Nela Richardson joined ADP as Chief Economist in November of 2020. Nela is the co-head of the ADP Research Institute and leads economic research for ADP. Previously she was Principal and Investment Strategist at Edward Jones, a financial services firm.  In that role, Nela analyzed and interpreted economic trends and financial market conditions and recommended investment strategies.  Nela is also the former chief economist at Redfin Corp., a national real estate brokerage and technology company, where she led a team of data scientists, economists and writers to track trends in the housing market. Nela also served as a senior economist for Bloomberg, L.P., covering housing and financial markets, and has held research positions at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), Harvard University’s Joint Center for Housing Studies and Freddie Mac. She also worked as an adjunct finance professor at the Carey School of Business at John Hopkins University.

Nela earned a doctorate in economics from the University of Maryland-College Park with concentrations in financial economics, international finance and economic development. She obtained a master’s degree in economics from the University of Pennsylvania and a bachelor’s degree from Indiana University in Bloomington, where she was a triple major in mathematics, economics and philosophy.

Nela regularly provides insight on the economy, real estate trends and capital markets to policymakers, consumers and media. She is a regular contributor to Marketplace from American Public Media and has frequently appeared on CNBC, Bloomberg, Fox Business CNN, Yahoo Finance, the Wall Street Journal, FORTUNE magazine, The New York Times and other national and local media.

Nela serves on the foundation board for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and is a member of the Conference of Business Economists.

Ahu Yildirmaz is the head of ADP Research Institute® Labor Market, where she directs economic and labor market research. The institute leverages insights gained from ADP’s global employee sample of nearly 40 million workers worldwide, to conduct research that illuminates the crucial trends shaping today’s working environments. In addition, Dr. Yildirmaz overseas the Institute’s labor market reports, including the world-renowned ADP National Employment Report® and ADP Workforce Vitality Report.

Dr. Yildirmaz’s broad research interests include workforce trends and labor market conditions including job and wage dynamics. She frequently is cited by leading business publications, including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Reuters, CNBC, TheStreet, CNN Money and Forbes. She appears regularly on national radio and television programs, including “Bloomberg TV and Radio,” “Fox Business,” “National Public Radio” and “Voice of America.”

Throughout her career, Ahu has approached her research with a global mindset, having lived and worked in Europe, United States and Central Asia. Prior to joining ADP® in 2011, Dr. Yildirmaz held a number of roles at Johnson & Johnson and AT&T in the areas of strategy, corporate finance and market research. She also lectured and taught several economics and finance classes within the Economics Department at New York University (NYU) and the City University of New York (CUNY).

Dr. Yildirmaz earned a doctorate degree in Economics from the Graduate Center of the City University of New York and a bachelor’s degree in economics from Bosphorus University in Istanbul, Turkey.

Mita Goldar, Ph.D., Senior Director of Data Analytics, has been with Corporate Marketing in the ADP Research Institute’s Market Insights group for the last four years. She directs the production and publication of ADP’s Workforce Vitality Report and other crucial research projects related to the labor market and Human Capital Management, helping to enhance ADP’s brand image as a thought leader.

Prior to joining ADP, Mita worked as a statistician and market analyst at financial institutions, including American Express and Citi Group. In those roles, she performed modeling and analysis of consumer products, market segmentation, customer profiling, portfolio management, as well as risk metrics using big data. Before that, she held a position at AT&T forecasting revenues for various consumer products, long-term/short-term planning and budgeting and attribution analysis.

She also taught several economics, finance, and accounting classes at the undergraduate and graduate levels within the City University of New York (CUNY), Manhattan College, and the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York.

Mita received her Ph.D. in Economics from CUNY, a master’s in Business Administration from the University of West Georgia, and master’s and bachelor’s degrees in Physics from the University of Delhi, India.

Sara Klein is the Senior Director of Market Research for ADP Research Institute. She is responsible for thought leadership market research efforts to identify trends shaping today’s workplace and to assess the impact of these trends on businesses and their employees.

