Perspectives 22 - Unleashed

Ben is Executive Editor of FastCo Works overseeing all content programs for Fast Company's industry-leading studio. With over twenty years of experience in business journalism, Ben has covered the transformative shifts and the innovators driving them during his time at Fast Company, Forbes and CNN where he led teams of writers, editors, and producers to create award-winning storytelling around the globe.

Cari Bohley joined Peraton in January 2022 as the Vice President of Talent Management. In her role, she is responsible for learning and leadership development programs, performance management, skills, career development, culture and engagement, and succession planning.

While spending a few months in the financial sector just prior to joining Peraton, Cari has spent much of her career in the government services sector with organizations who support our nation’s most important missions, including SAIC, Engility, CGI and Robbins-Gioia. This has allowed her to develop and hone her skills across multiple HR functions including onboarding, leadership development, performance management, culture, employee engagement, merger and acquisition integration, HR compliance, and learning programs.

Cari holds a BA from Michigan State University in International Relations, an MBA from Wayne State University, and Project Management Professional (PMP) Certification.

Jen is responsible for executive development and executive coaching. She also is the owner of the Lenovo learning management system, Grow@Lenovo, for 40,000 learners. Jen has over 17 years of experience in the learning and development field, the last seven have been at Lenovo. She has worked in many industries including government, software, manufacturing, and retail. Jen’s passion is equipping fellow employees with the skills and knowledge they need to be more effective in their jobs therefore improving the overall organization culture. Working women and mothers are especially important to Jen. She founded and co-chaired Lenovo’s new mother’s group for 3.5 years and is an active board member of Women in Lenovo Leadership (WILL).

Jen has a MBA from The George Washington University and a bachelor’s degree in Journalism from the University of Wisconsin Madison.

Outside of work Jen enjoys spending time with her husband and two young daughters. She loves yoga and hiking.

LaJuan Bryan-Beveridge, affectionately known as LBB, began her role as Chief Learning Officer (CLO) for the Department of Commerce in June 2018.

In her 32 years of federal service, she has held many impactful roles within the federal sector. Throughout each of these roles she has helped to shape learning developmental programs as well as learning management systems and processes. Publicly servicing employee populations ranging from 1600 to over 50,000+ currently at Commerce. Her mission - increasing training and development opportunities for all.

LBB is an active member of the Federal Chief Learning Officers Council, and currently serves as the Chair for the council.

As a change agent, acts intentionally to build a shared vision with others, translating vision to action. LBB within her current and previous roles, continuously sets the dynamics and collaboratively leverages organizational strategic priorities. Her passion lies in the areas of human resources and training and development. LBB is committed to service excellence, providing much needed support to people within the Department and leads a talented group of professionals in the area of talent development.

Orla Daly is the Chief Information Officer at Skillsoft, where she brings her extensive experience delivering large transformation programs and leading IT & Digital organizational transformation through her passion for applying technology to solve business problems and accelerate business growth.

Orla held several IT and business roles at ExxonMobil, based in Europe, prior to joining EMC in Massachusetts, where she demonstrated a successful track record fostering strong business partnerships, evolving the IT operating model, and leading the company’s largest transformation program to enable Go-To-Market strategies.

As part of the Dell EMC merger, Orla led the IT Integration for Sales & Marketing, before heading up Dell’s global IT Marketing organization. Following Dell, Orla joined National Grid, with accountability for the technology strategy and delivery of IT programs and production operations for the US Customer organization. Most recently, she led IT & Digital Organizational Change Management and served as Chief of Staff for the Chief Information & Digital Officer.

Orla earned a B.A. in International Marketing with French and German from Dublin City University, Ireland, and an MSC in IT from Stirling University, Scotland. She currently lives outside Boston, where she likes to make the most of the New England outdoors with her husband and two daughters.

Norman is Vice President, Global Compliance Solutions for Skillsoft. He previously served as Vice President of eLearning Products and Services for GoTrain Corp, where he was also a co-founder. Before joining GoTrain, Norman was responsible for developing training requirements and procedures for Lockheed Martin Energy Systems and provided corporate subject matter expertise in Nuclear and HSE regulations.

Kevin Kelly leads Skillsoft’s Global Compliance Go-To-Market initiatives, including Legal Compliance, HR Compliance, and Workplace Safety. He has more than 20 years of experience delivering business transformation in the compliance, legal, digital, and SaaS markets.

