Douglas R. Bender - Managing Partner
Pierre A. Towns - VP / Partner
Barbara Sullivan-George - Partner
Mark W. Wilcher - Treasurer / Partner
Emily Woodman-Nance - Secretary / Partner
Expert Qualification / Professional Designation
SPHR, MA
Relevant Experience
Douglas R. Bender is the co-founder and Managing Partner of Onyx Global HR LLC a full-service human resources consulting firm. He is an acknowledged expert on Management and Leadership Development and has taught on this subject at several schools including California State University at Long Beach, North Carolina A&T State University, and the Le Cordon Bleu California School of Culinary Arts. He is also currently Executive Program Coordinator for CSULB’s HR Certification Program.
Mr. Bender is the former Corporate Director for Human Resources Support Services for North America with Masterfoods USA (Mars, Incorporated) and co-chaired the organization’s Global HR Support Services initiatives. The organization has over a hundred businesses around the world with over 40,000 associates. He served many business divisions including Uncle Bens’ Foods, Dove, International, M&M/Mars, Kal Kan Petcare, and Seeds of Change organic foods. His assignments have included extensive work coaching and facilitating senior leadership business teams in developing talent and pursuing higher levels of organizational performance.
He joined Mars from Miller Brewing Company, then wholly owned by Philip Morris and worked in several locations as an HR expert in start up projects. There he served in several positions of increasing responsibility ranging from corporate benefits administration to corporate staffing to employee training and development to labor and employee relations.
Education
BA in Political Science and Economics from the Alcorn State University in Lorman, MS. He also earned his MA in Human Resources from North Carolina A&T State University and completed further studies at North Carolina Central University’s School of Law.
Other Information
Mr. Bender serves as Chairman of the Board for MJC & Associates in Houston, TX and is Vice President of The Friendship Development Foundation of Yorba Linda, CA (a non-profit specializing in supporting educational initiatives for youth and services for the elderly).
He has written several professional articles on human resources-related matters, is a frequent guest speaker, and recently wrote an award winning book titled The ABCs of Leadership (2008). Mr. Bender is also listed in numerous regional, national, and international who’s who directories and periodicals.
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Expert Qualification / Professional DesignationMBA
Relevant Experience
Pierre A. Towns is the co-founder and Vice President of Onyx Global HR LLC a full-service human resources consulting firm. He has taught aspects of Organization Behavior, Leading Organizations, for the Marshall School of Business at the University of Southern California and Compensation and Benefits at California State University San Marcos.
Mr. Towns is the former Senior Vice President, Board Secretary, & Chief Administrative Officer of MedUnite Inc., an IT Services company that provides real-time connectivity between physicians, hospitals, insurance companies, pharmacies and laboratories nationwide.
He joined MedUnite from DreamWorks SKG, a privately held entertainment company in Glendale, California. There he was the Head of Human Resources and was responsible for directing DreamWorks' human resources activities corporate-wide, including Live Action Feature film, Animated Feature film, Television Production, DreamWorks Records, and DreamWorks Interactive Divisions.
Prior to working with DreamWorks, Mr. Towns was with ARCO, a publicly held $39 billion integrated oil and gas company. During 19 years at ARCO, he worked domestically and internationally in positions of increasing responsibility. Mr. Towns' ARCO responsibilities included: heading up Human Resources and Administration for ARCO Latin America, Caracas, Venezuela, which included Central and South America, and the Caribbean; world-wide HR Generalist head for ARCO International Oil & Gas Company; managing a corporate culture change effort for Alyeska Pipeline Service Company, operators of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline; Corporate Manager of the Organization, Compensation and EEO organization; HR Head of ARCO British Limited in London; and management of the Insurance Plans Administration Group, which handled more than 70 medical, dental, life, accident and LTD insurance company relationships covering 90,000 lives.
Prior to working with ARCO, Mr. Towns also worked with Wells Fargo Bank in Los Angeles and the Monsanto Company in Tennessee and New Jersey.
Education
BA in Administrative Studies and a BS in Economics from the University of California at Riverside. In 1993, he earned his MBA in General Management and Organization Development from the University of Southern California.
Other Information
Bilingual in Spanish
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Expert Qualification / Professional DesignationBarbara Sullivan-George is a Partner and serves on the Board of Directors of Onyx Global HR LLC a full-service human resources consulting firm. For over 12 years, Ms.Sullivan-George has coordinated and taught in the Human Resources Certification Program at California State University, Long Beach.
