# Kevandre Thompson

Kevandre Thompson works in talent acquisition and workforce development, with experience in industrial manufacturing recruiting. Thompson also speaks about community-driven hiring, workforce resilience, and the value of relationships at work.

- Profile: https://b2binfluencer.marketing/creators/kevandre-thompson/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dre-thompson
- LinkedIn followers: 2,825
- Topics: recruiting, workforce-development, manufacturing-workforce
- Based on 16 dated posts, latest 2026-10-06

## Summary

Kevandre Thompson is most useful for a live keynote or workshop on community-driven hiring and workforce resilience.

- Best for: Talent acquisition or HR technology brand planning a keynote plus follow-up content.
- Not for: High-reach paid influencer campaign needing audience scale, video assets, demographics, or promo code.
- Check first: Confirm no rate card, speaker reel, verified attendance, or audience demographics appear.

### Takeaways

- People leave bad managers or places where they do not feel seen.
- Relational wealth means opportunities come through people, not paychecks.
- Manufacturing contraction is a reset, and STAR talent matters more than resumes.

## Main ideas

- **People leave bad managers, not bad jobs—so community is the retention strategy**: In “Community is the New Currency,” Thompson argues that people leave not because of the work itself but because of managers or environments where they do not feel seen or heard. Employers should build clarity, trust, and continuity for the people who stay rather than wait for market conditions to improve. In a downturn, Thompson says, silence pushes people out more than uncertainty does.
- **Relational wealth: opportunities come through people, not paychecks**: Thompson contrasts financial net worth with what the post calls relational net worth, arguing that life-changing opportunities usually come through relationships and community rather than salary. They broaden the idea of return on investment beyond money, treating belonging and opportunity as forms of wealth worth building deliberately.
- **Manufacturing contraction is a reset, and STAR talent matters more than resumes**: After reading a Bloomberg report that U.S. manufacturing activity fell to 47.9, marking ten straight months of contraction, Thompson calls this a reset: the strongest operators sharpen execution rather than chase volume. Every hire must justify impact rather than potential, every role must protect institutional knowledge, and succession planning becomes urgent rather than theoretical. In that environment, Thompson says resumes matter less than what the post calls STAR talent: storytelling that translates experience into outcomes, transparency that builds trust when answers are imperfect, authenticity that shows up consistently under pressure, and respect that strengthens teams rather than drains them.
- **Learn from other people's frameworks, not only present your own**: Thompson treats conferences as places to listen and learn as well as speak, and publicly adopts and credits others’ ideas. They highlight a framework from Jennifer McClure’s keynote, attributed to McClure, called S.H.I.F.T., about keeping an entrepreneurial mindset inside a nine-to-five job. Thompson puts it into practice by asking what the organization is missing and what could be done differently.
- **Mentoring and early-career pipelines are part of the work, not a side note**: The community message is backed by hands-on mentoring and pipeline building. As a lead mentor with the National Black MBA Association Detroit Chapter Leaders of Tomorrow program, Thompson helped run sessions on resume building and LinkedIn personal branding for high school students, plus an HBCU Huddle where Michigan professionals who attended HBCUs shared pathways with students considering that route. The month's recap also places that work alongside a broader schedule of Detroit-area community events.
- **A community can be a platform for ideas, not just a place**: Thompson convenes civic, county, state, HR, and business partners around TEDxPontiac, describing the event as a platform for Pontiac and for ideas worth spreading. The role, as presented in the post, is to help spark and communicate a vision that belongs to the community rather than the organizer.
- **Skilled-trades recruiting is where the workforce arguments get tested**: Alongside speaking and writing, Thompson recruits for hourly union manufacturing roles, grounding the workforce arguments in day-to-day hiring. The post lists four second-shift openings at Innomotics in Norwood, Ohio: CNC machinist, rotor maker mechanic, motor assembler mechanic, and manual lathe operator.

