Live 2025: Chicago Half-Day Benefits Conference

Dan is the VP, Head of Compensation, Benefits, and HR Analytics at ADT, where he has revamped Total Rewards to improve the employee value proposition, increased employee engagement and reduced turnover through a new people analytics program, and led the HR workstream for multiple JVs and M&A transactions.

Previously, he led the development and implementation of HR strategies at Navistar and was subsequently promoted to lead enterprise analytics for the company. As the Chief Analytics Officer for Navistar, Dan led a team of data scientists, engineers, and analysts to improve the company’s ability to model, predict, and improve decision making and operational performance.

Dan’s background includes experience in human resources, leading compensation, benefits, and other HR areas and supporting the business through the development and implementation of HR strategies and the management of organizational change. Prior to Navistar, he led an analytics consulting group for a health plan and provided operations research consulting in the pharmaceutical industry.

Dan’s academic background includes undergraduate and graduate degrees from Northwestern University in applied math and economics, as well as an MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.

David Bator thinks and writes about how work could work. David leads Achievers Workforce Institute, a strategic practice whose focus on Research, Community and Advisory empowers global executives with tactical, practical approaches to changing how the world works.

David is passionate about people, and has spent the last 20 years working closely and consultatively with HR, IT and Communications leaders to build programs that position individuals, teams and companies to grow.

 Sean Hughley leads the national sales team at Forma and their broker partnership strategy. He brings a wealth of experience as a keynote speaker, sales executive, and leader, having worked with Fortune 1000 companies and premier brands such as Toyota, Dupont, Bosch, Hearst and others. At Forma, Sean brings his expertise as a sales and HRTech leader to support companies looking to build and grow flexible benefits programs that are meaningful for their workforce.

Dana Baker is the Senior Director for the Mayo Clinic Complex Care Program, a customizable Centers of Excellence program that provides access to Mayo Clinic’s high-quality, cost-effective care for individuals with complex, rare, or undiagnosed medical conditions.

Dana joined Mayo Clinic in 2000 and previously worked in the Mayo Clinic Benefits department, concentrating on health plan design, cost containment solutions, custom networks for national member populations, retirement plans, and employee communication strategies.

She is passionate about collaborating with employers to enhance the overall benefits value and care organizations provide to their employees.Additionally, Dana is dedicated to HR and benefits education, supporting individual and employer goals and needs.

Britt Barney is the Manager of Client Success of Northstar, the financial wellness platform for employees. With 10 years of experience in fintech, Britt has had a hand in all areas of the space from working as a financial planner to managing financial planning and customer success teams. Inspired by mission driven startups with a focus on DEI and serving traditionally underserved communities, Britt has traveled the country giving seminars on financial wellness. Previously at LearnVest and Northwestern Mutual, Britt has always had a passion for building relationships and helping her clients drive engagement and utilization while providing education and guidance for employees to reach their personal goals.

Jon Harold leads the Sales and Customer Success teams at SoFi at Work, helping organizations offer impactful student debt and financial wellbeing benefits. Over the past seven years, Jon has partnered with hundreds of companies to design and implement programs that have saved employees thousands of dollars. Before joining SoFi, Jon worked in financial consulting and earned his Finance degree from Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo. Outside of work, Jon is an avid traveler and a hot sauce enthusiast.

Dr. Martin Payne is the chief commercial officer for Empowerly, the leading solution for helping students and families navigate the complicated college admissions process. Prior to Empowerly, Martin spent over two decades working with innovative early-stage venture capital-backed organizations and large publicly traded companies in the HR, Education, and Wellness spaces. His approach focuses on collaboration, influence, and innovation, which has led to a proven track record of operational excellence and revenue growth.
Martin holds a BA in Psychology from New College of Florida, an MBA from Nova Southeastern University, and a Doctor of Education (EdD) in Organizational Change and Leadership from the University of Southern California.

Cory McGonigle Rose is a transformational HR leader with over 19 years of experience driving business-minded people initiatives for rapidly scaling VC backed startups, maturing global PE backed and public organizations across various industries. As a pivotal member of the executive team, she has built and led People functions, guiding them through hyper-growth, optimizing their talent strategies and fostering world-class cultures. She currently serves as the Senior Vice President of People & Total Rewards for The Aspen Group (TAG) headquartered in Chicago.  Prior to TAG, Ms. Rose was the Sr. Director of People Ops & Total Rewards at both Chime and Udemy, and was the Sr. Director of HR Business Partners at Delivery Hero in Berlin, Germany. She currently acts as a strategic Advisor for six HR tech companies, Abra, Aura Finance, Chorus Sleep, DadoHR, OpenRoute, & Thatch, and is an active member of PeopleTechPartners, a group of HR leaders working to bring new HR/recruiting technologies to market. A native of Pennsylvania, Ms. Rose attended Virginia Tech where she earned a Bachelor of the Arts in Interdisciplinary Studies.  She currently lives in Chicago with her husband, their two children, and their three dogs.

Kim Quillen is a business editor at the Chicago Tribune. Earlier in her career, Kim held editing positions at The Arizona Republic and at The (New Orleans) Times-Picayune, where she was involved in that newspaper's Pulitzer Prize-winning coverage of Hurricane Katrina. Kim is past president of the Society for Advancing Business Editing and Writing, a national business journalism organization.

Patricia Garland’s human resources career spans 40 years, in roles that ranged from individual contributor to VP for a very large global division of a $16 billion corporation. Her expertise includes compensation and benefits design, organization development, labor relations and executive coaching. She is the author of 33 Ways Not to Screw Up HR and is an adjunct instructor at the Quinlan School of Business at Loyola University in Chicago.

Gillian Plummer is the Director, Employee Health and Wellness at Quest Diagnostics.

Nate is the Vice President, Head of Benefits and Health Services at  Pitney Bowes. 

Karl Ahlrichs helps organizations solve their talent shortage, using both AI tools and “next step” management tactics. He is a national speaker, author, and facilitator of challenging meetings, presenting on people issues with a focus on advanced HR tools, ethics and critical thinking. He is often quoted in the local and national media and is doing the final edits on his book “Best
Practices are Obsolete.” Karl has presented at every SHRM Annual Conference since 1999. He has held senior level positions in several Professional Services firms including Marsh & McLennan and Right Management Consultants, where his clients
included Apple, Frito-Lay, Boeing, and IBM. He was named the SHRM Human Resource Professional of the Year for the State of Indiana. He serves on the Boards of several organizations, including the Maryland CPA Society. He is a Certified Speaking Professional (CSP) with the National Speaker’s Association. Trained in journalism, Karl has written at every point in his career. He was a contributing author for the Journal of Accountancy for many years, writing a quarterly 10,000-word chapter on Human Resources issues. He is currently writing a monthly leadership column for Business Management Daily. Karl has lived in Scotland and Spain and is passionate about studying the healthcare systems in other countries. He loves intentionally improving himself by writing haiku, mastering photography, and improving his Spanish. He wishes he had stuck with his guitar lessons in high school and wants to learn ballroom dancing. He still owns the first car he ever drove, a 1927 Model T Ford.

Talikia is the Benefits Manager at Mérieux NutriSciences.