This week on Conflict Managed we welcome Benjamin Chen. Together we explore:

Conflict Managed is available wherever you get your podcasts and on YouTube @ 3pconflictrestoration

Benjamin Chen is a serial entrepreneur, supply chain expert, and black belt in Tae Kwon Do, Hapkido and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. He has successfully built businesses across industrial, enterprise software, cloud, and consumer internet sectors. He's sat on the boards and senior management teams of 4 companies that have gone public in the U.S.; raised $500+M of investment capital; and helped lead M&A processes across 30 transactions. His from-scratch lighting and controls business generated $250+M in revenue in its first six years. He's also a professor at Freedom Jiu Jitsu in Carlsbad, CA. His new book is Lessons from the Mat: The 12 Martial Arts Principles that Will Help You Succeed in Business and in Life. Learn more at FromtheMatAcademy.com.

Conflict Managed is produced by Third Party Workplace Conflict Restoration Services and hosted by Merry Brown.

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This week on Conflict Managed we welcome Hanna Hasl-Kelchner. Together we explore:

Conflict Managed is available wherever you get your podcasts and on YouTube @ 3pconflictrestoration

Hanna Hasl-Kelchner’s a no-nonsense workplace fairness strategist and the award-winning author of 'Seeking Fairness at Work - Cracking the New Code of Greater Employee Engagement, Retention & Satisfaction.' Her straight talk and practical tools have helped organizations from startups to S&P 500 companies tackle the messy realities beneath the surface of employee engagement and retention.

Hanna works at the intersection of leadership, organizational psychology, and legal insight, which gives her a unique ability to cut through both jargon and wishful thinking. Her recent book, recognized by multiple major awards, unpacks how fairness expectations silently shape workplace culture and offers actionable steps for leaders navigating burnout and generational shifts. Hanna’s experience, including advising the White House and teaching top MBA programs, means she brings both real-world stories and research-backed frameworks to the table.

Conflict Managed is produced by Third Party Workplace Conflict Restoration Services and hosted by Merry Brown.

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This week on Conflict Managed we welcome Celeste Warren. Together we explore:

Conflict Managed is available wherever you get your podcasts and on YouTube @ 3pconflictrestoration

Celeste Warren is a visionary leader who had an impressive 28-year tenure at a global Fortune 100 company, where she rose to the esteemed position of Vice President and Chief Diversity & Inclusion Officer. During her decade-long leadership of the Global Diversity and Inclusion Center of Excellence, Celeste implemented groundbreaking initiatives that fostered a culture of inclusivity and equity, setting new standards in the industry.

After her retirement, Celeste founded Celeste Warren Consulting, LLC, where she passionately continues her mission to reshape the landscape of diversity and inclusion. Her consulting services empower organizations to create fair and equitable opportunities for all, driving meaningful change and enhancing workplace culture.

In addition to her consulting work, Celeste, alongside her two children, established Destination STEM, Inc., a nonprofit organization dedicated to providing vital resources and support to students of color and those in need pursuing degrees in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM).Throughout her illustrious career, Celeste has championed diversity, equity, and inclusion on a global scale, elevating the importance of understanding diverse cultures, perspectives, and beliefs within corporate strategies. Her visionary approach not only reshaped internal culture but also influenced the broader business landscape, empowering organizations worldwide to embrace inclusivity as a cornerstone of success.

She has recently published her second book entitled “The Truth About Equity, What It Really Is, What It Isn’t and Why Everyone Wins When We Get It Right.”

Conflict Managed is produced by Third Party Workplace Conflict Restoration Services and hosted by Merry Brown.

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This week on Conflict Managed we welcome Kevin Rice. Together we explore:

Conflict Managed is available wherever you get your podcasts and on YouTube @3pconflictrestoration

Kevin Rice is a founder and leadership advisor who knows firsthand how much intentional planning and sustained effort it takes to create healthy, genuinely human-centered workplaces. He grew Hathway from $0 to $42M in revenue, leading more than 200 people before the company was acquired. At Bounteous, he led growth efforts for a 5,000-person global team, deepening his understanding of scaling not just processes, but the cultures and leadership systems that actually allow people to thrive, even under real pressure.

What makes Kevin’s insight rare is that he’s lived through high-stakes conflict and culture-building, all while navigating a major personal transition to single parenthood at the peak of a hypergrowth phase. He now advises AI-driven companies and hosts the CEOs & ABCs podcast, where thousands of professionals tune in to hear about leadership, emotional intelligence, and building workplaces that don’t drain the very people you rely on.

Conflict Managed is produced by Third Party Workplace Conflict Restoration Services and hosted by Merry Brown.

This week on Conflict Managed we welcome Gavin McMahon. Together we explore:

Conflict Managed is available wherever you get your podcasts and on YouTube @3pconflictrestoration

Gavin McMahon builds things. Once, it was submarines, sports cars, and steel plants—big, complex systems built on logic and precise plans. But plans have a funny way of falling apart when people get involved.

As Gavin tried to figure out why, one truth became clear: People don’t move without a story. Business is more than just strategy and execution—it is persuasion and inspiration too. So he switched gears, traded engineering for business, and earned an MBA in Innovation, Strategy & Information Technology from the Institute Theseus in France.

Today, as CEO and co-founder of fassforward, he helps companies shape strategy, leadership, and culture through storytelling. Over the years, he’s worked with some of the world’s biggest brands and learned that even the best ideas will go nowhere if they aren’t told well. Now, he’s written a book about it, Story Business: Why Stories Rule the World and How They Can Reinvent Your Business.

