Payroll Transformations from Payments to Hiring

Lois Fried, CPP, is President of the American Payroll Association, the nation’s leader in payroll education, publications and training with more than 20,000 members. 

Lois has spent 40 years in the human capital management industry, leading and training successful teams, implementing training materials and educational programs, most recently with ADP, before starting LKF Consulting. Prior to becoming APA’s president, Lois received APA’s Meritorious Service Award and Citation of Merit, California’s Payroll Professional of the Year Award and Banker of the Year Award. 

As APA’s president, she recently spoke in general sessions at the APA Congress XStream, where she was also a podcast participant and a workshop presenter; she is a contributing writer to the APA’s PayTech magazine. 

Lois was also a founding member of Bloomberg Tax Payroll Advisory Board.

Davida Lara, the Executive Vice President of Payroll at Entertainment Partners, is recognized as a national thought leader who excels in taking action in payroll process implementation. Through her more than 20 years of experience, she has gained extensive expertise developing systems and process automation, as well as in training personnel. She also has been responsible for developing global mobility best practices and payroll shared services. 

Prior to joining EP, Davida was the Senior Vice President and Head of Global Payroll for The Blackstone Group, where she oversaw global payroll operations impacting over half a million employees. Prior to that, she was Head of Global HRIS and Payroll at Harman International Industries, directing system strategy and implementation for more than 23 countries. 

Throughout her career, Davida has headed numerous diversity and inclusion initiatives, and continues to be a voice for empowering women. She sits on the Board of Directors for The Rowan Center: A Sexual Assault Resource Agency. 

Michael Baer is the host and executive producer of The Source podcast. Michael previously oversaw domestic and international payroll news and analysis at Bloomberg Tax, previously BNA. 

In a career spanning three decades, Michael transformed the role of managing editor, becoming an information services leader who managed every aspect of world-class global products and platforms, while continuously increasing revenue and achieving market-best customer satisfaction. He directed a team of editors and writers who were charged with translating complicated tax and labor laws into English so non-lawyers could easily understand and apply them, and was integral in organizing and placing that content on easy-to-access web platforms, resulting in the highest net promoter scores the company had seen for any of their offerings. 

Michael has been a frequent public speaker for conferences and webinars, and now is the host of The Source, sponsored by DailyPay. Michael joined the DailyPay team in 2019.