Collaborate 2025

Futurist Jeremy Gutsche to Address AI Innovation and Hiring at Collaborate 2025

Jeremy Gutsche, New York Times bestselling author and award-winning innovation expert, to address AI Innovation, Change, and the Super Future as Collaborate 2025 keynote speaker.

Ashley Allison

Ashley is a dedicated and dynamic Customer Success Leader with a specialization in the Staffing and Gig Industries. She started her journey in 2017 as a Customer Success Partner in the Retail Practice area, where she excelled in managing top-tier customers, ensuring exceptional service, and driving strategic account growth. In 2023, Ashley's exemplary leadership and strategic acumen earned her a leadership role, further solidifying her expertise in customer success and account management. She seamlessly transitioned to focusing on the staffing sector in 2024, bringing her innovative approach and dedication to customer satisfaction to new heights. By 2025, Ashley expanded her responsibilities to include the gig economy, where she continued to drive innovation and enhance customer satisfaction. Ashley is committed to delivering exceptional results and fostering long-term client relationships.

Rolf Bezemer

Rolf is an enterprise software executive with more than a decade of leadership experience in cloud HCM solutions. At First Advantage, he is the Executive Vice President and general manager watching over Europe, the Middle East and Asia. During his career, Rolf has held various executive roles in high-growth companies, including Lumesse, Aon, MrTed, StepStone Solutions, and HRBoss. He earned his master’s degree in public administration from Erasmus University Rotterdam.

Lindsay Bur

Lindsay Bur is the Director of Data Science and Economics at the American Trucking Associations reporting directly to the Chief Economist. Since joining ATA in 2021, Lindsay has led the publication of numerous economic reports and stewards the collection and analysis of economic data as it relates to the trucking industry. Lindsay also serves as a member on the American Transportation Research Institute's research advisory committee. She is a graduate of the University of Virginia with a bachelor’s in economics and she is currently pursuing her master’s degree in economics at the University of Maryland.

Marlus Coutinho

Marlus is Senior Vice President, Lantin America, for First Advantage. As a highly accomplished senior executive, he thrives on new challenges that are results driven. Marlus is a driver of global operations transformation and designed and executed a 5-year transformation that dramatically improved speed, quality, and client experience while delivering more than $40M in cost reduction. He has created and galvanized a strategic global team in 80+ countries, focused on turning data into insightful storytelling, interfacing with clients to deliver research studies and market insights proactively. Marlus received his undergrad from Universidade Metodista de São Paulo and an advanced degrees from Harvard: Global Strategic Management and the Wharton School: MBA.

Jeremy Day

Jeremy Day is the Enterprise Sales Executive for the Financial and Business Services Practice. Having joined Sterling (First Advantage) in 2012, Jeremy partners with many of the largest financial and business service companies in his responsibilities to drive growth, optimize strategies, and deliver results for both organizations and clients alike. Throughout his career, he has developed deep expertise in financial services, drawing on a solid foundation with a degree in business finance and working as a financial advisor, where he honed his skills in client relationship management and financial planning.

Pamela Devata

Ms. Devata leads Seyfarth’s nationwide Background Screening Compliance and Litigation Defense team, which currently has approximately 40 members nationwide. She helps employers to be aware of the myriad of laws regarding what they can ask, when they can or cannot ask, what information they can rely upon, and how that information can be used when conducting a background check. This includes the hyper-technical federal law, the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) and many other state and local laws throughout the country. Both employers and background screening companies (consumer reporting agencies) look to Pam for guidance based on her deep knowledge and experience practicing in this area for nearly 20 years.

Casey Drucker

Casey Drucker is VP, Strategic Clients at First Advantage. She drives customer outcomes through industry and product expertise, strategy, and program management in the retail space to deliver value and expertise to customers to help them hire smarter and onboard faster. She has in-depth experience in the investigative research suite of products including the BackTrack Report and the Executive Advantage Report process. She designed and launched products and served as General Manager for the BackTrack Report division.

