Diane K. Adams
Chief Culture & Talent Officer
Sprinklr
Diane K. Adams is the Chief Culture and Talent Officer at Sprinklr, a provider of enterprise software for unified customer experience management (Unified-CXM). She has a proven track-record of scaling businesses that in turn, have doubled, tripled and increased their revenue streams 10x, during tenures at four public companies. Diane’s teams have hired more than 100K people and led 135 acquisitions. Prior to Sprinklr, Diane served as Chief Culture and Talent Officer for McGraw-Hill Education, Qlik Technologies, Allscripts, and led HR for 35K people in 152 countries at Cisco Systems. She is also the author of “More than Casual Fridays and Free Coffee: Building a Business Culture that Works” and serves as a Director Emeritus for the International Board of Directors of JDRF.
Gunjan Aggarwal
CPO
CONFLUENT
Gunjan Aggarwal serves as the Chief People Officer at Confluent.io. In her role, she leads the People & Places function of the company including talent acquisition and development, organization effectiveness, rewards and recognition, DEI, the company’s Remote First strategy and the Real Estate portfolio. Aggarwal is a 20-year industry veteran who joins Confluent after serving as Chief People Officer of RingCentral, a Category leader in UCaaS based in the Silicon Valley. Prior to that, she was the Chief HR Officer of RELX Group, a FTSE 15 UK based global analytics company.
Jamie Aitken
VP of HR Transformation
BETTERWORKS
Jamie Aitken is vice president of HR transformation at Betterworks, a role in which she supports Betterworks customers with innovative strategies to improve talent management practices, employee engagement, and culture. Jamie brings over 25 years of experience in delivering organizational development, cultural transformation, and employee engagement strategies that contribute to business performance. Her portfolio has spanned multiple industries and sectors, working both within those organizations as an HR practitioner as well as supporting them as a consultant.
Marjorie Ajero
CPO & Sr. Advisor
TROOPHR
Marjorie Ajero is a progressive HR executive with over 20 years of experience within the digital media, tech, eCommerce, and publishing industries. She is the Sr. Advisor to TroopHR, an educational platform and professional community for today’s People Leaders. In addition, she is the founder and partner of MA People Partners LLC, an HR consultancy firm aimed at helping individuals achieve their desired compensation packages. She has held previous CPO roles at Feedback Loop and BetterCloud. She helped create the Group Nine Media company by leading the merger and integration of its four brands: The Dodo, NowThis, Thrillist, and Seeker and built the company’s HR function to support its future scale and evolution. Marjorie resides in New York City and loves to travel.
Zach Anderson
Co-Founder
COORDINAPE
Zach’s career is focused on a more coordinated and collaborative world. He is the co-founder of Coordinape, a web3 platform for teams to incentivize, compensate, and appreciate each other. Prior to Coordinape, he co-founded Converge, a consultancy facilitating networks for social and environmental impact. He lives in Central America with his family and increasing menagerie of adopted pets.
Jolen Anderson
Global Head Of Human Resources, Corporate Responsibility And Philanthropy
BNY MELLON
Jolen oversees the company’s global Human Resources organization and directs the strategies, policies and practices supporting the firm’s diverse and inclusive culture and its employees. HR includes Global Impact Citizenship, which leverages BNY Mellon’s reach, market influence and resources to address pressing global issues, contribute to healthy economies and make a positive impact. Jolen also serves on BNY Mellon’s Executive Committee, the organization’s most senior management body, which oversees daily operations. Additionally, Jolen is a member of the Executive Leadership Council and previously served as a director on the board of the San Francisco African American Art and Culture Complex.
Jason T. Andrew
20-Year InsurTech Entrepreneur
Jason’s last venture, Limelight Health, was acquired by FINEOS in 2020. At FINEOS, Jason served as President North America and then Global Chief Alliance Officer. Previously, Jason served as the Co-Founder and CEO of Limelight Health, which offered a modernized platform for underwriting, quoting, and rating for carriers in the employee benefits ecosystem. Jason has been named one of 30 innovators to watch and INC 500 fastest growing companies in 2019. Entrepreneur of the Year and nominee for EY Northern California Entrepreneur of the Year 2020. Insurtech News 'top 50 global online influencers' 2021.
Michael Arena
Chief Science Officer
CONNECTED COMMONS
Michael Arena Ph.D. is the chief science officer at Connected Commons and faculty member in Penn’s Masters in Organizational Dynamics program. Arena recently served as the vice president of talent and development at Amazon Web Services (AWS). Prior to Amazon, he was the chief talent officer for General Motors Corporation. He has been nominated to Thinkers50 Radar class of 2020 and his research on networks won the 2017 Walker Prize from People + Strategy. Michael also spent two years as a visiting scientist with MIT’s Media Lab researching networks and acted as a design thinking coach at the Stanford School.
Tracy Avin
Founder
TroopHR
Tracy is the Founder of TroopHR, an educational platform and professional community for today’s People Leaders. She has spent the last 20+ years as an entrepreneur working at the intersection of HR, startups, and healthcare. Over the past decade, she’s grown her HR network to become an influencer and trusted resource for People Leaders. Tracy is a Founding Member of the Forbes Business Development Council and volunteers as the President of her son’s NYC public school PTA.
Amar Bakshi
Founder & Director of Innovation
SHARED_STUDIOS
Amar C. Bakshi is the founder of Shared_Studios, a company that creates immersive life-size videoconferencing environments that connect people around the world live and full-body, as if in the same room. The company has connected hundreds of thousands of people worldwide and worked with organizations including Google, Twitter, Airbnb, Juniper Networks, the White House, the European Parliament, the United Nations, and many others. PBS created a 30 minute documentary on the company available online. Bakshi previously worked as a reporter at The Washington Post and CNN and holds degrees from Harvard, Johns Hopkins and Yale Law School.
Andrew Bartlow
Managing Partner
PEOPLE LEADER ACCELERATOR
Andrew Bartlow has 25 years of HR experience at organizations across a variety of sizes, stages, and industries. He is the co-author of “Scaling for Success: People Priorities for High Growth Organizations”, has a masters degree from the top program in the HR field, and has been CECP, SPHR, Six Sigma, and executive coaching certified. In addition to his work with People Leader Accelerator, Andrew helps businesses refine their people strategy and maximize their leadership effectiveness through Series B Consulting. He serves as a private equity operating partner, a venture capital advisor, and mentors high-growth HR leaders 1on1.
Summer Baruth
Head of Global Employer Brand & Talent Attraction
AECOM
Summer is the Head of Global Employer Brand and Talent Attraction at AECOM. A forward-thinking employer brand and culture strategist with 20 years of experience garnered from diverse roles within transportation, infrastructure, healthcare, and food service. Summer makes the uncomfortable, comfortable meeting organizations where they are and bringing them along on the journey to become the employer of choice. An influential leader, Summer has the unique ability to galvanize teams across organizations through innovative perspectives. A strategic risk-taker, she has pioneered and transformed how some of the world's largest companies attract and retain the world's most extraordinary talent.
Allison Baum Gates
General Partner
SemperVirens VENTURE CAPITAL
Allison Baum Gates is a General Partner at SemperVirens, where she invests in technology transforming work, health, and financial wellness. She is also the author of “Breaking into Venture” (McGraw-Hill, 2023), an Adjunct Professor at Columbia Business School, and Lecturer at UC Berkeley-Haas. Prior to SemperVirens, Allison worked on the trading floor at Goldman Sachs; was an early employee at General Assembly (sold to Adecco for $413M); co-founded Fresco Capital, a global seed fund; and was an investor at Trinity Ventures. Currently based in San Francisco, Allison has lived in New York, Hong Kong, and Tokyo. She holds a B.A. in Economics with Honors.
Neil Bedwell
Partner & President
LOCAL
Neil is a founding Partner at LOCAL, a Change Marketing™ consultancy creating transformation communication and employee engagement programs for some of the world's best companies. Neil is a strategic marketing leader with 20+ years experience on both agency and client-side — running work, teams, and businesses in London, Amsterdam, San Francisco, and Atlanta, where he led global digital strategy for Coca-Cola. Neil and the LOCAL team bring consumer-grade agency craft to internal audiences, driving meaningful organizational change at a wide variety of Fortune 500 companies, including Capital One, Coca-Cola, GE, Republic Services, UPS, P&G, and Kaiser Permanente.
Lily Benjamin, PhD
Head of Talent Management & 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.
Jennifer Benz
SVP Communications Leader
SEGAL BENZ
Jennifer Benz is SVP, Communications Leader at Segal Benz, where she and her team help leading employers engage their people and drive business results through effective communication. Their work spans all areas of benefits and HR and blends the best practices of consumer marketing, behavioral science and design. Jen was named one of Workforce Magazine’s “Game Changers,” and HR Executive’s Top 100 HR tech influencers. Known for her expertise in benefits communication, she’s been quoted in the Wall Street Journal, appeared on CNBC and testified several times before the Department of Labor’s ERISA Advisory Council.
Elana Berkowitz
Founding Partner
SPRINGBANK COLLECTIVE
Elana Berkowitz is a founding partner of Springbank Collective and invests in early stage companies building the infrastructure to enable working women and families to thrive across three themes: inclusive careers, the new care economy and household consumers. She is also a longtime advisor to Eric Schmidt's family office. A serial social entrepreneur and policy wonk, she's a former Obama Administration technology policy official across the Obama-Biden Transition Team, the FCC and the State Department. She also served as innovator-in-residence for CARE, one of the world's largest humanitarian organizations and worked at McKinsey as a technology consultant across 10 countries.
Tim Betry
Vice President, People & Places
GOPRO
Tim Betry is an experienced People leader with a passion to help build inclusive, high performance and scalable organizations. His experience ranges from scaling startups through hyper-growth from 50 to 400+ employees, to his most recent position at GoPro where he leads global People and Places functions. Tim holds an Executive MBA from the University of San Francisco and a B.A. from San Francisco State University.
Amit Bhatia
CEO & Co-Founder
DATAPEOPLE
Amit Bhatia is the CEO & Co-Founder of Datapeople where he is helping make the hiring process more fair and efficient. Amit is obsessed with careers and hiring and previously built a job search engine to try and figure it out. He previously worked as an investment banker and software engineer.
Dr. Nina Birnbaum
Medical Director, Health Transformation Acceleration
BLUE SHIELD OF CALIFORNIA
Nina Birnbaum, M.D., joined Blue Shield of California in 2021 as the Medical Director for Health Transformation Acceleration where she collaborates on new, impactful ways to improve the healthcare system, particularly for virtual care. As a practicing family physician and healthcare innovator, she is driven by the conviction that everyone can have access to high-quality whole-person care. She seeks opportunities to use new technologies to remove old barriers and build a better healthcare experience for patients and clinicians. Dr. Birnbaum earned her medical degree from Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons and completed residency at UCSF/San Francisco General Hospital.
Kelsey Bishop
CEO & Founder
CANDOR
Kelsey is the CEO and Founder of Candor, the authentic professional network to share how you work and get to know your teammates. Candor has raised $5M from top VCs to help startup employees get to know each other in a remote world.
Lauren Bonner
Managing Partner
MBM CAPITAL
Lauren Bonner has 15+ years of experience leading turnarounds, scaling companies, and building technologies and a decade investing in early-stage companies and small businesses. In 2021, she launched MBM Capital, a buyout fund focused on "venture orphans", startups that have fallen off the unicorn trajectory but are revenue-generating and can be grown profitably for more consistent, achievable exits. She is a graduate of Harvard College and the fund's innovative strategy has been featured in WSJ, Forbes, TechCrunch, among other publications.
Lyndsey Boucherle
Partner
BETTER VENTURES
Lyndsey is a Partner at Better Ventures, a venture firm investing in emerging science and technology to achieve social and environmental impact at scale. She leads their investing in solutions to close the opportunity gap through access to education, jobs, and wealth creation. Prior to Better Ventures, Lyndsey spent over a decade in international finance in Switzerland, Hong Kong, and the US. She helped launch cross-bank impact investing initiatives, and co-led a global program sourcing financial solutions to the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
John Boudreau
Senior Research Scientist & 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.
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.
Hallie Bregman
CEO & Founder
THE BREGMAN GROUP
Hallie is the Founder and CEO of The Bregman Group, LLC, where she helps companies use data, analytics, and technology to develop people strategies that improve employee outcomes. Experienced in high-growth technology organizations, including Wayfair, Toast, and PTC, Hallie is recognized as a visionary in crafting insights embedded in data and technology. She is a thought leader in the talent space, as featured across various conferences, industry-leading podcasts (HR Leaders Live, Modern People Leaders), and academic institutions (Columbia, Stanford). Hallie also advises several startups (TeamLift, WorkLlama) on their growth journey, and enjoys supporting new developments in HR Technology.
Cara Brennan Allamano
Chief People Officer
LATTICE
Cara is the Chief People Officer at Lattice. Previously, she was SVP of People at Udemy and Planet Labs and served in HR leadership roles at Pinterest, Efficient Frontier - now Adobe, Young and Rubicam, and Knight Ridder, among others. Cara is also co-founder of PeopleTech Partners, a group of HR leaders brining new HR/recruiting technologies to market. She graduated Phi Beta Kappa from the University of Kentucky, holds a master's degree from the University of San Francisco, completed graduate studies at Stanford University and is finishing her Master's degree in Leadership and Ethics at the University of Chicago.
Tanner Brunsdale
Senior Manager, Benefits & Mobility
LYFT
Tanner has spent more than 15 years in employer sponsored benefits in a variety of industries including leading the benefits team at American Airlines, GoPro, and Samsara. In his current role at Lyft he leads the benefits, global mobility, and immigration teams supporting over 4,000 employees in eight countries. Tanner has a passion for designing inclusive benefit programs that support employees at all stages of their lives and careers. He has a love for travel and currently resides with his husband and dog in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Janice Burns
Chief People Officer
DEGREED
As a human capital futurist and strategist, Janice Robinson Burns develops and implements talent management and development programs that drive business results. Janice is the Chief People Officer of Degreed. Previously, Janice spent 27 years at Mastercard, most recently as their Chief Learning Officer, where she led the design and implementation of employee learning experiences and development programs globally. Before that, Janice served as Group Head of HR for the Global Products and Solutions organization and Chief Diversity Officer of Mastercard. She earned a Master’s degree in Public Administration from New York University and a Bachelor’s degree from Wesleyan University.
Mandy Bynum
Co-Founder & CEO
RACE EQU(AL)ITY PROJECT
Mandy Bynum is an investor, advisor, and thought leader working at the intersection of social justice, racial equity, and venture capital. She is the co-founder and CEO of the Race Equ(al)ity Project, and author of My Social Justice Dictionary, 150+ Words for Young Changemakers. Previously, she served as the CEO for BLCK VC, a 501(c)(3) organization with the largest network of Black investors, as CEO and Chairwoman of Camp Equity, a non-profit social justice platform and curriculum for k-12 students, and as Global Head of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion for New Relic.
Maureen Calabrese
Chief People Officer
MODERN HEALTH
Maureen leads Modern Health’s people function with the primary mission to work across the organization to cultivate and care for the culture and systems that enable every member of the Modsquad to do important work well. Previously, Maureen was the Chief People Officer at Sprout and Cision. Other roles include a stint in marketing for General Mills, Nielsen, and Ipsos. She holds a BSBA from the University of Denver and an MBA from Kellogg School of Management. When not at work, Maureen is a hockey mom who spends her time traveling with her husband and 3 children between ice rinks.
Drew Calin
Director of Global Sales
MULTIPLIER
Drew began his career in digital media sales more than 15 years ago. Passionate about the power of community and positive energy, he’s built his career through the commercial side of startup and scaleups. After helping LinkedIn scale across both the US and APAC, a decade living in Asia, completing an EMBA, and founding his own business. Drew is now back in Los Angeles, building Multiplier's global revenue engine. As a dedicated husband and father of 3, Drew believes that we can all find fulfillment by sharing and supporting each other’s relentless pursuit of our respective and collective dreams.
Lindsey Caplan
Founder & Lead Consultant
THE GATHERING EFFECT
Lindsey Caplan is a screenwriter turned organizational psychologist who helps HR and business leaders create experiences that boost motivation, engagement, and performance via her consultancy, The Gathering Effect. She began her career gathering to entertain as a comedy writer in Hollywood, next to educate for DreamWorks Animation and McKinsey, and then to transform as Head of Talent Development for Zendesk, Credit Karma, and Flexport. Clients leverage her unique insight and skills to create a range of employee experiences from All-Hands to offsites, onboarding, training classes, large-scale organizational change initiatives, and more. Learn more at www.gatheringeffect.com
Denise Carlin
Chief People Officer
MPCH AND FRACTION
Denise Carlin is the CPO of MPCH Labs, an innovation lab building the next generation of multi-party computation technology. The first implementation of our proprietary MPC6 Engine is Fraction: a hybrid cloud security engine enabling institutions to define and control how they work with digital assets while connecting with the wider crypto ecosystem. Denise specializes in driving business success by creating unique and inspiring people programs in fast-growing international start-ups in the Fintech and Web3 space.
Dean Carter
Chief People & Purpose Officer
GUILD
Dean has been an innovative leader of People and Culture for over two decades across Fortune 50, hot growth, and culture-driven organizations. For the past seven years, he has led global People, Culture, Legal, and Finance for Patagonia. He also serves as an Independent Director on the Board of Directors for Griffith Foods, as well as served several years as an Independent Director on the Board of Cornerstone OnDemand. Previously, he served as CHRO at Sears Holdings and Fossil Inc and in HR and Management roles for Pier 1 Imports, Pearle Vision, and Procter & Gamble.
Annie Case
Partner
KLEINER PERKINS
Annie joined Kleiner Perkins in 2018 and focuses on investments across consumer technology and digital health. Before Kleiner Perkins, she worked in product and business operations roles at Uber where she supported the SVP of Operations and helped scale the UberEats business to new markets internationally. Her career started as a consultant at Bain & Company, where she worked with clients in the Technology, Private Equity, and Education practices. She graduated from Stanford University with a bachelor's degree in Human Biology and a master's degree in Management Science & Engineering. She was also part of the Stanford Women's Soccer team.
Rob Catalano
Chief Engagement Officer
WORKTANGO
Rob is WorkTango's co-founder and has spent the last 18 years building HR Technology and advisory companies. Rob was on the founding team at Achievers, where he spent 10+ years growing the organization and his passion for improving the employee experience led him to co-founding WorkTango in 2015 to help companies collect and act on authentic employee feedback. He was named one of the 100 Top Global Employee Engagement Influencers each year between 2017 and 2020 and has had the privilege of speaking to HR leaders in over 40 cities. He is an avid hockey and volleyball player, traveler, used to play guitar in a metal band, and in his own terms a ‘pointaholic’ – he collects loyalty points for everything and anything!
