USBLN 2018 Annual Conference and Expo

Ted Kennedy, Jr.

Ted Kennedy, Jr. was first elected to the Connecticut State Senate in November 2014, and again in 2016, to serve the communities of Branford, Durham, Guilford, Killingworth, Madison, and North Branford. Ted brings with him a wealth of experience in the private and public sectors. Ted received his Bachelor’s degree at Wesleyan University and graduated from the Yale University School of Forestry and Environmental Studies. He received his law degree from the University of Connecticut School of Law.

In early 2014, Ted joined the national law firm of Epstein Becker & Green as a partner, working in the Health Care and Life Sciences practice. He advises health care providers, commercial insurers, and life science companies on critical issues related to health care reform policies. Prior to joining Epstein Becker & Green, Ted co-founded the Marwood Group, a leading healthcare-focused strategic advisory and financial services firm.

Ted began his legal career at the law firm of Wiggin & Dana in New Haven, focusing on state and federal regulatory and reimbursement issues affecting hospitals, home care agencies, long-term care providers, physician practices and mental health providers. Ted also represented individuals with disabilities and created an ADA compliance practice to help businesses develop effective policies and guidelines. In addition, he served as the Director of Legal and Regulatory Affairs at the Connecticut Hospital Association, counseling acute care providers and policy makers on a wide array of emerging healthcare issues.

Ted’s commitment to healthcare issues began at an early age. Ted was twelve years old when he was diagnosed with bone cancer and needed to have his right leg amputated. Ted underwent months of intensive physical therapy and was eventually able to resume an active life including learning how to ski using adaptive equipment. As a teenager, Ted trained with the U.S. Handicapped Ski Team and won several national medals. After his experiences with surgery, two years of chemotherapy and learning how to walk with the use of a prosthesis, Ted understood how people like him faced a two-part struggle: the personal challenge of recovery and the public challenge of living in a society that did little to include people with disabilities.

Since then, Ted has been a committed advocate for the self-determination and civil rights of people with disabilities. He served on President Reagan’s Committee on the Employment of People with Disabilities, working with businesses to expand jobs. He has lectured nationwide and served as a study group leader on disability policy at Harvard University. He has worked with the bipartisan coalition of organizations in fighting for the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act, signed into law by President George H.W. Bush in 1990.

Ted has also served on the boards of numerous cancer and disability organizations, including Special Olympics International, the Connecticut’s Office of Protection and Advocacy for Persons with Disabilities and, for the past 15 years, the board of the American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD), the country’s largest disability civil rights and public policy organization. Ted has presented keynote addresses both nationally and internationally on topics related to disability law, cancer and healthcare policy.

Ted has lived in Branford for over 17 years with his wife, Katherine “Kiki” Kennedy, M.D., an Assistant Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at Yale University and environmental activist, and their two children, Kiley and Teddy.

Rodney O. Martin, Jr.

Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Voya Financial

Rodney O. Martin, Jr., is chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) of Voya Financial, Inc. (NYSE: VOYA), which helps Americans plan, invest and protect their savings — to get ready to retire better. Serving the financial needs of approximately 14.7 million individual and institutional customers in the United States, Voya is a Fortune 500 company that had $8.6 billion in revenue in 2017. The company had $555 billion in total assets under management and administration as of December 31, 2017. Martin is a veteran of the retirement, insurance and financial services industries with more than 40 years of high-profile experience. He joined Voya as CEO in 2011 and, since then, has overseen a significant financial, operational and cultural transformation.

Under Martin’s leadership, Voya has achieved more than 700 basis points of improvement in Ongoing Business Adjusted Operating Return on Equity; generated strong growth in Ongoing Business operating earnings; returned approximately $4 billion in excess capital to shareholders; and fostered a OneVoya culture. Voya successfully completed the necessary preparations for an initial public offering (IPO) on the New York Stock Exchange in May 2013 – one of the top performing IPOs of that year.

Prior to joining Voya, Martin held several leadership roles of increasing responsibility during a 10-year tenure at AIG. He served as COO of AIG Worldwide Life Insurance; chairman and CEO of American Life Insurance Company (Alico); chairman of American International Assurance (AIA); and chairman of AIG’s international life and retirement services businesses. Martin previously was president and CEO of American General Life Companies prior to its acquisition by AIG in 2001. He began his career in 1975 as an agent with Connecticut Mutual Life Insurance Company, where he served more than 20 years, ultimately becoming president of Connecticut Mutual Insurance Services.

Martin received his bachelor’s degree in business administration from Alfred University. He is a fellow, Life Underwriter Training Council, a board member of the American Council of Life Insurers (ACLI) and Junior Achievement (JA) USA, and has served on the board of the Life Insurance Marketing and Research Association (LIMRA).

