Our Sponsors

summit speakers —
HR Strategy & Business Acumen

SESSION 1 | SESSION II | SESSION III

«previous track | next track»

HR Strategy & Business Acumen — SESSION I

Doug Bonner
Manager of Human Resources, RFMD®

Doug Bonner earned his undergraduate degree at the University of Illinois and his Masters in Organizational Psychology from Radford University. He had extensive experience in the wireless communications industry before joining RFMD®,a global leader in the design and manufacture of high-performance semiconductor components. As Manager of Human Resources, he is responsible for Employee Relations and Learning and Development functions within the HR Department. During his years with RFMD, he has developed numerous resources to support talented technicians in making the transition to managers and leaders.

Timothy C. Daughtry, PhD
President, CCG, Inc.

Dr. Daughtry is a licensed clinical psychologist with over 25 years of experience in counseling, management, and developing high performance organizations. He is the author of numerous articles on the role of leadership in organizational effectiveness that have been published both locally and globally in business and professional journals and magazines. He has worked with a wide range of American and international firms to develop strategy maps to guide their talent management efforts. He also facilitates leadership development workshops and provides executive coaching to support managers in executing strategy. He and his business partner Dr. Gary Casselman co-authored the new book Executing Strategy: From Boardroom to Frontline, recently published by Capital Books.

»Learn about the session

HR Strategy & Business Acumen — SESSION II

Peggy Eddens
Executive Vice President Human Capital Director, WSFS Bank

Peggy Eddens is a Pittsburgh native and relocated to Wilmington to become the Executive Vice President and the Human Capital Director for WSFS Bank. Peggy joined the Bank in August 2007 and she oversees all aspects of Human Capital including: Learning and Development, Benefits, Compensation, Talent Acquisition and Succession, Associate Relations, Payroll, Recruiting, Human Sigma and Associate innovation.

Peggy earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration with minors in Management and Psychology from Robert Morris University and a Master of Science degree in Human Resource Management from La Roche College.

Peggy began her career at Koppers Company as an internal auditor, joined Mellon Bank and held positions in the Marketing and HR Departments. Since 1991, Peggy has held various HR leadership positions including, HR Director of Mellon Bank Delaware and Maryland, HR Director of Mellon Credit Card, Mellon Retail HR Strategic Partner and Training Director for Mellon Bank across the Retail footprint. Peggy was also the HR Director in the Mid Atlantic region of Citizens Bank and the Senior Vice President and Director of Human Resources and Development for NexTier Bank.

Peggy is very community involved and serves on the following boards: Junior Achievement, Little Sisters of the Poor and PUMH (Peninsula United Methodist Homes). She is also a member of the University of Delaware Employer Advisory Committee and is the cabinet chair for the financial division for the United Way. Peggy is the faculty chair for the University of Delaware School of Continuing Studies for the Strategic Human Capital Certificate program. Peggy also volunteers as a guest presenter or keynote speaker at various local colleges and affiliated organizations.

Peggy married her high school sweetheart and they have 2 sons in college. She and her husband live in Hockessin. Her hobbies include bird watching, walking, reading and shopping! And Peggy is a die-hard Steelers fan too!

Jenifer Jurden
President, Jenifer Jurden LLC

Jenifer Jurden is a native of Wilmington, Delaware and was raised in a cartooning household where making others laugh was top priority. She credits her father Jack Jurden, a longtime syndicated editorial cartoonist, for her abilities to infuse a unique outlook on seemingly simple everyday life.

A 26 year veteran of the corporate world, Jurden provided cartoons to her colleagues at a Fortune 100 international company where as a First Vice President executive leader, she used Jurdy as her comical employee coping mechanism and management tool. She put a positive spin on workplace woes, shoring up the “we’re all in this together” office cultural alliance and helped to promote bottom line results for the business.

Jurden used humor to help keep employees motivated through tough economic times, mergers, heavy workloads and to help educate her overseas colleagues during the company’s expansion over in England. As Chief Humor Officer (“CHO”), Jurden now delivers quick-witted, engaging programs via Jurdy as a strategy tool to help companies combat the worst recession this Country has seen. Jurden develops employee idea generation programs, intranet cartoon programs, communications programs and motivational presentations that are helping to change the face of business. She also self published a book for the business world titled “… but why should I hire a human?” which is a short and quick witted book, written through the eyes of Jurdy, filled with Jurden’s advice for fast workplace success. Jurden also has a literary agent in New York for future book development.

