Event Speakers

Jason Ryan Dorsey
(The Gen Y Guy®)
Chief Strategy Officer
The Center for Generational Kinetics

Jason Dorsey advises executives and HR leaders how to leverage generational trends for peak performance. His specialty is driving communication, innovation, and talent development across generations. Known as The Gen Y Guy, Jason has been featured on 60 Minutes, 20/20, The Today Show, The View, The Early Show and in Fortune Magazine and The Wall Street Journal. A bestselling author at age 18, Jason’s books include Y-Size Your Business and My Reality Check Bounced.  He won the Austin Under 40 Entrepreneur of the Year at age 25, one of the youngest winners ever.

Jason currently serves as the Chief Strategy Officer at The Center for Generational Kinetics. The Center’s team delivers custom keynotes, consulting, and thought leadership for enterprise and fast growth clients. A Texas native, Jason lives in Austin with his wife, Denise, and 1-year-old daughter, Rya—a member of the iGeneration. Watch Jason explain the difference between Millennials and Baby Boomers at www.JasonDorsey.com.

Jackie is dedicated to helping leaders create BEST places where the BEST people can do their BEST work to create a BETTER world.

Her books include: the international best seller, NUTS! Southwest Airlines’ Crazy Recipe for Business and Personal Success, its sequel GUTS!, BOOM! (7-timeless choices for inspiring leadership and accountability). And recently, NANOVATION: How a Little Car Can Teach the World to Think Big and Act Bold.

Jackie is recognized as one of the “Top 30 Best Minds on Leadership” by Leadership Excellence Magazine, and is one of the most sought-after female business leadership speakers in the nation.

Ross Shafer grew up in the Pacific Northwest and graduated from the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma, Washington where he studied business management and played varsity football (linebacker). After college, he took a job as a training manager for a department store (Yard Birds) and was able to save $10,000. He took that money and launched his life as an entrepreneur. His first venture was as the owner/manager of America’s only Stereo and Pet Shop in the small town of Puyallup, Washington (population 5,000 at the time).

Cleaning pet cages wasn’t as appealing as it sounded to Ross, so after 3 years he closed the store and took a job as an advertising manager for the 28 store Squire Shops retail clothing chain in Seattle, Washington. Writing ad copy and concocting campaigns paid the bills, but at night Ross haunted local comedy clubs in search of a career in joke telling. After years of slogging around the comedy circuit, he won the Seattle International Comedy Competition and immediately became an opening act for performers like Crystal Gayle, Eddie Rabbitt, Nel Carter, Neil Sedaka, and Dionne Warwick.
In l985, Ross pitched a TV show idea to the NBC affiliate in Seattle (KING). It was a risky idea to emulate a local Letterman-like comedy talk show. Regardless, ALMOST LIVE was born and for the next 5 seasons Ross hosted the show while he and his team collected 36 Emmys. They won the Esquire Magazine dubious Achievement Award one year for attempting to change the Washington State song to Louie, Louie. During those years Ross also hosted an afternoon drive radio show on the 50,000 watt KJR-AM.

In l988, Ross was wooed by the Fox network to take over The Late Show. The Late Show was a nightly talk show that competed with The Tonight Show and David Letterman. The show lasted a year and Ross next found himself in New York co-hosting Days End on the ABC network. It was here that he sat beside Matt Lauer and Spencer Christian as they interviewed the movers and shakers of New York and the world. Dick Clark told Ross, Always have a back up plan, my boy, TV is terminal and predictably Days End was cancelled. Ross always wondered what happened to Matt Lauer? Ha!
The next stop for Ross was hosting the revised Match Game on the ABC network. Love Me, Love Me Not followed and numerous TV pilot projects.

By this time, Ross was headling all of the leading night clubs and casinos. He produced a highly acclaimed comedy album about the Clinton administration titled Inside The First Family. He also wrote a comedy cookbook that became a best seller; Cook Like A Stud – 38 recipes men can prepare in the garage with their own tools.

