2022 Speakers

Bill Connolly

Margie De Craene

Jaime DiGirolamo

Benjamin Duffy

BERNARD GOLDSTEIN

Bernie Goldstein founded Goldstein Professional Development in 2016, based on the belief that high impact coaching should be available to everyone. In addition to his focus on GPD, Bernie is also an Executive Director at J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., in the asset management business. Immediately prior to joining J.P. Morgan, Bernie was Director and Head of Global Sales Training at Legg Mason.

He is also a regular speaker at industry conferences, presenting on topics such as Coaching & Sales Leadership, Storytelling, Emotional Intelligence, and The Art of Influence. His background in sales and coaching shapes his approach to leadership and business strategy. Bernie earned his Professional Certified Coach designation from the Columbia University Executive Coaching Certification Program. He received his BA in History from Columbia University, BA in Philosophy from the Jewish Theological Seminary, and MBA from the University of Florida.

When he's not coaching, you can find him hanging out with his wife and 2 children, volunteering for Food Bank for NYC, cooking and cycling across NYC and beyond.
https://www.gpdcoach.com/

David Guralnick, PhD

Over the past 30 years, David Guralnick has led the design of innovative e-learning scenarios, courses, and simulations, including the first online learn-by-doing simulation training course for corporate use, as well as performance-support systems and authoring tools. His approach to his work synthesizes concepts from the fields of computer science, instructional design, and cognitive psychology. David is the current President and CEO of Kaleidoscope Learning, and serves an e-learning consultant to a variety of organizations, ranging from multinational and Fortune 500 companies to non-profits and universities. He is also the current president of the International E-Learning Association; a regular keynote speaker at international conferences; founder and chair of The Learning Ideas Conference; Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal on Advanced Corporate Learning; Chair of the International E-Learning Awards; and an Adjunct Professor at Columbia University. His work has been featured in Wired magazine, Training magazine (as an Editor’s Choice), and the Wall Street Journal, and he is the recipient of numerous e-learning design awards.

Kirsten Jackson

Kirsten is the Director of MetLife’s leadership development program focused on successfully preparing today’s leaders for tomorrow. Prior to this role, she has led MetLife’s professional development and compliance training programs for all 50,000 employees, contractors, and agents in 40+ countries, in up to 21 languages. Kirsten’s team was recently awarded several Brandon Hall awards, including Silver in the “Best Advance in Learning Measurement” category in 2021. She is passionate about bringing innovation and agility practices to learning – one program at a time. Kirsten is based out of MetLife’s technology hub in Cary, North Carolina.

JOY JOSEPH

Joy has extensive experience within the Financial Services Business which spans across several disciplines. During her career, she has held several roles in the industry including as a Financial Advisor, Sales Management, Compliance & Risk Management, and Professional Development. She has several years of experience as the Chief Learning officer and Chief Diversity Officer at a global level, and has led large scale, cross divisional, and global programs supporting the financial services business. In her last role as the President and Head of HR she focused on the recruitment and career counseling of experienced talent. Currently, she is the Director of Training at Liberty Mutual Investments. She is a sought after speaker, member of SHRM, Chair of Womens’ outreach at work (WOW) network, and a board member of Fin Training Innovations. Outside of work, she enjoys hot yoga, reading and spending time with her son.

Suzi Kalsow

Dr. Suzi Kalsow is currently Vice-President of Learning and Development at Bank Midwest and Chief Potential Officer of Suzi Kalsow Leadership Development and Training. She began her career as a middle school teacher and coach which led to jobs as a curriculum director and regional education consultant. Her next move was to higher education as a Graduate Professor in Leadership, Field Experiences Director, Dean of Education, Associate Vice-President of Academic Affairs, and Vice-President of Academic Affairs. Travel during the years in higher education to Turkey, Poland, and Europe left a profound impact on her world perspective and beliefs about learning and leadership.

In 2014 she made the move to the banking industry, where she was allowed to influence workplace culture and leadership through Fierce Conversations and People Skills training. She also enjoys teaching Fundamentals of Leadership in Boulder, Colorado at the Graduate School of Banking. Beginning January 2020 Suzi continued her work at Bank Midwest 2/3 time and began her speaking and training business during the pandemic of 2020. Teacher, speaker, facilitator, agitator, and persuader are all descriptors that make life interesting She lives in Arnolds Park, Iowa, and enjoys anything that happens on the lake. Her current goal is to be a better at golf.

