Michael is a partner in the Chicago, Illinois office of Jackson Lewis. He received his undergraduate degree from the University of Notre Dame (with honors, 1968), his Master of Business Administration degree from the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business (Beta Gamma Sigma, 1972) and his J.D. degree from the University of Michigan (with honors, 1976).

Michael is a member of the Bars of Illinois and New York and is admitted to the U.S. District Courts for the Northern District of Illinois, the Southern, Northern and Eastern Districts of New York, the United States Courts of Appeals for the Second, Sixth, Seventh and Eighth Circuits and the United States Supreme Court. He is a member of the American Bar Association, Labor and Employment Law Section. He served as Chief Labor and Employment Counsel for Beverly Enterprises, Inc., a major national healthcare company, from 1992 to 1995, prior to joining Jackson Lewis. Mr. Flaherty was a partner in a major Chicago firm where he practiced labor and employment law from 1977 to 1992.

Bryan has 20 years of management experience in industrial manufacturing businesses. His experiences include V.P. Sales & Marketing, General Manager of Automation, and V.P./General Manager Industrial Products Division, for a $500M global manufacturer of welding equipment. His specialization is in management analysis, process simplification, applying 80/20 principals and factory automation. He currently does consulting work in the area of implementation strategies and simplification of management processes.

Bryan has a Bachelors Degree from Utah State University in Industrial Technology & Engineering. He is married and has 4 children.

Beau is a senior global educator, coach, and director dedicated to improving the bottom-line through more effective leadership and organizational teams. He's lead the leadership pipeline initiatives at a number of Fortune 50 and 500 companies such as Cisco Systems, Intel, Amdahl as well as consulting a number of startups. He joined Cisco in 1991 and spent 11 years helping to build the company's worldwide brand. Beau was the corporate leadership and team development trouble-shooter at Intel. He cut his teeth in line management at Signetics Corporation as a manager and then section head of manufacturing where he was responsible for new product introduction. Previous to joining the high tech world Beau spent a number of years teaching leadership at the Air Force Survival School and Army Special Forces Reserve. He holds a Masters of Organizational Communications from Brigham Young University, and has taught for BYU, San Jose State, and U. C. Berkley.

Dr. Helen Rothberg is a senior fellow with the Business Development Group in Michigan since 1999, and has been the principal consultant for HNR Associates "a network of knowledge" since 1987. Dr. Rothberg is an Associate Professor of Strategic Management, School of Management, Marist College, Poughkeepsie, NY. Her publications appear in the Journal of Managerial Issues, Competitive Review, Competitive Intelligence Review, Competitive Intelligence Magazine and an array of conference proceedings and business letters. Dr. Rothberg's credentials include an MBA from Baruch College, CUNY, and M.Phil. from City University Graduate Center, and a Ph.D. in Business specializing in both Organization and Policy Studies from the City University Graduate Center.

Barry Shamis is the CEO and president of Selecting Winners Inc., an international management consulting firm, and he is founder and director of the Institute for Executive Selection. Mr. Shamis has been delivering provocative and educational messages exclusively on the subject of building businesses through people since 1984. Mr. Shamis's firms specialize in teaching organizations how to make quality-hiring decisions. He is the author of the books Selecting Winners, from the Seat of your Pants to the Top of your Head and Smartass Answers to Stupid Interview Questions and has written numerous articles on the subject of selection. He has spoken to hundreds of audiences with his message of selecting winners. He has consulted with Fortune 500 companies and some of the fastest growing companies in the world.