2023 SPEAKERS

SUNDAY NIGHT CONFERENCE KICK-OFF
FEATURING ARRAY OF HOPE BAND 

Sister Maris Stella
Sisters of Life
General Session 2

The Sisters of Life are women who are in love with Love – Love incarnate, crucified, and Risen – and captivated by the truth of the beauty of every human person, created in God’s image and likeness.

We believe every person is valuable and sacred. We believe that every person is good, loved, unique and unrepeatable. We believe that every person’s life has deep meaning, purpose and worth. In fact, we give our lives for that truth.

Rick Popp
Global Executive Director for Humans Resources, Ford Motor Company (Retired)
General Session 3

Rick Popp is a recognized authority on leadership and organization development. As a leadership consultant and HR executive and practitioner for over 30 years, he has provided thousands of people with the tools to reach and maintain peak performance. He works with clients in multiple industries, from startups to multinationals, to unleash the full potential of their teams and organizations.

Rick has three decades of experience as a leadership consultant; retired human resources executive from a Fortune 15 company.  He has extensive expertise in leadership development and HR, including organization design, executive recruitment and succession planning, global HR business operations, human capital strategy, customer call center operations, performance coaching, team dynamics, corporate culture.  Rick is a speaker and facilitator of strategic planning sessions to create or reinvent business strategies, restructure organizations, cultivate winning teams and cultures, optimize performance, and develop HR policies & programs.  Rick is the author of The Game of a Lifetime: 9 Lessons for Young Athletes (and Everybody Else) to Achieve Real Success in Sports, Career, Family, and Life.

Rick is an Independent Leadership Consultant with nearly 30 years in leadership roles with Ford Motor Company, most recently Executive Director of Human Resources, North America, Autonomous Vehicles, Electrification, & Global Markets; prior roles included Director of HR, Global Marketing, Sales & Service and Autonomous Vehicle & Electrification; Director of Employee Benefits; various other HR leadership assignments including HR Director, Ford of Mexico.  Rick has Multiple board and community leadership roles.

Deacon Mike Houghton
Director of Missionary Strategic Planning, Archdiocese of Detroit
Concurrent Session 4 & 5 A

 

The Missionary Strategic Plans Department has a specific emphasis on assisting parishes as they craft and refine their Missionary Strategic Plans to increase parishes’ organization and effectiveness.  Missionaries from this department focus on not only helping parishes prepare for the MSP process, but accompanying them and providing support throughout plan implementation.  The Missionary Strategic Plan embodies the goals in Sent On Mission, the next phase of the Unleash the Gospel movement.

Molly Burhan
Founder and Executive Director, Goodlands
Concurrent Sessions 4 & 5 B

I was the chief cartographer (as part for GoodLands) who lead a team to develop the first global maps of the Catholic Church in history, which are also the first global maps of any major world religion in history. These reveal the distribution of leaderships, clergy, and Catholics, non-catholics, and global and local concerns and opportunities in relation to them within around 3,000 contiguous jurisdictions that operate like a global meta-state for a community of 1.3 billion believers across the surface of the Earth. What makes it even more amazing is that I had the opportunity to meet Pope Francis and re-create a Hall of Maps where the Pontifical Academy of Sciences is housed in the Vatican, --this is where Galileo was the first president (and thankfully we did not meet the same fate).

Jarrett Kolthoff
Founder & CEO, Speartip Cyber Counterintelligence
Concurrent Sessions 4 & 5 C

Jarrett Kolthoff, CEO & Founder of SpearTip, emerged as an internationally recognized cybersecurity expert, keynote speaker, and entrepreneur shortly after leaving military service as a Counterintelligence Agent. The SpearTip team responds to cyber intrusions across the globe and protects our clients 24/7 with our ShadowSpear Platform, focusing on protecting Enterprise corporations and Managed Service Providers.

Jarrett holds a BA in Political Science & Economics Rockhurst University and a Masters in International Relations from Troy State University. Jarrett brings real world experience backed by numerous technical certifications, including Sans Global Information Assurance Certification–Forensic Analyst (GCFA) and Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP).

Curtis Martin
Founder & CEO, Fellowship of Catholic University Students (FOCUS)
General Session 6

Curtis Martin is the founder and CEO of the Fellowship of Catholic University Students (FOCUS), one of the fastest-growing college outreach apostolates in the Catholic Church. Archbishop Charles Chaput of Philadelphia stated, “No one does a more dynamic job of reaching college students for Christ than FOCUS.”

FOCUS was founded in 1998 as a national outreach to college students on campus. Starting with just two missionaries on one campus, FOCUS now has hundreds of full-time missionaries serving tens of thousands of college students on campuses throughout the United States. FOCUS is working to play a vital role in the New Evangelization called for by Pope Saint John Paul II. 