Dawn Lewis

Erin Mulholland

MATT PETRILLA

Matt Petrilla is a Leadership Performance Consultant in Vanguard’s Talent Management department, where he coaches leaders across the enterprise on a broad range of managerial and performance-related topics.

Matt’s prior role was as Divisional Manager in Vanguard University, where he led a team of Instructional Designers and Multimedia Developers responsible for creating innovative learning solutions for Vanguard’s global workforce.

Prior to moving into a formal leadership role in 2012, Matt served as a Senior Corporate Trainer in HR, facilitating professional development, feedback & coaching, business- related, and leadership development courses to managers and individual contributors alike.

Matt is a member of Vanguard’s select Adjunct Faculty pool, a Vanguard Certified Master Coach, and holds his Series 6, 7, and 63 financial licenses.

Kamaria Scott

Kamaria is Employee Experience Senior Manager at Accenture. Previously, she was the Head of Curriculum Strategy and Instructional Design for FIS Global, the world's largest provider of financial technology solutions where she developed, implemented, and communicated the learning strategy for global leadership programs and in support of talent management strategic priorities. Her team developed customized competency-based curriculum and leveraged technology to create impactful learning experiences. Prior to FIS, Kamaria owned a consulting services firm aimed at improving leaders' capabilities to achieve outcomes impacted by employee engagement.

Kamaria holds a M.S. in Industrial and Organizational Psychology from the University of Central Florida and an Ed.S in Adult Education/Human Resource Development from Florida State University. She has spent the last 15 years marrying strategy, theory and practice into meaningful and impactful ways to help organizations develop highly skilled employees and cultures that enable them to do their best work.

Andrew Shields

Andrew Shields has over twenty years of experience in systems and soft skills learning and development, performed within a variety of public and private industries including telecommunications, consulting services, audit and advisory, finance, insurance, wellness, government, non-profit, and e-commerce. Andrew’s first job was as a marketing specialist with a commodities trader in his home town. While working in the marketing department at Provident Mutual, he transitioned into corporate training. Andrew has been with KPMG’s technology-based learning solutions group for almost twelve years, providing guidance on and managing web-based delivery learning solutions projects.

Andrew’s training skill set includes instructional design, project management, facilitation, instruction, and specialization in the creation of distance learning training courses and objects for web-based training, simulations, online help, and synchronous online delivery. Andrew was one of the pioneers utilizing virtual classroom tools to deliver virtual training sessions. He has also held several key roles as an eLearning expect outside the workplace, including being the Leader for the D.C. Metro ASTD Learning Technologies special interest group and as a member CompTIA’s SME Technical Advisory Committee (CSTAC) (2008-2010). He graduated from the Pennsylvania State University with a BS in Advertising and a minor in Business Administration. He completed the Master Trainer Program in Ferney-Voltaire in France, and holds several eLearning-related certificates.

Curtis Twombly

Curtis is a proven performance consultant and a senior learning leader with over 15 years of experience in the financial services industry. Since 1996, Curtis has enabled Charles Schwab & Co., Inc., Wachovia Securities and Wells Fargo to achieve results through educating their workforce, implementing change initiatives and driving performance improvement initiatives.

While working for Charles Schwab & Co., Inc., he directly supported the transformation of Schwab's workforce from a transactional service provider to an advice driven consultative selling organization. While at Wells Fargo, he led the skill development and change management efforts necessary to establish an integrated wealth model and to install a team-based contact management system. While at Wachovia Securities, which is now Wells Fargo Advisors, Curtis has been involved with the skill development, change management and performance improvements for initiatives that include two large scale mergers, transition of transactional based advice to an advisory-based model and the implementation of a corporate university. After growing up and starting his career in Phoenix, Arizona, Curtis currently lives in St. Louis, MO. Along with his partner Susan and children, Lauren and Christopher, he spends his non- working hours enjoying the outdoors, cooking, movies and hanging out with friends. Curtis is also involved in consulting a local public school district, leading a Boy Scout troop and advising 6th graders at his church.

Michael Winters

Michael Wynn

Debbie Wooldridge