Board of Advisors
Jason Lovelace
Area Vice President (AVP), CareerBuilder.com
Jason Lovelace is Area Vice President (AVP) for CareerBuilder.com, the nation's largest online job site with more than 25 million unique visitors and over 1.6 million jobs. As AVP, Lovelace is responsible for CareerBuilder.com sales strategies and revenue growth within the Fortune 1,000 sector. In his role, Lovelace brings 15 years of expertise in sales and consulting for marketing and human resource executives, Lovelace leverages an in-depth understanding of hiring trends and worker behavior to effectively meet client needs and grow a profitable business.
Lovelace has served in a variety of positions during his eight-year tenure at CareerBuilder.com, including Vice President of Corporate Marketing as well as in regional and national sales leadership. Prior to CareerBuilder.com, Lovelace worked in the advertising agency business with a general management role at Rada Advertising, Inc and sales for BB&A.
Dr. Hayagreeva Rao
Atholl McBean Professor of Organizational Behavior and Human Resources, Graduate School of Business, Stanford University
Professor Rao has published widely in the fields of management and sociology and studies the social and cultural causes of organizational change. In his research, he studies three sub-processes of organizational change: a) creation of new social structures, b) the transformation of existing social structures, and c) the dissolution of existing social structures. His recent work investigates the role of social movements as motors of organizational change in professional and organizational fields.
His research has been published in journals such as the Administrative Science Quarterly, American Journal of Sociology, American Sociological Review, Academy of Management Journal, Organization Science and Strategic Management Journal. He serves as the Editor of Administrative Science Quarterly, and has been a member of the editorial boards of American Journal of Sociology and Organization Science and Academy of Management Review. He has been a Member of the Organizational Innovation and Change Panel of the National Science Foundation. He is a Fellow of the Center for Advanced Study in Behavioral Science and of the Sociological Research Association. He is also a Fellow of the Academy of Management.
His teaching specialties include leading organizational change, building customer focused cultures, and organization design. He teaches courses on these topics to MBA and executive audiences. He has consulted with, and conducted executive workshops for, organizations such as Aon Corporation, British Petroleum, CEMEX, General Electric, Hearst Corporation, IBM, Mass Mutual, James Hardie Company, Seyfarth and Shaw. Additionally, he also worked with nonprofit organizations such as the American Cancer Society and governmental organizations such as the FBI and CIA, and the intelligence community.
Among the awards he has received are the Sidney Levy Teaching Award from the Kellogg School of Management, and the W. Richard Scott Distinguished Award for Scholarship from the American Sociological Association.
Mike Chandler
President and CEO, ASICSoft
Mike Chandler brings to Opson 12 years of experience in the staffing business. Currently Mike is the President and CEO of ASICSoft which specializes in staffing/consulting for complex software and hardware design projects. Prior to launching ASICSoft he worked for Oxford Global Resources. At Oxford Mike won many prestigious awards such as - Recruiter of the Year - three times and Presidents Club member six years in a row. Mike has an intense entrepreneurial spirit as he self funded both ASICSoft and Industry Magazine where he cut his teeth in the advertising and publishing sector. Since graduating from California State University, Sacramento in 1994 he has had many great experiences, but none as important as being a husband and father to his lovely wife and three children.
Dr. Sumit Nijhawan
Group Leader, Product Development, Infogix, Inc.
Sumit joined Infogix in 2004. Sumit supports the units responsible for new product development and enhancements to current Infogix products. Previously, Sumit worked for the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association, SPSS, Inc., and PricewaterhouseCoopers. Sumit received a Bachelor of Arts degree in physics and chemistry from Coe College and a Ph.D. in engineering from Brown University.
Ashish Mehta
Sr. Consultant, SAP America
Ashish is currently Sr. Consultant with SAP America solving complex business problems and finding solution for SAP clients. Prior to joining SAP, he was Practice lead at Hudson Consulting, a billion dollar consulting and staffing company.