HR and Leadership Development

Laurie Battaglia

Laurie Battaglia is CEO of Aligned at Work. Having spent 35+ years leading people in corporate environments, Laurie discovered ways to engage team members, build trust quickly, and align them with goals to create happy and high performing workplaces. Laurie is the creator of the Aligned at Work® Model, an integrated look at work and life and a recipe for a life well-lived. Aligned at Work® works with corporate executives to solve the people problems before they become proft problems. Disengaged team members and unwanted turnover is extremely costly, in money spent, productivity lost, and emotional stress. Aligned at Work® is your go-to source for leadership training, consulting, and leadership coaching.

The Aligned at Work® system saves thousands in hard dollar costs for recruiting, onboarding, training, and retaining new team members, including rampup time to full effectiveness. Great leaders create high-performing workplaces through Alignment and Connection. The Aligned at Work® Model brings all the qualities of Alignment and Connection into one place. Vocation and values, relationships and support networks, fnancial skills and mindset, well-being, and spirit/authenticity of self — it’s all part of integrating life and work. This experience-based model, backed by research, helps Aligned Leaders understand that they create Aligned Workplaces where people are engaged and motivated.

During her corporate career in companies large and small, Laurie recognized that people were searching for meaning in their work and a life outside of the office. As CEO of Aligned at Work®, she works with companies who understand that their leaders are the ones who create a healthy, human-centered environment where they and their teams thrive. Her companion book “Aligned Workplaces: Integrating Life and Work – A Practical Guide for Leaders and Teams” walks team members through the model, then provides helpful Leader Guides for running meetings about the 5 elements of success. Laurie lives in the Phoenix, Arizona area with her husband Joseph and two cats, Gizmo and Cheddar. She is a mother, stepmother, grandmother, Reiki Master Teacher, and avid yoga enthusiast.

Connect with Laurie Battaglia on LinkedIn and Facebook, and follow Aligned at Work on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter.

Mike Baize

Mike Baize is a manager of HR services with Insperity. Insperity, a trusted advisor to America’s best businesses for more than 33 years, provides an array of human resources and business solutions designed to help improve business performance. Insperity® Business Performance Advisors offer the most comprehensive suite of products and services available in the marketplace. Insperity delivers administrative relief, better benefits, reduced liabilities and a systematic way to improve productivity through its premier Workforce Optimization® solution. Additional company offerings include Traditional Payroll and Human Capital Management, Time and Attendance, Performance Management, Organizational Planning, Recruiting Services, Employment Screening, Expense Management, Retirement Services and Insurance Services. Insperity business performance solutions support more than 100,000 businesses with over 2 million employees. With 2018 revenues of $3.8 billion, Insperity operates in 76 offices throughout the United States.

Mike joined Insperity as a manager of HR services in 2014. He has more than 30 years of experience in human resources. Baize earned a Bachelor of Science in Human Resources Management / Personnel Administration from Oakland City University and a Master of Business Administration in International Business from the University of Phoenix.

Connect with Mike Baize on LinkedIn, and follow Insperity on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter.

Social Media and Community Management

Carole Baker

Carole Baker is the owner of Cherry Pie Social and founder of Bathrobe Nation.

Cherry Pie Social is a social media marketing agency that was founded in 2014 in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Since that time, the company has served a variety of companies, entrepreneurs and non-profits in the realm of social media consulting, strategy and management. Social media “success” can be measured in a number of ways but their favorite story to date is taking a start-up venture from $250K annual sales to 3 million in 3 years by building community via the Facebook Group platform.

Carole is currently in the process of rebranding to focus on helping to train and coach female entrepreneurs use social media effectively and powerfully. This new venture is called “Bathrobe Nation.”

Connect with Carole Baker on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, and follow Cherry Pie Social on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

Follow Bathrobe Nation on Facebook and Instagram.

Katharine Halpin

Katharine Halpin is Founder & CEO of The Halpin Companies. The Halpin Companies was founded in 1995 to fill a void Katharine saw everyday in her CPA career: leaders were focused almost exclusively on the legal and financial aspects of their business but rarely on the people issues.