Sarah Chavarria
President
DELTA DENTAL OF CALIFORNIA
Sarah Chavarria is President of Delta Dental of California, an enterprise that encompasses 15 states and the District of Columbia and has nearly 5,000 employees. She joined Delta Dental of California in 2017 as Executive Vice President and Chief People Officer, and in March 2022 assumed the role of Chief Operations Officer in addition to her People responsibilities. Sarah was then promoted to President in August 2022. In her current role, she oversees all aspects of Operations, Technology, Relationship and Business Development, Marketing and Communications and People. Sarah brings more than 25 years of expertise in leading people, communications, organizational effectiveness, change management and corporate strategy across multiple industries.
Mahima Chawla
CEO & Co-Founder
COCOON
Mahima Chawla is the CEO & co-founder of Cocoon, a leave management platform using technology to make taking and managing leave seamless for employers and their people. Whether starting a family, recovering from an injury, or caring for a loved one, employees can plan their leave in minutes and trust Cocoon to make the rest easy. Cocoon’s proprietary software automates the most complex parts of compliance, claims, and payroll, saving People teams hours while giving employees the seamless, intuitive experience they’ve expect from modern workplace tools. Previously, Mahima worked at Square, Bond Street (acquired by Goldman), and Morgan Stanley.
Ginny Cheng
Global Head of Recruiting
OURA
Ginny Cheng is the Global Head of Talent for Oura, the company of the award-winning wearable Oura Ring and connected app helping over 1 million members gain profound knowledge of their readiness, activity, and sleep quality. Before that, she was a talent acquisition leader and marketing communications strategist with Meta, Zillow, Microsoft, EMI Asia, and Acer Computers -and has lived and worked many years in Asia and Europe. She has been building high-performing teams for over 15+ years. Ginny is passionate about supporting women's career journeys and is a Career Coach for Career Contessa.
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.
Shari Chernack
Senior Principal – People Transformation & Strategy
MERCER
Shari is a Senior Principal at Mercer, focused on transformation. She works with leaders at the intersection of people, strategy and transformation, helping them align business strategy, people strategy, structure, capabilities, employee experience, and culture so their organizations can thrive and deliver sustained performance. Shari has helped organizations navigate transformation, growth, turnaround and restructuring, M&A, and changes to strategy, business model, and ways of working. Previously, Shari was Head of People at Industrious and co-led HR Effectiveness at Korn Ferry. She also held in-house transformation roles at Neovia Logistics and Dell.
Ian Chiu
Managing Director
OWL VENTURES
For over 20 years, Ian has been an investor, entrepreneur, and advisor to education, workforce, and technology companies. He sits on the boards of Degreed, Thrive Global, Workera, and is actively involved with MasterClass and Stash, among others. Prior to joining Owl Ventures, Ian was an investor at Warburg Pincus and Silver Lake Partners. Ian is a graduate of Stanford University, where he earned a B.S. in Industrial Engineering, with Distinction, and an M.S. in Industrial Engineering. He also received his M.B.A. from Stanford Graduate School of Business, where he was an Arjay Miller Scholar and Arbuckle Leadership Fellow.
Gaurang Choksi
CEO & Founder
VIOLET
Gaurang Choksi is a health equity leader. With a background building in health care, including building Oscar Health, Gaurang founded Violet in 2020. Violet is the first health equity platform, standardizing inclusivity as a skill and helping the health care industry build health equity. Violet is helping payers measure the amount of inclusive caer in their networks and helping care delivery organizations be more inclusive. Gaurang and his diverse team have quickly amassed customers across the health care industry, ranging from systems like Northwell to industry-leading digital health partners like Galileo and Brightline. Violet is leading the charge to disrupt health care and transform outcomes for diverse patients across the country. Violet was named to the NY Digital Health 100 in 2023.
Jyoti Chopra
Chief People, Inclusion, & Sustainability Officer
MGM RESORTS INTERNATIONAL
Jyoti Chopra is the Chief People, Inclusion and Sustainability Officer for MGM Resorts International. Previously, she held senior leadership roles at Pearson Plc., BNY Mellon, Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited, and Merrill Lynch and Co. She holds a BA in Journalism from NYU, completed the Securities Industry Institute at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, and has an MBA from the Saïd Business School, University of Oxford. Jyoti is a member of the Diversity Advisory Board for Toyota, serves as a Diversity and Inclusion Advisor to the Spencer Stuart Global Leadership Team, and is on the Schneider National Board of Directors.
Amit Chowdhary
Managing Director
BNY MELLON
Amit Chowdhary is the global Chief Operating Officer for HR at BNY Mellon and Head of HR for Legal and Audit group. He leads Workforce Planning, People Analytics, HR Operations, Payroll, HR Technology, HR Governance and Internal Controls, Data Governance, People Experience, Onboarding/Offboarding and HR Advisors globally. Previously, he led the transformation of the technology organization at Visa and held similar roles at HP and Deloitte. He holds a Master’s Degree in Business Management from Darden Business School and a Bachelor of Engineering Degree from Netaji Subhas Institute of Technology.
Kaitlin Christine
CEO & Founder
GABBI
Kaitlin Christine is a breast cancer survivor, ovarian cancer previvor and the CEO & Founder at Gabbi. Christine has spent over 9 years in women’s health and was the youngest hire for the world’s leading genetic testing company, Myriad Genetics. Before starting Gabbi she was the first full-time hire at the email marketing startup Worth eCommerce that she grew to acquisition. Christine won Oregon Entrepreneur of the Year in 2021 and was selected as one of Business Insider's Most Promising Femtech Companies in 2022.
Nolan Church
CEO
CONTINUUM
Nolan is the CEO of Continuum, a Series A talent marketplace for execs. Prior to Continuum, he was the Head of Talent at DoorDash and Chief People Officer at Carta.
Kareem Tony Clarke
DJ
Brooklyn born Kareem Tony Clarke is a producer and resident DJ at major clubs in the US. He has set the stage for acts including Illenium, 50 Cent, Ludacris, Lil Jon, Disclosure and more. As a producer, Tony tests the boundaries of what great music is across genres. You can hear his music on stage, on stream, and even on an Emmy-Award winning TV show. Tony is also a professor at Berklee College of Music in Boston. Prior to becoming a Professor, Tony earned two master’s degrees from the Berklee campus in Valencia, Spain.
Lexi Clarke
CHRO
PAYSCALE
Lexi Clarke is a highly accomplished HR leader with over a decade of experience in various industries. Currently, she serves as the Chief Human Resources Officer at Payscale, where she's responsible for creating and implementing people-focused strategies with remote-first in mind. Lexi's expertise in HR management has been honed through roles at Convoy Inc, Redfin, Boeing, and One Kings Lane. Passionate about fostering workplace success, she is dedicated to cultivating strong & transparent employee engagement and driving strategic organizational growth.
Kaleem Clarkson
Chief Operating Officer
BLEND ME, INC
Kaleem is a husband, father, remote work advocate, and speaker. He is the COO of Blend Me, Inc, a fractional people operations consultancy that helps startups and small businesses transform into high-functioning remote or hybrid-remote workplaces. He has been featured in Harvard Business Review, CNBC, Fortune Magazine, LinkedIn’s Top 10 Voices in Remote Work and listed as one of the top 15 Remote Work Advocates by the AAE Speakers Bureau. Kaleem has presented alongside leadership from companies such as Google, United Airlines, Facebook, Visa, and HP. Kaleem is passionate about work-life integration and the remote employee experience.
Muriel Clauson Closs, PhD
CEO & Co-Founder
ANTHILL
Anthill connects frontline workers to company resources, and is the only platform designed for workers who must be physically present to do their job. The 24/7 self-serve communications and HR portal provides simple-to-use, secure employee access in over 110 languages. Developed by workforce experts, Dr. Muriel Clauson Closs and Dr. Young-Jae Kim, the award-winning text-based tool provides all employees access to HR systems from initial onboarding and beyond. Anthill follows the highest standards of compliance, creating a data-backed platform to engage and support the 2.7 billion people who make up the deskless workforce.
Tracy Clemente
Sr. Benefits Manager
CHEGG
Tracy Clemente is an HR leader with a proven background in advancing employee benefits through an “employee-first” approach. For more than 20 years, Tracy has been designing and implementing benefits plans that advance familial and financial health. A pioneer in wellness programs, she brings innovation to helping employees have better mental health, less debt, and overall quality of life. Tracy began her career in the banking industry and quickly moved into high-tech HR and benefits administration. Her foresight for what employees need in benefits packages makes her a key advisor to executive leadership on what employees want.
Laura Close
Co-Founder & CBDO
INCLUDED
Included is HR Intelligence, delivered. Easy to use insights delivered to you without ever looking at a report! “Hey Included, can I see my forecast?” Yes! We have all your favorite HR metrics and insights, on demand? Want dashboards? Sure! We have beautiful stories with DEI embedded in every slice, for a complete view. “HR data so clean that even your VP of Eng will trust it!” -- Kim Vu, VP Remitly “We’re dashboard agnostic - use our customizable dashboards or connect to your own.” -- CEO, Raghu Gollamudi “I used Included to pull up an instant answer during an LT meeting, it was great.” -- CPO, high growth tech Want to learn more? Stop by booth K18 OR email me =) Laura@included.ai Laura Close is co-founder of Included.ai and host of the DEI What's Working? LinkedIn Live podcast. Laura brings twenty years of experience in the DEI space, originating as a political campaign & policy expert in racial, gender, and economic justice in the 90s. Laura spent her career locking in opportunities and institutional access for historically excluded communities. Now co-founder of Included Laura and team have created the first tech of its kind to use AI to help Chief People Officers, TA, DEI leaders to instantly know their real time people analytics data set, with DEI embedded in every view.
Bernard Coleman III
Chief Diversity & Engagement Officer
GUSTO
Bernard is the Chief Diversity and Head of Employee Engagement at Gusto, where he leads diversity, equity and inclusion, employee relations and people integrity/governance/compliance efforts. Previously, Bernard served as the Global Head of Inclusive Engagement at Uber. Prior to joining Uber, Bernard led the diversity and human resources initiatives at the Hillary Clinton for America campaign as the first-ever Chief Diversity and Human Resources Officer for any presidential campaign for either political party.
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.
Brett Collinson
Vice President of Product Management
CULTUREAMP
Brett is the VP of Product Management at Culture Amp. He is passionate about workplace culture and the power of cross-functional collaboration. Bret is focused on nurturing smart, kind, effective teams and loves technology that solves real problems. Brett has a background in engineering and product design.
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.
Jim Conti
Talent Partner
HYDE PARK VENTURE PARTNERS
Jim Conti is the Talent Partner at Hyde Park Venture Partners and has been with the firm since 2021. In this role, Jim provides strategic talent support and consulting to the firm's portfolio of companies. Prior to Hyde Park Venture Partners, Jim served as head of people at dscout and Sprout Social — both Chicago-based software startups. In these roles, Jim built, grew, and oversaw teams across recruitment, talent management, DEI, culture, HR, and benefits strategy. The impact of this work is seen in awards from Glassdoor, Chicago Tribune, Crain’s Chicago, and Built in Chicago.
Jason Corsello
General Partner
ACADIAN VENTURES
Jason is the founder & General Partner of Acadian Ventures. Acadian Ventures is an early-stage venture capital firm specializing in the Future of Work with investments in companies including Nomi Health, Oyster, SmartRecruiters, Degreed, and Techwolf. Corsello has nearly 20 years experience in the human capital management market as an industry analyst, management consultant, and operating executive. Most recently, Corsello was on the executive leadership team at Cornerstone OnDemand [NASDAQ: CSOD] as Senior Vice President of Strategy and Corporate Development.
Scarlet Cronin
VP, Americas & Global Strategy
TENT PARTNERSHIP FOR REFUGEES
Scarlet is the Vice-President for the Americas and Global Strategy at the Tent Partnership for Refugees. Prior to Tent, Scarlet worked at the Clinton Foundation for eight years. She was the Associate Director of the Commitments Department and head of the Response & Resilience track at the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI). In this role, she advised corporate, philanthropic, government and non-profit leaders responding to natural disasters and humanitarian crises. Before that, Scarlet worked at the Elie Wiesel Foundation, founded by Nobel Laureate Elie Wiesel, where she organized international conferences with world leaders. She has a BA from Trinity College Dublin.
Melissa Daimler
Author, Chief Learning Officer
UDEMY
Melissa Daimler currently serves as the Chief Learning Officer for Udemy. She is a trusted learning advisor, developing learning strategies for both customers and employees. Melissa brings over two decades of experience across Learning and Organizational Development leading these functions at Adobe, Twitter, WeWork, and now Udemy. She is a contributor to the body of work exploring organizational culture and learning. She speaks and writes broadly including for the Harvard Business Review, Fast Company, Forbes, and Fortune. Melissa graduated from the Pepperdine University Graziadio Business School with an MS in Organizational Development and is the author of Reculturing.
Lisa Dallenbach
Chief People Officer
THESKIMM
Lisa Dallenbach is theSkimm’s Chief People Officer, building a talent strategy that supports employees & the business, an equitable & positive employee experience, and building upon a strong core company culture. Prior, Lisa was Chief People Officer at Silverline, CHRO at Mindshare, and led Human Resources at Digitas, in addition to previous roles in client services. She’s helped lead growth, scale organizations at critical inflection points, and strategically build relationships that achieve business outcomes. Lisa’s passion for evolving organizations is matched only by her parallel belief in the need for a people first, human and partner-oriented approach to talent and HR.
Brooke Daniels
Director
SALESFORCE VENTURES
Brooke Daniels is Founder & CEO of the Holistic Hustler, a coaching and wellness company helping ambitious corporate professionals and entrepreneurs break free of grind culture and pursue success through optimizing mental fitness and prioritizing wellness, meditation, and mindfulness. Brooke is also a Director at Salesforce Ventures and has over a decade of experience in VC and tech. She is an Advisor for BLCK VC, Justice Technology Association, and Cap Table Coalition, and a mentor to entrepreneurs with TechStars and Pharrell William’s non-profit, Black Ambition. Brooke holds an Executive MBA from UNC Kenan-Flagler and is an entrepreneurship program advisor.
Sumona De Graaf
Founder & CEO
IDEALIS ADVISORY
Dr. Sumona De Graaf is an organizational psychologist specializing in human motivation. Recently a F300 CHRO, she helped transform a culture to be more customer and human-centered, enabling the company to leverage its most critical asset - its people. As Founder & CEO of Idealis Advisory, Sumona is called upon by Investors, Boards and C-level executives to solve their most challenging human capital issues. Blending science and practice, she leverages data to draw insights, and guides her clients to redesign habits and practices to create lasting impact. Her work across industries holds one commonality: to unlock the potential of leaders and companies to achieve their goals.
Rajeeb Dey
Founder & CEO
LEARNERBLY
Rajeeb Dey is the Founder & CEO of Learnerbly - a curated marketplace of the best professional learning content including coaching, courses, conferences, books, and more. Learnerbly partners with 100+ global employers to upskill and boost employee performance and to create a culture of learning where employees are empowered to own their professional development. Rajeeb was selected as a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum, received the Queen’s Award for Enterprise Promotion, and appointed as a Member of the British Empire for Services to Entrepreneurship. He holds a First Class Honors from the University of Oxford in Economics & Management.
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.
Andrea DiMella
VP & Head Of Talent
ATLAS VENTURE
Andrea DiMella joined Atlas in 2019 and serves as the firm’s vice president, head of talent. She oversees and executes strategy for the firm’s efforts in attracting the top people in the industry to Atlas and its companies. Prior to joining Atlas, Andrea was director of recruiting at Third Rock Ventures. Prior to joining Third Rock, Andrea worked in senior executive search & talent acquisition roles at companies including Biogen, Genentech, Amgen, and Celera. Andrea also worked on the retained search and agency side and started her career at the bench. Andrea received a BA in Biology from the UCSC.
Jelena Djordjevic
VP of People
Thumbtack
Jelena Djordjevic is VP of People at Thumbtack. She leads an organization of 80+ team members spanning Employee Experience, Recruiting, People Business Partners, People Analytics, Compensation, Benefits, Operations, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion and Organizational Development. In her role, Jelena is responsible for reimagining the future of work at Thumbtack.
Jelena received a BA from The University of Pennsylvania and an MBA from Stanford University Graduate School of Business.
Kelli Dragovich
Chief People Officer
PENDO.IO
Kelli Dragovich is chief people officer at Pendo, the most comprehensive product experience platform. Kelli has over 20 years of HR experience in global tech companies. She’s served in M&A lead roles at Google, and as CHRO at Looker, and as an HR leader at Hired, GitHub, Nook Media, Yahoo! and Intuit. She is an active advisor and investor. Kelli loves to build strong teams, get things done, laugh at work, and create super authentic cultures.
Massella Dukuly
Head Of Workplace Strategy & Innovation
CHARTER
Massella Dukuly brings deep expertise as a strategist and leadership coach to her role as Head of Workplace Strategy & Innovation at Charter. She has trained over 10,000 leaders globally and has worked at LifeLabs Learning, Squarespace, and Warby Parker. As an HR leader focused on team enablement, Massella has been a trusted advisor to leaders from high-growth startups to established enterprises including Squarespace, Twitter, TED, The New York Times, and Peloton. Her research on employee engagement and talent development has been featured in thought leadership articles in First Round Capital, Thrive Global, and Entrepreneur.
Alexei Dunaway
Founder
PINNACLE
Pinnacle is a manager development chatbot that provides AI-personalized manager development tips and human coaching in five minutes per day in Slack and Teams. We help growing companies identify, promote, and develop their best managers. Alexei is a certified executive coach, primarily to growth startup founders & execs. Former CEO of an accelerator with a stint in venture capital. Lived and worked in 7 countries on 4 continents.
Heather Dunn
Chief People Officer
GEM
Heather has spent 15+ years in People roles and is currently the Chief People Officer at Gem, where she leads all things People and Talent. Prior to Gem, she was the CPO at Newfront, where she established and scaled people programs, ultimately leading them through a successful merger that took Newfront from 300 to 700 employees. Previous to her CPO roles, she led the HR Business Partner team at Dropbox and held roles in Recruiting, Compensation, and HR Business Partner at Microsoft. Heather also holds a number of angel investments and advisory roles across early-stage startups.
Natalie Egan
CEO & Founder
TRANSLATOR, INC.
