The cavnessHR podcast

For our 50TH episode, we thank our previous guests, talk about the process of going from episode zero to episode 50 and the future of cavnessHR.

John is a husband, father, entrepreneur, and Cleveland sports fan. In 2010, John started Willory, an award-winning organization focused solely on staffing and consulting for HR and payroll. His 22-year career has been focused on paying particular attention to understanding the needs of his clients, candidates, and partners. The Willory team helps clients transform their people, process, and technology by ensuring they have the best people in their HR and payroll departments, employee life cycle processes are efficient and compliant, and their HCM technology is optimized. John has made a name for himself through his board involvement with the Cleveland chapters of SHRM, APA, and IHRIM. He has presented across Ohio and Western Pennsylvania. Married since 1997, John is a life-long Northeast Ohio resident. He spends time playing golf and with his kids, coaching their sports teams and encouraging their creative endeavors.

Lauren is a curiosity seeker with a deep desire to learn, share, help and laugh. From Lauren’s start as a certified international teacher of language, to her ever-growing collection of degrees, certificates and professional accolades, it’s her infectious ability to bring people into her world of curiosity and possibility, which has gained her success. A trainer, designer, facilitator, speaker, mentor, coach, and self-proclaimed pirate, she takes you on your own guided learning journey. Lauren creates with you, epic learning adventures and solutions, drawing on her 16 years of professional experiences that span the globe, industries, on land and at sea, and even sometimes in the air. She taps into the science, and fun of learning, while maintaining a sharp approach with intense dedication to the success of others.

Rob is passionate about helping companies succeed by leveraging technology to make employees successful. With his unique experience in HR Technology as a founding employee at Achievers, Rob co-founded WorkTango – a software that helps give employees a voice and companies actionable insight. He has recently been named as a 2018 Top Global Employee Engagement Influencer, has had the privilege of speaking in over 30 cities the past three years, and loves the opportunity to connect with passionate HR leaders across the globe. He is an avid hockey and volleyball player, traveler and, in his own terms, a point-acholic. He likes collecting points for anything and everything.

Sapna brings more than two decades of domestic and international management consulting experience in sales and business operations in the technology, financial services, and telecommunications industries. She has significant experience in leading large-scale business and IT transformation programs to deliver consistent end-user experience in demanding and fast-paced environments. Sapna is known for her constant industry curiosity and new and emerging technologies that will enable different industries to be on the forefront of this digital revolution. She has the CanInnovate podcast that focuses on learning from Innovators that are crushing it in the industry. Plus she has a career coaching business, where she provides some tactical advice to get the results her clients deserve. She is a globally recognized Certified Management Consultant (CMC), and Chartered Professional Accountant (CPA).

Wayne Sutton is a serial entrepreneur and co-founder of Change

Catalyst and its Tech Inclusion programs. Change Catalyst builds inclusive tech ecosystems through strategic advising, startup programs and resources, and a series of events around the globe. Sutton’s experience includes years of establishing partnerships with large brands to early-stage startups. As a leading voice in diversity and inclusion in tech, Sutton shares his thoughts on solutions and culture in various media outlets where he has been featured in TechCrunch, USA Today, and the Wall Street Journal. In addition to mentoring and advising early-stage startups, Sutton’s life goal is to educate entrepreneurs who are passionate about using technology to change the world.

Skylar Bjorn is an 18-year-old tech event blogger. Her interest in tech and

business begun when she was 14 years old. She started off with founding

an organic dog treat line called “Bjornies”. By the time she was 15, she

founded a club, had sat on a board for the past year, and got her first paid internship doing operations at a startup called Choctal. Her sales journey also began at 15 years old when Choctal had her sell at events, which led her to be recruited 8 times while in high School. By the time Skylar was 16 she had begun another job in sales and coded her first iPhone app called Closet Track. While a senior in high school, she programmed her second iPhone called Serene VR which is a meditation virtual reality app. Currently, Skylar is a freshmen at Loyola Marymount University, class of 2021, which is located in Los Angeles.

Dr Cheryl Ingram is the CEO and founder of Diverse City LLC and Inclusology and has specialized in diversity, equity and inclusion work for 17 years. Working with such clients as Netflix, University of Washington, Uber, Ada Developers Academy, and the Greater Seattle Business Association. Her expertise helps companies increase transparency and awareness. Ending the discriminatory practices and biases to create more positive, productive work environments. Cheryl has been awarded New Business of The Year in 2017 and is a finalist for the Advocate Award in the Champion Awards hosted by the Female Founders Alliance of Seattle.

Peter Pease is a UK entrepreneur who has created multiple businesses since graduating in psychology in 1987. He took one business from startup to IPO and sold his last one in 2011… It’s still going strong… they were all in the people bit of B2B services, things like L&D, HR, Recruitment, Vocational Education. He’s been responsible for the development of more than forty thousand learners and his businesses have worked with more than a hundred thousand job seekers.

He now works as a part time professor at Newcastle Business School – in the North East of England – his first experience of working for someone else since school.

He is currently undertaking research as part of a PhD looking at the

psychological journey of business founders. He’s developing a psychometric tool based on a global sample of business founders and is looking for people to take the trial version of the test. If you take the test you will get a free report showing how your Psychological Capital comp.

On today's episode we’re doing something a little different. Usually, I’m the one interviewing people. But today, we have five students from the Pacific Lutheran University HR Department that’s going to interview me today