The mission of The Halpin Companies is to eliminate the disruptions and distractions caused by the “People Issues.” In fulfilling on this mission, they’ve been able to help companies grow organically by 2-3x. Katharine’s methods and tools have been routinely used by leaders across the globe to create win/win/win results with investors, shareholders, key employees and stakeholders at all levels. She is the author of Alignment for Success: Bringing Out the Best in Yourself, Your Team and Your Company and the Respond, Not React Playbook.

Connect with Katharine Halpin on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter, and follow The Halpin Companies on LinkedIn and Facebook.

Melissa Sanderson

Melissa Sanderson is Vice President, International Affairs, with Freeport McMoRan and Co-Chair of the Phoenix Committee on Foreign Relations. PCFR is the premier convening body in the Valley for a wide range of discussions on international issues and their relevance to and impact on Arizona citizens.

The Phoenix Committee on Foreign Relations, founded in 1976, is an independent, non-partisan membership organization dedicated to improving understanding of international issues, helping policy makers improve Arizona’s international competitiveness and maximizing collaboration among internationally oriented organizations. Through their speakers, programs and topical lunches on issues of international importance, PCFR works to position Arizona as a major regional and international center.

Melissa Sanderson was a Foreign Service Officer in the Department of State for 21 years. Her unusually diverse career featured leadership roles in both political and economic issues in a variety of companies around the world. Before joining the Foreign Service she worked in investment banking, and is now in the hard rock mining industry.

To hear more, listen to Mel’s appearance on Valley Business Radio in December 2019.

Connect with Melissa Sanderson on LinkedIn, and Facebook, and follow the Phoenix Committee on Foreign Relations on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter.

Tina Waddington

Tina Waddington serves on the Board of Directors, Public Relations and Membership Committees at the Phoenix Committee on Foreign Relations. She has spearheaded the organization’s Young Professionals initiative to engage emerging leaders in the valley.

Tina’s background in international affairs, Italian and social sciences took her to Italy as a study abroad student, then landing her first ‘job’ as an U.S. Department of State intern at in the political office of the U.S. Embassy in Rome. After moving to back to Arizona to pursue graduate studies, Tina has spent the last six years working in global expansion and marketing for Arizona companies while building a civic engagement foundation getting involved with different organizations in the valley.

Educated at both University of Arizona and Arizona State University, Tina is a Corporate Social Responsibility fanatic and is committed to making a positive difference in the world. Tina is looking to work in engagement for a great company to help them become better corporate citizens.

Connect with Tina Waddington on LinkedIn, and follow the Phoenix Committee on Foreign Relations on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter.

Camilla Nørgaard Jensen, PhD

Camilla Nørgaard Jensen is Founder of InterPlay, a change agency that accelerates knowledge co-creation, knowledge sharing, and innovation by applying Serious Play methods and Design Thinking approaches to complex problems. Organizations hire InterPlay to design and facilitate playful activities that build trust, improve communication, drive engagement, break down silos, and boost creative problem-solving.

While InterPlay is a one woman consulting biz, scientifically grounded in Dr. Jensen’s doctoral research focused on serious play methods for accelerating knowledge transfer and innovation in organizations, it is also part of a strong collaborative of expert facilitators called PhosLabs. This synergistic collaboration enables them to cultivate sustainable change at scale in the organizations they serve.

Dr. Jensen’s passion is to develop and deliver workshops that enable people from various disciplines to communicate and collaborate more effectively when dealing with complex issues. For her PhD research she utilized LEGO® Serious Play® and design thinking methods to facilitate material deliberation and out-ofthe- box thinking in the context of nanotechnology and its broader implications to society, health, and the environment.

As part of her current practice Dr. Jensen designs and hosts corporate entrepreneurship pitching programs/events that enable global Fortune 200 companies to accelerate their innovation process and build internal capacity for creative, collaborative problem solving. She is also spearheading a reintegration program for veterans. In this program she uses the LEGO® Serious Play® method to empower veterans to share their story, make sense of their transition experience, and find a sense of belonging in the civilian world.

