Yearly Archives: 2018

If you are not, or if you just want to make sure your departments have complied, we invite you to attend, “Preparing Your Organization for GDPR Compliance”. Join me and Europe’s foremost authority on Data Privacy Ann LaFrance, where we will discuss key features of the GDPR, and how to ensure your firm is collecting and processing data in alignment with this new legislation.

Thanks to Entelo for hosting his terrific webinar.  If you missed our live program, you can watch the archived version here:

http://resources.entelo.com/registration-webinar-preparing-your-organization-for-gdpr-compliance

This webinar has been approved for 1 HRCI GPHR credit and 1 SHRM CP credit.

We are again very pleased to have been asked to Judge the 2018 ACG Cup. The ACG Cup® is a case study competition designed to give students from leading MBA programs across the country real world experience and invaluable insights into mergers and acquisitions, investment banking, financial advisory and private equity. Each case study provides students with real-world deal making experience. Over $200,000 in scholarship and awards distributed annually. Benefits include:

Resume building

Real-world financial experience

Opportunity to work as an investment banker for a week

Application of classroom studies

Hone deal making skills

Enhance and polish presentation

Networking and team building capabilities

Check it out at: ACG.org

April 3, 2018

The Explorers Club Board of Directors has unanimously appointed Birchtree Global CEO and President, Dr. Janet L. Walsh as an officer of the organization.  Dr. Walsh will serve in the Club Secretary position.  Founded in 1904, the Explorers Club is an international multidisciplinary professional society dedicated to the advancement of field research.   The Explorers Club promotes the scientific exploration of land, sea, air, and space by supporting research and education in the physical, natural and biological sciences. The Club’s members have been responsible for an illustrious series of famous firsts: First to the North Pole, first to the South Pole, first to the summit of Mount Everest, first to the deepest point in the ocean, first to the surface of the moon.

The Club provides expedition resources including funding, online information, member-to-member consultation, and a global network of expertise, experience, technology, industry, and support. The Explorers Club actively encourages public interest in exploration and the sciences through its public lectures program, publications, travel program, and other events. The Club also maintains Research Collections, including a library and map room, to preserve the history of the Club and to assist those interested and engaged in exploration and scientific research.

Dr. Walsh identified, excavated, and recorded a mid-Archaic work camp on Pumpkinvine Creek in Georgia.  She regularly participates in field research in archeology and paleontology.  She is the CEO and president of Birchtree Global, LLC, with offices in New York, Atlanta, and Denver.  Birchtree provides global market entry services for businesses expanding outside of their home country.

For additional information about Dr. Walsh contact: information@birchtreeglobal.com.  For additional information about The Explorers Club see: www.explorers.org.

See our new video on HR and the GDPR on LinkedIn.  I’ve worked on Data Privacy since it began.  Far from being a compliance nightmare, the GDPR is an opportunity for HR professionals to take a leadership role in an important organizational wide project with financial implications.

https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6382249791803531264

Here is the link to the webinar with Europe’s top GDPR expert Ann LaFrance for March 22: http://ow.ly/3qpM30j4WsI

The EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) applies to all companies, regardless of location, if they hold or process personal information of people residing in the EU. If your HR/sales/marketing/IT departments have personal emails, phone numbers, names, addresses of potential employees, clients, or users, this data is protected and covered under GDPR regulations. You and the firms with which you do business must comply as of May 25, 2018.  Penalties for non-compliance are severe.  Non-compliance could cost your org 4% of revenue. Are you GDPR-ready?

If your firm is not GDPR ready, we invite you to attend, Preparing Your Organization for GDPR Compliance. Join me and Ann LaFrance, partner and co-chair of Squire Patton Boggs’ Global Data Privacy and Cybersecurity. In this webinar, we will discuss key features of the GDPR, and how to ensure your firm is collecting and processing data in alignment with this new legislation.

The live event is brought to you by Entelo on March 22 at 10 am PT/1 pm ET. This webinar has been approved for 1 HRCI GPHR credit and 1 SHRM CP credit. In this webinar, you’ll learn:

Key principles of GDPR compliance and implications of risking non-compliance

How to establish a compliance program to ensure your organization meets all data protection requirements

Processes for legally accessing employee information and personal data

Ways to identify and refine your firm’s existing data protection

How to develop an outline of data privacy requirements for each country your firm does business and has employees

The value of hiring a Global Data Protection Coordinator to manage data protection legislation requirements

The GDPR is not a compliance nightmare. GDPR is an opportunity for HR professionals to take a leadership role in corporate-wide compliance because of their experience managing personnel information and data. Want a seat at the global corporate table, here’s your chance.

Can’t make the webinar? RSVP anyway. We’re sending all registrants a copy of the recording and slide deck.

My friend Kenneth A. Goodwin Jr. Senior Managing Principal, Jeanensis Capital Markets invites us all to an enlightening and refreshing discussion about women in the Blockchain industry, and the future of it. A panel of expert speakers, will not only explain what Blockchain is and how it operates, and best practices from many professional women in the Blockchain sphere of influence. It will also explain why the Blockchain and its many levels is the next immense movement since the cultivation of the internet. This is an event you should not miss! I’d particularly like to invite my former students to attend. This may be on the next test…!

Where: Orchard Block “NYC’s 1st Blockchain Incubator/Accelerator,” 32 Orchard Street, New York City

When: February 19th, 6pm-9pm 

RSVP: https://www.meetup.com/BlockchainAccelerator/events/247230582/

FEATURE SPEAKERS ARE AS FOLLOWS:

Cristina Dolan, Co-Founder & COO iXledger and MIT Media Lab

Aarti Rao, Managing Director at LiquidX, Inc.

