Leadership Boot Camp Speaker Bios

Jeff Wells - Vice President of Amazon Strategy, Tuft & Needle

Jeff Wells

Jeff Wells is a jack-of-all-trades technologist and young executive serving as Vice President of Amazon Strategy at Tuft & Needle, leading a disruptive 8-figure line of business in the mattress industry. Upon joining the company in 2014 as the first software engineer, Jeff single-handedly prototyped dozens of automated infrastructure tools which Tuft & Needle still utilizes to this day in order to streamline hundreds of millions of dollars worth of e-commerce transactions and shipments. Jeff then transitioned to the Supply Chain team to seamlessly scale production 5X within a year, opening new facilities and all but eliminating manufacturing defects. Jeff was accepted into the prestigious Y Combinator startup incubator’s Winter 2014 Batch, which he declined to help build T&N — and hasn’t looked back since. He earned a BA in Computer Science from the Barrett Honors College at the Arizona State University. During his undergraduate studies, Jeff founded a 501(c)3 non-profit organization, providing business consulting and micro-loans to low-income entrepreneurs.

Harrison Rogers - Chief Executive Officer, HJR Global

Harrison Rogers

In 2012, Harrison Rogers started a company with a student loan. Within 4 years, HJR Global has been ranked number 510 on the Inc 5000 list of fastest growing companies in America.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Karen Halpert - SVP, Head of Property Management, VEREIT, Inc.

Karen Halpert

Karen Halpert serves as Senior Vice President, Head of Property Management at VEREIT, Inc. In this role, she is responsible for maximizing the financial portfolio performance of VEREIT’s portfolio of retail, restaurant, anchored shopping center, office and industrial properties throughout the continental United States and Puerto Rico. Ms. Halpert oversees a team of 52 professionals who are responsible for the property management of VEREIT’s portfolio as well as the portfolio of each of the Cole REITs, consisting of more than 5,300 properties across 49 states.
Before joining VEREIT, Ms. Halpert held leadership positions in property management, asset management and leasing with Related Urban Management, RREEF Management Company, Cabot Industrial Trust and CB Richard Ellis.
Ms. Halpert earned a Bachelor of Science degree in accounting from Arizona State University and holds an Arizona Brokers License. She has been active in the professional organization Arizona Commercial Real Estate Women (CREW) and served as the 2013 President. She is also a member of the National Association of Industrial and Office Property (NAIOP), the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC) and the Urban Land Institute (ULI).

Sharon Hall - Director of Global Supply Management, Intel

Sharon Hall

Sharon Hall is Director of Intel Resale Corporation as well as Director of Internal Manufacturing Procurement Operations. She is responsible for optimizing Intel’s capital and materials across the equipment lifecycle; managing and executing the supply chain business processes to enable procuring >$16+B /year and managing >$50B of assets for Intel’s Technology Development and global factory network, as well as >$6B of capital reuse; the resale of Intel’s assets and inventory to return residual value back to Intel through the resale of retired assets and products. Sharon has worked at Intel for 20+ years in a variety of supply chain roles. Prior to joining Intel, she worked for MACTEC (Department of Energy contractor) and Standard Insurance Company. She has an M.B.A from Arizona State University - W.P. Carey School of Business and a B.A. in Business Administration from University of Washington.

Torrie Taj, CFRE - Chief Executive Officer, Child Crisis Arizona

Torrie Taj

Torrie Taj is a passionate and dedicated professional with more than 25 years in nonprofit leadership and philanthropy. Driven by meaningful work, she has dedicated her professional life to bettering the community through strategic partnerships and connecting resources to those in need. As CEO of Child Crisis Arizona (CCA), Torrie provides support and leadership to talented staff to break the cycle of child abuse and neglect, creating strong families and safe kids. Torrie started her career in the non-profit sector as a volunteer in 1991 and worked her way up, overseeing a variety of human-service programs before heading to lead CCA in 2015. Torrie encourages all her staff to give back through volunteer work in the community. Leading by example, Torrie enthusiastically serves on the Board of Association of Fundraising Professionals, is a current volunteer with Big Brothers Big Sisters, and teaches at ASU, her alma mater . . . Go Devils! For fun, Torrie loves spending time with her three children, enjoys gardening, and loves, loves, loves to travel!

Otto Siegel - Certified Genius Coach, Genius Coaching

Otto Siegel

Otto Siegel is an author, nationally known public speaker and Master Certified Coach. After teaching Biology and Chemistry to High School students in Munich/Germany and Sao Paulo/Brazil for 17 years he started his company Genius Coaching in 2002 in Scottsdale, AZ to serve high performing individuals. His individual and team programs are customized for high performing executives, entrepreneurs, parents and teenagers to decode and activate hidden natural genius to increase productivity and engagement in companies and at school.

 

 

 

Tracy Bullock - President/Chief Executive Officer, Sandler Training

Tracy Bullock

Tracy Bullock brings 30 years of business development experience to her Sandler Training business.  She builds and delivers Sandler programs for companies of all sizes, across multiple industries, including Medical, Restaurant, IT/Software, and Consumer Product Goods. During her 30-year career with Procter & Gamble in customer business development, she developed Sales & Management teams, grew individuals’ performance, and coordinated cross-department strategic planning with top customers in the U.S. and globally. 

Tracy is currently on the Boards of the Tempe Chamber of Commerce, iCommand, and is the Chairman of the Board of Ubora, IT.  She leads the Tempe Chamber Women in Business Council, and facilitates the mentoring program.  Tracy was presented a Lifetime Achievement Award, Top Female Executive, and noted as a Top 101 Industry Experts for her work in Global management Training Development by Cambridge’s Worldwide Who’s Who.  

Jesus Sedillo - Manufacturing Strategic Planning IT Director

Jesus Sedillo

Jesus Sedillo serves as the IT Director of Intel’s manufacturing strategic planning organization. He leads the development and management of capabilities to project the purchase and management of billions of dollars in capital equipment. Prior to this he spent 15 years as a business executive responsible for developing new business segments, leadership pipelines, employee growth and performance as well as profitability. In these roles he identified and developed his passion for people, innovation and entrepreneurship. Jesus holds a BA in Business from Webster University and regularly speaks in the industry about using Innovation to solve real business problems.