Dr. Jensen earned her Masters in Industrial Design and Engineering from Aalborg University in Denmark, where she collaborated with the LEGO Group and the MIT Media Lab on the next generation of interactive robotic play scenarios. She has worked and consulted for several award winning entrepreneurs and design firms. In 2007, she moved to Arizona and continued her work on hybrid (physical/digital) learning and play experiences. During her time at Arizona State University she has worked in the Arts, Media and Engineering program on interactive robotics, developed games for physical and cognitive rehabilitation in the Biomedical Informatics program, served as a core member of the tech team in the Decision Theater, and landed National Science Foundation grants to support her PhD research at the School of Sustainable Engineering and the Built Environment.

Connect with Camilla Nørgaard Jensen on LinkedIn, and follow PhosLabs on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter.

Raoul Encinas

Raoul Encinas is the founder of PhosLabs. PhosLabs accelerates the changes, transitions, and transformation that companies need, and the PhosLabs methodology builds capacity for ongoing, continuous change and sustainability.

As the founder of PhosLabs, Raoul serves clients who crave fresh thinking, new ways of leading, and more meaningful impact. As a coach, Raoul helps executives distinguish themselves through their leadership, learning agility, and legacy. He has helped dozens of global organizations including Avnet, Boeing, Comerica Bank, Charles Schwab, Whirlpool, ON Semiconductor, and the US Government achieve lasting, transformative change for groups, teams, and individuals. More than 1,000 professionals have benefitted from his coaching and learning sessions. Raoul has a BS-Business Management-IT from Western Governors University, and is certified as a coach by both The Hudson Institute and the International Coaching Federation.

Connect with Raoul Encinas on LinkedIn, and Twitter, and follow PhosLabs on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter.

Michele Trent, Remembered Well

Michele Trent is a personal historian and owner of Remembered Well, a company that helps families save the stories and memories of their loved ones before they are lost. Future generations deserve to know about those who came before them, Remembered Well provides a simple solution to ensure that all members of the family – today and future generations – can hear their relatives share stories in their own powerful voice. A Remembered Well historian starts the process by conducting a recorded conversation to unlock treasured memories from the past. The recordings are then edited into a chaptered audiobook that can be easily shared and saved. Sharing those stories today means the entire family can enjoy and connect in an even deeper way.

Michele is an advocate for preserving memories and stories and sharing them with future generations. Michele embarked on this new career after recording her own father before he passed away from cancer. This process resulted in a priceless gift for her family. Prior to founding Remembered Well, Michele spent 25 years as a communications professional for various non-profit and for-profit companies. She regularly speaks on the subject of legacy and legacy preservation. Michele is a member of the International Practitioners of Personal Histories and co-hosts “Healthy Senior Living,” an internet radio show airing weekly on StarWorldwide Networks.

Connect with Michele Trent on LinkedIn, and follow Remembered Well on Facebook and Instagram.

PK Fields with ElderSense

PK Fields is founder and CEO of ElderSense, an inventory management and marketing tool for memory care and assisted living centers. Similar to Hotels.com or an MLS system, ElderSense allows case managers, social workers and consumers, to go online and search adult group homes and assisted living facilities by location, price, real time availability, see pictures and connect with the community or home directly.

PK initially worked in entertainment in Hollywood California. Next time you see the movie, “A Christmas Story” you will see PK’s credit as a casting assistant one of her fist jobs. She then went on to work in film production of various feature films. She moved on to vice-president of marketing at Billboard Entertainment, then made the bold move to Las Vegas to head of digital marketing and content development for all six Mirage Resorts and all 16 Caesars Entertainment properties, including the Bellagio, Treasure Island, Mirage, Golden Nugget, Golden Nugget Laughlin, Bally’s, and Hilton Gaming Properties.

Her expertise in all things marketing, media, and hotel hospitality, have served PK well for her current role as founder of ElderSense.com. Of all the hats she’s worn, building ElderSense.com that focuses on care and compassion for a good cause is the hat she loves to wear most.

Connect with PK Fields on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter, and follow ElderSense on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

Stephanie Schull, Kegelbell

Stephanie Schull is CEO of Matter|Mission and inventor of Kegelbell, the world’s first weight training system of its kind to strengthen the hard-to-reach pelvic floor muscles that are so essential to vibrant women’s health. She designed Kegelbell to help busy modern women do a super kegel in less time with incredible results. Unlike kegels alone, plastic balls or complicated inserts, Kegelbell allows women to easily and naturally strengthen the pelvic floor muscle for better bladder control and enhanced sexual function in a five-minute session just three times a week.

