William Shepherd

Will Shepherd is a talent management leader with experience and expertise in succession planning, leadership development, human capital analytics, employment testing and assessment, performance management, and organizational culture. He has worked internally in the financial services, telecommunication, and quick service restaurant industries as well as entrepreneurial start-ups. He also has experience in professional services as a consultant to a wide variety of industries.

He currently serves as the Director of Talent and Organizational Effectiveness at Wendy’s where he has been since 2013 in various roles where he has had responsibility for leadership development, executive coaching, organizational culture, and hiring and promotional assessment programs, as well as curriculum development. Before Wendy’s he worked at Huntington National Bank in various talent management leadership roles. Previously he worked for the international human capital consulting company Personnel Decisions International (now a division of Korn Ferry).

The Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) and the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology (SIOP) annually co-present the HR Impact Award recognizing best in class evidence-based HR practices. The HR programs Shepherd has led have been recognized with the HR Impact Award in 2015 for his work at Huntington and again in 2020 at Wendy’s. Shepherd has won SIOP’s “Wiley Award for Excellence in Survey Research” three times as well as SIOP’s “M. Scott Myers Award for Applied Research in the Workplace.”

Shepherd obtained his doctoral and master’s degree in industrial and organization psychology with a minor in quantitative psychology at Bowling Green State University and bachelor's degree in finance and psychology at the University of Northern Iowa. He is a licensed psychologist in Texas. He has been recognized as a Fellow of both the American Psychological Association and the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology.

In addition to presenting at various conferences, his research has been published in academic journals such as Journal of Applied Psychology, Academy of Management Journal, and Personnel Psychology. He has served as an adjunct professor at multiple institutions including at The Ohio State University since 2011. He has also contributed as a subject matter expert in stories for a wide variety of media outlets such as National Public Radio and HR Magazine. He previously served as a Board Member of both the Friends of the Columbus Metropolitan Library and Leadership Columbus organizations.

Education

• Ph.D. Bowling Green State University
• M.A. Bowling Green State University
• B.A University of Northern Iowa

Courses

BUSMHR 7320 - Fundamentals of Business Excellence I

This course is designed to give a student with little or no prior business experience a quick overview of key business functions. The objective of the course is to help you become better HR managers by enhancing your understanding of strategy, the general business environment, operations & technology, marketing, and finance. Prereq: Enrollment in MLHR program.

BUSMHR 4320 - Human Resource Management in a Market Economy

Application of economic theory to organizations and labor markets; emphasis on the role of labor market analysis in human resource decision-making. Prereq: 2291 or 2292 (BusAdm 499.01); and 3200 (701), and AcctMIS 2200 (211), 2300 (212) , and BusMgt 2320 (330), 2321 (331). Not open to students with credit for 651.

BUSMHR 4322 - Human Resource Learning: Training and Development

Introduction to concepts and organization practices associated with designing, implementing, and evaluating different types of employee training and development programs. Prereq: 2291 or 2292 (BusAdm 499.01); and 3200 (701), and AcctMIS 2200 (211), 2300 (212), and BusMgt 2320 (330), 2321 (331). Not open to students with credit for 703.