Jessica Lee is SVP of Global Talent Development and has been with Marriott since 2012. Her role is critical to Marriott’s commitment to invest in developing our associates so that we can fuel both the performance of the business and that of our talent, enrich lives, and accelerate reinvention for the company. Jessica leads the organization’s global learning COE which delivers against learning and talent development needs for the 800,000 managed and franchised associates around the world who wear a Marriott badge. Her remit also includes Brand Talent which delivers service and culture solutions that help the individual brands in Marriott Bonvoy to each have unique brand identities and fulfill differentiated service propositions. Additionally, her accountabilities include The Ritz-Carlton Leadership Center which has helped thousands of clients to improve customer and employee engagement, innovate their culture, and differentiate themselves.

Jessica has more than 20 years of in-the-trenches HR experience that ranges from small companies to the public sector and now Marriott. She has touched nearly every HR function during her career making her a true generalist. Outside of her Marriott life, she continues to build her leadership capabilities serving as a Girl Scouts troop leader and cookie manager (those are real titles!). She is an alum of the University of Washington where she focused her studies on Political Science and Labor Studies.

Sara Ley is the Head of the Digital & Tech Practice with over 20 years’ experience delivering global solutions across Technology, Professional Services, Industrial, Aviation, Healthcare, Transportation, Energy and Finance Industries.

Most recently, Sara was the Sr Director, Digital Learning Strategist, for PwC. She was accountable for leading the learning strategy for PwC’s digital transformation New World, New Skills, inclusive of learning applications and immersive training programs for staff and Partners to develop storytelling, data analysis, visualization and automation skills that enabled a more diverse, tech-skilled workforce and supported creating groundbreaking digital solutions for clients.

Prior to joining PwC, Sara was the Digital Learning and Technology Leader for General Electric’s Crotonville Learning and Development Organization. She was responsible for leading GE’s digital learning strategy and on-going development of award-winning, social learning platform, BrilliantYOU™ (GE’s Digital University).

Previously in GE, Sara established and managed technical and leadership development for IT employees, she led the curriculum, partner management and content development for GE digital learning, and developed competency frameworks for functions supporting skills development. Sara also was the Capital business Chief Learning Officer responsible for leadership development and culture during transformation of the business.

Prior to GE, Sara held positions at UBS and HP in consulting roles where she led transformational change initiatives, facilitated executive integration workshops and managed large-scale development projects.

Sara is an eminent speaker at various conferences, including SXSW, IMPACT, Masie, and CLO Symposium, and has received three Brandon Hall Award Gold Awards and Excellence Award by ATD.

Sara is a graduate of Florida State University, with a M.S. in Instructional System Design and B.S. in Communication for Business. She serves on the board for the United Way of Northeast Florida, Pine

Castle Inc. and is an active volunteer in her community. Sara lives in Jacksonville, FL with her two sons, is an Assistant Cub Master in Scouting and is a licensed private pilot.

Rashim is responsible for driving innovation and growth in her role as Customer Market Leader, Leadership and Business Solutions. Her role concentrates on leading the content, platform, customer success, sales, and marketing teams to deliver compelling experiences to our customers.

Rashim is a prominent woman in tech evangelist and a frequent speaker at global conferences. Her thoughts on leadership, innovation, women in technology, and enablement strategies have appeared in publications like Forbes, Association for Talent Development (ATD), and Thrive Global.

Prior to Skillsoft, Rashim held leadership roles at companies like VMware, Amazon Web Services, Oracle and Automation Anywhere, where she built high-performing teams and launched innovative solutions to support over $2 billion businesses. Recognized by Business Chief USA as a woman to watch, Rashim is an industry influencer, a thought leader, and a best-selling author. She is also a recipient of Women Empowerment: Game Changer, Woman of the Year, Women Tech, and Silicon Valley Woman of Influence awards and was inducted in Alameda county hall of fame in 2020.

Tanya M. Pang is Senior Manager, Integrated Learning Solutions, for Lockheed Martin Corporation. She is responsible for leading teams to design and develop strategic learning and career development solutions for over 110,000 employees.

As co-lead of LM’s Learning & Development Council, Tanya is responsible for driving learning strategy and governance across the enterprise. She is also the Corporate Functional Lead for LM’s overall learning and development technology stack, to include learning and career management systems Atlas Learning and Atlas Career.

Tanya joined Lockheed Martin in 2009 and has held positions of increasing responsibility in performance consulting, instructional design, and learning leadership. Prior to joining Lockheed Martin, Tanya was Associate Director, Learning & Organizational Development at Kadix Systems, where she managed a portfolio of learning and organizational development programs for the USDA, DHS, DoJ, and DoD. Over the course of her career, Tanya has led the design, development, and deployment of thousands of hours of training in a variety of delivery modes and media.