Meghan Spillane, Partner at Goodwin & Procter, LLP

Adelya Aksanova, CTO at HYLi

Miranda Kuo, Director of Yosemite X

Moderators: Kenneth A. Goodwin Jr. Senior Managing Principal, Jeanensis Capital Markets

Victoria Saucier, HealthTech,Blockchain, Impact Investor

Event Hosts:

Orchard Block/Citdex (Jag DeSaint)

(http://orchardblock.com/)

Jeanensis Capital Markets

https://jeanensiscapmarkets.com/

Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business (CKGSB) Young Professional Committee

http://english.ckgsb.edu.cn/content/new-york-0

Special Mentions: 

Richard Brownstein of AuraBlocks.com (Refreshment Sponsor)

Kiana Danial CEO at InvestDiva.com and NewsBTC Correspondent

View our latest LinkedIn Video on Global Human Resources:https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6363403442727243776

Global human resources (HR) is a complex field.  The legal, financial, tax, and HR functional responsibilities change completely in each country.  They also change in relationship between countries.  For example, data protection requirements tell you how to manage employee data, they also tell you how to handle the transfer of that information between specific countries.  These functions affect how companies hire, fire, manage, reward, evaluate, move, and transfer personnel.  In some respects, the HR leader will assume much more corporate responsibility in a global HR role, than in a domestic HR role.  For example, just by hiring a managerial employee in Germany, you may create a “permanent establishment” (PE)in that country, which will allow a foreign country to tax your business.  Or not.  You might hire a customer service employee and not create a PE.

Just like in your country, laws that regulate the way in which companies manage people change continuously.  In 2018 for example, updates to taxes in China, complex labor law changes in France, and new business incentives for companies in Spain are developing.  One way we can help you get through these issues is by providing up-to-the minute advice and answers to your globalizing questions.  Having been a global HR VP, I know you probably don’t have any time to spare.  So, give us a call and we’ll give you an update, help you get organized, set up your business in a foreign country or just talk you through a tough decision.  Birchtree globalizes the strategy, businesses, and people for growing businesses.

 

Since the late 1980s privacy legislation has been a compliance concern for global HR leaders.  The legislation established standards to protect sensitive, personal information.  Sensitive information includes employee names, addresses, identification/registration numbers, phone and email contact information, number of children, names of spouses, etc.  Privacy legislation seeks to give the control of this sensitive, personal information, about an employee for example, to the employee.  Legislation also typically includes the way in which companies can make legal use of their employee information, for example, sending employee data files back and forth across country borders.

Particularly in Europe, privacy legislation has gone through several iterations of compliance requirements, the latest of which is the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), effective May 25, 2018.  Companies must comply with the GDPR, and implement the new rules specifying how the employer must collect, store, and use employee information.  This legislation covers all employers with employees in Europe, even if the employer is located outside of Europe, for example, an American headquartered company with an employee in Germany, for example.

Features of this legislation include:

1. Employers must obtain consent from employees for the access and use of their personal data.
2. Significant fines and penalties result from non-compliance.
3. Employers must document their compliance and establish processes to manage the information.

We recommend the following:

1. A Global Data Protection officer be appointed to manage the Data Protection legislation requirements. Company leadership and management personnel should be made aware of the legislation and the compliance requirements.
2. Review the UK’s Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) “Preparing for the General Data Protection Legislation-12 steps to take now” document available here: https://ico.org.uk/ This document will help orient you to the EU data privacy directive. Determine what data protection steps you are currently taking.
3. An outline of requirements for each country in which the organization does business or has employees should be produced.
4. The company should identify the employee data and information that is being collected, the organizations or individuals with whom that data is being shared, and what actions are currently being done to that data.
5. Review the US privacy shield website at: https://www.privacyshield.gov/welcome. The EU-U.S. and Swiss-U.S. Privacy Shield Frameworks were designed by the U.S. Department of Commerce and the European Commission and Swiss Administration to provide companies on both sides of the Atlantic with a mechanism to comply with data protection requirements when transferring personal data from the European Union and Switzerland to the United States in support of transatlantic commerce.  However, it is important to remember that if the company to which you send data is not certified, using the Privacy Shield will not be compliant.
6. Establish a compliance program to ensure the company meets all data protection requirements. Ensure the information is communicated to managers. Ensure an audit process is established to review compliance on a regular basis.

If this is a bit overwhelming, we would be happy to take over the process for you and get it up and running.  As a global VPHR, I’ve worked with the architects of corporate compliance since the late 1980s. It is no more difficult to implement than other compliance programs, but it is complex.  Give us a call at (914) 218-3149 if you would like us to help you with the program.

Join me and Sarah Robb O’Hagen, CEO of Flywheel Sports and author of “Extreme You” at the 5th annual Association for Corporate Growth Women of Leadership Summit in New York City on January 18. Three topics in particular address key issues we’ve all been talking about:

Women at the Helm: The Force of Women Leaders in the Start-up World

Effecting Cultural Change: Strategies for Fostering Leadership & Retaining and Engaging Talent

There an App for That? Harnessing Technology to Optimize Your Business 

Join me for lunch on the 18th and let’s start a conversation, share information, and meet some extraordinary women leaders!

To register: https://www.acg.org/nyc/events/5th-annual-women-leadership-summit/program-details