Transform 2023 will feature three days of keynotes, roundtables, fireside chats, demos, and workshops from nearly 300 of the leading minds in the future of work ecosystem.
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.
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.
Drew Aldrich is the founder and Managing Partner of Viewpoint. Drew has over ten years of VC experience, predominantly in InsurTech and FinTech. Drew previously served as a Managing Director and IC Member at American Family Ventures and a Founding Team Member at AXA Venture Partners. Some of Drew’s most notable portfolio company investments include HomeTap, Bold Penguin, Turtlemint, Protecht, and Policygenius.
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.
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 dSchool.
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.
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
Head Of Global Employer Brand And 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 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 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.
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.
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.
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 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 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 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.
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.
Senior Principal – People Transformation And 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.
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.
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.
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.
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 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.
Dr. Kathryn J. Coleman has over 20 years of experience in talent acquisition, diversity, strategy, policy, and project management. As Senior Vice President of Talent, Learning, and Insights, she leads a global team of experts to provide world-class workforce and talent planning that attract, develop, and support the retention and progression of talent to include oversight for HR Business Partners globally. She earned her Ph.D. in Educational Policy and Administration from the University of Minnesota, a M.A. in Counseling and Student Personnel Psychology from the University of Minnesota, and a B.A. in Psychology from Macalester College.
Chip Conley 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.
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.
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.
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.
Josh Drean is a web3 advisor at Harvard Innovation Labs, Core Contributor at SoWork, and Co-Founder of DreanMedia, a web3 media agency. He is an HR Transformation and Metaverse expert who marries web3 technologies with workplace strategies. He has hosted 150+ HR tech and web3 webinars and speaks internationally. Josh earned his undergraduate degree in I/O psychology and a master's degree at Harvard University, where he incubated and sold an HR Tech startup. He has appeared in Harvard Business Review, Forbes, Bostinno, The Today Show, NBC, and FOX Business.
Alexei is founder of Pinnacle, a SaaS product providing personalized manager development in the flow of work. He is a certified executive coach and before founding Pinnacle, spent five years as CEO of an accelerator, worked in VC, and all told, coached or consulted with over 200 start-ups on four continents. He is a Fulbright scholar and has a Masters in Business from Stanford GSB.
Shahar Erez is the Co-founder & CEO of Stoke. In 2021, Stoke was acquired by Fiverr for $110M just 15 months after coming out of stealth mode. Shahar is a tech-scene veteran and serial entrepreneur in Israel and Silicon Valley. He has 20 years of executive experience in engineering, product, and marketing under his belt at companies like HP, VMware, and Kenshoo. He has a BA from IDC University and an MBA from the Technion Institute of Technology in Israel. Lastly, he is a proud father of 3, an amateur cyclist, and an avid reader.
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 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 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 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.
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 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 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.
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.
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 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 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.
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.
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 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.
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.
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 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.
Jimmy is responsible for working with portfolio companies on talent strategy focusing on organizational design and development as well as communication both within each company and across the portfolio. Prior to joining ParkerGale, Jimmy worked on talent strategy at Home Chef, a venture-backed meal kit company, and Bain & Company working with clients on a variety of engagements including growth strategy and organizational re-design. Earlier in his career, Jimmy worked in sales at Nortel Networks and as a teacher with Teach For America. Jimmy holds a BA in Philosophy from Northwestern University, an MEd from University of Missouri-St. Louis, and an MBA from Yale School of Management.
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 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 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Amit is the co-founder and CEO of WhoCo, a hiring company that helps startups hire better, faster. He began his career at MySpace, where he joined the early startup in an entry-level role and worked his way up to become COO when he was 25. After News Corp acquired MySpace, Amit left to found the pioneering machine-learning company, Gravity, which was acquired by AOL. There he served as President of AOL's $750M publisher platform business. Amit grew up in a farm town in South Dakota and studied mechanical engineering at Stanford.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 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.
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.
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.
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 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 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 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.
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.