Chad Jerdee

As General Counsel, Chad Jerdee has ultimate responsibility for all legal support to Accenture, serving as principal counsel to senior leadership and the board of directors and leading the company’s Legal department. As head of the Legal department, he oversees all legal services, the contract management and government relations functions. As chief compliance officer, Chad is responsible for managing legal and regulatory compliance programs that enable Accenture to operate around the globe while adhering to the highest ethical standards. He is also a member of Accenture’s Global Management Committee.

Prior to assuming his current role in June 2015, Chad held a variety of leadership positions in Accenture Legal, working on many of Accenture’s largest and most complex transactions, and helping Accenture expand into new areas of growth.

From 2010 to 2015, Chad Jerdee served as Deputy General Counsel – Sales & Delivery. In this role, he was responsible for leading global legal support for Accenture’s client-facing business including sales, solution development and client delivery teams—approximately 1,750 Legal professionals in 48 countries. He was also a member of Accenture’s Capital Committee.

From 2005 to 2010, Chad was the Legal lead for Accenture’s largest and most complex transactions, as well as for our growth platforms. Prior to 2005, he held several roles focused on negotiating client transactions and helping to develop Accenture’s contract and negotiation standards.

Before joining Accenture, Chad practiced law in Minneapolis, Minnesota, where he specialized in corporate, financing and real estate matters. Chad joined Accenture in 1997 and became partner in 2003.

Chad is the Global Management Committee’s champion for Persons with Disabilities and serves on the national Board of Directors for the Challenged Athletes Foundation, where he helps guide the organization’s growth and success.

He received a BA from St. Olaf College and a JD from the Univ. of Minnesota.

Jenny Lay-Flurrie

Chief Accessibility Officer Microsoft

Jenny Lay-Flurrie has a passion to see people of all abilities reach their full potential. Jenny is Chief Accessibility Officer at Microsoft leading our efforts to drive great products, services and websites that empower people and organisations to achieve more. Her team is at the forefront of creating positive experiences that apply technology to make a difference in the world and the lives of individuals from how we hire and support people with disabilities in employment to innovative technology that aims to revolutionize ‘what’s possible’ for people with disabilities.

Jenny is also the Chair of DisAbility@Microsoft, an employee resource (affinity) group focused on “Enabling people to be successful regardless of ability or disability.” With the help of her team and broad community within Microsoft, Jenny leads many initiatives to empower people with disabilities both in and out of Microsoft. These initiatives range from creating the Disability Answer Desk which provides specialist customer support to people with disabilities to hosting the annual Microsoft Ability Summit which focusses on empowering attendees (800+ in 2016) with the inclusive and innovative thinking necessary to enable people of all abilities around the world. Also instrumental in projects such as Cities Unlocked and recent ‘ALS Hackathon’, focused on empowering people with disabilities with new technologies and capabilities.

Outside of Microsoft, Jenny is Chair, Board of Directors for US Business Leader Network (USBLN) and an active member of the Washington State Disability Taskforce working to increase employment for people with disabilities in state government.  Was recognized as a ‘Champion of Change’ by the White House in October 2014.

Kevin Silva

Executive Vice President and Chief Human Resources Officer, Voya

Kevin D. Silva is executive vice president and chief human resources officer for Voya Financial®, responsible for Human Resources, Corporate Responsibility and Voya Foundation. In this role, Silva directs a strategy aimed at building the organization’s human capital by attracting, retaining and developing world-class employees and incenting them to deliver superior performance. Silva also serves on Voya Financial’s Executive Committee.

Silva joined the company in 2012. Prior to this, he served as chief human resources officer at Argo Group International, a global, publicly traded specialty insurance company. At Argo, he was responsible for building a high-performing team and implementing compensation, succession and executive-development practices.

Prior to joining Argo, Silva spent more than 13 years at MBIA Insurance Corporation, a global, publicly traded insurance company, where he served as chief administrative officer responsible for the human resources, corporate administration, information resources, facilities and telecommunications, and records-management functions. He served as an adviser to MBIA’s business leaders on individual and financial performance improvement. He also played a significant role in driving a post-acquisition integration process and served as an important strategic partner to the CEO and to the Compensation Committee of the MBIA Board of Directors.

Silva has also served in senior human resources leadership roles as head of human resources for Merrill Lynch Capital Markets; chief human resources officer for MasterCard International; and executive director for PepsiCo Management Institute/PepsiCo.

Silva earned a bachelor’s degree in communications from St. John’s University, and a master’s degree in psychology from New York University. He serves as chairman of the Board of Directors for New York Institute of Technology, and is a member of the Institute’s Executive Committee.

