Chief Scientist, Human Resources and Organisational Design
Dr. Dieter Veldsman is an organizational psychologist with a passion for HR. He has over 15+ years of experience across the HR value chain
and lifecycle, having worked for and consulted with various multi-national corporations in Europe, Asia, and Africa. He has held the positions
of CHRO, Organizational Effectiveness Executive, and Organizational Design and Development Principal. He is a regular speaker at
international conferences and industry panels on Strategic HR, Future of Work, and Organisational Development. He co-hosts a monthly
podcast called “HR Hot Topics” that discusses actual events impacting the world of HR and interviews leading HR Practitioners as part of his
HR Dialogues Videocast series.
He is passionate about the development of the profession and guest lectures at various institutions while also holding the position of Senior
Research Associate at the University of Johannesburg. He has contributed to 50+ peer-reviewed articles, blogs and book chapters on the
Future of Work and HR, Organizational Development and Employee Experience.
He was awarded the CHRO of the year title by the CHRO Society of South Africa for 2021 and has been recognized in the categories of HR
Strategy and Leadership, HR Technology, and HR Innovation by various institutions. He was recognized as the Practitioner of the Year by the
Society of Industrial and Organisational Psychology of South Africa in 2018.
Currently, Dr Dieter Veldsman forms part of the Academy to Innovate HR (AIHR) as an HR and OD Thought Leader working towards the
continuous upskilling of 100 000 HR professionals by 2025. He is responsible for applied research, product development and engagement
with our member community that spans more than 15 000 students across 140 countries and working with our clients to reposition their HR
functions for the future.
Kim Crowder
CEO & Founder
Jan Laurijssen
HR Evangelist, Researcher & Consultant
Jan is a seasoned HR Evangelist, Researcher & Consultant at SDWorx and the University of Antwerp. He consults our clients on “future of work”, occasionally teaches and is a well-known speaker on the topic. He co-ordinates the research on “Next Generation Work” conducted by Prof Dr. Ans De Vos in the partnership with Antwerp management School. He’s particularly interested in the costs and benefits of contingent work and is looking for answers to the question: “why do companies compose their workforce as they do?”
Natalia Wallenberg
Chief Human Resources Officer
As the Chief Human Resources Officer at Ahold Delhaize, one of the world’s foremost food retail conglomerates, Natalia Wallenberg steers the company’s people strategy encompassing associate engagement, leadership, culture, DE&I, and talent development. Her seasoned expertise spans diverse sectors – agriculture, financial services, and real estate – honed across global landscapes including the United States, Switzerland, Russia, Belarus, UAE, and her current home, the Netherlands.
Natalia’s impressive journey led her through pivotal roles at renowned enterprises. During her nearly nine-year tenure at the agricultural technology giant Syngenta Group, she served as the Global Head of Human Resources for multiple business units and R&D. Her earlier contributions include impactful HR leadership at investment bank Renaissance Capital and IKEA.
Natalia’s influence extends beyond corporate realms, as evidenced by her role as a Board Member of the American Chamber of Commerce in Amsterdam. With an international outlook and a wealth of experience, Natalia Wallenberg leads the charge in steering Ahold Delhaize towards HR excellence.
Rajkarn Kaur Anand
Associate Director of Leadership Development
Rajkarn Kaur Anand, Associate Director of Leadership Development at Novo Nordisk, is an unwavering advocate for Learning and Development (L&D). With an insatiable curiosity, she delves into the intricacies of effective learning, constantly seeking ways to enhance organisational value.
With nearly two decades of L&D experience, Rajkarn’s journey spans diverse roles—assessing development needs, designing impactful programs, facilitating learning, and coaching individuals and teams to realize their potential. Her dynamic approach has made her an indispensable asset in creating a talent-driven culture. At the heart of Rajkarn’s professional ethos is a deep commitment to cultivating exceptional leadership. As the torchbearer for the development of Novo Nordisk’s senior-most leaders, she orchestrates visionary strategies that fuel personal and professional growth. Her unwavering dedication has earned her a prominent place within the organisation, where she diligently crafts a roadmap for leadership excellence.
Beyond the boardroom, Rajkarn’s passion for learning is a vibrant thread woven into the fabric of her personal life. United by a shared devotion to learning, she and her like-minded partner engage in spirited discussions on L&D that captivate the dinner table (much to the bemusement of their children). An avid explorer of innovative apps, she harnesses technology to unlock new dimensions of learning.”
*Disclaimer: The insights and perspectives shared by Rajkarn Kaur Anand in her engagements are based on her personal experiences and learnings in the field of Learning and Development (L&D). These views are solely her own and do not represent the official stance or opinions of her employer, Novo Nordisk. Any information, ideas, or opinions expressed by Rajkarn are independent of her affiliation with the organisation.
Dr. Tamara Friedrich
Associate Professor of Entrepreneurship and Innovation
Dr. Tamara Friedrich is an Associate Professor of Entrepreneurship and Innovation at Warwick Business School. She received her MS (2007) and PhD (2010) in Industrial and Organizational Psychology from the University of Oklahoma, and her BA (2005) in Psychology and Managerial Studies from Rice University.
Her primary research interests fall into the broad categories of creativity and leadership, however much of her recent research falls into the intersection of these two areas. For instance, she has studied how organisational leaders may initiate, support, and sustain innovative efforts through hiring, performance management, and creating a climate for creativity.
Rudolph Wontumi
Senior Vice President HR & Corporate Services
Rudolph Wontumi is a distinguished HR leader known for his remarkable career accomplishments across diverse industries. Currently serving as the Senior Vice President HR & Corporate Services at JCB International (Europe), Rudolph has successfully navigated through roles in management consulting, HR consulting, hospitality, and financial services. His expertise lies in crafting impactful HR strategies that drive business results, fostering a culture of excellence, and enhancing talent development. Rudolph’s visionary leadership has led to positive cultural transformations, increased retention rates, and a steadfast belief in the power of coaching to unlock individual and team potential. Rudolph Wontumi stands as a testament to the potential for HR professionals to transcend boundaries, reshape cultures, and champion organisational success.
Lene Trollnes
SVP Director Portfolio & Strategy
Lene Trollnes is an experienced professional in HR, business, and project management on a global scale. As SVP Director Portfolio & Strategy at Norsk Hydro, Lene brings extensive expertise and a proven track record of success. With a comprehensive understanding of HR at all organisational levels, both locally and globally, Lene excels in navigating complex challenges and driving organisational success. Her focus on diversity and inclusion, backed by an accredited certification, has led to the creation of inclusive workplaces that celebrate individuality and foster growth.
Lene’s leadership extends to board experience, including a nearly two-year tenure as chairman of a prominent Norwegian plant. She has also played a key role in project management, successfully leading the integration of two large global companies.
Agata Olempiejuk-Combaz
VP Human Resources Technical Operations
Agata Olempiejuk-Combaz is a seasoned HR leader, with a strong focus on talent management & acquisition, learning & development, and organizational design. As the VP HR for Technical Operations at Ipsen, she brings extensive expertise and a proven track record of success in these HR critical areas within multicultural and matrix environments. With a background rooted in HR within the pharmaceutical sector and business school education, Agata understands the importance of attracting and nurturing top talent and of putting in place sustainable organizations at global and local levels. She excels in implementing talent management strategies to identify and develop high-potential individuals. Agata’s deep understanding of the pharmaceutical industry allows her to align talent acquisition efforts with business objectives, ensuring the right individuals join the team to drive success.
Recognizing the importance of continuous learning, Agata is committed to fostering a culture of development within her teams. She spearheads learning and development initiatives, leveraging innovative approaches and technologies to enhance employee skills and capabilities. Agata’s dedication to empowering individuals through mentoring/coaching and professional growth creates a dynamic and engaged workforce. Finally, she collaborates with cross-functional teams to align talent strategies with business goals, fostering a cohesive and high-performing workforce across departments.
Kim Dabbs
Global Vice President of ESG & Social Innovation
Kim Dabbs is a distinguished professional serving as the Global Vice President of ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) & Social Innovation at Steelcase. With a strong focus on fostering belonging and purpose, she has emerged as a prominent leader in this field. Kim possesses a diverse range of expertise as a thought leader, cultural researcher, author, and speaker.
Throughout her career, Kim has spearheaded numerous social impact, innovation, and education initiatives on a global scale. Her work has made a profound impact in diverse communities across the world. Kim’s contributions extend beyond her professional role, as she actively engages in presenting her insights on belonging and purpose at prestigious events and venues. Her speaking engagements include prominent platforms such as TEDx, MIT, the Guggenheim, the Aspen Institute, and The Drucker Forum.
With her deep knowledge and experience in driving social innovation, Kim Dabbs continues to inspire and shape conversations around belonging and purpose, making a positive difference in organizations and communities worldwide.
Zsofia Pajor
Global HR Director, Technology
Zsofia Pajor is a distinguished professional in the field of human resources and holds the position of Global HR Director at Adidas. With a strong focus on performance development and technology, Zsofia plays a vital role in shaping the talent strategy and enhancing employee performance across the organisation.
Based in Nuremberg, Bavaria, Germany, Zsofia brings a wealth of experience and expertise to her role. She has been instrumental in driving the implementation of innovative performance development programs at Adidas, ensuring that employees are equipped with the necessary tools and resources to excel in their roles. Additionally, her recent focus on technology highlights her commitment to leveraging digital solutions to enhance HR processes and create a more efficient and effective employee experience.
With her global perspective and extensive experience in HR, Zsofia Pajor continues to drive the success of Adidas by aligning performance development strategies with the evolving needs of the organisation. Her dedication to fostering a culture of excellence and her commitment to leveraging technology make her a valuable asset to the company’s HR team and contribute to the overall success of Adidas in the dynamic and competitive sportswear industry.
Kate Williams
Director of Diversity and Inclusion (DE&I)
Kate Williams is the Director of Diversity and Inclusion (DE&I) at Publicis Groupe UK. With a background as the former associate director of the workplace team at LGBT+ charity Stonewall, she brings a wealth of experience and expertise to her role. As the head of diversity and inclusion, Kate is responsible for driving diversity initiatives across Publicis Groupe’s agencies and the wider industry.
To support her efforts, Kate works closely with diversity and inclusion champions to develop and implement strategies that foster a more diverse and inclusive culture, enabling employees to thrive.
Kate’s journey in the field of diversity and inclusion began at Stonewall in 2013, where she started as the head of empowerment programs. Her dedication and success led to her promotion to head of private sector memberships, and later to the position of associate director of the workplace team in August of the previous year. During her time at Stonewall, Kate provided guidance and counsel to companies worldwide, assisting them in developing and implementing effective diversity and inclusion strategies and policies.
With her specialist skills and extensive experience in collaborating with clients across various sectors, Kate is well-equipped to augment and deliver Publicis Groupe’s plans for fostering an inclusive and diverse environment. Through her passion and expertise, she strives to create a workplace culture that embraces diversity, empowers individuals, and promotes the success and well-being of all employees.
Dan Hutchinson
Vice President
With a steadfast focus on transformation and leadership, Dan Hutchinson has forged a successful career spanning multiple industries and geographies, including energy, steel manufacturing, retail, and management consultancy. A strong believer in empowering individuals and helping them reach their full potential while facilitating enriching life experiences, he has consistently prioritized the well-being and development of others.
Currently entrusted with the responsibility of leading HR within Schneider’s UK&I Zone, Hutchinson is spearheading efforts to harmonise business growth objectives with a transformative cultural shift. His mission is to ensure the flourishing of the workforce amidst this exciting phase of expansion and change.
Dr. Redzo Mujcic
Associate Professor of Behavioural Science
Redzo Mujcic, Associate Professor of Behavioural Science at Warwick Business School, is a passionate advocate for employee wellbeing and its impact on workplace dynamics. Since joining the University of Warwick in February 2019, he has dedicated his research to applied economics and quantitative social science, with a strong focus on understanding and improving human feelings in both the workplace and society.
Dr. Mujcic’s research delves into the intricate realm of employee wellbeing, examining concepts such as job satisfaction, happiness, envy, extreme distress, and mental health. By employing various methods, including large longitudinal surveys and natural field experiments, he uncovers valuable insights into the factors that shape these emotions and their consequences on individuals and organisations.
His work, published in esteemed journals such as the Economic Journal, Social Science & Medicine, and the American Journal of Public Health, has gained international recognition. Notably, Dr. Mujcic’s research findings have been featured in renowned media outlets, including the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, The Atlantic, CNN, Forbes, and Time Magazine.
Through his dedication to understanding the intricate dynamics of wellbeing, Dr. Mujcic contributes to the growing body of knowledge that shapes organisational policies and practices, ultimately promoting employee wellbeing and creating healthier, more productive work environments.
Chris Yates
Chief Talent Officer
Karthik Varatharaj
Global Chief Talent Officer
Victoria Pelletier
Senior Executive, C-Suite Transformational Leader
Tyrone Smith Jr.
Global Head of People Analytics, Research, ESG, Technology, & Insights
DK Bartley
Chief Diversity Officer
Jarvis Sam
Former CDEIO, Nike, Founder
Tanika Scott
VP, Lead Business Execution Consultant (DE&I Focused)
Performance-driven and accomplished leader with more than 25 years experience in contact center management experience with primary focus on leading strategies to improve business performance, process improvement and the customer experience. Adept at leading high performing teams, building and deepening intrinsic relationships and finding solutions to complex issues. In her current role at Wells Fargo, she, with a talent for deepening relationships is finding solutions to complex issues. Able to work independently, yet proficient in collaboration with all levels of leadership. Long-standing history serving in leadership roles within employee resource networks including event planning, budgeting, marketing, risk assessment and success metrics.
Njsane Courtney
Vice President, Human Resources
Njsane is an experienced HR executive and former U.S. Army officer with 20 years of global experience. He is currently the Vice President of Human Resources at the American Bureau of Shipping (ABS), where he leads all HR Operations for North and South America, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. he was recently appointed as ABS’s first Global DE&I Officer.
Njsane is the host of the monthly podcast “My Friend in HR” and is also a certified DE&I professional.
He graduated from the University of Houston with a BBA in Computer Information Systems and is pursuing his Master of Business Administration from the University of Illinois.
Adam Hickman
Vice President of Learning & Organizational Development
As a dynamic, hands-on, highly technical leader with a wealth of knowledge and experience building education, training, and organizational development programs, Dr. Hickman champions complex projects in research and development that uncover the need for continuing education and training throughout the organization.Dr. Hickman is a visionary leader who delivers growth and profit through technological innovations, customer experience, leadership development, and networking. He is a well-known published scholar with expertise in organizational and leadership development at Partners, a Walt Disney Company.