Tanya holds a Master of Human Resource Development and Bachelor of Arts degree in Japanese Language and International Trade, both from Clemson University. She is also a certified Project Management Professional (PMP). Tanya is recognized externally for thought leadership in performance consulting, instructional design, and learning technology, and has served as faculty for Elliot Masie’s Learning conferences. In 2012, Tanya received Training Magazine’s Top Young Trainer award. For her leadership supporting strategic company initiatives, Tanya received Lockheed Martin’s HR Excellence Award in 2016 and 2018, and was honored with Lockheed Martin’s highest award, NOVA, in 2016 and 2020.

As Skillsoft’s Chief Technology Officer, AP is responsible for engineering, product management, cloud operations and IT across all products in the Skillsoft group of companies, a role he has held since 2016.

AP has extensive experience supporting rapidly growing technology companies, including as General Manager and SVP of SaaS at SevOne, where he was responsible for the on-demand / SaaS business segment. He previously served as Group President at ACI Worldwide and as Director of Software at IBM.

AP holds a Ph.D. in Computer Science from Duke University, Masters of Science in Computer Science from Washington State University and a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science from Jadavpur University in India.

Gretchen Ringer, Director of Learning & Development at Leidos. Gretchen has over 25 years of experience in Human Resources in Technology companies. Her experience includes Strategic HR Business Partnership positions, generalist positions (both compensation and benefits), increases levels of leadership positions, organizational change management and the last 8 years focused on Talent Development with 5 years leading the Learning & Development function. In Gretchen’s current role, she has defined the enterprise Learning strategy and implemented the strategy to action. She plays a critical role in transforming the way we design Learning & Development programs, how we create, curate and deliver development experiences and how we use modern methods to deliver these experiences which includes defining and implementing the career development and onboarding experience for the enterprise.

Brianna Russ currently serves in the Department of Defense (DoD) as the Resource Advocate Strategic Advisor, Air Force Materiel Command (AFMC) Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility (DEIA) at Wright-Patterson AFB, OH. Russ functions as a Resource Advocate for the AF’s largest command that executes a $60 billion annual budget and a workforce of approximately 89,000 military/civilian personnel located at 117 distinct locations around the world. The AFMC DEIA office directly provides strategic advisement to a staff of 103 Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility professionals across nine national sites to ensure Equal Opportunity (EO)/Diversity program/policy compliance for AFMC. Russ’s area of expertise is on LGBTQ+ inclusion. Russ sits on both the Department of the Air Force and the AFMC LGBTQ Initiatives Team as well as working groups specifically targeting gender identity inclusion.

Brianna Russ was born in Dayton, Ohio around the Wright-Patterson AFB area. Russ has a Bachelor of Science in Business Management from Wright State University and a Master of Science degree in Human Resource Management from the University of Southern California. Brianna Russ started working as a civil servant in 2019 as a Financial Manager Pathways Intern for the Small Business Innovative Research Center of Excellence in the Air Force Research Lab located at Wright-Patterson AFB. Upon graduating from undergrad in 2020, Brianna started as a Palace Acquire Intern with AFMC/A1D. In this role, Russ was fundamental in navigating the transition of training courses such as the Squadron Leader Orientation as they moved to an online platform due to COVID-19.

Katina Sawyer, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor of Management and Organizations in the Eller College of Management at the University of Arizona. Her areas of expertise include diversity, work-life balance, leadership, and positive workplace behaviors.

Over the years, Dr. Sawyer has published numerous peer–reviewed articles and book chapters about diversity, leadership, work-life balance, and positive organizational phenomena. Her work has been published in premier academic journals, including the Journal of Applied Psychology and Administrative Science Quarterly, as well as in practitioner-oriented journals, such as the Harvard Business Review. Her research has also been awarded grant funding, including from the National Science Foundation. Additionally, she is the co-founder of a company that aims to bring the science of workplace wellness to employees everywhere, Workr Beeing.

Dr. Sawyer holds a dual-Ph.D. in Industrial/Organizational Psychology and Women’s Studies from the Pennsylvania State University. She received her B.A. in Psychology from Villanova University.

As Chief People Officer at Monumental Sports & Entertainment, Kelly Skoloda leads the organization’s effort to reward, recognize, develop and delight our employees. From recruiting incredible talent, providing best-in-class health and welfare programs, developing new opportunities for employees to serve the local Washington, D.C., community to partnering with our diverse staff of part- and full-time employees to deliver first-class guest experiences, People & Culture strives to continually improve our processes and exceed expectations. Prior to joining Monumental Sports & Entertainment, Skolodaadvised litigation clients as an attorney at Akin, Gump, Straus, Hauer & Feld LLP and was an employment litigator and assistant general counsel at America Online Inc.

