Executive Advisory Board

Nancy Altobello is a senior level business professional who currently serves on the board of directors of MTS Systems, MarketAxess, Fidelity Charitable  and Fairfield University. She is also the board chair of Mentor, the National Mentoring Partnership.

Nancy is a former Global Vice Chair and board member of Ernst & Young (EY), until her retirement in June 2018. At EY, Nancy served in numerous leadership roles including as an Audit Partner, serving Fortune 500 companies, startup and mid-size companies; as a Managing Partner of the Northeast audit and consulting businesses; and as Vice Chair of Talent developing and leading the strategy to transform all elements of Talent Management to maximize EY’s greatest asset, its people.

During Nancy’s leadership, EY was recognized for excellence in Talent by Fortune Great Place to Work, Diversity Inc., Working Mothers Magazine, Universum, Global Most Admired Knowledge Enterprise (MAKE) Awards, HRC and many others during Nancy’s leadership.

Nancy and her husband Joel live in Greenwich, Ct and Boston, MA.

Deborah J. Muller is the CEO of HR Acuity, the only technology platform specifically built for employee relations management. Deb brings more than 25 years of human resources and workplace investigation experience to the company and is a recognized expert and sought-after speaker in Employee Relations and workplace investigations.

Prior to founding HR Acuity, Deb held executive HR position in Fortune 500 companies, including Honeywell, Citibank and Marsh & McLennan, and also served as an independent workplace investigator.  She is the founder of the Employee Relations Roundtable, an interactive forum that brings together employee relations leaders to connect, collaborate and share their learnings, practices and processes related to Employee Relations.

Deb earned her BS from Cornell University’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations and an MA from the University of Maryland. Additionally, she completed training on The Reid Technique of Interviewing & Interrogation and is listed on the Cornell University Institute for Conflict Resolution’s Roster of Neutral Fact-Finders.

Ally Coll is President and Co-Founder of the Purple Campaign, a non-profit whose mission is to end workplace sexual harassment by implementing stronger corporate policies, establishing better laws and empowering people to create lasting change within their own workplaces and communities.

Ally is a magna cum laude graduate of Harvard Law School with experience at the intersection of law, policy and politics. She draws from her work on policy reform in both the U.S. House and Senate, legal education on women’s issues, and experience serving in leadership positions on numerous federal campaigns to help the Purple Campaign achieve lasting change.

Coll has worked on numerous statewide political campaigns, serving as the Field Director for U.S. Senator Patty Murray’s (D-WA) successful 2010 re-election and U.S. Senator Tim Kaine’s (D-VA) successful 2012 campaign for Senate. She also over saw joined Hillary Clinton’s national Election Day legal operations and the campaign’s volunteer lawyer program as the campaign’s Deputy National Voter Protection Director.

Kim is Chief Human Resources Officer for the Y in Central Maryland, where she leads the Human Resources function, responsible for developing and executing a human resource strategy in support of the mission and strategic direction of the organization, specifically in the areas of shaping and supporting a positive culture, talent management, training and development, and compensation and benefits.

Prior to joining the Y in Central Maryland, Kim founded and managed Keating Advisors, an HR consulting firm that specializes in compensation, organizational development and performance management. Kim developed a team of consultants supporting nonprofit organizations to develop effective talent management strategies for over 15 years. Keating Advisors helps nonprofits align their strategy, talent management and compensation practices to achieve strategic objectives and deliver improved performance and results. She also has held roles at Mercer Consulting and Teach for America.

Kim holds an M.B.A. from the Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration and a B.B.A. in Finance from Southern Methodist University. Kim is currently a board member of Leanin.org Foundation, whose mission is to encourage women to pursue their ambitions, and NURU International, a nonprofit dedicated to ending global extreme poverty. She is also a contributing author to the book, Lean in for Graduates.

Chiaki Nishino is Senior Partner at Prophet, where she is a member of the Executive Committee and leads the company’s North American business. She also leads the Women in Leadership initiative globally for Prophet.

In her role as head of North America business, Chiaki oversees the region’s overall commercial strategy, its core client relationships and talent strategy. She is also a strategic client advisor to many clients in financial services, healthcare, and technology, bringing extensive experience in business, marketing, brand and experience strategy.

Prior to joining Prophet, Chiaki was a Partner at Lippincott Mercer where she led a wide range of brand strategy and management projects, and earlier, she honed her business and marketing strategy skills at Mercer Management Consulting.

Chiaki has spoken at Conference Board conferences and ANA webinars and authored articles on topics of customer experience and engagement, centricity and loyalty, marketing accountability and effectiveness and brand strategy. In October 2010 Chiaki Nishino was named a "Future Leader" by Consulting Magazine's Women Leaders in Consulting recognition program. Chiaki holds a B.A. in Government and East Asian Studies from Harvard University, and an M.B.A. in Marketing Strategy from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, where she was designated Palmer Scholar.

