10 Years of Support: Why Montage Insurance Solutions Sponsors the Virtual California HR Conference.
The pivot to a virtual California HR Conference this year has been anything but familiar. We’ve been asked what our HR event will be like and, frankly, we feel we’re too close to the subject matter to give an impartial answer.
(If you ask us, CAHR20 will OBVIOUSLY be the most high value and entertaining HR conference in the United States, if not the world.)
But if you ask the Montage Insurance Solutions team about our annual conference, they’ll give you an outside perspective based on a solid familiarity of our event built over the course of 10+ years.
So we asked them: What makes the California HR Conference special and why should anyone attend?
If you’re on the fence about registering for CAHR20, check out the video below.
Danone Simpson and Toby Kennedy from Montage share why they’ve been a proud sponsor of ours for so long, and describe the enduring heart and value of the in-person experience that we’ve translated into this year’s virtual event.
We feel lucky to have such a solid relationship with the Montage team, especially since they’re giving away such lavish prizes at their virtual booth.
We hope their message has convinced you to support your continuing HR education, expand your HR network, and have a little fun with us this October 27-29.
We’re encouraging HR professionals from all walks and industries and from all over the nation to join us and further their HR careers. As Danone said, “If you can get to the level of the California law, then you’re going to be okay.”
Register here before October 16 to enjoy Early Bird rates!
Join us at CAHR20!
Early Bird Rates End
Friday, October 16
Paul Butler is a Client Partner with Newleaf Training and Development, based in Valencia, CA. Paul is a Chartered Global Management Accountant (CGMA) and a Chartered Management Accountant (CIMA), having qualified with Pricewaterhouse Coopers. Prior to starting Newleaf Training and Development in 2005, he served as a Regional Finance Director for Marriott International Hotels and Hilton International Hotels. Paul also served as the Director of Finance for Hilton Honors. Paul is a very engaging facilitator, able to take the complexity of a subject and distill it into simple, memorable concepts that can be immediately applied.
Kifaya Thallam is a seasoned HR Executive with over 20 years of experience in HR, holding several key positions in Human Resources including, but not limited to Chief HR Officer, Regional Head of HR Group HR Advisor, Group HR Director, HR Consultant in Governmental & Multinational Organizations in the Middle East. Kifaya is specialized in HR Organization Design, HR Transformation and M&A, served in several industries; Telecommunications, Defense, Banking, Manufacturing & Transportation.
In addition to her work Kifaya is an active speaker in HR Conferences in the Middle East & Europe (Dubai, Belgium, Spain, Budapest, Jordan) delivered several lectures and workshops on Organization Design, Talent Management & Performance Management. Kifaya holds several degrees; BSc, MSc, MBA & MA in addition to other several professional certifications in HR (CIPD, CAHRI, CPHR, CPD,BPS) completed her certification in Organization Design from USC. Kifaya is currently based in UAE-Dubai. 
Ben Mones is CEO and Co-Founder of Fama. Fama (fama.io) is an AI-based solution that helps companies limit the incidence of sexual harassment in the workplace, and similar, crippling issues such as abusive behavior and insider threats. They do this by applying machine learning to publicly available online information and internal HR data. Fama’s mission is to create a more productive and welcoming workplace, while ensuring that businesses are not exposed to unnecessary risk. Based in Los Angeles, Fama’s cloud-based software solutions are deployed globally, with enterprise customers in the Americas, EMEA, and Asia.
Ramona Agrela serves as the associate chancellor and chief human resources executive for the University of California, Irvine. She is the senior university official responsible for all human resources administration and operations and sits on the Chancellor’s Cabinet at campus and the CEO’s Cabinet for UCI Health. Ramona is a dynamic human resource professional with extensive, award-winning experience across multiple disciplines including labor relations, compensation/classification, executive compensation, employee relations, HRIS systems, and organizational development. She has been successful in implementing human resource programs in support of business strategies that motivate, retain, engage, and attract valuable employees. Through strong faculty, staff and student relationships across the organization, she has built successful partnerships that have helped launch many innovative human resource programs.
With a passion for helping organizational leaders achieve their strategic goals through progressive talent management strategies, Ramona truly believes that HR’s role is to empower people to drive a culture of innovation, learning and service. 
As Senior Director of Advisory Services at SocialChorus, Gregg develops and delivers a suite of strategic services that support communications professionals with the guidance to plan, create, publish and measure their communications. These experiences build trust with communications professionals and business leaders, drive employees to take action, and create winning company cultures.
Gregg brings 20 years of experience ranging from customer experience and employee experience strategy, content creation, technology implementations, and data-driven marketing and communications. Over this time, he has worked with brands like GE, Microsoft, Coca-Cola, Target, Verizon, OWN, Sony Pictures, NBCUniversal, Johnson & Johnson, HSN, Ann Taylor & LOFT, Nike, and Reebok.
Gregg is passionate about helping HR and Internal Communications professionals innovate and activate employees through powerful branded content, communications and engagement. When not helping customers to define strategies that deliver desired outcomes, Gregg spends a good amount of time as an employee experience thought leader, writing articles for multiple blogs and publishers like Forbes, speaking at conferences. He also enjoys spending time with his wife and two daughters, working out, and relaxing on the beach.
As a talent executive, leadership coach, and organizational consultant, Tina Robinson empowers humans to love what they do, educates leaders on how to encourage and inspire this passion, and equips organizations with the structures, systems, and practices that support radical engagement.
