Conference Session Speakers

Scott Aicher
Chief Operating Officer, RGBSI

Scott A Aicher, a passionate staffing/IT solutions veteran of over 25 years has been a successful Entrepreneur, Industry Speaker and Executive Leader with some of the industry’s most respected Public/Private global firms. Mr. Aicher has been bringing his open book style and relatable insights to TSA for years and serves as the Vice President Elect of TechServe Alliance’s National Board. A frequent speaker at TSA, Scott leverages his experiences within each business stage (Start-Up to Sale, Small to Mid, Mid to Large, and Large Global Enterprise) providing a form that is both interactive and engaging to all regardless of size of organization. Currently Mr. Aicher is the Chief Operating Officer of UpGlide/RGBSI, a large private global Software/Staffing/Solutions firm based in Troy, Michigan. In addition to UpGlide/RGBSI, Scott has been and executive leader with such public companies as Mastech, Hudson, Volt, ARC, Syntel, etc… along with regional/global respected private companies.

Barbara Bruno
CEO, Good as Gold Training, Inc

Barb is internationally recognized as one of the top experts in the Staffing, Recruiting and Sales Professions. She was selected by LinkedIn Learning after their content managers viewed her platform skills and she has created fourteen recruiting courses which have been approved for their Enterprise clients continuing education curriculum.In these courses Barb strongly promotes the utilization of contract staffing services to LinkedIn’s large Enterprise Clients.

 Barb was instrumental in helping design TSA’s Certification Program, wrote the best practices Study Guide and Industry Practices and conducts prep training that covers critical knowledge points of the exam. She was able to promote the TSA Certification Program in several of the courses she created for LinkedIn Learning.

Barb has developed web-based training programs that are distributed in several countries and her Top Producer Tutor clients have increased efficiency and profits. She just launched the following new Tutor training programs: Add Direct Hire for Owners/Managers and Outside Sales Tutor for the Contract Staffing Profession.

Barb has developed a web-based Career Portal which puts 90 minutes back in the day for most Recruiters and improves the Candidate Experience. Career Portal owners assist 100% of candidates they attract by either placing them or referring them to their customized Career Portal. Over 500 Contract Staffing Firms worldwide are now offering this Career Portal to candidates they don’t place and are enjoying increased referrals, positive social media posts,and passive income! They’ve also increased sales and profits because their recruiters are focused on the 5% candidates they will place!

Barb has also held many leadership roles including: Indiana State President for IAPC, Illinois State President of IAPC and Chairman of the Board of the National Association of Personnel Services. She is the recipient of the Lincoln Award, Harold B. Nelson Award, Woman of Merit Award and was inducted in NAPS Hall of Fame.

Barb’s web-based Tutors, in-house training sessions and Executive Consulting have increased sales and profits for 100% of her clients, including many TSA members.

Rick Carlson
Founder/President, Harvyst Consulting Partners

Rick Carlson has been selling, managing, and training sales, recruiting and management teams for more than 30 years. The past 20 have been spent in the staffing world. Rick has held various senior level positions at Modis, Kforce, and Corestaff Services Group. In each organization, Rick has been tasked with revitalizing struggling offices, regions, and divisions. His hands on approach to ensuring that team members are properly trained and adequately challenged have been the catalyst to his team’s successes. Rick is the owner and founder of Harvyst Consulting Partners, a company that customizes growth solutions specifically for staffing organizations and the Director of the TechServe Sales Management Program.

Lance Cooper
President, SalesManage Solutions

IT and Engineering Staffing CEOs love the people business they begin. They want to serve companies, be profitable and grow a great culture. To do that they must hire people who can sell.

But they face these hindrances: Their own pressures and tendencies to hire people they like, a candidate’s impression management, and the difficulty of finding good salespeople in a full employment economy and changing social conditions. Coaching people who have poor character and are unmotivated.

They experience the frustrations of hiring people who can’t sell and will not work hard, the tensions of inconsistent cash flow from too few placements and too few placement orders, and the loss of opportunities and profits when people quit and have to be replaced.

Lance and his team at SalesManage Solutions will help you change this. For the last thirty years, as President of SalesManage Solutions (SMS), and author of Selling Beyond Survival and co-author of Can They Sell, Lance has helped thousands of sales leaders develop great sales cultures. Certified experts for the SMS Recruit the Best!™ and Coach the Best!™ Systems have learned step-by-step proven researched and scientific methods that teach them how to: hire character first and know and select who can sell.

And then make use of the best way to coach the new salesperson while building an organization of high character individuals: honest, hard-working, responsible and concerned about others - one that attracts additional motivated people and continues consistent revenue growth into the future.

