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About Us

Who we are

We are a professional development company that provides data, research, insights, and certification to Learning, Talent, and HR executives and organizations. We’ve been operating for 30 years and influenced the development of over 10 million employees and executives. We offer a cloud-based platform that provides evidence-based insights in various areas of Human Capital Management. The company is recognized for its HCM Excellence Awards®, known as the “Academy Awards of Human Capital Management”.

Learn more about our services:

Research and Advisory

Excellence Awards

Professional Development

HCM Excellence Conference

OnDemand Webinars

Solution Provider Offerings
When it comes to Human Capital Management, one size does not fit all. We produce three pieces of HCM content everyday, in a variety of formats, but how we apply those insights is up to you.

Our Vision

Inspiring a Better Workplace Experience

Our Mission

Empower excellence in organizations around the world through our research and tools each and every day

Our Core Values

We are dedicated to several core values to meet the needs of our clients and members:

  • Commitment: Provide exceptional service. Our success comes from your success. Our business rests on delivering to you an unparalleled level of service.
  • Quality: Perform with integrity. From client relationships to our proprietary research methods, our employees conduct themselves professionally and dedicate themselves to providing services and research you can depend on for critical decisions.
  • Candor: Act with your best interests. We are committed to providing you unbiased, direct, and honest feedback at all times.
  • Client Driven: Our clients are an important source of knowledge and information for our firm. The contribution of one client is leveraged to its full potential to help all our clients. Our clients mean everything to us.
  • Giving Back to our Community: We give back to the communities in which we do business. We donate time, money, and services to worthy charities and non-profit organizations every year.

Our Core Values

We are dedicated to several core values to meet the needs of our clients and members:

Commitment

Provide exceptional service. Our success comes from your success. Our business rests on delivering to you an unparalleled level of service.

Quality

Perform with integrity. From client relationships to our proprietary research methods, our employees conduct themselves professionally and dedicate themselves to providing services and research you can depend on for critical decisions.

Candor

Act with your best interests. We are committed to providing you unbiased, direct, and honest feedback at all times.

Client Driven

Our clients are an important source of knowledge and information for our firm. The contribution of one client is leveraged to its full potential to help all our clients. Our clients mean everything to us.

Giving Back to our Community

We give back to the communities in which we do business. We donate time, money, and services to worthy charities and non-profit organizations every year.

Leadership Team

Mike Cooke

Chairman, Chief Executive Officer and Principal Analyst

Rachel Cooke

Chief Operating Officer and Principal Analyst

Michael Rochelle

Chief Strategy Officer and Principal Analyst

Research & Advisory Team

Matt Pittman

Principal Analyst

Marie Barnes

Principal Analyst
Claude Werder

Claude Werder

Senior Vice President and Principal Analyst

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Recognizing, Empowering, and Certifying HCM Excellence around the world since 1993. Our research, data, and insights fuel the best minds in Human Capital Management to help them create future-proof learning, talent, and HR strategy for the new era of work.

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Mike Cooke

Chairman, Chief Executive Officer and Principal Analyst

Prior to joining Brandon Hall Group, Mike was the Chief Executive Officer and Co-founder of AC Growth. Mike held leadership and executive positions for the majority of his career, responsible for steering sales and marketing teams to drive results and profitability. His background includes more than 15 years of experience in sales and marketing, management, and operations in the research, consulting, software and technology industries. Mike has extensive experience in sales, marketing and management, having worked for several early high-growth emerging businesses and has implemented technology systems to support various critical sales, finance, marketing and client service functions. He is especially skilled in organizing the sales and service strategy to fully support a company’s growth strategy. The concept of growth was an absolute to Mike and a motivator in starting AC Growth, in order to help organizations achieve research-driven results.

 

Before co-founding AC Growth, Mike was the VP and General Manager of Field Operations at Bersin & Associates, a global analyst and consulting services firm focused on all areas of enterprise learning, talent management and talent acquisition. Tasked with leading the company’s global expansion, Mike led all sales operations worldwide. During Mike’s tenure, the company grew into a multi-national firm, conducting business in over 45 countries with over 4,500 multi-national organizations.

