For the first time ever we are both in person and virtual. We are excited to offer this live event on zoom for any audience member that cannot join us in person at USC. Please register to reserve your seat either in person or on zoom with the link below.

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Topic: Reimagining Leadership for the Future in Los Angeles

Panelists: 

• Matt Auron, Managing Director and Co-Founder, Evolution
• Alma Burke, Director, USC Department of Public Safety
• Carol Geffner, Professor and Director of the Master of Leadership Program, USC 
• Wendy Leshgold, President and Co-Founder, Fast Forward Group 
• Andy Ortiz, SVP and Chief Human Resources Officer, Cedars-Sinai
• Natalie Samarjian, President and CEO, Coro of Southern California

CCEs: 1.0 Core Competencies / 1.0 Resource Development

Date: Wednesday, May 18, 2022

Time: 6:00 PM – 9:00 PM Pacific Time

Location: USC Marshall School of Business and Virtual on ICFLA Zoom Room
Note: For the in-person event, proof of full COVID-19 vaccination or recent negative test results required to enter USC campus.

Masks are required on campus except when consuming food or drink.

Description

We are thrilled to welcome you back to our first in-person event in over two years!

To celebrate International Coaching Week 2022 Reimagine the Future, ICFLA C3 Events is proud to present a timely, inclusive and essential conversation between leaders and coaches, Reimagining Leadership for the Future in the Greater Los Angeles Area.

The global and local economy is being transformed.  How will we prepare balanced global leaders with a heart for servant leadership in an increasingly polarized, technology-driven, fast-changing world.

This timely and essential conversation among leaders and coaches will explore: 

• The challenges and opportunities that leaders will be facing in the future, and the kind of leadership that will be needed to move the region forward.
• The qualities and capabilities, as well as new models such as co-leadership, that will be required in the new landscape of leadership.
• How coaches and consultants can be a force for guiding and delivering these positive changes in leaders.

Event Agenda

6:00 PM – 6:30 PM  Dinner/Connection Time

7:00 PM – 9:00 PM Panel Discussion 

Parking and USC Covid Policy

Parking
Closest parking structure: McCarthy Parking Structure
620 W. McCarthy Way / $2:00/Hr ($14 max) 

Street metered parking is also available.

USC Covid Policy
Trojan Check must be downloaded and completed to park on campus. Please visit Trojan Check prior to arriving on campus and complete the wellness assessment.  

Be prepared to show proof of vaccination prior to entering campus. All campus visitors must show valid proof that they are fully vaccinated against COVID-19. The most convenient way to do this is by showing a digital record on their smartphone. Please obtain a digital record (QR code) of their COVID-19 Vaccine Record by visiting https://myvaccinerecord.cdph.ca.gov/ OR show a negative covid test within 72 hours and matching ID.

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About the Panelists

Matt Auron, Managing Director and Co-Founder, Evolution

As a coach and thought partner for founders and CEOs, Matt combines his 20-year career as an executive, facilitator and investor with a passion for supporting leaders of Evolutionary Businesses. Matt co-founded Evolution to partner with companies to fulfill their purpose as iconic, world-enriching entities, and currently serves as Managing Director. He has worked with Slack, Snapchat, Notion, Radiology Partners, Coursera, CrossCut Ventures, NVA, Glassdoor, Scopely, Density, Winc, and Kleiner Perkins, among many others.

Matt formerly worked with DaVita HealthCare Partners, a highly progressive and culture-focused Fortune 500 healthcare company as Senior Director and Global Lead on their Wisdom Team. There, Matt served as the steward for the culture globally, developing leaders, and facilitating change through coaching, facilitation, and training. Matt’s team was awarded Training magazine’s “Top 125” award for the five years he helped lead it. Prior to DaVita, Matt worked as an Organizational Effectiveness Consultant at the ground-breaking Los Angeles Universal Preschool (LAUP), building an organization that coached early childhood education professionals with the developmental curriculum.

Matt has been trained and mentored by luminaries in the field of organization development such as Peter Block, Chris Worley and Edie and Charles Seashore and continually learns and integrates current thinking into his coaching practice such as neuro-leadership and mindfulness. Matt holds a Master’s degree in Organization Development (MSOD) from Pepperdine University where his thesis research was focused on building trust in teams.