Yuri Kruman
Tech CHRO/CPO + C-Suite Coach
Yuri is a 3X, multi-award-winning CHRO and C-suite leadership coach, Top 5 Thought Leader and Influencer on Global HR and Entrepreneurship. CEO of HR, Talent & Systems Consulting, an industry leader consulting Fortune 500 companies and tech startups on strategic HR, he’s likewise a contributor to Fast Company, Entrepreneur, Forbes, Newsweek, CEO World and other top publications, as well as a frequent speaker for Fortune 500 companies (Google, EY, Medtronic), universities (Columbia, UPenn, NYU) and VC-backed startups. Yuri has authored / co-authored 9 books, including the award-winning, 4-volume “Be Your Own Commander-in-Chief” and “What Millennials Really Want From Work and Life.”
Deanne Harrison
EVP, Global People & Organizational Management
Deanne Harrison is the EVP, Global People & Organizational Management at IntouchCX, a leading global BPO specializing in customer support, advanced technology, and customized strategies. With over 20,000 team members worldwide, Deanne focuses on scaling IntouchCX’s culture through continuously evolving their people, programs, and solutions. She emphasizes DEI and Well-being & Resilience to provide growth opportunities for individuals and empower them to reach their potential. Before joining IntouchCX, Deanne spent over 15 years in management consulting for executives, boards of directors, and organizations, providing guidance on organizational development, guiding organizations to reconcile differing perspectives, and helping people leaders to create a harmonious and inclusive work environment for all employees.
As Chief People Culture Brand & Communications Officer, Tara Lockyer oversees human resources, change management and communications for ATB Financial (Alberta’s largest home-grown financial institution with a 5000+ talent count).
Lockyer currently serves as Advisor to the Official Administrator of AHS; and member to the Premier’s Skills Council. Prior to ATB, she was Manulife’s Global Head of Leadership and Organizational Effectiveness and CIBC’s Head of Enterprise Business Engagement and Implementation for Global HR. Tara’s wealth of skills and experience in people leadership perfectly equips her to help senior leaders understand and navigate generational differences in the workplace.
Kimberly Ayers Shariff
Executive Vice President, Strategy for Diversity, Equity & Inclusion
Kimberly Shariff leads the implementation of Penguin Random House’s companywide DE & I strategy, overseeing the development of a broad-based vision for the company’s future, ensuring the creation of books for everyone, by everyone, out of a culture where all feel welcome and empowered.
Having contributed her knowledge to major platforms like the American Ballet Theatre, the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts and Black Entertainment Television, Kimberly has been commended for her keen ability to analyze the existing infrastructure of complex organizations, and then implement strategy to enhance inclusive culture, operational efficiency and channels of communication, without sacrificing culture, artistic integrity or entrepreneurial spirit.
Mercedes (Meche) Escala
VP Talent, Learning and Employee Experience
Mercedes Escala leads Talent, Learning & Employee Experience at Genesys, a 7000+ employee strong software firm that sells customer experience and call center technology to mid-sized and large businesses. Leading regional and global teams in both generalist and specialist areas, Escala embraces challenges with curiosity and passion, leading the transformation around skills, while driving the best employee experience.
A people leader professional with over 30 years’ experience, Mercedes is superbly suited to guide senior leaders in upskilling their internal talent pool to become an impactful and competitive force, through aligning them with their company’s overall performance management and talent development goals.
Amanda Miller
VP, Total Rewards
Amanda Miller is a skilled HR professional with a focus on Rewards & Benefits and Employee Experience & Engagement. With extensive leadership experience in Compensation, Benefits, Executive Compensation, HR Systems, Data & Analytics, People Management Operations and Recruitment, Miller has demonstrated the acumen to drive Total Rewards at Trinity Industries (North America’s premier provider of railcar products and services), ensuring that their talent force of 3000+ employees feel valued and engaged while receiving the appropriate compensation and benefits for their work. Holding a bachelor’s degree in professional human resources Certification (PHR) and Certified Compensation Professional Certification (CCP), Miller is excellently positioned to assist senior leaders in developing an effective total reward strategy by identifying the key goals and objectives of the business and aligning the total reward package with those goals.
Sarah Waltman
VP, Global Talent Management
Sarah Waltman is a seasoned HR professional with expertise in Talent Management & Performance, Transformation & Change, and Organizational Development & Effectiveness. Waltman has a proven record of accomplishment, improving the performance of global businesses by designing learning structures and comprehensive talent initiatives, such as succession planning, performance management, development plans, and behavior assessments. She excels at aligning management and employee development training strategies, ensuring that the organization is at peak performance. With her arsenal of skills and experience, Sarah is supercharging productivity within Dentsply Sirona, the world’s largest manufacturer of professional dental products and technologies- with a workforce spanning 9000+ employees.
Marni McDowell
Senior Director of Global Health & Wellbeing
Marni McDowell is a highly experienced professional who has dedicated her career to promoting Health & Wellbeing, Employee Experience & Engagement within organizations. Currently serving as the Senior Director of Global Health & Wellbeing at Micron Technology (a 40 000+ strong Fortune 500 leader in innovative memory solutions), Marni leads the wellbeing, experience, and team member advocacy teams. Holding a PhD in organizational psychology, as well as a Master of Science in Wellness Promotion, Marni is well-equipped to address the complex issues around employee health and wellbeing. Having spent the past 15 years in corporate health and wellbeing and having worked with some of the most trusted brands including Intel and Apple Inc, Marni has acquired extensive knowledge and skills that enable her to ensure the health and wellbeing of employees while enhancing their overall experience and engagement.
Andrew Davis
Executive Vice President and Global Chief People Experience Officer
Andrew Davis is the Executive Vice President and Global Chief Human Resources Officer at Sony Music Entertainment based in New York. In his role, Davis is charged with leading the Company’s global human resources function; including talent acquisition, talent management, compensation and benefits, as well as organizational development and corporate strategy. Davis will take on the key role of championing a culture of excellence and innovation across Sony Music’s global operations in 60+ countries.
Throughout his 22+ years in Human Resources, Davis has held several key positions of increasing responsibility at Yum Brands, Best Buy Company, The Home Depot and most recently served as Chief Human Resources and Inclusion Officer for Lennar Corporation where he was responsible for the areas of business transformation, talent management, organizational and performance management, learning and development as well as benefits for the Company.
Prior to Lennar, he spent more than a decade leading human resources teams and strategies at The Coca-Cola Company. During his tenure at the Company, he held several key positions of increasing responsibility including leading the Southeast Asia Human Resource function while based in Cambodia. Additionally, he served as the Global Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer where he was instrumental in driving strategic initiatives across 200+ countries.
Davis serves as an independent Board Director and Compensation Committee Chair for Adventist Health, one of the largest Westcoast healthcare systems, based in Roseville, CA. He is also a member of Emory’s Goizueta’s Business School Corporate Advisory Board, and a governing body member of Florida’s Chief Human Resource Officers’ Association. Davis is also a regular guest lecturer for business schools throughout the Atlanta and Miami area.
Davis has been honored and featured by multiple organizations, including being named Emory Goizueta’s Business School Centennial Honoree; CAA World Congress of Sports featured speaker; Bentonville Film and Essence Music Festivals featured speaker; and Black Enterprise Top Executive in Corporate Diversity. He is the recipient of the Caribbean American Cultural Arts Foundation Captain of Industry Award and Honoree for the South Florida Business & Wealth’s 2021 Excellence in Human Resource Awards.
Davis received his Bachelor of Science in Organizational Management from Washington Adventist University in Takoma Park, Maryland and his MBA from Emory University – Goizueta School of Business in Atlanta, Georgia. Davis also holds several Human Resources certifications in assessment systems and skills training.
Davis is a native of Jamaica, West Indies and proudly calls himself a ‘Ja-Merican’
Jeremy Gautrey-Jones
Assistant Director, Employee Experience
Justin Mass
Senior Director, Instructional Design & External Development
Debra Corey is a highly experienced and award-winning HR consultant, world-class speaker and five-time best-selling author who has been named as one of the top 101 global employee engagement influencers. After over 20 years working as an HR leader for global companies, she now ‘pays it forward’ by inspiring and helping others develop and deliver HR strategies in a rebellious way, pushing the boundaries and challenging the status quo to truly drive employee engagement.
Oluyomi Okunowo
SVP Total Rewards & People Operations
Helen Ouseley
Global Head of Diversity & Inclusion
Helen is Global Head of Diversity, Inclusion and Wellbeing at Freshfields. Since joining in 2017 she has led the global D&I team and is part of both the Responsible Business and HR leadership teams. Helen is responsible for the firm’s global D&I and wellbeing strategy including the design and implementation of targets, programming, engagement and diverse talent management initiatives. She advises colleagues and clients on best practice and has over 20 years of experience in HR, talent and diversity and inclusion having previously worked at Goldman Sachs and Baker McKenzie. Helen is a mental health first aider and has a Masters in HR.
Ed Fothergill
Director, Leadership & Development
Eva Morales
CEO and Founder
Eva is a passionate sustainability professional with over 15 years of experience in sustainability and the circular economy in the private and not-for-profit sectors. Eva is the CEO and founder of Circular Advisors, helping organisations build partnerships and implement circular economy business models and sustainability strategies. Eva is also Chief Editor and Co-Founder of Hyve Forum, a Think Tank and advisory group bridging academic research to business action for sustainable futures. Eva has worked with NGOs and multinational organisations in energy, publishing, finance, technology, professional services, and international development programs. She managed the UK government department for international development (DFID) at PwC, where she drove sustainable development and strategic growth with DFID-funded programmes.
Eva completed her postgraduate studies in Sustainability Business Leadership at Cambridge University and is currently a programme leader in the circular economy and sustainability executive education programme at Cambridge Judge Business School. Among other accomplishments, Eva also sits on the advisory boards of tech start-ups and business enterprises tackling climate change.
Matt Elliott
Chief People Officer
Dr. Florida Starks
SVP, Chief Diversity Officer
Florida is a certified DE&I leader on a mission to inspire awareness and action to change by leveraging her experience to help other become ambassadors of change. She is currently the SVP, Chief Diversity Officer at Pearson where she leads a team in creating and delivering strategies that reflect equity in all operations. Florida has worked with highly recognized companies including Conagra Brands, Verizon Communications, and Best Buy where she was responsible for revitalizing organizational ambitions to be the model for inclusive excellence.
Amelie Villeneuve
Global Head of People Capability
Amelie is currently Global Head of People Capability for Standard Chartered Bank, building and
accelerating the learning across the bank for building the best experts for today and building
global citizens and CEOs for the long term. She also leads SCB’s focus on reskilling and building
future skills.
Before SCB, Amelie was Global Head of UBS University, and before this, Global Head of
Business Leadership Development for Google. Amelie spent nearly 20 years as a consultant, first
in mergers and acquisitions, then at Duke Corporate Education and The Corporate Executive
Board.
Amelie has been fascinated by transformation at market, organisational and individual level since
the beginning of her career on a trading floor in Hong Kong during the Asian Financial Crisis. She
has dedicated her work since then to helping clients and organisations see and seize opportunity
through turbulence. She has three children and is a competitive amateur horse rider in her spare
time
Elly Tomlins
Chief People Officer
Elly joined Britvic in February 2022 and is responsible for the design and execution of the People Strategy for the group, including talent management, organisational change and capability, diversity, inclusion and wellbeing, and reward.
Elly has considerable expertise in developing progressive talent strategies, delivering innovative employee experiences, and building and scaling culture transformation. She was most recently VP Culture & People Strategy at Tate & Lyle PLC and formerly the Group Talent & Organisational Development Director and HR Director for Group Functions at Whitbread PLC. She also held a series of international and global roles across talent, inclusion and diversity and organisational change at Thomson Reuters Corporation.
Before entering HR Elly was a management consultant and holds a MA and MPhil in Historical Studies from Cambridge University.
Trayonna Floyd Hales
Director, Talent & Performance
Trayonna Floyd Hales is director of talent and performance for Warner Bros. Discovery (formerly WarnerMedia), a premier global media and entertainment company. Trayonna currently leads a team supporting the talent and performance management experience of 30,000+ employees globally.
In previous roles, she developed talent and leadership development strategies for major defense companies including BAE Systems and Northrop Grumman. She is also a 2022 Brandon Hall Silver Award winner for her innovative work in leadership development. Trayonna has been published in ATD Magazine (April 2019), honored as a 2021 Northern Virginia 40 Under 40 Honoree and as a 2019 ATD “Up & Coming” Talent Development Professional and is a 2019 graduate of Leadership Fairfax and the chair of the Young Professionals Advisory Council (YPAC) at Cornerstones, a non-profit based in Reston, Va.
Tashi Theisman
Vice President, Global Benefits
Tashi Theisman is the Vice President, Global Benefits for PayPal. She is responsible for the strategic and operational delivery of global benefits.
Tashi has significant experience in strategic development, design, implementation, and ongoing management of benefit programs. She has managed all aspects of both active and retiree benefit programs for large, complex organizations. She also has a depth of expertise with team leadership, merger, acquisition and divestiture end-to-end delivery, Human Resources management and total reward programs.
Prior to working at PayPal, Tashi worked as the Vice President of Global Benefits and Employee Mobility at HP, the Global Director of Benefits for Dell Inc., Director of Regional HR for Dell Inc., and has held various roles in benefits and HR at Hewlett Packard Company, BP, Compaq, and Kellogg Brown and Root.
Tashi enjoys mentoring kids and young adults and has served as a Board Member At Large for the Girl Scouts of Central Texas, a mentor and volunteer for Leander ISD, and mentor for the Dell Social Innovation Challenge and Dell Education Challenge.
Tashi is a graduate of Baylor University with a B.S. in Psychology. She is based in the Austin, Texas area, where she lives with her husband, daughter, and two dogs Teddy and Maisy.
Quentin Lemarié
Learning Development Director
Quentin supports Coursera’s clients in the development of their Digital Learning strategies.
With his experience advising senior HR leaders on Technology and Strategy for the past 7 years at CEB, Linkedin and Gartner, Quentin is convinced that Life-long learning and growth culture are some of the most important life’s skill and the key to thrive in changing times.
Sapna Harichand
People and Culture Transformation Strategist, Former Gap, Former Estee Lauder
Carol Sinko
Senior Vice President, Marcel Classes Global Lead
Carol Sinko leads Publicis Groupe’s global learning platform, Marcel Classes. She oversees a global team of learning and development experts and drives the strategic direction of global learning initiatives.