In Story Business, Gavin McMahon takes you on a journey from ancient cave paintings to billion-dollar tech unicorns, revealing how storytelling is a powerful—and undervalued—tool for driving business success.

Conflict Managed is produced by Third Party Workplace Conflict Restoration Services and hosted by Merry Brown.

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This week on Conflict Managed we welcome Andre W. Thornton. Together we explore:

Conflict Managed is available wherever you get your podcasts and on YouTube @3pconflictrestoration

Andre W. Thornton is the founder and CEO of Whitman Consulting, one of the top ten leadership-development firms in the US, which helps organizations grow their people faster than their challenges.

A former engineering director at Lockheed Martin, Andre spent sixteen years leading teams on advanced aircraft programs and capturing over $1 billion in new business before discovering his true calling: developing leaders.

His book, Disrupted, introduces the two stabilizers and seven accelerators that turn chaos into growth—a framework drawn from neuroscience, engineering, and two decades of coaching experience.

Andre helps executives and teams raise their baseline, shorten recovery, and lead with clarity in times of change. He lives in Maryland with his wife, Myesha, and their two children.

Conflict Managed is produced by Third Party Workplace Conflict Restoration Services and hosted by Merry Brown.

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This week on Conflict Managed we welcome Michelle Hamilton. Together we explore:

Conflict Managed is available wherever you get your podcasts and on YouTube @ 3pconflictrestoration

After three decades leading major transformations, Michelle Hamilton started two AI companies to close that adoption gap. That work led her to AnswerRocket, an enterprise AI firm, who recruited her to build a new global division focused on practical AI adoption and change management. Michelle’s stance is clear: measurable business outcomes only happen when leadership bridges the gulf between innovation and everyday execution.

Conflict Managed is produced by Third Party Workplace Conflict Restoration Services and hosted by Merry Brown.

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This week on Conflict Managed we welcome Artem Koren. Together we explore:

Conflict Managed is available wherever you get your podcasts and on YouTube @ 3pconflictrestoration.

Artem Koren is the Co-Founder and Chief Product Officer of Sembly AI, where he is building a new category of meeting intelligence and enablement technology for professional services teams. With a background spanning systems engineering, enterprise consulting, and product leadership, Artem combines deep technical expertise with a strong understanding of how organizations operate—transforming everyday business conversations into structured insights that drive revenue, delivery, and decision-making.

Sembly, which Artem co-founded in 2019, leverages advanced natural language understanding to turn meetings into a source of operational intelligence—powering sales enablement, improving client delivery workflows, and helping teams capture and act on critical business information at scale.

Artem is passionate about using AI to augment human potential, enabling teams to work smarter, collaborate more effectively, and unlock value hidden within their day-to-day interactions. His work sits at the intersection of AI, enterprise productivity, and the future of knowledge work—pushing beyond simple automation toward systems that actively support how organizations sell, deliver, and grow.

Conflict Managed is produced by Third Party Workplace Conflict Restoration Services and hosted by Merry Brown.

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This week on Conflict Managed we welcome Masha Rusanov. Together we explore:

Identifying your default conflict pattern

The conflict is the enemy, not the people: uniting against the issue

Conflict Managed is available wherever you get your podcasts and on YouTube @ 3pconflictrestoration

Masha Rusanov is a conflict resolution expert, coach, and creator of the Exhale-Explore-Engage method. Drawing on Internal Family Systems, somatic psychology, and conflict theory, she helps people break free from legacy patterns to live with integrity.

Masha’s new book, Repatterned: How to Transform Your Conflict Defaults and Reclaim Your Life, introduces a practical three-step framework for interrupting automatic conflict reactions and responding with clarity instead of conditioning. Blending neuroscience, psychology, and real-life stories, Repatterned shows readers how to pause, recognize learned patterns, and choose responses aligned with their values.

Masha lives in California with her husband and their blended constellation of children.

Conflict Managed is produced by Third Party Workplace Conflict Restoration Services and hosted by Merry Brown.

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This week on Conflict Managed we welcome Laura Kriska. Together we explore:

Conflict Managed is available wherever you get your podcasts and on YouTube @3pconflictrestoration

Laura Kriska is a Harvard Business Review contributor, TEDx speaker, and the author of three books on trust, culture, and collaboration, including The Business of WE, The Accidental Office Lady, and her newest work, focused on practical trust-building in today’s organizations. Her article in Harvard Business Review, published in November 2024, was recently selected for a special edition to be released in May 2026.

Her career began at age 22 as the first American woman to work in Honda Motor Company’s Tokyo headquarters, an experience that launched a 30+ year career helping global teams, leaders, and organizations close the “us vs. them” gaps that quietly erode performance, culture, and results.

At a time when workplaces feel more divided than ever—across culture, politics, generations, functions, hybrid vs. in-office, and identity—Laura works with organizations worldwide on what actually creates change. Her approach goes beyond slogans, focusing instead on research-backed, practical actions that measurably build trust. Her work has been featured in Harvard Business Review and highlighted by platforms such as Seth Godin’s ChangeThis.

Laura’s life’s work centers on inspiring what she calls a “WE-building revolution,” moving people beyond awareness into meaningful action that narrows the gaps holding teams and communities back.

Conflict Managed is produced by Third Party Workplace Conflict Restoration Services and hosted by Merry Brown.

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