Conference Agenda

Keynote - Henry Esparza, Vice President Manufacturing Drug Delivery for a Division of Johnson & Johnson

Henry Esparza has been with Johnson & Johnson since 1974 where he has held several positions in Operations, Sales & Marketing.  Currently, he is the Vice President of Manufacturing Drug Delivery for a division of Johnson & Johnson.

He received his Bachelor Degree from Angelo State University in San Angelo, Texas and went on to attend the Program for Management Development (PMD) at Harvard.  Henry has held several Supply Chain positions of increased responsibility starting as a wage line operator, production supervisor, and engineering manager, Plant Manager and eventually held several Vice President of Operations positions.   Within Johnson & Johnson Henry was transferred to Sales and eventually into Vice President of Sales and Marketing.  In addition, Henry started a Business Unit for Johnson & Johnson in Women’s Health and today the unit is a significant contributor to Johnson & Johnson.   He has held the position of Group Vice President, Worldwide Operations and Administration where he led Worldwide Operations, Manufacturing, Information Management and Business Improvement, which included Miami FL, Warren NJ, Juarez Mexico, Roden NL, and Puerto Rico.  Recent Staff responsibilities included the position of Vice President Business Assessment where his responsibility spanned across all sectors of Johnson & Johnson to enable flawless execution by assessing company’s progress in attaining the highest standards of business excellence. 

Henry, is a recipient of many awards including the Johnson & Johnson’s Leadership Award, Quality Award, Special Achievement Award and Puerto Rico’s Manufacturing award to mention a few.  Henry has been involved in various boards such as United Way, American Heart Association, In-Roads in South Florida, American Cancer Society, Member of Manufacturing Advisory Group to Representative Diaz-Balart, and Chair of the General Manager’s Council of Johnson & Johnson companies in Puerto Rico.  Currently Henry is on the NSHMBA Board of Directors as an at Large Member.

Master of Ceremonies - Lou Trujillo, Vice President Business Unit General Manager Frozen Foods, Safeway Inc.

Lou began his Safeway career in 1974 when he took a job bagging groceries and helping customers at the local Safeway store. He spent 15 years working in various stores performing such jobs as cashier, stock clerk, front-end manager and head clerk. In 1990, Lou transferred to the backstage marketing support offices in Denver where over the next ten years he worked as a Buyer, Procurement Supervisor, Category Manager, and Sales Manager.

Lou transferred to the Safeway Phoenix Division in 2000 and was promoted to Director of General Merchandise Health and Beauty Care . In August of 2002, Safeway consolidated their divisional marketing operations and relocated to Pleasanton, California, and was promoted to Director of Sales and Marketing of 2002, Director Corporate Non-Foods in July of 2003, and Vice - President Business Unit General Manager Frozen Foods in November 2004, which is the position he currently holds.

In July of 2004, Lou was elected as the Chairperson of the Safeway Hispanic Leadership Network. In this role, Lou oversees the development of the organization within Safeway, whose goals are to promote diversity through awareness and recognition of Hispanic/Latino cultural heritage. The network has succeeded in developing communication, outreach, professional development, and visibility for our Hispanic/Latino employees.

Lou received his Bachelor of Science degree from Metropolitan State College of Denver in 1994 and is a graduate of the Marshall School of Business Food Industry Program at USC. Lou was recognized by the San Francisco Hispanic Chamber of Commerce as one of the most influential Bay Area Latinos of 2007. He believes strongly that education is the key to achieving success, especially for the youth of the Hispanic community.

Lou is actively involved with the following organizations, Safeway Hispanic Leadership Network, NSHMBA, ECHO, Hispanic College Fund, Big Brothers Big Sisters of the Bay Area.

Safeway Welcome Speaker - Russ Jackson, Senior Vice President Human Resources, Safeway, Inc.

Russ Jackson joined Safeway Inc. in March 2007 and is responsible for payroll, employee relations, diversity, compensation, training and development, leadership planning, talent management, health and wellness, and facilities management programs

Mr. Jackson joined PG&E as a member of the Customer Services organization in 1980, and over the next 27 years, held various positions of steadily increasing responsibility in Customer Services, Marketing and General Management areas.  Jackson was named Senior Vice President of Human Resources, for both Pacific Gas and Electric Company and PG&E Corporation in August of 2004.  In that role, he was in the forefront of transformation efforts to refocus the utility’s strategic vision and improve its operational performance and efficiency.

Jackson graduated from San Jose State University with a Bachelors Degree in Business.  He also has a MBA from St. Mary’s College and a Masters Degree in Human Resources and Organizational Development from the University of San Francisco, along with a Certificate in Human Resources Management from the University of California at Berkeley.