Natalie Egan (she / Her) is an openly transgender, award-winning B2B software entrepreneur, speaker, and recognized thought leader living her life at the intersection of technology and DEI. Natalie has over 20 years of experience driving digital change, building complex products, and selling enterprise solutions. Today, she is the CEO & Founder of Translator, Inc., where she is on a mission to scale empathy through technology. Outside of work, Natalie is a parent, athlete, artist, and activist for transgender rights. Based in Philadelphia, PA––Natalie graduated from Cornell University’s School of Hotel Administration, and earned her MBA from The Villanova School of Business.
Benjamin Encz
CEO & Co-Founder
ASHBY
Benji is the CEO & Co-Founder of Ashby. Prior to starting Ashby, Benji was a Director of Engineering at PlanGrid (acquired by Autodesk) where he spent 80% of his time in Engineering recruiting. In that role he developed a passion for recruiting teams, processes and tools. With the Ashby team he is now building a next-generation TA platform to help companies excel at every step of the modern hiring process.
Anthony Faulise
CTO
MYKLOVR
Anthony loves solving problems with technology and building things in code. “Things” includes an early mobile game that broke $250million in sales, some casual games for Publishers Clearing House, a responsive catalog search tool for ecommerce companies, and, long ago, control systems for municipal water systems. Before he got really serious about building things, Anthony earned bachelors and masters degrees in electrical engineering and computer science at Princeton and Rice Universities and an MBA at Duke.
Kait Feeney
Chief Operating Officer
TILT
Kait Feeney is a mom, compliance nerd, former labor and employment attorney, and the COO of Tilt. Kait oversees the overall operations and health of the business. Kait’s employment law background provides a unique level of expertise in the leave management space. She uses her legal prowess to help employers balance empathy with economics. Kait’s commitment to making leave not suck is rooted in her desire to leave a legacy for her children and support all humans when life happens. Kait graduated with a bachelor's in Communication and minor in Sociology before attending law school and earning her JD.
Anessa Fike
CEO/Founder
FIKE + CO
Anessa Fike is the CEO of Fike + Co, a multi-million-dollar People and Talent consulting firm that specializes in fractional executive leadership and focuses on helping companies create better workplaces for all humans. Having led more than a dozen organizations as Chief People Officer/Head of People/Talent, Anessa has been at the helm of Fike + Co’s work with more than 100 organizations from seed round through pre-and-post-IPO as well as mergers and acquisitions, including NPR, Niche, Trove, Nayya, and Uber. Anessa is a NASA IDEA Practitioner and continues to be a thought leader on innovative people and talent programs.
Eric Foster
Senior Health & Benefits Consultant
MERCER
Eric is a Senior Principal and Senior Health & Benefits consultant. He rejoined Mercer in 2021, after four years as a benefits executive in Fortune 100 companies. As an innovation thought leader with over 20 years of experience, he obsesses over solving complex puzzles in elegant ways to delight employers and strike balance between driving business results and meeting the needs of employees. Eric received his Bachelor’s Degree from the University of Florida and MBA from the University of South Carolina. He is a Certified Employee Benefits Specialist (CEBS) and Senior Professional in Human Resources (SPHR).
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.
Samantha Gadd
Founder & Co-CEO
EXCELLENT
Founder, business leader, and global driving force behind employee experience (EX). For over a decade Samantha has lead the way in EX thinking, growing the largest EX & HR consulting business in New Zealand and leading the international collaboration around the EX Manifesto project. Samantha is obsessed with employee experience and the impact on business performance. Samantha is based in New Zealand, loves the ocean and is the proud mum of three sons.
Barbra Gago
CEO & Founder
PANDO
Barbra is the Founder and CEO of Pando, the first employee progression platform. Pando is opinionated software designed to bring equity, inclusion and agility to employee performance and development. Prior to Pando, she served as the CMO at Miro, bringing the product to market and re-branding it from RealtimeBoard to Miro in 2018. She’s worked at the intersection of people, culture and future of work for over a decade building and scaling organizations and teams globally. As the first Head/VP of Marketing at both Culture Amp and Greenhouse she has helped shape and elevate People and HR organizations worldwide.
Cathy Gao
Partner
Sapphire Ventures
Cathy is a Partner at Sapphire Ventures, a B2B software-focused venture capital firm. She invests in companies building toward the Future of Work and Collaboration. Prior to venture capital, Cathy was an operator at Gusto.
Lucy Georgiades
Co-Founder & CEO
ELEVATE LEADERSHIP
Lucy has spent over a decade coaching and training leaders. She has spent thousands of hours working 1:1 with CEOs and executive teams helping them work through challenges, communicate effectively and achieve their goals. Her background is in experimental psychology - understanding the relationships between the brain and human behavior. She loves creating relevant, actionable training so as many people as possible can feel well equipped and confident to lead. Lucy is an Oxford University graduate with a Bachelors and Masters in Experimental Psychology specializing in neuroscience. She has two national diplomas with distinction from The Coaching Academy, U.K.
MK Getler
Chief Marketing Officer
LOOP & TIE
Human to human marketing executive and public speaker, CMO of Loop & Tie, MK Getler-Porizkova, is on a mission to bring authenticity and empathy into B2B organizations around the globe. With over a decade of experience building brands and culture through marketing, MK thrives on infusing inclusion and equity into every aspect of their work. When MK is not flipping tables in the marketing world, they’re found either in the surf or snow. Or perhaps off finding adventures big or small with their wife, Natasha, and pups, Kody and Bud.
Sarah Ghessie
Senior Director, HR
FUNDRISE
Sarah Ghessie is a dedicated HR professional with a passion for elevating employee experiences, boosting engagement, and navigating the challenges of distributed work environments. As the Senior Director of Human Resources at Fundrise, she draws from her diverse background in high-growth environments to approach HR investments with a keen eye for measuring success and ROI. Sarah's unique blend of experiences allows her to devise innovative, people-centered strategies that promote positive work cultures and drive organizational growth.
Alexis Gonzales-Black
Org Design Practice Lead
AUGUST PUBLIC INC.
Alexis is the Org Design Practice Lead for August Public Inc. She is an expert in org design, change management, and the future of work. In her career, she has worked with some of the world's most admired companies to design and implement new ways of working that are more agile, equitable, and participatory. Before becoming a Partner at August Public, she was the Org Design Lead at Zappos.com and a Design Lead at IDEO. She is also a former high school science teacher and policymaker. Her book, The New School Rules: 6 Vital Practices for Thriving and Responsive Schools, was published by Corwin Press in 2018.
Nichelle Grant
Head Of Diversity, Equity & 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.
Maisha Gray-Diggs
VP of Global Talent Acquisition
EVENTBRITE
Dr. Maisha Gray-Diggs (Dr. MGD) holds the unique distinction of being one of a few engineering leaders who pivoted to ascend the ranks of talent acquisition leadership. Currently, Dr. MGD is the Vice President of Global Talent Acquisition at Eventbrite, Inc. Her engineering, research, development, and human resource experiences combine to deliver real value to organizations on a global scale. Her work is informed by a wealth of experience inside of several Fortune 500 companies across the CPG and tech sectors. She has earned a reputation as a quick study, reflective thought leader, and results-driven change agent.
Kevin Grossman
President
Talent Board
Kevin W. Grossman is the President of Talent Board and the Candidate Experience Awards. Founded in 2011, it’s the first nonprofit research organization focused on the elevation and promotion of a quality candidate experience with industry benchmarks that highlight accountability, fairness and business impact around the world. Kevin has over 24 years of domain expertise in the human resource and talent acquisition industry and related technology marketplace. He’s been a prolific industry writer since 2004 and his first business book on career management titled Tech Job Hunt Handbook was released in December 2012 from Apress. His second book titled Candidate Experience: How to Improve Talent Acquisition to Drive Business Performance was released in 2022 by Kogan Page. Kevin holds a B.A. in Psychology from San Jose State University, is an HCI certified Talent Acquisition Strategist (TAS) and Human Capital Strategist, and has learning certificates from eCornell on HR Analytics and Diversity and Inclusion. Kevin also writes regularly about positive parenting and personal leadership at GetOffTheGround, and he serves on his local Santa Cruz City Schools (SCCS) Board.
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.
Liz Gulliver
Co-Founder
KUNIK
Liz Gulliver is the co-founder of Kunik. She started Kunik to help companies build the opportunities for connection, learning and growth she could never find in her own career. Prior to founding Kunik, she spent 10+ years working in finance. What she discovered is that people & performance come down to opportunities, growth, trust & relationships.That’s the mission Kunik is built to solve. A mom & ocean sport lover, Liz and her family live in Miami.
Israel Gutierrez
Vice President, Talent Acquisition
AXIOS
As Vice President of Talent Acquisition, Israel oversees the recruiting team and larger recruiting strategy efforts at Axios, a news and media company based in D.C. Prior to Axios, Israel has been recruiting in the media and ad tech space for over a decade. Serving as Director of Talent Acquisition at The New York Times, leading Tech, Data and Marketing recruiting efforts and a team of 30+ recruiters. He also led recruiting at Dotdash (now Dotdash Meredith), leading a team of five across all business functions. Israel also served on the board for Latino Tech, a non profit in New York City focused on facilitating networking opportunities for underrepresented talent and big tech. After living in NYC for 14 years, he now resides back home in Texas.
Kofi Gyasi
Co-Founder & CEO
NOTEDSOURCE
Kofi Gyasi is the founder & CEO of NotedSource, a platform that accelerates research and learning collaboration between universities and industry. Prior to founding NotedSource, Kofi worked in academic research and corporate new product development. Kofi holds a BA from Vanderbilt University and an MBA from the University of Michigan.
Sarah J. Haggard
Founder CEO
Tribute
Sarah is an innovative thought leader, product expert and entrepreneur passionate about building a future of work that works for everyone. Prior to founding Tribute, Sarah spent 10 years in Product at Microsoft. She holds a degree in Anthropology from Augustana College and a master’s in business from Seattle University. She lives in Seattle with her husband and two sons.
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.
Deborah Hanus
CEO
Sparrow
Deborah Hanus is the CEO and Co-founder of Sparrow, the first high-tech, high-touch leave management solution to help employers care for their people. By managing federal, state, and local leave compliance, Sparrow ensures employee leave is stress-free for human resources, payroll, compliance, managers, and employees. Before founding Sparrow, Deborah earned multiple engineering degrees from MIT, worked in Cambodia as a Fulbright Scholar, and started a Ph.D. in AI at Harvard. Under her leadership, Sparrow has quickly grown to impact hundreds of thousands of lives.
Sarah Hardy
COO & Co-Founder
BOBBIE
Sarah Hardy is COO and Co-founder of Bobbie, and mom of two to Bea and Clinton. Sarah oversees People, Customer Experience and Operations, and brings 20 years experience in building and scaling operations and organizations from the ground up. Prior to Bobbie, Sarah spent 7 years at Airbnb in leadership roles for People and Customer Operations. As Airbnb’s first mom to return from maternity leave, Sarah wrote their first parental leave policy. A vocal advocate for working parents, Sarah is passionate about building a diverse company and culture that truly stands for parents from the inside, out.
Tim Harrison
CEO
ENJOYABLE PAIN OF GROWTH ACADEMY
Tim Harrison took a leap of faith from a promising corporate career to pursue his mission to inspire and equip people to realize their potential. He is the CEO of EPOG Academy, a non-profit that brings high caliber coaching to low income students. As an Executive Coach Tim helps purpose driven leaders increase their power to drive positive change and is the youngest coach in the world to be distinguished as a “Wisdom Weaver” by the International Coaching Federation. In his talks, Tim mixes a psychological lens on leadership with dynamic performances of rap and spoken word poetry.
Jay Harry
Chief Financial Officer
ENBOARDER
Jay Harry serves as chief financial office of Enboarder. A seasoned financial executive, Jay has more than 25 years of experience leading and managing finance, operations, HR and legal functions for early-stage, high-growth software companies. Before joining Enboarder, Jay served as SVP of Finance at Spredfast, where he oversaw several fundraising rounds and acquisitions and developed the finance function and team from the ground up. He also previously held senior finance roles at several other high-growth technology companies, including Smiley Media and Lombardi Software.
Joel Hellermark
Founder & CEO
SANA
About Joel is the Founder and CEO Sana, a leading artificial intelligence company that has raised over $50M to reimagine learning. An enterprising child, Joel taught himself to code in C at age 13 and founded his first company, a video recommendation technology, at 16. He topped the list of Forbes 30 under 30 for his work on democratizing education and recently The Guardian named Joel in the top 10 of under 35’s changing the world for the better.
Alicia Henriquez
Head of People
LIVEBLOCKS
Alicia Henriquez is the Head of People at Liveblocks which provides developers with a complete toolkit to embed collaborative experiences to any product in just days. Her people-first approach to cultivating a culture that drives business growth is informed by three key experiences: building Learning and Development functions for rapidly scaling organizations in a variety of industries, leading as a founding Spanish teacher at a charter school network, and being a Salvadoran-Canadian mother of two in Brooklyn. Alicia holds a Bachelor's degree from the University of British Columbia and a Masters in Education from Harvard University.
Jonah Herold
Compensation & Analytics Manager
ANDURIL
Jonah Herold is the Analytics and Compensation Manager at Anduril, a cutting-edge defense technology firm that leverages AI, computer vision, sensor fusion, optics, and data analysis to develop game-changing software and hardware solutions for the United States and its allies. Prior to joining Anduril, Jonah honed his skills on the Data and Automation team at SpaceX and the Science and Analytics team at CoreLogic.
Jomayra Herrera
Partner
REACH CAPITAL
Jomayra is a Partner at Reach Capital, a venture firm focused on investing in education and the future of work. She started her career as an operator at an ed tech startup called BloomBoard and eventually started a career in venture capital first at Emerson Collective, Laurene Powell Jobs’ family office. Before Reach Capital, she was at Cowboy Ventures, where she focused on consumer internet and marketplace companies. At Cowboy and Emerson Collective, Jomayra championed investments in Contra, Career Karma, Handshake, Guild Education, and other companies. At Reach, she works closely with companies like Workwhile, Xip, and Outschool.
Greg Hill
Chief People Officer
EXOS
Greg Hill is the Chief People Officer at Exos. By advocating for and supporting the development of Exos team members, he leads people operations, talent acquisition, and culture development. Exos’ culture has been recognized as a certified Great Places to Work and Best Employer in Sports by Front Office Sports. His 30 years of experience includes leading people and workforce strategies for Equinox, SoulCycle, Starwood (Sheraton, St Regis, W Hotels, Westin) and Hyatt Hotels. He is the former chairman of the American Hotel & Lodging Association’s Labor Council and has a B.S. in Human Resources from Niagara University.
Matt Hoffman
Partner
M13
Matt Hoffman is currently a partner and Head of Talent at venture firm M13 Matt advises M13 founders on building healthy and high-performing cultures and best practices for recruiting, developing, compensating and retaining the best talent. He sits on the board of HRtech companies including Northstar and Interviewing.io. M13 was named as one of Builtin’s 2023 Best Places to Work in both LA and NYC. Matt was previously VP, People at cloud infrastructure startup DigitalOcean,. In four years, Matt helped scale the company from under 100 employees to over 500.
Kyle Holm
VP Total Rewards Advisory
Sequoia
Kyle has over 25 years of experience advising growth companies from start-up to IPO and beyond. His experience includes leading the Private Market Practice at Aon as well as founding a consulting firm, Presidio Pay Advisors, that was sold to Hay Group (Korn Ferry). Focusing on the technology and life sciences industries, Kyle has had the unique opportunity to help some of the most well-known founders shape their total rewards programs. A couple of his favorite phrases are “I know a lot about a little” and “Tell clients what they need to hear, not what they want to hear.”
Cody L. Horton
Founder, Managing Director
DIVERSE RECRUITING EXPERTS
Cody Horton, Founder Diverse Recruiting Experts acquired by HireBetter in late 2022. He is a DEI leader who helps clients with diversity, equity and inclusion recruiting leadership expertise. Prior to his entrepreneurial journey, Cody served in a variety of leadership roles in the Navy and recognized global companies. Cody serves on talent focused boards and is the author of the forthcoming book on DEI Strategy being released this spring. He earned a Master’s of Science in Management from the Naval Postgraduate School and maintains his SPHR certification.
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.
Max Hsieh
Co-Founder & CTO
FORMA
Max Hsieh is the co-founder and CTO of Forma, a flexible benefits platform that enables modern companies to design and scale flexible, global benefits programs with options that fit employees’ lives, from health and wellness to lifestyle planning.
Steven Huang
Justice, Equity, Diversity, & Inclusion Officer
MULTIDISCIPLINARY ASSOCIATION FOR PSYCHEDELIC STUDIES
Steven Huang is MAPS’ Justice, Equity, Diversity, Inclusion (JEDI) Officer, leading teams across the organization to address the psychedelic ecosystem’s inequality challenges, as well as its opportunity to provide for collective liberation. Steven has designed and implemented JEDI strategies for organizations across diverse industries, geographies and sizes. At MAPS, Steven is focused on bringing psychedelic healing to all, including marginalized communities, while simultaneously honoring the indigenous cultures from where plant medicines originate. Steven is inspired by the psychedelic community that has paved the way for a queer, Chinese-American, gender non-conforming activist to join forces with the pioneers of psychedelic-assisted therapy.
Marissa Huang
Operating Partner
PLAYGROUND GLOBAL
Marissa Huang is an Operating Partner at Playground Global, a venture capital firm focused on deep tech and life sciences investments. Her previous experience includes executive search, leading talent teams, and managing talent and people operations at tech startups including Asana, Facebook, and Google. Marissa is a builder and enjoys working with early-stage founders and companies; she was the first Head of Talent at Thumbtack, Figma, and Niantic. In her executive coaching practice, Marissa supports startup founders, CEOs, and other senior executives on their journey to becoming stronger leaders who build diverse teams and successful products.
Rhys Hughes
Executive Talent Partner
GV (FORMERLY GOOGLE VENTURES)
As GV’s Executive Talent Partner, Rhys leads executive talent initiatives, advising founders on organizational growth and scale and leveraging a global network. He is a natural connector and has spent his career partnering with global brands. Before GV, Rhys was the Chief Talent Officer for the startup Rubrik, where he helped build an executive team and led talent management, including talent acquisition, people development, and DE&I. Previously, Rhys spent nine years at Adobe, where he ran global recruiting teams. He also spent his earlier years building one of Asia Pacific’s leading recruiting brands through acquisition.
Rev. Maya Jaguar
Cultural Alchemist
X, THE MOONSHOT FACTORY
As X’s Cultural Alchemist and head of Transformation, Maya is the factory’s first Latina Director. She is responsible for leading Culture and Transformation programs for Alphabet’s Moonshot Factory. Prior to joining X, Maya was a Senior Diversity Manager at Google, where she led innovative diversity programs including designing Google's first Immerse Virtual Reality educational series exploring racial identity. Before Google, she founded her own leadership development training practice, Genuine Insights Inc. She is the best selling author of Practical Genius, and the proud single mother to her 17 year old son Lucas.
