporation in January 2019. He quickly turned
the Talent focus on Succession Planning and Inclusion. Nucor’s Dan Krug, General
Manager of Talent and Technology will walk attendees through this transformation all
while dealing with a pandemic and social unrest. The session will feature a pre-recorded
message from Nucor CEO Leon Topalian who will describe his decision to transition
talent and development to a separate department reporting directly to the senior leadership
team rather than through the traditional HR department. Dan Krug will utilize the
remainder of the session to detail the internal deliberation, process, and implementation
of that transition. Mr. Krug will share the lessons learned, progress that has been
made and how Nucor's unique leadership development approach differentiates Nucor in
a tight labor market.
Break
2:00-2:15 p.m. | 15 minutes
Session 4
2:15-3:15 p.m. | 60 minutes
Investing in a Culture of Well-being
Bonnie Kelly, Vice President of Total Rewards & Org Effectiveness, Sealed Air Corporation
Kati Keith, Senior Global Benefits Manager, Sealed Air Corporation
The COVID-19 pandemic presented new challenges for all of us. For more than a year,
we worked tirelessly at Sealed Air to keep our 17,000 employees across the globe safe
and keep our businesses thriving. This crisis gave us the opportunity to elevate our
focus on well-being and make it a priority. Join this session, to learn about Sealed
Air’s well-being journey, which includes a suite of solutions and initiatives design
to support personal, total well-being — including physical, mental, social, career,
community and financial.
Highlights include the design, implementation and launch of the MyWellbeing Platform
in over 45 countries and 25 different languages, reaching professional and hourly
plant workers alike. From eating healthy to getting exercise to meditating or taking
time with family or connecting with a mental health expert, our program provides employees
with the support they need. We will share lessons learned, tips you can use in your
own organization, and demo the platform that makes it easy to manage every aspect
of health and well-being, which is unique to each individual and their local culture.
Session 5
3:15-4:15 p.m. | 60 minutes
Leading Diverse and Inclusive Teams: Managing the Shadow Side of Unconscious Bias
Will Sparks, Ph.D., Dennis Thompson Chair & Professor of Leadership at the McColl
School of Business, Queens University of Charlotte
Carole Isom-Barnes Ph.D., President, Xperience Leadership, LLC and Assistant Professor
of Communication, Queens University of Charlotte
Led by Dr. Carole Isom-Barnes and Dr. Will Sparks, this session will focus on understanding
personal style and individual “shadows,” and the biases associated with each leadership
style. Participants will have an opportunity to self-assess during the program and
will have an opportunity to explore the common cognitive biases, “thinking traps”
and associated microaggressions uniquely associated with each style. The presentation
will close with a discussion on unconscious bias “interrupters” and strategies for
effectively building and leading diverse, inclusive, and equitable teams.