By l994, Ross heard Bill Gates give a speech where he said, Someday you will all be watching television on your telephones. Ross took that message to heart and he made the decision to leave TV and get back to his corporate training roots. Human nature and the human condition were always fascinating to him because that’s what comedians do. They study the laughter and tears business. To date Ross has produced (14) Human Resource training films on Customer Service, Motivation, Leadership, and Peer Pressure. He has authored the business books, Nobody Moved Your Cheese, Customer Empathy, The Customer Shouts Back, and his newly released Are You Relevant? 12 Reasons Smart Organizations Thrive in Any Economy.

Today, Ross is one of the most sought after Keynote speakers and seminar leaders on the subjects of Customer Empathy, Personal Motivation, and Business Relevance. The father of two grown sons, Adam and Ryan, he lives in in Denver, Colorado with his wife Leah and their daughter Lauren.

The former Chief Strategy Officer for the $100 million People Marketing division of McCann-Erickson World Group Advertising is widely recognized as a leading expert in Leadership & Culture, Sales Effectiveness, Branding & Social Media and HR/Workforce Trends. Recently recognized as "one of the best keynote speakers seen or heard" by Meetings & Conventions Magazine alongside Tony Robbins, Bill Gates, Al Gore and Marcus Buckingham, Ryan serves as the USA Sr. Associate with Employer Brand International, an advisory member on the SmartBrief Workforce Council, is a certified Human Capital Strategist and professional member of the National Speakers Association. His work has been featured in Electronic Recruiting Exchange, Workforce Management Magazine, HR Professional Magazine, HR Times, SHRM, Business News Network, Crain’s Business, Staffing Management Magazine, and the books Your Employer Brand and Employer of Choice.  Regarded as one of The Top 100 Keynote Speakers in America the Ryan Estis experience blends interaction, energy and actionable content designed to elevate business outcomes. His message is a compelling crusade on corporate culture, communication, client acquisition, brand ambassadorship, change and preparing to thrive in the ultra competitive, hyper connected business environment we now know as the new normal.

As the Chief Experience Officer in his growing Consulting Practice, Ryan helps companies more effectively connect to their two most important audiences: Employees and Customers. Through speaking, training, brand strategy and communication design Ryan Estis & Associates helps optimize people and performance.

In December of 2011, Jeffrey Ruebesam was named Vice President of Global Health, Safety & Environmental (HSE). In this new role, Ruebesam oversees Fluor’s global HSE activities and leads an organization of 800 HSE professionals on projects around the world, in business groups, and within Corporate HSE. Ruebesam is based in Fluor’s Greenville, SC office and reports to Garry Flowers, Global Services Group President and Senior Vice President for HSE, Security & Industrial Relations.

Before joining Fluor, Jeff served as the Global Environment, Health & Safety (EHS) Operations Leader for GE Energy which includes GE’s Power & Water, Energy Services and Oil & Gas business units with a combined $37 billion in revenue and some 90,000 employees. Jeff has spent more than 20 years with GE in a number of different HSE leadership positions across a number of business units. Early in his career, he worked for an engineering consulting company and was a Registered Professional Engineer in Massachusetts. Also, he holds a B.S. in mechanical engineering from Northeastern University in Boston.

Clint Boman is a Certified Safety Professional with 29 years of experience in onshore, offshore and international exploration and production operations.

From 1983 to 1997 Clint worked in many operational capacities in Gulf of Mexico from offshore platform operator, foreman, senior foreman, and production superintendent.

In 1998 Clint was asked to lead a technical services team responsible for the implementation of safety, health and quality assurance programs for Noble’s onshore, Gulf of Mexico shelf and deepwater operations.

In 2004 Clint assumed responsibility as Corporate Safety and Health Manager where he was responsible for the development and implementation of Noble Energy’s worldwide safety and health programs.

In 2011 Clint assumed responsibility as Global EHS Director for Noble Energy.