Sara has conducted and directed numerous global studies using quantitative and qualitative research in areas of human capital management, including payroll, compliance, and workforce planning, from the perspective of both employers and employees. Her research sheds light on how business owners, HR professionals, managers and staff navigate changing work dynamics, technologies and regulations. She also examines the unique factors shaping work life and business decisions across different company sizes, countries, and multi-national and domestic organizations. She is particularly interested in uncovering perception gaps between employers and employees.

Sara has been designing surveys to understand the drivers of human behavior since high school. She brings over 10 years of professional experience in market research across a diverse range of methodologies, including primary and secondary, qualitative and quantitative, custom and syndicated, online, telephone and face-to-face. She has deep expertise in segmentation, attitude and behavior, journey mapping, max diff, discrete choice and conjoint analysis.

Prior to joining ADP, Sara held positions at the world’s largest market research firms, including Nielsen, Kantar, and Ipsos, where she directed global market research for Fortune 500 companies.

Sara earned an M.B.A. from New York University Stern School of Business and a bachelor’s of arts degree in sociology from Boston University

Renzhong Meng oversees the updating and maintenance of the integrity of ADP’s 20M+ employee payroll data. This data supports studies of the ADP Research Institute and its external partners concerning Human Capital Management (HCM), employment trends, and workforce energy. He is also responsible for the data integrity of National Employment Reports produced by the Institute, which cover France and the Netherlands.

In addition, Renzhong works with ADP’s Data Science group to explore the aggregated and anonymous Human Resource information of ADP clients and their employees. This data enables and enhances HCM studies regarding comparisons and dynamics in job hierarchy, function, promotion and compensation, and other labor-related areas.

He gained his extensive expertise in large data analytics from his earlier work experience with corporate revenue forecasting, new product forecasting, corporate global reporting systems, market insights, and salesforce support. Prior to joining ADP in 2016, he held roles at AT&T, Schering-Plough, Merck, Boehringer Ingelheim and Becton Dickinson.

Renzhong earned a master’s degree in Economics from the University of Florida and a bachelor’s degree in Management Information Systems from Tsinghua University in Beijing, China.

Jeff Nezaj joined ADP® in April 2017 as Director of Data Analytics. As part of the ADP Research Institute’s research team, he provides valuable insights derived from the vast data assets of ADP’s business clients, which represent roughly 16 percent of the entire U.S. employment base. He is also responsible for providing support to ADP’s Workforce Vitality Report.

Jeff has a passion for data. With nearly 20 years of experience in data and business analytics, he not only has helped organizations improve their business processes, but also increase revenue and profitability. Prior to coming to ADP, he held leadership positions at direct-to-consumer marketing, as well as financial services companies.

In his most recent role at Univision Communications, Jeff led the analytics group at the Enterprise Business unit, where his valuable data insights helped to guide customer strategy. In a previous position at Guthy-Renker, Jeff played a key role within the Customer Analytics group, providing analytics and insights that resulted in a better understanding of customer behavior within their subscription brands. Earlier in his career, he held significant positions at Citigroup and JP Morgan Chase, where he focused on Risk Management and Decision Sciences.

A native New Yorker, Jeff received his bachelor’s degree in Engineering from the New York University Polytechnic School of Engineering and his master’s degree in Statistics from Columbia University.

Sinem Buber Singh, Ph.D. has been with the ADP Research Institute’s Market Insights and Intelligence group for two years. She produces and publishes the Institute’s National and Regional employment reports, as well as similar employment reports that cover various European and North American countries.

She also manages and collaborates with external research partners across various academic and research institutions, promoting ADP’s thought leadership in the field of labor markets and Human Capital Management. Her current research focuses on domestic and international labor markets, the U.S. economy and international macroeconomics.

