Bios
Vlad Vaiman, PhD
Associate Dean and Professor
School of Management, California Lutheran University
Dr. Vlad Vaiman is professor of international management at California Lutheran University in the USA and is a visiting professor at several top universities around the world, including Aalto University School of Business and Hanken School of Economics (both in Finland), Danube University of Krems and Management Center Innsbruck (both in Austria), Reykjavik University (Iceland), ISEG (France), etc.
He holds a PhD degree in International Management from the University of St. Gallen in Switzerland and has received his MBA in Strategic Management and Human Resources at the School of Business of the University of Wyoming, USA. His professional experience included working on various consulting assignments for a number of major organizations throughout the world, including USA, Canada, Switzerland, Austria, Russia, and some other European countries. Dr. Vaiman is a long-time member of the Canadian Association of Management Consultants and a highly sought-after speaker on topics of talent management and cross-cultural communication and negotiations.
Dr. Vaiman has published five very successful books on managing talent in organizations – Smart Talent Management: Building Knowledge Assets for Competitive Advantage (Edward Elgar Publishing); Talent Management of Knowledge Workers: Embracing the Non-Traditional Workforce (Palgrave MacMillan); Managing Talent of Self-initiated Expatriates (Palgrave MacMillan); Macro Talent Management: A Global Perspective on Managing Talent in Developed Markets (Routledge); and Macro Talent Management in Emerging and Emergent Markets: A Global Perspective (Routledge).
Dr. Vaiman’s academic work has appeared in several top academic journals including Academy of Management Learning & Education, Academy of Management Perspectives, Human Resource Management, Thunderbird International Business Review, International Journal of Human Resource Management, and others. He is also a co-founder and Chief Editorial Consultant of the European Journal of International Management (EJIM), an ISI/SSCI indexed publication (www.ejim-global.org), and a member of editorial boards of three other major international academic and practitioner peer-reviewed journals.
Louis Williams
VP Talent Acquisition, City of Hope
Louis Williams currently serves as the System Vice President of Talent Acquisition and Mobility at City of Hope. He began his professional career as a corporate finance associate at First Chicago NBD where he participated in the underwriting of credit facilities for a variety of Fortune 500 companies, including Healthcare organizations. He was promoted to Vice President and joined the start up internal executive recruiting function, at what was then BankOne and is now JPMorgan Chase, supporting the direct reports to Jamie Dimon. He has over 20 years of experience in executive, technical, financial, and healthcare recruiting, and prior to joining City of Hope, led Talent Acquisition functions at PeaceHealth, Franciscan Missionaries of Our Lady Health system, and Executive Recruitment at HonorHealth, and Ochsner Health. He is a passionate Talent Acquisition executive player/coach who is always investigating and scanning the landscape for technologies to enable increased productivity, efficiency, and ROI.
Genevieve Findlay
CHRO, HRL Laboratories LLC
Genny Findlay serves as Chief Human Resources Officer (CHRO) for HRL Laboratories, LLC and is a member of the company’s Executive Management team. In her current role, she is responsible for leading HRL’s overall human resources strategy and oversees all aspects of HR. She and her team of Human Resources (HR) professionals drive the company’s commitment to be a world class place to build a career.
Genny has spent her 25+ year HR career in the Technology and Aerospace and Defense sectors. She began her career at Calian Technology with her main focus being recruiting. Genny then joined Nortel Networks where she managed recruiting teams and moved into broader areas of HR. She then moved into HR Management in the tech startup world before joining Airbus in 2012.
Genny shifted to Aerospace HR as the Director of HR for the Canadian operations for Airbus. She moved to Virginia in 2015 to assume the lead HR role for Airbus Defense and Space for North America. In 2018, Genny and her family moved to Southern California to take on the role of Senior Vice President of HR for Meggitt, and in 2022 she accepted the role of CHRO for HRL Laboratories.
Genny has strong experience in all areas of Human Resources; her depth of experience is primarily in the areas of Talent & Performance Management, Reward & Recognition, Leadership Development, Talent Acquisition and Culture Development.
Genny holds a degree in Psychology from Carleton University and in Business Administration from Algonquin College both in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
Jeff Stepler
VP Talent Selection and Engagement, The Cheesecake Factory
Jeff is Vice President Talent Selection and Engagement for The Cheesecake Factory Incorporated headquartered in Calabasas, California. With over 47,000 staff and managers, The Cheesecake Factory is a $3.5 billion dollar global restaurant company with 14 different restaurant concepts and over a million applicants in 2022. For the last 13 years, Jeff has lead employment branding, recruiting, employee experience, and multimedia services, including the associated systems and processes. The Cheesecake Factory is the only restaurant company recognized by Fortune Magazine as one of the 100 Best Companies to Work For in the US for the last 10 years in a row.
Jeff and his team have been exploring the uses of AI and generative AI in various applications including recruiting chatbots, image and content generation, analytics, virtual assistants, ethical policies and workplace tools for their Support Center and Restaurant Operations, and is currently focused on developing a more comprehensive roadmap for the advancement and adoption of AI technologies in their day to day operations.
Before joining The Cheesecake Factory, Jeff started his career co-founding a Telecommunications Training company and then serving as the SVP Learning and Development Leader for Bank of America.
Paul D. Witman, Ph.D.
Professor Emeritus, Information Technology Management
School of Management California Lutheran University
Paul Witman is a Professor Emeritus of Information Technology Management, in California Lutheran University’s School of Management, retired founding director of the MS in Information Technology program, and retired Director of the School’s Undergraduate programs in Business, Accounting, and Economics. His research interests include social networking for non-profits, information security, usability, and electronic banking and finance. In addition, he frequently writes teaching case studies based on current events, focused on the use and abuse of information relative to vulnerable populations. He is the proud co-author of a leading textbook on church management, the newly updated Church Administration and Finance Manual.
Witman’s teaching focuses on the use of information in organizations, and the importance of using information for all manner of decision-making. Bringing 23 years of industry experience to the classroom, he enjoys working with students to identify issues related to information in their own experiences, across a wide range of industries governments, and non-governmental agencies, and then to analyze and design solutions for those issues.
Prior to joining CLU, Witman served as the Director of Integration Engineering for Digital Insight Corporation, a leading eFinance enabler. In this role, Witman was responsible for working with clients on a wide range of system integration issues, problem resolution, technology planning, and due diligence activities. Before joining Digital Insight, Witman was Director of Global Delivery Systems at Citibank, where he was oversaw the development and support of self-service delivery systems platforms, providing software for home banking, ATM’s, and call centers. Witman originally joined Citibank in 1983 as a developer on an early home banking product.
Witman is an active volunteer with the United Methodist Church, home repair and home construction projects, and Sturtevant’s Camp, a trail camp in the Angeles National Forest.
Witman holds a Ph.D. in Information Systems and Technology from Claremont Graduate University, a Master’s degree in Computer Information Systems from Claremont Graduate School and a Bachelor’s in Math/Computer Science from UCLA.