As an author, Matt has published articles in both academic, peer-reviewed journals as well as trade magazines such as Training and Development. He has been a regular presenter at the Organization Development Network annual conference.

Alma Burke, Director, USC Department of Public Safety

After graduating from the Los Angeles Police Academy, Burke investigated violent narcotic offenders and worked undercover in vice and prostitution. As a detective, Burke investigated sexual assaults in the special victims unit and then homicides in South L.A. Counterterrorism also fell under her purview. While serving as a police officer, she graduated from the Executive Master of Leadership program at the USC Price School of Public Policy.

Her 24-year career with the Los Angeles Police Department included front-line duty in vice, narcotics, counterterrorism, and homicide investigations, sometimes working undercover.“All those jobs built me,” she said. “I learned how to talk to people when I worked vice.

Alma dedicates her time to teaching at California State Long Beach and for the VALOR program (officer wellness). Most recently, Alma launched her new consulting company, Burke Consulting LLC, dedicated to mentoring public safety and non-profit programs in leadership concepts and generational strategies in the workforce.

Alma currently serves as a board member of the Community Advisory Board in the Pueblo Housing Development and is the director of public safety for the Boys and Girls Club.

In 2020, Alma was selected as the first female Latina, Assistant Chief of the University of Southern California, Department of Public Safety, and oversees over 300 public safety officers.

In late 2021, Alma was selected as the Director of the Bureau of Investigations and Crime Analysis at the University of Southern California. In her new role, she is responsible for crisis management, mental health, threat management, and criminal investigations.

Alma is married to retired LAPD Lieutenant Kevin Burke and the mother of two amazing daughters.

Carol Geffner, Professor and Director of the Master of Leadership Program, USC 

Carol J. Geffner, Ph.D., is Professor of the Practice of Governance and Management at the University of Southern California’s (USC), Sol Price School of Public Policy, and Director of the Executive Master of Leadership Program. She is a globally recognized coach, author, speaker, and expert on systems-level change, culture, and women in leadership. In addition to her primary duties at USC, Carol is also an executive coach with the Kets de Vries Institute, a global consulting and coaching firm headquartered in London.

Carol brings a practical and experienced perspective to the complex leadership and organizational challenges facing her clients. Because she has launched and been in the C-Suite of several businesses, she understands what it’s like to simultaneously lead, be responsible for driving results, and build engaged workplaces aligned around vision, strategy and values. Dr. Geffner has coached and consulted to CEOs and executive teams in the public and private sectors with blue chip companies including, ABC (Disney), Optum, Kaiser, Deutsche Bank, Countrywide, Balboa Insurance, Taco Bell and University of California, Irvine.

Prior to joining USC, Geffner was the founder and president of Newpoint Healthcare Advisors, a national healthcare consulting firm. During this time, she advised, consulted to and coached        executive leaders of nonprofit and for-profit health systems, as well as academic medical centers on strategy, culture, growth and performance issues.

In prior positions, Carol served as interim CEO and COO for client companies in education and healthcare, as well as Chief Learning Officer and President, Shared Services, for one of the largest, privately held publishing and media companies in the U.S. She also launched and led an Organizational Consulting business for Right Management – Manpower Group, a global professional services company.

Dr. Geffner has held faculty positions at the Peter F. Drucker Graduate School of Management at Claremont Graduate University and Chapman University. She currently serves as a member of the Drucker School’s Industry Board. She is also a member of the Los Angeles Police Department’s Leadership Advisory Board.

Carol earned a Ph.D. from Claremont Graduate University, a Master of Public Administration from USC, and a B.A. from the University of Toronto. She received a governance certification through UCLA’s Anderson School 

Wendy Leshgold, President and Co-Founder, Fast Forward Group 

Wendy is the president and co-founder of the Fast Forward Group, a training and executive coaching company that gives people a proven approach to think big, manage stress and achieve success and fulfillment in their whole life.  

