Frank Roche
Managing Partner
Ifractal

Frank's career has had a few twists and turns. He started out as a polymer physicist. Worked as a director of Total Quality. And he's spent a long time in HR communications. All of that was preparation for when Sarah Chambers and he cooked up the idea for IFRACTAL over a hot chocolate at a book store six years ago. Prior to interrupting the pattern at IFRACTAL, Frank led Mercer's Human Capital Practice in the Netherlands and was the Communications Leader for Continental Europe. Before that, he worked at Hewitt Associates and USA Today. Frank has a B.A. in communications and an M.A. in journalism and mass communications from the University of South Carolina. He also has a degree in chemistry.

Frank was a professional dog handler for a number of years. And he's an origami master.

Josh Haims
Senior Manager, Deloitte Consulting LLP
Leader National Learning and Talent Development

Josh is a Senior Manager in Deloitte Consulting’s Organization & Talent Practice. He leads the US Learning and Talent Development Market Offering for Deloitte Consulting and serves as the Global Senior Manager Sponsor of the Human Capital Value Map. He is the lead Senior Manager for the Deloitte Talent Development Portfolio and Serves a number of key global commercial clients including The World Bank, AIG, and Johnson & Johnson and has served a number of key global clients for Deloitte including MasterCard International, American Express, Zurich Insurance, Freddie Mac, and others as a Financial Services Major. With more than 14 years of consulting experience he has deep expertise in supporting clients with broad based enterprise learning strategies, technology adoption, risk management and regulatory adoption and design issues, communications and change management, and design of talent strategies across the talent lifecycle. 

Melissa Ackerman
Senior Manager
Deloitte Services LLP

Melissa Ackerman is the national Program Leader for the implementation of Mass Career Customization within the Deloitte U.S. Firms.  She has over 19 years of experience in talent and operations consulting in a wide variety of industries.  Melissa specializes in the development and implementation of solutions that address enterprise-wide transformational efforts and the performance of the Human Resources function. Her areas of specialty include:

·         Facilitating corporate change initiatives

·         Advising on and implementing career-life fit solutions

·         Creating broad-scale talent development solutions including talent review, performance management and succession planning

·         Developing and implementing HR service delivery models

·         Assessing and redesigning business processes

Carol Staubach is a senior level health consultant with extensive experience in the design and delivery of integrated health risk management programs. She is adept at analyzing and modifying an organization’s existing processes to reduce the direct and indirect costs associated with poor health.

Carol has developed future-focused health promotion and disease management products to deliver health counseling and educational interventions for employers and health plans.  She has assisted employers and third party administrators in developing and implementing effective wellness, disability management, and occupational health and safety programs with bottom line results.  Her experience includes creating medical case management services, provider networks, and early Return to Work programs within Workers' Compensation and non-occupational disability benefits administration.

Carol has a Master’s Degree in Public Health from the Drexel University School of Public Health.

Rick Uth, SPHR, is currently Director of Human Resources for SPS Technologies, Precision Castparts Corporation (PCC), Jenkintown, PA.  Operating over 100 plants worldwide, PCC is a $7 billion, diversified manufacturer of complex metal components and products serving the aerospace, power generation, automotive, general industrial and other markets.  

Rick specializes in human capital planning and workforce differentiation. His experience includes leading organizations in transitions that required consolidations and workforce reductions, as well as designing aggressive recruitment initiatives for start-up companies and major expansions in existing organizations.  Rick’s philosophy and focus on employee relations, understanding the value of inclusive communications strategy, coaching and development of leadership at all levels has assisted organizations to retain talent, reduce turnover and recruitment costs, avoid unnecessary absences, and experience major reductions in labor and legal claims. 

Rick has created inter-department process improvement and redesign initiatives around behavior-based safety and injury management processes that led to 60 - 85% reduction in injuries and over a half million dollars in annual savings among several employers.  Rick also specializes in integrating employee health management with benefits strategies across the board.  He has rolled out high-deductible health care plans and instituted wellness and health improvement plans, reducing lost work days related to illness, disability, and occupational injuries, as well as reducing avoidable health care claims. 

