Bios
Rick Breden
Rick Breden is a friend and advisor to many companies across the country. Rick is an expert in the field of human behavior. He began his career in 1988 in the clinical psychology space, specializing in the area of post-traumatic stress disorder. Since the early 1990’s he has founded multiple successful companies and participated in a nationally syndicated radio talk show. Currently, Rick is the founder and President of Essentials, LLC. Essentials is the outgrowth of Rick’s extensive personal, on-hand experience in assessing human behavior. Essentials core service provides employers with a proprietary online behavioral assessment tool that significantly increases the success of hiring the right employee while making the hiring process more efficient. Essentials clients range from companies in excess of 75,000 employees to employers with less than 10 employees. Rick is also the founder of Happiness Begins @ Work, and the behavioral expert on The Daily Buzz, a nationally syndicated television news show.
Steve Hammons
Steve is the Senior Vice President of Business Development at Essentials. He is focused on growth strategy, sales and distribution, product development, strategic partnerships and alliances.
Steve has the unique combination of success in both corporate and start up environments.
He comes to Essentials after a successful and exciting career in executive level positions for Fortune 500 companies, including Time Warner, Verizon Wireless, Vodafone and Leap Wireless.
While building high growth companies centered on technology, Steve developed a deep understanding and appreciation for the use of sophisticated data to guide decisions for employee and customer development. It was this focus on intelligence that allowed Steve to enjoy significant success in multiple product and company launches through the years.
Steve graduated from Ohio University where he studied Business Management, M.I.S. and Marketing. He is based in our offices outside of Dayton, Ohio.
Carrie Brancheau, PHR
Carrie Brancheau is part of the founding team of Essentials. Carrie began her human resource career in 1991 doing employee compensation and as a partner in a Taco Bell franchise business. Building the company from a 3 to 32 restaurant system, (adding 23 Pizza Hut restaurants in 1998 and developing $25 million in sales) she was the Director of Human Resources from 1991 to 2007.
With as many as 850 employees to oversee she developed skills in many key functional areas including but, not limited to strategy, training development, staffing/recruiting, benefits design, retention strategies, acquisitions and divestitures, project management, generalist duties, as well as operational management.
She was also actively engaged in the Pizza Hut and Yum!Brands systems by serving on a number of national committees, tasked with various projects from an international back-of-the-house software design to negotiating system wide distribution contracts including, spending three years as a franchise representative on the People Capability Committee. This committee was responsible for the strategic planning and implementation of all human resources programs within the Pizza Hut system.
In 2005, she was awarded the IPHFHA (International Pizza Hut Franchise Holders Association) Human Resource Leadership Award.
As well as being passionate about people, Ms. Brancheau, has also been active in politics. She served as a Pizza Hut franchise member on the Political Action Committee and the Governmental Affairs Committee, and lobbied the US Congress twice per year for over 10 years. In 2007 she represented Pizza Hut on the YUM! Brands Health Care Task Force; created to determine a position and strategy for approaching the US Congress concerning the health care crisis.
From 2005 to 2007 she also served as a Board Member of the Florida Retail Federation and the Chairman of the FRF Quick Service Food Council.
Runa Bouius
Runa Bouius is a Senior Consultant for Essentials LLC. She is an Icelandic entrepreneur, leadership mentor, speaker and trainer. She founded her first company Klassík ehf in the late seventies and became a business leader in the cosmetic industry in Iceland for the next 20 years. Her company represented many world famous brands such as Yves Saint Laurent, La Prairie, Kenzo, Benetton, and Versace, and served both the local and the duty free market. Her second company, Sigurboginn, is a retail store in Laugarvegur, the main shopping street in Reykjavik. Through her businesses Runa gained experience in marketing, hiring, training, customer service, and organizational development.
After selling her businesses in Iceland in the mid nineties Runa relocated to the USA. She founded her company Runora LLC in 2002 focusing on inspiring and empowering successful and conscious leadership in businesses, organizations, and individuals by aligning to authenticity and higher purpose and creating a better future through success and happiness.
Jeff Hamilton
Jeff Hamilton M.Div. is the Senior Vice President of Market Research for Essentials. Jeff received his Bachelor's degree in English literature and his Master's degree in Psychology and Theology from Biola University. Jeff has been a significant contributor to the field of clinical psychology and consumer behavior for over 30 years. He has also worked with government agencies as a clinical profiler and expert witness. Jeff has had the joy of helping over 6,000 individuals and companies through his career. Currently Jeff is assisting corporations understand the core motivators of their customers in an effort to better target marketing efforts.
Mark Walztoni
Mark specializes in serving early-stage, rapid growth, and turnaround companies and related staffing, coaching, and consulting assignments for local and national clients. He is also a Human Capital Advisor for Flywheel Ventures where he recruits and develops talented leaders and teams, builds a robust and interactive candidate network, and scales and improves human capital processes.
Mark spent over 20 years in global leadership development and staffing roles for American Express, Ernst and Young LLP, and Thomson. He has held Chief People Officer roles for founding entrepreneurs and venture capitalists in the professional services and technology sectors, including IGATE Capital Management and Computer Horizons Corp.
He is a certified executive coach and international speaker on individual and organizational change, an Expert Advisor on Career Transition, Merger and Acquisition, and Comprehensive On-boarding for the Human Capital Institute, and earned his graduate degree in Organizational Psychology at Columbia University. He also serves as a board member for the New Mexico Green Collaborative and the New Mexico Angels.