The Hon. Alexander Acosta

President Donald J. Trump nominated Alexander Acosta to be the 27th United States Secretary of Labor. He was sworn in on April 28, 2017.

Secretary Acosta is the son of Cuban refugees, a native of Miami, and first-generation college graduate. He earned his undergraduate and law degrees from Harvard University.

Following law school, he worked as a law clerk for Justice Samuel A. Alito, Jr., at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. He then worked at the law firm of Kirkland & Ellis and went on to teach at George Mason University’s Antonin Scalia School of Law.

Secretary Acosta has served in three presidentially appointed, Senate-confirmed positions. In 2002, he was appointed to serve as a member of the National Labor Relations Board, where he participated in or authored more than 125 opinions. In 2003, he was appointed Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice, and from 2005 to 2009 he served as the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida.

Most recently, Secretary Acosta served as the dean of the FIU College of Law.

Secretary Acosta has twice been named one of the nation’s 50 most influential Hispanics by Hispanic Business magazine. He was also named to the list of 100 most influential individuals in business ethics in 2008. In 2013, the South Florida Hispanic Chamber of Commerce presented him with the Chairman’s Higher Education Award in recognition of his “outstanding achievements, leadership and determination throughout a lifetime of caring and giving back to the community.”

Haya Ajjan, Ph.D.

Dr. Haya Ajjan teaches data analytics and information systems courses in Elon’s undergraduate business and MBA programs. Dr. Ajjan has started the Center for Organizational Analytics at Elon University and was instrumental in developing the curriculum for M.S. in Management concentration in Organizational Analytics. She earned her MBA and PhD from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte’s Belk College of Business. Her research focuses on better understanding the impact of technology use on individuals, groups, and organizations. Dr. Ajjan’s research articles have appeared in national and international journals, such as Behaviour & Information Technology, British Journal of Educational Technology, the Journal of Marketing Theory and Practice, Journal of Enterprise Information Management. Additionally, she has presented at numerous national and international conferences, such as International Conference on Information Systems, Academy of Management, Academy of Marketing Science, and the American Conference on Information Systems.

Russ Fletcher

Russ comes to Xyngular with extensive experience, having worked both in and out of the network marketing industry in key leadership positions for nearly 20 years.

“One of the things that I most enjoy is seeing people achieve greater results than they themselves ever thought possible. That typically comes from building a team which is always stronger than the sum of its parts. Xyngular has a great team.”

Russ graduated from MIT with an engineering degree and BYU with an MBA. He has an immense knowledge of IT systems and technologies, as well as business and market development expertise. In fact, before relocating to Utah to join the Xyngular team he was consulting at Harvard University.

Russ is a firm believer that all work and no play will throw life out of balance. So spending time with his wife, 8 sons, and 2 daughters (Yes, that’s 10 kids!) is of paramount importance. He is a voracious reader and a natural storyteller.

Lois Greisman

Lois C. Greisman heads the Division of Marketing Practices in the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection. Under Ms. Greisman’s management, Marketing Practices leads the FTC’s law enforcement initiatives tackling telemarketing fraud (including Do Not Call/Robocall enforcement), fraudulent business and investment opportunity schemes (including multilevel marketing), mail fraud (including sweepstakes and lotteries), illegal spam, and Internet frauds (including technical support scams).Ms. Greisman also directs the FTC’s work to curb fraud in connection with different payment systems.

Before joining Marketing Practices in January 2006, Ms. Greisman headed the Division of Planning and Information, where she managed the FTC’s Identity Theft Program, the Consumer Response Center, and also supervised implementation of the National Do Not Call Registry. Previously, Ms. Greisman served as Chief of Staff to FTC Chairman Timothy J. Muris. She also served as Attorney Advisor to Chairman Robert Pitofsky and Chairman Janet D. Steiger from 1995 – 2001. Ms. Greisman received her bachelor’s degree magna cum laude from Brown University, and her law degree from George Washington University, where she was a member of the Order of the Coif and Law Review.

Darren Jensen

Darren Jensen is a senior executive with more than 20 years of experience in the direct selling industry pioneering new business strategies, leading global marketing initiatives and maximizing revenue through product and geographic expansion. He is an expert at driving global profitability by setting high standards of excellence, managing brand identity and creating customer-centric products.

Cindy Monroe

Cindy Monroe founded Thirty-One Gifts in 2003 in Tennessee, with a goal of giving women an opportunity to find financial freedom through owning their own businesses. Today, there are over 1,000 employees and more than 64,000 independent sales Consultants throughout the U.S. and nine provinces of Canada.

Monroe has been recognized for her business and philanthropic achievements both nationally and in the home office community of Columbus, Ohio, where Thirty-One is the largest woman-owned and largest family-owned business. In 2014 they were named the Fastest-Growing Woman-Owned Company in the World by the Women Presidents’ Organization, and Monroe was named a “Self-Made Woman to Watch” by Forbes magazine in 2015. She serves as an Advisory Board member of The Salvation Army of Central Ohio, and is a member of the Women Presidents’ Organization and the Young Presidents’ Organization.

Monroe received a bachelor’s degree in marketing from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, and today she sponsors a college scholarship for girls in Hamilton County, Tennessee. She resides in New Albany, Ohio, with her husband and two children.

