ABOUT US

Bob Ryan, a Managing Partner of The Sierra Institute, is also a Principal at Shields Meneley Partners, a Chicago-based firm that helps C-Suite +/- one level executives with their career while in transition. For more than 15 years, the principals of this boutique firm have helped senior executives from all over the US, determine their next and next-next career steps and working with them to find that role whether the same role someplace else or a totally new career. He also coaches high-potential executives focused on their career development. Bob joined his firm after 32 years in the corporate world as an engineer, General manager and Human Resource leader at P&G, Griffith Foods, KH Homes, Bombardier and Tate & Lyle.

Last 3 HR Leadership Roles;

• Tate & Lyle – GVP HR – 6 years
• Kimball Hill Homes – CHRO – 3 years
• Bombardier Recreation Products (BRP) – VP HR – USA

Education;
B.Eng. (Mechanical and Aeronautical) Carleton University – Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

Personal and professional affiliations;
British American Business Council (BABC) Board member, 2010 – present
Career Transition Center (CTC) Board Member, 2016 – present
Member Human Resource Management Association of Chicago (HRMAC), former Board member
Union League Club of Chicago (ULCC) member since 2011
SSN 786 Club, member since 2017 (supporting crew and families of attack submarine USS Illinois)
Quest Masterclass teacher – teaching CHRO’s in Asia and Africa each year

Areas of expertise:
Career transition, High Potential leader development, coaching and advising

In his role, Michael is responsible for the planning and execution of human capital management programs, Operations Services, and Off-Premises Dining for PF Chang’s, a leader in the casual dining industry with over 18,000 team members across 200+ restaurants.  Michael has over 25 years of experience in the field of human resources and joined PF Chang’s in July 2015. He lives and works in Scottsdale, Arizona.  Michael has been a Senior Fellow of TSI since it’s founding in 2003.

Michael has been leading HR functions since 2001, for organizations ranging in size from 5,000 to 25,000 employees.  Before joining PF Chang’s, he led HR functions for 14 years in apparel retail, including Express, Tween Brands, and Victoria’s Secret.

Michael received his BA from the University of Notre Dame and his MBA from Indiana University.  Outside of his professional pursuits, Michael has particular passion for supporting local Economic Development and Public Education initiatives, and increasing the per capita consumption of red wine.

Michael’s Deepest Areas of Expertise – Talent Management; Organization Design & Development

Vivek currently serves as Chief Administrative Officer for SAM Companies. Vivek has been a Senior Fellow of TSI since 2014.

• SAMS Companies – August 2022 – present
• Mears Group, Inc. – Chief Administrative Officer and General Counsel (2015-2022)
• Quanta Services, Inc. – Head of HR (2012-2015)

Education

• Bachelors’ – University of Pennsylvania, B.A.
• Doctorate – Columbia Law School, J.D.
• Master’s – Rice University, M.B.A.

Personal &/or Professional Affiliations

• Corporate Boards/Advisory Groups –
• Non-Profit Boards – Career and Recovery Resources, Inc.
• Personal Advocacy Interests –

Areas of Expertise: (e.g. labor, compensations, comp committee. Board management) Compensation, People Development, Training, Labor and Employee Relations

Andrea J. Barry is the Chief Human Resources Officer of Methode Electronics.

Andrea works closely with senior management and focuses on talent development programs, performance management, and succession planning, among other HR functions and employee-facing initiatives. Prior to joining Breakthru Beverage Group, and its predecessor Wirtz Beverage, she held increasingly senior roles with Borg-Warner, Kellogg Company and Culligan International, where she served as SVP & Chief Human Resources Officer.

Andrea was elected to the HRMAC Board in 2014 and currently serves on the Future Leaders Committee. Andrea olds a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from Aston University and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She also obtained a CEBS from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

Anastasia Falconio is the Chief Human Resources Officer of The Quikrete® Companies. An industry pioneer known for its iconic and unmistakable yellow bag of concrete, The QUIKRETE Companies is a scalable, single source for commercial, residential and industrial building, repair and rehabilitation projects that proudly contributes to the growth and health of our country’s structure and infrastructure every day. A lawyer by training, Anastasia has been leading human resources functions domestically and internationally for over 25 years. In addition, she has had executive leadership over risk management, employee health and safety, asset protection, and business continuity planning. Her skill and capability has been demonstrated in diverse assignments at Walt Disney, Caesars Entertainment, Caterpillar, American Girl, and Kids2. Anastasia holds a Juris Doctor from Emory University and a Bachelor of Arts in Speech Communications from the University of Illinois. Anastasia is currently based in Atlanta, GA.