Christina Jefferson
Director, Diversity Equity & Inclusion
SAN FRANCISCO FORTY NINERS
Christina Jefferson is the Director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) at the San Francisco Forty Niners. Jefferson leads inclusion and diversity efforts across the organization and the teams Internships, Fellowships, and training strategy. Prior to the 49ers, Jefferson was with Sephora spending most of that time leading their diversity and inclusion efforts, including facilitation and creation of diversity trainings for corporate employees, distribution centers, store leadership and other brands within the Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessey group. Jefferson earned her B.S. from the University of Southern Indiana and her master’s in human resource management from Golden Gate University.
Wendy Johansson
Chief Product Experience Officer & Co-Founder
MISALUD HEALTH
Wendy Johansson is a founder and Product Experience leader who has spent her career building equitable teams and products in tech. Wendy has previously co-founded and exited Wizeline, built a diverse and inclusive UX Apprentice program at Amazon, and led a global team of designers as Global VP at Publicis Sapient. In her free time, Wendy invests in startups in LatAm and mentors women and POC in tech. She is currently the co-founder and Chief Product Experience Officer of MiSalud Health, a healthtech company with a mission to close the health equity gap for Hispanics in the United States.
Karis Jones
VP, People & Culture
SKIMS
Karis Jones currently serves as Vice President of People & Culture at SKIMS. Karis is a native Angelino and grew up in South Central LA. After high school, she moved to Georgia to attend the HBCU Clark Atlanta University. During college, she began to explore her love for fashion, attending design school and launching a clothing brand. After earning an MBA in 2010, Karis returned to Los Angeles to pursue a career in human resources. By building her own consulting firm and working with newly developing brands, she was able to combine her skills in business with her love of fashion. Karis is a constant learner with a degree in hypnotherapy and enjoys studying human behavior and communication styles. Her current focus at SKIMS is recruiting and nurturing top talent, developing an innovative culture, and fostering equity in the workplace by developing programs and partnerships that focus on increasing access for black and brown people in the fashion apparel business.
S. Mitra Kalita
CEO of URL Media And Publisher
EPICENTER-NYC
S. Mitra Kalita is a veteran journalist, media executive, prolific commentator and author of two books. In 2020 she launched Epicenter-NYC, a newsletter to help New Yorkers get through the pandemic. Mitra has also recently co-founded a new media company called URL Media, a network of Black and Brown owned media organizations that share content, distribution, and revenues to increase their long-term sustainability. She's on the board of the Philadelphia Inquirer and writes a weekly column for TIME Magazine and Charter. Mitra was most recently SVP at CNN Digital, overseeing the national news, breaking news, programming, opinion, and features teams.
Kesavan Kanchi Kandadai
Co-Founder & CEO
ISHIELD.AI
Kesavan is the Co-Founder and CEO of ishield.ai - AI to help companies create bias-free communications. He is an experienced tech professional, serial entrepreneur, and angel investor. He helped launch Amazon Prime Video in India and was a founding member & country head for Symphony Talent. As a father to twin children, he’s witnessed how everyone’s lives have moved online for study and work — and his mission, through ishield.ai, is to make those online spaces safe, inclusive, and more human for future generations. Kesavan holds a postgraduate degree in applied statistics and computer science from IIT Bombay.
Philip N Kaplan
Executive Chairman
VELOCITY ESPORTS, INC.
Philip N. Kaplan currently serves as President & co-CEO of Artemis Strategic Investment Corporation and as executive chairman of Velocity Esports, Inc. He has served as a C-Level officer of four NASDAQ-listed companies and on three NASDAQ-listed company boards. Kaplan is a pioneering executive in SaaS and digital media, with nearly 30 years of expertise. He has achieved four successful exits from both public and private companies. He leads with strategy and helps companies achieve rapid growth. Over the course of his career, Kaplan has directed efforts surrounding mergers, acquisitions, and public and private financings.
Beth Karlsson
Partner & CHRO
LIGHTSPEED VENTURE PARTNERS
Beth Karlsson is an HR executive with 20+ years of HR leadership experience, primarily within top-branded global organizations such as Apple and Pinterest. Beth currently serves as the Partner of People and Culture at Lightspeed Venture Partners, leading the internal HR team and firm wide HR operations, as well as providing consultation across the Lightspeed portfolio on a range of HR topics and CHRO mentorship. Prior to Lightspeed, Beth led HR teams at Pinterest for over four years, including leadership of the Pinterest IPO in 2019. She joined Pinterest after 12+ years in leadership roles across Apple, first within the scaling retail organization and then as a member of Apple’s Executive HR Team overseeing company wide performance and talent management. Beth lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her husband, two children and a new puppy keeping them all on their toes.
Kian Katanforoosh
CEO
WORKERA.AI
Kian Katanforoosh is the CEO and co-founder of Workera.ai, the skills intelligence platform redefining how enterprises understand, develop, and mobilize talent. Katanforoosh's idea for Workera grew out of his Stanford graduate work in artificial intelligence and his previous work co-founding deeplearning.ai with Andrew Ng. Outside of Workera, Kian is a lecturer at Stanford University, where he teaches Deep Learning in the Computer Science department and has been acknowledged for his teaching excellence by Stanford.
Jeffrey Katzenberg
Founder & Managing Partner
WNDRCO
Jeffrey is an entrepreneur and entertainment industry executive who has reshaped the media landscape throughout his career. Today, he is a Founding Partner at WndrCo, an investment company focused on supporting founders who are building category-defining companies. Jeffrey works closely with WndrCo portfolio companies Sparrow, Aura, Airtable, Netomi, and Twingate on their enterprise GTM strategy. Prior to WndrCo, Jeffrey co-founded DreamWorks SKG, serving as CEO of DreamWorks Animation, which he grew into the world’s largest animation studio. Before founding DreamWorks, Jeffrey was Chairman of The Walt Disney Studios, and previously served as President of Production at Paramount Studios.
Sargun Kaur
Chief Executive Officer
& Co-Founder
BYTEBOARD
Sargun Kaur is the CEO and Co-Founder of Byteboard, a fully-remote technical interview designed to be more effective, efficient, and equitable. Byteboard helps companies hire more confidently by evaluating candidates for skills engineers actually need to be successful. Sargun holds a B.S. in Computer Science from the University of California, Berkeley. Prior to founding Byteboard, Sargun worked as a Software Engineer at Google on Photos and Maps. When not coding or busy founding a company, she challenges her design skills and runs an online stationery company.
Alex Kehayias
Founder & CEO
MOSEY
Founder of Mosey, remote work futurist. Working from home with my wife and dogs Pancakes and Noodle.
Natasha Kehimkar
CEO
Malida Advisors
Natasha Kehimkar is a strategic advisor and executive coach to global organizations. As CEO and founder of Malida Advisors, she and her team help companies build resilient organizations by investing in leaders, teams, and culture, so they can meet and exceed their goals. Natasha brings over two decades of experience leading global human resources, talent, and DEIB in multiple industries, and she serves in board and advisory roles for private companies and nonprofits. She has a BA in Sociology, a Master's degree in HR and Labor Relations, and both executive coaching and team coaching accreditations.
Mike Keizur
Co-Founder
THE PEER 150
Mike Keizur is the Co-Founder of The PEER 150, a private, invitation only networking and thought leadership organization supporting C-Suite and senior level executives in various professions, including Human Resources, Technology, Marketing and Legal. Mike has more than 15 years of experience in the executive event business, developing unique and innovative programs with DMG (Daily Mail) and Evanta. Prior to a career in the events business, served as VP of Infrastructure and Architecture at Nike, Inc. in Portland, Oregon, where he provided back-end services and project leadership in a $400M SAP BW implementation.
Kate Kellogg
COO EA Studios
ELECTRONIC ARTS
Kate Kellogg is the Chief Operating Officer for EA Studios where she leads teams and initiatives that support our world-class creatives and developers. EA Studios is responsible for bringing some of the most beloved game franchises in the world to life. Previously, Kate served as the Head of Operations for Amazon Game Studios where she led their games division operations, grew the studio teams, and drove creation of tech and commerce capabilities for their games. Prior to that, Kate held several leadership positions at 2K Games, working across the company’s franchises to build a publishing structure to match their needs.
Jessica Kim
CEO & Co-Founder
IANACARE
Jessica Kim is co-founder/CEO of ianacare, on a mission to encourage, empower, & equip family caregivers after her experience caring for her mom with pancreatic cancer. She is a 3x startup founder, honored as Crain’s Top 40 under 40, Forbes Next 1000, and Woman in Digital Health Award 2020, served as the inaugural EIR & Presidential Council advisor at Brown University, & Venture Partner at Praxis Labs. She graduated from Brown University & holds an MBA from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management.
Jennifer Kim
CEO & Founder
WORKFLOW
Jennifer Kim is the CEO/Founder of Workflow, a company that trains the next generation of startup leaders on all things Talent and People Ops. Through its flagship program, the HireEd Accelerator, Jen and her team have taught hundreds of alumni to make hiring a competitive advantage. Previously, Jen was Head of People at Lever, the hiring software company. She is also a Venture Partner at Impressionism Capital, and is known for her hot takes on tech culture at @jenistyping.
Balbina Knight
VP, People & Culture
THRIVE DIGITAL
Balbina Knight is a people experience architect and activist in continuing to build a better world of work, and passionate about leading these efforts from the heart. She's spent the last 13+ years working in technology with varying marketing agencies, from managing strategy to execution of growth marketing campaigns for some of the world's most exciting brands, and leading top marketing teams in North America, to transforming her focus and efforts to fusing together business strategy with people strategy for organizational growth and resilience. Through innovation, compassion, and humanity she helps workplaces evolve with their people in a changing world.
Donald Knight
Chief People Officer
GREENHOUSE
Donald Knight is the CPO at Greenhouse Software. He leads with a people-first mentality hoping to unlock the potential of Greenhouse talent globally. With a laser focus on the connection between people and the processes that serve them, Donald and his team create proximity by building bridges focusing on enhanced experiences that nurture culture and develop people. He is responsible for providing global strategy and leadership in developing, overseeing, and administering people programs. Before Greenhouse, Donald served as Senior Vice President of Global Talent for Edelman, where he helped shape the HR brand as a proactive, insightful, and collaborative solution provider.
Patrick Koeller
Chief Technology Officer
WHEN INSURANCE
Pat Koeller is the Chief Technology Officer of When, a novel financial wellness benefit and technology platform empowering and enabling employees to sustain their health insurance in times of transition. Pat oversees all of When's technology and the architect behind When's innovative offboarding platform known as Jamie. Prior to When, Pat has led technology teams for multiple startups including his most recent company ApartmentJet which was acquired by Expedia Group.
Lizzy Kolar
Co-Founder & CEO
SCOPE ZERO
Scope Zero is the creator of the Carbon Savings Account™ (CSA). Think health savings account, but for home technology and personal transportation upgrades. The CSA is a financial wellness benefit for employees and a corporate sustainability strategy for employers. Employees use CSA funds for eligible home technology and personal transportation upgrades that reduce their utility bills and fuel spend. The CSA lowers the upfront costs of upgrades in two ways: employer matches and referral discounts from partner vendors within the CSA marketplace ecosystem. The CSA-enabled carbon reductions contribute to employers’ sustainability goals by reducing work-from-home and commute emissions.
Shane Kovalsky
Co-Founder & CEO
MYSTERY
Shane founded Mystery with a mission to make people as happy as they can possibly be at work. Since 2020, hundreds of startups and Fortune 500 companies have used Mystery’s platform to connect thousands of teams globally. This year, Forbes recognized Shane as a “30 Under 30” leader in the Enterprise Technology category.
Rajamma Krishnamurthy
Sr. Director, HR Digital Strategy
MICROSOFT
With more than 22 years of experience in HR technology, she is currently a Product leader and the Strategy Lead for HR Technology at Microsoft. She has successfully led global teams on various transformational projects in digital HR. She is a member of Innovation and Mentoring Boards for companies creating products in HR Tech and an adjunct faculty at NYU teaching a Master’s level course on HR Digital. An ardent learner, her latest area of passion is in the work related to responsible use of technology in HR applications.
Eric Kroll
Venture Partner & LP
INDICATOR VENTURES
Eric Kroll is a venture partner at Indicator Ventures (early stage, digital efficiency), VP/LP in other funds, & angel investor. He invests in HR Tech SaaS, eg, productivity, coaching, recruiting, workplace safety, secure communications. He advises on growth strategy, BD/partnerships, marketing, loyalty/experience, team building. He previously co-founded Medaptive Health, Venture Catalyst, & Unleashed Culture/Talent; worked at AmEx, eBay, & multiple companies acquired by Fortune 500s; is a guest speaker/pitch judge/panelist/mentor (to TechStars, NYU, Cornell, LatAm, etc), & on the board of BensFriends.org (rare disease nonprofit).
Stacey La Torrre
Head of Talent Management & Development
Nextdoor
Stacey is a progressive People practitioner and certified leadership coach with deep experience scaling hyper-growth, global companies. Prior to joining Nextdoor (KIND) as Head of Talent Management and Development, Stacey was the founder of a people consulting and coaching practice and she previously led the People function at NextRoll and OpenTable (BKNG). Stacey is also a founding Advisor of PeopleTech Partners, a group of senior People leaders that advise early stage people tech companies. Stacey is passionate about building trusted and collaborative business partnerships that support positive growth and change, and she drives programs and results that support an exceptional employee experience.
Clarence Lal
Global Head of Talent Acquisition
PLANET LABS
Clarence oversees the global recruiting team and strategy at Planet Labs. An innovative agile aerospace company that recently went public and has been in hyper growth. Enabling them to find, engage, and hire the change makers that makes Planet’s mission possible. He has been in the recruiting space for 7 years, focusing on scaling mission oriented organizations. He is also a member of the Customer Advisory Board for Greenhouse Software.
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.
Kurt Landon
Enspira Inc.
FOUNDER & CEO
Kurt is the Founder & CEO of Enspira and has over 27 years of HR and business experience. He founded and operated three successful companies and held senior-level roles with Accenture, Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson, Expedia, and Biogen. Kurt has lived and worked in 16 cities, and speaks five languages. He holds an undergraduate degree in Italian Language & International Economics from Washington University and an advanced degree in Global HR Leadership from Rutgers University. Kurt is a guest HR lecturer at Northwestern University and the Université Catholique de Louvain. Kurt lives in Dallas, Texas, with his husband, Andrew and dog, Francesca.
George LaRocque
Founder & Principal Analyst
WORKTECH
George LaRocque, Founder and Principal Analyst of WorkTech (1worktech.com) has more than 25 years in the HR technology industry. He’s an HR leader and tech executive turned market analyst and advisor focused on users and developers of HR and talent technology. He leads the WorkTech (1worktech.com) research and reports on workforce trends and HR tech VC investment. He is also a Founding Partner of the Impact WorkTech Accelerator, launching the next generation of innovative global work and HR technology.
Nikki Lasley
Director, Diversity, Equity & Inclusion + Social Impact
AMPLITUDE
Nikki Lasley is Head of Diversity Equity and Inclusion + Impact at Amplitude where she focuses on creating an inclusive culture through recruiting, learning, and employee engagement. She previously served as Diversity Sr. Program Officer, VP for Bank of the West. Nikki is a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Incorporated, an international service organization. She has also served on several non-profit organization boards, including the Child Care Coordinating Council and Foundation for a College Education.Nikki earned a Bachelor’s degree in Political Theory from University of California, Santa Cruz, and a Master’s degree in Education Policy and Management from the University of Connecticut.
Charles Lattimer
Chief Health & Wellness Officer
FINFIT
Charles Lattimer is the Chief Health and Wellness Officer for FinFit, a large fintech company that provides financial wellness products and services serving millions of lives in the United States. He is a prolific speaker, having keynoted and spoken at 100s of events and is regularly seen on CNBC, MarketWatch, HR Daily, BenefitsPRO, and other national media outlets. Charles is the former CEO of the Cooperative Leadership Institute (VTCLI) founded while on faculty at Virginia Tech. He also co-authored "Management: A Balanced Approach for the 21st Century," published by Wiley and Sons (2012).
Diann Lawson
Director, Social Impact
SEQUOIA
Diann is a social impact professional with over 15 years of success and experience as a social impact leader, strategist, advisor, and participant. She also has more than 15 years of marketing and brand management experience at leading technology and financial services companies. Diann leads the social impact program at Sequoia, where she works to build a connected community for social good by engaging and empowering our network of team members, clients (and their employees), and partners to give back to communities in need. In her free time, Diann enjoys skiing, traveling, and family time.
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.
Pearl Lee
Head of People Operations
BREX
Pearl Lee is a business-minded HR leader with over 13 years of experience in talent strategy, employee engagement, and change management. She focuses on creating and building an HR organization that is embedded in and supports company strategy and drives a kind, positive, supportive, and equitable global employee experience. Currently, Pearl leads Global People Operations at Brex; prior to Brex, Pearl was a management consultant, helping clients reimagine their talent strategy and drive business initiatives from a people perspective.
Mark Levy
EX Advisor
Mark is a globally minded Employee Experience Leader who has chosen to work for big hearted companies and focus on how he and his team can unleash the talents and passions of a company’s employees. Previously, he worked with Best Buy, Levi Strauss & Company and Gap Inc.. Mark also spent two years living and working in Paris, France for Thomson/Technicolor. Mark was the pioneer of designing the Employee Experience at Airbnb, which has since created significant changes in the way organizations globally are looking at expanding the HR function to focus on the entire employee journey.
Sanja Licina, PhD
President
QUESTIONPRO WORKFORCE
Sanja is the President of QuestionPro Workforce, where she collaborates with organizations globally to help them build a stronger relationship with their employees and to create a culture that workers love to be a part of, making it a win-win both for the people and the business. Before joining QuestionPro, she was the Head of the Future of Organizations Studio at Globant, and led several businesses at CareerBuilder, managing international teams while living in Chicago, London, and Buenos Aires. Sanja holds a PhD in Industrial and Organizational Psychology from DePaul University and an executive MBA from Kellogg School of Management.
Molly Lindsay
Chief People Officer
DUOLINGO
Duolingo’s Strategy & Business Operations function. Prior to Duolingo, she led learning content development at several education technology companies, and served as a consultant at McKinsey & Company. Molly holds a B.A. in History from Yale University and an M.B.A. from the Stanford Graduate School of Business.
