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Heldrich Center’s Carl Van Horn and Maria Heidkamp appointed to N.J. governor-elect’s transition team

New Jersey's incoming governor will rely on experts from Rutgers University's Heldrich Center for Workforce Development to create an economic strategy to shape the state's future.

By Matt Parke

November 28, 2017

Helping New Jersey become a 21st-century economy was a key component of Governor-elect Phil Murphy’s campaign and he has selected two transition team members familiar to WorkingNation readers to shape his economic agenda.

Rutgers University’s John J. Heldrich Center for Workforce Development Director Carl Van Horn, Ph.D., and the New Start Career Network Director Maria Heidkamp were appointed on November 17 to Murphy’s Transition2018 team. They join a list of more than 20 leaders selected from Rutgers and are part of the 500-plus team who will advise the governor-elect on the incoming administration’s policy priorities.

This past August, Dr. Van Horn and Heidkamp shared their insight on improving the employment opportunities for long-term unemployed older workers at WorkingNation’s and Heldrich Center’s Re-skilling the Mid-career Workforce Town Hall. The event was taped for broadcast for New Jersey public television (NJTV) and will air on December 27 at 8 p.m.

Van Horn will serve as senior adviser to the transition for strategy and policy and co-chair of the Stronger and Fairer Economy Committee and Heidkamp will co-chair the Labor and Workforce Development Committee. Ahead of Murphy’s January 16 inauguration, they will provide their expertise in addressing the systemic economic problems affecting the state’s economy.

While the governor-elect contends with an economy which was significantly impacted by the Great Recession and a recovery which has lagged behind the national growth rate, he has promised solutions in the form of reviving New Jersey’s innovation economy and strengthening the middle class.

As reported by InsiderNJ, Murphy said that Transition2018 “will ensure my administration is ready to deal with the serious challenges that lay ahead of us. I thank them all for serving, and look forward to working with the entire team to create a stronger, fairer economy in New Jersey that lifts up our middle class and creates economic opportunity for all.”

One issue which stagnated the state’s economic growth and was the focus of our Town Hall was long-term unemployment, especially for older workers. New Jersey has one of the highest rates of long-term unemployed workers in the nation and Van Horn and Heidkamp discussed with our Town Hall audience how the Heldrich Center’s New Start Career Network is tackling this issue.

The New Start Career Network, which recently celebrated its two-year anniversary, was featured in WorkingNation’s Do Something Awesome mini-documentary When Finding Your Job is the Job. The NSCN offers older job-seekers, like documentary subject Joe Konopka, opportunities to rejoin the workforce through job fairs, skill-building seminars and individual counseling which targets the specific needs of this demographic.

One way for the governor to strengthen the middle class is getting this experienced workforce back into meaningful and sustainable careers. Both Van Horn and Heidkamp are instrumental in creating the foundation for success in this regard. By drawing from the knowledge obtained through the two decades of research done at the Heldrich Center and the proven solutions offered by the New Start Career Network, the governor-elect will have two valuable transition members to help him redirect New Jersey’s economic future.

Join the Conversation: Tell us your thoughts about the New Jersey Transition2018 team on our Facebook page.

Chike Aguh, senior advisor, Harvard's Project of Workforce and WorkingNation Advisory Board member

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Dana Beth Ardi

Executive Committee

Dana Beth Ardi, PhD, Executive Committee, is a thought leader and expert in the fields of executive search, talent management, organizational design, assessment, leadership and coaching. As an innovator in the human capital movement, Ardi creates enhanced value in companies by matching the most sought after talent with the best opportunities. Ardi coaches boards and investors on the art and science of building high caliber management teams. She provides them with the necessary skills to seek out and attract top-level management, to design the ideal organizational architectures and to deploy people against strategy. Ardi unearths the way a business works and the most effective way for people to work in them.

Ardi is an experienced business executive and senior consultant who leverages business organizational transformation through talent strategies. She uses her knowledge and experience to develop talent strategies to enhance revenue and profit contributions. She has a deep expertise in change management and organizational effectiveness and has designed and built high performance cultures. Ardi has significant experience in mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, IPO’s and turnarounds.

Ardi is an expert on the multi-generational workforce. She understands the four intersecting generations of workers coming together in contemporary companies, each with their own mindsets, leadership and communications styles, values and motivations. Ardi is sought after to assist companies manage and thrive by bringing the generations together. Her book, Fall of the Alphas: How Beta Leaders Win Through Connection, Collaboration and Influence, will be published by St. Martin’s Press. The book reflects Ardi’s deep expertise in understanding organizations and our changing society. It focuses on building a winning culture, how companies must grow and evolve, and how talent influences and shapes communities of work. This is what she has coined “Corporate Anthropology.” It is a playbook on how modern companies must meet challenges – culturally, globally, digitally, across genders and generations.

Ardi is currently the Managing Director and Founder of Corporate Anthropology Advisors, LLC, a consulting company that provides human capital advisory and innovative solutions to companies building value through people. Corporate Anthropology works with organizations, their cultures, the way they grow and develop, and the people who are responsible for forming their communities of work.

Prior to her position at Corporate Anthropology Advisors, Ardi served as a Partner/Managing Director at the private equity firms CCMP Capital and JPMorgan Partners. She was a partner at Flatiron Partners, a venture capital firm working with early state companies where she pioneered the human capital role within an investment portfolio.

Ardi holds a BS from the State University of New York at Buffalo as well as a Masters degree and PhD from Boston College. She started her career as professor at the Graduate Center at Fordham University in New York.