BRANDON HALL GROUP - Key Persons

Job Titles:

• Vice President and Principal HCM Analyst

Claude Werder runs Brandon Hall Group's™ Talent Management Practice, focusing on solving corporate's challenges in developing and retaining talent. He takes a strategic, unified approach, with a keen eye on leveraging technology to drive efficiencies that enable leaders to better engage employees and drive performance. He conducts research that focuses on developing new insights and solutions to help members and clients make talent development a competitive business advantage. Before joining Brandon Hall Group™ in 2012, Claude spent more than 25 years as an executive and people leader in mid-market and Fortune 500 multi-media publishing organizations, including a decade as producer of the HR Technology Conference and Expo. He helped transform it from a small event to the world's largest HR technology conference. He also has subject matter expertise in learning, hiring, and core HR and does advisory work in all of Brandon Hall Group's™ HCM practices. He is a judge for the global Brandon Hall Group HCM Excellence Awards and Excellence in Technology Awards. Claude is available for speaking engagements on all HCM topics.

Job Titles:

• Chief Strategy Officer and Principal HCM Analyst

Prior to joining Brandon Hall Group™, Michael was the Chief Strategy Officer and Co-founder at AC Growth. Michael serves in a variety of roles including overseeing research and advisory support for organizations and solution providers. Michael is one of the company's principal analysts covering learning and development, talent management, leadership development, HR, talent acquisition and DEI. Michael brings nearly 40 years' experience in executive leadership roles, including human resources, information technologies, sales, marketing, business development, M&A, strategic and financial planning, program management and business operations in a wide variety of organizational settings. Michael is a graduate of the following certification programs: Kirkpatrick Four Levels™ Evaluation, Balanced Scorecard Collaborative and Strategy Focused Organization and Office of Strategic Management.

Job Titles:

• Chairman
• Chief Executive Officer
• Principal Analyst

Prior to joining Brandon Hall Group™, Mike was the Chief Executive Officer and Co-founder of AC Growth. Mike has held leadership and executive positions for the majority of his career, responsible for steering sales and marketing teams to drive results and profitability. His background includes more than 15 years of experience in sales and marketing, management, and operations in the research, consulting, software and technology industries. Prior to joining Brandon Hall Group™, Mike was the Chief Executive Officer and Co-founder of AC Growth. Mike held leadership and executive positions for the majority of his career, responsible for steering sales and marketing teams to drive results and profitability. His background includes more than 15 years of experience in sales and marketing, management, and operations in the research, consulting, software and technology industries. Mike has extensive experience in sales, marketing and management, having worked for several early high-growth emerging businesses and has implemented technology systems to support various critical sales, finance, marketing and client service functions. He is especially skilled in organizing the sales and service strategy to fully support a company's growth strategy. The concept of growth was an absolute to Mike and a motivator in starting AC Growth, in order to help organizations achieve research-driven results. Before co-founding AC Growth, Mike was the VP and General Manager of Field Operations at Bersin & Associates, a global analyst and consulting services firm focused on all areas of enterprise learning, talent management and talent acquisition. Tasked with leading the company's global expansion, Mike led all sales operations worldwide. During Mike's tenure, the company grew into a multi-national firm, conducting business in over 45 countries with over 4,500 multi-national organizations. Mike started his career at MicroVideo Learning Systems in 1992, eventually holding a senior management position and leading all corporate sales before founding Dynamic Minds. Mike was CEO and Co-Founder of Dynamic Minds, a custom developer of software programs, working with clients like Goldman Sachs, Prentice Hall, McGraw Hill and Merrill Lynch. Also, Mike worked for Oddcast, a leading provider of customer experience and marketing solutions, where he held a senior management position leading the company into new markets across various industries.

Job Titles:

• Chief Operating Officer
• Principal Analyst

Rachel Cooke is the Chief Operating Officer at Brandon Hall Group™ and Principal HCM Analyst. Rachel is responsible for business operations, including client and member advisory services, marketing design, annual awards program, conferences, and overall accountability for the company's project management function. Also, she leads initiatives covering Advancing Women in the Workplace and Diversity and Inclusion research and events. Rachel has worked in the HCM research industry for fifteen years and has held several key management and executive positions within Talent and Learning Research and Performance Improvement Industries. Rachel received a BA in social science and interdisciplinary studies with honors from Florida Atlantic University. Rachel continued her postgraduate education by completing a series of executive management education courses from American Management Association.