GPMI Forum Brings Together Vendors, Organizations at Congress

The Global Payroll Management Institute (GPMI) hosted the 2nd Annual Global Payroll Management Forum last May in Orlando, Florida, providing progressive payroll education and enhanced networking opportunities for global payroll professionals.

The Forum was held in conjunction with the American Payroll Association’s Annual Congress, which draws about 2,000 attendees each year.

Forum attendees:

• Learn from experts on complex global compliance and employment issues

• Gain insights to country-specific payroll laws and regulations

• Optimize their company's global strategies and global payroll delivery models

“If you’re in global payroll, you’ve got to be there,” Victor Lobo, Vice President of Sales and Marketing for Blue Marble Global Payroll, said of the Global Payroll Management Forum, in operation for its second year.

He could have been speaking about the Annual Congress as a whole, which featured a bounty of information for global payroll professionals.

Speakers included James McKerrell (Chair, South African Payroll Association); Jason Low (Head of TAPS, The Association for Payroll Specialists, Australia); Eira Hammond, FCIPPdip (Board Chair, The Chartered Institute of Payroll Professionals, United Kingdom); and Lucy Zambon, CPM (Chair, The Canadian Payroll Association).

In addition, attendees could take workshops such as “Creating and Executing a Successful Global Payroll Strategy” and “Global Payroll: Myths Resolved.”

At the Global Pavilion, set in the Expo, global payroll professionals had productive discussions, participated in product demonstrations, and networked with various experts on country-specific compliance issues, technology, and overall strategy.

Karen Myers, Senior Director Global Payroll at ADP, said she appreciated the opportunity to meet with GPMI and APA members to understand their needs today and in the future.

Vivek Khanna, Neeyamo’s Chief Client Partner, expressed his enthusiastic support of the GPMI Pavilion.

“We have taken a big role at GPMI this year, and we are looking to enhance our role next year even further, because this is a growing market,” he said. “We really appreciate our relationship with GPMI and APA.”

He noted that over the past year Neeyamo has done a number of things with GPMI, such as workshops and Twitter chats.

“We strongly believe that what is needed in the global payroll marketplace is greater education, and to help inform people as to what is available,” Khanna said.

The GPMI Pavilion provided companies like CEO Allison Sellar’s activpayroll with the opportunity to “mix with like-minded people who are passionate about payroll on a global basis.”

Paul Tollefsrud, iiPay’s Enterprise Business Development Manager, found that the Pavilion provided an opportunity to engage in deep conversation with attendees interested in seamless integration to share information through the use of new technology.

Dave Blum, Senior Business Development Manager, CloudPay, said his conversations in the Global Pavilion focused on three common themes:

1. Standardized approach

2. Visibility and transparency of information

3. Compliance

Kira Rubiano, Senior Partner Management Specialist for Celergo, said more companies are establishing a global presence and seeking new global solutions.

“At the Global Pavilion, there were a lot more vendors than there were last year, a lot of different options as who to talk to,” she said. “The key is what differentiates each vendor, and I think clients are still trying to figure that out. At the end of the day, it’s the service line, the customer experience, and what they’re looking for as a solution that leads you to find that right vendor.”

Next year’s 3rd Annual Global Payroll Management Forum will take place May 15-19, 2018, in National Harbor, Maryland, just outside Washington, D.C. Sign up today!

Frank J. Mendelson is an Acquisitions Editor for the Global Payroll Management Institute. He has been working with the American Payroll Association since 2009 as an editor for