I am on a mission to humanize the workplace. I work with the Conference Board's Fortune 500 corporations-members on rethinking their workplace strategies; lead Reframe.Work Inc. and consult on how to create inclusive workplaces through the use of technology, human-centered design, people analytics, and future-thinking; and founded an amazing community, a nonprofit extending the work horizon for women. Previously I transformed the workplace at the intersection of technology, analytics, and HR at Fidelity Investments, TIAA, IBM, Price Waterhouse, and PwC Consulting and their clients.
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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 is a venture builder, scale operator, community connector, and investor. He is the Managing Director of the Techstars Workforce Development Accelerator.
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.
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.
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 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 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 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.
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 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.
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.
Todd Olson is co-founder and CEO of Pendo, the most comprehensive product experience platform. A three-time entrepreneur, Olson teamed up with fellow product leaders and technologists from Red Hat, Cisco and Google to launch Pendo in October 2013. The Raleigh, N.C.-based company has since raised $356 million in venture capital, landed more than 2500 customers and now employs 900 people across eight offices globally. Pendo has appeared on the Forbes Cloud 100 and Inc. Best Workplaces lists for the last five years.
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.
Judy is a Principal at Owl Ventures, the largest VC fund focused on education and training technology. The fund invests in and supports companies that advance learning, skills development, and human capital across individuals and organizations. Prior to Owl, Judy helped start Bain Capital’s Double Impact fund and led the fund’s first investments in education and healthcare.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Jill is currently the Senior Human Resources Manager at Ease. She is passionate about building strategies and initiatives focused on solving business and people challenges, along with being fervent about building culture and employee engagement. Jill has demonstrated success for the last 30+ years in working across the business at all levels developing trust and building effective partnerships with all departments.When Jill isn’t working, she enjoys traveling with her husband Ken, and loves being surrounded by her awesome four children, their spouses, and her perfectly beautiful two granddaughters.
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 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.
Joseph Quan is the Founder & CEO of Knoetic, a platform that gives Chief People Officers both a category-leading people analytics engine, and the world's top network for 2,000+ CHROs from Datadog, Cloudflare, Brex, and more.
Knoetic provides People leaders with insights on metrics like attrition, DEI and headcount growth, then gives actionable recommendations on how to improve employee engagement and retention. Prior to founding Knoetic, Joseph helped start a Nike Innovation team and advised Microsoft & Facebook on their platform strategy. He’s also a Wharton, Berkeley, and Inc's 30 Under 30 list alumni.
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 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.
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 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.
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.
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 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 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.
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.
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.
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 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 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 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 is a passionate People executive who is focused on advancing workplace & performance culture, fostering DEI&B and advocating for organizational health & well-being. He is half British half Swiss, was born and raised in Hong Kong and has been in the US for over 18 years and fell into the People function upon landing on US soil. He has worked across a number of industries, in both generalist and specialist roles, before becoming a Chief People Officer/Head of HR. He is inspired by organizations and leaders that put their talent first, which is how he landed at GHJ.
Texas Career Business Leader And 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 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 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.
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 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”.
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.
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.
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 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.
Michael Walters currently serves as the Head of Human Resources for Samsung Semiconductor based in San Jose, CA. He leads end-to-end people processes for this $38B business inclusive of talent acquisition, organizational development, compensation, health & welfare and compliance initiatives managing a team of 55 in the United States.
Prior to his tenure with Samsung, Michael was the CHRO for Genoa Healthcare, the nation’s leading behavioral health specialty pharmacy company with over 550 pharmacies across the United States filling more than 20 million prescriptions per year in service of more than 1,000,000 individuals annually with yearly revenue of $3B. Michael also served in HR leadership roles in a wide variety of industries to include Roper Technologies, Microsoft, and Nielsen Entertainment. He holds an MBA with a concentration in Human Resources Management from Loyola Marymount University and a bachelor's in psychology from University of California, Los Angeles. He has taught the “HR Business Partner” course with the University of Washington from 2008 until 2020.
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 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.
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.
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 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.
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.
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.
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.
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 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.