Magnus Liungman
CEO & Founder
NUDGELABS
Magnus Liungman is the Founder and CEO of NudgeLabs, a company that specializes in helping global, high-knowledge companies achieve sustainable high-performance and maximize employee retention through the use of wearable data, behavior science, and online coaching. Magnus has a background in health from McKinsey & Co. and is also the former Founder and CEO of Doctrin, a well-known European digital health scale-up. Magnus is a strong believer in the values of authenticity and purpose and is grateful to spend time with his wife, two-year-old daughter, and furry friend, Penny.
Sunaina Lobo
Chief People Officer
MARQETA
Suni formerly led People teams at Navis, Cisco, SVB and ANZ Bank and brings a wealth of human resources experience to Marqeta. She leads Marqeta’s People and Culture function globally to support the company’s growth and culture of its team of 1,000+ employees. Prior to Marqeta, Suni held the Chief People Officer role at Navis, supporting employees in 24 countries and ahead of the successful sale of the company in 2021.
Quashan Lockett
Chief People & Inclusion Officer
PAC-12 CONFERENCE
Quashan is an award-winning executive and entrepreneur with more than 17 years of experience building high-performance, human-centered organizations across sports, media, entertainment, and hospitality. Leaders Sports Awards named Quashan one of the top leaders in sport under 40, recognizing his proven success in delivering impactful human capital management, organization development, and business transformation strategies and solutions to organizations, teams, and stakeholders. He is a champion for equity, inclusion , and social justice and leads with purpose as the first-ever Chief People and Inclusion Officer for the Pac-12 and as Founder of Color of Sports.
Alex Lofton
President & Co-Founder
LANDED
Alex Lofton is president and co-founder of Landed, a mission-driven fintech working to increase access to homeownership by implementing shared appreciation down payment programs for a variety of organizations. Alex got his start in real estate as a developer at Forest City and previously served in leadership roles at numerous social enterprises and technology startups in D.C., London and San Francisco. He managed hundreds of staff as part of then-Senator Barack Obama's field team and served as a founding regional director of Obama for America. Alex holds a B.A. from Northwestern University and an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business.
Preeti Lokam
Head of People Analytics
KLAVIYO
Preeti Lokam is the head of people analytics at Klaviyo, where she leads a team of data analysts and scientists to build a global people analytics function. Preeti has spent her career as a global leader, helping organizations build a culture that seamlessly integrates people data and employees’ voices, enabling her to tell remarkable stories. Most notably, Preeti has led hundreds of HR business partners through people analytics adoption and was able to identify over 5 million dollars in cost savings. Preeti holds a Masters in Human Resources Management from Rutgers University. She is currently pursuing her Executive MBA from Wharton.
Jennifer Longnion
Founder & Chief Organization Officer
SEE & FREE CONSULTING
Affectionately referred to as the “Org Whisperer,” Jennifer “Jenn” Longnion, the founder and CEO of See & Free Consulting leverages her expertise to help build and scale competitive capabilities - people, process, and technology - so organizations may accelerate their growth. Jenn spent most of her 25-year career as an Organization Development leader in multiple organizations, from academia to large Corporations, including Best Buy, Motorola, and The Coca-Cola Company. In the last several years, she was an executive at unicorn fast-growth companies, first Dollar Shave Club, Inc as COO and as Chief Impact Officer at Silicon-Valley based Flexport, Inc.
Grin Lord
CEO & Founder
MPATHIC
Grin Lord is a licensed clinical psychologist and founder and CEO of mpathic. Grin and her team have designed an AI-powered conversation engine that enhances HR SaaS platforms with empathy to increase trust, loyalty, and retention. Grin also founded and leads Therapists in Tech, a collaborative that offers support to 3,000+ clinicians working together to define the digital mental health revolution. She previously worked as Chief Clinical Officer of Lyssn.io, Clinical Product Psychologist at Youper.ai, and Research Scientist at the University of Washington, studying the key ingredients in conversation that make therapy effective and promote change.
Kevin Lowell
Executive Vice President, Chief People Officer & Head of Communications
USCELLULAR
As executive vice president – chief people officer and head of communications, Kevin leads the HR organization and is responsible for delivering integrated human resources solutions that directly enable the achievement of UScellular’s strategic objectives. Prior, he served as SVP of IT. He is an advisory board member of Building Cyber Security, and an active member of ChicagoCIO. Prior to UScellular, Kevin held leadership positions for Sprint PCS. He holds a bachelor’s degree in English Literature from the University of California, Los Angeles, a master’s degree in Human and Organization Development and a doctorate in Organizational Development and Change from Fielding University.
Kyle Lui
General Partner
BLING CAPITAL
Kyle is a General Partner at Bling Capital where he focuses on seed investments across B2B Software including Future of Work. Bling Capital is a seed stage fund that partners with founders to find and scale product market fit. Kyle was the co-founder & CE of ChoicePass (acquired by Salesforce). At Salesforce, Kyle served as Director of Product Management for Work.com. Kyle was previously a partner at DCM and his investments include DocSend (acq. by Dropbox), TravelBank (acq by US Bancorp), Wrike (acq by Citrix) and Matterport (MTTR). Kyle is a graduate of UC Berkeley and Harvard Business School.
Joris Luijke
CEO & Co-Founder
PYN
Joris Luijke is the Co-founder and Co-CEO of Pyn. He was previously the People Chief at Atlassian, Squarespace, and Typeform. He's now building the tools he wished he had when running HR.
Stela Lupushor
Chief Reframer
Reframe.Work
Stela Lupushor is a thought leader, speaker, educator and futurist on a mission to humanize the workplace. She is a Sr.Fellow with The Conference Board, consults Reframe.Work Inc. clients on inclusive, digital and data driven workplace experience, and teaches at NYU the next generation of HR leaders. Previously Stela transformed the workplace practices at Fidelity Investments, TIAA, IBM, Price Waterhouse and PwC Consulting and their clients. She is the co-author of "Humanizing Human Capital: Invest in Your People for Optimal Business Returns” and "Humans At Work: The Art and Practice of Creating the Hybrid Workplace”.
Katie Lynch
Founder & CEO
APIARY LIFE
Katie Lynch is a former attorney and the Founder and CEO of Apiary Life. Prior to launching Apiary, Katie practiced as a family lawyer in London at one of the United Kingdom's leading family law firms. Katie is on a mission to revolutionize the support systems in place in our personal lives, so that we may continue to thrive in our professional ones.
Amber Madison
Co-Founder
PEOPLISM
Amber is the Co-Founder of Peoplism, a leading DEI consulting firm known for achieving impact. Peoplism drives year-over-year increases in diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging. People leaders at industry-defining organizations trust Peoplism to create best-in-class company cultures that attract and retain top talent.
Paige Maisonet
Head of People
NEWFRONT
As Head of People, Paige Maisonet (SHRM-CP) focuses on building Newfront’s award-winning, employee-led culture by implementing innovations that enhance organizational and leadership development. She founded the company’s Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Council and continues to lead belonging and inclusion efforts for both the company and the wider insurance industry. She also co-founded BLACKfront, the company’s Black employee resource group. Paige joined Newfront in 2015 and now leads the company’s efforts to cultivate talent and create a more equitable and inclusive workplace. She has more than 12 years of experience in Human Resources and holds a bachelor’s degree from Northern Kentucky University.
Meghna Majmudar
Head of Executive & Leadership Engagement
READYSET
Meghna brings over 20 years of experience as a strategy consultant and executive coach across diverse industries. Using her training as an anthropologist, strategist, and transformational Neuro-Linguistic Programming practitioner, she listens to what is being said between the lines and reframes complex challenges for quick action. Meghna has a BA magna cum laude from Harvard University, an MPH from the University of Cape Town, and an MBA from UC Berkeley's Haas School of Business.
Madleine Makori, PharmD, MSL-BC
Sr. Medical Science Liaison
BIGHEALTH
Madleine (Maddy) Makori is a Sr. Medical Science Liaison at Big Health, a start-up company focused on digital therapeutics as non-drug alternatives for mental health. She has an extensive professional background in dermatology and is passionate about patient-reported outcomes (PROs), quality of life (QOL) data, and diversity in clinical trials. She graduated from MCPHS University with her Doctor of Pharmacy degree.
Felicia Malapit
VP, People
POSTAL
Felicia Malapit is the VP of People for Postal, the leading global offline engagement platform. She has a diverse background in leading people operations for industries such as eCommerce, clean energy, and SaaS. Using a People Centric approach, she’s successfully helped companies scale, implemented sustainable best practices across all areas of the business and built strong company cultures. Felicia is passionate about creating winning employee experiences and meaningful ways of working for a company's most valuable asset: its people.
Tara Malone
Sr. Director, Corporate Human Resources
DASSAULT FALCON JET CORP.
Strategic Human Resources Executive with a passion for growing talent and establishing incredible places to work and thrive. A dynamic leader with proven experience in start-up, business turn-around, and high-growth environments. Specialties: HR Strategy, Planning & Execution, Talent Acquisition & Management, Employee Engagement, M&A due diligence and integration, Organizational Development & Succession Planning Performance Management, Total Rewards, Compensation & Benefits and HRIS/Payroll Systems Implementation.
Georgios Markakis
Managing Partner
VENERO CAPITAL ADVISORS
With more than 20 years of experience, including at Deutsche Bank, Morgan Stanley, KPMG and Merrill Lynch, Georgios has advised clients on over $50 billion worth of M&A (buy-side, sell-side, defence), equity financing / IPOs and debt financing transactions. As Managing Partner at Venero Capital Advisors, Georgios is one of the best-connected investment bankers in HR Tech, maintaining deep sector insights and trusted, longstanding relationships with HR Technology entrepreneurs and investors globally. More HR Tech companies trust Venero to deliver a successful M&A transaction than any other investment bank.
Chelsea Martens
Head of Total Global Rewards
JUMIO
Chelsea has over 15 years of experience developing and managing various types of compensation programs. Including job architectures, base pay structures, performance and sales incentive plan designs, short and long-term cash incentive, executive compensation, and equity plans. Her industry experience includes telecommunications, local government, high-tech, and manufacturing. In each location, she was charged with advising local management teams of all kinds, Executive C Suite leadership, Board of Directors, Compensation Committees, and City Council. Chelsea holds her Bachelor’s in Business Management, with a minor in Economics, and is a Certified Compensation Professional (CCP) through WorldatWork.
Will Martin-Gill
Vice President of Product & Member Experience
BLUE SHIELD OF CALIFORNIA
Will Martin-Gill manages product strategy, development, and customer experience for Blue Shield of California. His team has led the design, development and go-to-market of Blue Shield’s virtual-first product Virtual Blue. Previously, Will served as Chief Product Officer and Chief Strategy and Development Officer at Skai, led Marketing and Corporate Strategy groups at eBay, and was part of the team that conceived and launched Orbitz.com at the Boston Consulting Group. Will has a BS in Systems Engineering from the University of Virginia and MBA from the Harvard Business School.
Liza Mash Levin
CEO
GABLE
Before founding Gable, Liza held various engineering and product management roles at Microsoft and served as a captain in the Israeli intelligence unit (8200). She holds a dual degree in Computer Science and Electrical Engineering from Tel Aviv University and an MBA from the Stanford GSB.
Arthur Matuszewski
Venture Partner
SHINE CAPITAL
Arthur is an operator and advisor supporting PE/VC funds and companies across strategy and people — figuring out what organizations need to scale and aligning capital and human capital resources to deliver against that. Prior, Arthur led Better (~300-8K+) and Wayfair (~4k-20k+) through hypergrowth, enabling organizational effectiveness across biz ops, talent, and people.
Jung-Kyu McCann
Chief Legal Officer
GREENHOUSE SOFTWARE
Jung serves as the Chief Legal Officer of Greenhouse, where she manages all corporate, commercial, IP, privacy, HR, and litigation matters. Prior to Greenhouse, she served as Chief Legal Officer at another private SaaS company and in various legal roles at Apple and Broadcom. She started her legal career at Shearman & Sterling in New York. Jung serves on the Board of Directors of the Society for Corporate Governance and the Advisory Council for the Women’s General Counsel Network. She received her BA from Cornell University and her JD from Fordham University School of Law.
Cara McCarty
CEO
BETTERLEAVE BEREAVEMENT
Cara McCarty is the Founder & CEO at Betterleave Bereavement, the leading bereavement benefits provider built to support employees as they navigate the complex bereavement landscape. Prior to Betterleave, she co-founded Code Pilot (acquired by AngelList), one of the fastest growing training & recruitment platforms for developers. Cara loves to partner with founders and leaders to support complex organizational and high-growth people initiatives for successful outcomes--including WorldFirst, Acquisition and RetailMeNot, IPO. Cara is also an Advisor for the Founder Institute, Partner at The Fund Austin, and a member of the Forbes HR Council.
Matt McFarlane
Director of People Experience
OYSTER
Matt McFarlane is the Director of People Experience at Oyster HR, a global employment platform that makes it possible for companies everywhere to hire talent anywhere. Matt thrives on building first-rate workplaces and cultures, based on a foundation of people-centricity and operational excellence. He is experienced working across complex, globally distributed environments.
Lisa McGill
Board Advisor & Investor, Former CHRO
CROWDSTRIKE
Lisa is an expert in board effectiveness, risk mitigation, next-gen human firewalls, and shaping talent strategies that drive business growth and scale through digital transformation resulting in productive Fortune Magazine Top 100 award-winning cultures. Her MBA is from Pepperdine Graziado School of Business & Management and her business and financial acumen evolved primarily through M&A and IPO experiences. She is a thought leader in creating security-minded cultures, advancing DEI, and aligning incentive strategies. Lisa is an advisory board member and investor of SemperVirens VC and formerly CHRO at CrowdStrike, Silver Peak, Fortinet, Brocade, and Foundry Networks, Inc.
Taylor McLemore
Managing Director
TECHSTARS
Taylor is a venture builder, scale operator, community connector, and investor. He is the Managing Director of the Techstars Workforce Development Accelerator.
Rilwan Meeran
Head of Impact Investing
AMERICAN STUDENT ASSISTANCE
Rilwan is the Head of ASA’s Impact program, which focuses on investing in funds and private companies. Previously, Rilwan was the Head of Impact investing at MassMutual. Prior to MassMutual, he was a Managing Director for Flat World Partners and Swicorp. Rilwan started his career as an investment banking analyst at UBS. He holds a BBA in Finance from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and has an MBA from the University of Chicago. He has been profiled in a case study on private equity and is a frequent lecturer in MBA programs on investing with a focus on Impact.
Michael Merola
VP Employee Experience
SHOPIFY
Michael Merola is currently the VP of Employee Experience at Shopify, where his team has led an innovative shift from an office-based culture, to a digital-first approach punctuated by unique IRL moments. Prior to joining Shopify, Michael spent almost 7 years at Airbnb leading their unique office spaces and experiences. Although he is a native to the SF Bay Area, Michael spent three years based in Dubai where he worked throughout the Middle East, Africa, and Asia.
Emily Mikailli
Chief People Officer
SIGNIFYD
Emily was born and raised in the heart of Silicon Valley. She graduated from Duke University in 2004 and Santa Clara School of Law in 2010. After a brief stint as an attorney, she transitioned into HR and has been working at local tech companies ever since, including Google, SurveyMonkey, which more than doubled in size during her tenure, and her current company, Signifyd, where she has led all things People and Culture since 2016. At Signifyd, she has been responsible for building, evolving and scaling a business-driven, proactive, human-centric HR and Talent Acquisition strategy across their entire global workforce as it has grown more than 5X in employee count and over 20X in ARR. Emily also advises HR leaders and founders at early stage companies on the full gamut of people-related issues to support them as they grow and scale. She is an exercise fanatic and lives in Los Gatos with her two children (4 and 11) and their toy poodle, Teddy.
RJ Milnor
Founder & CEO
PEOPLE ANALYTICS PARTNERS
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.
Ariana Moon
Sr. Director, Talent Planning & Acquisition
GREENHOUSE
Ariana is the Sr. Director of Talent Planning & Acquisition at Greenhouse and partners with Greenhouse’s executive team and board to scale predictive hiring and talent planning practices. She’s proud to lead a team that has helped the company 10x in headcount across multiple new geographies and is passionate about the impact of equitable and inclusive hiring. Prior to Greenhouse, Ariana has worked on people-focused teams in various industries, including non-profit, public relations and FinTech. Outside of work, she loves exploring intentional movement through yoga, salsa dancing and rock climbing, and ping pongs between two cities she calls home: New York and Las Vegas.
Andrea Morales
Vice President, People Rewards, Data & Operations
AFFIRM
Andrea Morales is currently the Vice President, People Rewards, Data and Operations at Affirm. During the pandemic, Affirm re-branded sick days to “health days” to ensure employees could utilize time off to care for a number of different issues beyond the scope of a typical “sick day”, including mental health needs. Additionally, Affirm implemented a “Life Happens Leave” to cover a number of purposes, including humanitarian crises. In her personal life, she is a native Californian, married with three amazing kids, and coaches a competitive girls softball team.
Cecile Moulard
Co-Founder & CEO
MIXR
Cecile is the Founder & CEO of MixR, the employee app that changes the way people socialize and belong at work. Prior to founding MixR, Cecile held many widely regarded positions and lead ventures of her own - including the launch of Amazon’s French subsidiary. In addition, Cecile has served as a board member for both public and private organizations - such as AXA Group, Decathlon or Numberly. She is an Eisenhower Fellow, a Remarque Fellow and a Young Leader Fellow. Her other passions are Humans, the meaning of Life, reading, Kundalini yoga and meditation.
Zaydoon Munir
CEO & Co-Founder
RAINYDAYPAL
A 3x FinTech entrepreneur and recognized thought leader in Consumer Credit, Financial Inclusion and Financial Health. Most recently, founded RevolutionCredit: an award-winning behavioral data & analytics platform for consumer credit. Prior to RevolutionCredit he served as Global Chief Data Officer at Experian, led the turnaround of eFinance, and was part of the founding team of the first online private bank: Scudder Weisel Capital. He also served on The Innovation Board of The Royal Mail Group in London, UK. Zaydoon started his career as C/C++ developer. He has been interviewed and quoted by Fast Company, the Wall Street Journal, McKinsey & Co Reports, Investor Business Daily, Business Week, eCompany, and Univision Networks. Headed content development and served as advisor for numerous industry conferences and studies.
Cher Murphy
Managing Director
CRA/ADMIRED LEADERSHIP
Cher Murphy is an anthropologist, an OD practitioner, and a reticulist. As a trusted advisor to boards and executive management teams, Cher builds talent strategies, leads executive searches, and assesses organizational effectiveness to drive growth and innovation. Her expertise is advising organizations that are scaling or have reached an inflection point, where a talent strategy is required to thrive in uncertainty and the quickening pace of change. She is a member of Marshall Goldsmith’s 100 Coaches and is an Adjunct Professor at the Graziadio School of Business and Management at Pepperdine University.
