Sakena Gardner's professional background is in recruiting, operational leadership and program management.  She is currently TransUnion’s Director of Talent Acquisition. Prior to joining TransUnion, she was Manager of Talent Acquisition for Lenovo, leading a full cycle recruitment team with responsibility for North America and Latin America.  Prior to joining Lenovo, Sakena spent several years providing consulting expertise to 40+ enterprise software companies across the globe. During her 10 year tenure with Xerox, she applied lean concepts to drive process efficiencies across a variety of programs and operations. 

Her passion for operational process efficiency, recruiting expertise, strong leadership and program management abilities have allowed her to successfully build and lead high performing Talent Acquisition organizations.

Sakena and her husband live in the Western Chicago suburbs.  Together, they enjoy traveling, spending time at home with their young son and volunteering to provide aid to the underserved youth in Chicago.

Robert G Common II (RG), intrigued by talent, corporate growth, and legal regulations; professionally resides as a Senior Talent Partner at BestBuy Corp. Over the past 15+ year, RG continuous to enhance his Human Resource tools through internships, academic degrees, certifications, board membership, public speaking, and an extensive corporate consultation portfolio. This path has given him creative research and consulting experience in talent, management, infrastructure, mapping, and strategic client engagement.

As a Corporate Leader, RG has consulted with global, national, and mid-sized organizations to implement large-scale business transformations. His research interest includes behavioral economics, leadership behaviors, workforce maturity, and workforce assessments. Passionate by maximizing the value of human capital within corporate employment law and business acumen as a Human Resource Professional.

RG is versatile as an individual contributor but also as an HR leader. He stands by the old college motto that “Teamwork Makes the Dream Work”.

James Parker currently leads Glassdoor's global GoToMarket recruiting team, with recruiters based across the US and Europe. He has a passion for building teams with a strong emphasis on recruitment branding and the candidate experience.

James and his wife live in Old Town, Chicago, and although he grew up in South Africa, James has since traded in the Indian Ocean for Lake Michigan. Together they enjoy being active, traveling, eating, and eating while traveling.

Anne Nordlof has over seven years of experience in recruitment. Starting off as an entry-level recruiter at LaSalle Network, a Chicago-based staffing firm, she discovered a passion for helping managers make key hires and assisting candidates in advancing their careers. Over her time at LaSalle Network, Anne earned four promotions, ultimately managing one of the largest teams of recruiters in the company. Anne recently joined the talent acquisition team at Glassdoor and is excited to make a hiring impact on the quickly growing company. 

Anne is from Indiana but has been a Chicago resident for nearly ten years. She lives in the city with her husband and baby daughter. They love to catch up on sleep when they can, and when awake they love trying new restaurants and parks in the city. 

Tom Pollock has 10 years of recruiting experience across agency staffing & recruiting along with corporate talent acquisition and HR. In 2019 he joined the talent acquisition team at Publicis Media, one of the top 3 media agency holding companies in the world.

At Publicis, Tom is currently a Talent Acquisition Manager, supporting businesses and teams in New York, Atlanta, Los Angeles, and Chicago. He manages hiring efforts for teams that handle media strategy and planning for clients which include Verizon Wireless, JP Morgan Chase, Oracle, Kohl’s, Farmers Insurance and Sonic.  

Tom grew up in Ann Arbor, Michigan, earning a Bachelor’s degree from Indiana University. He currently lives in Chicago with his wife, Ali, and dog, Emma. Outside of work, Tom enjoys working out, traveling, and cheering for Michigan Football.  

Michael Teske is the Talent Acquisition Manager at Arbor Lodging in Chicago, a leading hotel investment and management company with hotels all across the United States. 

Currently focusing on sourcing and recruitment for 22 properties, Michael has also been a corporate recruiter for accounting, finance, information technology, and sustainability-focused companies. Michael’s range of talent acquisition environments has rewarded him invaluable experience in systems implementations, remote recruitment strategy, and Boolean search.

Michael lives in the Western suburbs of Chicago with his wife and two daughters.