Claudette Cunitz
Staffing Industry Consultant, CC Advisors Group, LLC

Claudette brings a rare combination of successful staffing firm ownership, sales acumen, and operations excellence to her clients. Over the course of Claudette’s career, she has a proven track record of improving sales by growing the bottom line, managing operational standards, and finding efficiency opportunities. By continually improving her own firm for the changing demands placed on staffing, she is an expert in assisting owners and leaders in change management.

Additionally, Claudette served as a board member and officer of the American Staffing Association national board of directors for 12 years. She is ASA certified in both CSP and TSC.

Alison Daley
Founder & CEO, Recruiting Innovation

Alison Daley is the Founder & CEO of Recruiting Innovation, the online certification platform for technical recruiters. She is a national speaker, moderator, training facilitator and thought leader on tech recruitment. Alison combines her decade in international recruitment with her experience as a UX Researcher to incorporate the framework of product design into the recruiting process. She is on a mission to help recruiters and sales teams to ‘Talk Tech’.

Anna Frazzetto
CDTO and President of Technology Solutions, Harvey Nash

As Chief Digital Technology Officer and President of Technology Solutions, Anna Frazzetto leads the global technology division of Harvey Nash Inc. Focused on helping businesses expand their digital capabilities and technology resources in areas like data analytics, Cloud, social and mobile technology, Frazzetto is Harvey Nash Inc.’s chief IT solutions and outsourcing strategist. She works closely with teams around the globe and with Harvey Nash’s dedicated offshore development centers to deliver tech innovations for organizations across various industries, including: banking, insurance, healthcare, retail technology and media.

In addition to speaking globally on digital innovation and IT strategy, Frazzetto is a tireless advocate of workplace diversity and the advancement of women in technology. She currently serves as the National Chair of ARA, an organization aspiring to Attract, Retain and Advance women in IT.

Eric Gregg
Founder, ClearlyRated

Eric Gregg, founder of ClearlyRated, brings his expertise in marketing and quantitative analysis to top professional service organizations. Eric is also a professor of marketing, a published author in the field of marketing, client loyalty and employee satisfaction, as well as client and job candidate research and consulting.

Mike Hammond
Senior Associate, Hammond Law Group

Mike is a partner and the Chair of the U.S. Immigration Group of CKR Law. Prior to merging with CKR Law, Mike was the founder and managing partner of Hammond Law Group for 25+ years. Mike’s practice focuses on the IT and healthcare sectors. He is a regular speaker for trade associations TechServe Alliance and SIA.

John Higginson
Chief Technology Officer, Enova International

John is the Chief Technology Officer at Enova International, a large publicly-traded FinTech company based in Chicago that's extended over $20B in credit to customers across the globe. At Enova, John is responsible for driving the company’s technology strategy to leverage advanced digital experiences and data science to deliver on its mission to help hard-working people access fast, trustworthy credit.

In addition to his work at Enova, John is a member of the board of directors for the Illinois Technology Association, and a member, investor, and advisor with Hyde Park Angels. He also serves an adjunct professor at Lewis University teaching MBA courses on technology, business ethics, and entrepreneurship.

John is a frequent writer and speaker on D&I, technology, leadership: He has spoken at the Chicago Women in Tech Conference, ARA, DisruptHR, and TechWeek. His writing has been featured in Forbes and ITA as well as Enova’s own blog.

Prior to Enova, John served as the CTO for FTD Companies, Wheels, and Applied Systems. Flowers, cars, insurance, and money: proof that technology powers every facet of our lives.

John holds a B.A. from Northern Illinois University and M.S. in IT and Privacy Law, with honors from The John Marshall Law School.

Mei Lu
Founder and CEO, Geekology

Mei Lu is the Founder and CEO of Geekology.biz, providing technical recruiting training and consulting, and Jobfully.com, offering career coaching for software engineers and developers. She is also a Alumni Career/Executive coach for Carnegie Mellon University, specializing in software / high-tech industry.

Previously, Mei was a software engineer and an engineering manager, building software at Qpass, M.I.T., and MicroStrategy. She also recruited for many Silicon Valley tech companies, such as OpenTable, TubeMogul, RockYou, Model N, and Xactly. Mei received her Master's Degree in Computer Science from University of Pennsylvania and her Master's Degree in Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University.

Tom Nunn
President, Tom Nunn Consulting, LLC

Tom Nunn is the president of Tom Nunn Consulting, LLC, a company he started in 2009 that specializes in helping owners and executive teams of growing companies implement best practices to enable long term growth, profitability and health. Tom currently works with numerous IT staffing companies around the country and also facilitates industry roundtables. He is actively involved in TechServe Alliance as a speaker, facilitator and currently serves as Secretary-Treasurer for the Board of Directors.