## Work to read

- [DisruptHR Fort Wayne: "Community Is the New Currency"](https://www.linkedin.com/posts/dre-thompson_disrupthr-hrcommunity-leadership-activity-7388944680127905792-3oGb)
- [TEDxYpsilanti: "Are We Chasing the Wrong Currency?"](https://www.linkedin.com/posts/dre-thompson_tedxypsilanti-tedx-relationalwealth-activity-7468307399607746561-t5Sv)
- [SHRM Indiana keynote: 99 HR professionals in the room](https://www.linkedin.com/posts/dre-thompson_shrmindiana-shrm-humanresources-activity-7498391393330192384-42L6)
- [Manufacturing at 47.9: a reset, not just a slowdown](https://www.linkedin.com/posts/dre-thompson_us-factory-malaise-continues-as-gauge-drops-activity-7414284918878318593-7jPt)
- [Building TEDxPontiac with civic and county partners](https://www.linkedin.com/posts/dre-thompson_tedxpontiac-ideasworthspreading-pontiacmi-activity-7419934029174452224-Zmk1)
- [December community recap: mentoring, Detroit networks and Pontiac](https://www.linkedin.com/posts/dre-thompson_as-december-wraps-up-i-have-been-reflecting-activity-7412151920938876929-NGYG)
- [Recruiting for second-shift skilled trades at Innomotics in Norwood, Ohio](https://www.linkedin.com/posts/dre-thompson_manual-lathe-operator-2nd-shift-activity-7424798077867225088-btlS)

## Brand relationships

- **Innomotics** (disclosed_partnership)
- **SHRM Indiana** (mention)
- **DisruptHR Fort Wayne** (mention)
- **TEDx Ypsilanti** (mention)
- **TEDxPontiac** (mention)
- **National Black MBA Association (Detroit Chapter)** (mention)

## Partnerships

Kevandre Thompson's posts identify them as a speaker at HR conferences and community events. For a keynote or content collaboration, the documented activity includes sessions at SHRM Indiana and DisruptHR Fort Wayne built around the “Community is the New Currency” framework, plus TEDx Ypsilanti and TEDxPontiac talks on relational wealth. Ask about sponsorship formats, fees, travel terms, booking lead times, and whether a rate card or media kit is available; the posts provide none of those details. Contact would have to start through the LinkedIn profile, the only official link provided.

## Alternatives

- Karyl Morris: Choose Karyl Morris when the campaign centers on conference visibility and curated in-room relationship building rather than a keynote on retention. The posts show a practical before, during, and after framework for personal brand positioning around the International Franchise Association conference, plus an invitation-only Detroit Women's Collective limited to 15 women in advisory, consulting, professional services, and client-facing leadership roles. If the sponsor wants a small networking activation, a women's leadership room, or a franchise-sector visibility workshop, Morris matches that buyer task more directly than a broad HR keynote.
- Heather Jackson: Choose Heather Jackson when the sponsor needs early-talent pipeline and career-connected learning, especially in Indiana manufacturing and Career and Technical Education. The posts show board service with TechIndiana, support for INCAP and the Build the Pipeline Summit, and a planned 2026 Indiana Manufacturers Association Workforce Summit conversation on workforce, manufacturing, career exploration, and CTE. If the sponsor sells workforce development, education-to-employment pathways, or employer-led talent pipelines to manufacturers, educators, and state workforce partners, Jackson matches the audience more directly than Thompson's keynote-and-community approach.
- Paul Falcone: Choose Paul Falcone when the campaign needs a published author with a broad HR and leadership library and scripted guidance. The posts point to HarperCollins Leadership books covering burnout, upskilling in an AI-enabled world, crisis leadership, ethical dilemmas, team emotional intelligence, M&A integrations, and return-to-office debates, plus a SHRM article on communicating ethical guardrails in AI rollouts. If the sponsor wants book-backed authority, downloadable scripts, or responsible-AI rollout content for managers, Falcone offers a stronger content library.

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AI-assisted summary of public posts. Audience demographics are not available. Engagement appears only where we checked recent posts. Method: https://b2binfluencer.marketing/methodology/