William J. Armstrong
Bill has practiced labour relations and employment law since graduating from Osgoode Hall Law School (York University) in 1977. He is one of the principals of Armstrong Management Lawyers and was one of the founders of Laird Armstrong in 1983. He has represented clients from a wide range of industries in many notable labour relations disputes in Alberta, notably in healthcare, and has been counsel in several important precedent-setting cases. He has represented clients before the Alberta Labour Relations Board, the Canada Industrial Relations Board, Human Rights tribunals and all levels of courts up to the Supreme Court of Canada.
Prior to entering law school he obtained his Bachelor of Science degree from McGill University and served as an officer in the Canadian Forces for four years. Bill was appointed Queen’s Counsel in 2000.
Bill is recognized by Lexpert as a most frequently recommended labour relations and employment law practitioner and has received the highest rating (AV) from Martindale—Hubbell.
Ross Arrowsmith
As a Senior Corporate Security Advisor for the WCB-Alberta, Ross Arrowsmith was involved in the development of the WCB’s workplace violence strategies which was the model for the Preventing Violence at Work program now being promoted throughout Alberta. With over 20 years of service in security and investigations, Mr. Arrowsmith has extensive experience in high-risk situations and has personally assessed and managed thousands of cases of threatening, aggressive and inappropriate behaviour. Based in Calgary, he spends much of his time delivering the Preventing Violence at Work program to companies throughout Southern Alberta.
Bill Baetz
Bill Baetz is a Senior Director for the Group for Organizational Effectiveness (gOE). Over his career, he has served in consulting, HR, and line management capacities, including extensive experience in training, marketing, sales, engineering, R&D, and manufacturing roles for General Electric, Hewlett-Packard, and Eastman Kodak.
At gOE, Dr. Baetz has supported numerous organizations in their organizational development, change management, and applied OD research efforts, including Unilever, Merck, BP, Wells Fargo, MetLife, McGraw-Hill, First USA, GE, UBS, Williams Energy, the U.S. Air Force, and the U.S. Navy. He has helped enhance the readiness of HR professionals by facilitating internal consulting skills workshops and building tools to prepare HR professionals to conduct organizational development initiatives. He has also helped develop and market gOE’s innovative gOEbase system, which is the first web-based technology specifically designed to build the internal consulting capabilities of HR and training professionals. Dr. Baetz has facilitated groups in a variety of settings and has taught executive MBA courses for the Universidad del Salvador in Argentina.
Dr. Baetz holds a Ph.D. in Organizational Studies from the University at Albany, an MBA from the University at Albany, and a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.
Nick Bishop
Nick Bishop is a principal consultant of the Hay Group and the reward practice lead for western Canada. He is based out of their Calgary office but covers an area from Manitoba to BC. He has considerable experience in working with clients on all aspects of reward from strategy through to implementation across all sectors in Western Canada.
Before becoming a consultant Nick had a highly successful career in industry holding senior executive positions covering functions as diverse as HR, Marketing, PR, Government affairs across industries ranging from manufacturing, to fast moving consumer goods, construction, brewing and hospitality retail.
Nick has lived in Calgary for the last 5 years. Before that, Nick lived in England where he obtained his Bachelors degree as well as his diploma in Finance and Accounting.
Darrin Buehler
Darrin Buehler is an accomplished professional with extensive leadership experience in the development and delivery of learning, training, organizational development, and sales solutions that drive performance and improve business results.
Darrin’s expertise includes the design, delivery, and measurement of effective development programs that improve efficiency, increase productivity, and enhance quality of service.
Darrin has won numerous awards for his results and accomplishments, and has been sought as a public speaker, writer, and coach in the areas of consultative selling, sales coaching, learning, and development.
Darrin places a strong emphasis on developing people. He is earnest in his desire to see people succeed at a high level. Darrin fosters a true sense of partnership and collaboration and insists on win-win outcomes. Organizations especially appreciate the clear line of sight he provides so that their projects are successful.
Darrin’s clients agree that his passion for improving performance is contagious. He understands his client’s needs while creating solutions that deliver real value. His character, integrity, and enthusiasm inspire those around him to do their best work.
Joel Cohen
Joel Cohen is an absolutely hilarious, deadpan, quick-on-his feet speaker — perfect for any group that needs to inject more creative energy into their work, but who prefer to laugh a little (okay, a lot) while learning how. Armed with inspired anecdotes and clips, he takes you into the fabled writers’ room at The Simpson’s to draw the links — and there are many — between maintaining a hit show and running a successful company. He asks, and then brilliantly answers, questions essential to the success of any industry. How do you manage group dynamics to get the best from your talent? How do you find, evaluate, implement, and even discard, new ideas? How do you chart a renewable path to innovation? And how do you overcome creative log jams? (Note: for actual, literal logjams, Cohen recommends a chainsaw — or even better, hiring a guy with a chainsaw).
