Mr. Gerst graduated from North Texas State University with a Bachelor of Science in Accounting. Mr. Gerst has been with JPMorgan Chase and its predecessors since 1986 and is currently Vice President - Southwest Region Community Development Banking where he provides construction financing for affordable housing projects in Texas, Louisiana, Arizona, Colorado and Utah.

Mr. Gerst donates his time to several organizations including the Dallas Black Dance Theatre, North Texas Housing Coalition, New Birth Baptist Church and the Urban Financial Services Coalition. He currently serves as the Board Chairman for Workforce Solutions Greater Dallas.

Stephen Hargrove is the President of Hargrove Electric Co. in Dallas.  Hargrove Electric was founded in 1964 in Texas by Raymond Hargrove.  It’s a leader in electrical contracting in the Dallas area.  It still serves many of its original clients since the company started 35 years ago.  Since 1999, Stephen has been on the Board of the Dallas Zoo, from 1991-1999 he was on the Dallas Park and Recreation Board, District 9, from 1988-1989 on the Dallas Police Review Board, and from 1997-2006 on the Board of the Cotton Bowl Athletic Association.  Since 2004, Stephen is the President of the National Electrical Contractors Association.  Stephen attended Texas Christian University and has a B.B.A.

James Nowlin III, Esq. is the Founder and Chairman of Excel Global-Legal Search Consultants LLC.  They are a full-service legal recruiting firm specializing in assisting elite legal talent in career search and placement at top law firms in more than twenty markets.  Close relationships are maintained with AMLAW 200 law firms across the country and presentations are conducted at law schools and law firms regarding regional and national hiring trends and practice areas.  In 2007, James was also the Managing Director at the Dallas office of Major, Lindsey & Africa LLC.  They specialized in law firm placement of attorneys in Texas for the world’s largest attorney search firm.  They also managed relationships with clients in legal markets in Dallas, Houston, Ft. Worth, and Austin. 

From 2006 -2007, James was the Associate, Real Estate and Finance at Winstead PC.  They represented national financing institutions in Collateralized Debt Obligations (CDO) and Commercial Mortgage Backed Securities (CMBS) financing arrangements for numerous construction, bridge, and refinancing loan transactions involving cash management agreements and ground leases.  James has published “The American Dream-Or Not: What the Subprime Mortgage Lending Crisis Means to Americans” and is the co-author of “Probate & Property, eChange is Our Friend: The eMortgage.” James is a member of the State Bar of Texas, Dallas Citizens’ Police Review Board, AIDS Services of Dallas, Duke Law Alumni of Dallas, and the Congressional Black Caucus Emerging Leaders Program.  James has a Juris Doctor from the Duke University School of Law and a Bachelor of Arts, Latin-American Studies with Completion of the Pre-Medical Curriculum from the University of Virginia.

Vernon Proctor founded Mart, Inc. in April 1977 and serves as the President. Vernon also maintains a mechanical license in Texas.  Previous business experience was in the Shell Oil Co. from 1966-1969, The Southern Co. from 1969-1971, and Ace Furnace from 1971-1980.  Vernon has done projects in cities such as Arlington, Balch Springs, Carrollton, Dallas, Garland, and Grand Prairie.  Projects were done in educational facilities such as the DCCCD, Irving ISD, Mesquite ISD, Forney ISD and at the University of Texas at Arlington. Vernon served on the Irving Zoning Board of Adjustment in 1985, was the Chairman on the planning and zoning commission from 1990-1993, and is presently on the board of the Irving Community Development Corp.  Vernon attended the University of Texas at Arlington and has a BS in Civil Engineering.