Paulette Penzvalto

Program Manager in Corporate Engineering, Google

Paulette Penzvalto is a Program Manager in Corporate Engineering at Google. She is passionate about Diversity and Inclusion, leads Autism Programs at Google and is active in the Google Disability Alliance. Paulette sits on the San Francisco Mayor’s Council for People with Disabilities and presents nationally on issues pertaining to Autism and Employment in tech. She studied Computer Science while a student at Columbia University, has two graduate degrees in Opera and has performed internationally

Rona Fourté

Rona is the director of supplier diversity for Walgreens, member of Walgreens Boots Alliance. In this capacity, she leads a team to impact the diverse owned business inclusion rate in contracting for merchandise, goods not for resale and professional services. She and her team serve as the primary liaison and subject matter experts for identifying, developing and introducing diverse suppliers for opportunities at Walgreens. Rona has also supported HR Transformation for Walgreens and is an integral leader within the Global Office of Diversity & Inclusion recently completing a Walgreens hosted development track for its future leaders. Rona has also successfully launched two job readiness programs at Walgreens for youth aging out of foster care to gain entry level store positions.

Prior to joining Walgreens, Rona led supplier diversity initiatives in both the private and public sectors and held senior management roles in finance and accounting. Rona directed the Chicago Minority Business Opportunity Center, a $1.2M US Department of Commerce, MBDA funded project, and was acknowledged by the National Director for successfully executing financial transactions for minority owned businesses in excess of $105M. Rona has led information technology system design projects for organizational transformations as an employee and as a consultant. Rona has been cited in diversity publications, received recognitions for advocacy, commitment, and most importantly for delivering results that have contributed to the development and economic growth of the diverse owned businesses.

Rona is an active member of the community and serves for several organizations throughout the U.S. including affiliates of the National Minority Supplier Development Council, Women’s Business Enterprise National Council, US Business Leaders Network, Conference Board, Holy Family Scholars (HFS), and the boards of Providence Englewood Charter School and Tuskegee Next Academy. Rona was recently recognized by Mass Market Retail as 1 of 6 who made a difference in 2017.

Rona has a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration & Accounting from DePaul University, a Masters of Arts in Divinity, is a Certified Fraud Examiner and an ordained minister.

Thomas Wlodkowski

VP, Accessibility, Comcast

Thomas J. Wlodkowski is the Vice President of Accessibility at Comcast. In this role, Tom is responsible for developing and executing the company’s strategic plan focused on the usability of Comcast’s products and services by people with disabilities as well as pursuing opportunities to further enrich the customer experience for the disability community.

Throughout his career, Tom has been a pioneer in the accessibility field. Blind himself, he has been a champion for people with disabilities, working to improve usability of mainstream Internet, mobile, broadcast and cable television technology.

Under Mr. Wlodkowski’s guidance, Comcast launched Voice Guidance on the XFINITY X1 Operating System, the industry’s first talking guide that provides people who are blind or visually impaired with independent access to the X1 set-top box user interface including TV listings, the ability to manage their DVR, access to Video On Demand and Settings. Tom and his team also opened a dedicated support center for customers with disabilities and created an accessibility lab to drive accessibility research and development. The lab provides an interactive atmosphere where employees can experience the accessibility features of Comcast’s current and future products and assistive technologies used by people with disabilities.

Betta Beasley

Founder and CEO 2rbConsulting, Inc.

Betta Beasley is the Founder and CEO of 2rbConsulting, Inc. The company connects people with careers across all areas of Information Technology through innovative staffing and placement services. 2rbConsulting’s Technical Recruiting Solutions supports commercial and public sector clients and VMS partners nationwide.

Ms. Beasley is a proud Service-Disabled U.S. Army Veteran and, in 2015, was appointed as Chair of the Women Veterans Advisory Committee for the Washington Department of Veterans Affairs. As an advocate for women veterans and People with Disabilities (PwD), Ms. Beasley is frequently asked to speak at conferences on issues affecting the disabled workforce and veterans, ranging from PTSD, suicide, homelessness, education, and corporate hiring strategies for the untapped talent pool of People with Disabilities.

Prior to starting 2rbConsulting, Ms. Beasley’s career included working for major corporations in various roles, ranging from Software Developer to Vice-President of Information Technology, including six years at Microsoft Corporation in Seattle. She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Intelligence Studies with a concentration in Intelligence Analysis. She is an alumna of Harvard Business School and is an active member of the Harvard Club of Seattle.

Andrew Houghton

Founder, No Barriers Media

No Barriers Media is a multimedia production company specializing in strategic communications solutions for our clients by utilizing emerging technologies and visual trends. Our expert team offers complete multimedia solutions from concept to delivery into multiple formats by utilizing our in-house video editing, production and encoding expertise to control the entire multimedia production. Whether shooting on location or in studio, our state-of-the-art equipment and production techniques offer everything you need from pre-production to final edits. We offer high quality, attention-getting results that are designed to meet and achieve the specific goals of each client. Upon request, we incorporate accessibility features into your media by embedding captions and descriptive audio tracks.