David Isaac Murray
Co-Founder & President
CONFIRM
David Isaac Murray (Cofounder & President, Confirm) is an entrepreneur, computer scientist, and product designer based in Silicon Valley. Originally a product manager at Google from 2006-2008, he received the Google Founders Award and EMG Award for his product work on Gmail. He joined Doctor.com (acq. Press Ganey, 2020) through the sale of his company ReferBright in 2014. He cofounded Confirm in 2019 with Joshua Merrill, former CPO at Carta. He holds a B.S. in Computer Science and HCI from Carnegie Mellon and an M.S. in Computer Science (HCI focus) from Stanford.
Bart Myers
CEO & Founder
COUNTABLE
Bart is the founder and CEO of Countable, a Community-as-a-Service platform for engaging stakeholders around brand purpose and social impact programs. Brands such as Levi’s, Uber, PG&E, DoorDash, and more use Countable’s proven white-label technology and deep expertise in impact campaigning, coalition-building, and digital organizing to drive measurable, world-changing outcomes. A long-time digital media executive and advisor to civic engagement organizations, Bart founded and built a number of startups including SideReel (acquired by Tivo), and is a Strategic Advisor for the Center for Responsible Leadership.
Madan Nagaldinne
Chief People Officer
PAXOS
Madan Nagaldinne is the CPO at Paxos, the world’s most prominent, regulated blockchain infrastructure company. Madan has been at the forefront of companies that have achieved technological breakthroughs and gone on to become globally recognized. Prior to Paxos, Madan has spent over 15 years at Facebook, Amazon and Kla Tencor. Recently, Madan has been focused on partnering with CEOs of early stage companies helping them scale their people practices. Madan serves on the board of many companies, prominent amongst them are Elevate K12, and Omniscient Neuroscience which has pioneered the use of AI and ML with brain science.
Melanie Naranjo
VP of People
ETHENA
Melanie Naranjo is the VP of People at Ethena, a modern compliance training platform focused on making training more engaging and effective. Formerly the VP of People & Culture at Insider Inc., Melanie has experience in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion work, training and development, and scaling growing companies for success. She has spent her career helping grow high-performing teams and establishing cultures that lean on open dialogue, shared responsibility, and empathy. Melanie attended Harvard University, where she was a peer advising fellow. She currently resides in New Jersey with her rambunctious cats and one pup.
Kaushik Narasimhan
Co-Founder & CEO
TAKE2.AI
Kaushik is a Co-Founder at take2.ai, a skill-based talent marketplace for next-gen jobs. He started take2 based on empirical research he conducted at Stanford GSB that evaluated the impact of individual worker characteristics on successful career transitions. Prior to take2, Kaushik spent a decade in renewable energy and was the GM for Flex (F500) in Australia. Kaushik graduated with a dual degree from Stanford University (GSB, Public Policy) as a Robert Joss Scholar.
Lindsey Nehls
Co-Founder & COO
ELEVATE LEADERSHIP
After years as an executive in clean-tech, Lindsey realized that who you work for is everything. She co-founded Elevate Leadership, building management development programs that work and coaching CEOs in venture-backed Silicon Valley start-ups.Over her tenure as a SVP of sales in fortune 500 companies she successfully managed turnarounds increasing sales by 1000%. She led $200 million business units and delivered a billion dollars in enterprise sales. She has helped sell two companies and led those teams through all the change that comes with new ownership. Lindsey is a Harvard Business School and Middlebury College alumna.
Leslie Neitzel
Chief Human Resources Officer
CARROT FERTILITY
Leslie Neitzel is Chief Human Resources Officer at Carrot Fertility, the leading global fertility healthcare company. In her role, Leslie oversees human resources, cultural initiatives, and talent acquisition, engagement, and retention. Leslie has spent nearly 20 years in human resources, working in a variety of people operations, training and leadership roles for large corporations to high-growth startups, including Bank of America, Tribune Media, SAP SuccessFactors, ServiceMax, and Pendo. Leslie is passionate about building diverse and inclusive organizations that create lasting impact. She lives in Raleigh with her husband and two young sons.
Shirin Nikaein
Co-Founder & CEO
UPFUL.AI
Shirin Nikaein is the Co-Founder & CEO of Upful.ai, software that uses behavioral science to coach people to provide employee performance feedback/reviews that are meaningful and inclusive. Shirin led engineering, analytics, and product management for many tech companies for the last 15 years. Her previous fraud-fighting Artificial Intelligence products have been used by clients including Google, Facebook, Microsoft, UPS, Tinder, and Blizzard Entertainment. She holds a BS & MS in Electrical Engineering from USC and an MBA from UCLA Anderson. She is the first person in her family to be born in the USA and to attend college.
Demi Obayomi
Vice President
SAPPHIRE VENTURES
Demi is a growth-stage investor at Sapphire Ventures where he invests in a variety of categories including HR Tech & Future of Work where his recent investments include companies like Gem (talent engagement) and Paradox (recruiting automation). Previously, Demi was an investor in Justworks, a PEO offering payroll, benefits, HR and compliance solutions. Prior to his investing career, Demi worked in investment banking and attended Johns Hopkins University.
Erin Ogunsanya
Wellness Advocate
MATTERPORT
Erin has worked in the tech startup world for around 7 years, spending 3.5 years with Matterport. After becoming a mom herself she leaned into opportunities that aligned with her passion and values, including leading the Employee Resource Group Women at Matterport. Erin moved into her Wellness role at Matterport a little over a year ago, where she's helped implement and develop an alternate perspective on employee benefits and well-being. Erin tries to lead with empathy and compassion in her day-to-day interactions and be a true champion for well-being in the workplace.
Hannah Olson
CEO
DISCLO
Hannah Olson is the Co-Founder and CEO of Disclo, the first software helping employees safely ask for, verify, and act on accommodation requests at work. Hannah’s own experience navigating her career while undergoing intensive treatment for Lyme disease sparked the idea for her first venture, Chronically Capable, which became one of the largest and most-used disability recruiting platforms in the world. She speaks globally on the topics of disability inclusion, accessibility, and allyship in the workplace.
Anthony Onesto
Chief People Officer
SUZY
Anthony Onesto is a HR expert and published author who has worked at various technology and innovation companies to scale and improve culture, talent, and human resources. He has experience building and establishing operations in the US and has helped several companies win workplace awards. He founded a company that produces a comic book series to encourage girls to pursue careers in STEM and entrepreneurship and co-founded an artificially intelligent HR agent. He is a board advisor for several tech startups and has published a book called "The Employee Contract - How To Find, Keep and Elevate Gen Z Talent.
Justin Ouyang
Investor
OMERS VENTURES
Justin is an investor at OMERS Ventures, a global early-stage tech fund. Based in the Bay Area, he specializes in SaaS. He serves as a board observer for WorkRamp, Postal, Falkon, and Occupier. Justin has spent a number of years operating at both small and large technology companies across sales, customer success, and business operations. Prior to joining OMERS Ventures, Justin was Director of Sales Strategy and Operations at Slack.
Abhay Parasnis
Founder & CEO
TYPEFACE
Abhay Parasnis is the Founder and CEO of Typeface, the enterprise-grade generative AI application to supercharge personalized content creation. He brings over two decades of experience scaling new businesses and innovative technology platforms. Previously, as CPO & CTO of Adobe, he was responsible for leading product strategy, technology vision, and engineering for Adobe’s diverse cloud portfolio. Abhay has also held leadership roles at major technology companies, including Microsoft, Oracle, and IBM. Abhay is an active investor and advisor to various startups with a focus on AI and has 35+ patents. He serves on the board of Dropbox and Schneider Electric.
Amee Parekh
Sr. Vice President, Human Resources
HIMS & HERS HEALTH
Amee Parekh is Senior Vice President Human Resources at Hims & Hers Health, Inc. (NYSE: HIMS), the multi-specialty telehealth platform focused on providing modern personalized health and wellness experiences. Parekh joined Hims & Hers from Uber, where she led human resources for UberEats U.S. and Canada and helped to build career and leadership capabilities at an accelerated pace during a period of rapid growth. Prior to Uber, Parekh was Human Resources Director for Expedia group which includes vrbo.com, Orbitz.com, Hotels.com etc. Parekh received her Master’s Degree from Cornell University’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations. She is based out of Seattle, Washington.
Elizabeth Patterson
Partner, Talent
SAPPHIRE
Elizabeth is a Partner at Sapphire Ventures. In her role, she leads the People & Talent function where she works with Sapphire’s investment team and portfolio of 80+ global companies to cultivate and develop high performing teams that thrive, scale, and ultimately exit. Prior to Sapphire, Elizabeth was the Chief Talent Officer of Mohr Davidow Ventures and Wildcat Venture Partners where she partnered with seed, early stage and growth companies. Elizabeth is an independent director at Black Women on Boards which prepares, places, and propels Black female leaders into board seats.
Jen Paxton
Co-Founder
JAMYR
With a master’s degree in Opera, Jen Paxton didn't think she would have a career in Talent Acquisition or PeopleOps, however, she fell in love with helping candidates find the right role. She started her career at JobSpring Partners, placing technical professionals, then moved on to Robert Half before deciding to move to an in-house recruiting team. She has grown teams at later-stage startups like Fiksu and LevelUp and built Recruiting and PeopleOps strategies from scratch at small startups like Logentries, TrueMotion, Privy, and Smile. She has been a part of three successful acquisitions and almost all of her companies have won “Best Place to Work” awards at least once while she was there. She loves coaching managers, fostering a feedback culture, and building programs that will help develop a sense of belonging. Jen has recently made the switch from People Leader to the Co-Founder of Jamyr, a video content platform that helps companies engage and attract candidates. In addition to her career, Jen is a mom of two girls, loves being outdoors, eating tacos, and drinking her weight in loose-leaf teas.
Stacey Payne
Chief People Officer
DAILY HARVEST
Stacey Payne serves as Chief People Officer at Daily Harvest, a company on a mission to make nourishing foods more attainable by eliminating barriers to access, cost, and time. Stacey has 20+ years of experience elevating organizations through transformational strategy and culture leadership. She champions an inclusive leadership approach to modernize people operations, learning and development, organizational design, DE&IB, and workplace sustainability. Stacey has worked with leading organizations such as sweetgreen, SoulCycle, Dig Inn, Chipotle and Taco Bell. She earned her M.A. in Organizational Leadership and B.A. in Public Relations and Art History from Chapman University.
Will Peng
CEO & Co-Founder
Northstar
Will Peng is the CEO and Co-Founder of Northstar, the financial wellness platform for employees. Prior to founding Northstar, Will was a venture capital investor. His firm was an early investor in Coinbase, Guideline, Even, and Oscar. Inspired by the positive change fintech can have on people's lives, Will set out to solve the inequality of financial guidance in a way that drives meaningful action. As a Taiwanese immigrant, Will is passionate about supporting underserved communities to help them achieve financial stability and reach their personal goals.
Savina Perez
Co-Founder & Chief Customer Officer
HONE
Savina Perez is the Co-Founder and Chief Customer Officer of Hone. Prior to Hone, Savina has led growth at several venture-backed B2B tech companies based in New York City and San Francisco including Curalate, Incapsula, and Smartling, and has deep expertise in all aspects of B2B growth, sales and marketing. Most recently, Savina was VP of Marketing at CultureIQ (acq: ParkerGale Capital), a culture management platform for the enterprise. Savina is passionate about amplifying the impact of the world’s next generation of leaders, and building Hone with her to make it happen. Savina’s areas of expertise include building high-growth organizations, entrepreneurship, and manager training.
Torin Perez
DEI Influencer & Author
Globally Bold LLC
Torin Perez is a bestselling author and sought-after speaker who has been featured by TED, Culture Amp, Forbes, and various outlets as a trailblazer, influencer, anti-racism educator, and DEI leader to follow. His stories and ideas have inspired audiences at leading conferences and iconic organizations including the likes of Cisco, Microsoft, LinkedIn, Unilever, and Johnson & Johnson. Torin is currently partnering with a Telly Award-Winning original content studio on a new media production, and continues to serve as a communications and speaker coach for global change-makers and CEOs through the FRESH Speakers Academy.
Robby Peters
Co-Founder
SEMPERVIRENS
Robby is Co-Founder of PeopleTech Partners which is an organization that works with early-stage tech companies looking to build products for HR Leaders. The organization has worked with and advised over 80 companies through the last 7 years and those companies have gone on to raise over 1 Billion dollars in Venture Funding. He is also the Co-Founder of SemperVirens which is an investment firm that focuses on workforce, healthcare, and financial technology companies that want to sell to and through the employer. Across both networks he has built an amazing advisory community of over 300 current and former CHRO’s from companies like EA, Visa, UPS, Peloton, Netflix, Zoom, Twilio, Slack, and Disney to name a few.
JD Peterson
CEO
MATHISON
JD is a Silicon Valley veteran with several years of leadership positions across a variety of functions for some of the highest growth B2B companies in the world. Prior to joining Mathison, JD spent nearly 5 years running all of the go-to-market functions as Chief Growth Officer for HR Tech leader Culture Amp. When not working, JD is likely spending time with his wife and two daughters, or cheering for the sports teams from his alma mater Indiana University.
Roxanne Petraeus
CEO & Co-Founder
ETHENA
Roxanne Petraeus is the CEO and co-founder of Ethena, a modern compliance training platform focused on making training more engaging and effective. She is a United States Army combat veteran, McKinsey consultant, and Rhodes Scholar, and holds degrees from Harvard College and Oxford University.
Peter Phelan
Founder & CEO
VALUESCULTURE
Peter Phelan, a recovering Chief People Officer turned Culture Doctor making house calls in Manhattan's Silicon Alley and beyond, is Founder and CEO of ValuesCulture. ValuesCulture helps growing organizations build sustainable competitive advantage by intentionally curating their organizational cultures. This work often takes the form of Peter and team conducting deep analyses to reveal an organization's "secret behavioral suace" - the solid bedrock upon which cultural promises can be made with a high likelihood of actually being kept. In addition, ValuesCulture's executive search arm has placed more than 80 of the world's most talented and progressive people leaders since 2018.
Mridula Pore
Peppy
CO-FOUNDER & CO-CEO
Mridula has spent her career driving innovations that make healthcare more accessible and affordable. She has led commercial teams in the pharmaceuticals and digital health industries, and she was an Engagement Manager at McKinsey & Co. Mridula has a Ph.D. in chemical engineering from MIT and an MBA from MIT Sloan.
Danielle Posa
Founder
WORKPLACE WELLBEING ADVISORS
Danielle is an expert in employee engagement, wellbeing, leadership development & business consulting, having worked with organizations all over the world, including Fortune 500s. As founder of Workplace Wellbeing Advisors, she partners closely with executive teams to develop and implement long-term, culturally integrated wellbeing strategies. She is also the Vice-Chair of the Global Wellness Institute’s Workplace Wellbeing Initiative, and her mission is to make wellbeing the primary measurement of success in society. On a more personal note, Danielle is a cancer survivor and proud mom of two young children, Giavanna and Nico.
Dorion Positano
Sr. Director And Host of Global P&G Podcast
P&G
Dorion Positano is a strategist and brand builder, focused on creating new brands, businesses, and innovative content initiatives for P&G. Currently, as Sr. Director of P&G Ventures, Dorion leads the creation and development of new businesses to build P&G's next billion-dollar brands. In addition, he is the creator and host of a weekly interview podcast that is distributed to all 100k employees at P&G. As a passionate self-proclaimed “philosopher” he is also currently in production on a fully-funded scripted podcast series that offers a modern spin on the wisdom of ancient philosophers.
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.
Trisha Price
Chief Product Officer
PENDO
Trisha Price is chief product officer at Pendo. Trisha oversees product management, design and product ops teams and sets the product strategy for the company. Previously, Trisha spent more than 20 years as a technology leader in financial services companies including nCino, Primatics Financial and Fannie Mae. In addition to her role at Pendo, Trisha serves as a member of the board of directors for Docebo. Trisha holds a bachelor of science in mathematics and mathematics education from North Carolina State University and a master of liberal arts in extension studies, software engineering from Harvard University.
Kaleana Quibell
VP, Wellbeing
Sequoia
As the VP of Wellbeing and Platform Partners, Kaleana oversees Sequoia’s Wellbeing solutions and services. During her time here, she’s consulted hundreds of top tech clients’ on their total rewards strategies, by way of evaluating & partnering with the industry’s most innovative products and people! Sequoia’s focus is “coming through for people no matter what”, and the Wellbeing team at Sequoia is in many ways central to these efforts.
Mike Quigg
Vice President, Strategy & Growth
IANACARE
Mike Quigg is an experienced health and well-being leader with over 15 years of expertise in the field. He currently serves as the Vice President of Strategy and Growth at ianacare, which empowers and equips family caregivers with the practical tools and communities, so no one does it alone. He leads the company's commercial strategy.
Sherry Rais
CEO
ENTHEA
Sherry Rais has helped dozens of startups, non-profits, academic institutions, and small businesses raise funds, operate according to their mission and values, implementing processes that enhance their overall efficiency. Sherry believes in living and working in alignment with purpose and is currently focused on expanding access to psychedelic-assisted therapy to alleviate human suffering. Before this, Sherry consulted for 10 years with the United Nations and World Bank, implementing national poverty reduction programs in 35 countries. Sherry holds a Master’s in Public Policy/Management from the London School of Economics and a Bachelor’s in Psychology/International Development from McGill University.
Paria Rajai
CEO & Founder
MODELEXPAND
Paria Rajai is the CEO of ModelExpand, an inclusive workplace strategy firm that advances diversity, equity and belonging within companies through strategic consulting, workshops, and events. ModelExpand has worked with organizations such as Sutter Health, Lucasfilm, and Davidson College and has been featured in Harvard Business Review, Culture Amp and Forbes. Paria has been a proud member of that State Department's TechWomen program and the United Nations Advisory Group of experts for Anti-Racism and Anti-Discrimination. She was the recipient of Untapped's Top 100 DEIB Leaders in 2022.
Virginie Raphael
Founder & Managing Partner
FULLCIRCLE
Virginie Raphael is the Founder and Managing Partner of FullCircle, a NY-based pre-seed fund investing in a more equitable and sustainable workforce where fulfilled individuals regain pride and agency over their work. FullCircle focuses on who works to build a better future workforce with much greater economic potential for all. To date, FullCircle has made 13 investments to drive its desired outcome across HR tech, community-based companies, the care economy and independent workers.