Tina solves humans-at-work challenges. Outcomes include:
* Learning design, development, and delivery: Practical and engaging leadership development programs that result in positive measurable behavior change and mindset shifts.
* Executive coaching: Leaders with tighter focus on critical business results, renewed engagement, strengthened workplace relationships, and improved communication with stakeholders up, down, across, and outside the organization.
* HR strategy: Alignment of people initiatives with organizational priorities to exceed business and financial objectives through harnessed human potential – enabled by systems and measured by data. The new HR is HUMAN RELEVANCE.
* Program stewardship: Complex global programs with clear measurable objectives and clockwork communication cadences, supported by engaged coalitions, that accomplish their purpose.
* Workforce technology strategy: Value-driven business cases that secure financial investment and executive championing, guide implementation, and support ROI measurement of HRIS, from talent and learning management to applicant tracking systems.
We all have our own moon shot, our big bold dream waiting to become reality. We each deserve to love what we do, to be radically engaged, and to have the opportunities and support to experience this love. 
Adam Markel is a CEO, Best Selling Author, Keynote Speaker, and Business Mentor. Adam has spent the past 10 years training hundreds of thousands of people all across the United States, Southeast Asia, Canada, Europe and Australia on how to PIVOT to living a life of purpose, passion and freedom. Known as one of the most charismatic speakers you’ll ever see, Adam Markel has reinvented what it means to be a heart-centered and inspiring leader. He’s admired for his refreshing and inspiring impact on entrepreneurs, creative thinkers and leaders worldwide. Adam is also the Wall Street Journal and USA Today Bestselling author of PIVOT: The Art and Science of Reinventing Your Career and Life.
A Recognized Expert in the integration of business and personal transformation, Adam has been interviewed by: Fox News, Newsday, The New York Post, The Wall Street Journal and more. Prior to his work with New Peaks, Adam spent two years teaching junior high school English, founded a successful commercial real estate investment firm and went to law school — where he passed the New York State, New Jersey State and Federal Court bars. After law school Adam founded a multimillion-dollar law firm specializing in finance, commercial and employment litigation. Over the course of his 17-year practice, Adam represented over 1,000 matters with hundreds of clients including Citibank, Wachovia and HSBC.
Melissa Anzman is the CEO and Founder of bettHR. Since 2004, Melissa has been establishing employee focused communication solutions across global organizations, including establishing and leading Employee Communications and HR departments at several highly regarded organizations. Her work has been implemented at organizations big and small across various industries including automotive, non-profit, healthcare, financial services, publishing, aerospace, retail, and more.
Melissa’s approach to delivering impact-based HR solutions, starts with understanding the metrics behind HR-activities, ensuring the HR strategic business partners are leading the organization from the front, and creating meaningful relationships between employees and their company. Her work has been featured in places such as Business Insider, Amex OPEN Forum, and the Huffington Post. Melissa holds a bachelor’s degree in Communications and a master’s degree in Business Administration (HR Management), from the University of Wisconsin.
Dr. Shirley Davis, CSP, is an accomplished corporate executive, global workforce management expert, a certified leadership coach, and a master of reinvention. She works with leaders at all levels and has worked in more than 30 countries on 5 continents and delivers more than 80 speeches a year. She brings a high-energy, high-content and high-value message to audiences all around the world. With over 20 years of business experience in a variety of senior and executive leadership roles with Fortune 100 companies, Dr. Davis’ expertise lies in providing solutions and strategies for achieving leadership excellence and in building high performance and inclusive workplace cultures where all talent can thrive. Most recently, she worked at the world’s largest HR membership association, the Society for Human Resource Management as Vice President of Global Diversity and Inclusion and Workplace Strategies.
Dr. Davis has also been a featured expert on NBC’s The Today Show, the Wall Street Journal, National Public Radio, USA Today, HR Magazine, Profiles in Diversity Journal, CNN.com, and Inclusion Magazine. She is the author of, “Reinvent Yourself: Strategies for Achieving Success in Every Area of Your Life,” and “The Seat: How to Get Invited to the Table When You are Over-Performing and Undervalued.”
Michael Patterson, Ed.D. is a principal and author at Core Strengths, a global talent development company pioneering relationship intelligence as a utility for leaders. Using data created by the company’s strengths-based, psychological assessment, Dr. Patterson and his colleagues have created a cloud-based portal that puts relationship intelligence to work in daily meetings, conversations, and presentations, allowing leaders to bring out the best in their talent and drive results.
In addition to his work with the Core Strengths team, Dr. Patterson is a frequent conference and keynote speaker and the co-author of the highly acclaimed book, Have a Nice Conflict: How to Find Success and Satisfaction in the Most Unlikely Places. He also teaches in the doctoral program at Pepperdine University’s Graduate School of Education and Psychology and in the Master of Science in Industrial and Organizational Psychology program at Vanguard University. Dr. Patterson holds degrees from Wheaton College (IL), Troy University, Biola University, and Pepperdine University. He began his career as an active-duty Army officer and later served in the California Army National Guard. After completing his military service, Dr. Patterson had a successful, 20-year career at TAP and Takeda Pharmaceuticals where he held a variety of sales, marketing, training, and leadership development roles. Dr. Patterson now resides in Temecula, CA.