Artura Taylor

President and CEO, Taylor Distribution Group, LLC

As the Founder, President and CEO, Artura Taylor, helps companies reduce total cost of procurement while expediting the procurement process. By partnering with industry leaders and global strategic partners, TDG offers unlimited capacity to unlimited products, can aggregate spend and provide end-to-end spend management solutions while assisting with Tier 1 initiatives, with no variance in deliverable metrics.

Through Artura’s leadership, Taylor Distribution group has been awarded numerous high-profile contracts. TDG is proud to work with the Shell Oil Corporation, Atmos Energy, Mary Kay Cosmetics, City of Dallas Water and Waste Water, City of Dallas Police and Fire and Rescue Department, Department of Defense, the City of Plano, the City of Lewisville, the City of Arlington, Orange County, Dallas County, DART, Oncor Energy, Prairie View A&M University, Texas Health and Human Services, and the State of Mississippi. Additionally, TDG has been selected as one of twenty companies to participate in the flagship for Women in Oil and Gas, sponsored by WBENC, Shell, Exxon, Chevron and BP.

Artura is a member on the Board for the Greater Dallas Hispanic Chamber of Commerce and sits on the Governance Committee. She is also an active member in DFWMSDC, WBENC, and has received numerous awards and scholarships participating in continuing education through the renowned SBA Executive Entrepreneurs Program.

Floyd Kaylor

Managing Partner and Co-Inventor, Thera-Glide

Mr. Kaylor is a veteran business leader with 25+ years of experience as a CEO, COO, and CFO in high profile public and private companies. He has been associated with a wide range of industries ranging from Medical, Media Technology, Internet Media Advertising, Film, Commercial Entertainment, International Merchandising, and Extreme Sports. He has been involved in the successful launch of four companies, including Birdhouse Projects with famed skateboarder, Tony Hawk. He began his career at Hughes Aircraft where he spent 12 years working on operations for black boxes, the A6 Intruder as well as being part of the development team for Hughes Net, now DirecTV. Mr. Kaylor has been known for his entrepreneurial background in Finance, plus recent ventures that included ways to capitalize on the growing intersection of emerging on-line technologies and high-level business interests. He has also helped develop new and compelling advertising avenues for both television and the online video market. Mr. Kaylor participated in designing and developing a new Ad technology that will provide advertisers and various other marketing agencies the ability to gain a secondary view for the DVR “Trick” mode. Mr. Kaylor has forged extensive business relationships in the above-mentioned industries and within the US, Germany, Korea, Japan and China. He has been awarded 4 patents and has six patents pending, including one current pending software patent and six medical therapy devices. He received a M.A. in Business Management from the University of Redlands and a B.S. from the University of La Verne. Certificates in Executive Business courses from Dartmouth and USC (Aerospace). Mr. Kaylor is a member of the Asian Business Association-Orange County Chapters and Inner-City Capital Connections (ICCC). He is also a member of the Health Supplier Diversity Association (HSDA).

Mr. Kaylor’s current company (The Cheshire Duo, LLC) has been certified by both the US Business Leadership Network (USBLN) and the Southern California Minority Supplier Development Council (NMSDC).

Joyce A. Bender

Founder and CEO of Bender Consulting Services, Inc.

Joyce A. Bender is the founder and CEO of Bender Consulting Services, Inc., a national leader in advancing employment of people with disabilities, including veterans with disabilities. Bender provides disability employment expertise in the areas of recruitment, workplace mentoring, strategic planning, training, and digital accessibility to drive innovation and realize business value for customers. Joyce, hosts a weekly radio show, Disability Matters, on www.voiceamerica.com and is board member of the American Association of People with Disabilities and the national Epilepsy Foundation. A USBLN certified DOBE since 2010, and successful business owner for more than 20 years, Joyce has partnered with another DOBE, Andrew Houghton, the CEO of No Barriers Media to deliver iDisability to market. This enterprise wide eLearning platform delivers disability employment content to market.

Patricia K. Graves

President and Founder of Caption First, Inc.

Patricia K. Graves is president and founder of Caption First, Inc., a company that provides real time and offline media captioning for people with hearing loss as well as for people whose Native language is not English.

With a history of business ownership that spans 25 successful years, Patricia is a perfect example of how hard work and business acumen allow small businesses to successfully compete in the marketplace, regardless of disability.

Certified as a DOBE® by the USBLN® in 2012, headquartered in Colorado, and with employees and independent contractors throughout the United States, Caption First serves people, corporations, and organizations nationally and internationally.