Rick L. Ingram has over 30 years of experience in U.S. Onshore Oil and Gas Exploration and Production, holding HSE leadership positions for various companies as well as managing his own consulting firm.

 Rick has been employed by BP North America Gas for ten years, currently serving as the OSHA VPP (Voluntary Protection Programs) Technical Authority, and is an OSHA VPP SGE (Special Government Employee).  

Rick is co-founder and Chairperson of the National STEPS Network and co-founder of SafeLandUSA. Rick serves on the NIOSH NORA subcommittee for Oil and Gas Extraction, the OSHA Oil and Gas Safety Conference planning committee, and the OSHA Oil and Gas Outreach Training Leadership Team.

In his spare time, Rick speaks at industry events, teaches and writes articles aimed at making US Onshore E&P the safest of all industries.

Bill Bozzo is the Technical Support Systems (TSS) Vice President and Director, leading Environmental, Safety, Health, Quality, Strategic Planning, and Risk Management for DM Petroleum Operations Company.  Bill has worked in various leadership capacities for DM Petroleum, including Environmental Program Manager and ES&H Director.  Prior to his tenure with DM, he worked for the Boeing Company, Kansas Nebraska Pipeline, and Dravo Corporation.  Bill has also worked in field capacities for both the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Annapolis Field Office and the Naval Research Laboratory.

Bill’s experience extends to leadership in a number of industry/peer technical organizations.  He is the current chair of the Stewardship Action Council (www.stewardshipaction.org).  He also chairs the ANSI-ASQ National Accreditation Board (www.anab.org) Accreditation Council responsible for U.S. certification of registrars for management systems including ISO 14001, OHSMS 18001, and ISO 9001.  In addition Bill serves on the Board of Delegates of the National Safety Council (www.nsc.org ), and is a member of the Advisory Board of the NSC’s Campbell Institute.   Bill also serves on the Advisory Board to the American University Center for Environmental Policy (http://www.american.edu/spa/cep/ ).  Previously, Bill served as the President and the Chairman of the U.S. EPA’s Performance Track Program Participants Association.

Bill holds a Bachelors degree in biology from Washington and Jefferson College, a Masters degree in biological and environmental sciences from American University, and an MBA in finance and general management from Tulane University. 

Kerric Peyton is Vice President of Corporate Health, Safety & Environmental for Superior Energy Services. Mr. Peyton leads the execution of all technical, functional, auditing, compliance and training responsibilities related to the Health, Safety & Environmental function across the entire organization.
Superior Energy Services, headquartered in New Orleans, is the industry’s leading provider of specialized oilfield services and equipment focusing on production, intervention, workover, well services and rental tools. Superior employs more than 5,700 people in more than 156 locations in 18 countries worldwide.

Peyton, previously a Drilling Superintendent and manager of worldwide HSE activities at a leading offshore drilling contractor, has more than 12 years of industry experience. He is also a veteran of the United States Navy where he served six years in the Nuclear Power Program.\

Peyton holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Human Resource Management from New School University and has completed post graduate work in Business Administration from Regis University. He has been affiliated with the Society of Petroleum Engineers, International Association of Drilling Contractors and the National Safety Council.

Jack Frost is the Corporate Health, Safety & Environmental Vice President for Matrix Services. Jack has been a frequent speaker in sharing ideas as to how to capturea group attention, hold their attention, have them to care about the content and positively act upon it. Jack is a Board Certified Safety Professional and holds an Associate Risk Management Designation.

Steve was named Vice President, Operations Support in September 2007.   
In this role, he is responsible for the Corporate-wide functions of Indirect Procurement, Global Logistics, Enterprise Excellence, and Business Process Management.  He also leads various Business Councils which bridge Cameron’s Group structure such as the Supply Chain Council and Machine Tool / Manufacturing Technology Council.

In October, 2010 he was appointed Vice President, Operations Integrity with added responsibility for HSE, Corporate Sustainability and Global Security.