Irfhan Rawji
Founder & Executive Chair
MOBSQUAD
Irfhan Rawji is the Founder & Executive Chair of MobSquad, a Canadian company that helps US companies grow and retain their technology teams. He is also a Managing Partner with Relay Ventures, and sits on numerous corporate and non-profit boards, including Canadian Western Bank, Institute for Canadian Citizenship, and Venture for Canada. Irfhan holds an MBA with High Honors from Harvard Business School. He is a recipient of The Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal, the Heart & Stroke Foundation’s Award of Merit, the Sauder School of Business’ Teaching Excellence Award, among others. Irfhan is also a member of Canada’s Top 40 Under 40.
Conner Reinhardt
Co-Founder & COO
MENTRA
Conner is the co-founder and COO of Mentra, the world's first employment network for neurodivergent professionals. As a passionate autistic self-advocate and Forbes 30 under 30 winner, he believes in the power of technology to unlock the immense capabilities of the 1 billion neurodivergent individuals who have been historically underemployed. With funding from Sam Altman, Microsoft, and the Federal Government, Mentra has leveraged AI to revolutionize the job-matching process by considering neurodistinct factors. Through this, Mentra is solving the $1T turnover problem that companies face every year.
JR Rettig
SVP Talent
Pendo
Over the past 20 years, JR has established herself as a leader of transformational, scaleable talent strategies for top technology companies and consumer brands. Her work is predicated on passion and respect for her team, her candidates, and clients around the world. JR is currently having great days as the SVP of Talent at Pendo, headquartered in Raleigh, North Carolina. She and her team believe that Everyone is a Recruiter at Pendo and have helped scale the company globally from 400 to over 900 employees over the past 2 years.
Brianna Rizzo
Talent Partner
VMG PARTNERS
Brianna Rizzo is a Talent Partner at VMG Partners, a leading investment firm that backs visionary consumer and technology companies committed to driving change in the world by elevating the entrepreneurs reshaping their industries and transforming the consumer landscape. Rizzo brings expertise from her 6-year stint as Principal leading Talent at Stripes, as well as multiple advisors and board positions including Women on Boards Project, VC Platform Global Community, Bodily, and PeopleTech Partners.
Kim Rohrer
Principal People Partner
Oyster
Kim Rohrer is a passionate people person with over a decade of experience building inclusive, sustainable, values-based company cultures at tech companies and beyond. She is currently the Principal People Partner at Oyster, and is also the founder of and advisor to OrgOrg, a global community of over 3,500 people operations professionals. Kim believes fiercely in holistic support for working caregivers, and is proud to be a part of the movement to create change as a cofounder at TendLab. Her eclectic career has taken her from theater to tech, always with the common threads of community and care.
Natalie Rothman
Executive Vice President & Chief Human Resources Officer
ADVANCE AUTO PARTS
Natalie Rothman is chief human resources officer for Advance Auto Parts. When she joined, Advance was in the early stages of a business transformation. Natalie focused on rebuilding the C-Suite, recruiting talent and enhancing company culture through greater focus on DEI, an improved team member experience and the building of a strong employment brand. These efforts led to reduced employee turnover and improved organizational health scores. Prior to joining Advance, Natalie spent nearly a decade in HR leadership roles at PepsiCo. She also previously worked as an employment attorney, handling corporate labor and employment legal issues for her clients.
Rea Rotholz
Sr. Director Learning Solutions
HONE
Rea Rotholz is the Sr. Director of Learning Solutions at Hone, where her team of strategists partner with customers to design and measure impactful learning journeys for their employees. Prior to Hone, Rea led the People Development team at Dow Jones / The Wall Street Journal. She has also been a human capital consultant for culture transformation company, CultureIQ and Deloitte Consulting. Rea earned her MBA in Leadership and Strategy from Stern School of Business at NYU and a Bachelors in Learning and Organizational Change from Northwestern University. When she's not chatting about L&D in Vegas, you can find Rea chatting with her husband and daughter about the new baby coming soon!
Erin Rowe
Founder & CEO
ALLSPRING
Erin Rowe is the Founder & CEO of Allspring. Erin founded Allspring after being an HR Leader, managing a multi-million dollar budget, and seeing that many learning and coaching solutions aren’t meeting employees’ needs. Allspring puts a career coach in employees' pockets, starting with sales teams. With Allspring, employees receive bite-sized content personalized to their goals and calendar. Employees report being 2x more self-reliant, 3x more productive, and 5x more confident. You can find Erin outside - hiking, skiing, swimming, or training for her next marathon. She has worked for Deloitte Consulting, the College Board, Webflow, and Pinterest.
Margaret Ruvoldt
Founder
EVE WAS FRAMED
Maggie Ruvoldt is the Co-Founder of Eve Was Framed, a media company focused on empowering women to learn about their bodies and health and dedicated to putting control of women’s health into their own hands. She brings 30 years of HR and business operations experience from organizations including 2U, Open Education, and Sterling Infosystems. Ruvoldt advises companies in the health, wellness, human resources, and education sectors. Ruvoldt is the former Chief People Officer for 2U, Inc. and holds a master’s in Human Resource Management from Rutgers University and an MBA from UNC Kenan-Flagler’s Business School.
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.
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.
Tim Sackett
CEO
HRUTECH.COM
Talent Acquisition and HR technology Expert, Author, and international speaker. I’m on a lot of lists, which only means my SEO is better than yours. Advocate for diet Dew fountain machines in every office. I’m down to golf anytime, anywhere.
Ariela Safira
Founder + CEO
REAL
Ariela Safira is the Founder and CEO of Real, a mental healthcare company building a new therapy model. Starting her career at IDEO, she developed new concepts to approach mental healthcare. Ariela joined Cityblock, founding their first behavioral health clinic. She earned a BS in Mathematics and Computational Science from Stanford University. Later, she joined Columbia’s Clinical Psychology program and left in 2019 to launch Real. She’s biked across multiple countries to fundraise for suicide prevention and is the recipient of the 2019 American Psychiatric Association’s Innovation Award, Forbes 30 Under 30, and Inc’s Top 100 Female Founders.
Vanya Sagar
Chief People Officer
SIONNA THERAPEUTICS
Vanya is Chief People Officer at Sionna with over 15 years of experience as a strategic business partner and operational leader focused on people and culture. She is passionate about attracting, retaining and developing world-class teams while putting the employee experience front and center. Prior to Sionna, she held senior-level roles with Affinivax (now GSK), Sigilon Therapeutics, Biogen, Massachusetts General Hospital, Brigham Women’s Hospital, and Harvard Medical School. Vanya holds a B.A. in Counseling from Dominion College and a Master’s Degree in Public Administration, Health Policy and Management from Suffolk University.
Jihad Alex Sakhnini
Executive Coach & Consultant
THE RYN GROUP
Jihad has developed a steadfast reputation for developing, implementing, and managing programs and processes that help companies optimize their effectiveness on six continents. This global perspective has allowed him to understand how to influence alignment and commitment across cultures and across all levels of an organization. He has also served as both an internal and an external change agent, and has an intimate knowledge of what is easier and what is more difficult from each entry point. Informing his own change leadership, and allowing him to better understand the needs of other leaders in the midst of change and how to support them.
J.P. Sanday
Partner
MENLO VENTURES
JP Sanday is a Partner at Menlo Ventures focused on SaaS and digital health. His investments include CodeSignal, Sana, Qualio, Knoetic, H1 and Abnormal Security. JP has spent over a decade as an investor and 7+ years as an operator running growth teams at venture-backed startups and product management at Amazon. JP came to Menlo Ventures from Summit Partners, where his board and investment experience included Smartsheet, Clearwater Analytics, Ascentis (acquired by UKG), and Teaching Strategies. JP graduated from Boston College Carroll School of Management and earned an MBA from Stanford Graduate School of Business.
Chandra Sanders
VP, RISE
THE MOM PROJECT
Chandra Sanders is a Social Impact champion on a mission to create economic opportunities for moms and women of color. As VP of RISE, the inaugural initiative from The Mom Project’s not-for-profit arm, MomProject.org, her goal is to empower moms and women of color through transformative upskilling programs. Sanders is a former high school Spanish teacher turned Fortune 100 Senior Tech Consultant (Google, Pfizer, Anthem) who remains committed to helping moms and women of color challenge stereotypical representation in the workplace and gain access to greater economic opportunities.
Marcus Sawyerr
Founder & CEO
EQ Community
Marcus Sawyerr rose from a recruiting expert at Careerbuilder.com to become a global Fortune 500 Executive at The Adecco Group. He’s been ranked in the top 100 most influential industry leaders by Staffing Industry analysts. As the Founder of EQ Community, Marcus has activated a community of the top 1% of leaders that connects executives seeking meaningful work with inclusive tech-enabled firms ready to cultivate a diverse workforce.
Kelly Scheib
Chief People Officer
CRUNCHBASE
Kelly Mendez-Scheib, is an accomplished Human Resources leader, serving as the Chief People Officer of Crunchbase. She has extensive HR expertise partnering with C-suite leaders to develop, scale, and execute human capital strategies. Kelly has a proven track record of accelerating business goals and priorities, driving growth, and transforming HR functions. Kelly is also a mother of five and is passionate about giving back to her community. She serves on numerous non-profit Boards in support of Foster Care. Kelly is also an Adjunct Professor of Compensation and Benefits and Strategic Human Resources at Anderson University-MBA.
Jeremy Schiff
Founder & CEO
Recruitbot
Jeremy Schiff earned an undergraduate in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science in 2005 and a PhD in Applied Machine Learning in 2009 from The University of California, Berkeley. In 2006, Jeremy co-founded FotoFlexer.com, an online photo editing company that powered companies including MySpace and Photobucket. In 2009, Jeremy joined Ness Computing as VP of Product and Machine Learning, which was sold to OpenTable in 2014. While working at OpenTable, Jeremy saw first-hand the opportunity to transform the way that recruiting works through machine learning and automation, and founded RecruitBot in 2017 to spearhead the mission to automate recruiting.
Lars Schmidt
Founder
Amplify
Lars Schmidt is the Founder of Amplify, a firm that connects, develops, and empowers the next generation of transformative people leaders through HR executive search and the Amplify Academy learning and leadership development platform. Lars has spent over 25 years in the industry, building a range of leading global companies, including NPR, Ticketmaster, SpaceX, and Hootsuite. He’s a writer for Fast Company, author of the bestselling Redefining HR book, co-author of Employer Branding for Dummies, and Host of the Redefining Work podcast.
Dominique Schroeder
Sr. Benefit Analyst
GUILD EDUCATION
Dominique Schroeder is the Senior Benefits Analyst at Guild Education and is charged with creating holistic benefits and leave programs that are innovative, grounded in DEI, and improve the employee experience. She brings extensive experience in managing employee benefits, leave of absence, people operations, and employee communication programs to the team at Guild. In her role, she has led the company’s DEI benefits assessment and launched the first annual in-house employee benefits survey. She has also implemented new medical plans, financial well-being programs, family, and caregiver benefits to support the needs of a diverse workforce.
Matt Schulman
CEO & Founder
Pave
Matt Schulman is the Founder and CEO of Pave. Matt is passionate about all things compensation and has made it his mission to help companies make fair compensation decisions for their employees. Prior to founding Pave, Matt worked as a software engineer for Facebook. When he's not thinking about compensation, you can find Matt scaling a mountain, running a marathon, or enjoying a Sweetgreen salad.
Alex Seiler
Chief People Officer
GHJ
Alex is a global people leader with over 15 years of experience transforming people functions and putting talent first at WeWork, Blue Shield of CA, NBCUniversal, Time Inc., and Citi. He currently serves as Chief People Officer at GHJ, overseeing People, Workplace Experience and Internal Communications. Under his leadership, GHJ recently won the Transform Award for “People Activator: Employee Experience of the Year”. Outside of his day job, he acts as a strategic advisor for two tech enabled start-ups, ChangeEngine and When Insurance.
Lauren Serota
Head of Talent Development, Learning, Performance & People Analytics
PATAGONIA
Lauren Serota is Head of Talent Development, Performance, Learning and People Analytics for Patagonia. Lauren has spent her career working for purpose driven organizations like Patagonia and the World Bank that work towards aligning purpose and profit and focus on driving social change. She is passionate about finding ways to make work a better, more enjoyable and inclusive experience.
Nilay Shah
Managing Director
DELTA AIR LINES
Nilay Shah is Managing Director in Global Health and Wellbeing at Delta Air Lines and leads Health Analytics and Innovation. Prior to Delta Air Lines, he was the Chair of the Division of Health Care Delivery Research at Mayo Clinic and a Professor of Health Services Research in the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine. He was also the Robert D. and Patricia E. Kern endowed Director for Research in the Center for the Science of Health Care Delivery at Mayo Clinic.
Daniel Shakhani
Executive Chairman
HARVARD FLORENS
Daniel Shakhani is a British-born inventor, social entrepreneur, financier and philanthropist ranked Business Insider 100 most influential people shaping British technology, launched at the world economic forum 2023 the FIA (financial inclusion alliance) global campaign for financial literacy, aiming to reach 1bn people worldwide and break a Guinness World Record in Oct 2023. Daniel founded Salary Finance with the former Head of Google U.K and is the the 19th fastest growing fintech focused on financial wellbeing, reaching 700 global companies and 4m employees and was recently appointed as Chairman of Floren’s the entity implementing the interventions from the Harvard Human Flourishing program which secured $43m funding to conduct the largest longitudinal study worldwide looking at human flourishing.
Jeremy Shapiro
AVP, HR, Workforce Analytics
MERCK
Jeremy Shapiro is the AVP of Workforce Analytics at Merck & Co, a premier research-intensive biopharmaceutical company. Prior to Merck, he created a similar function at Morgan Stanley over 8 years, primarily focused on Talent Management, He spent 15 years at the Omnicom Group developing HR technology solutions. Jeremy is the co-author of “Competing on Talent Analytics”, a Harvard Business Review cover story and the book, Ultimate Performance. He holds a Masters in Information Sciences from NYU, degree in Economics from Rutgers University, and is an untalented triathlete.
Krystal Shields
Sr. Director, People Operations & Talent Management
HARNESS
Krystal Shields is the Global Sr. Director, People Operations & Talent Management at Harness. She has built programs that support a global business strategy, including international expansion, compliance and change management. Krystal leads her HR teams with compassionate leadership, open and direct communication, and delivers People programs that engage and support a global workforce. Prior to her nearly 10 years of HR experience in the startup space, she began in Accounting, where she managed and supported the HR function at various companies. Krystal holds a BS in Accounting from University of the Pacific and PHR, SPHR, GPHR and SHRM-CP certifications.
Elizabeth Shober
Former, VP Recruiting
UDEMY
Elizabeth has served as VP Recruiting at Udemy, an online corporate learning platform since September 2018, helping to scale the organization from 350 to over 1500 employees. Prior to that, she spent 4 years as Head of Recruiting for satellite image provider Planet, building the recruiting function and scaling that organization from 50 to nearly 500. She is a proponent of mid-career sabbaticals and spent hers producing several independent films and working for an Emmy award-winning TV show. Prior to that, she spent 20 years in the staffing and recruiting industry. Elizabeth graduated cum laude with a BA from Boston University.
Alex Shubat
CEO & Co-Founder
ESPRESA
Alex Shubat is co-founder and CEO of Espresa - a platform that Power Great Workplaces with benefits designed for Life. Most recently he served as the CEO of Goji FS, an NEA-backed startup in the foodtech space. As co-founder and CEO of Virage he oversaw the company's highly successful growth leading to IPO and acquisition by Synopsys. He is a member of the Band of Angels and J-Angels and is on the Industry Advisory Boards of Santa Clara University and the University of Toronto. He holds an Executive MBA from Stanford University, a BS and MS from the University of Toronto, and a Ph.D. from Santa Clara University.
Derek Sidebottom
Chief Human Resource Officer
CROWDSTREET
Derek is a multi-industry 20+ year high growth HR executive with extensive scale-up, operating, consulting and HR Tech product advisory experience. His personal future of work passions include the use of AI/Machine learning in the workplace and accelerating manager productivity and performance when leading agile distributed teams. With a degree in Psychology from L’Université d’Ottawa and an MBA from Canada's Athabasca University, Derek splits his time between Las Vegas, Los Altos and Austin.
Bob Simpson
Texas Career Business Leader & Communications Expert
MERCER
Bob is Mercer’s Texas Career Business Leader and a Senior Communications Consultant. His experience in change management, digital transformation and employee communications helps employers roll out engaging, flexible and measurable solutions for their employees, and to make the complex simple. Interestingly, Bob is also a professional voiceover performer. Before joining Mercer, Bob worked for EPIC Insurance Brokers & Consultants, Willis Towers Watson, and as an organizational design and transformation project manager at Warner Bros. He received his Bachelor’s at The University of Texas at Austin and a Master’s Degree in Communication Management at The University of Southern California.
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.
Amy Spurling
Founder & CEO
COMPT
Amy Spurling is the Founder and CEO of Compt, HR software that enables companies to offer truly personalized employee perks while being fully tax-compliant and inclusive for global teams. Amy’s experience as a former three-time CFO and two-time COO drives her belief that companies can achieve much more when employees are fully supported. A seasoned executive with nearly 20 years of experience in leadership roles at venture-backed companies, Amy has also closed over ten rounds of financing totaling more than $200M and managed two acquisitions to close.
Lisa Stella
Southern California & Nevada Career Business Leader
MERCER
Lisa is a Senior Principal and Career Business Leader for the Southern California region. Since 2011, she has collaborated with employers across industries, especially in healthcare and technology, and fast-growing companies, as well as more mature companies, undergoing transformation. She partners with organizations to connect and align the varied elements of HR into powerful solutions to accelerate business strategy. Lisa graduated from Harvard University and trained at the Graduate School of Education. She has a MA in Politics and Education from Teachers College, Columbia University, and a MBA from the UCLA Anderson School of Management, as a Carter Fellow.
Kelley Steven-Waiss
Chief Transformation Officer
SERVICENOW
Kelley Steven-Waiss is the Head of Workforce Innovation Products at ServiceNow, and prior, Founder and CEO, Hitch Works, Inc., (a VC-backed startup acquired by ServiceNow). She founded and commercialized Hitch, an internal talent mobility platform that uses AI & machine learning to match project-based work to internal employee skills, while CIO and CHRO at HERE Technologies. With 13+ years as a CHRO in technology, she is a thought leader & frequent speaker in the future of work. She is a board director of FormFactor, Inc. (NASDAQ: FORM), member of USF MSOD Advisory board, & co-author of “The Inside Gig”.
