About the 2011 Speakers

Maxine Clark is one of the true innovators in the retail industry. During her 30+-year career, her ability to spot emerging retail and merchandising trends and her insight into the desires of the American consumer have generated growth for retail leaders, including department store, discount and specialty stores. In 1997, she founded Build-A-Bear Workshop®, a teddy-bear themed retail-entertainment experience. Today there are more than 400 Build-A-Bear Workshop stores worldwide, including company-owned stores in the U.S., Puerto Rico, Canada, the United Kingdom, Ireland and France, and franchise stores in Europe, Asia, Australia, Africa, Mexico and the Middle East. In 2009 and 2010, Build-A-Bear Workshop® was named to the FORTUNE 100 Best Companies to Work For® list.

Nate Butki (MA, MBA, SPHR) is a consultant with the Great Place to Work® Institute. His academic and career interests focus on three pillars - technology, business principles and human performance.

Dr. Michael Burchell is Vice President for Global Business Development and a senior consultant with Great Place to Work® Institute, Inc. Michael is responsible for the strategy and management of the overall Institute, and leads the Institute's sales and marketing efforts.

Jan Cipoletti, MODE, is a Senior Business Development Advisor and Managing Consultant with the Great Place to Work Institute®. In her role, Jan builds and sustains strong relationships with clients to ensure their experience engaging with Great Place to Work® Institute is valuable and positively impacts their journey of creating a great workplace.

Erin Liberman Moran is Senior Vice President of People and Client Services, based in our global headquarters in San Francisco, overseeing the Human Resources function and client delivery for the U.S. business.

Amy Lyman, Ph.D. is a co-founder, and currently the Director of Corporate Research for the Great Place to Work^® Institute.   In addition to overseeing Research and Analysis for the Institute, Amy Lyman works with leaders and managers on the interpretation of results and the design of action plans, serving as an advisor to leaders as they seek to transform their organizations into great workplaces...

Lindsay Nelson is a consultant for the Great Place to Work^® Institute, based in San Francisco. Lindsay joined the Institute in 2004 and is currently responsible for developing and facilitating learning networks that connect leaders from the FORTUNE 100 Best Companies to Work for® as well as leaders from companies seeking to transform their workplaces.

Holly N. Petroff is a Senior Consultant at Great Place to Work® Institute, Inc. She works with senior leaders to create and sustain great workplaces with a particular focus on workplace assessment and transformation. Holly has worked with a variety of industries, including technology, professional services, retail, healthcare, manufacturing, consumer products and not-for-profit. Some of her current clients include Wegmans Food Markets, TDIndustries, Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, Vonage, QlikTech and AlixPartners.

Jennifer Robin, Ph.D. is a Research Fellow at the Great Place to Work® Institute. A former consultant with the Institute, she led the Advisory Practice, helping senior leaders integrate their organization's culture with its strategy and aligning efforts to be a great workplace. Jennifer's experience as a leadership coach and her affirmative approach to organizational change energizes leaders while grounding them in clear objectives and action plans. She has worked with both companies already recognized for their great workplace cultures and those that aspire to do so.

Laurel Smylie is a Consultant with the Great Place to Work Institute®, based at the San Francisco headquarters. Laurel works with leaders to create and sustain great workplaces with a particular focus on workplace assessment, analysis and action planning.

In 1999, at the age of 24, Tony Hsieh (pronounced Shay) sold LinkExchange, the company he co-founded, to Microsoft for $265 million. He then joined Zappos as an advisor and investor, and eventually became CEO, where he helped Zappos grow from almost no sales to over $1 billion in gross merchandise sales annually, while simultaneously making FORTUNE Magazine's annual 100 Best Companies to Work For list. In November 2009, Zappos was acquired by Amazon.com in a deal valued at $1.2 billion on the day of closing. His first book, Delivering Happiness: A Path to Profits, Passion and Purpose was published in June 2010, and quickly reached #1 on the New York Times Bestseller List. For more information, please visit http://www.deliveringhappinessbook.com/.