Tiffany D. Showell

Pre-MBA - Workshops 1 - 3

Tiffany is currently an Independent Consultant supporting project and program development work for MBA Programs and Executive Education Programs. Additionally, she provides MBA application consulting on an ad hoc basis for prospective candidates who are considering business school.

Tiffany has been committed to a career of raising awareness, directing and impacting the number of people of color who pursue careers and professional degrees in business. Most recently, she worked as a Principal Diversity Consultant for Genentech, where she developed the first comprehensive diversity recruitment strategy for the Commercial and Product Development business units. Prior to Genentech, she was the Director of Fellow and Alumni Programming for the Robert Toigo Foundation.

Tiffany joined Toigo after serving a seven-year tenure as an MBA Admissions Officer for the Stanford Graduate School of Business and the Tuck School at Dartmouth. During her role as an MBA Admissions officer, she lead the development of programs and opportunities to increase diversity within the business school community. She launched her career serving as the first Executive Director of Management Leadership for Tomorrow (MLT). Additionally, she is co-founder of the Ten School Diversity Alliance ("TSDA"); a former Advisory Group member for the Diversity Pipeline Alliance (DPA); serves on the Board of Directors for the Bay Area Black United Fund; a member of NBMBAA and NSHMBA; and an informal mentor/professional development counselor to hundreds of students and MBA alumni/ae around the country.

Tayson Hoang, GMAT Instructor

Tayson currently works for Microsoft as a Technical Account Manager for its Advertiser and Publisher Solutions Group which specializes in Digital Marketing Technology.  In this role, he works with top tier advertising agencies and national brand advertisers on their online campaigns. 

Tayson has been teaching the GMAT and SAT at Kaplan for over 3 years.

Marcela Monge, Director of Talent Management, LifeScan, a Division of Johnson & Johnson
Maricela Monge is the Director of Talent Management at the Diabetes Franchise, a Johnson & Johnson Company dedicated to “Creating a World Without Limits for People with Diabetes.”

In this role, Maricela is a champion of Talent Management and a people advocate. Her charge is to “develop a robust pipeline of extraordinary leaders and build organizational capabilities to win global competitive advantage.”  In addition, she strives to “improve retention of critical capabilities and key talent, build pipeline depth in critical positions and key functions and increase diversity of thought and representation.”  Her personal belief is “It’s All About Developing Our People.  It’s All About Developing Yourself.”

Maricela has extensive global experience, leading international cross-functional teams in creating performance management and development planning tools.  She currently serves on the Johnson & Johnson Talent Management Council for the Comprehensive Care Sector. 

Additionally, Maricela has more than 20 years of experience in Human Resources.  As a Human Resources Business Partner she provided global strategic human resource support to Sales & Marketing, Operations, Quality & Regulatory, and other integrated business units.

Maricela earned her Bachelor of Science in Organizational Behavior from the University of San Francisco.  She holds certifications from Hermann International in the Hermann Brain Dominance Institute (HBDI) assessment tool and Discovering Emotional Intelligence from Talent Smart. 

She lives in Fremont, California with her husband and two sons.

Anne Griswold, Director, Organizational Effectiveness, LifeScan, Inc. – Diabetes Franchise a J&J family of Companies

Anne is currently the Director of Organizational Effectiveness at LifeScan, Inc. based in Milpitas, CA.  Anne has more than 20 years of experience in organizational design and development, learning strategy, and project management.  She has worked in many industries including Diagnostics, Technology, Healthcare, Hospitality, Food Service, Education, and Government.  Much of this work was in the position of President of Catalyst Communication and Consulting.  She has extensive experience developing and implementing core curriculum, building leadership capability and designing an infrastructure for sustainable organizational learning systems. 

Anne has earned a B.A. in Communications from the University of Maine, an M.S. in Management Science/Organizational Development from the Antioch New England Graduate School, and a Masters of Arts in Organizational Leadership through the Graduate Institute.  She is a committed learner, teacher and leader of learning and knowledge transfer in all areas of life.

She lives in Saratoga, CA with her husband and two sons. She likes to learn, read, hike, swim and paint.

Elizabeth Santilli, Regional Human Resource Director, The Central Pacific Group of Cintas Corporation

Elizabeth Santilli was born In Manhattan, NY – and was the first born American child of Cuban immigrants.

Elizabeth has a BBA and an MBA from the Mays Business School at Texas A & M University. Her undergraduate major was Finance with a minor in accounting. Elizabeth is also fluent in English, Spanish and Portuguese.

After completing her undergraduate degree she became a tax auditor for the State of Texas. She then went into banking and was a Bank Officer by the age of 28. Upon completing her MBA, she was recruited by WAL*MART Corporation and joined their International Division as the International Corporate Audit Manager.

