Recruiters / Hiring Managers

Keynote

Career Coaches

Tony Calabrese (Resume Review)

Tony Calabrese is a certified Life and Career Coach.  A lifelong New Jersey resident, he has thrived through a series of life changing events.   Coaching, consulting, facilitating support groups, and writing blogs and newsletters provide the opportunity for him to share what he has learned with others.

After a long and successful career in Project Management and Systems assignments, a series of life events led Tony to shift directions and pursue a new career in coaching.  In 2009, Tony earned his certifications from the Institute for Professional Excellence in Coaching (IPEC) in both their intensive coach training program and their Energy Leadership assessment and debrief process.  In August of 2011, he became a Certified Career Coach.  Tony is a member of the International Coach Federation (ICF) and was President of its New Jersey chapter in 2012.

Tony and his wife, Carolina, reside in Maplewood, NJ. 
Telephone: (973) 762-1350 Cell: (201) 306-9811

Paul Cecala (Gig Economy)

Paul Cecala, a Five O’Clock Club Certified Career Coach, has been coaching since 1999 and assisted over 3000 people in either changing careers or starting their professional lives.  He has worked for several post-secondary career schools as Director of Career Services specializing in Biotech/pharmaceutical careers, Green Economy jobs, aviation, allied health, IT and general administrative professions.  Currently, he the Director of Program Development for Fairleigh Dickinson University’s Petrocelli College of Continuing Studies where his responsibilities include identifying developing and managing many of the school's adult, non-credit programming.  Additionally, he helped develop the job search training process for several NJ Department of Labor sponsored job search groups.

Paul has a BS in Psychology from Florida Institute of Technology.  Prior to career coaching, he had a long career in corporate aviation sales.  His final position in this arena was Vice President of Aircraft Charter Sales for a nation-wide industry leader.

Lisa Chenofsky Singer (The Art of Learning and Reinventing)

Lisa Chenofsky Singer, founder of Chenofsky Singer & Associates, is all about customizing and personalizing the career development experience.

If you want a coach who will select the tools from her toolbox that suit your particular needs and tailor them to just what you are looking for – whether a mid-career shift to a new field, a first-time career exploration, a resume revamp, or an executive coaching package — she is your Coach.

Lisa's motto, 'love your career, live your talents, treasure your life's successes', is all about being a 'whole' person in how we live.
Balancing our interests, passions, and desire for learning is what keeps our fingers on the pulse. Linking this to how we earn a living is very powerful as when you enjoy what you do, you excel at it and it is not 'work' but rather 'energy' for you throughout the day. When you can look at possibilities, understand the marketplace AND understand how you can translate your skills and abilities into current needs – you can land a job. When you can take your ability to influence beyond what is directly in front of you — then you are driving your career.

Colleen DiFabio (How to Prepare for Your Search as a Project Manager)

Colleen DiFabio has extensive experience collaborating with organizations to determine potential solutions that incorporate people, process and technology. Throughout her 20-year career in consulting and staffing. Colleen has worked with clients to development solutions focused on Strategic Planning, Business Agility and Project Execution. Colleen has experience interacting with Executive Management and determining solutions that enable an organization’s success. This success has been shared with Fortune 100 and 500 clients in the Healthcare, Insurance and Financial services areas.

Colleen has worked with clients to design and deploy solutions in both the business and Information Technology areas. She has worked with clients to assess current state situations and determine the best possible approach to achieve company targets. She has been responsible for enhancing client relationships and meeting sales quotas. Colleen has held leadership positions with large consulting organizations like CSC and CDI and has worked in startup organizations as well. She can pivot to meet clients’ needs in all types of organizations. Colleen is also a certified Life Coach and has counseled thousands of people on career decisions over the past 20 years.

Throughout her career, Colleen has developed tools, techniques and templates that help assess a candidate’s strengths, and determines which candidates would be best aligned with her client’s strategic, tactical and cultural needs. These methods have helped thousands of candidates find the right position that allows them to make positive impacts to an organization. Colleen’s ability to understand her clients, and her candidates, is what makes the relationship successful for everyone.

Colleen has been asked to speak at Philly Tech Week on the topic of “Women in Technology”, for the Project Management Institute, on “Branding for the Project Manager”, for the “Sharpen Your Skills” conference in Philadelphia and was recently a guest of Careers Seekers radio show.

Colleen is in constant purist of excellence and believes that “understanding a client’s strategic goals, both short term and long term, as well as their culture, is what really determines the success in client/candidate relationship’s.

Please review Colleen’s Linked-In Profile at https://www.linkedin.com/in/colleen-difabio-3886b93

Alex Freund (Salary Negotiation)

Known as “The Landing Expert,” Alex Freund helps his clients land new positions and get promotions through effective interviewing. As a former director at Honeywell, Sanofi and Tyco International, Alex is an experienced hiring manager.

Currently, Alex is a career coach, specializing in helping his clients improve their interviewing skills and making them confident and comfortable throughout the interviewing process. For the last 12 years, Alex has helped more than 750 clients ranging from managers to CEOs in a variety of industries.

Alex is volunteering in several job-search networking groups where he is an occasional presenter. He conducts workshops on interviewing, resumes, LinkedIn, Value Proposition, Personal Branding and alike in addition to weekly publishing a blog written specifically for job seekers. His blogs are posted on many LinkedIn groups, appeared in Inc. Magazine, Entrepreneur Magazine and Business Insider.

For over eight years, Alex has been teaching a course for people in transition via the Princeton Adult School and publishes The Landing Expert List, a free directory of job-search networking groups via his website at landingexpert.com.

Alex is a Cornell University graduate and speaks five languages.

Merrill Rutman (Resume Review)

Merrill Rutman is a professional resume writer and job search coach who crafts resumes and LinkedIn profile summaries that answer the key questions on the minds of all prospective hiring authorities, “What can you do for me?  Why should I hire you rather than another equally qualified candidate?”  Merrill helps each client express his or her unique value proposition, which answers those key questions in logic that resonates with corporate executives and business owners alike, an appeal they cannot afford to ignore.

Merrill is a former executive recruiter and award-winning technical writer.  His full background is on his http://www.linkedin.com/in/merrillrutman/ profile.

Terry Seamon (6 Things to Consider While Doing Your Search During Covid-19)

Career Transition Consultant - 2019 As an Executive Career Transition Consultant with The Ayers Group since 2009, Terry helps professionals and executives as they make their way through the career transition process toward their career goals.

Terry’s approach is to focus on each person, tailoring the process to fit their needs and objectives. As he guides them through the challenges of job search and career change, Terry supports them with customized tools and strategies. His goal is to help them quickly galvanize into action and thereby accelerate their searches.

In addition to working with individuals, Terry also gives presentations on job search topics to professional networking groups in New Jersey.

An active writer, Terry writes articles on many aspects of the career transition process such as networking, interviewing, and personal branding. He publishes them frequently on LinkedIn where he is an active user of the networking platform.

Before joining The Ayers Group, Terry was a Training & Development professional for many years in the corporate world, specializing in leadership and management development, as well as organization change and development.

Terry holds a BA in Human Communication from Rutgers University, and a Masters degree in Education from the Rutgers Graduate School of Education.

He lives in Somerset, NJ with his wife Joan. His interests include family, music, theater, and film, as well as travel, food, and wine.