Jamie Starner is the Director of Recruiting and Diversity for Benihana, Inc. She oversees a recruiting team for four brands and approximately 100 restaurants. She is passionate about both the hospitality industry and talent acquisition. Her strengths are in relationship building, reports and data, technology and process improvement. Four years ago, she started and still runs a networking group specific to restaurant recruiters to provide collaboration and education to the recruitment department in the restaurant space.

Jamie was born and raised in Arizona. She received her Bachelor’s Degree from ASU and Masters of Education in Human Relations from NAU. She holds her GCDF and SHRM-CP. Jamie enjoys volunteering, cooking, hiking and traveling.

JoLyn Simms is a Major Account Executive at CareerBuilder with over 15 years of experience in leadership and consultative sales. The past 7 years she has worked alongside enterprise and small business organizations to help attract, screen, and on-board new employees by leveraging data and technology.  She also spent multiple years as a hiring manager at Enterprise Rent-A-Car working her way up from Intern to Area Manager.

Born and raised in Arizona, she received her Bachelor’s Degree in Business Management from Arizona State University.  JoLyn enjoys travel, sporting events, festivals and is finally getting caught up on Game of Thrones.  She has a one year old lab named Mojo that keeps life exciting and will be planning a wedding this year.

Todd grew up in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area and relocated to Surprise with his family in 2006.  He has been in the mortgage business for over 20 years with half of that time spent on the direct lending side as a loan officer, broker, and lending manager.  He moved over into mortgage recruiting about 2 years ago so he could use his knowledge and experience to help others find their career paths.  He is currently the VP of Business Development for Interlinc Mortgage Services. 

He loves sports and enjoys playing golf as much as he can.  He just finished up a 2 year run as booster club president for the Willow Canyon High School boys basketball team.  His son is set to graduate in May 2019, which will make him and his wife empty nesters, but they will still have their hands full with 4 cats and 2 dogs.

A transplant from the Silicon Valley, William now calls the Phoenix Valley home. Bringing over 20 years of talent acquisition and leadership experience, he has worked across the enterprise software, consumer technology, and web sectors. William builds from scratch or overhauls recruiting functions to better partner with leadership and move companies into their next stage of growth. Currently, William is the Director of Talent Acquisition for Spokeo.

Outside of work, he's dishing out puns, plugging into one or more audiobooks, and looking out for great cafe sua da.

Shannon Taylor holds the position of Director, Talent Acquisition at Republic Services, Inc. based in Phoenix, AZ. Republic Services, Inc. is one of the leading providers of services in the domestic waste and recycling industry, publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE: RSG). Shannon is a partner to the business and translates the human capital initiatives into commercial and operational excellence.

In his role, Mr. Taylor leads the talent acquisition strategy and process, recruitment technology, and vendor relationships nationally. Mr. Taylor leads a team of over 70 talent acquisition professionals and is responsible for over 13k hires annually throughout the United States & Puerto Rico. Prior to joining Republic Services Mr. Taylor lead global talent acquisition for Royal Caribbean Cruises Intl where he was responsible for a team of 30 Talent Acquisition professionals globally. During his tenure with Royal Caribbean Shannon was responsible for delivering over 17k hires globally on an annual basis. Shannon’s additional talent acquisition experience includes working for Hard Rock International, Norwegian Cruise Line, and Wyndham Vacation Ownership.

Shannon holds a B.A. degree in Economics from the University of Florida in Gainesville, Florida.

Lisa has been in the recruitment business for 20 years and has been instrumental in the startup of three successful recruiting firms and has also gained valuable insight as an HR Director for both Publicitas North America and CRS Temporary Housing.  Lisa is currently a Senior Vice President with TowerHunter, a national Executive Search firm with headquarters in Phoenix.   Given this unique blend of corporate and staffing agency in her background, Lisa understands the challenges that organizations face when finding talent. 

In 2014, Lisa formed the “HR Discussion Group” group where HR leaders come together to discuss relevant high-level topics of interest, stay abreast of current legislation and network together. This group is still active with 45 members and includes representatives from companies such as Intel, GoDaddy, Freedom Financial, Taylor Morrison Homes, Meritage Homes, Silicon Valley Bank, TGen, APS, Avnet, Honeywell, Capital Lumber, and Northrup Grumman to name a few.

Her success in the search business has allowed her to build an expansive network of clients that have come to know her as a trusted advisor and true business partner.