Lynne Eisaguirre
Lynne Eisaguirre (pronounced eyes-a-gear) is the author of Stop Pissing Me Off! What to Do When the People You Work With Drive You Crazy published by Adams Media and The Power of a Good Fight: How to Embrace Conflict to Drive Creativity, Productivity and Innovation as well as books on diversity and harassment. She has presented speeches and seminars to hundreds of organizations across the United States and Canada, including Harley-Davidson, Southwest Airlines, Bristol Myers Squibb, CH2M Hill, Sun Microsystems, Oracle, Coors and Excel Energy. Her company, Workplaces That Work, offers a variety of professionals trained in different disciplines who provide human resources consulting, speaking and training in the areas of conflict management and negotiation, leadership, employee retention, diversity and harassment.

Lynne’s business experience includes founding and managing a public company, practicing litigation and serving as a law professor, professional arbitrator and mediator. She has published articles in many national and international magazines and newspapers, has appeared on ABC News and Bloomberg TV, and has been quoted as an expert on conflict, diversity and leadership in the San Francisco Chronicle, Entrepreneur, Executive Excellence, The Denver Post, The Orlando Sentinel and many other media sources. Lynne appears as a workplace expert on CNN Headline News.

Rich Gallagher
Rich Gallagher is a leading national authority on communications skills and workplace culture. His seven nationally-published books include The Soul of an Organization and Smile Training Isn’t Enough, both of which were book club selections that reached the Amazon.com top 3000. His recent book Great Customer Connections: Simple Psychological Techniques that Guarantee Exceptional Service is currently the number one e-book on customer skills on Amazon.com, as well as a worldwide top seller in print. He is also a certified instructor for the American Management Association as well as the subject matter expert for their highly successful Communication Bootcamp program.

Rich recently signed a two-book deal with AMACOM, one of the nation’s leading business publishers. What to Say to a Porcupine, a business fable collection that brings the fun back into creating excellent customer service, was released in June 2008 and reached the top 20 on Amazon.com’s business humor chart. A subsequent book How to Tell Anyone Anything: Breakthrough Techniques for Handling Difficult Conversations at Work is scheduled for release in early 2009.

His lengthy management career includes helping to lead a West Coast software startup to become a major NASDAQ firm as its director of customer services, as well as leading another major software call center to near-perfect customer satisfaction ratings and near-zero turnover. Rich’s materials have been used by Fortune 500 clients, Dale Carnegie and others, and he is a veteran of numerous speaking engagements, media appearances and corporate workshops.

Shira Harrington, CPC
Shira Harrington, CPC, is a consultant and presenter on managing the multigenerational workforce. An outgrowth of her successful recruiting career, Shira brings her extensive research and her unique, ‘real world’ perspective of the world at work to bridge the perceived gaps between the generations and prepare executives for the coming labor shortage. Differences in work ethic, life values, work-life expectations, teamwork, communication styles and relationship to authority are just some of the challenges facing employees of each generation. Moreover, as Baby Boomers prepare to retire, employers are likely to be short-handed unless succession planning begins now. Shira presents her findings to both human resources audiences as well as to staff of every level.

Shira has been published in the monthly magazine of the Council for Advancement and Support of Education, has been quoted in Federal Computer Weekly and has been profiled in the Washington Business Journal (June 1, 2007).

Shira has been a Sr. Recruiting Consultant with Positions Inc. since 1994 and plays an active role in the Washington, DC metropolitan human resources community. She was recently the Vice President of Programs for the Human Resources Association of the National Capital Area; she has been on the program committee of the Finance and Administration Roundtable and she runs a monthly brown bag lunch for human resources professionals. She earned her Masters in Public Relations, with a focus on employee communications, from the University of Maryland at College Park.

Madeleine Van Hecke, Ph.D.
Madeleine Van Hecke, Ph.D. is a licensed clinical psychologist who has taught graduate courses in Creative Thinking and in Critical Thinking at North Central College in Naperville, IL. As part of Open Arms Seminars, she now gives seminars on reducing negativity in the work place, handling stress, encouraging creativity and improving communication. She is the inventor of the family word game, Wicked Words, and the author of Blind Spots: Why Smart People Do Dumb Things (Prometheus Books, 2007).

Steve Hughes
Steve Hughes is President of Hit Your Stride, LLC, a communications consultancy that helps clients create and deliver world-class presentations.

His seminars have been featured on National Public Radio and he is the creator of “National Face Your Fears Day” (observed annually on the 2nd Tuesday in October). Today he works with a host of national clients including MetLife, Nestle Purina and the American Marketing Association.

Prior to speaking full time, Steve spent 12 years in advertising and PR—most recently he was a managing partner at an award winning 50-person advertising agency in St. Louis.

Steve holds a BA in French Literature and European History from the University of Kansas and an MBA in Marketing from Washington University, where he was awarded the prestigious Olin Cup.

He resides in St. Louis with his wife and their two well-behaved daughters.

Christopher D. Lee, Ph.D., SPHR
Chris Lee is a human resources practitioner, lecturer, researcher, and author. His background includes having served as the chief human resources officer for three different colleges or universities and a state college system.

Formerly a question writer and member of the Exam Review Panel for the PHR and SPHR examinations administered by the Human Resources Certification Institute (HRCI), he is now a member of its board of directors. His areas of expertise are employment, training, and performance management—or, in his words, “finding, developing, and managing talent in organizations.” He is the author of numerous human resources related articles and two books. Most recently he has published Performance Conversations: An Alternative to Appraisals and is developing a software program based upon the performance conversations® approach.

He has presented at conferences in the US, Canada and Australia on HR related topics. He holds a master’s degree in HR Management, a doctor of philosophy degree in HR Development, and he is also certified as a Senior Professional in Human Resources.

Website: Performance Conversations.com

Tamara Strickland
Tamara has served as a Vice President of a Fortune 500 company, and now consults with businesses focused on obtaining results through remote management techniques as well as through solid business process redesign.

Since 1988 when Tamara was promoted into her first management position, her staff has never been co-located with her. This unique experience of building solid teams long before there were tools or theories to support “Virtual Teams” allows Tamara to bring solid real world experience to assist other managers making this transition. She has twenty years of successful experience in helping different organizations obtain operational efficiencies through using advanced management techniques.

Tamara has worked with organizations in the US, Canada and the United Kingdom on Operational Efficiencies and Remote Management topics. She holds an MBA and professional certification in Change Management and Business Process Management.

Website: Tamara Strickland

Allison West

Allison West has a simple approach to employment practices: be proactive. Describing herself as a recovering defense attorney, Allison uses her employment law background, coupled with her sound knowledge of human resource practices, in providing proactive risk management services aimed at helping companies both prevent and resolve employment claims. She is a frequent speaker on employment law and human resources topics at national and local human resources, diversity and industry conferences.

Allison specializes in delivering one-on-one sensitivity training to executives, managers and employees concerning harassment, discrimination, and disciplinary and/or behavioral issues. Her practices also includes expertise in delivering customized in-house training programs, conducting workplace investigations, providing expert witness assistance and other HR consulting. .

Allison is a member of the State Bar of California and holds a Senior Professional in Human Resources certification. Visit Employment Practices Specialists at www.employmentpractices.net