Tiffany Stevenson
Chief People Officer
WEIGHTWATCHERS
Tiffany serves as Chief People Officer at WeightWatchers, with a mission to democratize wellness, making it accessible to all, supporting 7000 teammates in ten countries. With a fundamental belief that culture is a VERB and not a noun, Tiffany’s goal is to build healthy, thriving, high performing communities inside and out. Tiffany formerly served as Chief People Officer at Patreon and Chief Talent & Inclusion Officer at Box, receiving several distinctions including Fortune 100 Best Companies to Work For, Best Workplaces in Technology, and Best Workplaces for Diversity. She also spent 12 years at Sephora leading their talent and D&I efforts.
Ron Storn
Chief People Officer
Booster
Ron is the Chief People Officer at Booster, the last mile mobile energy solution for fleets, businesses, and consumers. He has 20+ years of experience leading people teams at Fortune 500 Companies including Facebook, Google and Lyft. Ron’s most notable role was leading the People function at Lyft. Joining Lyft in 2013, Ron grew the company from 80 to over 2,000+ employees, and from a cumulative 1 million rides to 1 million rides per day. Ron can also be heard on podcasts, webinars, or at conferences speaking about the future of work and topics such as culture, growth, and inclusion.
Heather Sullivan
Chief People Officer
COMMERCEIQ
Heather Sullivan is the Chief People Officer at CommerceIQ. She is a seasoned People leader and leadership coach who brings a balance of start up innovation and agility and big company discipline. Heather thrives in rapidly expanding companies domestically and across the globe, growing organically and through M&A, and has a deep passion for creating an amazing employee experience. Prior to CommerceIQ, Heather held CPO roles at Discord, Udacity and Chargepoint, and held senior leadership positions at SamsungNext, Comcast and Discovery Communications. Heather sits on the Board of Directors at Scaled Agile and is an advisor for multiple startups.
Leah Sutton
CHRO
Elastic
For the past seven years, Leah has led global HR for Elastic through 10x people growth, including an IPO and 6 acquisitions. Her teams span recruiting to HR operations and global workplaces to business partners and learning and development. Prior to Elastic, She led HR at Plum Organics through an acquisition by Campbell Soup Company; held various roles at Bloom Energy, including a stint in Bangalore as the HR leader for India and Asia Pacific; and was a Peace Corps Volunteer in Mali. She holds a BA from the UW Madison and an MBA from Berkeley’s Haas School Business.
Connor Swofford
Product Lead
KNOETIC
Connor Swofford is currently a Product Lead at Knoetic. After graduating from the Wharton School, he began his career in management consulting. He left consulting to co-found, Paytronage – the first marketplace for income share agreements (ISAs) – which was later acquired by Lumni, the largest issuer of ISAs at the time. Connor eventually joined Knoetic as the first business hire and has built many key functions including sales, partnerships, community, people, and recruiting. He lives by Molly Graham’s motto to ‘give away your legos’. Today, he works with Knoetic’s product team determining the future of Knoetic’s platform.
Lenke Taylor
Chief People Officer
Level
Lenke Taylor is the Chief People Officer at Level, a fintech benefits company. Level creates benefits products that employers and their teams love. Lenke is a cross-functional leader who oversees a number of operating functions at Level, and helps define the company’s people-first approach to employees and customers. Recognized as one of the most innovative HR leaders focusing on DEI by Business Insider, Lenke has lived and traveled around the world while working at Twitch, BuzzFeed, Google and NBC Universal.
Jordan Taylor
Co-Founder & CEO
MEDLEY
Jordan’s purpose is to create teams and groups where people can be their true selves. She co-founded Medley, a membership-based community for leadership development, because throughout her life she’s felt the power that comes from being part of a team and felt a void when it was missing. Prior to founding Medley, Jordan worked in media as Chief of Staff at Mic and was a consultant at the Boston Consulting Group. She received her AB from Harvard College and her MBA from Harvard Business School where she was a Baker Scholar.
Mike Theilmann
VP & Chief Human Resources Officer
ALBERTSONS COMPANIES
A progressive, employee-first driven leader, Mike has amassed a wealth of experience over his nearly 35-year career with companies including Diageo, PepsiCo, Yum, and JC Penney. He is currently the EVP & Chief Human Resources Officer at Albertsons Companies, a $75B grocer with 300,000 employees. Mike is a venture investor and board member with successful exits. He is a board member of Catapult Health, a preventive health company as well as a board member of NextUp. He is a member of the SemperVirens Executive Advisory Board. Mike and his wife, Summer live in Dallas and have three adult children.
Stephan Thoma
Independent HR & Learning Advisor/Coach
A key leader in the global talent /People and Culture world for over 25 years specializing in leading-edge, yet practical, strategies and solutions. After nearly eight years as a Global Learning Director at Google Stephan established his own Advisory firm in 2014. He holds a rare combination of Silicon Valley tech experience through his days with Google, Cisco and 3Com, and major blue chip organizational development and talent expertise from his days at GE. This is augmented now by his current advisory support to over 80+ businesses ranging from start/scale-ups to major global complex matrixed organizations.
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.
Colin Tobias
Partner
SEMPERVIRENS
Colin is a partner at SemperVirens, an early stage fund investing in healthcare tech, fintech, and workforce technology. Colin looks to invest in companies that are transforming the future of work as employers look to help their employees work, live, and earn better.
Chris Tobin
Former CPO / Advisor
As a former Chief People Officer, I’ve helped early to late-stage startups create human-centered organizations that scale and drive business outcomes. I have led the People, Talent, and Workplace functions at amazing companies like Intercom, Affirm, Flipboard, and Say Media. I was the first global head of people at all four startups, so in addition to helping scale the company, I helped to build the People Function and set the initial People strategy. After 22 years of experience in HR and Org Development roles, I am now focused on advising entrepreneurs and People/HR leaders on how to grow and scale, as well as entrepreneurs in the HR/People space on product and go-to-market strategy.
Dr. Ryan Todd
CEO & Co-Founder
HEADVERSITY
Dr. Ryan Todd is a psychiatrist & technologist, founding the workplace mental health and resilience platform, headversity. His work at headversity brought together a team of psychiatrists, psychologists, and educators to build an industry-redefining platform that is setting the new standard for workplace mental health, working with some of North America’s leading employers such as Shell Global, London Drugs, and ATB Financial. Dr. Todd is also a Top 40 under 40 recipient with Avenue Magazine, a published researcher, and the host of the popular HR podcast, "Beyond the Checkbox". Through headversity, Dr. Todd envisions getting the core training skills out of the backlogged mental health system and into employees’ hands.
Ricky Turner
Head of People
FUTURE
Ricky is the Head of People at Future. A fast growing organization dedicated to helping people be the best versions of themselves. He is a vigorous advocate for more humanity in the workplace and a successful HR executive with over 20 years of values-based human resources leadership experience at places like Meta, Nike and Whirlpool. As the host of his podcast RealTalk- HR, Ricky has a passion for helping organizations create humane, diverse, and inclusive workplaces that will produce strong and engaging employee relationships. He has a Juris Doctorate from Rutgers University and is a graduate of Tuskegee University.
Briana van Strijp
CEO
ANTHEMIS
Briana van Strijp is currently CEO at Anthemis. Leveraging over 20 years of global expertise in culture, strategy, organizational design, leadership, and innovation across public and private companies, she is a passionate advocate for building organizations to be more human, participative and resilient. Additionally, she is the COO of Anthemis Digital Acquisitions, a 100% female-led and ESG-focused special purpose acquisition corporation (SPAC), is a member of the Fintech for All Steering Committee and was recognized under RealDeals Future 40 Diversity & Inclusion Leaders, Innovate Finance’s Women in FinTech Powerlist Stand out 45 and operates as a CultureTech advisor.
Tanzina Vega
Editor
CHARTER
Tanzina Vega is a journalist, media strategist and educator. At Charter, she edits the premium Pro newsletter about the future of work, covering everything from artificial intelligence to diversity, equity and inclusion. Before Charter, Tanzina successfully hosted a national public radio show called The Takeaway, and was a reporter and producer at The New York Times and CNN. She has also taught journalism at Princeton University. Her recognitions include, the Robert G. Mc Gruder Distinguished Lecture and Award from Kent State University, a contributing producer Emmy Award and multiple citations by the National Press Photographers Association.
Garrett Viggers
InsurTech Entrepreneur & Bard
Garrett Viggers is a renaissance insurtech entrepreneur with over 20 years in the employee benefits industry, as well as an artist, singer-songwriter & instrumentalist (hammer dulcimer, lap dulcimer). He received a Masters in Spiritual Formation in 2010 at St. Stephens University in New Brunswick, Canada. Garrett's last co-founder venture, Limelight Health, was acquired by FINEOS in 2020 where he served as Chief Evangelist & Bard. Garrett’s role spanned from Chief Product Officer, to cross-functional roles, including Customer Success, Marketing and Sales. Limelight offered a modern core system for underwriting, quoting, and rating for carriers in the employee benefits ecosystem.
Chris Vogel
Chief People Officer
DATASTAX
Chris Vogel is Chief People Officer at Datastax. He has more than 30 years of Silicon Valley-based leadership experience in sales engineering, IT, consulting, support, and customer success at companies including Google, Oracle, BroadVision, BEA Systems, and Apigee. While at Apigee, Chris was an executive team member and helped lead the company through a successful 2015 IPO and 2016 acquisition by Google. Prior to DataStax, Chris led worldwide customer engineering for the Business Application Platform team in Google Cloud. He earned a B.S. in Applied Math from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo.
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.
Rei Wang
Co-Founder & Chief Product Officer
THE GRAND
Rei Wang is Co-Founder and Chief Product Officer of The Grand, a group coaching platform to navigate transitions at the intersection of work and life. Rei is passionate about building communities and designing learning experiences. She built the first mobile and online education products at General Assembly. More recently, Rei was at First Round Capital where she served as CEO of Dorm Room Fund. Rei nurtured a community of 250+ startups, and coached entrepreneurs on topics ranging from fundraising to management. For her leadership on Dorm Room Fund, Rei received the Forbes 30 under 30 award in Venture Capital.
Kerry Wang
CEO
SEARCHLIGHT
Kerry X. Wang is the cofounder and CEO of Searchlight, a predictive talent solution that solves attrition through the selection process. Searchlight's proprietary AI and behavioral science measures quality of hire to identify an org's unique predictors of success. Kerry started Searchlight with her twin sister and CTO, Anna, with a mission to make hiring win-win for everyone. Prior to Searchlight, Kerry worked in product sales at Google and management consulting at McKinsey. Kerry is a 2021 Forbes 30 Under 30 honoree, member of the Future of Talent Acquisition Advisory Council, and Stanford graduate with degrees in Human Biology - Org Behavior and Computer Science.
Amber Wanner
CEO & Co-Founder
VETTE
Vette's vision and mission is build a platform that creates opportunity for individuals to create opportunities for themselves. With Vette, our platform leverages the gig economy to conduct phone interviews on behalf of businesses, providing unlimited resources that are readily available to applicants at any time. Our approach utilizes technology and humans, including stay at home moms, retirees, military Veterans, recruiters, teachers, nurses, people with disabilities, etc... to eliminate scheduling hassle, enabling businesses to efficiently connect with potential hires in a timely manner, while providing a positive human to human experience.
Matt Watson
CEO & Co-Founder
Origin
Matt Watson is the CEO and Co-founder of Origin, a financial wellness company aiming to help people control their finances and improve their overall financial well-being. Matt is responsible for Origin's Go-To-Market functions and overall product vision. Matt has led the team, now close to 150 employees, through over $75M in funding from leading investors such as Founders Fund, General Catalyst, Felicis Ventures & Abstract Ventures. Before founding Origin, Matt was the Co-Founder & COO at Indio Technologies (acquired). Matt holds a Bachelor's of Economics from The Johns Hopkins University.
Connie B. Weisman
VP, Corporate Innovation Strategy
PLUG AND PLAY TECH CENTER
Connie Weisman is VP of Corporate Innovation Strategy at Plug and Play Tech Center. Through her work, she connects disruptive startups to the world's largest corporations to enhance their digital transformation capabilities. Plug and Play's global innovation platform has grown to over 50,000 startups and 500 corporate partners worldwide. As an investor in early stage startups, PnP's Unicorn success stories include Dropbox, Honey, Paypal, N26, Hippo, and Soundhound. Connie also serves as Director of the Enterprise Tech Program which identifies technologies in the Future of Work, Automation, and Data Analytics.
Dustin Wellik
Enterprise Listening & Future of Work
3M COMPANY
Dustin Wellik is currently Director, Enterprise Listening and Future of Work at 3M. Mr. Wellik is responsible for developing strategies that elevate the employee experience of 90,000 3M employees in over 70 countries, advancing 3M’s future of work priorities, and amplifying the voices of all 3M employees through comprehensive listening tactics. Since joining in 2010, Dustin held roles of increasing responsibility in Talent Acquisition, Virtual Experience and Employee Development, and Business Human Resources. Dustin has Bachelor Science degrees in Human Resources Management and Business Administration and holds HR certifications from the Society of Human Resources Management and HR Certification Institute.
Justin Wexler
Vice President
WNDRCO
Justin Wexler leads enterprise software investing at WndrCo (the firm started by former DreamWorks CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg). Justin works closely with WndrCo portfolio companies Sparrow, Netomi, Webflow, and Airtable on scaling into the Fortune 500. Prior to WndrCo, Justin started his career at Technology Crossover Ventures. Justin also previously served as the President of the MIT Venture Capital Club.
Ian White
Founder, & CEO, CTO
ChartHop
Ian White is the CEO, CTO and founder of ChartHop, a people analytics platform that transforms the way companies manage and support their people. Previously, he was the founder and CTO of Sailthru, the marketing cloud delivering billions of personalized newsletter emails for top publishers and e-commerce brands. Before that, Ian was the first head of engineering at Business Insider.Through these experiences, Ian felt the pains of planning and building a team -- and wanted to build something better than the spreadsheets and legacy HR systems. ChartHop was born to create more informed, empowered, and connected organizations.
Jolie Wills
Co-Founder & CEO Americas
HUMMINGLY
Jolie specializes in leadership, team cohesion and wellbeing under pressure - she's been studying these concepts and applying pressure-tested strategies for decades. Jolie has led and supported teams in the most challenging contexts in the wake of global disasters. Hummingly's workshops and tools are practically assisting leaders and teams the world over to perform at their best and be ready for the future world of work. Jolie is a Winston Churchill Fellow, a Leadership New Zealand alumna, an Edmund Hillary Fellow, and an advisor to the global Counter Terrorism Prevention Network.
Jessica D. Winder
Sr. Vice President of People
REFINE LABS
Jessica D. Winder is a multi-talented individual who wears many hats with ease. By day, she is the Senior Vice President of People at Refine Labs. On the weekends and nights, she is the CEO & Founder of Hidden Gem Career Coaching and an author of a career-focused journal titled "The Hidden Gem Within." In 2022, Jessica was named number 45 on the top 200 LinkedIn Creators list. Her signature statement, "burn traditional HR to the ground!" reflects her commitment to improving organizational performance through strategic planning and tactical execution. Jessica has a wealth of experience across various industries, including oil/gas, retail, financial services, telemedicine, and marketing.
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.
Bryan Wolff
CFO/COO
ALLVOICES
Bryan Wolff is the CFO/COO at AllVoices, the industry leading anonymous reporting platform. Bryan has been a technology investor and executive for over 15 years having held senior positions at Venture-backed start-ups and other Institutional Investment firms. Bryan was the first CFO hired at Bonobos, Inc. (acquired by Wal-Mart), DogVacay (acquired by Rover, Inc.) and Thrive Market. From 2017 to 2020, Bryan was a Managing Director at Anthos Capital Management, a growth equity firm, where he helped to oversee successful investments and exits in Honey, GoGuardian, GoPuff, and Addigy. Bryan has sat on numerous public and private boards, and has served as the chair of the audit, governance, and compensation committees. Bryan lives in Santa Monica with his wife and 3 children, and serves as a Trustee at PS1, a local pluralistic school.
Shelby Wolpa
Founder
SHELBY WOLPA CONSULTING
Shelby Wolpa has been a People Leader at four venture-backed companies that scaled to unicorn status where she built and led the people team through hypergrowth. She now advises CEOs, People Leaders, and Venture Capital Firms on people strategy and remote work, helping companies move quickly, build best-in-class people programs, and avoid expensive mistakes.
Valerie Capers Workman
Chief Legal Officer
HANDSHAKE
Valerie Capers Workman is Handshake's Chief Legal Officer. Prior to Handshake, Valerie served as VP of People at Tesla where she became known as the company's '"Top Diversity Advocate". She has over 20 years of legal, compliance and HR experience helping global brands scale with excellence.
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.
Ben Wright
Senior Sales Engineer
CALENDLY
As a Solutions Engineer I work with Recruiters and TA teams every day helping them promote their employer brand, provide the best candidate experience, and have the smoothest interview scheduling process for all their internal stakeholders. I can’t wait to share what I’ve learned along the way with all of you to help improve your Talent organization.
Michael Yang
Managing Partner
OMERS Ventures
Based in Palo Alto, Michael Yang is a Managing Partner with OMERS Ventures, a multi-stage global technology venture firm where he leads the US and Canadian investment teams and invests in healthtech, B2B SaaS, proptech and insurtech. Prior to joining OMERS Ventures, Michael was a Managing Director with Comcast Ventures and was previously a VP/GM at Yahoo! He has an MBA from Harvard and a BS in Economics from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
Hebba Youssef
Chief People Officer
WORKWEEK
Hebba Youssef is the Chief People Officer at Workweek and founder and creator of “I Hate it Here.” Her weekly newsletter has over 60,000 subscribers and focuses on how HR/People teams can build great work cultures. Hebba has led a global learning and development team, ran talent management teams, and was most recently the Head of People. She's built People Ops teams from the ground up, scaled companies, and gained a few white hairs along the way. Hebba has worked across several industries like tech, fintech and media and was most recently at Axios and Lithic.
Robin Zander
CEO
Zander Media
Robin P. Zander is an entrepreneur, strategist and best-selling author. He is the founder and CEO of Zander Media, a different kind of creative shop, which specializes in video commercials. With 15 years of experience in everything from management consulting to the circus, he has devoted his life and career to working with individuals and companies to improve performance. He documents his journey to peak performance on YouTube. Robin is the author of two books: “Responsive: What It Takes To Create A Thriving Organization” and “How To Do A Handstand,” which became a national bestseller in Japan.
Serena Ziskroit
Fractional Chief People Officer
MIGHTY ONE HOLDING
Serena is the founder of Mighty One Holding in which she serves as a fractional Chief People Officer for Seed to Series C to better equip companies to achieve their goals and to help employees be their best selves. From 2017 to 2022, Serena served as full time Chief People Officer and VP of People of RobustWealth, and VP of People of ThirdLove. In October 2022, Serena kicked off serving her first clients at Mighty One and is open to helping others if they are considering taking on fractional CPO roles.