The Speakers

Steve Lowisz

As a keynote speaker, successful five-time entrepreneur, and global trainer, Steve blends deep, real-world experience with an engaging stage presence designed to capture attention, provoke thoughts, and drive real action. Every session is customized to drive the greatest possible impact, combining engaging stories (including personal failures) and practical tools and techniques that drive attendees to learn and act!

Steve Lowisz is the go-to expert on talent acquisition, talent optimization, personal development, diversity & inclusion, and business performance for a startup, equity-backed, and Fortune 500 companies across the globe. He has more than two decades of experience helping companies find and unlock the performance of their teams. Fact about Steve: 

• CEO of the Qualigence Group of Companies that he founded in 1999
• Served on the board of multiple non-profit organizations including Pathways Family Centers and Wheels for
• Warriors and is the founding member of the Qualigence Cares Foundation.
• Steve has been featured in Fortune Magazine, CNN Money, The Detroit Free Press and on Bloomberg Radio. 

Gretchen Smith

Having worked with recruiting leaders for over fifteen years, Gretchen Smith has seen the industry evolve over time. Today, as a Recruitment Evangelist at Indeed, she helps recruiting leaders pinpoint what’s important to them and understand how they can evolve with the industry, adapting to change to meet their goals. Using Indeed platform data and industry trend analysis, she delivers consultative meetings and large-scale presentations that uncover opportunities for improvement and catalyze change.

Heidi Frankosky

As the Director of Employee Experience and Internal Communications at North America’s leading flour supplier: Ardent Mills. Heidi partners with leaders across an expansive network -- more than 35 community flour mills, mixing facilities, bakeries, and offices across the United States, Puerto Rico and Canada – to create a values-based culture where employees feel informed, empowered to lead and connect to the mission, vision, and strategy.

After spending nearly a decade in various areas of Human Resources, Heidi joined the 5-billion-dollar startup Ardent Mills as an HR Integration Leader. She was integral in building the people programs and processes that shape the experience of their team members and company culture. She also led the development and introduction of Ardent Mills’ Employer Value Proposition (EVP): which reinforces the idea that Together, we make Ardent Mills. The EVP, titled The Promise, is a key part of the company’s five-year strategic plan and has ingrained itself in the fabric of the company through storytelling, leadership programs and cohesive messages that prompt reflection. The Promise has been shared externally through platforms like social media and a dedicated careers website.

For Heidi, its not just about building solid practices and cohesive messages – but about going further and empowering leaders and team members across the organization to build memorable moments and consistent experiences. She advocates for people metrics to be a key measure of business performance, which works to elevate the employee experience and in turn bolster customer satisfaction, growth and company performance.

Heidi holds a BA in Psychology and minor in Business Communications from Crown College.

Dave Hall 

 With over 20 years of marketing experience in the nonprofit, medical technology and travel sectors, Dave Hall brings a data-driven strategic marketing approach to his current role leading Employment Brand Marketing at Vail Resorts. Dave loves to explore where current best practices in consumer marketing can be leveraged in recruiting to optimize lead generation and conversion throughout the candidate funnel.

Kristen DesPalmes

Kristen DesPalmes is the Sr. Director of Employment Strategy at DaVita, a Fortune 500 company and the nation’s leading kidney care provider. Working from Denver, Colorado she leads the team responsible for Employment Branding, Recruiting Strategy/Innovation and Talent Selection. She brings over a decade of recruiting experience and relentless passion for this industry.  Kristen is currently leading an Artificial Intelligence pilot at DaVita and obtained her AI4HR certification. Kristen graduated from the University of Northern Colorado.

Kristen loves hearing insights from the collective recruiting community and sharing what’s working for them at DaVita along the way. In 2018, Kristen presented at the following; SHRM panel about industry trends and insights, Recruiting Automation Summit panel on Automation and AI in Recruiting, and on a webinar titled “The Art and Science of Acquiring Healthcare Talent in Today’s Labor Market”. In 2017, she presented on DaVita’s Selection Strategy at the ASHHARA Conference and Becker’s via webinar. Earlier in her career, Kristen has presented or co-presented at ERE conferences and webinars to include “Manage Your Media, Don’t Let it Manage You”,  “Fluidity, Flexibility, and Focus in Executing Social Media Strategy as Evidenced by DaVita” and more. Kristen is an active member of CareerXRoads.

Brian Schaffer

Brian currently holds the position of Director of Talent Acquisition for Vail Resorts and was previously in the same role at DaVita. He brings over 12 years of recruiting experience, both corporate and agency. He is passionate about bringing talent into the companies with whom he works. Brian believes in the importance of networking with other leaders in the industry. In his roles, he has lead the strategy for Talent Acquisition operations, technology, employment branding, analytics and executive recruiting.

Born and raised in the greater Denver area, he graduated from The University of Colorado in Boulder. He graduated with a Kinesiology degree and found his way into Human Resources through his love of helping people. He and his family reside in North Denver, where they enjoy taking advantage of all the outdoor activities Colorado has to offer.

Jason Buss

With 23 years of human resources and talent acquisition leadership experience, Jason Buss is a recognized expert with deep experience in identifying, recruiting and hiring high-performing teams. He is currently the vice president of talent acquisition for MongoDB.

Jason has authored and published content in, and has been quoted by The Huffington Post, Fast Company, Bloomberg, MarketWatch, Society for Human Resource Management, Corporate Executive Board and more.

He is also the founder of the Recruiters Network and serves as the president and community leader for several of the nation’s largest and most active regional recruiting communities. You can connect with Jason on LinkedIn or Twitter @jjbuss.