Please join us Friday, September 9 for an all-star class of HR leadership, discussing the future of work. We know the workplace is changing – but are you ready? What are the long-term effects of the pandemic? How is technology affecting the workplace, for better or worse? What should we leave behind? What should we adopt? Our panelists from across industries will address all of the challenges they’re seeing in the workplace today, and what it means for the future. Space is limited – register at https://go.illinois.edu/LER75thplus1
Our panel will be moderated by LER Alumni Board member and Co-Founder of PeopleSpark Consulting, Erin Mies, MHRIR 05. She also teaches in our online master’s program and serves as our career consultant for the online master’s students.
Erin has over a decade of experience in coaching and consulting executives, leaders and managers in food and agricultural industries, in both manufacturing and corporate environments. She has specialist experience in talent acquisition and international HR.
In addition to her professional experience and LER master’s degree, she holds a Bachelor of Arts in Economics and Music from Wittenberg University (Ohio). She is certified through the Society of Human Resources Management (SHRM) as a Senior Certified Professional (SHRM-SCP).
The panel includes leaders with experience across industries and throughout the employment relations function.
Pat Devaney has been the Secretary Treasurer of the Illinois AFL-CIO since 2019. Prior to his election, he served as an Illinois AFL-CIO Vice President for over 11 years. Pat started as a firefighter for the Champaign Fire Department in 1995. He was a member of the Champaign Firefighters IAFF Local 1260, elected as to their executive board during his second year on the job. Pat served in a variety of Local 1260 Executive Board Positions including eight years as president. As a member of the Associated Fire Fighters of Illinois (AFFI) Political Education Committee, Pat became active in politics at the state and local level. He was elected as an AFFI Legislative Representative in 2004, spending the next four years lobbying at the state capitol on behalf of the AFFI’s 15,000 professional firefighters and paramedics.
In 2008, Pat was elected as the President of the AFFI and served in that capacity until transitioning into his current role with the Illinois AFL-CIO. He has a BA in Communications from Southern Illinois University at Carbondale and resides in Champaign.
Andrea Frohning is the Chief Human Resources Officer at Patterson Companies based in St. Paul, MN. She oversees all aspects of the Human Resources function of the Fortune 500 publicly traded company. While her day-to-day focus includes oversight of Organizational Development, Succession Planning, Talent Acquisition, Diversity and Inclusion, Compensation, Benefits and Corporate Communications, she played an instrumental role in leading throughout the pandemic to guide Patterson’s 7,500 global employees, many whom were frontline essential employees supporting the dental and animal health industries.
Andrea began her Human Resources career with the Pepsi Bottling Group in 1998, after being hired off-campus from LER. From there, she went on to work with other top companies including General Electric, Hubbell Incorporated, Crane Company and Snyder’s-Lance snack food company.
Andrea was LER’s May 2022 convocation keynote speaker.
Panelist Allen Reid, MHRIR 03, is an LER Alumni Board Member and the Chief Human Resources Officer for Materion Corporation. In his role, Reid leads the human resources and security organizations, which drive the Company’s global human capital strategy. His focus is to ensure the company has the talent and organizational capability to achieve its global growth goals. He is based at Materion corporate headquarters in Mayfield Heights, Ohio and reports to Materion’s President and Chief Executive Officer.
He joined Materion in April 2020 from the Raytheon Company where he served as Vice President, Human Resources and Global Security Services for Raytheon’s Missile Systems business. Reid served as the Vice President for the $9B business unit for over six years. Reid joined Raytheon as an HR leader at its Space and Airborne Systems business in 2004.
Panelist Dan Spaulding, MHRIR 00, is the Chief People Officer of Zillow Group and the winner of the 2022 Distinguished Alumni Award. He currently serves as the Chief People Officer for Zillow Group leading all aspects of people operations, recruiting, equity and belonging, total rewards, talent development, and employee success. Zillow Group is the industry leading provider of online tools and resources for consumers and real estate professionals. Founded in 2005, Zillow Group went public in 2011 and a current market capitalization of $10B. Dan leads a team of 280 HR professionals that support over 6,500 employees across the US and Canada.
Prior to this role Dan served as the Vice President of US Stores and Operations HR for Starbucks. In this role his team drove strategy and support for ~8000 stores and ~140,000 partners across the country. Before his time at Starbucks Dan was part of the leadership team that built Life Technologies through an M&A heavy strategy- eventually resulting in the 2013 sale of the company to Thermo-Fisher Scientific for $13.6B. Dan led the HR M&A efforts through the formation of Life Technologies, building an integrated HR function to support the new company. Dan started his career as a LER intern, and later held multiple HR positions, with Dell Computer, completing a three-year international assignment building HR operations across Asia based in Shanghai, China.
Pat Walsh, MHRIR 05, is an LER Alumni Board Member and the Vice President and Head of Human Resources for OilDri Corporation. He has over 17 years of progressive HR leadership experience across two Fortune 250 organizations, recently moving to the Chicago-based public company.
Prior to OilDri, Pat worked with both PepsiCo and Yum! Brands. His career highlights include serving as Senior Director of Talent Management and Culture for 58,000 employee North American business unit of a Fortune 50 organization, leading the HR agenda and strategy for a $2 billion dollar+ sales region encompassing 15 states across the Midwestern US, leading a team supporting all of US Operations for the largest QSR pizza company in the country, including a team of 15 HR Generalists and Talent Acquisition professionals, and leading a $60 million investment in a large manufacturing and warehouse site expansion to revolutionize how the organization brought products to the marketplace.