Eddie Reeves is the CEO of Reeves Strategy Group. He was formerly the Managing Director with Public Strategies, a national strategic communications and public affairs consultancy. Previously, Mr. Reeves was Vice President, Media Relations for Merrill Lynch in New York. Another of Mr. Reeves' notable professional achievements is his leadership of the highly successful state and national media and public affairs campaigns to overhaul telecom policy on behalf of SBC Communications in Washington, Texas, California, Connecticut and Nevada. Mr. Reeves served as press secretary and senior legislative assistant to U.S. Congressman J.J. "Jake" Pickle. Mr. Reeves also served as the congressman's chief policy advisor on federal budget, banking, environmental, housing, healthcare and employment and labor issues. He has engaged in numerous activities related to workforce development, including serving on the community advisory committee of the Austin/Travis county Private Industry Council, serving on the Advisory Committee of Houston Works. Mr. Reeves remains active in several community activities, including membership in the Dallas Citizens Council, the Boy Scouts and supporting the Urban League. A frequent speaker before community groups, Eddie has mentored at-risk youth in South Dallas and provided financial and in-kind support for Paul Quinn College.
Reeves attended the University of Texas at Austin, where he held numerous leadership posts.

Jill Rorschach is an experienced attorney and human resources professional with background in employee relations, employment law, corporate policy administration and HR compliance. She is the Director of Employee Relations and Sector HR for Citigroup, Inc.

Jill has been a Member of the State Bar of Texas since 1994. She is a Certified Executive Coach with Citigroup’s Executive Development Program. She is also the Human Resources Liaison for Citigroup’s DFW African Heritage Employee Network Group.

Jill received a Bachelor of Arts in Latin American Area Studies and Spanish from Texas Tech University, and a Juris Doctor from Southern Methodist University School of Law.

Since 1997, Tom Sadler is the President of Executive Press, a commercial printing company.  Tom has been in sales and marketing for the past 32 years.  Before that Tom joined the Air Force in 1969 and served in Vietnam.  He was honorably discharged in 1975 and then went into the real estate and building business until l986, when he moved to Texas.  In 1989 he went into the insurance business and stayed in that business until 1997.

Tom was born in Mansfield, Ohio and was raised in Bossier City, Louisiana.

Mr. Smith graduated from Baylor University with a Bachelors degree in Finance in 1989 and then with an MBA in 1990. In August of that year, Mr. Smith started his career at Southwestern Bell in Dallas in their Finance Operations organization. During the early years of Mr. Smith’s career, he worked in several areas of Finance before moving to the Human Resources organization in 1996 as a Staffing Manager. In 1998, Mr. Smith relocated to San Antonio to lead the South Texas Management Staffing Center for what was known then as SBC Communications.
In 1999, Mr. Smith moved to SBC’s IT organization to co-lead one of the company’s payroll conversions after one of their many mergers. Soon after the completion of that project, Mr. Smith became Chief of Staff for SBC’s Chief Information Officer.

From 2001 thru 2004, Mr. Smith moved back to Human Resources to become Executive Director of HR for the IT organization and then subsequently for the Chief Technology Organization. In latter 2004, Mr. Smith was appointed to lead the company’s HR Operations team in the design and implementation of their HR Operations organization – an integral part of their overall HR Services Delivery model. Among a number of accomplishments in that position, Mr. Smith completed the design and implementation of AT&T’s Human Resources call center and employee web portal.

In late 2007, Mr. Smith was appointed to his current position of Vice-President of Staffing for AT&T. In this role, Mr. Smith has merged several staffing organizations, processes and systems into a single model that supports the talent acquisition of tens of thousands of new employees and contractors annually. His team’s responsibilities include all domestic external hiring, global temporary labor acquisition and governance of all internal employee movement. Mr. Smith relocated to Dallas in this role in the fall of 2008.

Mr. Smith is active in several professional organizations. He has been married since 1992, has two children and resides in Frisco, Texas.

REPRESENTING THE:

Private Sector

Education and Adult Basic/Continuing Education

Community-Based Organizations/Organized Labor, including Child Care

Economic Development, Employment Services, Literacy, Texas Department of Human Services and Rehabilitation

 

Workforce Solutions Greater Dallas is an Equal Opportunity Employer/Program. Auxiliary aids and services are available upon request to individuals with disabilities.