Prior to starting his own company, Tom was president of a national IT staffing company headquartered in Boston, MA. Over the nine years that he was there, Tom helped develop and lead a high performing team that grew the company from $25MM to $100MM and top quartile profitability. Tom has over 30 years of diverse business experience including many years as an executive in the financial services industry where he led teams that oversaw IT and back office support for various investment management functions in multi-national banks.

Irina Shamaeva
Chief Sourcer, Brain Gain Recruiting

Irina Shamaeva is a recognized leader in Sourcing, Social Recruiting, and Internet Research. She is Partner and Chief Sourcer at Brain Gain Recruiting, an executive search firm.

In addition to sourcing for her agency, Irina takes on Sourcing /Name Generation/Internet Research projects across numerous industries and geographies – which she loves doing!

Irina shares her discoveries, tips, and strategies in her blog Boolean Strings, international conference presentations, and lectures. She is Founder and Trainer at People Sourcing Certification Program, which has become the program of choice for recruiters worldwide. Tens of thousands of professionals have attended Irina’s webinarson Search Engines, LinkedIn, Social Recruiting, Internet Research, and productivity tools.

Irina’s most recent venture is SocialList.io, an online research tool for quickly assembling high-precision lists of professionals from social network profiles.

Christine Stone
VP, Office of Program Management, Brookfield Properties

Christine Stone is a strategist, connector and coach. Christine's career began with technical project management - quickly evolving into project recovery, developing top performing IT teams, building business technical strategies and financial plans, then changing and building IT organizations to execute.

Currently with Brookfield Properties as the VP of PMO, Christine leads Strategic Planning, Budget, Governance and Talent Development for IT, and honed her skills at VW/Audi, EMC2 Dell, McDonald’s and consulting firms. Leading technical change and developing people is a natural part of Christine’s approach, formalized in her graduate work in Organizational Behavior. She mentors with Chicago Innovation, is active with the Chicago Women in Tech community including ARA, i.c.Stars, Chicago Executive Women’s network and others. She is an organic connector of technology and people and an author of articles and a book on work-life balance.

Sue Thaden
CEO, CRi

In 1999, Sue started CRi. As the CEO of CRi, the Omaha, Nebraska based staffing and solutions firm, has evolved through rapid growth and expansion into a leading IT staffing and solutions firm. Sue has developed a strong leadership team who assists in the day to day coaching of sales, recruiting, consultant management and solutions practice development. Sue provides the leadership and vision that keeps the company culture on track and the business growing.

In 2015, Sue led the launch of From Now On out of CRi’s Innovation Lab. FNO is a leading provider of Fan Engagement and digital mobile platforms, for over DI & DII colleges, tournaments and events. At the core of all we do is the passion around “getting it great” for our schools, their fans, and communities.

Sue is a graduate of the University of Nebraska in Lincoln, with a Bachelor’s Degree in Business and Communications. She has received several leadership awards including the “40 under 40” leadership award from the Midlands Business Journal and is a graduate of Leadership Omaha, a program which develops local executives into community leaders.

Sue is a member of TechServe Alliance (TSA), based in Washington D.C., was the 2014 Chairman of the TSA Board and current Chair of the TSA’s Government Affairs Committee. She serves on Omaha Chamber of Commerce’s Public Policy Council. Sue serves on the Dean’s Advisory Board for Information Science and Technology at the University of Nebraska Omaha (UNO) and is the Chair of the Women in IT Fund Task Force for the University. Sue helped start a hugely successful program with UNO to increase interest and awareness for young women in IT called “CodeCrush”. Sue joined the board of the Omaha Community Foundation in 2016 and is currently a University of Nebraska Trustee.

Leslie Vickery
CEO, ClearEdge Marketing

Seeing a need for business-minded marketing solutions that were as agile as the industries they served, Leslie Vickrey founded ClearEdge Marketing in 2006. As CEO, Leslie leads a team of more than 40 top-notch marketers that help technology, software, professional services and staffing clients differentiate themselves from competitors through services like Branding, PR, and Digital Marketing. Leslie’s passion for creating meaningful connections extends beyond ClearEdge. In 2013, Leslie Co-Founded ARA, a group dedicated to attracting, retaining and advancing women in tech. She’s also on the Board of Directors for i.c.stars and Chicago Innovation; was recognized by The Chicago Tribune's Blue Sky Vault, featuring 100 of Chicago’s most compelling innovators and entrepreneurs; is part of UIC Entrepreneurship Hall of Fame; and was named one of the 2016 Enterprising Women of the Year. Prior to ClearEdge, Leslie was Marketing Director at industry-leading staffing and recruiting firm Spherion. Earlier in her career, she held roles at McDonald’s and Junior Achievement.