Dr. Schull, an academic researcher-turned-inventor-and-entrepreneur, created Kegelbell in response to a loved one’s debilitating health problems that had started with surgical approaches to pelvic floor issues. Kegelbell gives women the easiest way to do their kegels, so pelvic floor problems will no longer stop them from living fully. Kegelbell solves the problem of kegels gone bad (or not done at all) with a patent-pending weight training system that allows women to do perfect, muscle-strengthening, kegel exercise in less time, with no fuss, quickly building these important yet hardest-to-reach muscles.

Stephanie believes in the need for Kegelbell, the first product from her company Matter|Mission, to de-stigmatize women’s health and give women remedies to the problems that have interrupted their happiness for years. Matter|Mission will achieve this through thoughtfully and creatively developing solutions that challenge the status quo, bring social issues to the forefront, and give women bold new options.

Connect with Stephanie Schull on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, and follow Kegelbell on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

Wendy Breakstone

Wendy Breakstone is a Business Management & Operations Consultant for 6- & 7-figure entrepreneurs who want to 2x their success while creating more freedom in their life. She’s the creator of the Scalable Success Operating System, which provides multi-6-figure companies a solid framework for structuring their business to double their revenue.

Wendy’s genius is in her ability to make managing a business simple and streamlined. As a seasoned entrepreneur who built multiple 6-figure companies, she brings more than 20 years of experience to her clients operations. Wendy helps established CEO’s remove roadblocks and move through plateaus that are holding them back from scalable success. She works with CEO’s to help them strengthen their foundation, focus their business offerings, and leverage their team so that they can reclaim their freedom, expand their impact, and 2x their revenue.

Wendy believes that scaling your business to 7-figures doesn’t have to be complicated. The key to making it happen is a simple, scalable business framework that optimizes your systems, team, and operations. Many companies reach a plateau or hit a growth ceiling in their revenue largely because they don’t have a strong foundation to support scalable success. She has worked helped dozens of entrepreneurs and companies including best-selling author Marianne Williamson, celebrity entrepreneurs, and managed million-dollar marketing budgets for high-tech companies like GoToMeeting and GoToWebinar.

Connect with Wendy Breakstone on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram.

Amelia Warren

Amelia Warren is CEO of Epicure, Canada’s largest direct sales company. Epicure was founded in 1997 by Amelia’s mother, Sylvie Rochette, then a busy mother of two who aspired to share the clean eating solutions she had created for her family. Today, Amelia is the youngest CEO in direct sales in North America and one of the youngest female CEOs in Canada. She has taken Epicure in a bold new direction with the revolutionary Good Food. Real Fast™ Movement, a global movement to give every person the knowledge and skills to cook and eat well for a lifetime of good health.

Epicure is a community that unites and inspires each other to rally around clean eating. Epicure is dedicated to sharing delicious meal solutions that use only real, whole ingredients you can trust, while never ever compromising on taste. As the first company in the Direct Sales industry to take on clean ingredients, Amelia and Epicure were the first to enroll in the Non-GMO Verification Project and implement a stringent clean ingredients mandate and triple-testing to ensure the complete product line is gluten and nut-free.

Amelia has won numerous awards, including being named in PROFIT magazine’s Top 100 entrepreneurs in 2013 and 2014; Top 20 under 40 Vancouver Island 2013, and British Columbia’s top 40 under 40 Business Leaders in 2015. Amelia is an active member of YPO, is the Executive Director of the Epicure Foundation and was recently named a member of the YPO BC Chapter Executive.

Connect with Amelia Warren on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram, and follow Epicure on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

Crystal MacGregor

Crystal MacGregor is a Registered Dietician and Epicure’s Director of Innovation, R&D, and Merchandising. She has over a decade of experience and knowledge working in many innovative areas of dietetics: food industry, sports centers, school boards, grocery stores, hospitals and product development. She is a good food advocate and personal training specialist and presently co-chairs Dietitians of Canada’s Food & Culinary Network.