Margie Harris is the SVP and CHRO at Tellurian, Inc. Margie is an accomplished HR leader. Over the last 25 years, she has worked in both industry and consulting leading Human Resource change initiatives.

Margie has held leadership positions at several large Fortune 500 companies. Most recently she held the position of Executive Vice President of Human Resources of Apache Corporation, a global Exploration and Production Company headquartered in Houston, Texas. Prior to Apache, Margie served as an Executive Vice President, at Texas Genco, a wholesale electrical power generation company where she established the human resources group. She also headed the human resources groups at Integrated Electrical Services, a national electrical contracting company and Santa Fe Snyder, an independent exploration and production company. Margie was a lead design consultant at Hewitt Associates focusing primarily on executive compensation, broad based compensation and benefit program design. Prior to her emphasis in Human Resources Management, she also held the position of financial controller for the international division of Continental Airlines and served as a landman at Shell Oil Company.
She serves on the alumni board of the Fisher College of Business at The Ohio State University and was recently appointed to the Board of Directors of the University of St. Thomas. Margie is a speaker at industry events and coaches and mentors professionals regarding their career goals.
Margie holds a bachelor’s degree with honors in finance from The Ohio State University. She also earned an MBA with concentrations in finance and marketing from the University of St. Thomas, Houston, Texas.

Nathan is originally from Heron Lake, MN; a small rural town where he grew up on a farm. He attended the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities majoring in Agriculture and Food Business Management and included a one year of study abroad at the Cass Business School in London, England. He also holds a Masters of Divinity from Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, CA.

Nathan started his professional career with Cargill as a Business Manager for their Animal Nutrition Division and leading their business operations for several different regions around North America. This included management of supply chain, customer service, P/L management, credit, procurement, and risk management. He spent two years in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam as Cargill’s integration leader for the Provimi Vietnam acquisition.

Nathan Joined POET Biorefining in 2014 as a General Manager at their Bingham Lake, MN plant. POET is the world’s largest producer of sustainable biofuels and other bioproducts based in Sioux Falls, SD. In 2018 he was promoted to Regional Vice President, overseeing a group of seven biorefineries. In 2021 when POET acquired the ethanol assets of Flint Hills Resources, Nathan was the operations integration leader for the acquisition. Recognizing Nathan’s passions for people development and culture building POET tapped Nathan to be their Vice President of People and Culture in late 2021.

Nathan is married to Nhi and they have two children, William (7) and Chloe (5) and they reside on their diverse and sustainable farm in Renner, SD.

Bruce Kendrick was appointed Executive Vice President of Human Resources for MasterBrand Cabinets, Inc. in March of 2018. In addition to driving value as a business minded HR leader, he is heading up the Company’s Continuous Improvement Transformation and providing Executive leadership over the Environmental, Health and Safety areas.

MasterBrand, a $2.4 bn division of Fortune Brands (FBHS $5.8 bn) with 27 locations in North America and approximately 14,000 employees, is the largest cabinet manufacturer in North America.

Bruce came to MasterBrand with over 30 years of experience holding a variety of Human Resource leadership positions beginning at the shop floor level and culminating into roles such as Global Head of HR for Goodyear’s Engineered Productions Group; CHRO for Veyance Technologies, a global PE venture held by The Carlyle Group; and Head of HR for the Contitech – Continental AG Americas Region.

Bruce holds a BS degree in Business Administration with an additional concentration in Human Resources from Nebraska Wesleyan University and earned his Senior Professional of Human Resources Certification in 1997.

His experience base is comprised of employee and labor relations, collective bargaining, organizational change, communications, and continuous improvement. He has extensive experience in turnaround as well as growth environments, merger and acquisition culture and HR business process integrations.

Katie Lawler is Senior Vice President, Chief Human Resources Officer of Illinois Tool Works Inc.
Katie joined ITW in October 2014 and previously served as Executive Vice President, Human Resources for GATX Corporation. Prior to joining GATX, she held a wide range of positions in operations, human resources and law with Tribune Media (formerly Tribune Company). Katie began her professional career as an attorney in private practice handling labor and employment matters.

Katie graduated with a bachelor’s degree from the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, MA and received a law degree from the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, IN.

Jim Link is the Chief Human Resources Officer for the Society for Human Resource Management. With more than 315,000 members around the world, SHRM is the largest HR professional association in the world and the leading voice for matters related to workers and the workplace.

Jim’s career includes roles of increasing responsibility across a variety of industries and companies including General Electric, the Pillsbury Company, Porsche Cars, and Randstad. In his most recent role as CHRO for Randstad North America, he led a global team of 150 HR professionals who were instrumental in transforming the company into an award-winning, inclusive, and sustainable global leader.