Prior to joining Cameron, Tomlinson was with Vetco Gray for five years where he held the position of Vice President, Manufacturing – Western Region Operations from 2002 – 2007.

Previous to Vetco Gray he was with GE for over 23 years, graduating from GE’s Manufacturing Management Program. He held a multitude of managerial leadership roles in operations, manufacturing engineering, and quality management within GE Transportation, Undersea Systems Division, Ordnance Systems and Power Systems.

Tomlinson also served as VP, Quality for General Signal / NY Air Brake from 1990 – 1991.

Steve earned an AAS in Mechanical Technology from SUNY Farmingdale Ag & Tech, a Bachelor of Science degree in Industrial Technology from SUNY Buffalo State College, and an MBA from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.   He is a certified Six Sigma Master Black Belt, and an APICS Certified Supply Chain Professional.

Gérard Dufour began his career with Alcan in 1978 as Process Engineer at the Arvida Plant located in the Saguenay region in the province of Quebec.

Gérard then occupied several management positions in Quebec before moving to Montreal’s head office in 1998 as Occupational Safety Director for Alcan’s Primary Metal Group (APMG).  It is in this role and, subsequently, as EHS FIRST Director for APMG, that Gerard’s focus turned towards ensuring that EHS became an integral business value.

From 2006 until his current appointment as Vice President, Health, Safety and Environment within Rio Tinto Alcan, on 1st February 2008, Gérard held the position of Director, EHS FIRST and Sustainability for Alcan’s Bauxite and Alumina Group, where along with his team he was working on embedding sustainability criteria directly into the decision-making process so as to create long-term value.

On February 1st 2011, Gerard was nominated to the position of Vice President, HSE Leadership Development. Since then, he has developed and deployed the Zero harm by choice Leadership development journey to the top 100 leaders of the organisation.

Don Shoultz is Head of Learning for BP Upstream. In this role, Don is responsible for leading a team of learning professionals in developing and managing business-focused learning interventions for the segment’s petrotechnical employees.

Don’s background includes over 25 years in leadership positions in Learning and Leadership Development, Human Resources, Organizational Effectiveness and Talent Acquisition for the automotive and aerospace industries.

Prior to joining BP, Don directed all aspects of learning and development for Ford’s central learning organization. Some of his key accomplishments include developing people strategies to improve cross-functional synergy and teamwork during the early phases of new product development.

He graduated from the University of South Florida with a Ph.D. in Leadership and Organizational Development and also holds a master’s degree in Learning and Development from Kent State University.

Matt is currently the President of the Young Professionals in Energy, (YPE) Houston Chapter. His responsibilities include overseeing a leadership team of 8 individuals, organizing monthly breakfast meetings, charity events and the end of the year Senior Leadership Reception. He joined the Houston leadership team in the spring of 2007 as VP of Community Outreach.

He also serves as a Vice President in Aon’s client development group in Houston. His responsibilities include new client development and daily servicing and account management activities. Prior to his employment with Aon, Matt worked for a regional Houston insurance agency in the same capacity. His experience includes working with clients in upstream oil and gas, utilities/power, and renewable fuels industries.

Matt is a graduate of Southwestern University at Georgetown, TX. Prior to his insurance career, Matt was a professional baseball player with the Milwaukee Brewers organization. Matt resides in Katy, TX with his wife and three daughters.

Wayne is the manager of talent management and diversity at Husky Energy Inc. and. He holds a ph.d. in industrial-organizational psychology and brings with him over a decade of experience in the field of talent management. He has worked in various industries including education, not-for profit, telecommunications, and health care. He is currently the manager of talent management & diversity at Husky Energy. His portfolio includes talent acquisition, onboarding and orientation, leadership development, performance management, succession planning, career development, learning management, knowledge and change management as well as diversity and employment equity. He is the author of a number of papers and articles on talent management and human resource related topics.