Rick holds a Bachelor of Science in Economics from Bloomsburg University, Bloomsburg, PA and is certified as a Group Benefits Associate (GBA) from the IFEBP & Wharton School of University of Pennsylvania.

Since 2001, Dr. Frank Ferry has been a Medical Director with Independence Blue Cross in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, a not-for-profit managed care organization with more than three million members.  A South Jersey resident for 27 years, Dr. Ferry completed his MBA from Rowan University in 2004. 

Dr. Ferry attended medical school and completed his pediatric residency at The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.  He has practiced general pediatrics in private practice, academic, and managed care settings.  Most recently he has worked clinically as a Pediatric Hospitalist.  Dr. Ferry founded two pediatric practices and has served as Regional Medical Director in a staff model managed care organization.  He has taught medical students, pediatric and family practice residents, and pediatric and family nurse practitioners.  At Rowan University he has taught in the School Nursing Program.  His family practice residents voted him “Teacher of the Year.” 

Dr. Ferry is Clinical Associate Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey and a Fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics.  He is a Certified Physician Executive with the American College of Physician Executives and a Certified Healthcare Insurance Executive with America’s Health Insurance Plans.

Jeffrey P. Bacher is a Senior Executive Compensation Consultant in the Philadelphia Office of the Hay Group. He has practice development and project leadership responsibilities for clients throughout the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern United States. Representative clients have included: Unisys Corporation, Exide Technologies, TTX Corporation, Nobel Learning Communities, LaSalle University, XM Satellite Radio and Maxell Corporation of America. Jeff has over twenty years of experience both in consulting and as a corporate executive. In addition to consulting experiences with Hay Group, Towers Perrin and Ernst & Whinney (Ernst & Young), Jeff was Vice President of Global Rewards for Unisys Corporation where he managed all compensation and benefit programs for 37,000 employees in over 100 countries. Jeff’s consulting background includes a wide variety of projects designed to assist clients with the integrated and effective management of executive compensation and other reward programs.

Jeff received his MBA from LaSalle University in Philadelphia and his BA from the University of Delaware. He is a member of NASPP is a frequent speaker on compensation topics, and lectures at both The University of Pennsylvania (Wharton School) and Villanova University. He has also been interviewed on executive compensation topics by CNBC and the Bloomberg Channel.

Jim is a leader in Hay Group’s reward practice (both executive and general workforce). Jim has broad industry experience, concentrates in the manufacturing, energy, and chemical sector which he leads. He also leads the North American job evaluation practice. His consulting focus is to help clients achieve the highest possible return on its human resources investment through culture change, performance management, and reward programs that align executive and employee interests with organizational and ownership interests. Jim works with clients to ensure they have human resources programs that facilitate engaged performance and create ownership value. His primary emphasis is helping organizations manage performance through clear organization and job design, executive and general workforce remuneration programs and performance management processes designed to build human capital, create clarity and sustained high performance. Jim has over 30 years of consulting experience, including responsibility for geographic, industry sector, client and practice leadership. He has considerable expertise and experience in developing total reward programs and performance management processes that align executive and workforce with ownership value.

Jim holds a Master's Degree in Industrial and Labor Relations from Cornell University with a minor in business administration. He held a teaching assistantship in statistics. Jim also has a Bachelor of Science degree in Industrial Psychology from Pennsylvania State University and is a graduate of Naval Officer Candidate and Naval Justice Schools.

Legislative Issues Impacting Employee Benefit Plans in 2010

Sandy Walters has more than 30 years of operational leadership and employee benefits/insurance industry experience. In addition to his roles as Executive Vice President and Senior Consultant, Sandy is a valued member of the Kelly & Associates Executive Management Team.