Jim has served as a volunteer leader in several organizations including the SHRM Foundation Board, the Atlanta Federal Reserve Bank Human Capital Advisory Board, and the Human Resources Leadership Forum.

Jim holds undergraduate and master’s degree from Murray State University. Born and raised on a working family farm in western Kentucky, he currently resides in Atlanta and Alexandria, VA.

Jim is an adjunct instructor in the Executive MBA program at the University of Poznan (Poland) School of Economics and Business and the University of Liège (Belgium) Asia-Pacific campus in Taipei, Taiwan.

Melissa Marshall is the Vice President, People & Organization (P&O) at Banfield Pet Hospital, the largest general veterinary practice in the U.S. With 20,000 associates working across 1000+ hospitals nationwide, Melissa is responsible for leading the enterprise people strategy. She has end-to-end oversight of the human resources function and drives organizational efforts to reimagine the holistic associate experience, creating a practice where associates can start, stay and grow in their careers. She is a highly collaborative and inclusive leader who brings 18+ years of human resources and operations leadership experience from various segments and divisions of Mars Inc. Melissa began her career in P&O on the consumer packaged goods side of the business with Wrigley, working in both Canada and the U.S. From there she has taken on roles of greater responsibility, and has also served in leadership positions within Mars Pet Nutrition and Mars Corporate prior to joining Banfield, a division of Mars Veterinary Health. She is a proud Torontonian, and holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration with a concentration in Human Resources Management from Ryerson University.

Ed is responsible for providing HR leadership across all ED&F Man businesses within the North America region. His role includes managing HR business partner teams as well as the benefits, policy, and payroll functions. Ed joined ED&F Man in April 2015.

ED&F Man is a privately held, specialist merchant of agricultural commodities, trading specifically in sugar, molasses, coffee, grains and pulses. The company provides services across the whole supply chain, including sourcing, processing, marketing, distribution and transport.  Founded in 1787, ED&F Man operates in 60 countries with over 7000 employees.

Based in Chicago, Illinois, Ed has 20+ years of HR generalist experience, and has been a Fellow of TSI since 2015.

Previous HR Leadership Roles

1. AMCOL International Corporation; VP Human Resources,   2006-2015
2. BP, HR Manager,  1999-2006

Bachelor’s Degree – University of Illinois  (Champaign/Urbana); Industrial Psychology, 1994

Master’s Degree – University of Illinois (Champaign/Urbana); Industrial Labor Relations, 1995

SHRM Advocacy Team – Member since 2016

Areas of Expertise –Change Management, Labor Relations, and Benefits

Brian Powers is the VP/CHRO for TTX Company. He is responsible for the development and implementation of organization-wide policies and programs encompassing all aspects of human resource management including employment, employee benefits, compensation, employee training, placement, organizational development, security, ADA and EEO compliance, and employee assistance. Brian leads all aspects of the company’s labor relations programs, policies, and procedures. He directs labor-management relations, negotiate and interpret collective bargaining agreement, and serve as a point of contact for management on labor matters. His duties also include direction of office services and facilities management. He holds a BA in Industrial Supervision from Northern Illinois University and an MS in Industrial Relations from Loyola University Chicago.

Brian Rogers joined rue21 as Senior Vice President and Chief Human Resources Officer. He is responsible for directing all of the people functions of the Company. With over 30 years of human resources leadership experience, Mr Rogers comes to rue21 from Ascena Retail Group, Inc. where he was for nearly seven years, serving most recently as Senior Vice President Human Resources Corporate. He also held leadership positions as Senior Vice President, Talent Acquisition and Senior Vice President and Chief Human Resources Officer of the Justice Tween Brands division. Prior to Ascena, Mr. Rogers was with L Brands where he served as Vice President, International Human Resources for four years and Vice President, Human Resources for nearly four years. He began his career as a Human Resources Director at Nike and Human Resources Manager as Deutsche Post AG.

With over 30 years of experience in human resources and organizational development, Mary Ellen Schopp was selected as Senior Vice President and Chief Human Resources Officer (CHRO) of Baptist Health after an extensive national search.

Schopp joins Baptist Health from Rush University Medical Center, one of the largest private sector employers in Chicago, known for its medical and nursing colleges, collaborative partnerships, and focus on clinical research and innovation.

Over her career, Schopp has led human resources in a number of top-performing organizations in health care, education, manufacturing and consumer packaged goods.

“Two factors make Mary Ellen an exceptional addition to our executive team at Baptist,” said Brett McClung, president and chief executive officer of Baptist Health. “Her passion for people and alignment with our mission makes her an excellent cultural fit; and her breadth of experience allows us to draw from a deep pool of best practices.”

