Dr. Mary Ritz

Dr. Mary Ritz is in the business of empowering, educating, and encouraging people to reach their maximum potential. Her passion is to help people see the best in themselves and develop and harness their skills to effect positive change in their lives, organizations, communities, and families. She is a dynamic trainer, facilitator, and consultant with repeated success guiding leadership and team development, and customer management strategy for diverse organizations.

Dr. Ritz is the Owner and Founder of Almenta International, a training and consulting organization founded in 2008 in Johannesburg, South Africa. She moved to the US in January 2014, where she re-established the same business model and company. She is a Maxwell certified Teacher, Speaker, and Coach. She holds an undergraduate degree in Marketing, an MBA in International Business, and a PhD in Business focusing on Customer Centricity from Da Vinci Institute of Technology, Johannesburg South Africa. She is the author of Customer Centricity: Creating a Sense Making Framework for Developing Economies.She believes that for businesses to remain profitable and relevant, the customer must become the focal point of their strategies, henceforth her work in helping organizations become more customer centric. However, when all is considered, it becomes apparent that “people” (Teams & Leadership) are responsible for driving towards customer centricity and business in general. Consequently, Dr. Ritz has strategically adopted a systemic view by bringing the three human elements in the business mix: Customer Management, Leadership Development, and Team Development for business performance.

Her areas of expertise include:

Dr. Motshedisi Mathibe

BDr. Mathibe is a Lecturer and Researcher at GIBS Business School, in South Africa, and Education Specialist, and SME consultant who seeks to continue to advise businesses, incubation programs, and education institutions of the most constructive methods of educated future and current talent for maximum profile in the organization. Her focus areas include helping businesses find government support and market access, Strategic Marketing and Customer Centricity, and developing Marketing Strategies for multinational enterprises.

Tim Fulton

Tim is the owner and founder of Small Business Matters, a consulting firm that specializes in helping growth-minded small business owners reach their highest level of success. Every element of his work is dedicated to that purpose. He was a Vistage Chair to some of the most successful CEOs in Atlanta for over sixteen years and launched the Small Business Matters Conference, which has become an all-star, exclusive gathering that attracts some of the best small business owners in the state. He has also developed the GrowSmart training program for the state of Georgia and has trained over 3, 000 small business owners in fifteen different states. Tim has an award-winning Small Business Matters newsletter, he has self-published three different books including most recently the book titled “The Meeting”, and co-hosts a popular podcast for small business leaders.

Mike Wittenstein

Mike is the owner of Storyminers, a company he founded two decades ago that enables leaders to craft and harness the power of compelling narratives, allowing them to transform their vision and strategies into tangible and impactful front-line experiences. He is known for understanding his clients’ needs quickly, collaborating with diverse stakeholders, and effectively ideating with executives and their teams. He is a seasoned strategist, proven customer experience guru, and innovator who can effectively listen, understand, and align executives’ aspirations with the company’s overall vision. Mike excels and at articulating the essence of a business or brand, identifying an overarching strategy that will bring about positive change, and using story and experience design to express it easily for faster adoption.

Dr. Doris Miculan Bradley

Doris Miculan Bradley is a Professor and Program Coordinator at the School of Hospitality at George Brown College in Toronto, Canada. She has a history of working in the higher education industry specializing in program and curriculum development. She has a diverse educational background and is skilled in Event Management and Not-for-Profit Charitable Fundraising, Management, Leadership, Social Media Development, and Adult Education. She is an experienced author, wine journalist, wine judge, and chef. He career includes Restaurateur of Canada’s Nationaal Monument the CN Tower’s 360 Revolving Restaurant, Certified Chef, Five Level Certified Sommelier, Brand Ambassador for the Wines of Vinho Verde Portugal. Her current research based on Canadian Sparkling Wine has been published in academic journals in Canada and Europe.

Dr. Maria Green

Dr. Green is an HR leader, Certified Diversity Processional and Consultant and also works at the Human Resources Director at Melwood. She is also an Adjunct Professor at University of Maryland, Global Campus. As human resource leader, she has over 15 years of experience partnering with her clients to meet strategic goals and objectives, process improvement, total rewards management and workforce engagement via key program and communication development. Human Resources leader with over 15 years of experience partnering to meet strategic goals and objectives, process improvement, total rewards management and workforce engagement via key program and communication development. Dr. Green teaches hybrid and online Human Resources courses including organizational communication, training and development, and human resources management. Develops instructional materials and presentations.

