Learn how to plan your DEI Initiative!

Speakers and Consultants


TALENT! Attracting, developing and retaining great people is a requirement and an obligation of top performing corporate leaders. In today’s multigenerational, multicultural marketplace coaching and motivating early and midcareer professionals is a skill that must be developed if your brand wants to keep the BEST talent. So where do your leaders go to learn how to engage this diverse and changing workforce?

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The answer is MFHA

The Multicultural Foodservice & Hospitality Alliance.

MFHA is the industry’s original, premier, and straight talk advocacy organization with over 22 years of service to the restaurant, foodservice and lodging industry. Better than any other multicultural group, MFHA knows the issues, the brands, the segments and the language of hospitality. We the have the relationships and proven solutions to help you win in the marketplace.

MFHA president and founder Gerry Fernandez is skilled restaurateur with over 40 years of industry experience. Twice named to Nation’s Restaurant News’s Power List, Gerry has held leadership roles with the Capital Grill, the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, Johnson & Wales University’s School of Culinary Arts and General Mills Foodservice. He leads a team of industry experts and multicultural consultants skilled in engaging today’s workforce that is second to none.

The MFHA Speakers and Consultants Consortium was created to promote and provide access to the best speakers, trainers, facilitators and thought leaders that also bring cultural and ethnic insights. Coupled with MFHA’s 23 years of diversity and inclusion experience, these trained professional speakers and consultants are prepared to address most any corporate gathering.

Here is a sample of the topics:

  • Strategies and tactics to engage and motivate low income workers to want to achieve
  • Developing cultural intelligence to improve teamwork and create an inclusive culture
  • Improving customer service in culture rich markets
  • Understanding how unconscious bias impacts recruitment
  • Mitigating risk: De-escalation tactics for a 21st century workplace
  • Building a sustainable talent pipeline through community engagement
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“MFHA is focused on promoting diversity of thought, perspective and experience as a means to get the best solutions in the market place.”

Gerald “Gerry” A. Fernandez

President & Founder

The Multicultural Foodservice & Hospitality Alliance

Nearly everyone who knows Gerald “Gerry” A. Fernandez and the work that he does for The Multicultural Foodservice & Hospitality Alliance (MFHA), describes him as a man of vision, dedication, and passion. As President and Founder of MFHA, a non-profit organization that promotes cultural intelligence in the workplace.

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Karim Abouelnaga

Social Entrepreneur, Servant Leader, and Education Advocate

karimabouelnaga.com

Karim is the founder & CEO of Practice Makes Perfect (PMP), a Benefit Corporation that partners with K-12 schools to deliver high quality, academic summer programs. He received over a quarter million dollars in scholarships to make his education possible. Karim founded PMP at 18. He is an author and writes for Entrepreneur, Forbes, and Linkedin. Karim is a TED Fellow and Echoing Green Fellow. At 23, he was named to Forbes’ 30 under 30 list in Education, and at 24 was named to Magic Johnson’s 32 under 32 list. In 2016, he was ranked in the top 3 most powerful young entrepreneurs under 25 in the world by Richtopia. Karim is the author of Breaking Through: From Rough to Ready. He graduated from Cornell University’s School of Hotel Administration and is currently working on a Master’s in Education Policy at Columbia University.
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Topics

  • Achieving Equity through Education
  • Youth Employment, tapping into the future workforce
  • Purpose-driven Work in the 21st Century
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Chef Jeff Henderson

CHEF. AUTHOR. SPEAKER. TELEVISION HOST

chefjefflive.com

Jeff shares two decades of life lessons that he gained on his redemptive journey from drug dealer to TV celebrity chef to internationally acclaimed speaker. With his 12 inspiring and pragmatic street-smart recipes for success, audiences will discover their hidden business aptitudes, make life-changing decisions, and secure personal and professional success.

View Chef Jeff Video

Chef Jeff Speaking Topics

  • IF YOU CAN SEE IT, YOU CAN BE IT. The 12 street smart recipes for success
  • FROM THE STREETS TO THE STOVE. A live talk & cook performance
  • WHAT EVERY FOODSERVICE OPERATOR NEEDS TO KNOW. Why the alternative workforce is the new talent pipeline.
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Karim Webb

ENTREPRENEUR. SPEAKER. COMMUNITY LEADER

karimwebb.com

Karim Webb is multi-unit Franchisee of Buffalo Wild Wings and CEO of 4thMVMT, a Los Angeles based firm that seeks, vets, trains, finances and partners with individuals from “underserved communities” to own and operate competitive retail businesses.

Webb’s entrepreneurial experience and history of engagement within “at-risk youth” in Los Angeles has lead him to his true life purpose, philanthropic work promoting leadership development and entry-level employment as a gateway to a fulfilled life.

Karim believes opportunity and progress do not just happen but that working toward creating even the smallest ripple is capable of causing a wave of positive results. And under his leadership, Webb’s Team Members have learned to activate possibility in their lives by exercising their muscle of excellence.

Beyond Buffalo Wild Wings and 4thMVMT, Karim is an advisor to the Multicultural Foodservice & Hospitality Alliance (MFHA) and holds a number of Board positions including the California Community Foundation, the Brotherhood Crusade, Everytable, and the Living Through Giving Foundation: Hashtag Lunchbag.

