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2010 Board of Directors

Shelley Potente, Community Connections

What are your responsibilities on the Board? In addition to our board responsibilities, I co-chair the Community Connections committee, which has several programs: Mentoring for early-in-career HR professionals, Interview Skills training for the Philadelphia Academies high school students, Graduate Alliance partnership with LeBow, and the Local Area Network groups.  I am constantly looking for ways to improve our value proposition, and to contribute to the growth and development of this outstanding organization.

What is your background? Earlier in my career I was a mental health clinician and psychotherapist. I hold a BA in Psychology from Penn State University, where I also taught “Listening Skills,” to students in the Counseling Psychology track. I have a Masters in Clinical Psychology from West Chester University, where I interned and counseled college students and facilitated numerous skills building sessions including assertiveness training. After completing my Masters I landed a job in sales, assuming it would be a temporary stop along the way back into Psychology. However it became a long tenured role, which I ultimately chose to leave - see below. Prior to joining Right, I served as an EVP and Director of Operations for a privately held career consulting firm, and coached executives in transition.

How did you get interested in HR as a field? I found my way into the HR field by determining that it was time to leave a long tenured and successful business development role for a global electrical/electronics firm. I had “fallen” into this job right after completing my Masters, thinking I would stay for a year and earn some income before going back into the field of Psychology. I remained there for over 10 years, due to factors that appealed to me including great autonomy, an incredible manager, and excellent corporate resources. However I realized that I had become terribly bored and had no passion whatsoever for the products I sold. I am a textbook example of choosing, and successfully finding my way to, a field that I love. I accomplished this through assessing my strengths and values (“What Color is Your Parachute?”) networking, networking and more networking, and becoming involved in a professional association in our industry prior to working in it. As a result of these efforts I navigated my way into what then was primarily the outplacement industry. The focus upon both career management and talent management felt perfect for me: it combined the resources of the corporate arena, and leveraged years of training, experiences and natural skills. So although I did not start out in “HR” I discovered a fabulous fit – “doing well by doing good,” surrounded by intelligent people in the professional services world. I was shocked at what “fit” really meant, when I discovered how much I enjoyed my colleagues, the people who would become clients, and many who have become friends.

Shelley Potente is a Vice-President, Account Executive for Right Management, a global career transition and organizational consulting firm. Shelley is responsible for business development, account management, and consultation with client organizations across industries in the Greater Philadelphia region including pharmaceutical, telecommunications, information technology and professional services.  She presently holds a board role with PHRPS and has held board positions for the International Association for Career Management Professionals, and the Wayne PA Women's Resource Center (WRC).  Shelley is a  Leadership Philadelphia alum.

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