After many years leading teams and coaching executives, Wendy understood the challenges people face in high-pressure, always-on corporate environments. In 2012, she and her childhood friend, Lisa McCarthy, set out to create a better way of living and working. Together, they launched the Fast Forward Group to help people live their best lives and do their best work. The Fast Forward Group has transformed workplaces and lives at leading companies such as Amazon, JP Morgan Chase, Google, Tik Tok, Visa, Facebook, Bloomberg, Volta and more. 

Wendy brought to Fast Forward her decades long experience as a successful executive coach. She also spent more than a decade in advertising, leading teams at Ogilvy & Mather, BBDO and Deutsch, where she worked with brands including Apple, Kodak, IBM, Bank of America and Mitsubishi.

Wendy received her BA in History from the University of Virginia, and she is an active board member of the California Environmental Voters.  She lives in Los Angeles with her husband and three children. In her free time, Wendy can often be found watching her son play baseball and walking her beloved dogs, Scout and Cali.

Andy Ortiz, SVP and Chief Human Resources Officer, Cedars-Sinai

Andy Ortiz is a talent and change management expert dedicated to building organizational strength by fostering a high-performing, talent-driven culture. He is responsible for the strategy and implementation of systemwide human resources policies and programs. As a trusted adviser to colleagues on the executive team, Andy is relied on to ensure that policies and programs align with Cedars-Sinai’s mission, vision and goals.

Andy has held leadership roles in a variety of fields, including healthcare, entertainment and financial services. Before joining Cedars-Sinai in 2016, he served as Health Net’s senior vice president and chief people officer, responsible for strategy, policy development and administration of all aspects of human resources — including compensation, benefits, performance evaluation and rewards, staffing, equal employment and diversity, leadership and talent development, organization effectiveness and change management. Prior to that, he was senior vice president of Organization Effectiveness at Warner Bros. Entertainment Group.

His community activities include serving on the board of directors of The Point Foundation and on the Southern California Advisory Board of The Hispanic Scholarship Fund.

Andy earned a bachelor of arts degree in speech communication from California State University, Fullerton, and a master of arts degree in organizational leadership from Woodbury University. He is a certified executive coach from the Hudson Institute of Coaching and a member of the International Coaching Federation.

Natalie Samarjian, President and CEO, Coro of Southern California

Natalie is President and CEO of Coro Southern California. Coro’s mission is to strengthen the democratic process by preparing emerging leaders for effective and ethical leadership in public affairs.  Under Natalie’s leadership, Coro has developed a new strategic plan, expanded programs, partnerships, and revenue, and cultivated a growing community of Coro alumni who are transforming communities across the country.

Natalie comes to Coro Southern California from the California Women’s Law Center (CWLC), where she worked to address the comprehensive and unique legal needs of women and girls through impact litigation, public policy advocacy and legal education.  Prior to CWLC, Natalie was Staff Attorney and Dickran Tevrizian Fellow at Neighborhood Legal Services of Los Angeles County (NLSLA), where she provided individual representation to victims of domestic violence, supported impact litigation, including a successful appeal in Montagner v. Montagner, engaged in public policy advocacy, and conducted extensive community outreach and legal education.  Before joining NLSLA, Natalie was a Labor and Employment litigator at Rutan & Tucker, LLP.  While at Rutan, Natalie was actively engaged in pro bono efforts, successfully representing an asylum seeker before the Department of Homeland Security.  Prior to embarking on her legal career, Natalie was a Human Capital Consultant in Deloitte & Touche LLP’s Public Sector practice where she led the firm’s National Public Sector Human Capital Community of Practice Initiative.

Natalie earned her Juris Doctorate from UCLA School of Law, her Master of Science at the Heinz School of Public Policy & Management at Carnegie Mellon University, and her Bachelor of Arts from UCLA.  Natalie is an alumnus of the Coro Fellows Program in Public Affairs and Emerge California, and was a 2017 recipient of the Empowerment Congress’ Emerging Civic Leaders 40 Under 40 award.  Natalie currently serves as a Los Angeles City Commissioner on the El Pueblo de Los Ángeles Historical Monument Commission, and a Los Angeles County Commissioner on the Economy & Efficiency Commission. She also serves on the boards of Heidi Duckler Dance, and Emerge California.