Reporting to the CEO, Schopp will plan, direct and have responsibility for all aspects of Human Resources at Baptist Health including strategies for attracting, developing, engaging and retaining talent; supporting diversity and inclusion; and strengthening employee engagement.

Known for her effectiveness in building high-performing, multi-functional teams, Schopp believes in advancing organizational goals through its people. For example, at Rush, she led strategic initiatives designed to accelerate the development and engagement of Rush’s 12,000+ faculty, clinicians and staff, including the development of a Leadership Academy for physicians and staff, as well as, serving as a key architect for the “People” pillar for the organizations 5 year strategic plan. a highly successful “Continuous Pursuit of Excellence” campaign across the entire health system.

“I’m energized by the opportunity to join a high-performing team that is focused on all the right things,” said Schopp. “It’s a dynamic health care environment, and the perfect time to build on our momentum at Baptist Health and further strengthen our ability to positively impact the lives of our employees, physicians, patients and communities.”

Engaged in the community, Schopp served on the Board of Skills for Chicagoland’s Future, a public-private partnership working to match businesses that have unmet hiring needs with qualified, unemployed job seekers. In addition, she served on the boards of Women in Bio, Mayslake Ministries and St. John of the Cross Parish School.

Schopp received her Bachelor of Arts in Industrial/Organizational Psychology from the University of Illinois. She received both her Master of Science in Industrial/Labor Relations and Master of Science in Organizational Development from Loyola University. She is a member of the Society for HR Management (SHRM).

Shane has 30 years of experience across the beverage, manufacturing, software and retail industries in the field of Human Resources. He is known as a progressive leader that creates inspired, winning organizations to accelerate business performance with start-up, mid-size and large global organizations. His areas of expertise are in HR strategy development, employee and labor relations, M&A, operating model design, shared services operations, capability & culture development, compensation & benefits, communications & change management, talent management & succession planning, leadership coaching and step changing the associate experience.

Shane is the Executive Vice President & Chief Human Resources Officer for Tailored Brands responsible for leading the Human Resources, Communications and Community Giving functions. Tailored Brands is a leading omnichannel specialty retailer of menswear. The company’s brands include Men’s Wearhouse, Jos. A. Bank, K&G Fashion Superstore in the U.S. and Moores Clothing for Men in Canada.

Prior to joining tailored Brands, he served as the principal for his own consulting business – working with organizations and leaders to develop people, culture and capability strategies to differentiate themselves from their competitors and to drive their growth agenda.

Prior to this, Shane was with The Coca-Cola Company for 21 years in numerous leadership roles. He served as the Global Vice President of Associate Services accountable for leading a 500+ person team that partnered with the business to drive services and initiatives across Human Resources, facilities management and travel operations – supporting internal customers in 100+ countries.

He also served as the Global Head of Human Resources for the Global Corporate Center, Global Shared Services and Commercial Product Manufacturing and Supply division of The Coca-Cola Company. Prior to this role he was the Vice President, Human Resources Integration for the acquisition of The Company’s largest franchise bottler based in the United States…Coca-Cola Enterprises, a $13B publicly traded organization with 70,000 employees. Prior to that, he held the position of Vice President of Human Resources for The Brazil Business Unit, based in Rio de Janeiro. Before moving to Brazil, he served as the Chief of Staff to the Chief People Officer of Global Human Resources.

Shane also spent roughly eight years in The Coca-Cola Company’s North America business where he served as Sr. HR Director for the US Retail Division and The Minute Maid Company. He also held other key HR leadership positions supporting the Foodservice, Marketing, National Sales, Still Beverages and Finance organizations.

Prior to Coca-Cola, Shane worked for the Harland Company where he held senior HR leadership positions in their manufacturing and start-up software businesses.

He received his Bachelor’s degree in Accounting, with a minor in Management Information Systems, from Northwestern State University.

He has served on multiple boards of directors, is active with HR Executive forums, and is an avid volunteer and supporter of the community.

Brenna Stevens brings a strategic and hands-on approach to attracting and retaining talent with over 14 years experience managing and implementing Human Resource (HR) processes for large companies. She is a creative thinker, problem solver, and decision maker who balances employee needs with mission and vision. Breanna works closely with the team to analyze compensation packages, design new hire orientation programs and upgrade onboarding and recruiting platforms for Atlas. Her experience of seamlessly integrating HR processes comes from working with growing companies, both organically and through Mergers & Acquisitions. In addition, she is adept at managing all aspects of benefits administration including benefit plans, open enrollment, onboarding and 401 (k). A graduate of Towson University with a BA in Cultural Studies and an MA in Human Resources Development, she is a member of the Society of Professional Human Resources Management. She finds shared support for building a team that will support the company.