Marcel Class.es is the home of more than 30,000 live and online learning opportunities, integrated material from third-party courseware providers, and 98,000 users worldwide.
Carol has more than 20 years of experience in learning and development. She holds a bachelor’s degree in history from Northwestern University. She has been a member of the eLearning Guild and the Association of Talent Development in Chicago (ATDChi) and has earned the Workplace Learning and Performance Institute (WLPI), Chief Learning Officer (CLO) Symposium, and Future Workplace AI4HR certificates, demonstrating her advanced expertise in adult learning theory.
Alastair Gill
Founder, CPO, Leadership Coach
Alastair Gill is an experienced people leader, award winning speaker and certified leadership coach. In his last role as Head of People at giffgaff, he helped build an innovative culture in a fast-paced and growing organisation. Now as Founder at Alchemy Labs, he focusses on enabling other business to develop their own creative people strategies, that put experience at the core.
Lesley Wilkinson
Chief Talent Officer
Lesley joined Experian as Chief Talent Officer in August 2021 to support the hiring, development and movement of our talent. In line with our ambition to become one of the Top 25 Great Places to work in the world, we are truly committed to creating an environment where we can all build our skills, develop, grow and be a force for good. Lesley is passionate about the role that organisations play in helping individuals fulfil their potential, and the role that unlocking people’s potential plays in an organisation’s succes.
Lesley joined us from ING, where she was Chief Talent Officer, creating talent approaches to match the organisation’s Agile design. She has supported the leadership teams of a number of start-ups from a broad range of sectors, as they set up their talent for scale.
Hannah Waters
Vice President Global Wellbeing & International Benefits
Hannah is a highly regarded, energetic, authentic, and ethical leader. She has a proven track record of delivering organizational improvement in complex and challenging environments.
Initially starting her career as an exercise science professional, Hannah migrated into HSE positions in the resources sector gaining hands-on experience in oil and gas, rail, construction, and refineries. Hannah was quickly recognized as an inspiring leader with strong strategic and operational acumen, which led to her promotion to Senior HSE Leadership roles and ultimately being selected as an Executive Advisor to the CEO, which was a role based in Dallas, Texas.
Hannah’s current leadership position with JACOBS sees her providing strategic guidance to key senior personnel and the business, developing leading-edge organizational wellbeing programs, delivering continuous improvement and enhanced performance outcomes, identification of key risk areas, and implementing of globally integrated Total Reward offerings. She also plays a key role in general business governance, changes in management approach, and strategy development and implementation.
Hannah’s passion for organizational health and wellness has seen the development of a supportive environment at Jacobs that has become a cornerstone of the overall employee health and wellness by promoting positive mental health at work, addressing both individual risk factors and broader organizational and environmental issues. This is now a formal program branded a ‘mental health matters
Dr. Beth Kaplan Kondonijakos
VP, Global Leadership Development & Enablement
Dr. Beth Kaplan Kondonijakos is a researcher and storyteller with expertise in belonging, belonging in the workplace, and workplace trauma. Beth is currently conducting research and supporting the development of these areas as they inform the future of work. She is a big picture thinker and creative storyteller with 15 years of experience in learning and leadership strategy and is proven at improving retention and transforming company culture.
Beth is currently the global head of leader development and enablement at Dassault Systemes. Prior to this, she started leader development at Salesforce and is credited as a thought leader in this space. Beth holds an MSE.d and ED.D in Learning and Leadership Strategy from The University of Pennsylvania.
Beth lives in Pennsylvania with her husband Steve and their 2 boys.
Keynote speaker to be announced soon
Tara Clarkson
Global Head of Talent Management
Senior representative from
Jill Cotton
Career Trends Expert
Jill Cotton is a career trends expert and the PR & Marketing Manager for Glassdoor across EMEA. With 20 years communications experience, she is passionate about creating a more equal work environment and believes workplace transparency is the key to achieving this. Working with the Glassdoor Economic Research team, Jill uses data to identify trends across employee and employer experiences. She has commented on a range of career-related topics and has been featured by the BBC, Insider, Marie Claire, Yahoo!, Daily Telegraph, Metro, Sky News and more.
Juliana Saad
VP Talent Management, L&D, DEIB
Juliana holds global responsibility for Talent Management, L&D and Diversity at DHL eCommerce Solutions, a division of the Deutsche Post DHL Group. Based in Bonn-Germany, her role comprises the creation of global programs and operationalization of processes to support country HR in various locations across Europe, Asia, and the US. Prior to her current position, she has worked +10 years in different roles in DPDHL such as Comp & Ben, HRD and Communications and 6 years in her home country Brazil with tender management and market research. Juliana is fascinated about people development, well-being and positive leadership.
Regina Lawless
Director of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion
Regina Lawless joined Meta in November of 2020 as Director of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion for Instagram. Her role has since expanded and she now leads the DEI team for Meta’s Family of Apps, including Instagram, Facebook, WhatsApp and Messenger.
With a breadth of HR experience across industries, Regina brings a creative perspective to her work in DEI. Prior to Meta, she served as the Global Director of Diversity, Equality and Inclusion at Micron and led the creation of their diversity curriculum and spearheaded talent initiatives to mitigate bias in interviews and performance discussions.
Regina grew up in an underserved community that bordered some of the most affluent zip codes in the country. Growing up experiencing inequality firsthand makes her determined to work toward creating equal opportunity in the workplace and the world.
In 2020, Regina was appointed as a founding Advisory Council Member of University of San Francisco’s new Engineering Program and was appointed to the Board of World Women Foundation in 2021. She is a graduate of California State University, Sacramento in Communication Studies and holds a Master of Science degree in Organization Development from University of San Francisco. Regina is a Bay Area native and currently resides there with her son. She is an avid reader, loves listening to music and podcasts and practicing yoga.
Peter Collyer
Chief People Officer
Peter has invested 30 years in retail and consumer-facing businesses with 25 of those in Human Resources, People, and Organisation Design.
His multi-sector experience includes Resort Condominiums International, Yamaichi International, Oasis Fashion, Disney Consumer Products, and Claire’s Accessories in North America, before returning to the UK as People Experience Director for ASOS.COM. He is currently Chief People Officer for Ted Baker PLC where he is responsible for Sustainability, Ethics, and all things People and Culture related.
He recognizes the evolving “world of work” is all about embracing life as a “whole” and today’s emerging talent and a multi-generational workforce provide the backdrop for a rich and rewarding experience, where he strives to make a difference. He aspires to help others identify with their purpose, connect with their individuality and unlock their passion.
Trevor Walker
Vice President Learning & Organizational Development
Trevor is a purpose-driven senior HR executive with proven experience building and leading HR functions at the local and enterprise level for large complex multi-state organizations. A trusted advisor and coach to senior leaders and leadership teams with a unique business-focused lens applied to deliver results through aligned talent and teams, leading through all aspects of the talent lifecycle. Demonstrated ability to lead and navigate highly matrixed organizations through full-scale organizational re-designs and cultural transformations delivering on key business and talent strategies while optimizing HR systems, processes, and practices
Ann Perrins
Vice President, Strategy & Culture at GKN Automotive
Ann joined GKN Automotive in 2020, at a time of transformation following the Melrose acquisition. Her job was to establish and lead a new people strategy, and to build a culture to reflect both the extraordinary heritage of this 250 year old company, and a new future. She came to GKN Automotive with a sense of adventure, following 16 years at BP leading numerous HR teams and transformation programmes, living and working across many countries. Seeing so much change in the 2020s, Ann is keen to keep learning what inspires people now to join and stay with the best companies.
Kirstie Loveridge
Executive Vice President, People & Culture at AEG Europe
Kirstie joined AEG Europe in March 2011. In her role, she is responsible for developing, and executing the people strategy and teams across AEG Europe in support of the overall business plan and strategic direction of the business. A pragmatic thinker who works in partnership with the top team, ensuring that the organisation’s values are reflected in people-oriented decisions. Kirstie is an accomplished Human Resources professional with more than 20 years of commercial and generalist experience; gained largely within the Sports, Leisure, Events and Live Entertainment industries. In short, a passionate (and disruptive) people experience enthusiast who encourages others to work hard, do your best and be happy.
Shwetha Anandan
Leader of Talent Development at Brightcove
With a natural curiosity for human behavior, Shwetha is a change strategist who loves to collaborate globally on creative solutions.
Shwetha’s strengths in the agile methodology, adult learning, and relationship building has led her career path through a variety of focus areas including insurance operations, project management, cyber security, pharmaceuticals, and human resources. She believes that an organization’s strongest asset is the employees. Therefore, equipping employees with the “human skills” has always been a priority for Shwetha.
Shwetha leads the Talent Development function at Brightcove ensuring employees have the resources they need to be successful in their roles.
Outside of Brightcove, you will find Shwetha embracing nature, pond side in New Hampshire, solving an escape room, or swinging a kettlebell (or two!).
Yasar Ahmad
Global Vice President of Talent at HelloFresh
An accomplished people leader with experience in various HR roles, with a passion for Talent Acquisition, Talent Management, Inclusion & Diversity, Learning &Development and Employers Branding. Across Yasar’s career, including roles at Zalando, Wipro and Wipro Digital, he has been strategic in embracing digital innovation and automation to transform organisations HR / People functions. Yasar is a member of the RL100 and committed speaker on industrial challenges and creating human-shaped experiences. He joined his team in winning the 2019 HRD Award for Diversity & Inclusion and the 2018 Award for Innovative Recruitment and On-boarding. Yasar is currently the Global Vice President of Talent at HelloFresh.
David James
Podcast Host, L&D Expert
David is host of The Learning & Development Podcast, a prominent writer and a conference speaker on topics around modern and digital L&D.
David has been a people development professional since the late 1990s, in sectors including Finance & Banking, Retail, Media and Entertainment, most notably as Director of Talent, Learning & OD for The Walt Disney Company across Europe, the Middle East & Africa.
Award-winning Psychologist and bestselling HR author
Gethin is an award-winning psychologist and bestselling HR author and has been featured in Forbes, The Guardian, The Sun, and The Financial Times. Gethin has been listed as one of the world’s top 101 Global Employee Experience Influencers for the last two years running, a frequent winner of HR’s most influential and an Inspiring Leader 2021.
In 2018, Gethin published his first book – the bestseller ‘A World of Good: Lessons From Around the World in Improving the Employee Experience’ and in 2022 co-authored his second ‘Das Menschliche Büro – The Human(e) Office’. His latest book ‘A Work in Progress: Unlocking Wellbeing to Create More Sustainable and Resilient Organisations’ is available from September.
Jennifer Kartono is Senior Vice President of People, Organizational Strategy & Culture at Iron Mountain, a global information management services company with 24,000 employees in 60 countries. Iron Mountain serves 95% of the Fortune 1000 companies among its 225,000 customers worldwide.
In a watershed year for the company, Jennifer leads Iron Mountain’s approach to employee engagement and talent management, including partnering with the business to drive large-scale growth and advance a stronger-than-ever culture of diversity and inclusion. To achieve success, Iron Mountain leverages Jennifer’s 22 years of Human Resources leadership in change management, organizational effectiveness, leader development, dynamic workforce planning, and reward strategies.
Prior to Iron Mountain, Jennifer was responsible for global recruiting and strategic business partnerships in the technology industry, including in client relationship management leadership roles.
Jennifer holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Denver.
Jessica Muhlenberg
Vice President of Global Benefits, Well-Being & Mobility
Jessica Muhlenberg is the Vice President of Global Benefits, Wellbeing & Mobility for VF Corporation, one of the world’s largest apparel and footwear companies, including brands such as Vans, The North Face, Timberland, and Dickies. She has been responsible for the strategy, management, and administration of health, welfare, and work/life benefit programs for tens of thousands of employees over her career. She is expertly positioned to guide fellow people leaders on how to approach sensitive topics and implement the necessary tools to run a successful wellbeing program.
Kim Sullivan
Chief People Officer
It isn’t every human resource executive who can transform an HR organization to help lead through a high-level of activity and engagement while integrating augmented strategies to help position a company for further growth. But this is Kim Sullivan’s signature offering as the Chief People Officer for Concentrix. Her extensive career has included a special mix of strong business acumen and the desire to develop people, while identifying the business drivers and complex issues of every organization she’s worked with. Previously, Kim served as the Vice President and Chief People Officer at Kaiser Permanente Washington where she modernized the HR function through a more efficient HR operating model, redesigning and repositioning teams. She has also held senior management positions with The University of Texas System, Walgreens, and Marathon Petroleum.
Kim is a thought leader on cultural transformation, strategic workforce integration and business planning, and human capital initiatives. She holds a master’s degree in human resources development from the University of Houston and a bachelor’s degree in speech communications and organizational psychology from Texas Southern University.
Donald Knight
Chief People Officer
Donald Knight is currently Chief People Officer at Greenhouse Software, having also held senior HR roles at Edelman and Equifax. As a strategic people leader with over 14 years of experience leading hiring, nurturing, and optimization of talent at a global level, Donald will share several successful strategies to thrive whilst navigating the tough talent landscape.
April Arnzen
SVP & Chief People Officer
April Arnzen is senior vice president and chief people officer at Micron Technology. She is responsible for leading Micron’s people strategy and establishing a culture that embraces performance, growth and inclusion for our global diverse workforce. She was appointed to her current position in 2015 and most recently named chief people officer in 2020.
Since joining Micron in 1996, Ms. Arnzen has held various positions of increased responsibility and worked across many functions within Human Resources. She has led the transformation of many of Micron’s people programs, with a strong focus on those that enable a high performing and learning culture, human resources business partners that connect business strategy with people strategy, engaging rewards that build financial, physical and emotional health and leadership development programs that aim to create world-class leaders. She is also passionate about strengthening diversity, equality and inclusion in Micron and the communities in which we live and work. Prior to her current position, she was the global director of Micron’s human resources business partner organization. Ms. Arnzen earned a bachelor’s degree in human resources management and marketing from the University of Idaho. In 2018, she graduated from the Stanford Graduate School of Business Executive Program. An avid champion for education, Ms. Arnzen serves her communities on two non-profit education boards and is frequently a speaker in women’s leadership forums.
Emma Grigore
Chief People Officer
Emma Grigore is the Chief People Officer in the Graduate School of Education. Serving as a key member of GSE’s senior leadership team, she provides the HR function to create a high performing workplace culture. In this role, she assists staff and faculty in managing performance, provides consultative support to management on strategic decisions, investigates discrimination claims, interprets applicable policies and regulations, and provides guidance on recruitment and compensation issues. As CPO, she also strives to develop responsive programming for employees, including professional development opportunities and DEI-focused training to create a more inclusive and people-centric organizations. Emma has been at the University of Pennsylvania for over 10 years. She holds a Master’s in Law from University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School where she focused on employment law.