Crystal holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Science with a Major in Nutrition from the University of Prince Edward Island where she also completed her dietetic internship. She has been working for Epicure in various innovative roles since 2007. Today, she leads two dynamic teams to challenge how consumers enjoy good food. She provides nutrition expertise and strategy for innovation, research and product development, product marketing & merchandising, recipe development and creative insight to meet corporate goals to change a plate, change a life.

Connect with Crystal MacGregor on on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

Jen McIntyre

Jen McIntyre is an unschooling mama of two energetic boys, a creative entrepreneur at SquishKit.com, and a community leader and coach who inspires other “multipurpose mamas” to design and live amazing lives. Jen’s fun-loving attitude, extraordinary communication skills, and deep commitment to a healthy, active lifestyle enhance her work in individual and group settings. A former workshop leader and coach, her clientele of adventurous “goal getters” has included personal trainers, yoga instructors, police officers, moms, small business owners, government employees, artists, electricians, chiropractors, insurance salespeople and real estate investors.

A native of Victoria, British Columbia, Jen’s family has used Epicure products for over 20 years. She currently lives in Phoenix, Arizona and is excited to help lead Epicure’s expansion into the US market.

Connect with Jen McIntyre on Instagram.

Dr. Karen Jacobson

Dr. Karen Jacobson is an author, speaker, and high-performance strategist. She specializes in working with organizations that want to develop leaders and high-performance teams to be more efficient, effective and engaged. Her services include speaking, team development, behavior assessment tools, and executive coaching.

Dr. Jacobson is the author of Power Conversations, a business communication guide, and the creator of the High-Performance Triad, an effective strategy for creating your performance advantage. Audiences leave her presentations energized and armed with an arsenal of new skill sets and tools to provide lasting transformation.

Connect with Dr. Karen Jacobson on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

Jeff Lynch

The Law Offices of Jeffrey D. Lynch helps families develop a plan in case one of their family members is unable to make financial and health care decisions for themselves, or passes away. These plans typically consist of Wills, Trusts and Powers of Attorney Documents. Each family has different issues that need to be addressed therefore the provisions in the documents can differ significantly from one family to the next. Having a candid and confidential conversation with Jeffrey will allow for him to identify any issues which need to be addressed in your families documents.

Jeff Lynch began his career in estate planning as a life insurance agent with his step father martin Schuchat at Farm Bureau Financial Services. They traveled the state of Arizona, working with farmers, ranchers and small business owners who needed to protect their families. During the recession, Jeff fulfilled a lifelong goal of becoming an attorney by graduating from law school in two years and passing the bar on his first attempt.

During and after law school, Jeff worked for a well known estate planning firm until he opened the Law offices of Jeffrey D. Lynch in 2017. He continues to practice in the areas of Estate Planning and probate law, and has recently begun representing personal injury clients injured in an accident.

Connect with Jeff Lynch on LinkedIn and Facebook, and follow The Law Offices of Jeffrey D. Lynch on Facebook.

Barney Davey

Barney Davey is an artist advocate, business coach, author, blogger, online course creator, and digital marketing tools and techniques junkie. He is also the publisher of Art Marketing News. The blog, published weekly since 2005, provides visual artists and creative entrepreneurs with professional art career development tools, training, and advice. The company publishes insightful business and marketing information and produces online training courses, all with the goal of helping artists to find buyers, sell art and create prosperous careers.

Barney has been a soldier, firefighter, steelworker, Teamster, advertising agency owner, sales rep, sales manager, trade magazine and trade show marketing executive, and internet marketing entrepreneur. He has an extensive 30-year history working on marketing and advertising campaigns and strategies with small businesses, top tier ad agencies, and Fortune 500 companies. He worked closely with the many business sectors, including insurance, (life, health, and property-casualty), financial planning, hospitality, home furnishings, fine art, and picture framing retailers, and private clubs.

Barney splits his time between publishing books and blogs, creating and marketing online courses, and providing private coaching for creative entrepreneurs. He also is working on a launch for a new venture aimed at helping Baby Boomers transition to an entrepreneurial life after retirement.

Connect with Barney Davey on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, and follow Art Marketing News on Facebook.