Carol Summersgill is the SVP & CHRO for California Closets.

Carol is a global business executive focused on growth, talent, leadership, and culture. She is accomplished in scaling organizations for growth and transformation, mergers and acquisitions, and change leadership in both private and public company settings.

She is committed to developing people and organizations that embrace innovation, challenge conventional thinking and accomplish more with less. She is driven by companies that win through great leadership, talent, innovation and strong brands. She has a reputation as a positive, motivating leader with solid collaboration and communication skills, strategic thinker, and a track record of developing organizations, individuals and teams for success.

Carol has a dual path career in Human Resources and Supply Chain with leadership roles in several functions. Her experience is gained and applied from multiple industries.
Carol holds a BS in Business – Supply Chain Management – from Arizona State University and an MBA from Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business. She also attended the Executive Education Program at Michigan State University with a focus on logistics, materials, and supply chain management.

Nancy Tostanoski joined OUTFRONT Media in 2014 and currently serves as Executive Vice President, Chief Human Resources Officer overseeing talent acquisition and management, compensation and benefits, recruitment, diversity and inclusion, communications, and administration. With over 25 years’ human resources experience, Nancy has championed significant cultural changes at OUTFRONT, including the creation of a diversity and inclusion counsel and corporate social responsibility initiative. Before coming to OUTFRONT, Nancy served as Vice President, Global Compensation and Benefits at PVH Corp. (formerly known as The Warnaco Group, Inc.), where she was responsible for global compensation, benefits and performance management for the publicly-held, branded apparel company. And before that she was Vice President, Global Compensation, Benefits and Shared Services at Reader’s Digest Association, Inc., where she was responsible for global compensation, benefits and U.S. shared services for the privately-held publishing and media company. Nancy is based in the New York headquarters of OUTFRONT Media. She lives in New York with her husband and four children.

OUTFRONT Media is one of the largest out-of-home advertising and media companies and leverages the power of technology, location and creativity to connect brands with consumers outside of their homes through one of the largest and most diverse sets of billboard, transit, and mobile assets in North America. Through its ON Smart Media platform, OUTFRONT is implementing digital technology that will fundamentally change the ways advertisers engage audiences on-the-go.

Prior HR Leadership Roles
PVH (formerly The Warnaco Group, Inc.)
Vice President Global Compensation and Benefits, 2010-2013

Reader’s Digest
Vice President, Global Compensation, Benefits and Shared Services, 2007-2010

Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide, Inc.
Senior Vice President, Global Compensation and Benefits 2003-2006
Vice President of Global Benefits 2001-2003
Director of Benefits 1998-2001

Education
Georgetown University, BA English 1986
Northeastern University, MBA 1992

Areas of Expertise
Compensation
Benefits
Compensation Committee

Personal Affiliations
Georgetown University Alumni Ambassador

Lori Wall was appointed SVP and Chief Human Resources Officer of Foremost Farms USA dairy cooperative in January 2021. She is responsible for developing and executing the company’s human resources and communications strategy to drive and achieve the overall Foremost Farms business objectives and results through investing in people and culture.

Prior to Foremost Farms, Wall was Chief Human Resources Officer of Restaurant Technologies, a leading provider of cooking-oil management and cooking oil distribution to more than 24,000 food service operators to make their kitchens safer and more sustainable. In that role, she redesigned and transformed the organizational structure to support 10-15% top- and bottom-line growth and aligned HR strategies to drive operations and sales objectives.

Additionally, Wall served as the Business Human Resource Leader and member of the senior leadership team at Cargill for the Starches and Sweeteners business unit, where she was responsible for providing talent management strategy, workforce planning, employee and labor relations and change leadership to enable business-level transformation, coaching and development, and building culture to facilitate achievement of strategic business objectives.

Wall’s experience also includes Taylor Corporation, where she held roles of increasing responsibility including Vice President of Human Resources; Chubb Insurance Group as an international property and casualty underwriting leader; and Minnesota State University – Mankato as an adjunct professor of business.
Wall earned her MBA focused on leadership, organizational development and finance from the University of St. Thomas – Opus College of Business and her undergraduate – with a double major in marketing and management – from Minnesota State University – Mankato. She holds USC Organizational Design, HCI Workforce Planning and SPHR (senior professional human resources) certifications, a Chartered Property Casualty Underwriter designation and has served as a director on the boards of Lutheran Social Services of Minnesota and Simpson Housing Services.