Introduction to the CEO Academy
In October 2022, SHRM acquired the premier academy for chief executive officers and board leaders called CEO Academy. Now in its 23rd year, the CEO Academy has attracted over 600 of the most successful chief executives and board leaders in the country. In partnership with the prestigious Wharton School, CEO Academy is one of the most comprehensive programs of its kind, attracting current chief executives, former CEOs, potential successors, company directors, Wharton faculty, and industry leaders.
In-person session offerings are on a first-come, first-served basis.
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If a speaker has provided session materials, please visit https://presentations.shrm.org
Christopher Lopez
Christopher Lopez is the Director of the CEO Academy, a SHRM company, the Society for Human Resource Management.
The CEO Academy has emerged as the best refresher course in the United States for long serving CEOs as well as the perfect “war room” training ground for new CEOs and next-generation CEOs. The Academy is led by a faculty of some of the best, recently retired and successful CEOs and top academic at the prestigious, Wharton School.
SHRM drives social and economic change in the workplace and fosters mutually beneficial work environments that serve both business and employees. In his previous roles, Mr. Lopez served as a key leader for developing the next generation of HR leaders, through SHRM programming, and played a critical, strategic role in building relationships within SHRM and with affiliates to drive SHRM goals and objectives with these key stakeholders. Prior to this role at SHRM, Mr. Lopez was the Manager of Executive Office Operations and the Special Assistant to SHRM’s CEO, Johnny C. Taylor, Jr.
Over the years, Mr. Lopez amassed a wealth of experience in both the for-profit and not-for-profit space. He served as the Operations Manager for TM2 Executive Search, an organization dedicated to capacity building at higher education institutions by identifying, preparing, and building the next generation of educational leaders. Immediately prior to joining TM2, Mr. Lopez joined the Fox Entertainment Group and the 20th Century Fox Diversity & Inclusion (D&I) team, where he served and contributed to the foundational build of the company’s D&I initiatives.
Prior to his time at Fox Entertainment Group, Mr. Lopez served as the Program Manager and Executive Assistant to the President & CEO at the Thurgood Marshall College Fund (TMCF), a national organization supporting and representing nearly 300,000 students attending the country’s 47 publicly-supported Historically Black Colleges & Universities (HBCUs), medical schools, and law schools. He joined TMCF as the Education Policy Specialist and Executive Assistant to the President.
Mr. Lopez earned his Master of Business Administration, with honors, from the University of Miami, and his Bachelor of Business Administration, in Management, with honors, from North Carolina Central University.
Vernon Williams, Ed.D.
Dr. Vernon Williams is the Operations Manager for the CEO Academy. In partnership with The Wharton School and powered by SHRM, CEO Academy connects leaders to their peers with the aim of gaining insight into strategy, innovation, growth, finance, talent, compensation, succession, governance and other issues of pressing concern to organizations. Dr. Williams has worked at SHRM for the past three years, previously as a part of the SHRM Foundation team supporting student Initiatives as well as managing the $500,000 portfolio of scholarships, professional development grants, and awards.
Prior to joining the SHRM Foundation, Dr. Williams was the Assistant Dean of Students and spent over 20 years in higher education overseeing various student service units including, Campus Events, Conduct, Crisis Response, Engagement, Graduate Services, Housing, and Orientation at such institutions including George Washington University, in Washington, DC and Saint Joseph’s University in Philadelphia, PA.
Whether supporting educational programs on-campus or through professional organizations, Dr. Williams enjoys helping others develop and maximize their potential. Dr. Williams displays this passion outside of work as well through community-based initiatives, including SOUL, an organization that uses sports to connect high school aged youth to diverse opportunities that build the life skills needed to succeed academically and professionally.
Dr. Williams earned his doctorate in Higher Education from George Washington University. He earned his Master of Business Administration from Loyola University in Maryland and a Bachelor of Science in Information Technology from Morgan State University.
Alexander Alonso, Ph.D., SHRM-SCP
Alexander Alonso, PhD, SHRM-SCP is the Society for Human Resource Management's (SHRM's) Chief Data & Insights Officer leading operations for SHRM's Certified Professional and Senior Certified Professional certifications, research functions, and the SHRM Knowledge Advisor service. He is responsible for all research activities, including the development of the SHRM Competency Model and SHRM credentials.
During his career, he has worked with numerous subject matter experts worldwide with the aim of identifying performance standards, developing competency models, designing organizational assessments, and conducting job analyses. He was also responsible for working on contract task orders involving the development of measurement tools for content areas such as job knowledge (like teacher knowledge of instructional processes) and organizational climates (like organizational climate forecasting in military health care).
Dr. Alonso received his doctorate in Industrial-Organizational Psychology from Florida International University in 2003. His works have been recognized for their contribution to real-world issues. They include being recognized by the Society for Industrial Organizational Psychology (Division 14 of the APA; SIOP) with the 2007 M. Scott Myers Award for Applied Research in the Workplace for the development of the federal standard for medical team training, TeamSTEPPS; being awarded a 2009 Presidential Citation for Innovative Practice by the American Psychological Association for supporting the development of competency model for team triage in emergency medicine; and receiving the 2013 SIOP Distinguished Early Career Contributions for Practice Award.
Throughout his career, he has published works in peer-reviewed journals such as Industrial and Organizational Psychology: Perspectives on Science and Practice, Journal of Applied Psychology, International Journal of Selection and Assessment, People and Strategy, Personality and Individual Differences, Quality and Safety in Health Care, and Human Resources Management Review. He has also authored several chapters on community-based change initiatives in workforce readiness, as well as co-authoring Defining HR Success: A Guide to the SHRM Competency Model in Practice.
Dr. Alonso also served as a columnist analyzing major trends in the workforce for The Industrial Psychologist and HR Magazine. In addition, he has served on several professional society boards including the SIOP and the Personnel Testing Council of Metropolitan Washington.