Christopher J. Eckhart

Chris is a partner whose practice focuses on DOT regulatory compliance. He regularly counsels transportation companies on compliance with state and federal motor carrier safety regulations and hazardous materials regulations. Chris also defends DOT safety audits and civil forfeiture proceedings; drafts and reviews employment/driver manuals and company policies to address DOT regulatory compliance; prepares corrective action plans, Data Q challenges, and safety rating upgrade requests; conducts on-site mock DOT audits; and conducts due diligence of acquisition targets’ DOT regulatory compliance. Chris is a regular speaker before transportation industry groups, lecturing on such issues as DOT compliance and hazardous materials transportation.

Bo Engelhardt

Bo Engelhardt has been with First Advantage since 2008. He currently helps his team of Customer Success Directors provide an excellent customer experience by anticipating and fulfilling needs in a manner that exceeds customer expectations. Bo is a highly-trained customer success professional dedicated to helping his team transition accounts from sales through implementation and program launch. He is committed to creating a best-in-class program management experience by ensuring his team supports the day-to-day needs of clients throughout the customer relationship lifecycle, and consulting with them on proven best practices that can further strengthen their overall hiring process.

Matt Froman

Matt is a Client Success Leader concentrating on partnerships with our Technology, Media and Entertainment clients. Matt leads his Client Success team with the goal and intent to truly partner with our clients. He believes that a global strategy is critical to partnering with our industry leading and industry defining clients. Matt’s team aims to align on our partnership strategy and build a plan together with our clients to help drive an efficient screening process while operating within our client’s overall business goals. Matt started working in the screening industry in 2016 and has held leadership roles in multiple verticals helping to partner with some of our largest clients.

Ryan Garman

Ryan drives both growth and innovation across First Advantage's healthcare vertical. Having initially joined Sterling in 2014, Ryan helped launch their healthcare division, create what is now First Advantage's clinical concierge offering for drug & health screening services, established our Acute Care, Healthcare Staffing, Post Acute and Life Sciences Centers of Excellence, and launched our credentialing and onboarding automation solutions. Ryan's passion is helping healthcare organizations leverage AI and modern technology to find the right balance of speed, cost, experience and risk mitigation.

Melissa Dorsett Gavin

Melissa is SVP of Customer Success for the Americas, leading the customer success teams supporting our clients across the Retail, Hospitality, Staffing, Gig, Financial Services, Business Services, Technology, Media & Entertainment industries. She has over 11 years of experience in background screening, driving performance, innovation, and strong partnerships with and on behalf of her clients, and more than 15 years in sales and customer success roles across technology and information services companies. Melissa is committed to building trust, enhancing client satisfaction, and delivering impactful results.

Kendra Holliday

Kendra Holliday leads Sales for the Staffing vertical at First Advantage. She has worked in the background screening industry since 2009 and brings with her a wealth of experience and knowledge. She is a native of Southern California but recently moved to Lake Havasu AZ with her husband and two boys, Jackson and Rocky. They enjoy summer days on the lake and winter days on their ATV’s in the desert. Kendra graduated from University of Arizona with a major in Religious Studies and a minor in Business. She has been with First Advantage for the last 9 years, all of which have been dedicated to the Staffing Vertical.

Michael Hufford

Michael is a seasoned professional with extensive experience in customer care and operations management. Currently serving as Vice President of Customer Care at First Advantage, Michael focuses on driving an exceptional Candidate experience. In addition, his role includes Care Support Operations in which he leverages best-in-class methodologies specific to Workforce Management, Business Intelligence, and Quality Assurance. Michael has a diverse background that includes roles at Intrado, Toast, Frontpoint, Comcast, Charter Communications, and Access America, where responsibilities ranged from driving operational performance and managing quality programs, to overseeing customer care outsourcing. Michael holds a Bachelor of Science in Business Management from Indiana University and has furthered his leadership skills through programs at the Louisville Leadership Center.

Bret Jardine

Bret Jardine is the Vice President and General Counsel of First Advantage, with responsibility for all legal affairs from corporate governance to litigation management and regulatory compliance. In practice for more than 25 years, Bret brought his experience as a litigator, including class actions and regulatory inquiries, as well as corporate transactional work and corporate governance to First Advantage beginning in 2004. Bret has expertise and oversees a team of regulatory compliance officers regarding data privacy laws and regulations to assist in providing guidance to First Advantage and its global customers.