Tammy Dewar and Dave Whittington
Tammy Dewar and Dave Whittington of Calliope Learning are facilitators, leaders, change agents, coaches and entrepreneurs. They apply their PhDs to practical leadership, team and coaching experiences in the public and private sectors and have facilitated workshops on leadership, change, team building, organizational culture and personal creativity and learning. They work collaboratively with their clients to shift organizational cultures and develop leadership capacity. Tammy and Dave are passionate educators who integrate theory and practice into creative, engaging and thought provoking learning experiences. They are based in Victoria and committed to living a high quality of life.
Brad Doak
Brad has been working in the Human Resources field for over twenty five years. He has been employed with the City of Lethbridge for almost five years now. He is currently responsible for providing Human Resources services to the Lethbridge Fire and Emergency Services Department and has negotiated one Collective Agreement with the Lethbridge IAFF Local. He has negotiated Collective Agreements with the CAW, CUPE, IAFF and is currently in negotiations with the Lethbridge Police Association.
Perry Dorgan
Perry Dorgan of Johnson Inc. is Vice President, Plan Benefits, West Region, and is based in Edmonton.
Perry is an innovative and results oriented benefits consultant with a strategic focus on “the big picture”. In particular providing advice that positions the client organization benefit plan management and delivery to support their organizational and individual health goals.
Perry has a marketing, group sales and consulting background spanning over 30 years in the benefits consulting field, with previous stops in Vancouver, Calgary, Winnipeg, and Toronto. Perry’s clients include the Alberta School Employee Benefit Plan, Alberta Retired Teachers’ Association, Ironworkers Health & Welfare Trust Fund of Western Canada, Alberta Medical Association, British Columbia Medical Association to name a few.
Simmie Gill
Simmie Gill is a Human Resources Consultant at the City of Edmonton. Through leading or participating in projects, Simmie is responsible for designing, facilitating and implementing new practices and programs in support of the Corporate Human Resources Plan. Simmie’s past projects include the launch of Talent Hubs as part of the Recruitment Transformation and the development of a new employment brand for the City’s career website. She is currently managing a project which involves reviewing the City’s Corporate Employee Recognition Program. Simmie completed her Bachelor of Commerce Degree at the University of Alberta in 2008 and obtained her CHRP designation in November of 2009.
Marshall Goldsmith
Marshall Goldsmith has been named one of the top five executive coaches by Forbes, for his training of top executives in many of the world’s leading companies. In November 2009 Dr. Goldsmith was recognized as one of the fifteen most influential business thinkers in the world in the bi-annual study sponsored by The (London) Times and Forbes. He’s also a prominent speaker and educator, and the bestselling author of many books and articles on leadership. He is one of the foremost authorities on how to help leaders achieve positive, measurable changes in their own behaviour and in the behaviour of their people and teams. Recently, the American Management Association named Goldsmith as one of the 50 greatest thinkers and business leaders who have most influenced the field of management. Forbes named him as one of the five most-respected executive coaches. What Got You Here Won’t Get You There is a New York Times best seller, Wall Street Journal #1 business book and winner of the Harold Longman award for Best Business Book of the Year. His newest book, MOJO was released on February 2nd.
Jamey Harbottle
Jamey Harbottle has been with WestJet for over 7 years. Her career began in a frontline position, and her natural ability in leadership led her to a technical training position in the operations side of the business. Jamey added Leadership Development to her resume with a move to Calgary where she spent three years as a Leadership Development Specialist and discovered organizational culture as her true passion. Most recently, Jamey acquired the role of Culture Specialist, where she is lead designer and facilitator of WestJet’s cultural programs and in particular, the company’s unique Orientation program for new WestJetters!
Pierre Lueders
A five-time Olympian, Lueders is the most decorated slider in Canadian history. He was the pilot of the Canadian two-man bobsleigh team, winner of the gold medal at the 1998 Winter Olympics (shared with Italy). This was only Canada’s second ever medal in bobsleigh. Lueders has won eight world championship medals — two gold, four silver and two bronze. In his keynote he will focus on themes that relate to leadership, personal focus and dedication, accountability and sheer determination to succeed… at all costs. He brings in his experiences competing in an elite sport that is not a “flashy” one, although incredibly frightening, and the commitment that it takes to channel your energy to focus on bringing your best game each time you travel down the course.
