Transform 2023

You belong here.

Kathryn Coleman, Ph.D

Senior Vice President, Talent, Learning & Insights

3M

Dr. Kathryn J. Coleman has over 20 years of experience in talent acquisition, diversity, strategy, policy, and project management. As Senior Vice President of Talent, Learning, and Insights, she leads a global team of experts to provide world-class workforce and talent planning that attract, develop, and support the retention and progression of talent to include oversight for HR Business Partners globally. She earned her Ph.D. in Educational Policy and Administration from the University of Minnesota, a M.A. in Counseling and Student Personnel Psychology from the University of Minnesota, and a B.A. in Psychology from Macalester College.

Chip Conley

Founder

Modern Elder Academy

Chip Conley joined the tiny tech start-up Airbnb nearly a decade ago after a successful career as a boutique hotel company founder and CEO. He was twice the age of the average Airbnb employee which earned him the title "Airbnb's Modern Elder" who was as curious as he was wise. As the internal mentor to the young Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky, Chip got to see the value of intergenerational collaboration in a company that has now grown to be the most valuable hospitality company in the world. His bestselling book "Wisdom@Work: The Making of a Modern Elder" is a testament to rethinking the value of having 5 generations in the workplace and why more companies are doing their best to encourage their older workers to stay in the workplace longer. Chip's Modern Elder Academy has more than 2,000 alums who've come to the Mexican beachfront campus and MEA will be opening two campuses in Santa Fe, New Mexico soon.

Saydeah Howard

Founding Partner, Chief Operating Partner

Cherryrock Capital

Saydeah Howard if the Chief Talent Officer at IVP. Saydeah is responsible for advising the firm’s portfolio companies on human capital issues including executive search strategy, leadership, and talent development. Ms. Howard brings extensive human resources and recruiting experience to IVP. Prior to joining IVP, Saydeah served as Vice President of Human Resources and Organizational Development at LeapFrog Enterprises. With global human resources responsibility, Saydeah successfully implemented a new performance management approach, employee recognition program, and rebuilt the recruiting department.

David Landman

Global Head Of Talent Development

Goldman Sachs

David serves as Global Head of Talent Development at Goldman Sachs. He is responsible for performance management, talent mobility, learning and new hire integration. David utilizes leading-edge HR technology in tandem with strategic change management practices to transform employee experiences, most recently designing a new approach to talent mobility at Goldman Sachs. Earlier in his career, David was a professor of Psychology at the Community College of Philadelphia. David earned dual BA degrees in Business and Psychology from Muhlenberg College and an MA and PhD in Organizational Psychology from Temple University.

Natalie Breece

Chief People + Diversity Officer

ThredUP

Natalie Breece is the Chief People and Diversity Officer for thredUP Inc. (NASDAQ: TDUP). With over 15 years of experience in People strategy, Natalie has dedicated the last 6 years building, innovating and executing the Talent Acquisition, People Operations, Total Rewards, DEIB and L&D strategies for thredUP. Natalie and her team are relentless in their pursuit of cultivating an environment that enables thredUP 2000+ employees to do the best work of their lives while inspiring a new generation to think secondhand first.

RJ Milnor

Former Head Of People Analytics

Uber

RJ is an executive with 20 years of global experience improving organizational performance through data-driven talent strategies. RJ takes a business-oriented, creative and collaborative approach to make evidence-based decisions that increase employee productivity, wellbeing, and continuously improve their experience and work. His career started in investment banking and he has advised Fortune 500 companies on 6 continents about how to build their people strategies and analytical capability, and launched new businesses in both executive education and people analytics.

Mala Singh

Chief People Officer

Electronic Arts

Mala serves as Executive Vice President and Chief People Officer at Electronic Arts where she focuses on developing EA's talent and cultivating the company culture. Mala plays an integral role in redefining and evolving the People strategy at EA. She is passionate about creating environments which empower people and teams to do their best work. Prior to this role, Mala spent three years as Chief People Officer at Minted where she helped to define the culture and grow the creative and technical teams during a high-growth period for the startup. Mala earned both her Bachelor's degree in Psychology and Art History and her Master's degree in Human Resources Management from Rutgers University. Mala lives in the Bay Area with her family.

Bryan Power

Head Of People

Nextdoor

Bryan is Nextdoor’s Head of People. He was most recently Chief Human Resources Officer at Yahoo. Bryan held a similar role at Square and prior to that spent eight years at Google. Bryan Power brings more than 20 years of human resources and talent acquisition experience to Nextdoor – most recently as Chief Human Resources Officer at Yahoo. He is also a board member of Avenica, a U.S. recruiting firm that focuses on placing recent college graduates into entry-level career-track positions, as well as an advisor to a number of high-growth tech companies in San Francisco. 