Gary Cokins

Gary is the Founder and CEO of Analytics-Based Performance Management LLC; and is an Expert in ABC(Activity-Based Cost Management), EPM(Enterprise performance Management) Profit Analysis, Budget, Analytics and Balance Scorecard. He spent the first ten years of his career as a financial controller and operations manager, and then fifteen years as a management consultant (Deloitte, KPMG, and EDS). He then spent another sixteen years with SAS, the prominent business analytics and intelligence software vendor, and has become internationally recognized as an expert speaker, author, and consultant in the "enterprise performance management (EPM)" and business analytics methods and systems.

Donald Lamar

With over 20 years of practical executive and entrepreneurial leadership, Donald Lamar brings a wealth of experience to organizations, businesses, and institutions by teaching, coaching and guiding them to reach goals and other key measure of success leveraging a unique combination of technical and strategic abilities. He is a service delivery consultant, business development consultant, and business intelligence consultant skilled at guiding companies and organizations to define and reach goals and other key measures of success by leveraging a unique combination of technical and strategic abilities. Prior to joining UGA SBDC at Morehouse College, Donald co-founded Drayton, Drayton & Lamar Inc., as well as owned, managed, and operated businesses in the technology, restaurant and management consulting industries. In addition, Mr. Lamar has worked as a senior business consultant for countless small business across the nation, applying his knowledge of industry specializations in government contracting, systems integration and general business management.

Dr. Shatrela Washington-Hubbard

Dr. Shatrela Washington-Hubbard is the Swinton A. Griffith III Dean at College of Business & Communication, Brenau University in Gainesville, GA. Previously, Dr. Shatrela Washington worked as a Board member/Executive Director of Community Engagement & Partnerships, and Program Director and Assistant Professor of Human Resources, and Business Faculty & Director of the Center for Entrepreneurship and Business Development, and Business Education Teacher, and Human Resources Generalist.

Dan McDade

Dan is the Founder of Prospect-Experience, a firm that helps organizations improve how they prospect. He has over 30 years experience in B2B lead generation, qualification, and nurturing to work for you. Prospect-Experience’s 12-Point Prospect-Experience Transformation helps clients understand what they are doing well—and what they could do better. Then they work with their clients to create a perfect prospect experience that will result in more closed business. Dan’s specialties include Account-based marketing, sales lead management, direct response marketing, qualified sales lead generation, market segmentation, direct marketing strategy, lead nurturing, lead farming, lead generation, business development services, qualified leads, lead management, database marketing services, appointment setting, ROI improvement, direct marketing, sales & marketing consulting and marketing automation validation and calibration.

Wayne Hauenstein

Wayne Hauenstein is the founder of Learning Curve Consultants with over 20 years of expertise in the areas of Large-Scale Training Curriculum Design and Implementation, Talent Development, Coaching and Development Planning. Helps organizations maximize talent by identifying, building and implementing innovative, cost-effective solutions. He has worked in various organizations where he focused on developing relationships, creating learning cultures, and worked on projects that include introducing high potential programs, revamping new hire orientation, building risk management and compliance eLearning series and managing the creating of numerous customized curricula for both professionals and management.

Dr. Meiya Nthoesane

Dr. Meiya Nthoesane is the Founder and Executive Director of Financeium School of Business in South Africa. He is a passionate, determined, goal–driven and dynamic leader who continually inspires others to achieve optimal results. He has gained invaluable experience at various operational and executive levels and believes that anyone can achieve anything they set their mind to. A strategist and visionary who is able to build and implement complex business strategies with a proven track record explicitly supporting business needs. Dr. Meiya is highly focused with a consistent record of accomplishment for successfully delivering full lifecycle implementations to tight time scales. He has a specialized ability to design tools for greater efficiency and profitability and has earned reputation as a practical ‘Fixer’ with unique ability to solve large-scale problems.

Dr. Muhammad Jawad

Dr. Jawad is an Assistant Professor at Fatima Jinnah Women University Rawalpindi in Pakistan. His area of specialization is Leadership and Management Sciences, Finance, Financial Economics and International Economics. Previously, he performed his duties as Post-Doctoral Research Fellow in University of York, UK for two years. He worked as Associate Dean at University of Lahore. He did his PhD in leadership and Management Studies from National Defence University, Pakistan. Dr. Jawad has 50 national and international publications in world renowned journals. He is an associate editor and editorial member of several ESCI and SSCI journals representing his university in national and international conferences & workshops. Dr. Jawad is also a member of the Business Plan Committee, Research Steering Committee, Quality Assurance and Ranking Committee and CPEC: Consortium of Universities.