Carrie Missele
Director
With more than 20 years in corporate Learning and Development and Sales, Carrie is an enthusiastic leader whose primary focus is building trusting relationships with her coworkers and clients. Through the customized learning solutions she and her team develop for corporate clients, her goal is to engage participants in unique learning experiences so there is long-lasting value and information recall..
Inherently curious, Carrie approaches each project with a focus on discovery, taking time to observe, ask (a lot of) questions, and listen to people at all levels of the organization.
She enjoys challenging outdated thinking about training and is more inclined toward a data-driven and fun approach to learning, with an emphasis on FUN.
A big believer in candid communication and accountability, Carrie is motivated to exceed customer expectations.
Krystina Jackson
DE&I Consultant
Krystina Jackson is a public speaker, STEM education, and curriculum developer in the San Francisco Bay Area. She attended Xavier University of Louisiana, an HBCU in New Orleans, LA. She was a cum laude graduate, receiving her Bachelor of Science degree in Chemistry. Following her undergraduate studies, she returned home to teach biology, chemistry, and Biomedical Sciences. She has since had students earn STEM-related degrees and enter STEM-related fields.
After her time in the classroom, Krystina went on to become the STEM Curriculum Manager at a major educational publishing company. In this role, she was responsible for ensuring the academic integrity of all of the STEM content produced by the multi-million-dollar organization. As a leader in curriculum development, Krystina has used her voice and platform to ensure that people of color are clearly represented in the written content produced.
She recognizes that true diversity of thought comes from increasing the diversity of the contributing writers and developers. Ultimately, Krystina’s goal is clear – to speak the truth and inspire others to do the same. She does not shy away from difficult conversations. Having deep empathy gives her the unique ability to discuss hard topics in a way that inspires people to listen intently, rather than turn away in avoidance. She desires to come alongside people as they navigate the difficult waters of race relations in this country. Krystina believes that the fullness of truth is the direct path toward real change in the diversity, equity, and inclusion space. She engages with companies to have tough conversations, then helps to develop a plan toward measurable progress.
Rudy Morandin
VP of HR
Rudy Morandin is the VP of HR at Pirelli, with 15+ years of experience in the HR field in more than 20 countries. His core responsibilities include developing impactful recruitment strategies and supporting talent development. Rudy’s expertise sits around adaptability and resilience, specialties that are fundamental in creating future-fit strategies amid the great resignation
Andrea Patten
Chief People Officer
Gustavo Serbia
VP of HR
Gustavo has been working in human resources for over 20 years and has helped start-ups, multinationals, multi-state, multi-unit, and growing companies cultivate a shared vision for their talent acquisition strategy. Gustavo is currently VP of Hair Cuttery, having worked for several industry-leading companies, including Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group and Starwood Hotels & Resorts, he is perceived as a transformational leader within the industry. Gustavo’s approach focuses on the employee experience, with an extensive focus on the use of data to both attract and retain talent.
Sahana Mukherjee
SVP HR Advisor
Sahana Mukhrejee’s signature strength is being able to drive the priorities of people leaders forward through transformational leadership and innovative solutions. With extensive experience from working in environments undergoing major organizational and cultural change, Sahana will share how you can prepare to manage the what ifs in your organization to drive consistent business success. Over her career, Sahana has held senior roles at National Basketball Association, Rutgers University, Colgate Palmolive and TE Connectivity.
Sylvia Mahlebjian
Managing Director of Global Talent Development
Sylvia Mahlebijan has unrivaled expertise in providing development experiences to grow employees’ capabilities and accelerate their business impact. Of late, Sylvia has channeled her time into exploring and adopting creative approaches to attract, grow and engage the workforce. Much of this work, and consequent achievements, centered around the skills gap, allowing Sylvia to create and implement systemic strategies that grow and strengthen talent pipelines at all levels of an organization. Join this session to access her step-by-step approach including insight gained during her time at UBS, Publicis.Sapient and Analog Devices.
Cath Bailey
Chief People Officer
Cath is an international, business focused HR Leader with a proven track record of delivery in a variety of global, matrix organisations. She is passionate about bringing a real commercial focus to the people agenda and leading organisations and teams through transformational change. Cath has recently joined MAG (Airports Group) as their Chief People Officer.
Cath joined Avon in May 2016 as Vice President HR, Global Commercial Business. Avon is the company that for 130 years has stood for beauty, innovation, optimism and, above all, for empowering women. Avon has a diverse product portfolio sold through six million independent Avon Beauty Entrepreneurs worldwide.
Prior to joining Avon, Cath worked for one of the world’s leading cereal and snacks companies Kellogg’s where she spent over ten years in both European and North America roles. She was VP, HR European Markets, and led the reorganisation of the European business following the acquisition of Pringles. Prior to this she was VP, Global Talent and led the creation and execution of the first global employer brand, vision and purpose.
Cath also spent over ten years with Barclays Plc, a British multinational banking and financial services company, prior to becoming a successful external Human Resources Consultant specialising in organisational design, cultural change and Strategic Talent Management and Leadership Development.
Cath has a BSc(Hons) in Psychology and is a Chartered Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development and an alumni of Executive Programmes at Harvard and INSEAD Business Schools.
Ian Cook
Vice President People Analytics
Ian is an advocate for the crucial role that people play in helping companies thrive. His career has focused on enabling people, teams and companies to perform at their best. For the last 15 years Ian has been helping leaders elevate their HR strategies and programs through the effective use of people analytics. At Visier Ian led the development of our market leading solution and is now focused on the overall strategy for the people analytics business.
Carmen Codoner
EMEA VP HR
Burak Bakkaloglu
VP Talent and People Analytics
Having held various Regional HR Head positions at telecom sector, Burak now is leading talent management, talent acquisition and people analytics units throughout Europe and Latin America at Ericsson. Mostly experienced in transforming organizations, Burak believes in scientific, simple and business focused approaches in Human Resources.
Vlatka Hlupic
CEO, Author and Professor
Vlatka has been one of the top Most Influential HR Thinkers in the world since 2015, an international award-winning thought leader, an activist for humanising management, and an author of a ground-breaking book ‘The Management Shift – How to Harness the Power of People and Transform Your Organization for Sustainable Success’ (Palgrave Macmillan, 2014), which was listed by Forbes as one of the top eight business books in 2014. Driven by her passion and purpose to make this world a better place, she is creating a global impact with her work, helping thousands of leaders and organisations worldwide to shift to a higher level of performance and profit whilst creating more engaging, purposeful and happier workplaces that do well by doing good.
She is a Professor of Leadership and Management at Hult Ashridge Executive Education, and former: Visiting Professor in the Department of Organizational Psychology at Birkbeck, University of London, Visiting Faculty at Cass Business School – City University of London, Visiting Faculty at the University of the Arts London, Adjunct Faculty at London Business School, a consultant for Said Business School, and Professor of Business and Management at the University of Westminster. She is an Honorary President at the Academy of Executive Coaching. She is also a global faculty member of FT/IE Headspring Executive Education and a Global Thought Leader at ICG Group. She is also a founder and Chief Executive Officer of Management Shift Solutions Limited, providing leading edge services for individual and organisational transformation. She received a PhD in Information Systems at the London School of Economics, as well as a BSc (Hon) in Economics and an MSc in Information Systems from the University of Zagreb. She was voted one of the Most Influential HR Thinkers in the world since 2015 by HR Magazine and has won the Croatian Woman of Influence Award as well as an Honorary Award from the Leadership Awards in 2016.
Vlatka is the winner of the CMI Management Articles of the Year Award 2015 and the winner of the Axiom Business Books Award (silver medal in the ‘Leadership’ category). She has been nominated for the Thinkers50 list and ‘Ideas to practice’ Award. Her book has been shortlisted for the CMI Management Book of the Year Award and it has been nominated for the FT & McKinsey Business Book of the Year Award. Her latest book ‘Humane Capital– How to Create a Management Shift to Transform Performance and Profit’ (Bloomsbury Publishing, 2018) has been chosen as one of the top 5 business books in 2018 by HR Magazine and the Foreword was written by His Holiness the Dalai Lama.
David Burke
Talent Acquisition Lead
David is Head of Talent Acquisition and Employer Branding for Workhuman®, the world’s fastest-growing integrated Social Recognition® platform. Based out of Ireland, David has been intimately involved in recruitment for the global technology and leadership sector for almost 20 years. He has been an adviser to many successful scaling organisations on their talent strategies and the evolution and impact of culture in the modern workplace. David is also a co-founder of Dublin Tech Talks – a fast growing tech community in Ireland with a mission to provide a platform to give people and brands a voice!
Andrea Derler
Principal for Research and Customer Value
Andrea is an experienced, published, researcher of human capital practices specialising in organisational change & transformation, talent and leadership development, performance management, DEIB, and organisational growth mindset.
Prior to Visier, Andrea led research teams at the NeuroLeadership Institute, and Bersin, Deloitte Consulting LLP.
Andrea loves sports, coffee and Nordic mysteries. andrea-derler.com
Kirsten Buck
Chief Impact & Culture Officer
Kirsten Buck is Chief Impact & Sustainability Officer at PTHR – a growing consultancy in progressive HR/OD and the next stage of business evolution, and a certified B Corporation organisation.
With a background in business development and strategy, helping to shape L&D and executive education programmes, Kirsten has now been with PTHR for three years. Her role focuses on the impact PTHR’s work has beyond financial return and ensuring PTHR remain conscious citizens committed to sustainability.
Kirsten’s specialisms and interests lie in:
Sustainable, purpose led business
Agile and autonomous ways of working
Self-managed and remote-based teams
Diversity, Equity & Inclusion
Kirsten is a proud Fellow of the RSA, member of the EODF, and an avid writer. Kirsten also made chapter contributions to Perry Timms’ second book, “The Energized Workplace”, and co-authored Cranfield School of Management’s Progressive Organisation Design modules.
Outside of work, Kirsten is proud to be mum to a two year old son.
Sandy Rezendes
VP of Global Learning
Larry Baider
SVP People Strategy & HR
Larry leads the People Strategy & Human Resources function at Genesis Healthcare. This includes human resource services in addition to the people Centers of Expertise and Business Partner functions that support the organization. Prior to joining Genesis Healthcare in 2019, Larry led the Talent Management, Leadership Development, and Learning functions at BAYADA Home Health Care. Larry holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Occupational Therapy from Temple University. He also earned a Master’s in Strategic Communication & Leadership from Seton Hall University, a Graduate Certificate in Applied Positive Psychology from University Missouri, is a graduate of Coach University, and received a Master of Science degree in Industrial-Organizational Psychology from Eastern Kentucky University.
Jason Ashlock
SVP Customer and Employee Experience
Jason is Senior Vice President at Kuehne + Nagel, one of the world’s leading logistics companies, where he leads global efforts in Organizational Development, Customer Experience and Employee Engagement. He lives and works in Manhattan.
Jeff Ostermann
Chief People Officer
David Plink
CEO
Experienced CEO with 25 years of experience in general, commercial and change management in global, results-driven companies in the HR space (certification, research, talent development and employer branding).
Chester Elton
Author, Speaker, Coach, Mentor
#1 Bestselling Business Author, Organizational Culture, Employee Engagement and Leadership Expert Chester is one of today’s most influential voices in workplace trends. Elton has spent two
decades helping clients engage their employees to execute on strategy, vision, and values.
In his provocative, inspiring and always entertaining talks, #1 bestselling leadership author Chester Elton provides real solutions to leaders looking to manage change, drive innovation, deal with anxiety and lead a multi-generational workforce. Elton’s work is supported by research with more than one million working adults, revealing the proven secrets behind high – performance cultures and teams.
He has been called the “A postle of Appreciation” by Canada’s Globe and Mail, “creative and refreshing‚” by the New York Times, and a “must read for modern managers” by CNN. Elton is co-author of the multiple award – winning New York Times and #1 USA Today and Wall Street Journal bestselling leadership book, All In, The Carrot Principle, Leading with Gratitude and Anxiety at Work.
His books have been translated in more than 30 languages and have sold more than 1.6 million copies worldwide. Elton is often quoted in publications such as the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Fast Company and the New York Times. He has appeared on NBC’s Today, CNN, ABC, MSNBC, National Public Radio and CBS’s 60 Minutes.
In 2021 Global Gurus research organization ranked him as #4 in the world’s top leadership experts and #3 in the world’s top organizational culture experts; and he is a member of Marshall Goldsmith’s 100 Coaches pay it forward project. Elton is the co-founder of Find Mojo a global assessment company and a board member of Camp Corral, a non-profit for the children of wounded and fallen military heroes. He serves as a leadership consultant and coach to firms such as American Express, AT&T, Avis Budget Group and Procter & Gamble, Texas Roadhouse restaurants, and his beloved New Jersey Devils in the NHL to name a few.
He is most proud, however, to be the father of four exceptional children and three grandchildren, and happily married to the extraordinary Heidi Olsen Elton for almost 40 years.
Gwen Burbidge
CHRO
Amber Holton
AVP of Employee Experience
Henrietta Maria De Beer
Chief, HR Policy Division
Chris Meier
VP of Human Resources
Bhavana Bartholf
Chief Transformation Officer
Bhavana Bartholf, an award-winning leader, and sought-after expert is the Chief Transformation Officer at Microsoft. In this role, she is responsible for building and driving the cultural transformation strategy forward to shift the sales, marketing, operations, and customer success team to modernize. She will be delivering the opening scene-setter keynote to guide you on how to scale your culture during rapid transformation.
Xavier Joly
VP of Human Resources
“Xavier Joly is the Global Head of Human Resources for Vegetable Seeds and Environmental Science, based in St. Louis, Missouri. Xavier joined Bayer in May 2014 as Global HR Business Partner for Environmental Science – Emerging Countries, later becoming Global HR Business Partner for Environmental Science. In between his roles with Environmental Science, he was the Global HR Business Partner for Bayer Radiology. Xavier started his professional career in the automotive industry within the Volvo Group, initially in the Supply Chain function before moving into Human Resources. He took on some challenging and exciting assignments in different countries such as Sweden, Belgium, USA, France and Germany where he has
developed critical core competencies and strong expertise in human resources, change management, transformation, talent management and leadership development. Xavier enjoys spending time with his wife Sarah and his 2 boys, Luther and Adam. The whole family loves traveling and experiencing new cultures and is thrilled to be back in the USA. It is their 5th experience of living abroad after Gothenburg, Sweden; Brussels, Belgium; Hagerstown, MD, USA; and Berlin, Germany.”