Curtis Martin holds a master’s degree in theology and is the author of the best-selling book, “Made for More.” Curtis is likewise the co-author of “The Real Story: Understanding the Big Picture of the Bible” with Dr. Edward Sri and “Boys to Men: The Transforming Power of Virtue” with Dr. Tim Gray.

In 2004, Curtis and his wife, Michaelann, were awarded the Benemerenti Medal by Pope Saint John Paul II for their outstanding service to the Church.  In 2011, Pope Benedict XVI appointed Curtis as a Consultor to the Pontifical Council of the New Evangelization. Curtis and Michaelann live in Colorado. They have been blessed with nine children and six grandchildren.

Archbishop Timothy Broglio (invited)
President, United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB)
General Session 7

Broglio, 70, was born in 1951 in Cleveland Heights, Ohio, where he attended St. Ignatius High School. He received a bachelor’s degree in the classics from Boston College and went on to earn a bachelor’s degree in sacred theology and a doctorate in canon law from the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome. 

He was ordained a priest for the Diocese of Cleveland in 1977. After serving as an associate pastor at St. Margaret Mary parish in Euclid, Ohio, for two years, he returned to Rome and studied at the Pontifical Ecclesiastical Academy, joining the Vatican Diplomatic Corps in 1983. He served as secretary of the apostolic nunciature in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, for four years and then in Asunción, Paraguay, for three years.  

He has been a defender of religious-freedom protections for those serving in the military. Last year, he spoke out against mandating military personnel to receive the COVID-19 vaccine against their conscience.  

Broglio is vice chairman and chancellor of Catholic Distance University and a member of the Board of Directors of the National Catholic Bioethics Center. He also serves as chairman of the Communications Committee for the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C.

Jane Neumayr Nemcova
Managing Director of Artificial Intelligence, Lionbridge (Retired)
Concurrent Sessions 8 & 9 A

Jane is managing all the operations at Veuu, a startup in the FinTech sector. This includes establishing the culture in a fast-paced organization that is expected to have as many as 45 people in the next year.

 

Jane is an adjunct professor of AI for graduate students at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey, CA – a premiere school for top linguists and international students in the language field – introducing them to the principles of AI, Big Data and Natural Language Processing.

 

Jane brings over 18 years of experience leading global teams in artificial intelligence, language, corporate operations and sales. Most recently, Jane led the team at Lionbridge AI, a global provider of scalable dataservices for text, images, videos, and audio which has fueled the largest AI products and companies. Jane created the offering to support a high growth need in the market for data utilized in machine learning. She drove an unprecedented revenue growth from $40 million to over $200 million in less than three years. It was sold last year for approximately $1B. Leading this division, Jane managed a $200 million budget, led all aspects of the business including, sales, operations, technology, HR, finance, marketing, employment, and recruitment. Having helped build a workforce of over 1 million new workers in 200 countries, Jane has proved her capability to establish high functioning teams and develop key talent into successful executives across the globe in US, Canada, Latin America, Finland, Ireland, Spain, France, India, China, and Japan.

 

Jane also brings in-depth experience as Chief Sales Officer and EVP of Global Programs at Moravia, an RWS company, which delivers product localization, global digital marketing, and testing services to the world's top brands. Jane doubled Moravia’s total revenue in her first year as CSO from $40M to $80M and created a $100 million pipeline that measured the highest organic growth in the localization industry at the time. Jane was responsible for the company-wide vision, sales and marketing, as well as operations, implementing a major change management reorganization across all of Moravia’s operations in order to scale with the increased sales growth. Also named the Managing Director for US and Argentina, Jane designed and drove Moravia’s managed services offering, restructured their life sciences division, and created a diversified portfolio of customers and offerings for the company.

Tim Thomas
Executive Director of Administration & Finance, and Human Resources
Roman Catholic Diocese of Marquette
Concurrent Sessions 8 & 9 B

Tim is responsible for all financial management and human resources of the Diocese of Marquette. He is a member of numerous boards and/or finance councils affiliated with the diocese. Tim has served as the interim Superintendent of Catholic Schools, the Director of Catholic Social Services of the Upper Pensinsula, and the Director of Catholic Cemeteries.

Tim has worked in the banking industry for more than 15 years.  Most of that time was working as a national bank examiner for the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency in three different states. He has also worked in the audit department for a mid-size bank holding company.

Tim has been married to his wife, Michele, for 29 years and have three children.

Tim received a Bachelor’s degree from Northern Michigan University where he majored in accounting. He received his commission from the U.S. Treasury Department as a national bank examiner and was part of a team which received an award from the Secretary of the Treasury for work on bank fraud. 