Dr. Rohit Kanda

Dr. Rohit Kanda is presently a senior management faculty at Savitribai Phule Pune University. He was a Visiting Professor of Business Administration at UNY Faculty of Economics and a UGC Funded Senior Research Fellow (India) for his research on Indian Postal Services, post being an alumnus of Punjab Institute of Management and MDU Rohtak, and securing a PhD in Management from FMS-PAHERU Udaipur, India. Prior, he has named as a Project Co-Investigator at the University Business School, Chandigarh and a Senior Faculty Member in Management at Indus School of Business Management, Indus International University (India) notably. In industry, he has taken many managerial and advisory positions, with lastly serving as Executive Director at NFSS Punjab. He has a vast industry and research experience with linkages in all across globe. Having around 100 research works compiled [published / presented] across globe in institutions of repute, including Houston, Boston and Cambridge, to name a few. With his vast research expertise, he is all time marching towards excellence.

Katie King

Katie King is a published Author, Keynote Speaker and Consultant on Artificial Intelligence (AI), digital, STEM, leadership and business transformation. She has over 30 years of consulting experience and has advised many of the world's leading brands and business leaders, including Virgin, Harrods, Rolls-Royce, o2 and more. She was voted a ‘Top 20 woman in AI’, She is the author of 'Using Artificial Intelligence in Marketing: How to Harness AI and Maintain the Competitive Edge,' was translated into Russian, Chinese, Vietnamese & other languages. It was also listed as a reference source in the 'Brand Strategy' section of the World Economic Forum's. Her second book, 'AI Strategy for Sales and Marketing: Connecting Marketing, Sales and Customer Experience,' was published by Kogan Page in January 2022.

Alec Dalton

Alec Dalton is Co-Founder and Managing Partner of the Hospitality Leadership Academy and simultaneously serves as Director of Operations for Accelerate Learning Systems. He also serves on the Boards of the Customer Institute and HorizonCX and he judges several Customer Experience programs. His passion for exceptional guest experiences fuels Alec Dalton’s leadership in hospitality and customer experience management. From hotels to headquarters, his background ranges from operating five luxury properties to holding various corporate positions with industry pioneers like Marriott International, The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company, and Walt Disney Parks & Resorts. He is a frequently-sought speaker on customer experience and quality strategy, and a co-author of several international best-selling books.

Professor Erdogan Koc

Professor Erdogan Koc is a Professor of Behavioral Sciences / Consumer Behaviour & Marketing Management at Bahcesehir University, in Instanbul, Turkey. He received his BA in Communication Studies from the University of Istanbul, MBA from the Cardiff Business School, and Ph.D. from Oxford Brookes University in Business and Management. He has extensively published in top-tier journals such as Tourism Management, International Journal of Human Resource Management, Journal of Travel and Tourism Marketing, International Journal of Intercultural Relations, Journal of Hospitality Marketing and Management, among others, and serves on the editorial boards of several high-ranking journals and acts as a referee for top-tier journals. He has published two international books in the area of tourism and hospitality. As well as his research and academic experience, he provides training to a wide range of businesses and has management experience of reputable brands.

Dr. Sergio Moreno

Dr. Sergio Moreno is specialist in tourism marketing and destination development and planning. He is a professor, international speaker, researcher, and he is passionate about tourism. He is also the Director of Institutional Relations UNESCO Chair of Tourism Planning and Sustainable Development. ULPGC and Director of marketing and destination development at TIDES Tourism and Sustainable Development Institute. In the past, he has worked for the Canarian Government as Deputy Minister of Tourism; Hilton Hotels in Germany, TUI Group Spain, in the quality department, and as a visiting researcher at World Tourism Research Centre (UoC – Canada). He has written more than 20 books and book chapters, 75 international papers (Annals of Tourism Research, Tourism Management, Journal of Travel Research, International Journal of Tourism Research, Tourism Economics, Journal of Vacation Marketing, International Journal of Hospitality and Leisure Marketing, etc.), and has been invited regularly to talk conferences and seminars in different universities, institutions and companies in more than 30 countries in the world. He is directing several research projects: Euro-emotur, EmoturLab, on neurotourism and tourism marketing and sustainable tourism.

Professor Avadhanam Ramesh

Professor Ramesh is a Professor at VIgnana Jyothi institute of Management in Hyderabad, Telangana, India. He has over 25 years of academic experience, and has taught several subjects in the area of Marketing. As a visiting faculty he taught Strategic Marketing at IMT Hyderabad and has written case studies published by Ivey, and Emerald and authored two research papers published in Scopus-indexed research journals. A resourceful person for management development programs, for the senior management cadre in the area of customer engagement and customer experience.

Scott Wozniak

Scott Wozniak is the CEO of Swoz Consulting that helps leader build legendary brands and organizations. He is also a speaker, coach, and published author. Scott earned multiple leadership coach certifications and a master’s degree in Organizational Leadership. Since then, he has spoken for and consulted with leaders on six continents, and have worked with multi-billion-dollar companies, city governments, churches, tech start-ups, and Ivy League universities. One of Scott’s most transformational experiences was the eight year stint he spent as a leader at the Chick-fil-A headquarters. He was an "Organizational Effectiveness Consultant" and worked on projects across the company, from rolling out lean manufacturing to storytelling in marketing to custom leadership development programs with Harvard and Duke. He continues to work and consult with leaders and speak at Chick-fil-A events today.