Before joining ADP®, Sinem taught various courses and worked at curriculum development across different campuses of the City University of New York (CUNY), including Queens College, Hunter College, and LaGuardia Community College.

Sinem has a Bachelor of Arts degree and a Master in Science degree in Economics from Istanbul Bilgi University. She also has received her Ph.D. in Economics at CUNY’s Graduate Center.

Marie Antonello is the Senior Director, Program Manager for ADP Research Institute. She is responsible for the production of their labor market research from start to finish by orchestrating work between stakeholders through project management and promotion. While collaborating with ADP’s content, public relations, digital marketing and sales operations teams, Marie helps develop, define and communicate key project plans, content and strategic events for labor market and people + performance.

Prior to joining ADP Research Institute, Marie previously worked at American International Group (AIG) for over 16 years where she was most recently the AVP of Strategic Marketing & Business Development at Private Client Group. During her tenure at Private Client Group, Marie led the producer management department that supported their U.S and Canada marketing teams. As a strategist, her operational skills contributed with the successful launch of several new distribution markets for business growth that resulted in optimal client service. Marie provided continuous property and casualty insurance expertise to execute a new quoting system ensuring functionality supported their clients and brokers. She also helped develop and grow their PCG-U® continuing educational program expanding courses all over the US for a variety of designations. In 2019, Marie was elected by AIG Woman & Allies Employee Resource Group as a leader who inspires others. Prior to her career at AIG, Marie held a variety of Paralegal positions in New York City at Kasowitz, Benson, Torres & Friedman LLP, and Mendes & Mount LLP. Marie is a graduate of St. John’s University with a Bachelor of Science degree in Legal Studies. She has most recently earned a Project Management certificate.

Marcus Buckingham is a global researcher and thought leader focused on unlocking strengths, increasing performance and pioneering the future of how people work.

Building on nearly two decades of experience as a Senior Researcher at Gallup Organization, he has challenged entrenched preconceptions about achievement to get to the core of what drives success for individuals, teams, and organizations. He has focused on finding the most reliable ways to measure employee talents, employee engagement, team effectiveness, leader effectiveness, and performance, and continued this mission when he founded The Marcus Buckingham Company in 2006. His research has reinforced a simple but often overlooked approach to performance: that when people spend the majority of each day on the job using their greatest talents and engaged in their favorite tasks, both they and their organizations will win. His assessments, StrengthsFinder and StandOut, have been taken over 10 million times around the world and used to help individual contributors, leaders, and teams better understand and utilize their strengths to perform at their best. His measurement tool, the Engagement Pulse, is used by companies around the world to predict employee performance and engagement with reliability and validity.

The definitive treatment of strengths in the workplace can be found in his best-selling books: First, Break All the Rules (coauthored with Curt Coffman; Simon & Schuster, 1999); Now, Discover Your Strengths (coauthored with Donald O. Clifton; The Free Press, 2001); The One Thing You Need to Know (The Free Press, 2005); Go Put Your Strengths To Work (The Free Press, 2007); The Truth About You (Thomas Nelson, 2008) Find Your Strongest Life (Thomas Nelson, 2009), StandOut (Thomas Nelson, 2011), and StandOut 2.0 (Harvard Business Review Press, 2015). His latest book, Nine Lies About Work: A Freethinking Leader’s Guide to the Real World (Harvard Business Publishing, 2019) takes an in-depth look at the lies that pervade our workplaces and the core truths that will help us change it for the better.

Marcus joined ADP Research Institute in 2017 as Head of People + Performance Research, where he has spearheaded the 2018 Global Study of Engagement and the 2020 Global Workplace Study. The 2020 Global Workplace Study is believed to be the largest and most reliable study of global worker engagement yet undertaken. This study focuses on how COVID-19 has affected Engagement and Workplace Resilience — and the interplay between them — in 25 countries.