Brian Larrow

Brian is a certified Lean Six Sigma Black Belt with extensive experience optimizing client screening programs through data-driven analytics and results-focused engagements. He has pioneered new methods of analyzing key metrics such as turnaround time, adjudication, missing information and industry benchmarking. In his prior role with First Advantage, he leveraged his self-taught Mandarin Chinese languages skills in managing the APAC region for several large global clients. In addition to his supply-chain focused BBA from the University of San Diego, Brian is passionate about city planning and completed the [IN]CITY certificate program at the UC Berkeley College of Environmental Design. An avid traveler, he has visited 30 countries, 48 US states, 30 Chinese provinces and more than 160 units of the National Park Service.

Chuck Lauer

Chuck brings deep experience in HR consulting, leadership, motivation, organizational development, statistics and modeling to bear in his engagements with First Advantage Clients. Chuck holds a master’s degree in Industrial/Organizational Psychology and is an ASQ-certified Lean Six Sigma Black Belt. In his time working with the Federal Government, Nielsen and now First Advantage, Chuck has helped clients in both the public and private sector optimize outcomes ranging from turnaround time and candidate experience to employee engagement and performance. Chuck was SVP Professional Services for The Nielsen Company and holds a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from Miami University.

Evangeline Lopez

Evangeline Lopez is an accomplished Staffing Practice Leader with over nine years of experience at First Advantage, where she has played a pivotal role in shaping global strategic initiatives and leading high-performing client-facing teams. Known for her expertise in driving client success, Evangeline spearheaded the development of a Client Success Mentorship Program, aimed at fostering growth, leadership, and long-term partnerships across a diverse client base. Evangeline holds an MBA from Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) and a BA from Temple University.

Alan Marblestone

Al has been with First Advantage since 2022.  He is our VP of Customer Care focused on delivering an exceptional client experience throughout our global footprint.  He spent the previous five years with a global ecommerce retailer, leading Supplier Operations and Customer Service Teams as the company expanded to three times its size during his tenure.  Al learned the importance of teamwork at the start of his career, serving as a US Naval Flight Officer in the P-3C Orion Aircraft, accumulating more than 2,500 flight hours and rising to the rank of Commander.

Tom Mahar

Tom is a Client Success Leader within First Advantage’s Financial & Business Services Practice Area. Tom focuses on supporting strategic clients to align with their background screening requirements. Prior to joining First Advantage, Tom worked at State Street Bank as a member of the Business Development team focusing on Asset Manager and Insurance clients. In addition, he was a consultant on State Street’s Global Relationship Management team working closely with strategic client accounts.. Tom has a Bachelor of Science (B.S.) in Economics from Siena College.

Kate Mehldau

Katie serves as the Head of Client Success for Healthcare & Life Sciences at First Advantage, bringing over fourteen years of diverse experience within the company. Throughout her career, she has excelled in various roles, including client success, operations, solution consulting, and Chief of Staff prior to the acquisition. Her extensive background in the background screening industry equips her with profound knowledge of platform functionality, integrations, and product offerings. This expertise positions her to ensuring exceptional service and support in the healthcare and life sciences sectors.

Aleksandra Mika

Aleks joined First Advantage from Brown Brothers Harriman, the oldest and one of the largest private investment banks in the United States with 18 offices around the world and over US$ 55 billion in assets, where she spearheaded their agile and digital transformation efforts. At her time at Brown Brothers Harriman, she worked to modernize product management and development processes across the bank which resulted is shorter time to market and 20% decrease of development cost by achieving zero design rework post production. A certified agile trainer and coach, Aleks brings 20+ years of demonstrated success in driving development of new software products and the modernization of existing corporate platforms, all while keeping users and clients first. When she isn’t busy guiding meaningful changes through data, you’ll find her with her twin girls, Emily and Nataly, and her two pups, Bobby and Ziggy. She also loves to hike and mountain ski with her husband.

Ryan Nardontonia

Ryan Nardontonia, Esq. serves in compliance and legal roles at First Advantage, primarily supporting Compliance in Canada, the United States, and Latin America.  Reporting to the Chief Global Compliance Officer, Ryan’s scope of responsibilities include providing compliance, data privacy, and audit support to First Advantage product lines, including Background Screening, Drug Testing, and Fingerprinting. Ryan also speaks on state law and cannabis matters, specializing in legal trends.