Angela Cheng-Cimini

SVP, Talent & CHRO

Harvard Business Publishing

Angela Cheng-Cimini joined Harvard Business Publishing in 2021, spearheading the people programs to drive business strategy and create a deeply engaged and diverse workforce. Angela brings over 30 years of human resources experience across consumer product goods, professional services, high-tech as well as nonprofits. She has shepherded businesses through start-up, growth, and maturity by helping organizations identify and build the necessary organizational capabilities. She serves on the Alumni Board of Directors for Cornell University and is also an HR Venture Advisor for SemperVirens, an early-stage venture capital fund.

Michael Walters

Head Of Human Resources

Samsung Semiconductor

Michael Walters currently serves as the Head of Human Resources for Samsung Semiconductor based in San Jose, CA. He leads end-to-end people processes for this $38B business inclusive of talent acquisition, organizational development, compensation, health & welfare and compliance initiatives managing a team of 55 in the United States. Prior to his tenure with Samsung, Michael was the CHRO for Genoa Healthcare, the nation’s leading behavioral health specialty pharmacy company with over 550 pharmacies across the United States filling more than 20 million prescriptions per year in service of more than 1,000,000 individuals annually with yearly revenue of $3B. Michael also served in HR leadership roles in a wide variety of industries to include Roper Technologies, Microsoft, and Nielsen Entertainment. He holds an MBA with a concentration in Human Resources Management from Loyola Marymount University and a bachelor's in psychology from University of California, Los Angeles. He has taught the “HR Business Partner” course with the University of Washington from 2008 until 2020.

Q Hamirani

Global Head Of Live & Work Anywhere

Airbnb

Q is a business minded people and operations leader, advisor and executive coach. He joined Airbnb in 2018 as its first global people ops leader, and was responsible for the strategic vision, build-out and execution of Airbnb’s people operations function from the ground up. Additionally, he was responsible for leading Airbnb through numerous pivotal milestones including hyper growth, pandemic responses, workforce restructuring, IPO and the future of work. Most notably, Q ideated and incubated Airbnb’s Global Nomad program in 2020 that eventually became Airbnb's formal Live & Work Anywhere program in 2022

AJ Thomas

Chaos Pilot & Head Of Talent

X, The Moonshot Factory

AJ Thomas is and entrepreneur, founder and coach focused on working alongside the future to create the next iteration of possibilities. She has served as the founder of Infuse Program Foundation and the founder and Chief Explorer at BrainCandy Labs, powered by Women in Technology International (WITI). She currently works at X, the Moonshot Factory, as its Chaos Pilot and Head of Talent having previously led X's Human Experience Design team. These roles have allowed AJ to be a key contributor to developing talent for the future. A lot of what fuels her interests and passions intersect at bridging the gaps in talent, culture, and career. The result of what she does moves people and organizations forward to create a future of infinite possibilities.

Jeff Diana

Chief People Officer

Calendly

As Chief People Officer at Calendly, Jeff Diana is responsible for the company’s people and workplace operations teams including engagement, operations, talent acquisition, learning and development, performance management, total rewards, and more. He’s a seasoned executive with 25+ years of experience in the HR field. Prior to Calendly, Jeff served as a strategic consultant to high-growth global software companies to help them scale their businesses and HR programs. Before that, Jeff was the Chief People Officer at Atlassian, where he played an instrumental role in the company’s IPO and scaling of its people from 300 to 2,000+ team members.

Dana Wright

Managing Director

MATH Venture Partners

Dana Zachgo Wright is the Managing Director of MATH Venture Partners, an early-stage VC. Dana is a connector, coach, and dealmaker focusing on leadership in high-growth, high-stakes situations. Prior to joining MATH, Dana led corporate development at a private equity-backed company that exited in 2013 for more than $4.5 billion. In her early career, she held various corporate and consulting roles in strategy, finance, human resources, and compensation.

Joey Lee

Head Of Talent Acquisition

Virgin Orbit

Joey has always put people at the heart of his career. As he look back in his life, his soul purpose has been always to help people. It is something that his parents instilled in him at an early age. During his 22-year corporate career in Talent Acquisition, he has help start-ups and large organizations develop authentic leaders who create cultures of innovation, trust, and inclusion. Joey understands the nuances of developing healthy team dynamics and people-first businesses. He is known for transformational leadership, innovation, creativity and high performance. He has the implementation-level expertise to develop consistent business processes that set up teams for success. He is an acknowledged expert in creating high performance organizations, lucrative relationships and outcomes through collaborative leadership efforts with a focus on talent acquisition strategies and delivery programs, including workforce/capacity planning, talent attraction, employment branding, selection practices and measurement. Joey received his Bachelor of Art degree in Psychology from UC Riverside, and earned his HR Management Certification from UCLA.