Anne-Claire Berg
VP of Culture and Engagement
Anne-Claire leads Culture & Engagement worldwide for Danone. With more than 100,000 employees across 60 countries and as the largest global company to publicly commit to its B-Corp agenda, Danone puts people at the core of its mission to bring health through food to as many as possible and has embarked on an innovative journey to co-build its future with its employees.
Anne-Claire started her career in 2001 as an attorney with King & Spalding in New York. In 2007, she became co-founder and General Counsel of LUXE.TV, the worldwide leading television network dedicated to the art of living. In 2010, she joined Danone, first as the Global Head of Intellectual Property, before becoming the Corporate Affairs Director and General Secretary for Danone in the UK, sitting at the Management Committee. Since 2017, Anne-Claire has been spearheading Danone transformation, leading Danone Culture & Engagement plans worldwide. As part of her role, Anne-Claire also drives Inclusion & Diversity for Danone with inclusive growth at the heart of Danone vision, empowering all employees to create new futures because our differences will make the difference and working with partners to create and share sustainable value.
Anne-Claire was trained as lawyer and as a journalist and is a member of the NY Bar. She also holds an Executive MBA from HEC Business School with a focus on social business gained at the University of Cape Town and IIM Bangalore.
Anne-Claire is a regular speaker at high impact events such as the UN WEP (Women Empowerment Principles) Forum or Advertising Week New York. She’s the author of leadership articles as well as a regular Guest Lecturer at Harvard University on Executive Education for Sustainability Leadership.
She is the President of HEC Alumni NY enabling alumni to join forces and thrive in the tri-state area.
Anne-Claire has been awarded the 2019 Change the Game Award and was a finalist of 2018 Prix Trajectoires HEC.
Linda Mountford
Northern Europe Commercial HR Director
Linda is a highly experienced European HR Director with 20 years’ HR experience in the Food Industry. Linda started her career with Muller Dairy, the UK’s leading yoghurt manufacturer. Her next move was to Cargill, leading the European and Russian HR team for Cargill Meats Europe and spent time in Russia developing relationships and resource plans for the new build of a dedicated McDonald’s processing facility. Linda also worked closely with the McDonald’s Supply HR leadership team to develop joint people initiatives as part of the SAVES program. In 2016 Linda moved to the HR Director role at John West Foods and became a member of the Executive Board. Here Linda delivered a number of talent and development programs including leadership development, Academy training and the integration of SWP into the business planning process at both a local and global level. Last year Linda took full Commercial HR responsibility for Thai Union Europe’s Northern European Operating Companies, expanding her remit to include branded seafood business in Norway, Germany and Russia.
Mai Ton
Chief People Officer
“Mai Ton is an award-winning executive with more than 20 years experience leading Human Resources, people, and culture for innovative startups based in San Francisco and New York. She is the author of
Come into My Office: Stories from an HR Leader in Silicon Valley from New Degree Press. Over the course of
her career, she has been the first Vice President of Human Resources at six companies, including five start-ups. She helped these companies through IPOs and M&A transactions and built the people function from scratch at every company where she has worked.
She has been recognized by the media as one of the Top 50 Most Powerful Women in Technology, Top 50 Tech Leaders, and a Top 20 Tech Trailblazer.
Committed to driving positive change, she is the Board Chair of Leadership Education for Asian Pacifics (LEAP), a non-profit organization advancing Asian leadership in business. Ms. Ton is a CEO coach and advisor for HR technology companies. She believes deeply in the power of technology for good; mentoring the next generation of talent; and advocating for equity and inclusion in the world of tech. She is currently the Chief People Officer at Kickstarter. “
Donna Dorsey
EVP, Chief People and Culture Officer
Donna Dorsey is a Senior Global Business Executive who brings the strong combination of deep Human Resources experience and legal expertise. She serves as the conscience of the corporation, respected for ensuring a culture of equality and clarifying the enterprise’s dual purpose of being profitable as well as providing a positive place for employees to make a living for their families.
As Senior Vice President & Chief People & Diversity Officer for Navistar Inc., the producer of the International brand of trucks and diesel engines, and military vehicles, as well as a provider of financing through its subsidiary, Navistar Financial Corporation, Donna leads all human resources activities. She oversees more than 200 HR professionals and holds full global accountability for a $16 million budget. Responsible for driving strategic investment in global best-practice programs, processes and tools, she is a Member of the Executive Leadership Team and interacts extensively with the Compensation Committee of the Board of Directors to revamp the compensation programs linked to ever-changing business conditions. She also relaunched a diversity & inclusion program, implemented technology to optimize the HR Service delivery model, created a new performance management process and redesigned the Annual Incentive and Long-Term Incentive Programs.
Earlier, she was Navistar’s Vice President Human Resources – Business Operations, leading the HR Business Partner organization for the company’s 14,000 employees around the world. In this role, Donna implemented Lean principles into HR and was the Executive Sponsor for WWIN (Working Women In Navistar) – Navistar’s Women’s Network.
This followed her time as Vice President Human Resources – Global Product Development & Navistar Financial Corporation, when she was responsible for all HR functions for global product development in the U.S., Brazil, China and India, in addition to Navistar Financial Corporation – more than 3,000 employees in North America, including UAW-represented populations and an additional 1,000 global employees. She began her time with the company as Vice President Human Resources – Navistar Financial Corporation, maintaining full bottom-line responsibility for all HR function in the U.S. and Mexico.
Prior to this, Donna spent four years with Sears, Roebuck & Co., becoming Manager, Human Resources. Earlier career positions include Human Resources Generalist with American Hospital Association (AHA), Employee Representative with Morgan Stanley Dean Witter (Dean Witter Discover) and Assistant to the Superintendent of Employment for the
Chicago Park District.
Donna’s extensive Board of Directors experience includes serving as a Board Member for the Allen Robinson Within Reach Foundation, Junior Achievement of Chicago, HealthConnect One, Empowering Women Network and HRMAC (Human Resources Management Association of Chicago).
Donna earned a Juris Doctor with a Certificate in Labor & Employment Law at Chicago-Kent College of Law at the Illinois Institute of Technology, where she was President of the Black Law Students Association. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from Rutgers University in New Jersey. She completed The Signature Program with Signature Leadership, Soul of Leadership with Northwestern University Executive Education and Strategic Business Leadership through the University of Chicago Executive Education. She is a certified Paralegal and Senior Professional in Human Resources.
Donna is a proud “boy mom” – her three sons are ages 22, 13 and 11. She enjoys reading, cooking and entertaining family and friends, as well as traveling anywhere warm with a beach.
Jill Gibson
Senior Director of Global Talent Programs
Jill Gibson has a long tenure leading complex talent transformation programs at large, multi-national companies. Jill has an extensive background in Human Resources, management consulting and as a commercial litigation attorney.
Currently, Jill serves as the Senior Director of Talent Programs at Walmart where she builds and drives enterprise capability, crafts the strategy and operationalizes key initiatives to meet Walmart’s culture, diversity and talent attraction and mobility priorities. Priorities for her team include Diversity Equity & Inclusion, Campus Recruiting and Internship Programs, STEM, Recruitment Marketing, Military Programs and Events & Conferences. Before joining Walmart, Jill spent sixteen years at IBM where she last served as a Partner in IBM’s Talent & Transformation group and helped clients with their HR and business reinventions. During her extensive tenure at IBM, she held several other leadership roles leveraging her background in strategy and change management. Earlier in her career, Jill was an attorney practicing commercial litigation.
Jill has an MBA from the Yale School of Management, a JD from Arizona State University College of Law and a BA from California State University, Sacramento. She is licensed to practice law and is a certified mediator. Jill, her husband and two children live in Washington, DC.
Tim Dismond
Chief Responsibility Officer
As Chief Responsibility Officer, Tim Dismond oversees the company’s Environmental, Social & Governance (ESG) efforts. He previously served as CBRE’s first global Chief Diversity Officer, leading the company’s Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DE&I) strategy. In February 2021, Mr. Dismond’s scope of responsibilities expanded to include all ESG efforts including DE&I, Environmental Sustainability, Workplace Safety & Wellbeing, Philanthropy and Public/Government Affairs. In 2020, Mr. Dismond was named as one of the Most Influential Black Executives in Corporate America by Savoy, the leading African American business and lifestyle magazine.
Robyn Arville
Chief Talent & Culture Officer
Robyn is currently the Chief Talent and Culture Officer at the Wikimedia Foundation (the non-profit organization that runs Wikipedia). In this role, she is responsible for developing Wikimedia’s talent strategy and guides the organization to create a culture that embraces innovation, learning, resilience and joy.
Robyn has more than 20 years of human resources experience; some of her areas of expertise include organizational design and effectiveness, workforce planning, talent development, performance facilitation, compensation and benefits, and employee engagement and well-being.
Tom Verbeke
VP HR, Talent & Global Regions
Tom Verbeke currently oversees as Vice President HR the Talent functions in CommScope, as well as leads the Diversity & Inclusion practice globally in addition to overseeing the global regions in HR for CALA & Mexico, EMEA, APAC, China and India. CommScope is a 10 BN+ $ world leader in networking and telecommunications infrastructure, pushing the boundaries of technology to create the world’s most advanced networks. Tom currently oversees the diversity & inclusion, talent acquisition, learning and development, talent management, leadership development, employee experience, culture, change & OD practices for it’s nearly 30,000 employees globally across more than 60 countries.
Over the last years, Tom has been deeply involved in several multi-billion-dollar acquisitions within CommScope, leading the Culture and Organization Design workstreams to successfully integrate multiple large global organizations while building out the Talent function and teams. Over the last year, he has also established a new learning function, and built out the company’s diversity & inclusion practice.
Prior to his current role, Tom was the Head of International HR & Global Sales, overseeing the EMEA, APAC and China regions for HR. Prior to him joining CommScope, Tom spent 9 years with Sony Corporation, based in the UK for 6 years, and in Tokyo, Japan for an additional 3 years. During those years he held various positions both as a Strategic Business Partner as well as in Organizational Development, heading up Employee Communication & Engagement, Global HR head for Sales & Marketing and culminating as Global HR Talent Acquisition Head for Sony Corporation.
Tom has an Executive MBA from Kingston University in London, UK and a Masters degree from the Catholic University of Leuven Belgium, graduating in Work and Organizational Psychology.
Tom is currently based in Charlotte, NC after spending most of his career living and working across Europe and Japan with his family.
Jennifer Schmit
VP of Human Resources
“Jen Schmit currently serves as the Vice President, Human Resources at Caliber Collision where she is responsible for aligning business objectives with key teammate strategies such as talent management initiatives, leadership coaching and development, succession and workforce planning, diversity and inclusion, and overall organizational effectiveness. Prior to joining Caliber, Jen was the Vice President of Human Resources for Abra Autobody & Glass serving in a similar capacity. In both roles, she has been instrumental in supporting Senior Operational Leaders to identify gaps, propose and implement strategies focused on increasing overall engagement and supporting growth. Abra merged with Caliber in February 2019, where she led the transition for the Abra HR function. She was asked to join Caliber in April 2019 in her current role.
Previously, Jen worked at The Schwan Food Company where she led the Talent Acquisition function responsible for the overall strategic direction to include sourcing strategy, employment branding, workforce planning, college, military, diversity, and recruiting operations resulting in over 6,500 hires per year.
Jen has worked in a variety of industries such as healthcare, consumer packaged brands, retail and automotive with an ability to lead in high growth, rapidly changing environments. Jen currently resides in Victoria, MN with her husband and 8-year-old son. She enjoys hiking, gardening, attending sporting events and traveling in her spare time.”
Michelle Thompson-Dolberry
VP, Global Inclusion & Diversity and Head of Diversity Recruiting
I&D champion. Strength Finder. Customer and Employee Engagement specialist. Content marketer. Brand builder. Trainer. Coach. Team builder. Event programmer and producer. Sought after speaker. Expert at diagnosing problems and prescribing solutions.
Serve as a strategic catalyst to unleash a company’s full potential, both strategically and tactically, by driving loyalty, enhancing customer experience and supporting acquisition efforts. My mission is to serve as a leader in the development and deployment of cutting edge marketing and human capital programs. Maniacal about driving and measuring results.
Guillermo Miranda
Chief Learning Officer and VP Leadership Development
Guillermo Miranda is Vice President and Chief Learning Officer for The Boeing Company, responsible for enterprise learning strategy, workforce skills and leadership development initiatives for the company’s 140,000 employees. Miranda has extensive leadership experience in complex multinational environments, focused on organizational development and people performance acceleration, driving digital platforms and user-centered business initiatives across global organizations. He joined Boeing in March, 2021 from IBM, where he was the vice president of Corporate Social Responsibility, a role which orchestrates the overall strategy and business execution of corporate responsibility, sustainability and education impact initiatives. He spent more than 20 years with IBM, including a stint as Chief Learning Officer in charge of reinventing the end-to-end education, career, leadership development and skills practices and platforms across the company.
Miranda was also the Chief Human Resources Officer for the InterAmerican Development Bank Group. Preceding his corporate work, he was the Human Resources Head of the Internal Tax Agency in Peru (SUNAT), and the Legal Counsel of the Peruvian National Television and Broadcasting Company (TNP). Fluent in Spanish, Portuguese and English, Guillermo brings a truly global perspective to his role at Boeing. He lived and worked in Lima, Peru; San Sebastian, Spain; Caracas, Venezuela; Vienna, Austria; Nairobi, Kenya; and Miami, New York City and Washington, D.C. at various points during his career. Miranda is a lawyer, having graduated from the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú in Lima, and attended the Master in Business Administration Program at Deusto University in San Sebastián, Spain.
Lynne Oldham
Chief People Officer
Lynne brings to Zoom extensive experience driving transformational human resources strategies while overseeing a full scope of local and global initiatives. She is an inspirational and successful developer of talent with a passion for instilling leadership that improves organizational culture, company bench strength, business operations, employee morale, internal communication, recruitment strategy, and diversity and inclusion initiatives.
