ABOUT HRCatalyst

HRCatalyst, Inc is a management consulting firm dedicated to helping organizations maximize their people potential by delivering customized solutions. Our mission is to help your company select, measure, and advance its professionals in a way that reflects the organization's values, culture, strategy, and goals. We believe that, ultimately, people drive every metric of your business and we strive to deliver value around the results that matter most to you.

Alison Mallard, Ph.D.

Alison Mallard is founder and president of HRCatalyst, Inc. She has fifteen years of experience in organizational consulting and research across a wide spectrum of industries, including retail, financial services, healthcare, hospitality, information technology, pharmaceutical, transportation, and manufacturing. She also works with organizations in the not-for-profit sector (e.g., higher education, children’s advocacy, professional groups). 

Alison’s primary focus is working with organizations and their leaders to align strategy and talent capabilities. Specific specialty areas include individual assessment, executive coaching, team assessment and coaching, designing and implementing leadership development programs, selection system design and validation, offsite facilitation, organizational research, and competency modeling. She has also worked with organizations on a variety of special projects.

Prior to her consulting career, Alison taught several psychology, management, and measurement courses at University of Georgia’s Terry College of Business and Psychology department. She has published multiple articles in refereed journals and has presented at several national and international conferences.

Alison is a licensed psychologist with a B.A. in psychology from Emory University and an M.S. and a Ph.D. in industrial/organizational psychology from the University of Georgia. She is active in several professional associations, including the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology, the American Psychological Association, the Georgia Psychological Association, and the Atlanta Society for Applied Psychology. She is certified on several assessment tools including 16PF, Hogan Assessment Series, CPI, Birkman, and Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI). She has designed and is certified on multiple 360 feedback instruments.

Alison is married and has three children. She is an NCAA All-American swimmer and has competed in a number of triathlons and half-marathons.

Savvy Lorestani, MBA

Savvy Lorestani has been a consultant with HRCatalyst since 2005.  He has worked with clients across several industries, including entertainment, retail, banking, information technology, and transportation.

Savvy specializes in competency modeling projects, career mapping, and developing informative training programs, varying in size from a class of 30 to an audience of over 100,000. He has served on selection system design projects and has experience conducting content expert interviews for selection profile validation. He has played a supporting role in corporate reorganizations and has held both supporting and lead roles in OD strategy projects. In addition, Lorestani plays a supporting role in building assessment capability for clients and helping them create a more strategic HR department.

Savvy has built and delivered several training programs for emerging leaders in the areas of time management, project management, and wellness. He has also developed a number of training programs designed to help build capability among teams and their leaders.

Savvy also serves as a coach for young executives, entrepreneurs, and first time managers. He has successfully coached many individuals to address performance challenges, navigate transitions, and assimilate into broader roles. He is certified in the 360-feedback process and has conducted multiple 360 feedback assessments in a variety of formats, ranging from electronic to verbal interviews.

In his spare time, Savvy works as a film-maker.  His last feature film, My Sixteenth Summer, recently won the Maverick Award at MethodFest and earned a Nomination for Best International Film at The Okanagan International Film Festival.  The film is next scheduled for festivals in Washington, Australia and Toronto.  

Savvy earned a B.A. from Emory University and an M.B.A. from Georgia State University.

Adrian Thomas, Ph.D.

Adrian Thomas is an Associate Professor of Psychology at Auburn University lead statistician for HRCatalyst, Inc. He received a Ph.D in Industrial Psychology from the Georgia Institute of Technology in 1997. His primary research interests in Industrial Psychology include personnel selection, scale development, adverse impact issues, and the incorporation of individuals with disabilities into the workforce.

Adrian’s interests in quantitative psychology include structural equation modeling, item response theory, and statistical corrections to current validity generalization and utility analysis formula. In nine years since graduation, he has 28 publications in journals ranging from Personnel Psychology to Educational and Psychological Measurement to International Journal of Selection and Assessment. He has 63 presentations at national and international conferences and numerous other presentations at regional conferences.

Adrian has consulted with several Fortune 500 companies and various smaller companies on selection projects and currently serves as lead statistician on projects for the states of Alabama, Louisiana and Virginia. He is also a member of the prestigious Child Health Epidemiological Reference Group as a consulting statistician, where he collaborates with UNICEF, the Center for Disease Control (CDC) and the World Health Organization (WHO) to predict infection and mortality rates for various diseases throughout the world.

Laurie Gilmore, M.Ed, CPLP, PHR

Laurie is a Workplace Learning Professional who values helping others learn.  She enables people and organizations to succeed by identifying performance gaps and appropriate solutions.  She specializes in developing learning strategies to support the strategic goals of the organization. 

Laurie’s programs encompass classroom, mobile, and virtual learning solutions.  She successfully creates programs to reach geographically dispersed employees and successfully utilizes virtual training via WebEx webinars to deliver product knowledge training solutions.  She is adept at managing and facilitating programs, measuring results, and communicating their success.

Laurie has worked in multiple industries, including consumer and commercial services and hospitality.  She worked internally as a Training Manager, Talent Manager, and General Manager of an award-winning hotel.  She has the unique perspective of balancing operational management experience with in-depth knowledge of adult learning principles.

Laurie received a Master’s degree in Human Resources and Organizational Development from the University of Georgia.  She is one of the first 250 people to receive ASTD’s Certified Professional in Learning and Performance (CPLP) designation and also holds the Professional in Human Resources (PHR) certification.