Lee Peeler

C. Lee Peeler, Esq., is President and CEO of the Advertising Self-Regulatory Council (ASRC) and Executive Vice President, National Advertising, Council of Better Business Bureaus (CBBB).

Mr. Peeler is responsible for leading the advertising industry’s system of self-regulation, a system dedicated to fostering truth and accuracy in advertising. He oversees the operation of ASRC investigative and appeals units; briefs elected officials on self-regulatory initiatives, works to expand advertising self-regulation to industries that are not yet regular participants and consults with representatives of foreign governments on the value of industry self-regulation.

Mr. Peeler joined ASRC and BBB in 2006, following a 33-year career at the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), where he held a number management positions. While at the FTC, he served as Associate Director of the Division of Advertising Practices (1985-2001) and Deputy Director, Bureau of Consumer Protection (2001-2006.)

He has spoken and testified widely on consumer protection issues including truth in advertising, consumer credit, electronic commerce, privacy and data security.  Mr. Peeler received his B.A. and J.D. degrees from Georgetown University.

Michael Solomon, Ph.D.

Michael “wrote the book” on understanding consumers. Literally. Hundreds of thousands of business students have learned about Marketing from his 30+ books including Consumer Behavior: Buying, Having, and Being — the most widely used book on the subject in the world. His most recent trade book is Marketers, Tear Down These Walls: Liberating the Postmodern Consumer.

Much in demand as a keynote speaker, Michael often is asked to provide briefings to global executive teams who want significant increases in their bottom line and who understand that’s accomplished by a deeper connection with their customers. He has been involved with the direct selling industry for several years, where he has worked on projects to ramp up distributors’ engagement.  He is a DSEF Fellow.

Michael’s mantra:  We don’t buy products because of what they do.  We buy them because of what they mean. He advises global clients in leading industries such as apparel and footwear (Calvin Klein, Levi Strauss, Under Armour, Timberland), financial services and e-commerce (eBay, Progressive), CPG (Procter & Gamble, Campbell’s), retailing (H&M), sports (CrossFit, Philadelphia Eagles), manufacturing (DuPont, PP&G) and transportation (BMW, United Airlines) on marketing strategies to make them more consumer-centric. He regularly appears on television shows including The Today Show, Good Morning America and CNN to comment on consumer issues, and he is frequently quoted in major media outlets such as The New York Times, USA Today, Adweek and Time. Michael also is a regular Contributor at Forbes.com, where he writes about retailing, consumer behavior and branding.

As a Professor of Marketing (in the Haub School of Business at Saint Joseph’s University in Philadelphia) and an industry consultant, Michael combines cutting-edge academic theory with actionable real-world strategies.  He helps managers get inside the heads of their customers so they can anticipate and satisfy their deepest and most pressing needs – today and tomorrow. An executive at Subaru said it best: “The man is a scholar who is current and street-wise.”

Mike Walsh

Mike is the CEO of Tomorrow, a global consultancy on designing companies for the 21st century. He advises leaders on how to thrive in the current era of disruptive technological change. Mike’s bestselling books include ‘Futuretainment’ and ‘The Dictionary of Dangerous Ideas’. Each week he interviews provocative thinkers, innovators and troublemakers on his weekly podcast, ‘Between Worlds’. A true nomad, Mike travels over 300 days a year worldwide, researching trends, collecting innovation case studies and presenting on the future of business.

Mike has been a pioneer in the digital space since the 1990s, running both successful start-up ventures as well as holding senior leadership positions in established media organizations. With a background in corporate law and management consulting, he began his career at XT3, a spin out from McKinsey and one of the first digital consulting firms created to help major companies embrace the embryonic Web. During the first dotcom boom, Mike launched the technology publishing group internet.com in Australia, which went on to become the leading local technology news and events platform in the country.

He also founded and ran Jupiter Research in the Asia Pacific, one of the first research agencies to track the early adoption of e-commerce and digital business models by online consumers. During this period, he was recognized as one of Australia’s “Top 30 Entrepreneurs Under 30.”

After his experiences in the Web space, Mike spent five years in senior strategy roles at News Corporation where he helped shape the digital strategy for both their Australian newspaper and Asian TV divisions. Directly engaged by the CEO of Star TV to provide the company with a digital roadmap for their operations, he began his in-depth research into the fast growth markets of Asia.

While in Hong Kong and inspired by the dramatic changes taking place in China and India, Mike founded his latest venture, Tomorrow – an innovation research lab focused on emerging technology and disruptive consumer behavior. Always in demand for his fresh insights and practical future-focused strategies, Mike has advised the CEOs and senior management teams at multinational companies including: the BBC, Fujifilm, Richemont, MSN, Star TV, Televisa, Philips, and HSBC.

In addition to his corporate profile, Mike is a published photographer and supporter of the Arts. His photographic images from his travels around the world helped his book, FUTURETAINMENT, win an Art Director’s Club award in NYC. He has also served on the Director’s Circle at the Australian Museum of Contemporary Art.

As a global nomad and consumer trend scout, Mike does live research, in the trenches, with big corporations and entrepreneurs all over the world bringing a truly global perspective to every event.