We are excited to introduce Leonelle Thompson as our 2024 Early Talent Summit Keynote Speaker.
Leonelle Thompson is the Manager of Early Career Development at Williams in Tulsa, Oklahoma. She leads the group that is responsible for university recruiting, the internship and new hire rotational programs and the learning and development of early talent employees who begin their career at Williams.
Leonelle graduated in 2004 with her BSBA in Accounting and in 2005 with an MBA from The University of Tulsa. She spent almost 13 years in the oil and gas industry with ConocoPhillips and with QuikTrip in a variety of roles including taxation and financial accounting, revenue accounting, and corporate recruiting and training. Prior to her current role, Leonelle served as Assistant Dean and Director of the Business Career Center in the Collins College of Business at The University of Tulsa and Director of Career and Professional Development at Langston University, Oklahoma’s only Historically Black College and University (HBCU).
Leonelle has been a speaker at DisruptHR, the 2022 OKHR Annual Conference and a keynote speaker at the Fall 2022 Tulsa Higher Education Consortium on the topic of bridging the skills gap between higher education and the workforce. She has given insights on how to build a corporate sponsorship program for university career services, how to better serve students and the partnership between employers and educational institutions. She has participated as a guest on the Career Everywhere podcast episode entitled “How Career Services and Employers Can Partner to Get Students Career Ready” and “Interview Tips for Landing a Job – Three Essential Keys from a Recruiter” podcast hosted by CuStem. During her professional career, Leonelle has worked to establish employee network and affinity groups, designed diversity and inclusion programming for employees and students and presented various diversity, equity and belonging topics such as microaggressions, unconscious bias, allyship, and real talk about racism to groups such as higher education administrators, career counselors, accounting firms, nonprofit organizations, law firms, Fortune 500 companies, students and teachers.
In her time at Williams, she has been instrumental in hosting three Tulsa NextGen Talent externs - diverse talent initiative connecting underrepresented students to business leaders and career opportunities before they leave for college. She was also key in bringing the Genesys Works Program to Tulsa.
She is certified by the Exceptional Leaders Lab in Temperament Fluency training. She also serves on the development committee for KIPP Tulsa and plans their annual Super Fun Kids Day. She is a board member for the Thunder Fellows Program which strives to introduce underrepresented students to the world of STEM. Leonelle is on the board of City Year Tulsa where she serves on the talent subcommittee to help launch corps members into their post-commitment roles. She is a board of trustee for the Oklahoma Foundation for Excellence Her awards include the Class of 2021 Oklahoma Magazine 40 Under 40, The Martin Luther King Jr. Passion Award, TU Most Valuable Professor, The Bartlesville Regional Chamber Inspirational Leader Award, and the Tulsa Higher Education Consortium Collaborative Champion Award. Leonelle has a passion for people and helping them succeed. She spends her free time with her wonderful husband Joshua and playing golf or practicing yoga.