Mike Nizzi

Mike is a Sales leader at First Advantage with more than 14 years of experience helping customers streamline their Background Screening programs, and develop and manage best-in-class programs for their internal users and their candidates. Mike currently leads our Transportation and Energy vertical, which is focused on creating a true end-to-end candidate onboarding process that includes both drivers and non-drivers across Background Screening, Drug Testing and Driver Qualification File management.

Angela Preston

Angela Preston, JD, CCEP, is an experienced Associate General Counsel at First Advantage with an expertise in corporate ethics and compliance. She has experience building compliance frameworks for companies that includes establishing policies and procedures, codes of conduct, anti-bribery and anti-corruption policies, sanctions controls, best practice guidance, risk assessments, whistleblower hotline policies, training programs, and building a culture of compliance, She has represented companies in civil and regulatory investigations, and litigation. Her areas of expertise include compliance and ethics, privacy, ABAC, Sanctions, AML, FCPA, EEO law, FCRA, and consumer protection. Throughout her career she has been active in government affairs and policy initiatives. She is a frequent speaker and educator on the complex regulatory and compliance issues that impact businesses.

David Robillard

David is Senior Vice President for the Latam Team at First Advantage; he has more than thirty-five years of international experience in the fields of reputational and employment risks, having worked in Latin America, Europe and Africa. Prior to joining FA, he was the co-founder of Mexico-based MultiLatin Background Screening and held numerous management positions at a global risk consultancy, including that of Deputy Director for Latin America and the Caribbean. Currently he is the Chair of the Latin American Task Force for PBSA (Professional Background Screening Association). Between 2013 and 2015 he was Board Chair for the Canadian Chamber of Commerce in Mexico.

Victor Sachs

Victor Sachs is SVP, Customer Service and Digital Transformation at First Advantage. He offers a proven mix of business and technical skills with a strong customer experience focus. Vic drives transformation using Lean/Six Sigma/BPI principles for utmost efficiency. He is a seasoned Executive who has performed in the best IT-Driven companies by inventing Big Ideas, and executing them. He strives for continuous Improvement and Innovation specialist using Agile methodologies and leveraging Automation/AI. He is an industry speaker speaking at HP Discover, Salesforce Dreamforce, Dell CIO Forums, GE Fanuc Discover, Enterprise Connect, Avaya IAUG.

Brian Skinner

Brian brings nearly 20 years of experience in the background screening industry to the table. For the last 2 decades, Brian has held several roles within the organization – currently leading strategic sales efforts for First Advantage’s Technology, Media, & Entertainment practice area. Brian’s deep expertise enables him to serve as a crucial business partner to organizations looking to improve their onboarding and screening programs. Brian believes in a consultative sales approach and has a passion for helping people and organizations improve their business processes.

Joelle Smith

Joelle has held leadership roles within First Advantage (FA) since 2017, advancing from Executive Vice President to Chief Experience Officer, to her current role of President, Data, Technology, and Experience, where she has delivered results since 2022. Joelle maintains responsibility for the organization’s global product and technology P&L, which includes strategy, innovation, and development for all products and services offered by FA. Passionate about the positive impact inclusivity has on organizational culture, Joelle has also served as the executive sponsor of the Women’s Employee Resource Group (ERG) since 2021.

Scott Staples

Scott Staples joined First Advantage in April 2017 to lead the company to a public offering in 2021. Scott is known as a “growth entrepreneur” and was named the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year in Technology Services in 2015. He has more than 30 years of experience in the Services sector, having co-founded Mindtree, a digital transformation and IT services company, in 1999. Scott is a frequent contributor to industry magazines and journals, webinars, and conferences. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in English from the University of Delaware and a Master’s in Business Administration from Fairleigh Dickinson University, Madison, New Jersey.

Raymond Van Der Wal

Raymond joined First Advantage in February 2021 as Chief Product Officer International and plays an instrumental role in driving First Advantage into a technology first company. He has over 20 years of professional experience in leading large scale global ATS implementations, customer experience, building HR partner eco systems, and leading product strategy roles in the HR Tech SaaS space. With his product teams, he partners with industry leading FA customers representatives and the HR partner eco system on their digital transformation journeys to serve their HR stakeholders and their candidates in entirely new ways.