Gloria Johnson Goins is the Founder and President of Brilliant Ideas, LLC, a marketing and consulting company that specializes in reaching growth and emerging markets. Her current clients include The Home Depot, Hyundai, the City of Montgomery, AL and the NFL Super Bowl Gospel Concert. Prior to starting her own company, Gloria served as the Chief Diversity Officer for The Home Depot, overseeing all aspects of the company’s Diversity and Inclusion program for more than 350,000 associates across the world. In that role, which Gloria held for six years, she was responsible for developing and implementing global strategy and initiatives that are designed to enable The Home Depot to grow market share, attract and retain the best talent, develop strategic community alliances and to become the retailer of choice.

Prior to joining The Home Depot, Gloria served as the vice president of Diversity of Cingular Wireless, which at the time was the nation’s largest wireless communications company with over 70,000 employees throughout the United States. Under her leadership, Cingular’s diversity organization received national recognition from Diversity Best Practices, Next Step Magazine, and the Disability Rights Advocates.

Prior to Cingular, she spent more than eight years as a legal professional with BellSouth. She joined BellSouth Telecommunications in 1992, managing legal matters in a variety of practice areas, including employment and labor law, general litigation as well as state and federal regulatory matters. Gloria later became the General Attorney with BellSouth Cellular Corp., a role that was equivalent to a partner in a law firm. She handled matters involving general and employment litigation, real estate, and federal regulatory compliance. While at BellSouth, she was also an active member of the legal department’s diversity committee with a responsibility for promoting diversity within and outside of BellSouth.

Born and raised in Miami, Florida, Gloria began her career at a private law firm in Miami where she represented various corporate and governmental clients on complex commercial litigation matters.

In addition to co-authoring an article on the Family and Medical Leave Act, which was published in the October 1996 issue of the Georgia Bar Journal, Gloria is a member of the Florida and Georgia Bars, the National Bar Association, and the American Bar Association. In addition to her active membership at New Birth Missionary Baptist Church, she is also very active in numerous professional and civic organizations that include the Hispanic Association on Corporate Responsibility (HACR), SER Jobs for Progress, NAACP and United Way of America.

Gloria is married to Prince Leon Goins and they have one daughter, Grace Princess.

Education: J.D., University of Pennsylvania Law School (Editor of the Law Review). MBA, Mercer University (Dean’s Advisory Committee). B.A., Psychology, with honors, Stanford University. She is an honors graduate of Stanford University with a degree in Psychology.

Jeffery Tobias Halter is Director of Diversity Business Development at The Coca-Cola Company. In his current role he manages the integration of the company’s strategy’s regarding Diversity and Multiculturalism in relationship to the Marketplace, the Community and the Workplace. He began his 25 year career at The Coca-Cola Company in Sales & Marketing, and his responsibilities over that time included a wide range of elements from strategic planning, to national accounts sales and regional marketing. For the past 12 years he has he led a series of initiatives focused on Leadership Development and Diversity Strategy & Education.

Jeffery is also author of the book Selling to Men, Selling to Women. A featured keynote speaker, his work regarding gender differences in the sales process and book were recently quoted in Tom Peter’s new work Xellence Always. He has been a contributing writer to the Tom Peters Times and PINK Magazine. He is also Master Certified Trainer and holds certifications in over 10 different development areas including Performance Management, Coaching & Feedback and Multiple Sales Technologies.

Jeffery is a passionate advocate in the development of women in leadership and currently co-chairs the Corporate Reputation Committee of The Coca-Cola Company’s Women’s Forum. He also sits on the National Advisory Boards for Women’s Food Service Forum (Executive Programming), Linkage Inc, (The Summit on Leading Diversity and Women in Leadership), the National Society for Diversity in Sales & Marketing and Simmons Business School’s Business Advisory Board.

He did his Undergraduate work at the University of Wisconsin and has a Masters from Georgia State University. He has taught Business Communications at Georgia State University and been a Guest Lecturer at The Goizueta School of Business at Emory University and the Coles School of Business at Kennesaw State University. He is married and has two college aged children.