Each month SHRM - Memphis hosts a professional development event for it's members and guest with topics related to the HR Profession, current trends and pressing legal issues.

Dinner: Chef's Choice Buffet

Effective HR Business Partners

for Executives

HR Professionals are often thought of as administrators and not as business professionals. We have put together a distinguished panel led by Austin Baker, President, HR Partners to discuss what HR Professionals need to do to change this perspective.  Our panel will discuss what it means to be an effective HR Business Partner for Executives.  They will answer important questions on:

• What is the biggest change that HR Professionals have in managing executive expectations of HR as a business partner?

• What do is the most effective proactive thing that HR can do to meet the more strategic executive needs from HR?

• What role does executive presence and overall business savvy play in an HR Professional’s success as an effective business partner?

Whether you are new to HR or an experienced veteran, this topic is important to your career and to the HR Profession. Don’t miss this opportunity to hear this distinguished panel discuss this very important topic.

J. Austin Baker III Bio

Austin Baker infuses innovation and creativity into human resource strategy.   Austin was nominated by his peers to be the 2011 President of the Society for Human Resource Management in Memphis (SHRM), which is one of the largest SHRM Chapters in the US. 

Austin Baker is the President of HRO Partners; a human resource consulting & outsourcing firm. Austin’s personal specialty is in leadership development and employee benefit strategies.  Benefit Brokers and CPAs turn to HRO Partners to help their clients with benefit administration and enrollment, Health Care Reform and cost containment strategies. HRO is also a general agent for many insurance carriers that enables them to work with benefit brokers and companies for carrier funded enrollment services and is one of the largest US producers for Colonial Life Insurance. 

HRO has also helped manage HR for the largest school merger in the history of the US and represents private sector, municipal and county government entities with more than 95,000 active employees and more than 30,000 retirees. Prior to forming HRO Partners, Austin founded; EServ, an employee benefit brokerage his first business along with his father Jim Baker; in 2001, while a sophomore at The University of Memphis. EServ won the “Small Business of the Year” in 2007 at the annual Small Business Chamber awards. In 2010 EServ was sold to another insurance brokerage as he shifted focus to more holistic services.  Jim and Austin also own Owen Brennan’s “A New Orleans Style Restaurant” located in East Memphis.  In 2010 Austin Baker was honored as “Entrepreneur of the Year” by the Fogelman College of Business & Economics at University of Memphis. 

Tracie Montgomery Bio

Tracie Montgomery is responsible for leading the Talent Acquisition and Diversity Recruiting division for Sedgwick; the largest Third Party Administrator in North America, with over 12,000 colleagues.

Her responsibilities include developing and managing strategic recruiting & sourcing strategies; diversity recruiting, contractor management, college and intern strategies, client integrations, compliance and workforce planning, as well as talent acquisition related projects.

Previously, Tracie developed the strategy for Attracting, Acquiring, Selecting and Hiring for International Paper; as well as developed and managed the Social Media Strategy for North America Recruiting.

For over 20 years, Tracie has led the recruiting and diversity divisions of nationally recognized corporations, Fortune 500 organizations.

Tracie received her Bachelor’s degree in Communication and Sociology from the University of Memphis.

Joy Johnson Bio

Joy Johnson is an experienced HR executive with 15+ yrs. of experience as a strategic human resources business partner.   She currently provides strategic HR leadership to build talent capability and capacity for Hilton Worldwide’ s Global Brands organization, represented globally in the U.S. (McLean, VA and Memphis, TN), EMEA (UK and Dubai), and APAC (Shanghai and Singapore).  In addition to serving as the HR Business Partner for Global Brands, she leads HR for the Memphis Shared Services Center, with approx. 1,000 team members across multiple corporate functions; including Architecture/Design, Finance, IT, Legal, Digital, Sales, Marketing, and Business Development.

Joy also has deep expertise in organization design, high performance work systems, talent management, and employee engagement.  Throughout her career, she has led efforts to realign work systems and accountability structures that increase team member engagement and productivity.  

Joy holds a BA degree in Human Resources and is certified as a Senior Professional in Human Resources.

Alexandria Smith Bio

Alexandria Smith is the Chief HR Officer, City of Memphis. She  is a SHRM-Senior Certified Professional with a wealth of professional experience in human resources management. She most recently served as Director of Human Resources for Brightstar Device Protection, a subsidiary of Brightstar Corporation. Prior to her tenure at Brightstar, Smith served in HR management roles at industry leaders including Target Corporation and Microsoft Corporation.

Alexandria earned her BA in economics from Duke University and a M.A. in human resources and industrial relations from the University of Minnesota’s Carlson School of Management. She and her husband now reside in Memphis, TN.

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