From 1997 - 2000 she traveled to Wal*Mart's foreign operations and was involved in due diligence projects for acquisitions in Korea, Japan, UK, and Germany.  Additionally, she spent a considerable amount of time working in Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, Canada, and Puerto Rico.

In 2000, Elizabeth was promoted and became the CFO (Chief Financial Officer) over a wholly owned subsidiary of Wal*Mart, CMI – Claims Management Inc. In 2003, she became responsible for Risk Analysis and Security Services for the company globally.

She transferred to California as the Regional Human Resource Director for the Western Region.
In 2006, she resigned from Wal*Mart and joined The Cintas Corporation as the Regional Human Resource Director for the Central Pacific Group.

François Xavier Rongère, High Tech, Bio Tech, and Healthcare, Pacific Gas & Electric
Francois is managing PG&E energy efficiency program for the sectors of HighTech, BioTech and Healthcare. In that position he is in charge of providing customers with solutions and services to improve their facility energy and environmental performance. He has previously been responsible for the introduction and assessment of Emerging Technologies in the Industry Sector. Before joining PG&E, Mr. Rongere held different technical and management positions at the R&D Division of Electricite de France (EDF, a French utility) where he developed innovative products for a variety of applications and created Easenergy Inc., its venture organization in the USA. He created in 2007 a new class about Alternative Energy Sources at San Jose State University focusing on renewable energies. He is a graduate of the Institut National  Polytechnique de Grenoble in France.

Shirley Y. Van de Wiel

Pacific Gas and Electric Company
Shirley Van de Wiel is currently Manager of Technical Accounting at Pacific Gas and Electric Company, a public investor-owned utility, based in San Francisco.  Pacific Gas and Electric Company’s primary business is the transmission and delivery of energy.  Shirley leads the Technical Accounting team and has held this role since July 2006.  Her team’s responsibilities include the adoption of new accounting pronouncements, and determining the appropriate accounting treatment for the Company’s significant and complex transactions.  Prior to joining Pacific Gas and Electric Company, Shirley held several positions in Deloitte & Touche’s assurance practice.  She spent her first six years with Deloitte & Touche in Europe, and the next three years in the USA.  Shirley holds bachelor’s degrees in accounting science from the Business School of Economics in the Netherlands, and the University of South Africa.  Shirley and her husband, Mark, live in San Francisco, CA.

Andrea A. Conrad

Pacific Gas and Electric Company
Andrea Conrad is a Supervisor in the Technical Accounting group at Pacific Gas and Electric Company, a public investor-owned utility, based in San Francisco.  Pacific Gas and Electric Company’s primary business is the transmission and delivery of energy. Andrea has been with Technical Accounting since June 2007. She was previously in Pacific Gas and Electric’s External Reporting department where she worked on SEC and Regulatory filings. Andrea previously held positions at Ernst & Young, LLC in New Orleans, LA and Houston, TX. She also worked in the Internal Audit and External Reporting for a Houston, TX based engineering and construction company, McDermott International. Andrea received her bachelor’s degree in Accounting from Louisiana State University. Andrea and her husband, Drew, live in San Francisco, CA.  

Jeffrey Hatchell, Founder, Over The Top Coaching

Jeffrey David Hatchell is an 18-year business professional and award winner with a track record of exceeding goals and living a purpose driven life. He is using the experience to develop the innate ability in others to do the same.

Hatchell is president and founder of “Over The Top Coaching”, a company he began to help people uncover and maximize their talents, natural abilities, and skills. Through motivational speaking, communication skills workshops, and personal coaching, this passionate professional brings out the best in others to help them realize their full potential and to live more fulfilled lives.

Experience & Education

Hatchell, most recently held the position of Vice President and Business Banking Manager with Wells Fargo. Hatchell started with Wells Fargo as a Strategic Business Manager for California Business Banking Bay Division. In this capacity, Hatchell developed and helped execute business plans, sales initiatives, and enhanced internal partnering. In addition, Hatchell was a member of the Wells Fargo African American Strategic Board of Directors.

Hatchell worked over six years with American Express in a variety of areas. As National Sales Director responsible for new business development As a Manager of Regional Accounts, Hatchell exceeded sales goals by 192%, ranking second out of thirty managers in North America. As a result he received the American Express Grand Achievers Award.

This Coach U graduate received his Masters of Business Administration degree (GPA: 3.7) from Nova Southeastern University and a Bachelor of Business Administration in Marketing degree from Howard University. He is a recipient of “Who’s Who in American Junior Colleges” award. Jeffrey is also the Vice President of Administration for the National Black MBA Association San Francisco Bay Area Chapter and an active member of 100 Black Men Inc.

Family

Hatchell currently resides in Oakland, California with his college sweetheart Michelle. Their 11 year marriage has resulted in Jeffrey David becoming a proud father of two daughters and one son. Jenay age 6, Justin age 2, and McKayla born in September