Speaker bios as of March 11, 2021
Threase Baker, TSC, CSP
President, Abbtech Professional Resources
Baker is president and an owner of Abbtech Professional Resources Inc. Based in Washington, DC, the company supports both the government and private sectors by providing information technology, engineering, and office–clerical staffing services, as well as personal identity verification. Baker has more than 20 years of staffing industry experience. She is past president of the Capital Area Staffing Association.
J. Scott Bicksler
Lead safety manager, Aerotek
Bicksler came to the staffing industry in 1995 after retiring from the U.S. Army as a nuclear, biological, and chemical warfare specialist. He is currently lead safety manager for Aerotek and has health and safety oversight of Aerotek’s national, international, and government accounts. Bicksler serves as co-chairman of the American Staffing Association’s safety committee and member of the National Occupational Research Agenda services sector council.
Benjamin D. Briggs, Esq.
Partner, Seyfarth Shaw LLP
Briggs is a partner in the labor and employment department of Seyfarth Shaw LLP and serves as co-chairman of the firm’s workplace safety and health practice group. His practice focuses on employment-related litigation and compliance counseling involving federal and state statutes that govern employment discrimination, harassment and retaliation, wage and hour issues, employee leave issues, and workplace safety and health. Briggs represents and counsels clients in matters involving the protection of trade secrets and the enforcement of noncompete agreements and other restrictive covenants. He has successfully represented employers in a wide range of industries, including staffing, building and consumer products, technology, retail, automotive, distribution, utilities, insurance services, construction, and media, in federal and state courts throughout the U.S.
Maureen Dry-Wasson, Esq.
Vice president—group general counsel and global privacy officer, Allegis Group
Dry-Wasson is senior in-house counsel and a trusted advisor to corporate executives on complex business issues, with experience in both the manufacturing and service industries. She is an energetic leader who thrives in a fast-paced environment, with a drive for execution and results while achieving desired business outcomes. Dry-Wasson has broad experience providing counsel on a wide range of substantive areas of the law, including employment, privacy, employee benefits/ERISA, contracts drafting and negotiation, litigation management, corporate, and mergers and acquisitions. She established the Allegis Group Global Privacy Office and provides leadership for compliance with privacy regulations worldwide across multiple, unique operating businesses.
Stephen C. Dwyer, Esq.
Senior vice president, and chief legal and operating officer, American Staffing Association
Dwyer is senior vice president and chief legal and operating officer for the American Staffing Association. He is a leading authority on the legal and public policy aspects of staffing, and engages in and coordinates the association’s legal and public affairs activities and advises the staffing industry on labor and employment law and policy issues. He has testified before legislatures and regulatory bodies regarding, and written extensively and spoken widely on, the staffing industry. Before joining ASA, he was associated with the New York multinational law firm Chadbourne & Parke, as well as De Forest & Duer, a 100-year-old Wall Street firm. Dwyer is a member of the New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Virginia, and District of Columbia bar associations.
Jim Essey, CSP
President and CEO, The TemPositions Group of Cos.
Essey is president and chief executive officer of the TemPositions Group of Cos., which operates in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, and California. He served five terms as president of the ASA-affiliated New York chapter. Essey was elected ASA chairman in 2004—exactly 30 years after his father, Dick, served in the same role—and has chaired the chapter relations, member education and certification, political action, and industry practices committees. He currently chairs the legal and legislative committee and the public policy advocacy taskforce. Essey received his bachelor of arts degree from Trinity College and master of business administration degree from Harvard University.
Jill Hulsizer, Esq.
General Counsel, AB Staffing Solutions LLC
Hulsizer joined AB Staffing Solutions LLC in 2017 as its general counsel. AB Staffing was founded in 2002 and focuses on health care staffing, placing travel nurses and locum tenens nationwide. Hulsizer oversees all legal activities and policies, corporate governance, risk minimization and mitigation, contract administration, and regulatory and legal compliance for the company. She has worked extensively in matters involving labor and employment law and manages all outside counsel relationships. She regularly partners with the executive leadership team and advises the company on new legal developments and potential impacts on the company.
Mike Jones, Esq.
Chief privacy officer, Randstad
Jones is a privacy lawyer with more than a decade of in-house experience. He joined Randstad North America Inc. as its first chief privacy officer in 2017, managing privacy and data security compliance and strategy across Randstad’s brands—including Randstad’s staffing and HR services, job board monster.com, and outplacement service RiseSmart. In his adventures in data, he has dealt with criminal hackers, demanding marketers, inquisitive regulators, and unhappy candidates.
Jason B. Klimpl, Esq.
Partner, Tannenbaum Helpern Syracuse & Hirschtritt LLP
Klimpl is a partner in the employment law group of Tannenbaum Helpern Syracuse & Hirschtritt LLP. In this capacity, he advises clients on a broad range of employment law matters, such as wage and hour compliance, health care, equal opportunity actions and policies, employment agreements and restrictive covenants, independent contractor and consulting issues, reductions in force, technology and privacy concerns, and other human resource counseling. He is also the general counsel of the New York Staffing Association, an ASA-affiliated chapter, and is heavily involved in legal and legislative efforts to support the staffing industry. He has written numerous employment law articles and is a contributing faculty member of both Lawline and the National Academy of Continuing Legal Education. Klimpl also is a member of the Manhattan Chamber of Commerce speakers bureau and help desk. He was awarded Martindale-Hubbell’s “preeminent” peer review rating, was named 2013–2020 New York Super Lawyer (Rising Star), and won the “Rising Star Attorney” category in New York Enterprise Report’s Best Attorneys and Accountants list.