A global technology executive with extensive strategy and growth experience, Eric joined Skillsoft as Chief Revenue Officer in 2021.

He previously served as Chief of Staff for the President of Global Sales, Services and Customer Engagement at SAP, where he supported global go-to-market strategy and operations. Prior to that, he was Chief Revenue Officer at Qualtrics and Chief Innovation Officer for SAP America.

Earlier in his career, Eric held positions of increasing seniority at SAP, Ciber, Virtustream and Blackboard.

Eric is a member of the Dean’s Advisory Board at Boston University School of Law and founder of the Eric & Neil Stine-Markman Scholarship, the first permanent endowment to dedicate scholarship funds to the LGBTQ+ community. He also plays active board and fundraising roles for Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS, Yale Pediatrics and Northwestern University.

Eric holds a Juris Doctorate from the Boston University School of Law and Bachelors of Arts in Political Science and History from Northwestern University.

Mr. Keith W. Tickle currently serves in the Department of Defense (DoD) as Chief, Air Force Materiel Command (AFMC) Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility (DEIA) at Wright-Patterson AFB, OH. Mr. Tickle functions as principal DEIA Officer for the AF’s largest command that executes a $60 billion annual budget and a workforce of approximately 89,000 military/civilian personnel located at 117 distinct locations around the world. He directly provides strategic advisement to a staff of 103 Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility professionals across nine national sites to ensure Equal Opportunity (EO)/Diversity program/policy compliance for AFMC. His DEIA aptitude and application of key principles is routinely requested from DoD officials.

Mr. Tickle was born in Sierra Madre, California and is currently a Doctoral Candidate at Liberty University with his dissertation garnering AF notoriety as it investigates AF barriers to accepting DEIA principles. He received his Masters of Science in Human Resource Management from Troy State University 2003 and served twenty-three years navigating through the enlisted ranks and into an Air Force Officer Corp in 2001. During his Air Force career he facilitated many positions which culminated with his duties as the Wright-Patterson Air Force Base Equal Opportunity Manager. In this role, he directed the preparation and distribution of Equal Opportunity information to educate the installation on Equal Opportunity federal statutes, training and advancement of non-discriminatory treatment of employees. Upon retiring in 2011 from the United States Air Force, Mr. Tickle was realigned into a Diversity Manager for Wright-Patterson Air Force Base as a civil servant before moving to his current MAJCOM position.

Matt Waesche has been a HR professional and leader for over 20 years, ending a 22 year career in the Navy as an HR Officer, and the last 14 years with BAE Systems.

His professional roots started in the skilled trades as a Navy Aviation Machinist, whereby taking advantage of the Navy’s development programs he earned his Bachelor of Arts at San Diego State University, and was subsequently commissioned to the officer ranks. Through his Navy career he earned the designation as a Naval Aviator, and operationally served as a Helicopter Aircraft Commander and Functional Check Pilot, also highlighted by leadership positions of Maintenance Officer, Communications Officer, and Squadron Quality Assurance Officer. Upon completion of his Masters of Science in Leadership and Human Resource Development (2001-2002), he immediately put that knowledge to work serving as a Professional Learning and Leadership Development Master Instructor at the US Naval Academy. In 2004 Matt laterally transferred to become a HR Officer where he served as a Workforce Strength Analyst/Planner and an Officer in Charge of the Personnel Support Detachment at NAS Jacksonville, where he retired from active service in 2008.

Matt started with BAE Systems Ship Repair at their shipyard in Jacksonville, Florida, rising to HR Manager. In 2012 he moved to HR Shared Services as a Leadership Development Manager, HR Capabilities Manager, and Talent Manager working in the Talent Solutions Center of Expertise. In 2016 he returned to Ship Repair where he rose to the Director of HR supporting 5 shipyards (Norfolk, Jacksonville, Mobile, San Diego, Pearl Harbor) executing both government and commercial Maintenance, Repair, Overhaul, and Conversions (MROC). In 2020, to gain new business area experience, he laterally transferred to be the Director of HR in the Intelligence and Security sector supporting both the Air and Space Force Solutions (ASFS) business area and the Corporate Infrastructure Senior Leadership Team.

Matt has served in other leadership positions in the manufacturing and services communities, having held positions representing BAE Systems as the Chairman of the Workforce Development Committee and on the Board of Directors for the First Coast Manufactures Association (FCMA), along with advisory positions on various workforce training and development initiatives.

When not working, Matt can be found enjoying the outdoor lifestyle with his wife Casey and family, residing in Falls Church, Virginia.