Jeff Ryan

Chief People Officer

McAfee

Jeff spent the last 4 ½ years as the Chief People Officer at Zynga, one of the world’s leading gaming companies. Prior to Zynga, Jeff was SVP, HR at GoPro, CBS Interactive and VP, HR for EA Sports. Jeff served as a board director for LakePharma, a biologics drug discovery organization and currently as a board member for the C100, a not-for-profit community of Canadians in tech, committed to supporting the most promising Canadian-led technology businesses and their leaders through mentorship, investment, and talent. Jeff has lived in Japan and Singapore and originally hails from British Columbia, Canada.

Beth Grous

Chief People Officer

Tripadvisor

Beth is responsible for leading Tripadvisor's global human resources organization, a role she has held since September 2015. Previously, Beth was at Nuance Communications, a global provider of speech and imaging solutions, where she served as the senior vice president of human resources. Prior to Nuance, she spent three years at Sanofi Corporation, a global healthcare organization, where she was the vice president of human resources. Beth also held a number of roles at Genzyme Corporation for nine years, including vice president of human resources, before it was acquired by Sanofi. Earlier on, she held human resources leadership positions at Perot Systems Healthcare Services, Reebok International, Aramark Educational Services and Federated Department Stores. Beth holds a bachelor's degree in English from Cornell University.

Paul Wolfe

Human First Leadership Advocate

Paul Wolfe most recently served as the head of the Human Resources for Indeed, the world’s #1 job site. During his almost 8 years at Indeed, he helped the company grow from just under 1,000 employees to just over 12,000. From March 2020 through the end of 2021, he helped the organization navigate COVID-19 with the primary focus being the health and safety of Indeed’s employees. Prior to his role at Indeed, he served as Vice President, Senior Vice President, and Chief HR Officer at a number of well-known companies, including Match.com, Ticketmaster, Orbitz and Conde Nast.

Carolyn Frey

Chief People Officer

Hungryroot

Carolyn Frey is the Chief People Officer for Hungryroot, a personalized online grocery company. Her past experience includes being the CPO and head of legal at Curology, a leading prescription skincare company as well as the CPO and head of marketing at Philz Coffee. She started her career at Gartner (fka CEB) where she spent 15 years in various senior roles, mostly in the HR Practice and leading the West Coast business.

Judy Park

Principal

Owl Ventures

Judy is a Principal at Owl Ventures, the largest VC fund focused on education and training technology. The fund invests in and supports companies that advance learning, skills development, and human capital across individuals and organizations. Prior to Owl, Judy helped start Bain Capital’s Double Impact fund and led the fund’s first investments in education and healthcare.

Lily Benjamin, PhD

Head Of TM And Org Optimization

Amazon

Dr. Lily Benjamin is a business psychologist, with experience optimizing organizational health to increase engagement, productivity, and safety through high-impact large-scale change management strategies.  She integrates DEI in all people and processes, specializing in organization diagnosis, organizational design, cost-effectiveness, disputes mediation, negotiation, leadership development, talent management, succession planning, performance management, and executive coaching. Dr. Benjamin is recognized as a strategic, decisive, and visionary leader who motivates multicultural teams to perform at their peak. She attributes her success in navigating through change-intensive business environments to being a keen assessor of risk and opportunity with tested business judgment.

Alison Ryu

Partner

Able Partners

Alison Ryu is a Partner at Able Partners, an investment fund focused on health & wellbeing. She invests in companies that make the lives of consumers healthier, happier, and more meaningful. Able's areas of focus include disruptive healthcare, care economy, consumer wellbeing, and connection & community. Previously, Alison was a General Partner at CircleUp Growth Partners. Prior to that, Alison was an investor at TSG Consumer. She spent a year on the executive team at their portfolio company, Backcountry.com. She started her career in investment banking at J.P. Morgan. She holds a B.A. in Economics from Harvard University.

Nichelle Grant

Head Of Diversity, Equity And Inclusion

Siemens USA

Nichelle Grant is Head of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion, Siemens USA, where she guides the company’s commitment to DEI as a catalyst for growth and innovation. In her role, Grant is helping to shape a company culture in which all employees are empowered to achieve their full potential.

John Boudreau

Senior Research Scientist And Emeritus Professor

Center For Effective Organizations, At USC

DR. John Boudreau is recognized worldwide a leading evidence-based visionary on the future of work and organization. His breakthrough research examines the bridge between work, superior human capital, leadership and sustainable competitive advantage. His large-scale research studies and focused field research address the future of work and the global HR profession, work automation, HR measurement and analytics, decision-based HR, executive mobility, HR information systems, and organizational staffing and development. Dr. Boudreau has over 200 publications, including more than 10 books. His research is featured in Harvard Business Review, The Wall Street Journal, Fortune, and Business Week, among many others.