Ron McMillan
Ron McMillan is a bestselling Author; coauthor of three New York Times bestsellers, Influencer: The Power to Change Anything, Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking when Stakes are High, and Crucial Confrontations: Tools for Resolving Broken Promises, Violated Expectations, and Bad Behaviour. He is the former cofounder of the Covey Leadership Center where he helped develop numerous training programs including Principle Centered Leadership and The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. In 2007, he and his coauthors were named Ernst & Young Entrepreneurs of the Year for their work in founding and leading VitalSmarts, a leader in corporate training and organizational development.
Jane Moran
Jane Moran is an ICF accredited Results Executive Coach. Working with large organizations globally, Jane specializes in designing and delivering workplace coaching and human performance solutions on both a one-on-one and leadership team level.
Previous to her work in Calgary, Jane spent ten years with a Fortune 500 company, heading up their leadership coaching curriculum and was instrumental in building their global internal executive coaching operations across fifteen countries. Jane is most widely known as a master coach and corporate trainer and has coached several hundred executives, predominantly in the IT services, finance, healthcare and engineering industries.
In addition to her degree in Communication, Jane is a member of the Neuroleadership Institute and currently undertaking a Masters degree in the Neuroscience of Leadership (Middlesex University, UK).
In 2007, Jane authored a white paper on the success of workplace coaching at a global IT Services organization, published by Wiley, in Global Business & Organizational Excellence.
Jane lives with her husband and two sons in Calgary Alberta.
Amal Popatia
Amal Popatia is a Recruitment/Outreach Consultant with Human Resources for the City of Edmonton. Through establishing a presence in the Edmonton student community, Amal is responsible for creating awareness of the City of Edmonton as an Employer of Choice for students. Some of her current projects involve bridging the gap between students and careers at the City of Edmonton and enhancing the City of Edmonton’s Talent Hub website. Amal completed her Arts Degree at the University of Alberta and obtained her Masters in Human Resources Management from University of Westminster.
Brenda Robinson
Brenda is a speaker, trainer, writer and consultant. She has been addressing groups for over twenty years on topics related to communications, humour, laughter, positive working skills and wellness in general.
Brenda received her Bachelor of Arts from Brandon University in Brandon, Manitoba (Major in English) and her Masters of Education from Simon Fraser University in Burnaby, B.C. in 1998.
Dean Selby
Dean Selby has over 15 years experience working with organizations in the areas of Performance & Leadership Development. As Sr. Leader, Organizational Development with WestJet’s People Department, Dean works with varying levels of leaders throughout the organization in the areas of Onboarding, Performance Management, Leadership Development and Career Mobility & Succession Planning. Dean is a proud 2 year WestJetter who enjoys the challenging and ever-changing environment the company has to offer, and understands the benefit for organizations to recognize the value of their employees through strategic knowledge and engagement right from Day One.
Lisa A. Stevens
As leader of PDI Ninth House’s Talent Management Systems Practice, Lisa Stevens leads a cross-disciplinary team to develop and integrate cutting edge thinking and tools that help client organizations improve or transform their talent management systems/processes, including succession management, performance management, development, staffing, and rewards. She also leads PDI Ninth House’s human capital strategy practice, helping clients plan and implement effective talent strategies, building the organizational capabilities needed to achieve their strategic business goals.
Since joining PDI in 1998, Lisa has worked with clients to design, deliver and implement a large variety of talent management systems and processes and leadership development programs, and to design and integrate custom competency models across their talent management processes. She is editor and key author of the Successful Manager’s Handbook and has facilitated numerous performance and development feedback and planning sessions with executives and managers.
For an engineering technology firm, Lisa created a development program for the entire enterprise, designed to engage and equip all people managers to fully develop the potential of the talent in their organization from both an individual and systemic perspective as a management team. Over 30 action learning teams created and implemented action plans for their own areas and made recommendations for enterprise-wide changes.
For a unique, privately held organization, Lisa led a team to create a distinctive leadership competency architecture that communicated the CEO’s vision of leadership and reflected the unique culture and needs of the organization. She also worked closely with the HR function to successfully embed the competencies into each of their talent management systems, across multiple business units and leadership levels.
Lisa is a strong team and relationship builder. Her broad expertise, experience, and systems perspective enable her to expertly integrate a variety of solutions and coordinate the diverse stakeholders and processes across organizations.
Barb Tremel
Barb is a University of Lethbridge graduate, majoring in Human Resources and Labour Relations Management. She has had several years of Human Resources experience including her current role of 5 years at the Lethbridge Regional Police Service as the Human Resources Manager. In this role she works very closely with the Chief of Police and Executive Team providing advice on Human Resources issues. Barb manages several programs such as the Annual Performance Reviews, Promotion Process, Employee Modified Work Program, Health and Wellness Programs, Employee and Family Assistance Program. Barb also assists with recruiting both sworn and non-sworn members, provides a variety of reports as required, supervises all members in non-operational and/or modified work duties, and manages accommodation process.