“We are producing exponential outcomes by increasing productivity. Ultimately, self-worth is the key to unlocking human capital.” - Karim Webb

View: The Transformative Power of Entry-Level Employment by Karim Webb at TEDxCrenshaw


Topics

  • Exercising the Muscle of Excellence: Helping people realize their self-worth and intrinsic value culminating in significantly increased productivity.
  • Developing Loving Leaders: The case for conscious leadership development.
  • Developing Entry- Level Team Members: Energizing and developing "at-risk" humans.
  • Positive Cash Flow: Growing sales by authentically connecting in communities.
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Nancy J. Lewis, MS, SHRM-CP, PHR, RCC

SPEAKER - TEACHER - AUTHOR

progressivetechniquesinc.com

Nancy J. Lewis is a leading motivational/inspirational keynote speaker, trainer, author, and registered corporate coach. She is the president of Progressive Techniques, Inc. based in Fayetteville, Georgia where the theme of her organization is “Developing a Better YOU!” She earned a M.S. degree from Georgia State University in Urban and Public Affairs with concentration in Human Resources. Nancy has worked as an adjunct faculty instructor at Georgia State University where she taught an undergraduate Human Resources course. She has been speaking and conducting training for 30 years. Nancy is a former Dale Carnegie instructor. She conducts dynamic keynotes and seminars on generational diversity, leadership, diversity and inclusion, customer service, human resources, and personal enrichment. She delivers energizing, interactive, and content-rich presentations that provide strategies for everyday living. Nancy is a business coach and works with executives and managers to help them transform and enhance their careers.

Topics

  • No limits
  • Professionalism in the workplace
  • Leveraging Generations
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Belinda Johnson White, PhD

EDUCATOR. LEADERSHIP EXPERT. AUTHOR.

buildingleaders.org

Dr. White is a business professor at Morehouse College; University of Wisconsin Center for Professional and Executive Development faculty member; leadership and professional development (LPD) subject matter expert; and author. With 25 plus years of experience developing over 3,000 emerging leaders of color, she is a highly sought after industry LPD workshop facilitator. With an inclusive, inspiring, entertaining and authentic style, Belinda brings a unique, fresh perspective to traditional work practices of excellence for 21st century workers. She is also a former IBMer. Belinda is the founder and CEO of BuildingLeaders LLC, advancing her passion for brilliance in culturally relevant LPD training, based on Biblical principles and values. She holds degrees from Spelman College (BS), Georgia Institute of Technology (MS), and Georgia State University (PhD), a certifications from the Harvard University John F. Kennedy School of Government and the University of Georgia.

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Eduardo Crespo

MULTICULTURAL MARKETING - RECRUITMENT - SALES

hispanicmarketsolution.com

Eduardo Crespo is an immigrant from Ecuador and is the founder and CEO of Hispanic Market Solution, specializing in helping companies Understand, Reach, Service/Sell to the US Hispanic/Multicultural markets. 

Eduardo is a bilingual/bi-cultural professional with over 25 years of Hispanic/Multicultural marketing, advertising, PR, diversity and inclusion and community relations experience. Increasing awareness about these markets and providing strategic marketing/HR direction, generating new business, creating “out of the box” solutions, crafting compelling campaigns, and connecting brands with consumers are his core strengths.

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Jose Rene Gomez

SPEAKER - FACILITATOR - TRAINER

mculturalsolutions.com

José R. Gómez is the founder and serves as President and Chief Inclusion Officer for Multicultural Solutions, LLC, an inclusion, diversity and bilingual training consulting practice based in Fort Worth-Dallas, Texas. He has over twenty years of inclusion and diversity consulting expertise with an array of public and private sector domestic and global organizations.

José is responsible for designing and delivering leading edge Solutions in diversity, inclusion, cultural intelligence and multicultural markets consulting strategies. His expertise includes the areas of workforce, marketplace, compliance, community and global diversity.

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Calvin Stovall

Keynote Speaker - Author - Enthusiast

iconicpresentations.net

Calvin is the CEO, Chief Experience Officer and Iconicity Enthusiast for ICONIC Presentations, LLC. Calvin specializes in delivering high-energy, customized keynote presentations for organizations that desire to reach or maintain ICONIC status. Calvin focuses on delivering the perfect blend of business concepts, story-telling and music themes to bring home an impactful message that touches both the heads and hearts of his audiences.

Armed with more than 25 years of experience in the hospitality and non-profit services industries, Calvin’s audiences learn real-life, hands-on practical customer experience and leadership principles which can be easily applied to business challenges today. Calvin designed a practical and systematic technique called The ICONIC Framework™ to help organizations achieve and maintain iconic status in the eyes of their customers... Read More

Topics

  • BE! ICONIC OR BE! GONE
  • BARS AND BRANDS AND RAVING FANS
  • HOW TO BECOME AN ICONIC BRAND YOUR CUSTOMERS LOVE
  • SUCCESS PRINCIPLES OF ICONIC LEADERSHIP
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Calvin Stovall
"Today’s workplace diverse by nature. Leaders that learn how to manage that diversity with excellence will win the war for talent every time."
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