While serving as chief people officer for Televerde, Lynne led ongoing organizational reinvigoration efforts through strategic management of people and leadership development, compensation and benefits, talent acquisition, employee relations/communication, and HR systems. Lynne is credited with influencing an all-around operational and culture shift in a stalled organization, leading to a 30% increase in revenue in under two years. Previously, Lynne ran her own business as founder and chief consultant of Human Capital Dynamics LLC—a consulting firm assisting companies with achieving better business results through effective leadership and alignment of culture, talent, and strategy. Prior, Lynne was senior vice president and global chief human resources officer for Driscoll’s where she was called in to establish HR strategy, processes, and operations to support sustainable growth. Earlier in her career, Lynne held roles as SVP of organizational effectiveness & transformation for Suntrust; CHRO, Americas for BNP Paribas; and director of HR & shared services for Castrol.
Lynne holds a Juris Doctor from Seton Hall University School of Law and a Bachelor’s Degree in Finance and Business Administration from State University of New York, College at New Paltz.
Stephen Pierce
Deputy Managing Director & CHRO
Daniel Illes
VP People
Anne Erni
Chief People Officer
John McCusker
Global Vice President Talent Management
Raj Verma
Chief Diversity & Experience Officer
Natal Dank
Keynote Speaker, Co-Founder, Head of Learning, Coaching & Community
Kate Griffiths-Lambeth
Group HR Director
Kate Griffiths-Lambeth joined Charles Stanley as Group HR Director in May 2016 and was appointed to the Executive Committee in March the following year. She is the Company’s first female executive as well this being the commencement of HR having a seat at the table. Kate is a lawyer by initial training and a former derivatives dealer before choosing to transfer into HR. She has substantial experience in motivating teams and developing wealth and professional services businesses. Prior to Charles Stanley Kate was the Global Head of HR and an Executive Director of the Stonehage Fleming Group and she has led people at White & Case, RBS and Lloyds TSB. Kate is recognised as a transformation expert with an excellent track record for achieving results. She is effective at turning concepts into realities (she co-founded one of the first successful Fintechs) and she has assisted significant global organisations to streamline themselves resulting in cost and operational efficiencies. She enjoys bringing diverse businesses and people together. Outside of work, Kate is a Governor for Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust, a mentor for the Queen’s Young Leaders and an urban beekeeper. Most importantly she is a proud and devoted mother of two wonderful sons.
Megan Peppin
OD Specialist & HR Blogger
Melissa Hungerford
Group Director, Talent, Leadership and Learning
Wendy Cartwright
HR Director and Board Trustee
Wendy’s career spans public and private sectors, and she has held senior HR / Corporate Services roles at University of East London, Defra, EDF Energy, Standard Chartered Bank and Littlewoods. She was formerly the HR Director for the Olympic Delivery Authority – the organisation responsible for developing and building the new venues and infrastructure for the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games – where she led the HR function for seven years. Wendy is a Chartered Fellow of the CIPD and holds a Masters degree in Employment Strategy She is particularly interested in creating high-performing organisations, diversity/inclusion, organisational change/culture, and employee engagement.
Teresa Boughey
TEDx Speaker, Diversity & Inclusion Thought Leader, Author, NED, and CEO
Teresa Boughey MA FCIPD is CEO of award-winning Jungle HR and founder of Inclusion 247. Teresa has extensive Strategic HR experience, operating at a Senior level within a variety of industries and sectors including FTSE 250, Financial Services, Travel Industry, Private and Public Sectors.
Teresa has delivered a TEDx talk entitled ‘Overcoming Diversity Fatigue’ (2019) and is author of #1 Amazon bestseller Closing the Gap – 5 Steps to Creating an Inclusive Culture (2019). Teresa is a UK Female Entrepreneur Ambassador and is a Business Board Member of the Women and Enterprise and the Women and Work APPGs and a regular contributor to the media and public policy.
John Amaechi OBE
Organisational Psychologist & Founder
There are many things to tell you about John. Obviously there’s all the usual Bio stuff; respected organisational psychologist, an OBE, Chartered Scientist, elected Fellow of the Royal Society for Public Health, bestselling New York Times author, Research Fellow at the University of East London, and Founder of APS.
And then there are all the things he does; Mentor to many, teacher to some, and always using his deep psychological insight combined with real life experience to provide a touchstone for people and companies who want to thrive, achieve and align their beliefs, values and ethics.
But these are the things you need really need to know; John is a giant, literally, he’s huge! He’s also a Dad, Brother & Uncle…from Stockport (a product of the statement ‘The most unlikely of people in the most improbable of circumstances, can become extraordinary’). People who think facts and evidence should bow to ‘opinion’ drive him crazy, he’s passionate about Star Wars, is a self confessed nerd & geek, a former NBA sportsman, has a voice like honey, is transported by music and loves nothing more than to eat decadent foods that are bad for him – especially donuts.
So while you’re questioning everything you thought you knew, John will entertain you with his storytelling, confront you with uncomfortable truths, make you laugh and move you to tears (sometimes in the same minute) and ultimately inspire you to grow and develop in ways you couldn’t possible imagine…..so that you can be a Giant too.
Jane Ayaduray
Global Director Diversity & Inclusion
Jane Ayaduray has spent nine years working as a Diversity and Inclusion leader in both global and UK roles. She has twice been named one of the Top 50 Diversity Professionals in Industry, and has spoken internationally on diversity topics ranging from disability and LGBT+ inclusion, to flexibility and D&I strategy.
Jane has an MBA (Hons) from the Thunderbird School of Global Management, and is a passionate mentor of emerging talent.
Katrina Collier
Author, Speaker & Facilitator
Katrina Collier is on a mission to energise the human connection between HR, recruiters & hiring managers to better recruitment and the candidate experience. Through facilitation she swiftly gives company deeper insights and actionable outcomes into any barriers preventing a positive recruitment process, and her unique shared-learning Mastermind programme, develops the skills HR & recruiters need to partner effectively with the business and candidates. She is the author of The Robot-Proof Recruiter, a well-loved global keynote speaker, and host of The Hiring Partner Perspective (Unedited) podcast.
She is also an Ambassador for Hope for Justice charity, and you’ll find her on LinkedIn and on Instagram & Twitter @KatrinaMCollier.
Kirstin Furber
People Director
Kirstin is the People Director at Channel 4. Prior to this Kirstin has held a number of senior people roles including Kantar, Twentieth Century Fox, Discovery and BBC Worldwide, where she spent over seven years developing the organisation’s culture to support and deliver a global growth strategy. Kirstin is also a non executive for the British Wheelchair Basketball.
Kirstin is passionate about how organisations can support individuals being their best to drive company results. Her resource site (kirstinfurber.com) has been developed specifically to support leaders looking to create a human culture where everyone can do their best work to drive transformation and growth.
Ella Bennett
Group People Director
Ella joined easyJet as Group People Director in May 2018. easyJet is Europe’s leading airline employing 13,000 people across 8 countries. During the current crisis Ella has led all people aspects of the actions taken to save the airline and has made major changes to the airline’s structure and people costs to position easyJet for recovery.
Previously Ella was at Sainsbury’s Argos where she led the integration of the Argos and J Sainsbury’s non-food businesses to create a multi-product, multi-channel business.
Ella held the role of Group HR Director at Home Retail Group (Homebase, Argos and Habitat) leading the people aspects of Argos’ digital transformation and HR Director for the UK and Ireland HR operations of Fujitsu between 2009 and 2015.
Ella began her HR career in the charity sector and held senior HR roles at mental health charity Mind, and the National Family Services Charity. Ella maintains her connection with the charity sector and passion for performing arts as a trustee of The Roundhouse.
Ella earned her BA (Hons) degree in English literature from the University of Bristol and her Master’s degree from the University of London.
Dr. Linda Sharkey
Speaker, Author, Leadership Coach
Ken Barrett
Global Chief Diversity Officer
Jason Lauritsen
Speaker, Author, Adviser and Leadership Trainer
Kelly Joscelyne
Global Chief Talent Officer
Anne Erni
Chief People Officer
Anne Erni joined Audible as Chief People Officer in 2016. She most recently served as Head of Human Resources at Bloomberg L.P. Anne spent six years at Bloomberg, during which the global workforce doubled, and where her passion for nurturing talent led to the creation of Bloomberg’s Global Leadership Forum. Before Bloomberg, Anne was Managing Director and Chief Diversity Officer at Lehman Brothers, focusing on the recruitment and retention of women and under-represented groups. Anne also spent fifteen years with P&L responsibility in fixed income and equity sales at Lehman Brothers and Bankers Trust.
Sonya Echols
Vice President, Human Resources
Neelima Rao
Vice President Human Resources, Global R&D and North American HUB Leader
Neelima is the Vice President of Human Resources for Global Oncology R&D and North America Country Lead at AstraZeneca. In this role, Neelima is responsible for defining and implementing HR strategy across multiple geographies globally.
Neelima has held diverse global human capital leadership roles in the Life Sciences industry with experience from Sanofi, Johnson & Johnson and Novartis. She brings experience leading large-scale transformational agenda in acquisition, ramp-up, turnaround and integration environment. Neelima is passionate about driving business outcomes through designing fit-for purpose organizations, building high performing teams and shaping desired cultures.
Neelima has a Master’s degree in human resources from Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai.
Stephane Charbonnier
CHRO
Stephane Charbonnier is the Chief Human Resources Officer for L’Oréal USA, since February 2017. In this role, Charbonnier is responsible for driving leadership and learning initiatives, developing talent and building a Human Resources (HR) team with an “employee first” approach. As a leader in the organization reporting directly to the President and CEO of L’Oréal USA, he plays a critical role in driving strategy. Charbonnier also reports to the Chief Human Resources Officer of L’Oréal Group, ensuring alignment between the Group HR Strategy and the U.S. HR Strategy.
Carolina de Arriba
Vice President, HR, Talent and Organizational Development
Stephen Childs
CHRO
Stephen Childs, GTML™ is the CHRO of Panasonic Automotive and has passion for “people first” best practices and is relentlessly working to help build a culture to prove it. He is also a Global Keynote Speaker and Forbes Contributor who is intentional about sharing what he has learned from others. He received a Global Fellow of Talent Management designation from the Wharton Business School and is a 2-time American Business Award winner for HR Executive of the Year in 2016 and 2018. He was also just received the OnCon Icon Award as Top 100 HR Professionals for 2021.
Minh Hua
Chief Talent Officer
Minh is the Chief Talent Officer for Stanley Black and Decker (SBD). In this role, Minh leads the full talent lifecycle includingrecruiting, employee experience,lifelong learning, people analytics,executive development, succession planning, and board engagement.His mission is to drive business growth with people and technology at the center.
Minh lives in Seattle where he enjoys hiking, football, and vibrant conversations.He grew up in Augusta, Georgia and has lived in Chicago, New York, Salamanca, Shanghai, Stamford, and Vienna.
Before joining Stanley Black & Decker, Minh served as Head of Human Resources for Worldwide Commercial Operations at Amazon Web Services. Prior to that, he served as Executive Director of JP Morgan Chase, where he helped build the Global Corporate Bank. Minh is a graduate of General Electric’s HR Leadership Program after which he took on leadership roles for GE in Asia-Pacific, EMEA, and the Americas.
Gary O’Connor
Vice President, Head of Learning and Development
Nikhil Shahane
Vice President Global Talent & Engagement
Nikhil Shahane in his role as Vice President Talent & Engagement is responsible for the global Talent, Engagement, Inclusion & Diversity functions at TechnipFMC. As an internationally experienced, HR professional he has driven the people development mandate across multiple regulatory and socio-cultural environments working both at strategic and operational levels.
Nikhil takes keen interest in Inclusion & Diversity primarily owing to his internal experience and profession but also owing to a research he did on multicultural diversity as part of his master’s at Cranfield School of Management.
Nikhil has and continues to create long term and sustainable I&D strategies for the business.
Joan McGrail
CHRO
Francis Lake
Head of Organisation Development
Francis is Head of Organisation Development at Virgin Money. Over the last four years, he has been tying together all aspects of people practice to create a great culture, a great workplace and enable colleagues to operate at their best. This journey has included the merger and integration of CYBG and Virgin Money, where his team have taken the lead on shifting culture, taking a systematic approach to change mindset, values, behaviours and practices. Notable highlights include leading the project to shape and embed company purpose, transforming performance management, changing the approach to learning and putting inclusion at the heart of business culture. Current challenges including creating a purpose-led post-covid working model.
His previous career includes a Lloyds Banking Group, HBOS plc and Halifax plc, taking in all divisions and pretty much all parts of the HR profession. Prior to joining Financial Services Francis taught History in Sri Lanka.
He is a Chartered Fellow of the CIPD, coaches junior hockey, and enjoys cycling, long-distance running and yoga.
Arantzazu Bueno
VP Human Resources Continental Europe & Global CTO, Customer Office & Product
Dr. Stefanie K. Johnson
Author of the National Bestseller INCLUSIFY; Thinkers 50 Radar Class of 2020; Professor
Dr. Stefanie K. Johnson is a researcher focused on the intersection of leadership and diversity. She works with the best companies to implement evidence-based practices to reduce unconscious bias and increase inclusion.
She is the author of the National Bestseller, Inclusify: Harnessing the power of uniqueness and belonging to build innovative teams. She has presented her work at over 170 meetings around the world including at the White House for a 2016 summit on diversity in corporate America. She has appeared on HBO Fox, ABC, NBC, CNN and CNN International and had written for Forbes, Bloomberg and Harvard Business Review.
Pramukh Jeyathilak
Head of Human Resources
Pramukh Jeyathilak is a global Human Resources Leader with broad based generalist experience in Fortune 500 companies, that includes Accenture, Microsoft and Amazon, with strong focus on business partnership, innovation, service delivery and people leadership for over 28 years. He has deep expertise in driving critical HR initiatives that support and further business goals and has demonstrated success in large scale organization design & development, change management and leadership excellence initiatives. He has extensive global experience in Asia, Europe, Africa, Australia and North America, having lived and worked in Bombay (India), Prague (Czech Republic), Dubai (United Arab Emirates), Singapore and Seattle (USA).
Pramukh is currently the Head of Human Resources for Fidelity Investments’ Personal Investing (PI) Business Unit, out of Boston, MA (USA). In this role, he is an integral member of the PI Senior Leadership Team and is responsible for driving HR strategies and initiatives to support the organization’s mission and objectives across 16,000+ associates. He is also a member of the HR Leadership Team at Fidelity.
Prior to this, Pramukh worked at Amazon Web Services (AWS) from 2014-2019 as the Global Leadership and Organizational Development Leader in Seattle, WA (USA). In this role he was responsible for engaging with business leaders to define development needs and for the end-to-end design, implementation of strategic leadership programs and talent development initiatives. Pramukh also worked in Amazon from 2012-2014 as the strategic HR Partner for C-suite leaders in WW Legal, Public Policy and Human Resources, encompassing 5000+ employees across North America, Europe and Asia and led a HR team responsible for end to end delivery of HR services and programs globally.