In August 2010, Ida Ashley joined Schlumberger Limited through the Smith International Inc merger. The merger resulted in an organization of over 113,000 employees from more than 140 nationalities working in 85 countries around the world. As a member of an eighty person dedicated integration team sponsored by the CFO, Ida has the responsibility to not only lead the HR Integration effort but also bring together the HR functions from the two legacy entities into one dynamic organization focused on talent development and service delivery. As a service organization priding itself on value added customer partnerships, Schlumberger views the employees as an asset differentiator versus a synergy target to reach ROI. This has been a core value of HR Integration woven into every project work stream from day one.

Ida’s career in Human Resources has spanned several disciplines over the past two decades, 14 years of which were focused in the Oil Services sector. International HR, Compensation & Benefits and M&A have been her top three areas of interest and experience. In addition to certifications of PHR and CCP, Ida holds a Bachelors degree in Modern Languages from Texas A&M University and a Masters degree in HR from Houston Baptist University.

Rita Trehan is Vice President of Human Resources and Internal Communications for the AES Corporation. As the leader of AES’ global HR function, Ms. Trehan is responsible for the company’s workforce of 27,000 people who are committed to bringing affordable and sustainable energy to businesses and communities in 29 countries around the world. She oversees the company’s global people strategy, compensation and benefits programs, learning and development offerings, HR information systems, mobility practices, internal branding efforts and companywide communications. Ms. Trehan pioneered a number of innovative initiatives for the company, including efforts to pool benefits in regions and countries around the world that have led to measureable savings, and the launch of the AES’ first leadership development program in partnership with the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business. Now in its eighth year, similar programs are available to AES people in Brazil, Cameroon, Kazakhstan, Singapore and the Ukraine, and more than 1,000 global leaders have graduated with skills that are critical to the success of AES’ business. Ms. Trehan also helped build and continues to manage AES’ worldwide performance improvement program, APEX. The company benefits from this homegrown continuous improvement program in numerous ways including increased satisfaction among its customers and the creation of millions of dollars in measurable benefits, which has increased by 583% over the last four years to more than US $100 million annually. In addition, Ms. Trehan serves on the Board of Directors for AES Sonel, the company’s integrated utility in Cameroon. Prior to joining AES in 2004, Ms. Trehan held a number of senior HR leadership positions at Honeywell International. Ms. Trehan served in various Corporate and HR business roles during her 15 years at Honeywell, gaining extensive global experience in HR operations across Europe & the Middle East, Africa, Latin America and Asia. Ms. Trehan holds a Bachelor of Science in Sociology from Brunel University in Middlesex, UK and a post graduate diploma from the Institute of Personnel Management.

Bayles is responsible for talent delivery and strategic recruiting programs for Halliburton, one of the world’s largest providers of products and services to the energy industry. He has led Halliburton’s global talent acquisition program since its inception in 2010, and he continues to oversee the growth of the program’s global capabilities. In 2011, his talent delivery team was responsible for hiring more than 17,000 new employees. The company has recruitment teams across the world, including Asia Pacific, Europe, Sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East, North Africa, Latin America and North America.

Bayles’ strategic programs team is responsible for a variety of global initiatives, such as employer branding, global media planning, testing and assessments, behavioral interviewing, and strategic educational partnerships.

Before joining Halliburton in 2009, Bayles worked for Starbucks Corporation, where he led the supply-chain recruiting team and worked abroad implementing and supporting the company’s Asia Pacific recruitment programs.

Chuck Kemper serves as Group Director and Vice President, Talent Management & Development at WorleyParsons.  Since taking this role in late 2011, his challenge has been to create a global common approach to talent management at WorleyParsons, a global engineering, procurement and construction management company of 39,000 employees in 43 countries.  This includes design and implementation of all system, processes, programs and tools for performance management, talent inventory and review, leadership development, technical development, and organizational development.

He previously served as Vice President of Human Resources for the US and Latin America Region of WorleyParsons servicing 7000 employees in 5 countries and Vice President of the Oil, Gas, Process & Energy division of Aker Solutions servicing 8000 employees in 8 countries.  