Jurden recently introduced Jurdy to corporate “green” efforts by promoting among other things, energy conservation and recycling, and recently won a 1st place award from the Delaware Press Association for Best Editorial Cartoon as featured cartoon for the widely distributed “green” Living Well Magazine. Jurden’s green cartoons are featured internationally across 6 countries on websites that feature Jurdy as a regular on the website and via email to subscribers. Jurdy was the feature cartoon and spokes-being for the Global New Energy Summit, the Tahiti Sustainability Summit and the British Chamber of Commerce in Chile.

»Learn about the session

HR Strategy & Business Acumen — SESSION III

Steven Gross
Worldwide Partner, Mercer

Steven E. Gross is a Worldwide Parnter in the Philadelphia office of Mercer and its global Broad-based Performance & Total rewards segment leader. He is responsible for directing Mercer’s aactivities in the design and implementation of innovative compensation programs for all levels of employees. These include developing total reward strategies and measuring the ROI impact various base pay benefits and incentive compensation design alternatives.

Steve consults with leading corporations which have included: AT&T, BellSouth, CIGNA, Cingular, Calsonic, Comcast, Dana, Dominion Resources, DuPont, FirstUSA, Genetech, General Motors, Hallmark Cards, Imperial Chemical, Lexmark, Marriott, Medtronic, Mobil Oil, PwC, Prudential Insurance, Rockwell Automation, Solvay, Standard & Poors, Time Warner, Trigon, Union Carbide, Unisys and Xerox.

He has served as a member of Productivity and Alternateve Rewards Committee ofo the American Compensation Association (now known as WorldAtWork). He is a faculty member of WorldAtWork, the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) and the American Management Association (AMA).

Prior to joining Mercer, Steve was vice President and Managing Director of Hay Management Consultant’s Northeast Region Reward Practice and National Leader of the Workforce Variable Compensation Practice. Prior to that role, he was the General Manager of the Philadelphia Consulting Group and National Director of the Executive Compensation Consulting Practice.

Before joining Hay, Steve was Vice President of the Executive Compensation Consulting Division of Sedgwick Noble Lowndes, a benefits and compensation consulting firm located in the Philadelphia area. Previously he worked for a major international public accounting firm as Consulting Manager.

Steve is a Certified Management Consultant, holding an M.B.A. from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and a B.S. degree in Industrial Engineering from the State University of New York at Buffalo.

Steve is author of Compensation for Teams: How to Design and Implement Team Based Reward Programs, (AMACOM). He is frequently quoted, has appeared on CNN, CNBC, NPR and has published over 40 articles concerning compensation strategies, benefits and human resource issues and is often called upon to speak on these topics.

Brian Levine, PhD
Principal, Mercer

Brian Levine is a principal in the workforce sciences group of Mercer’s human capital consulting business. Brian helps organizations assess their internal labor markets, the processes by which employees are rewarded and move through organizations. Towards that end, Brian has more than 10 years of consulting experience in measurement – working with company data to identify the drivers of rewards and turnover as well as significant links between human capital practices and business performance. He has led engagements in various sectors, including recent assignments in financial services, professional services, healthcare, technology, transportation, and higher education. Brian has extensive consulting experience leading analytic assessments of diversity and pay equity. He led the team that developed Mercer’s proprietary pay equity software. Prior to joining Mercer, Brian was a senior consultant and manager at another major consulting firm, where he conducted analysis and produced expert legal documents assessing statistical evidence of employment discrimination in pay, promotion and hiring. Areas of expertise include labor economics and econometrics/statistics. Brian publishes in the professional press and is frequent speaker, presenting original research at universities and leading workshops at conferences. He was an adjunct professor at Baruch College (CUNY), where he taught labor economics, and is a member of the American Economics Association (AEA). Brian received a B.S. in Industrial and Labor Relations and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Economics all from Cornell University.