 

Mike started his career at MicroVideo Learning Systems in 1992, eventually holding a senior management position and leading all corporate sales before founding Dynamic Minds. Mike was CEO and Co-Founder of Dynamic Minds, a custom developer of software programs, working with clients like Goldman Sachs, Prentice Hall, McGraw Hill and Merrill Lynch. Also, Mike worked for Oddcast, a leading provider of customer experience and marketing solutions, where he held a senior management position leading the company into new markets across various industries.

Rachel Cooke

COO and Principal Analyst

Rachel Cooke is the Chief Operating Officer at Brandon Hall Group and Principal Analyst. Rachel is responsible for business operations, including client and member advisory services, marketing design, annual awards program, conferences, and overall accountability for the company’s project management function.  Also, she leads initiatives covering Advancing Women in the Workplace and Diversity and Inclusion research and events.  Rachel has worked in the HCM research industry for fifteen years and has held several key management and executive positions within Talent and Learning Research and Performance Improvement Industries.

Rachel received a BA in social science and interdisciplinary studies with honors from Florida Atlantic University. Rachel continued her postgraduate education by completing a series of executive management education courses from American Management Association.

Michael Rochelle

CSO and Principal Analyst

Prior to joining Brandon Hall Group, Michael was the Chief Strategy Officer and Co-founder at AC Growth. Michael serves in a variety of roles including overseeing research and advisory support for organizations and solution providers.   Michael is one of the company’s principal analysts covering learning and development, talent management, leadership development, HR, talent acquisition and DEI. 

 

Michael brings nearly 40 years’ experience in executive leadership roles, including human resources, information technologies, sales, marketing, business development, M&A, strategic and financial planning, program management and business operations in a wide variety of organizational settings.  

 

Michael is a graduate of the following certification programs: Kirkpatrick Four Levels™ Evaluation, Balanced Scorecard Collaborative and Strategy Focused Organization and Office of Strategic Management.

Matt Pittman

Principal Analyst

Matt Pittman brings nearly 30 years of experience developing people and teams in a variety of settings and organizations. As an HR Practitioner, he has sat in nearly every seat including Learning and Leadership Development, Talent Management and Succession Planning, Talent Acquisition and as a Human Resources Business Partner. A significant part of those roles involved building out functions in organizations and driving large scale change efforts. As a Principal Analyst, Matt leverages this in-depth experience and expertise to provide clients and providers with breakthrough insights and ideas to drive their business forward.

Marie Barnes

Analyst

Marie Barnes has over 20 years of HR experience as an internal consultant and strategic business partner in the for-profit, non-profit and government sectors. As an HR Practitioner, she actively participated in and drove projects focused on delivering critical business outcomes. Marie is a seasoned HR professional with a PhD in Industrial/Organizational Psychology. As a Principal Analyst, she serves as a critical thinker and problem solver who recommends evidence-based solutions that positively impact clients.

Claude Werder

Senior Vice President and Principal Analyst

Claude Werder runs Brandon Hall Group’s Talent Management, Leadership Development and Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DE&I) practices. His specific areas of focus include how organizations must transform culturally and strategically to meet the needs of the emerging workforce and workplace.

Claude develops insights and solutions on employee experience, leadership, coaching, talent development, assessments, culture, DE&I, and other topics to help members and clients make talent development a competitive business advantage now and in the evolving future of work.

Before joining Brandon Hall Group in 2012, Claude was an HR consultant and also spent more than 25 years as an executive and people leader for media and news organizations. This included a decade as the producer of the HR Technology Conference and Expo. He helped transform it from a small event to the world’s largest HR technology conference.

Claude is a judge for the global Brandon Hall Group HCM Excellence Awards and Excellence in Technology Awards, contributes to the company’s HCM certification programs, and produces the firm’s annual HCM Excellence Conference. He is also a certified executive and leadership coach. He lives in Boynton Beach, FL.
Claude Werder
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