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.
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.
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
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.
Elizabeth Berman is the CHRO for Harris Blitzer Sports and Entertainment. She leads across all facets of human resources including talent management, change management, organizational design and performance, people analytics, training and development, payroll, benefits, and compensation. Elizabeth is a champion of culture as a strong foundation for company success. Her career includes leadership roles with revenue responsibility in both for-profit and non-profit, large enterprise and start-ups, across the hospitality, retail, and consumer products industries; with organizations such as Nike, Estee Lauder and Vevo. She has a track record of leading in rapidly changing environments and is passionate about achieving a company’s vision by attracting and developing top, diverse talent, and building extraordinary levels of employee engagement. Elizabeth has her Master’s in Industrial and Labor Relations and her Bachelor’s in Hotel Administration from Cornell University. She and her husband reside in the Princeton, NJ area with their two children.
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.
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.
Tony Buffum is VP of HR Client Strategy at Upwork. As a key member of the senior-level executive client strategy team, Buffum is responsible for accelerating growth of current and prospective Upwork enterprise clients, helping them solve HR challenges related to finance, procurement and talent transformation. Buffum is an accomplished HR professional with more than two decades of experience leading global HR teams as well as driving transformational change in company culture, organizational design, performance management, and employee integration and engagement. He joins Upwork following a series of noteworthy leadership positions including chief human resources officer (CHRO) at FLIR Systems, VP of global human resources at STANLEY Security, VP of human resources at Stanley Black & Decker and others. Buffum graduated from Cornell University with a BS in Industrial & Labor Relations and resides in Charleston, South Carolina.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Carolyn is Chief People Officer of Curology, which is a direct to consumer prescription skincare, specializing in acne and anti-aging. Prior to Curology, she was CPO, head of marketing and head of business development for Philz Coffee, a one cup at a time coffee chain across North America.
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.
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.
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 currently the global head of Live & Work Anywhere at Airbnb, ex global head of People Ops at Airbnb, HR tech geek, startup advisor, board member and a freelance executive coach with a passion for building scalable people functions to help change the world. He has had the privilege of working in various functions in a variety of industries across management consulting (Deloitte), in house Fortune 500s (Aon, JLL & GE), private equity (TPG Capital), hyper growth late stage firms (Airbnb) and his own startups (GoQuali & Supertek Scientific). He brings a unique perspective from each of his experiences to be a creative people & business leader.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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. In this role, he is responsible for the firm’s approach to 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. He also serves as an HR advisor for SemperVirens Venture Capital and PeopleTech Partners.
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 in 2000 and an MA and PhD in Organizational Psychology from Temple University in 2004.
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. Early in his career, he worked with the likes of Best Buy, Levi Strauss & Company and Gap Inc. Mark also spent two years living and working in Paris, France for Thomson/Technicolor. Most recently, Mark has chosen to focus his advisory work with under-estimated founders/CEOs and/or organizations focused on social impact.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Jen Paxton heads up all things People and Recruiting at Smile. Over the past 10 years, she has developed a passion for building and scaling startups; giving employees the structure and support they need to flourish and grow. She loves coaching managers, fostering a feedback culture, and building programs that will help develop a sense of belonging. In addition to her full-time role, she is Co-Founder of Jamyr a platform that scales video content for Recruiting and Onboarding. Jen is a mom of two girls, loves being outdoors, eating tacos, and drinking her weight in loose 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.
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.
Uzair Qadeer is Chief People Officer and a member of the management team at Carbon Health, where he oversees end-to-end human resources capabilities enabling employee experience for almost 3,000 employees.
Prior to Carbon Health, Qadeer was Chief Diversity Officer at Alexion Pharmaceuticals where he served on the company’s executive management team and built a market leading diversity function from the ground up. Before that, he served as a leader in Deloitte’s human capital consulting business where he focused on redefining every aspect of HR, including organizational development, culture, and talent management. Qadeer also worked at Bristol Myers Squibb in various roles of increasing responsibilities. Qadeer also taught at the MBA program at the State University of New Jersey.
Qadeer has a track record of helping organizations lead with innovative HR efforts. Qadeer, who also serves on the Board of Directors of Human Resources Leadership Forum, was recently named one of the Top 100 Chief Diversity Officers, and was called a “HR Futurist” by American Healthcare Leader Magazine. Qadeer is also founder of two revolutionary and widely adopted frameworks in HR: “5 Es of Employee Experience” and “10 Dials of Diversity”.
A truly global citizen, Qadeer speaks six languages and has lived in five countries including the United States, Italy, and Spain. Qadeer received his master’s degree as well as his B.A. and B.S. degrees from Pennsylvania State University.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Kelley serves as Founder & Executive Chairman of Hitch Works Inc., (hitch.works), a talent mobility platform that uses artificial intelligence and machine learning to match project-based opportunities to internal employee skill profiles. Kelley founded and commercialized Hitch while she was the Chief Innovation Officer and Human Resources Officer at HERE Technologies. She has more than 25 years of executive management and consulting experience in human resources, change management and corporate communications. Prior to HERE Technologies, Steven-Waiss was executive vice president, chief human resources officer, for Extreme Networks, Inc., and was responsible for the company’s global human capital strategies. She is on the board of FormFactor, Inc. (NASDAQ: FORM), the Chair of the Advisory Board for the Silicon Valley Education Foundation.
Lenke Taylor is the Chief People Officer at Level, America’s fastest growing 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.
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.
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.