Mary Hayes earned a Ph.D. in Educational Leadership from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Her Master's degree in Educational Psychology from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln was focused on Qualitative, Quantitative and Psychometrics Methodology with additional work in Survey Research Methodology. Both of Dr. Hayes' degrees focus on the psychology of people and how these people flourish through positive psychology. Since 2005, Dr. Hayes has worked closely with Marcus Buckingham in the development of the StandOut Assessment and other StandOut tools and resources, assuming the role of TMBC Senior Researcher in 2015 and Research Director, People and Performance in 2018. Prior to her time with TMBC, Dr. Hayes served as the Innovation and Impact Director for HUMANeX Ventures, Data Management Director at Creighton University School of Pharmacy and has also provided consultation services in the fields of human resource management and human performance since 2003.

Dr. Hayes' research focus has been on engagement, turnover, knowledge worker performance and teams in the work place. Dr. Hayes has partnered with Marcus Buckingham for over a decade to design and implement valid and reliable tools to help workers get more out of their work experiences. The partnership can be described as the practitioner/ scientist model where we bring the best of both worlds to make a difference for the knowledge worker – together focusing on sound research with clients to help them understand the relationships between engagement and performance, engagement and turnover, as well as other relevant issues in the world of work.

Dr. Frances Chumney is a research psychometrician and methodologist who specializes in latent variable measurement, instrument development and validation, statistical simulations, and survey research. Dr. Chumney’s expertise of psychometric and quantitative methods is extensive and includes research design, structural equation modeling, multivariate statistics, longitudinal modeling, Bayesian techniques, classical test theory, item response theory, sampling, and program evaluation. Dr. Chumney has submitted her work for peer review and presented to academic and professional audiences in more than a dozen countries across 6 continents.

Since 2003, Dr. Chumney has been active in research on latent variable measurement, instrument development, analytic techniques, and psychometric methods. As a methodologist, Dr. Chumney has provided research design, instrument development, data collection, analytics, and reporting support to researchers in myriad fields, including nursing, statistics, education, cognitive and developmental psychology, and business. She has served as Project Manager, Research Coordinator, and Methodologist on large federally-funded research projects in the field of education. Dr. Chumney served as research professor and dissertation advisor within the College of Education and the School of Nursing at the University of West Georgia.

Dr. Chumney earned a doctorate degree in Quantitative, Qualitative, and Psychometric Methods with a doctoral minor in Survey Research Methods from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. She earned a master’s degree in quantitative and psychometric methods from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and a bachelor’s degree in psychology with a concentration in behavioral and social sciences from East Tennessee State University.

Kristi joined the ADP Research Institute in April 2020 to drive the production of groundbreaking People + Performance research. She is responsible for leading various programs and initiatives and collaborates closely with cross-functional teams in doing so.

Prior to joining the Research Institute, Kristi spent 10 years as the Director of Client Success for The Marcus Buckingham Company (TMBC), an ADP Company. At TMBC, Kristi led cross-functional teams of geographically dispersed resources to deliver technology, training and coaching solutions on time, to specification and within budget. She strategically managed the relationships of large, complex corporate clients.

Prior to joining TMBC, Kristi spent 18 years with the Hewlett-Packard Company, providing global project management for multi-million dollar client projects. During her time at Hewlett-Packard, Kristi implemented numerous improvements to the organization’s planning and processes. Responsible for the global plan of record management and customer issue management, she aligned sales and operations teams across regions to a prioritized list of initiatives and resolved complex global customer issues involving product delivery in Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia. Her client accounts included McKinsey & Company, Chevron, Morrison & Foerster, Starbucks, and Franklin Templeton.

Kristi graduated with distinction from the University of Nebraska—Lincoln with a degree in Business Administration. She received an emphasis in International Business from studying abroad at Oxford University in Oxford, England and Senshu University in Tokyo, Japan. Kristi was a member of the Project Management Institute and certified as a Project Management Professional (PMP) from 2004–2010.