Akhona C. Bashe

Akhona Bashe is the Head: Fintech Integration at Liberty Group in Johannesburg, South AfricaHead: Fintech Integration. Her areas of expertise include Digital Innovation, Payments, Partnerships, Fintech, Data and Ecosystem Enablement. Akhona is a problem solver, critical thinker, activator, collaborator, and executor who has helps organizations leverage technology and partnerships to enhance value propositions and experiences of all stakeholders involved. She graduated from University of Cape Town in South Africa with a Bachelor of Social Sciences, Political Sciences, Public Policy and Administration and Economics. She also earned her MBA in Strategy and Entrepreneurship from Gordon Institute of Business Science in South Africa.

Erryca Robicheaux

Erryca Robicheauz is a DEI Architect and Senior Account Executive at Mathison an all-inclusive technology for diversity hiring and retention. Erryca is passionate about Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging in all aspects of business, both inside and outside the organizations. She helps her clients understand that true Equity and Inclusion can only be achieved by designing equitable and inclusive systems internally (for Attracting, Sourcing, Onboarding, and Advancing employees), and equitable and inclusive goods and services externally. Erryca earned her Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology with a focus in Industrial-Organizational Psychology from Louisiana State University

Jennifer Koon

Jennifer Koon is the Owner and Founder of Michael Mackenzie Communications and a Marketing Communications Professional with more than 20 years corporate and agency-side experience with firms big and small. She currently develops and manages marketing and public relations programs for growing technology firms and professional service providers. Her clients include Managed IT solution providers, application developers, law firms, CPA firms, HR firms, manufacturing industry consultancies and other service organizations with complex sales. Jennifer’s areas of focus include Marketing Strategy, Public Relations, Media Relations, Community Relations, Public Speaking, Direct Marketing, E-Mail Marketing, Content Marketing, Event Marketing, Social Media Marketing, Website Development, Website Content, SEO.

Bill Mastin

Bill is the Chief Revenue Officer responsible for global sales of Topia solutions and the teams that deliver services to Topia customers. Prior to Topia, Bill was the EVP of Sales, Account Management and Alliances at PeopleFluent, a SaaS provider that global enterprises use for their talent acquisition, talent management, and learning platforms. Additionally, Bill has held several leadership positions over 20+ years in the talent & learning space that includes NetDimensions, Saba, and IBM Global Services. His expertise include Merger and Acquisitions, Organizational Structuring, Product Design, Account Management and Renewals, Outsourcing, Recruiting, Staffing Initiatives and Team Building and Scaling.

Theo Gilbert-Jamison

Theo Gilbert-Jamison is the author of the book, The Six Principles of Service Excellence. She is also CEO of Performance Solutions by Design, an elite performance consulting firm that caters to luxury and premium brands with an emphasis on creating the ultimate customer experience. As the creative force behind the innovative concepts and methodologies utilized by Performance Solutions by Design, Theo is a highly sought after speaker and consultant to senior executives in high profile organizations. Under her leadership, Performance Solutions by Design assists organizations, great and small, in driving and sustaining a culture of service, performance, and operational excellence. Prior to launching Performance Solutions by Design in 2003, Theo was Vice President of Training & Organizational Effectiveness for The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company, LLC. Her specialties including working with luxury and premium brands in the following industries: Hospitality, Healthcare, Banking/Financial Services, Legal Services, Private Clubs, Education, Private Residences & Condominiums, Food & Beverage.

Katherine Brune, SHRM-SCP

Katherine is an HR Consultant, Coach, Owner and Principal at WorksSprout, LLC. She has spent over 15 years working in the human resource space for some of America’s most admired companies, fulfilling her personal goal to help others thrive. WorkSprout was founded on the belief that great ideas can take root – and sprout - when companies and their people work together. Katherine is passionate about working and partnering with companies to accelerate their cultures of care and well-being. She loves supporting people, and the (HR) programs around them, so that they can deliver on the mission and profitability of the company. In addition, she is an executive coach and teaches career development at Georgia Institute of Technology.

Dustin Portillo

Dustin Portillo is a Public Relations Executive, corporate leader and influencer with a heart for culture and community. He is a dynamic brand ambassador known for bridging gaps between communities and companies by building lasting relationships. Dustin specializes in creating and executing life-changing, positive initiatives that improve the quality of life for those in the community. His work within an organization reflects his true passion for cultivating relationships and making those feel valued and important. Dustin’s work in the community demonstrates how much he cares about those who are being positively impacted by outreach programs.