Fostering a positive corporate culture can have a major impact on employee engagement and retention. Experts believe that developing a strategy to motivate and inspire your team will increase productivity and boost morale – and in most cases, will help you attract quality talent as well. There are many unique ways to enhance company culture to attract, retain, and engage with high performing individuals. Placing an emphasis on culture can go a long way to boost your bottom line.
As part of the Prosper Jefferson seminar series, JEDCO and the Jefferson Chamber teamed up to bring you a whole seminar on building a positive company culture. Four experts from the regional business community will show you how it’s done. Topics include:
- How to build a positive company culture
- Focusing on a healthy workplace environment
- How to build employee engagement and productivity
- Getting the right people on the team
- Successful case studies from local business owners
The event will be held Wednesday, October 31st, from 8:30 AM – 10:30 AM at the Entergy Office on Jefferson Highway. The address is 4809 Jefferson Highway, Jefferson LA 70121 (at the corner of St. George and Jefferson Highway). It is $5 to attend, which will cover breakfast for attendees. Please register for the event in advance online. Register here.
MEET THE EXPERTS
Ashley Flesch, Sleep Number
SR Manager of Sleep Number Customer Relationship Center
Ashley Flesch is responsible for the oversight, development and growth of over 220 employees. Ashley’s background and experience is centered around building a culture that inspires leaders and team members to perform at their highest levels and commit to organizational goals, objectives and priorities.
Ashley holds a degree in Mass Communication; prior to joining Sleep Number, she was recruited to Orange County, CA to fill the role of National Sales and Marketing Administrator at AMGI, Inc. After several years, Ashley brought her experience back to New Orleans and served as the Director of Credit Services at coface, overseeing the Capital One Small Business relationship and portfolio. Ashley was a consulting Director of Launch for GetHealty and held leadership positions for two contact centers in the New Orleans area – TriWest Healthcare Alliance and Sleep Number.
Sleep Number is a 1.3 billion publicly-traded company, the New Orleans Relationship Center provides sales and support services, driving the mission to improve lives by individualizing sleep experiences.
Ben Zapata, Omega Concierge Services
Founder & CEO
Ben Zapata is an entrepreneur, a problem solver, a lifelong learner, a husband, and a father. He learned the pillars of service—upon which he has built Omega Concierge Services—from an upbringing that emphasized hard work and service to others.
Ben founded Omega Concierge in 2009 with an idea and a commitment to service. Omega now provides concierge services and errand-running to hospitals and businesses across Louisiana. Ben is proud to lead Omega and has big plans for its continued growth. He is a teacher at his core, and he enjoys giving back by serving his community and helping young entrepreneurs.
Douglass C. Mills, CPCU , Gillis, Ellis & Baker
Executive Vice-President, Chief Operating Officer
Doug Mills spent his childhood in Shreveport, but moved with his family to New Orleans in 1972. He graduated from Jesuit High School and received an undergraduate degree from Louisiana State University.He began his insurance career in 1981 in a family-owned agency. Doug returned to school in 1982 to earn a degree in Risk Management & Insurance from The College of Insurance in New York City (now part of the Peter J. Rubin College of Business at St. John’s University).
Doug joined Gillis, Ellis & Baker in 2001 as Executive Vice-President and Chief Operating Officer. Throughout the course of his insurance career, he has worked as both an independent agent and a direct writer, as well as in the role of a producer and a field underwriter. He earned the Chartered Property Casualty Underwriter (CPCU) designation in 1988. Active in youth sports with his children, Doug has coached over 30 teams in baseball, softball and soccer. He was president of the Academy of the Sacred Heart Fathers Club and secretary of the Holy Name of Jesus School Board. He is currently a board member of Carrollton Boosters, Inc. and serves as the coordinator of their lacrosse program.
Sam Briuglio, Pond & Company
Senior Vice President of the Federal Program
Sam Briuglio is Senior Vice President of the Federal Program including Federal Master Planning & Geospatial at Pond & Company, a full-service architectural, engineering, and planning firm that has been serving DoD and Non-DoD Federal clients for the last 53 years. As Senior Vice President of the Federal Program, Sam leads a team of planning, design and geospatial professionals at multiple locations throughout the US including New Orleans, Huntsville, Colorado Springs, San Diego, Atlanta and Virginia Beach.
A native of New Orleans, Sam earned a Master’s Degree in Geography from the University of New Orleans, and has worked on federal and military master planning and geospatial projects for all branches of the US military and USACE, coastal restoration, planning and design projects with EPA Region 6, NOAA and USGS. He holds a high specialization in facilities planning for the DoD and GIS development for multiple organizations worldwide.
With over 19 years of professional experience, Sam is adept in regional planning, Federal facilities planning, and requirements analyses, military construction project programming, training/range facilities analysis and planning, environmental planning, and GIS development. Sam has managed projects for Federal clients at the site, installation, metropolitan, statewide and national scales both in CONUS and OCONUS, led regional planning efforts for the EPA, and provided spatial and regional geographic analysis with various private and public entities including the energy sector. Sam is well-versed in Federal and DoD regulations for facility design, as well as the use of database systems specific to the military and geospatial development operations. Over his time with Pond, he has managed 115+ geographically-dispersed tasks ranging from $25K-$5M in value. During this time, the program has increased from 5 to 55 dedicated personnel and grown from 2 to 4 primary locations. He is an active member of APA Federal Planning Division, SAME, Louisiana Post, and LA URISA. In addition to his duties for Pond, he serves as an Adjunct Instructor of Planning and Urban Studies for the University of New Orleans teaching Master Planning for Federal Facilities, Site Planning, and Advanced Techniques in GIS & Cartography.