Jessica Perry is Chief Publishing Officer for the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), responsible for advancing digital transformation at SHRM and overseeing business operations that drive digital and print media content, revenue and experiences.

An accomplished leader in online publishing, Perry has more than 25 years of experience directing new technology initiatives for major media operations, with an emphasis on premium and multimedia product and revenue development. Prior to joining SHRM, Perry was Vice President and General Manager at the National Journal division of Atlantic Media, overseeing digital strategy and operations for free membership and mobile products.

Previously, she led product operations at Conde Nast Digital, responsible for defining, developing and implementing web and mobile product initiatives and enhancements for more than 20 brands, including The New Yorker, Wired GQ, Epicurious, and Glamour.   

Perry began her career laying the digital future for Dow Jones, with roles spanning editorial, marketing, business and product development.  She initiated the first web content licensing efforts for Dow Jones, and was on the founding team of the Wall Street Journal Online, responsible for revenue-driving online partnerships. As SVP of Marketing and Business Development for the company's Consumer Electronic Publishing group, she oversaw circulation and marketing for WSJ.com, MarketWatch and Barron's. 
 
Perry is chair emeritus and currently serves on the executive committee of the Software & Information Industry Association, the principal trade association for B2B content and data providers, offering events, training and services in government relations and intellectual property.   

Perry earned Master's and Bachelor's degrees from Northwestern University. 

As the senior HR officer for Equinox, Kelly leads and helps others maximize their potential at Equinox. He is responsible for all aspects of the company’s People Services Team. Kelly strives every day to lead in a more heart-centered, data-driven, strategic way and reinvent the way HR contributes to the bottom line. Kelly is an experienced HR “servant leader” who holds a BA from Texas State University and an MA in Organizational Leadership from Gonzaga State University.

Marc is responsible for leading the research and development of Automatic Data Processing’s (ADP’s) Analytics and Big Data platform.  Marc drives the innovation and thought leadership behind the ADP DataCloud, which not only reads the pulse of ADP clients’ human capital, but also combines that insight with quantifiable big insight to suggest the best courses of action to pursue workforce-related business outcomes.   

Marc was also an instrumental leader behind the small business market payroll platform; RUN Powered by ADP®.  Marc led a number of the technology teams responsible for delivering its critically acclaimed product focused on its innovative user experience for small business owners 

Prior to joining ADP, Marc’s innovative spirit and fascination with data was forged at Bolt Media--a dot-com start-up based in NY’s “Silicon Alley”.  The company was an early predecessor to today’s social media outlets.  As an early ‘Data Scientist,’ Marc focused on the patterns and predictions of site usage by harnessing of the data on its 10 million+ user profiles.   

Marc received his Master’s degree in Business Communications from Emerson College in 1995 with a focused study on industry innovations through technology. 

Steve has been in the marketing research industry for over 30 years, leading Schlesinger Group for the past 20 years. Steve has created the strategy and vision for Schlesinger Group as the world’s leading data collection company.

Steve served for 8 years on the board of the then Marketing Research Association, finishing his tenure as the Secretary of the Board. He is a founding member of the Insights Association CEO Summit and continues his involvement, co-chairing the events.  Steve is also founding member of Marketing Research Education Foundation.

Steve is an active member of Insights Association, AMA, ESOMAR & PMRG. He was presented the MRA (Insights Association) Honorary Lifetime Member award in 2015, in recognition of a commitment of outstanding individual service to the Association and the marketing research profession.

Steve serves on the board of directors of Inspire.com, the board of directors of Free All Media, the advisory board of The University of Vermont Foundation, the advisory board of HR Acuity and the Advisory Board of Michigan State University Master of Science in Marketing Research Program.

Steve is a graduate of the University of Vermont with a Bachelor’s of Science in Biochemistry. His numerous passions include innovation and technology as well as tennis, golf and travel. He is married with two grown children.

Karen Walker is a strategic advisor, coach, consultant, speaker and author.  As employee #104 at Compaq Computer, Karen helped lead the (then) fastest growing - and fastest to $1 billion in revenue - company in American history. After working at Compaq for fourteen years, with annual revenues growing to $15 billion, she left to begin her consultancy.

Her work with high-level leaders facing growth at lightspeed has supported outcomes including IPOs, acquisitions, and dramatic market share increases. Karen’s clients include startups, Inc. 500 and Fortune 500 firms.

Karen has a B.S. degree in engineering from Texas A&M University and attended Columbia University for post-graduate courses in Organization Development. She resides in Jupiter, FL, although she can most often be found aloft in seat 2C.