2019 Speakers

Dr. André Vermeulen is a founding member and CEO of Neuro-Link, a boutique consultancy utilizing applied neuroscience to develop talent, increase performance and maintain wellness. He is a workplace learning specialist who offers cutting edge neuro-agility assessments and learning solutions to organizations and people to move performance forward. André is a business innovator who has developed and patented various neuroscience assessments and applied neuroscience learning solutions that are used by thousands of adults, and children in education, business and sports across the globe. He has published more than 33 leading articles on the development implications of the brain and mental health.

As an international keynote speaker, André has contributed on numerous prestigious platforms like TEDx Johannesburg and ATD ICE since 2000. He is a regular guest on many radio and television talk shows around the globe and hosts his own television program called “Mind Matters”

In the ‘90’s, she coached and managed more than 200 of the best professional trainers around the world for CareerTrack , Inc. She coached the world champion of public speaking in 2000. Since 1999, as the principal in The Impact Institute, she has facilitated Communication topics that make the difference for performance on public and private sector teams in the US and internationally at conferences in Singapore, Poland, Taiwan and Dubai. Some of Christie’s public sector clients in the US are the US Air Force, Department of Interior, El Monte and Albuquerque school districts, the National Business Center, and several city and county governments. Her corporate clients include DISH Network, IHS, GE, Johnson & Johnson, SUN, TW Telecom, and AT&T. Among her non-profit clients are Goodwill, the National Scholarship Provider’s Association, the National Education Procurement Association, the Boettcher Foundation and the US Olympic Committee. Her international conferences include the ASTD-STADA conference in Singapore, The ATD APC conference in Taipei and the largest HR gathering in Central Europe in Warsaw.

Christie is past president of ATD-RMC (Association for Talent Development – Rocky Mountain Chapter), became part of the National Advisors for Chapters (NAC) for ATD in 2008, served 3 years and was elected NAC Chair for 2011-2012 by her peers. She served on the National Board of Directors for ATD from 2011 to 2012. She has served as a judge for the Best Practices Awards for ATD for years and speaks at the international conference for ATD in the US every year. She has been part of the ICE PAC (International Conference and Exposition program advisory committee) since 2013, and was chair for ICE 2016 in her hometown of Denver, Colorado. Christie facilitates the Training Certificate, the Designing Learning Certificate and the Master Trainer program for ATD. She is past president for NSA (National Speaker’s Association) Colorado, and in 2016 was co-chair for their Winter Conference in Austin, TX. Christie regularly volunteers for the Tennyson Center for abused children, where she judges a speech contest with her NSA colleagues every year. She also conducts mock-scholarship interviews for inner-city youth in partnership with Goodwill and the Denver Chamber of Commerce, and at Strive Charter school as part of her commitment to the community. In 2017 she went to Myanmar with Together, We Can Change the World to work with impoverished women and girls. She is a leader on and off the platform.

Fernando is a dynamic and passionate senior people strategy executive, leadership and talent development professional who combines his more than two decades of experience as c-level executive, board member, key-note speaker and learning facilitator with his Ivy League education and working experience designing, delivering and managing human capital and learning programs and processes to develop better leaders, organizations and communities in more than 70 countries.

Fernando blends his expertise and business acumen developing leaders and building teams with his passion for learning and education, sharing his views on Leadership, Learning and Cultural Intelligence in scientific, academic and business congresses organized by prestigious entities such as ICC (International Chamber of Commerce), WCF (World Chambers Federation), JCI (Junior Chamber International), UNESCO, UNICEF, World Bank, Organization of American States (OAS), ATD (Association for Talent Development, formerly known as ASTD), FIDAGH (Inter-American Federation of Human Talent Management), WFPMA (World Federation of Personnel Management Associations), IFTDO (International Federation of Training and Development Organizations), and CIPD (Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development of the United Kingdom).

In August 2016, he joined The Home Depot as the Chief People Officer of Global Custom Commerce, the center of excellence of configurable products, where he also serves as Co-founder and Dean of Academic Affairs of the Institute for Leadership, Innovation, Advancement and Development (ILIAD) and as a member of the People Strategy & Innovation Team. Previous to this, he was the Corporate Director overseeing the operations of TAMS - Texas Advanced Manufacturing Solutions and Dean of the Energy & Business Corporate University (EBU), the talent development arm of LUKIVEN Energy & Business Group in the Americas. He also served as Strategic Corporate Director and Chief Learning Officer of this major Venezuelan business group with almost 50 years of operations in the oil & gas sector. He is a co-founder of MEJORAR, a learning center member of the World Bank - Global Development & Learning Network (GDLN).

He was part of the Work-based Learning Leadership Program organized by the Graduate School of Education and the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania (currently known as PennCLO) and is currently writing his dissertation. Fernando holds a university degree in Business Administration, with a major in Organization & Methods, obtained with Magna Cum Laude honors in the Pedro Emilio Coll Institute of Technology. He is certified as Ontological Executive Coach by the Monterrey Institute of Technology (ITESM) and Newfield Consulting. He is an International Training Fellow No. 31 of the JCI University and a Graduate of the JCI Leadership Academy of Japan. Fernando is a certified trainer of the Cultural Intelligence Center.

In his consulting practice, Fernando has served clients like the US Department of State (US Venezuelan Embassy), Procter & Gamble, Cemex, Ford, Toyota, Goodyear, Pirelli Tires, Plumrose, Air France-KLM, Pfizer, Pharmacia & Upjohn, Wyeth, Unilever, Chevron, Shell, Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Frito Lay, Estee Lauder, Intercontinental Hotels, Hilton, Kraft, ArcelorMittal and Johnson & Johnson, among other multinational and large national firms.

A former world president of Junior Chamber International, Inc (JCI), a worldwide federation of leaders and entrepreneurs with associate status to the United Nations, Fernando has held leadership positions in organizations such as ATD, where he was the first Hispanic board member in more than 70 years of this professional association; the Venezuelan Chamber of Oil Industry, where he served for two years as strategic and international relations advisor to the Executive Committee; and the Venezuelan Association of Human Talent Management (AVGH). He currently serves as vice-president of the Houston -The Woodlands-Gulf Coast Chapter of the United States-Mexico Chamber of Commerce, where he conceived and is leading the US-Mexico Leaders & Executive Accelerated Program (LEAP), the first executive education initiative of this chamber.

Fernando is the author of the personal & professional leadership book “Learning to be a Dolphin in a Sea of Sharks: 13 Steps to obtain transcendental achievements in times of Crisis, Change and Growth”, published in Spanish and Portuguese. He is also a weekly columnist for El Universal, one of the top newspapers in Venezuela, and contributes to specialized magazines such as T+D, T&D Brazil, and Executive Excellence. Fernando is one of the international contributors in the ASTD Handbook: The Definitive Reference for Training & Development (ATD Press). He is fluent in Spanish, English, and Portuguese, and is currently learning French.