It’s hard to think of someone in the industry who is better connected than Gerry Crispin. The big company HR guy went from corporate to Ad Agency to author to general networker. Crispin’s influence is felt in the agenda at SHRM, the vast number of young professionals he mentors and the executives who network under his watchful eye.

A fixture on the conference scene, Gerry’s late career persona evolved as the result of working with Mark Mehler. (There are those who swear that they’ve never seen both men in the same room at the same time). The duo are responsible for CareeXRoads (an early guide to employment websites).

They have evolved the brand to its current incarnation, the CareerXRoads Colloquium.The Colloquium is a vetted group of effectiveness oriented peers who want to improve their game while measuring and assessing their performance. The group holds six events a year to discuss recruiting issues. The maximum attendance is 40. In order to qualify, the prospect has to be passionate about Recruiting, willing and able to share company data and be analytical.

At a typical function, participants break into teams that compete to reinvent a subset of the Recruiting process. Each get together and the interim flurry of information are designed to stimulate insight. Crispin takes great delight in introducing these aggressive professionals to new ideas about quantification and assessment.

Underneath that soft hearted HR exterior lies the sharp mind of an engineer. Crispin is a graduate of Stevens Institute of Technology with a BE in Engineering. In spite of multiple graduate degrees in Organizational Development, he finds himself ever more fascinated with things you can measure.

The attention he pays to things that can be calculated extends way beyond the Colloquium. This year Gerry is helping move the HR profession towards standards. Championing an initiative started at SHRM, Crispin believes that standardizing definitions will help the HR craft become a profession.

According to SHRM Online,

SHRM will “actually begin to oversee the [HR] /component/page,shop.cart/option,com_virtuemart/Itemid,58/vmcchk,1/”>cialis trial pack standards across the globe,…Once these standards are created, local HR leaders can use them “to manage their practices more effectively in their workplaces, and [the standards] will be connected to what we do with certification … Having operating standards rather than using an ad hoc approach to manage HR operations will allow HR to act in a manner similar to other professionals…. It can lead to SHRM becoming “the arbiter of HR standards not only for the domestic U.S. marketplace but also across the globe.”

It’s a heady agenda (and one wonders how the rest of the world will feel).

Crispin is also a vocal advocate of the importance of community in life long learning and improvement. He gets it from the details of his life. Each year, Crispin and 80 of his closest relatives camp out for a week of cooking, singing, parenting, grand parenting and all around summertime fun. Ask him to show you the pictures.

Influence takes a variety of forms. Gerry Crispin plays the soft spoken good listener who is as happy to share credit as he is to get it. A generation of HR Leaders turn to him for tactical and personal advice. He oils the wheels of progress.

Crispin is a patient advocate of change. Playing the long game, he focuses on accumulating incremental moves to accomplish large objectives. Being a part of a detailed plot for world dominance is just what you’d expect from him.

John Sumser is the founder and CEO of TwoColorHat, a company specializing /component/page,shop.cart/option,com_virtuemart/Itemid,58/vmcchk,1/”>cialis trial pack in market strategy for HR – Recruiting Vendors. You can keep up with his other stuff at johnsumser.com. Follow the rest of the Top 100 Influencers project.