Currently, she serves as a Director on the Board of The Long Beach Chamber of Commerce and of Long Beach Transit. She is a past Director of the Downtown Long Beach Associates, member of Long Beach Rotary and Harbor Area Links. She is a former Vice Chairperson of the Board of Directors of the Black Business Association of Los Angeles and current board member of The National Black Business Council. Ms Sullivan-George served with distinction as a Commissioner on the City of Long Beach’s Economic Development Commission. Notably, she is among the few individuals to receive the coveted NAACP-Legal Defense Fund’s Black Woman of Achievement Award. The honoree was acknowledged for her commitment in championing the rights of small businesses.
Ms Sullivan-George was also nominated by her Clients to receive the Supplier of the Year Award from the U.S. Department of Labor, Small Businesses Administration.
Relevant Experience
Ms. Sullivan-George has been retained by a variety of customers in the public, private, and not for profit environments. Her clients include organizations such as the County of Los Angles, Southern California Edison, Herbalife, The City of Long Beach,Los Angeles Metropolitan Transportation Authority and the Federal Department of Treasury to name a few.
Ms. Sullivan-George successfully staffed and managed one of the first totally outsourced corporate training functions for a 13,000 employee corporation. Her expertise in implementing change management initiatives and designing Employee Leadership Programs is often sought by major organizations
Also to her credit was her participation in the Los Angeles Olympic Games where she served as an Assistant Vice President of Human Resources. Ms. Sullivan-George skillfully placed over 70,000 volunteers and paid staff into the various venues and key posts for the games. This task involved staff recruitment, placement, and training while directing a staff of 250 volunteer and paid human resources employees.
Education
Bachelor of Science in Sociology and a Masters of Arts in Education from Tuskegee University. She finished with honors, the Clark-Atlanta University School of Business, Small Business Executive Leadership Program.
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Expert Qualification / Professional DesignationMark A. Wilcher is a Partner and Treasurer of Onyx Global HR LLC a full-service human resources consulting firm. Mr. Wilcher has 35 yrs. of hands-on-experience as a senior level manager, lead facilitator, and trainer. He is a graduate of UCLA Anderson School of Management Consultants, and he holds a Masters in Business Administration. He is considered a SME (subject matter expert) on some 20 employee training and development disciplines.
Mr. Wilcher is the former Vice President of Distribution and Transportation for Smart and Final, IRIS Corporation in
Mark A. Wilcher’s expertise comes from collaborating for many years with government, non-profit and profit sector clients to identify each client’s organizational history and expectations, using proven approaches to achieve their intended results, on time and on budget.
Facilitating the development of multi-year strategic and performance plans measures designed to improve systems, increasing efficiency and saving valuable human and financial resources. Evaluating program performance across multiple client sites with a variety of complex deliverables, managing the implementation of dynamic projects using collaborative techniques, streamline data collection tools and innovative reporting instruments. Teaming with other experts in specific technical and functional fields to serve clients that require an enterprise-wide performance management solution.
Relevant Experience
For ten years Mark, has provided management and employee training, staff evaluations, strategic planning, skill set review, and facilitation services for clients that range from small to large, private to public and profit and non-profit. He has provided team building and organizational planning to the California Department of Transportation and organizational and strategic planning to Gibson Recovery Centers in
Education
BS in Education, Indiana State University , MBA Webster University, St Louis, Mo., and a graduate of the UCLA, Anderson School of Business Management.
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Expert Qualification / Professional Designation
CPCRelevant Experience
Emily Woodman-Nance is a Partner and Secretary of Onyx Global HR, LLC a full-service human resources consulting firm. Emily has over 16 years of experience coaching executive to entry-level clients. She is the host of the talk radio show “Career Quest” on KUCI, 88.9 FM,Emily teaches the coaching module section of the Human Resources Certification Program at
Emily has over 20 years of corporate, Information Technology, consulting, training and management experience working with Fortune 500 companies. She has managed numerous multi-million dollar software development and training projects.
Her services have been retained by a variety of organizations such as Nissan North America, United Airlines, Sprint, public municipalities and non-profit organizations.
Emily was integral in creating the “Thriving In Transition” program. Aspects of the program have been acknowledged by CafeNet a non-profit networking organization in support of displaced high-tech managers, directors, vice-presidents and “C” level executives.
Emily was part of the Community Event Leadership Team for the
Education
Bachelor of Science in Computer Information Systems, Chapman University.Career Transition Coaching Certification, Chapman University.
CPC Coaching Certification, iPEC Coaching.
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