Prior to joining Kelly & Associates, Sandy served as Senior Vice President and Executive Director of United American Healthcare Corporation (NYSE). While there, he helped formulate and design a new worker’s compensation managed care program, earning more than $10 million in net revenue and employing more than 200 employees in five years. In 1988, Sandy co-founded Corporate Healthcare Financing, Inc., a national healthcare-consulting firm. Serving as President until 1993, he was responsible for its $20 million in net revenue. Earlier in his career, he was Chief of Operations and Management Analysis at the Department of Licensing and Regulations for the State of Maryland. During his tenure, he played a key role in the restructuring of the Insurance Division.

Sandy is an active member as well as serves on the board of the Society of Professional Benefits Administrators (SPBA). He is a Vietnam veteran and served as Treasurer and a board member of the Maryland Center for Veterans Education & Training (MCVET), the country’s first integrated training center for homeless veterans, for over 10 years.  

A graduate of the University of Maryland, Sandy earned his Master’s in Business Administration from the University of Baltimore.

Mike Wright is a Principal and Senior Investment Consultant responsible for client assignments and management of Buck’s investment consulting business.  Buck is an SEC registered investment advisor with offices in the United States and non-US locations.  Mike is located in the New York office. Mike joined Buck in 1993.  He has more than 20 years of investment related experience. Prior to joining Buck, he was a Principal with Wyatt’s Asset Services group.  Prior to Wyatt, Mike was a plan sponsor for Conrail and Mellon Bank. Mike consults to public and private Defined Benefit and Defined Contribution pension funds, insurance companies, and endowments on all investment related issues including investment policy, asset allocation, manager search, and performance evaluations. 

Mike has a Masters of International Management from the American Graduate School of International Management.

Frank Farmer is a Sr. Benefits Analyst at Day & Zimmermann for the last 4 years.  His primary focus in his current role is oversight for 8 defined contribution retirement plans, coordinating Investment Committee fiduciary monitoring, and mergers & integration related to acquisition.  Frank also participates in administration of Day & Zimmermann’s health & welfare plans and communication & open enrollment planning.  Prior to joining Day & Zimmermann, Frank was a Benefits Coordinator for Physiotherapy Associates where he was the day-to-day administrator for health & welfare and retirement plans. 

Frank received his Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from Shippensburg University, where he majored in Human Resources Management.

Harnessing the Power of Social Networking and Web 2.0

Bernadette is a Principal in the Philadelphia office of Mercer, specializing in employee communications. She assists clients in developing and executing strategies to communicate and manage change. Bernadette also specializes in compensation-related communications, including executive compensation, employee pay and performance management.

Bernadette is a member of the International Association of Business Communicators. She received her BA and MBA degrees at LaSalle University in Philadelphia.

Debbie Slappey is a Worldwide Partner of Mercer and serves as the Innovation Leader for the global Workforce Communication and Change business. She specializes in helping clients formulate and implement communication strategies to drive employee engagement from hire to retirement.

Debbie is also the product developer for Mercer’s Belong model – an approach to harnessing the power of online delivery to improve employee service and engagement. The model is based on best practice experience with dozens of corporate intranet sites and brings in the new dimensions of Web 2.0. It addresses the specific issues that drive effective communication strategy – personalization, interactivity, community, speed – across all components of the employment relationship.

She joined Mercer in 1995 in New York. Before joining Mercer, Debbie was a corporate communicator and communication consultant with another major HR consulting firm.

Debbie has a BA in journalism and public relations from the University of Georgia.

Scott Turner, a Senior Associate based in Mercer's Philadelphia office, works with leaders to envision and create new value by unlocking passion, commitment and innovation from talent across an organization. Scott's consulting approach is informed by his experience as an art director, marketing strategist and Philosophy professor. Scott is the creative director for Mercer’s Belong model – an approach to harnessing the power of online delivery to improve employee service and engagement.

Scott received his B.A. from the University of Richmond and studied art and philosophy in a Ph.D. program at Villanova University. Currently, Scott is working on an article examining the relationship between culture, Web 2.0, positive deviation and behavior change.