Frank Russell

President & Chief Executive Officer
GeoLearning, Inc.

Under Frank Russell's direction, GeoLearning has grown to be the leading provider of on-demand learning and performance management platforms and training services. The company's success has been recognized with several awards, including ranking on the Inc. 500/5000 list of America's fastest-growing private companies for six consecutive years (2004-2009), five years on the Software 500 list (2005-2009), "Training Product of the Year" from HR Executive Magazine, several American Business Awards (including "Most Innovative Company"), and TrainingIndustry.com's list of the "Top 20 Companies in the Training Outsourcing Industry" for six successive years (2004-09).

Frank himself was named CEO of the Year at the 2009 Prometheus Awards sponsored by the Technology Association of Iowa. He was voted to Training Industry's 2007 list of the "Most Influential Training Professionals" by his peers in the industry and was the 2006 Entrepreneur of the Year by the Des Moines Business Record. In 2005, Frank received the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year award in the Business Services category for the Central Midwest Region and was named Small Business Person of the Year for the State of Iowa by the U.S. Small Business Administration.

Shawn Achor

Founder & CEO
Aspirant

Shawn Achor, founder and CEO of Aspirant, works with organizations around the world seeking to create a more positive, productive workplace. In 2009 alone, Shawn was invited to lecture in 36 different countries on how positive psychology can raise happiness and performance. His work has received attention in The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, The New York Times and BusinessWeek. When the economy collapsed, the world's largest banks sent Shawn on a tour of banking crisis centers to restore confidence and forward progress. In addition, he has worked with doctors in Dubai, farmers in Zimbabwe, CEOs in Hong Kong and students in South Africa.

In 2006, Shawn served as Head Teaching Fellow with Dr. Tal Ben-Shahar of "Positive Psychology," a class that enrolled one out of every seven Harvard undergraduates. He won more than a dozen distinguished teaching awards during his time at Harvard, where he received his undergraduate degree. He also served as an Officer of Harvard, living in Harvard Yard studying and counseling students for seven years.

Shawn graduated magna cum laude before earning a master's degree from Harvard Divinity School in Christian and Buddhist ethics. Shawn has most recently been collaborating with Yale University on researching the link between happiness and performance. A book on his research and travels, The Happiness Advantage (Random House), hits shelves September 14.

Carolyne Matseshe-Crawford

Senior Director, Global Training & Consistency
Orbitz Worldwide

Carolyne Matseshe-Crawford started her career at Orbitz Worldwide in 1991 as a hotel desk agent, moving up to various call center agent, supervisor and management positions before becoming director of training and later Senior Director of Global Training & Consistency. Under her direction, Orbitz Worldwide and the Global Training & Consistency team have successfully implemented global process design and documentation, curricula, e-learning, online skills testing development, training class performance, vendor trainer certification, call center support, customer experience consistency governance and many other learning management tools.

Originally from Nairobi, Kenya, Crawford studied at the University of Colorado at Boulder.

Chris VanNote

Business Development Vice President
Farm Bureau

For over seventeen years, Chris VanNote has created dynamic learning solutions designed to educate agents in the financial services and insurance sectors and drive business growth. With an accomplished career at Farm Bureau Financial Services (FBFS), VanNote has served in numerous business development and leadership positions ranging from agency manager, regional vice president to business development vice president. He is currently responsible for the world-class learning infrastructure, technology, learner management and e-learning development at FBFS for agents spanning a fifteen state area. Van Note attended the University of Northern Colorado at Greeley.

Angela Vazquez

Director of Instructional Design
AMC Entertainment

As Director of Instructional Design at AMC Entertainment, a leader in the movie exhibition industry, Angela Vazquez has built a foundation of passion for training excellence and innovation. Delving into the e-learning community 10 years ago, she began to develop training strategies that aligned to organizational goals. In her current role, Vazquez directs the development of online and virtual training curricula and oversees the administration of the enterprise-wide GeoLearning training system, the AMC Learning Center.

Vazquez graduated from Kansas State University in Manhattan, Kansas, with a bachelor's degree in resource management and earned her master's in business administration from Rockhurst University in Kansas City, Missouri.

Rod Jones

Chief Learning Officer
DMG/Mori Seiki USA

Rod Jones joined DMG/Mori Seiki USA in 2007, and has crafted a blended education strategy that has created a strategic market differentiator with customers, raised the competency of employees and birthed a global brand. Jones has more than 30 years experience in industrial/commercial markets having worked for IBM, American Axle (formerly GM), General Electric, DeVileg Machine Company and Decision Technology. Additionally, Jones is the co-author of the American Machine Tool Distributors' "Certified Machine Tool Sales Engineer" training curriculum and certification program. He is co-author of "Speaking of Success" and his new book, "Marketing Strategies that Really Work" is co-authored with Jay Conrad Levinson, author of "Guerrilla Marketing".

Jones holds a bachelor's degree in mechanical and electrical engineering from Oakland University and a master's in applied psychology from the California Graduate School of Theology.