He is a member of St. Michael’s Parish in Marquette, MI where he has served on the parish finance council and helped lead the high school religious education group. He currently serves as a lector, a cantor, and an usher.

Spencer J. Stang, Ph.D.
Founder and owner of Stang Decision Systems
Concurrent Sessions 8 & 9 B

As founder and owner of Stang Decision Systems, Spencer J. Stang, Ph.D. specializes in the design and implementation of customized employee selection systems, with a specific emphasis on using optimized algorithms to improve the decision making process. Throughout his 20-year career he has worked closely with many of the world’s largest and most successful business and sports organizations to help them identify, develop and deploy the talent that they need to gain a competitive advantage. His approach focuses on helping organizations use advanced decision-making tools so that they can optimize their human resource capabilities

Spencer received his Ph.D. in Industrial and Organizational Psychology from the University of Missouri-St. Louis. In addition to his broad consulting experience, his research in the areas of decision making, employee selection systems, and cognitive biases has been presented at many conferences and published in scientific journals and popular HR Magazines.

Monsignor William King
Seminary Vice Rector & Director of Human Formation, Mount Saint Mary’s University
Concurrent Sessions 8 & 9 C

Msgr. King is adjunct professor of canon law in the seminary, having previously taught at The Catholic University of America and Catholic Distance University. He is pastor of Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton Parish in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, after 28 years in diocesan administration as Judicial Vicar and Vicar General in the Diocese of Harrisburg and Archdiocese of Atlanta. He is also a private pilot and organist.

Msgr. King's areas of study are the interface of civil law and canon law in areas of property tenure and Church governance; Sponsorship and property tenure in Catholic health care and higher education.

Margaret Kelly. CEO
Finance Chair, FOCUS Board; Retired CEO, RE/MAX;
Chair, Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, Denver Branch
General Session 12

Margaret Kelly was responsible for the day to day operations and strategic direction of RE/MAX across North America and in more than 95 countries around the world. During her 28 years at RE/MAX, the company grew from 14,000 to nearly 120,000 sales professionals.

Margaret currently serves as the Director and Chair of the Grants Committee for the Daniels Fund, the Director of the Realty One Group, and the Vice President of the Denver Chapter of Legatus.

She has been recognized by countless organizations for exceptional leadership skills, commitment to community involvement and for being an advocate for businesswomen around the globe. Most people know Margaret as the CEO who talked candidly about the real estate market on television with guest appearances on CNBC, CNN, Bloomberg and Fox programs and as the spokesperson on the RE/MAX television commercials during the real estate recession.

Joining RE/MAX in 1987 as a financial analyst, Margaret rose through the ranks of the company. She was named SVP in 1997, President/COO in 2002, and CEO in 2004. In 2013, Margaret was the lead on the RE/MAX IPO which began publicly trading on the New York Stock Exchange as RMAX on October 3, 2013. In January 2010, Margaret was appointed Director of the Kansas City Federal Reserve Board – Denver Branch and became Chairman in January 2015. Margaret is mindful of her humble roots, learning business basics working in her family’s machine shop in Detroit, MI.

Dr. Tim Gray, President
Augustine Institute
General Session 13

Tim Gray is president of the Augustine Institute and a well-known Catholic speaker and author. Under Dr. Gray’s leadership, the Augustine Institute has established the largest Catholic graduate school of theology in the country, and has created best-selling programs including: Symbolon, a comprehensive program of faith formation for adults; The Search, a celebrated evangelization series; FORMED, a digital platform with a vast array of Catholic films, ebooks, and audio talks; and Signs of Grace, a sacramental preparation program for children.


Dr. Gray has a Ph.D. in Biblical Studies from the Catholic University of America., and is the author of several books including Peter: Keys to Following Jesus and Praying Scripture for a Change: An Introduction to Lectio Divina. He is also the host of The Augustine Institute Show, a weekly live show that explores topics of the faith.


Tim and his wife, Kris, live in Littleton, Colorado. They have one son, a daughter-in-law, and a granddaughter.

Dr. Kelly Richmond Pope
Profession of Accounting, DePaul University
General Session 14

Kelly is a global expert in the forensic accounting field.  She is the Dr. Barry Jay Epstein Endowed Professor of Accounting in the School of Accountancy and Management Information Systems at DePaul University in Chicago, IL. Additionally, she is an award-winning documentary filmmaker and educator.  She produced and directed All the Queen’s Horses which chronicles the largest municipal fraud in U.S. history.  Her book, Fool Me Once (Harvard Business Review Press, 2023) takes a new approach at analyzing how and why fraud happens.  She received her doctorate in accounting from Virginia Tech and undergraduate degree in accounting from North Carolina A&T State University.  She is a licensed CPA in the State of North Carolina.