Chuck holds a BS in Civil and Environmental Engineering from Cornell University and an MBA from Xavier University where he was valedictorian.  He also holds professional certifications in HR, employment law, and benefits law.

Chuck grew up in Louisville, Kentucky.  He entered the EPC industry in 1992 and has worked in it continuously since.  He is based in Houston, Texas where he has lived the last 14 years.  He is married to Daphne and has four children, Hilary, Wilson, Henry and Charles. 

His industry and volunteer roles have included the Board of Directors of HR Houston, Steering Committee of the Houston EPC Salary Survey, The Principal’s Client Advisory Board, counselor for Operation Jobs, and Church Elder.

Cara Bartek, Ph.D. is Director of Employee Development at National Oilwell Varco. At National Oilwell Varco, Cara is responsible for providing career development and learning opportunities for 55,000 employees across the globe. During her time at National Oilwell Varco Cara has developed and deployed organizational development initiatives including competency-based performance and talent assessment, lead-men/supervisory development, management development, and executive education. She believes that when employees are empowered, trained and motivated, achieving business results is the easy part.

Cara is a proud wife and mother. Cara is married to Matt Bartek who is currently a graduate student at Texas A&M University studying plant breeding and genetics. Cara and Matt became proud parents on June 30, 2011 to Caroline Clair. The family enjoys sleeping for four hours at a time, playing with their two dogs Bob and Beetle, and walking!

Joined Chaparral Energy in July of 2011 with more than 25 years of Human Resources experience. She has held leadership positions with several Fortune 500 companies, including Sun Microsystems, AT&T Broadband and Cox Communications. Ms. Miller holds a BA in business administration and psychology from Baylor University and an MBA with an emphasis in organizational development from the University of Colorado at Denver. Ms. Miller has moderated the Senior Executive Human Resources Forum and founded the Senior Executive Women’s Networking Group. She partnered with Oklahoma City University to initiate and co-chair the Women in Leadership: Powerhouse Panel Discussion and co-founded the Senior Organizational Development Association of Oklahoma. Ms. Miller is a certified Senior Professional in Human Resources and is also on the Executive Advisory Council of the Oklahoma Business Ethics Consortium, a member of the Society for Human Resources Management and on the Board of the Oklahoma City YWCA.

A director for Occidental Petroleum Corporation (NYSE: Oxy), Laura Simzer is currently responsible for all aspects of Talent Acquisition Globally as well as Employee Organization & Development. Oxy is an international oil and gas exploration and production company — the third-largest in the U.S., based on equity market capitalization — and OxyChem, a major North American chemical manufacturer.

Laura is an industry veteran with more than 20 years of experience in Human Resources and Talent Acquisition across the Telecom, Information Technology and the Oil and Gas verticals. Simzer joined Oxy in 2008, where she successfully developed the company’s first global Talent Acquisition program for attracting all employee types (i.e. intern, new graduate, experienced), and on-boarding those employees.  In 2011, her responsibilities expanded to include the global Employee and Organization Development function for the company.

Before joining Oxy, Simzer worked for Entrust Inc., a small publicly traded Information Technology company in the software security space where she was Senior Director responsible for Human Resources Globally.

Position
Thomas R. Anderson is Vice President, Staffing and Recruiting. He was named to this position in October 2008. He is responsible for global staffing and recruiting activities and expatriate services, as well as P&L responsibilities for the Lutech Resources group of companies.

Experience
Tom has more than 30 years of experience in domestic and international operations, sales, and management. His previous role was Vice President, Global Marketing, a position he assumed when he joined CB&I in November 2007. Prior to joining CB&I, he served as Senior Vice President at NorthStar Communications Group, a subsidiary of BE&K, Vice President of Sales at Fluor, and President of TRS Staffing Solutions, a Fluor subsidiary.

Education
He holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration from California State University at Long Beach and an MBA from Pepperdine University, Malibu, CA.

Family
Tom resides in The Woodlands, Texas, with his wife, Judy, and his son and daughter.