Pramukh held multiple HR Leadership roles at Microsoft in various global locations from 2003-2012. Prior to that he was a HR Leader at Accenture from 1995-2003.
Pramukh holds a Master’s degree in Human Resources Management from the University of Madras, India and is a regular speaker in HR forums and conferences, and also an active mentor and coach.
Adam Gibson
Strategic Workforce Planning Leader
Chris Norbury
CHRO
Ethan Salathiel
Founding Director
Ethan is a workplace consultant, coach, and entrepreneur. Ethan’s particular areas of expertise include Organisational Design, Workplace Inclusion, Diversity and Wellbeing. He has a commercial banking background and led global transformational change at HSBC where he was the first Transman to openly transition. He later founded, grew and exited an award-winning UK E-commerce start-up business. As a coach and thought leader, he promotes systemic inclusion in organisations through programmes such ‘Reciprocal Diversity Mentoring’. Ethan enjoys developing people’s authentic identity, encouraging positivity when dealing with change and transition, leading with purpose and helping to build personal and operational resilience.
Paulo Pisano
Chief People Officer
Scott D Anthony
Strategic Advisor, Author – Eat, Sleep, Innovate
Scott D. Anthony is a senior partner at Innosight, a strategy and innovation consulting firm that helps organizations navigate disruptive change and manage strategic transformation.
Scott is a prolific author and speaker. He is most recently coauthor of the new book “Eat, Sleep, Innovate: How to Make Creativity an Everyday Habit Inside Your Organization.“ His most recent articles for Harvard Business Review include “Breaking Down the Barriers to Innovation,” and “Unite Your Senior Team.”
In 2019, Scott was recognized as the #9 most influential management thinker by Thinkers50, a biannual ranking of global business thinkers. In 2017, he was awarded the Thinkers50 Innovation Award, which recognizes the world’s leading thinker on innovation.
Steve Iley
Chief Medical Officer
Dr Steve Iley is Chief Medical Officer at Jaguar Land Rover. Responsible for health and wellbeing services globally. Previously he has worked for Bupa, AXA, British Airways and International SOS. He is an experienced global medical director who is faculty trained in occupational medicine, travel medicine and general practice. He was worked in industry, health and commercial companies all over the world including Australia, Russia, Bermuda and Singapore.
Dr Tracey Leghorn
Chief HR and H&S Officer
Dr Tracey Leghorn holds the Board position of Chief HR and H&S Officer with SUEZ recycling and recovery UK. As a Chartered Fellow of the CIPD, Tracey has enjoyed a successful 25-year career in HR roles and as a senior consultant with PwC, which span a range of businesses in healthcare, technology, foodservices, pharmaceuticals, banking and currently waste and resources.
Tracey is an advocate for gender equality and all aspects of inclusion. Her passion to improve the lives, position and opportunities of women, in and outside of the workplace, is informed by over 20 years of research in this area which has earned her a doctorate from the University of Leicester and more recently a place on the Waste and Resources Sector ‘Hot 100’ key industry influencers list.
David Frost
Organisational Development Director
Craige Heaney
Global Learning & Capability Director
Craige has a track record of transforming several HR and L&D functions in large organisations across various industries. With a targeted approach in developing a seamless employee experience and aligning the products and services, operating model, processes and behaviours to deliver that experience.
Craige’s philosophy of shaping learning has evolved to include employee segmentation, data analytics, product development and swarm intelligence. Craige has some provocative thoughts on the barriers and the enablers to driving a continuous learning organisation.
Roger Campbell
Vice President HR Western Europe & MEA
A commercial Global HR Director with a track record of building trusting relationships and driving transformational organisational change in complex internationally matrixed Engineering and manufacturing environments to enable profitable growth, employee engagement, successful integration of M&A and significant cost reduction. Currently working with Schaeffler, a global Technology Company supplying Automotive and Industrial customers with components and systems
Jay Muthu
Executive Director for Employee Experience
Hamira Riaz
Vice President Strategic Leadership
Hamira Riaz is a Chartered Clinical Psychologist & Associate Fellow of the British Psychological Society. With two doctorates and specialism in neuropsychology, her 30yr career includes neuroscience service provision within the NHS and MoD and leadership consultancy at YSC Ltd. Since 2013, she was Managing Director of a boutique leveraging her clinical and business background, before joining Volvo Group as VP Strategic Leadership in 2020. She’s a regular media commentator on subjects from existential anxiety to women in leadership, recently as ambassador for the “We are Undefeatable” campaign supporting people living with chronic health conditions and resident psychologist on Channel 5’s, ”Lawrence of Arabia: Britain’s Great Adventurer.
Karen Bates
People Director
Karen joined BrewDog in January 2020 as Group People Director, with responsibility for the people agenda across the International BrewDog group. Her focus and passion is on driving the company culture and world class people policies designed to deliver an engaging and unique approach to customer experience whilst also being an employer of choice and implementing wellness strategies.
Prior to joining BrewDog, Karen was the People Director at Costa Coffee, with responsibility for the transition of Costa Coffee from Whitbred to Coca-Cola, a major transformation project as part of the £3bn sale.
Karen has also worked with major high street retailers, hospitality and consumer businesses and has a track record of achieving success through people and driving customer experience
Aidan Lawrence
People Development Operations Director
Edward O’Brien
Head of Learning and Development, Europe and Latin America
Rudolph Wontumi
SVP Human Resources, Europe
Janine Yancey
Founder and Chief Executive Officer
Emtrain founder and Chief Executive Officer Janine Yancey is a pioneer and visionary in healthy workplace culture, including online education in harassment, ethics and diversity+inclusion. Prior to founding Emtrain, Janine was a partner at Employment Law Partners where she specialized in solving labor and employment problems for high tech firms, served as Board Member of the Northern California Human Resources Association and a former partner with an employment law firm whose clients included Google and Intuit. Janine is a sought-after speaker and has been published and interviewed in the mainstream media including The Washington Post, Fast Company, USA Today, Bloomberg Business, TechCrunch, and CNN.
Melanie Lougee
Head of Employee Workflow Strategy
Melanie Lougee recently joined ServiceNow, the market leader in employee service delivery, to lead strategy for their overall Employee Workflow business. Prior to joining ServiceNow Melanie was a Research Vice President at Gartner where she led the 2018 and 2019 HCM Suites Magic Quadrants. She also published on topics ranging from Performance and Rewards to Diversity and Inclusion. Her early career was spent in various HR product strategy roles ranging from leading product strategy for the market leading PeopleSoft Core HR to heading product strategy for start-up companies. Melanie holds a B.A. in English from Santa Clara University.
Amy Vickers
Senior Partnerships Manager
Amy Vickers is a Senior Partnerships Manager at Hive Learning and delivers digital learning propositions to clients and helps them get the most out of their change programmes. Amy specialises in creating an inclusive culture, and consults on the best solutions, programmes and activation plans to help her clients put change into action. She brings a wealth of expertise and know-how to all of her work across our enterprise clients and our training partners. With a MSc Psychology and previous roles at the UK’s most successful Coaching & Development Consultancy, she brings an unrivaled passion for behavioural and group dynamics, particularly in relation to transitional impact and connections in and between teams.
Laura Keith
Head of Partnerships
Laura Keith is Head of Partnerships at Hive Learning. Laura is highly motivated with key skills in creating and implementing a digital collaboration strategy. Partnering and working agile with FTSE 100 Halma, Sky, Inchcape, Worldpay, Naspers, Innogy, Jaguar Land Rover and Barclays to create behaviour change across organisations. She specialises in leadership and innovation programmes. Laura has acquired a combination of qualifications and training in Occupational Psychology, Level A and B test qualified and NLP training, alongside 10 years experience working in management within a customer-focused sales environment has developed a strong understanding of working with people and technology to improve business performance.
Paul Niven
Bestselling Author and President, OKRsTraining.com
Paul Niven is a management consultant, author, and noted speaker on the subjects of Strategy, Strategy Execution, Objectives and Key Results (OKRs), and Balanced Scorecard. As both a practitioner and Consultant he has developed successful strategy execution systems for clients large and small in a wide variety of organizations, including Fortune 1000 companies, public sector, and nonprofit agencies. Paul is the founder of both OKRsTraining.com and The Senalosa Group, which together have assisted over three hundred organizations around across the globe to effectively execute their strategy.
Jason Arnold
Director of Leadership Solutions
Jason Arnold is a consultant, author, and entrepreneur. As Director of Leadership Solutions at Inspire Software, he leverages his 20+ years of experience as a professional facilitator and instructional designer in leadership theory and application to integrate leadership philosophy and approaches to the leadership development market. Jason has extensive experience training and developing leadership concepts in both classroom and virtual learning platforms, working with some of the most recognized leadership and business book authors in the leadership development industry. He is a Certified Consulting Associate for The Ken Blanchard Companies and Consulting Partner for Inspire Leadership Genius.
Rafael Pinterich
Global People Vice President, Tech Innovation and Chief People Officer, Z-Tech
David Atkinson
Vice President, HR Strategy and Transformation
Soumyasanto Sen
Digital HR, Transformation & People Analytics Leader and Advisor, Future of Work Strategist, Speaker & Author
HR Director, Talent Acquisition, HR Ops and Technology
Claire Sherwin is Global Head of Talent Acquisition, People Services and Technology. With a history at organisations like Vodafone, EY and Nestle, Claire is now passionate about her role in recruiting superstars into the most exciting, innovative and OPEN FinTech in the world, Finastra!
Sarah Shepherd
AVP, HR Transformation and Employee Enablement
Sarah Shepherd is AVP, HR Transformation and Employee Enablement at Manulife. As a member of the Employee Experience team, Sarah is responsible for supporting the transformation efforts aligned to HR’s strategic priorities and enabling a human-centered design mindset across the function.
Prior to joining Manulife, Sarah was a Senior Manager in the Talent and Organization practice at Accenture, a global management consulting firm. A passionate history buff, Sarah serves on the board of the Architecture Conservancy of Ontario and is an active member of Girl Guides of Canada. Sarah holds a Bachelors degree in History and Political Science from McMaster University.
Ruth Pott
Global Director for Mental Health and Wellbeing
Rich Jacquet
Chief People Officer
Rich Jacquet is Coursera’s Chief People Officer. Prior to joining Coursera in 2019, Rich was the Chief People Officer at Gigamon, a network security company with approximately $350 million in revenues. While shaping Gigamon’s culture and employee experiences, he helped take the company public and scale the team to over 800+ people. Rich has also held significant leadership positions at Yahoo!, eBay, Packeteer and Bay Networks. He has an MBA in Organizational Studies from Notre Dame de Namur University and earned his BS in Business from California State University at Chico.
Adam Galinsky
Paul Calello Professor of Leadership and Ethics
Adam Galinsky is the chair of the Management Division at the Columbia Business School. He has published more than 200 scientific articles and co-authored the critically acclaimed and best-selling book, Friend & Foe (Penguin Random House, 2015). Professor Galinsky’s Ted talk, How to Speak Up for Yourself, has over 6.9 million views since its release in November 2016. In recognition of his teaching and research, Poets and Quants selected him as one of the World’s 50 Best B-School Professors (2012). He has been a Producer on six award-winning documentaries, including two that were short-listed (final 15) for Best Documentary at the Academy Awards. Finally, he has been an expert in numerous legal cases involving defamation.
David Wilson
Founder & CEO
Shwetal Randive
Director, Talent Acquisition, Learning and Development
Kristen Anderson
Board Member
Kristen is currently the Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer for Barilla and has been a member of the D&I Board since its formation in 2013. Kristen reports to the CEO of Barilla and leads a 12 member D&I Board, comprised of internal members from 8 key countries and 2 external advisors.
Previously, Kristen was VP of R&D for the Asia, Africa and Australia region for Barilla, based in Singapore. She joined Barilla in 2010 as VP of Research, based at the Barilla Headquarters in Parma, Italy.
After a Master’s Degree in Chemical Engineering, Kristen joined Kraft Foods R&D in Chicago, where she spent 10 years in positions of increasing responsibility in various roles.
In 1999, she relocated to Melbourne, Australia to assume the leadership of the R&D organization for Kraft Australia/NZ. After 3 years, she moved to Munich, Germany to manage R&D for the Kraft EU Food Categories. In 2007, she joined the Coca Cola Company and transferred to Shanghai, China to lead the building of the Global Innovation and Technology Center and the expansion of the R&D organization’s capabilities.
Vidya Krishnan
Chief Learning Officer
Vidya Krishnan is the Chief Learning Officer of Ericsson, leading Ericsson’s Global Learning and Development team as part of Ericsson’s Global People organization. Vidya and team are responsible for transforming capability creation for every one of Ericsson’s 95,000+ people in over 180 countries around the world, empowering an intelligent, sustainable, and connected world.
Vidya Krishnan is a technology and entrepreneurial leader with 20+ years of experience in Networks, Digital Services, Learning, Engineering, Consulting, and Business Transformation. She holds a B.S. degree from Princeton University and an M.S. degree from Stanford University in Electrical Engineering. Vidya is proud and privileged to sponsor the Ericsson-Girl Scouts Alliance, dedicated to building tomorrow’s STEM Leadership Pipeline today. She and her husband Karthik are parents to two teenagers and two dogs (who behave like teenagers). Vidya and her best friend Nithya enjoy coaching their kids’ team in Destination Imagination, a global, non-profit, creative problem-solving organization.
Deborah Lee
Engagement Director
Deb joined Compass in August 2019, she is seeking to bring the company’s commitment to 600,000 people to life every day. Her remit includes people and organisation effectiveness, diversity & inclusion, policy, HRIS transformation and strategic business partnering.
Previously CPO at Yoox Net-A-Porter she led the transformation and build of the people function, the people integration with Richemont post-acquisition and was involved in the due diligence work for the China Alibaba JV.
At BT she held roles as CHRO for global services, chief learning officer, and HRD BT Retail. She created the global performance policy; built its Academy and digital portal for learning, collaboration and knowledge management; launched BT’s Tech Literacy campaign to 400,000 children via 15,000 teachers; led the initial people and cultural integration stream for EE acquisition; and was part of the executive team to launch BT Sport in 2013.
