Keynotes

"Stewardship of Your Institution: What Role Can HR Serve?"

Diane B. Patrick

Keynote Sponsored by: Mercer

Diane B. Patrick, a partner in the Labor & Employment Department at Ropes & Gray LLP (as well as the First Lady of Massachusetts), specializes in advising and representing employers.

Patrick received her bachelor’s degree in early childhood education in 1972 from Queens College of the City University of New York, and in 1980 received her juris doctorate from Loyola. She married Deval Patrick in 1984, and they moved to Massachusetts in 1986.

In Massachusetts, Patrick took a position at Harvard as University Attorney in the Office of General Counsel, where she spent six years before becoming Harvard's Director/Associate Vice President for Human Resources. She is currently a partner at Ropes & Gray in Boston, where she has been able to combine her passion for education and her background in labor and employment law.

"The Savvy Owl — Politics, Power and Influence … What They Don't Teach You in School"

Margaret Morford

Margaret Morford's Keynote Address Sponsored by Fidelity Investments

Accomplishing the goals and objectives of any organization requires more than just smart employees who work hard. It requires savvy employees who know how to forge alliances and avoid animosities in order to be effective. Participants identify which of the rules of "positive politics" they are most likely to violate as well as obtain guidelines for being smart about their own conduct, about their business communication, about their relationships with co-workers and about their relationship with their supervisor. In addition, they learn numerous ways to recognize who really holds power and has influence and how to tap into the power structure within any organization.

Margaret Morford is president for The HR Edge, Inc., an international management consulting and training company. Prior to owning her own company, Morford was senior vice president of human resources consulting for a national consulting firm out of Winston-Salem, North Carolina. She has a bachelor's degree from the University of Alabama and a juris doctorate from the Vanderbilt University School of Law. She has worked as an attorney, specializing in employment law, and has been vice president of human resources for three large companies.

She is often quoted as a business expert in newspapers and magazines across the country including The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Chicago Tribune, USA Today and Entrepreneur and appears regularly on local ABC, CBS and Fox television affiliates. She is the author of the videos Running With the Big Dogs: How to Make HR a Strategic Player and The Confident Supervisor, as well as the business book, Management Courage: Having the Heart of a Lion.