Helen L. Konrad, Esq.
Director, immigration and practice group, McCandlish Holton PC
Konrad is director in the immigration practice group of the law firm McCandlish Holton PC, where she concentrates on work site compliance; defending employers in U.S. Department of Labor, Office of Special Counsel, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement investigations; and employment-based and professional immigration. She has worked directly with the staffing industry for nearly 20 years and has shared her extensive expertise with staffing professionals at Staffing World®, through American Staffing Association webinars, and at past ASA Staffing Law Conferences. Konrad has regularly been recognized as one of the best immigration lawyers in America and she is consistently one of the highest-rated speakers at ASA events.
Edward A. Lenz, Esq.
Senior counsel, American Staffing Association
Lenz is one of the nation’s leading authorities on the legal and policy aspects of staffing. He joined the American Staffing Association in 1989 as the association’s first general counsel and later, as senior vice president for legal and public affairs, was the industry’s chief legal and legislative strategist. Since passage of the Affordable Care Act, Lenz has led the industry’s advocacy efforts before Congress and the administration regarding how the ACA uniquely affects staffing companies. Before joining ASA, he was vice president and assistant general counsel for regulatory affairs with Kelly Services and chairman of the ASA legislative committee. In addition to his ongoing leadership role with ASA, Lenz also serves as senior adviser for employment, labor, and benefits to the law firm Mintz Levin Cohn Ferris Glovsky and Popeo PC.
Toby Malara, Esq.
Government affairs counsel, American Staffing Association
Malara is government affairs counsel for the American Staffing Association. He advises on all staffing-related legislation and regulation, including the Affordable Care Act, immigration/I-9, paid sick leave, sales tax, and per diem issues. He also directs the association’s political activities through its political action committee, StaffingPAC. Malara graduated from Georgetown University and earned a juris doctorate degree from the Columbus School of Law at Catholic University.
Agape Ogbonda, Esq.
Legal counsel, Airswift
Ogbonda is legal counsel, Americas, for Airswift, where he provides legal services to the company’s operations across the U.S., Canada, and Latin America since joining in December 2019. With almost a decade of experience in the staffing industry starting out on the sales side, he now advises on a range of issues from labor and employment, corporate governance, compliance, litigation management, and contracts.
Niloy Ray, Esq.
Shareholder, Littler Mendelson PC
As a member of Littler’s eDiscovery group, Ray has a nationwide practice specializing in the litigation of critical eDiscovery issues and challenges. He routinely advises clients on efficiently meeting preservation and “meet and confer” obligations, developing strategies for effective data harvesting, review and production, implementing cost-shifting/cost-reduction techniques, and addressing the admissibility and authentication of electronic evidence. An active litigator, Ray regularly handles hearings and motion practice on matters relating to eDiscovery. Before joining Littler, he was at another multinational law firm, where his practice focused on commercial litigation in federal and state courts in complex tort, antitrust, and contract matters. Ray regularly represented energy utilities in regulatory proceedings and related litigation, and conducted internal investigations for Fortune 500 and academic clients. He has broad experience in all facets of trial practice and has chaired trials in state and federal court.
Brandon C. Román, Esq.
Senior associate, Squire Patton Boggs
Román advises a wide array of domestic and international clients, including banks, nonbank financial institutions, financial market utilities, trade associations, and multinational corporations, on a variety of financial services and tax issues. He assists clients in developing comprehensive strategies to further their legislative and regulatory interests before Congress, relevant congressional committees, and various regulatory agencies. He also assists various nonprofit organizations with their corporate formation, including assistance with obtaining tax-exempt status with the Internal Revenue Service and state-level tax regulators, as well as advises nonprofit organizations on corporate governance and compliance issues. Román is a member of the advisory committee of the Squire Patton Boggs Foundation, which promotes the role of public service and pro-bono work in the practice of law and the development of public policy.
Brittany Sakata, Esq.
Associate general counsel, American Staffing Association
Sakata is an experienced labor and employment attorney with more than 10 years of experience litigating matters on behalf of individuals and employers. She advises American Staffing Association members on labor and employment law and policy issues, including equal employment opportunity, wage and hour, immigration/I-9, Occupational Safety and Health Administration, and National Labor Relations Board issues. Sakata graduated from George Mason University and earned a juris doctorate degree from the Washington College of Law at American University.
Robert Thompson
President, World Wide Specialty Programs
Thompson is a president at World Wide Specialty Programs with 22 years of staffing industry experience. He started as a principal in a firm focused on market research and analysis of the staffing industry, and World Wide and American International Group were two of his many insurance clients. Thompson sold his company in 2007 and joined World Wide to run its new business, broker development, and workers’ compensation divisions. He is a skilled manager with experience in marketing, research, analysis, sales, customer and broker relations, underwriting, loss control, and co-authoring a staffing industry risk management manual. Thompson is from New York and has four grown children.
