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President-Elect Donald Trump has made no secret of the fact that jobs are a top priority when he takes over in January. One need look no further than his recent efforts to save hundreds of jobs Carrier had planned to move to Mexico or this week’s announcement that after meeting with Mr. Trump, Japanese corporate giant SoftBank had agreed to invest $50 billion in the United States and create 50,000 new jobs.

So the nomination for Secretary of Labor of Andrew Puzder, the CEO of CKE Restaurants, which owns the fast-food chains Carl’s Jr. and Hardees will be viewed through this lens. Puzder will be charged with enforcing rules meant to protect American workers.

As Trump’s Secretary of Labor, Puzder will be tasked to undo some of the decisions made in previous administrations, according to the The Atlantic.

Puzder, who supported Trump during his run and is currently one of his economic advisors, met with the president-elect for the second time on Wednesday, and the two spoke about “regulations, labor reforms, and freeing up small business loans for new and innovative business ventures.

Puzder was a commercial trial lawyer in St. Louis from 1978 to 1991. During that time, he met Carl’s Jr. founder Carl Karcher, who convinced him to leave his job and become his personal attorney. Puzder agreed and helped save Karcher from bankruptcy and retain significant ownership interest in his company CKE Restaurants, Inc.

In 2000, three years after CKE acquired Hardee’s Food Systems, Inc., CKE’s Board of Directors named Puzder president and CEO of Hardee’s Food Systems and, a few months later, named him president and CEO of CKE Restaurants, Inc. Puzder is credited with turning around both the Hardee’s brand and CKE, allowing the company to survive become financially secure and return to growth.

Puzder made headlines last year after he told Business Insider he favored the idea of restaurant automation over human employees.

“They’re always polite, they always upsell, they never take a vacation, they never show up late, there’s never a slip-and-fall, or an age, sex, or race discrimination case,” Puzder said. He later said that statement was taken out of context. He has published several op-ed pieces in the Wall Street Journal and for conservative weekly news site, Human Events. He has also been very vocal about his views on Obamacare and its impact on jobs and business growth, and his opposition to minimum wage increases.

Despite the fact that Puzder is against states raising the minimum wage because he says it will kill jobs, he told FOX Business that “working in the cabinet, working in the federal government, there’s really nothing you could do to stop states from raising the minimum wages.”

Dana Beth Ardi

Executive Committee

Dana Beth Ardi, PhD, Executive Committee, is a thought leader and expert in the fields of executive search, talent management, organizational design, assessment, leadership and coaching. As an innovator in the human capital movement, Ardi creates enhanced value in companies by matching the most sought after talent with the best opportunities. Ardi coaches boards and investors on the art and science of building high caliber management teams. She provides them with the necessary skills to seek out and attract top-level management, to design the ideal organizational architectures and to deploy people against strategy. Ardi unearths the way a business works and the most effective way for people to work in them.

Ardi is an experienced business executive and senior consultant who leverages business organizational transformation through talent strategies. She uses her knowledge and experience to develop talent strategies to enhance revenue and profit contributions. She has a deep expertise in change management and organizational effectiveness and has designed and built high performance cultures. Ardi has significant experience in mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, IPO’s and turnarounds.

Ardi is an expert on the multi-generational workforce. She understands the four intersecting generations of workers coming together in contemporary companies, each with their own mindsets, leadership and communications styles, values and motivations. Ardi is sought after to assist companies manage and thrive by bringing the generations together. Her book, Fall of the Alphas: How Beta Leaders Win Through Connection, Collaboration and Influence, will be published by St. Martin’s Press. The book reflects Ardi’s deep expertise in understanding organizations and our changing society. It focuses on building a winning culture, how companies must grow and evolve, and how talent influences and shapes communities of work. This is what she has coined “Corporate Anthropology.” It is a playbook on how modern companies must meet challenges – culturally, globally, digitally, across genders and generations.

Ardi is currently the Managing Director and Founder of Corporate Anthropology Advisors, LLC, a consulting company that provides human capital advisory and innovative solutions to companies building value through people. Corporate Anthropology works with organizations, their cultures, the way they grow and develop, and the people who are responsible for forming their communities of work.

Prior to her position at Corporate Anthropology Advisors, Ardi served as a Partner/Managing Director at the private equity firms CCMP Capital and JPMorgan Partners. She was a partner at Flatiron Partners, a venture capital firm working with early state companies where she pioneered the human capital role within an investment portfolio.

Ardi holds a BS from the State University of New York at Buffalo as well as a Masters degree and PhD from Boston College. She started her career as professor at the Graduate Center at Fordham University in New York.