Natasha Valani
Vice President, HR
Matthew Gosney
Vice President, Organizational Development & Learning Services
Matt Gosney is a strategic talent management executive with a deep background leading integrated talent strategies in a variety of organizations. He currently serves as the Vice-President of Organizational Development & Learning for UCHealth, a 25,000 employee academic healthcare system headquartered in Colorado. Previous employers include Hillcrest Healthcare System, Walmart, and The Hartford. He holds a Doctorate of Education in Human Resources Development from the University of Arkansas, and Masters and Bachelors degrees in Psychology from the University of Central Oklahoma and Brigham Young University, respectively. An Oklahoma native, he and his wife Sharon reside in Parker, CO where they raise their two boys, cook big meals for friends and family, watch college football, and enjoy the natural beauty of Colourful Colorado.
Pat Rowan
Vice President, HR
Emma Smythe
Talent & Development Director
Having started her career as a people manager, Emma has since held several roles in Talent & Development in PepsiCo, BP, BAE Systems, and currently at The AA. She is committed to her own lifelong learning and to supporting and encouraging a learning mindset in others. Underpinned by a belief that we all deserve a fulfilling life and career and that continuous learning is a way to achieve this, Emma strives to encourage employees to seek their purpose and spark their curiosity to pursue their passion. Line managers have a responsibility to support their people in this discovery to achieve their potential. Organisations must provide the tools, support, and space to make this happen. When all of these align at the individual and organisational level, a Learning culture can thrive.
Frances Light
Global Director Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
Frances is the Global Director of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion at King, a leading interactive entertainment company for the mobile world with 271 million monthly active users. Her aim is to ensure that King achieves their focus on increased gender diversity and being a more inclusive workplace through thought leadership and targeted initiatives.
Frances is a people person; she connects on a human level, building strong trusted relationships and this is what she attributes to having a fulfilling and impactful career. She believes that if you focus on people and ensure that they feel valued and heard they will always give you their best.
Frances’ experience spans a range of industries including gaming, telecoms, packaging, retail, financial services, and hospitality across Europe, US, Asia, Australia and South Africa. Her passion for inclusivity stems back to 1993 after being part of an inspiring change programme supporting both existing and new emerging leaders through the ending of Apartheid in South Africa.
Frances has been married to Stephen for 22 years and they have twin daughters, Madie and Caitie, 2 dogs and 2 cats.
Cath Bailey
CPO
Cath is an international, business focused HR Leader with a proven track record of delivery in a variety of global, matrix organisations. She is passionate about bringing a real commercial focus to the people agenda and leading organisations and teams through transformational change. Cath has recently joined MAG (Airports Group) as their Chief People Officer.
Cath joined Avon in May 2016 as Vice President HR, Global Commercial Business. Avon is the company that for 130 years has stood for beauty, innovation, optimism and, above all, for empowering women. Avon has a diverse product portfolio sold through six million independent Avon Beauty Entrepreneurs worldwide.
Prior to joining Avon, Cath worked for one of the world’s leading cereal and snacks companies Kellogg’s where she spent over ten years in both European and North America roles. She was VP, HR European Markets, and led the reorganisation of the European business following the acquisition of Pringles. Prior to this she was VP, Global Talent and led the creation and execution of the first global employer brand, vision and purpose.
Cath also spent over ten years with Barclays Plc, a British multinational banking and financial services company, prior to becoming a successful external Human Resources Consultant specialising in organisational design, cultural change and Strategic Talent Management and Leadership Development.
Cath has a BSc(Hons) in Psychology and is a Chartered Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development and an alumni of Executive Programmes at Harvard and INSEAD Business Schools.
Nebel Crowhurst
VP People
Nebel has a progressive approach to HR with an emphasis on delivering real business value and impact. Having spent a career supporting the people agenda within various organisations including River Island and Virgin, Nebel has experienced extensive business change and growth. Using modern HR practices to implement fresh ideas on; performance management, Agile working, using evidence based practice and Tech led approaches has resulted achieving multiple HR industry awards. With real success in helping business leaders to understand the benefits of moving away from traditional HR tactics and truly leveraging the most valuable asset of any organisation … it’s talented people.
Jon Ingham
Author, Consultant and Trainer at Strategic HR Academy
Jon is an HR strategy consultant and trainer. His work focuses on realigning people management with the future of work, which he writes about for HRD Connect, and in his recent book, ‘The Social Organization’. He has also been a co-author with Dave Ulrich, writing on the future of HR departments, and has since created the melded network HR model as a modern replacement for the three legged stool. Jon has previously worked as a chemical engineer, an IT consultant, and an international HR director. He has BA in Psychology, a Masters in Engineering and an MBA and has frequently been recognised a leading influencer in HR.
Tyronne Stoudemire
Vice President Global Diversity and Inclusion
Salvador Mendoza
Vice President, Diversity & Inclusion
James Fulton
Chief Learning Officer & Global Head of Talent Development
Thomas Louman
HRD Commercial
Thomas is an international HR professional specialised in transformation. His speciality is multinational change through talent and organisation programs. He worked in different industries with Stork, Unilever, Zurich Insurance Group, Agrifirm and since 2019 at Tata Steel Europe as HR Director for Sales, Marketing and Supply Chain. Thomas developed his broad HR leadership skillset through roles as HR Business Partner, Talent Management, Shared Services Operations and Project management. He returned to his home-country The Netherlands, after 8 years in Russia and Switzerland.
Jessie Scheepers
Head of People
Jessie loves different cultures and people and how they all interact and has enjoyed experiencing them through working across (and in) the EMEA markets.
She brings this attitude to the People & Culture function at Pleo, where the focus is on being human and relatable through scale – from 40 people to 220 in the past 2 years. The People Team of 9 tries to achieve this through working agile and automating as much as possible so that they can spend their extra time on real, human experiences. Jessie believes that trust can be earned through things like flat hierarchies in organisations and by giving people the freedom to solve problems differently.
When it comes to the people agenda, she is fuelled by her passion for social justice – in particular, Jessie pushes the education agenda through eMentoring for investing in high potential students in developing markets. Jessie tries to solve DEI and CSR topics through inclusion.
James Saunders
Chief People Officer
James spent his early career in strategy and transformation, shaping his commercial acumen and has spent over 15 years developing and delivering people strategy for large and complex businesses. He has experience in multiple sectors including Financial Services, Telecoms, Technology, Property, Facilities Management and Retail.
After spending 9 years with Vodafone, he joined Intu as the Chief People Officer in 2020 where his focus is on building open, collaborative and commercial cultures.
Oli Meager
VP, Career Mobility
Camille Burrows
Group Vice President, Learning & Development
Camille currently leads learning and development across Discovery globally. She’s spent the last 5 years at Discovery developing the next generation of leaders; helping executives pivot the capabilities of their team towards digital and create an agile culture. Camille partners with leaders across many aspects of Discovery’s business strategy including D&I, transformation, innovation, and organisation development. Camille’s career spans over 20 years, working in large global corporates such as PepsiCo and WPP. She’s never happier than when she’s helping organisations, their leaders, and teams navigate complexity, change, and uncertainty – which is just as well given the year we’ve had!
Dina Alvarez
Head of Culture & Talent
Dina has an extensive international experience in the whole talent management areas working on local, regional and corporate roles combining an innovative point of view with strategic, tactical and operational expertise and a deep knowledge of HR. She is skilled in the design, development and delivery of award winners HR strategies to support growth and transformation. Her purpose is to extend and amplify the cognitive and affective abilities to go beyond people’s potential, help them flourish and inspire them to look for new perspectives. She has developed her career around encouraging people to be guided by their own curiosity and choose what makes them happy.
Bruce Daisley
Author, Sunday Times No. 1 Bestseller, The Joy of Work
Bruce Daisley is one of the UKs most influential voices on fixing work published in the Washington Post, Harvard Business Review, Wall Street Journal and The Guardian. He is a regular contributor to Wired. His book was the UK’s top selling business hardback of 2019 and is an international bestseller – translated into 15 languages. Previously he spent over a decade running Twitter and YouTube (the latter at Google) for Europe, leaving Twitter as its most senior leader outside of the US.
Bruce runs the Apple #1 Business Chart topping podcast Eat Sleep Work Repeat on work culture.
Siobhan McHale
Executive General Manager of People, Culture & Change
Siobhan McHale is an “insider” and has been the executive in charge of culture change in a series of multinational firms. Her work was used as a case study by Professor John Kotter at Harvard Business School, to teach MBA students about how to manage change.
Siobhan’s recent book The Insider’s Guide to Culture Change has been described, by culture pioneer Carolyn Taylor, as “the most ground-breaking thinking on how to change workplace culture that I’ve seen in many years”.
In 2020, Siobhan was selected as a member of the Thinkers50 Radar for “tackling the big issues of our time with rigour and energy”. She is currently employed as the Executive General Manager of People, Culture & Change at DuluxGroup.
Belinda Gannaway
Director
Belinda Gannaway is director of EX design consultancy FathomXP. She is an employee experience design practitioner, group facilitator and team coach. Belinda’s career has covered the worlds of journalism, comms and digital transformation where she first came across design thinking as a way of understanding and designing human-centred change.
Together Emma and Belinda take a highly practical approach to employee experience design, drawing from the worlds of positive psychology and design thinking. Their new book Employee Experience by Design: How to Create an Effective EX for Competitive Advantage is out in March 2021.
Emma Bridger
Director
Emma Bridger is an award-winning employee engagement specialist. She is director of People Lab, an employee engagement and experience consultancy that works with high-profile clients worldwide. With more than 18 years’ experience gained in a variety of roles, Emma began her career lecturing on graduate and post-graduate courses in psychology, her specialist area being behaviour change.
Together Emma and Belinda take a highly practical approach to employee experience design, drawing from the worlds of positive psychology and design thinking. Their new book Employee Experience by Design: How to Create an Effective EX for Competitive Advantage is out in March 2021.
Takashi Sato
Managing Director
Glint
Degreed
Anna Peggram
D&I Partnerships Manager
With a degree in Neuroscience and experience working in strategy and innovation, Anna has a unique perspective on what it takes to drive culture change. As D&I Partnerships Manager, Anna works with a suite of FTSE100 and Fortune 250 companies to help them launch and see the impact from Inclusion Works by Hive Learning – a digital peer learning programme that helps companies build everyday habits of inclusion at every level. Anna works with clients to develop their digital strategy and enable them to run full learning activation plans that drive continuous learning. On Anna’s programmes, 78% of participants engage with the programme each month and 94% feel confident in their ability to demonstrate truly inclusive behaviours at work.
Fiona Young
Content Director
Having previously led Learning and Development for 3,000 people at Europe’s leading venture builder, Blenheim Chalcot, Fiona knows a thing or two about how to build high performance culture. As Content Director at Hive Learning, Fiona pioneered the organisation’s leading guided content programmes which are designed to turn learning into action. Most recently, Fiona led the inception, development and delivery of Inclusion Works by Hive Learning – the world’s first inclusion toolkit focused on turning unconscious bias into conscious action – created from 1000s of leading sources. Fiona is also the host of the Inclusion Works podcast. A Californian by birth but Londoner by choice, Fiona spends her spare time exploring the trendiest restaurants and fitness classes around London.
Christian Busch
Professor & Author, The Serendipity Mindset
Sharon Doherty
Chief People Officer
Aric Wood
CEO
Aric has worked with clients such as Google, Ford, and Microsoft to help them redesign their strategy, culture, and establish new ways of working. Aric’s expertise sits within his ability to help organisations lead change through their people, utilizing a framework that can be applied to companies of all sizes to reinforce a methodology that builds great employee experiences.
Sebastien Girard, MBA
Senior Vice President, Workforce Engagement
Sebastien Girard joined Atrium Health as Senior Vice President of Workforce Engagement in December 2018. Heis responsible for strategic and operational advancement of Atrium Health system employment and labor management strategies, talent acquisition,executive recruiting, HR strategy and business partners, HR compliance, and employment practice development and delivery – including a focus on advancing employee engagement and solidifying Atrium Health as an employer of choice.
Gianpaolo Barozzi
Senior Director HR, Talent Management
Jennifer Christie
VP, People & Chief Human Resources Officer
Jennifer Christie is VP, People and Chief Human Resources Officer at Twitter. She leads the global People team and works with the executive management team and board of directors to support the strategic direction of the company. Specifically, she oversees talent acquisition and management, diversity and inclusion, People systems
and analytics, organizational and performance management, training and development, and total rewards and mobility. She also leads the HR Business Partner teams globally that support the engineering, product, sales and partnerships, and corporate function organizations. The global real estate and workplace organization is also a part of the
People Team that she leads.
Prior to joining Twitter in 2017, Jennifer was the senior vice president and head of HR for the Global Consumer Services Group at American Express. In this role, she was responsible for developing and executing the talent, organizational, and leadership strategy for the business. Prior to this role, Jennifer was the vice president and HR
Business Partner for Enterprise Growth Group.
In her first three years with American Express, she served as Chief Diversity Officer and vice president, Global Executive Recruitment and was responsible for developing the company’s global diversity and inclusion strategy and led executive level recruitment for
all business and staff groups worldwide.
Before joining American Express, Jennifer was a consultant at a leading executive search firm and also spent two years as a Special Assistant to the President of the United States in the White House Office of Presidential Personnel. Before joining the White House, she was an associate at Booz Allen Hamilton in their organizational design and change management practice.
Jennifer started her career in the federal government working for more than a decade for several federal government agencies to support community safety and security programs and implement offender reentry initiatives. Jennifer received a master’s degree in criminal justice from The George Washington University and a bachelor’s degree in political science from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Claude Silver
Chief Heart Officer
VaynerMedia’s —and the ad industry’s for that matter— first ever Chief Heart Officer, Claude Silver fuses empathy with agency to unlock employee potential and foster a culture of belonging. Between her education in psychology, years as an advertising strategist, and time at Vaynermedia, she’s been studying and influencing human behavior for over three decades. Outside of Vaynermedia, she speaks globally about the need for heart-leadership in today’s workplace and the importance of treating “employees” like people, not numbers. Her success guiding client relationships, global brand strategies, operations, management, and culture is driven by an abiding passion for creating spaces in which people can thrive.
Paul Hevesy
Vice President – Organizational Effectiveness
Paul Hevesy is an executive leader with extensive people leadership experience, currently holding the role of VP, Organizational Effectiveness at Stanley Black and Decker. He understands deeply that the performance of teams is a reflection of their leaders, and that taking care of employees supports exponential growth for companies. During this session, Paul will share the blueprint to why and how to invest in emotional intelligence to drive productivity and workplace transformation.
Mike Bokina
Vice President, Head of Human Resources
Mike Bokina is Vice President, Head of Human Resources for Siemens USA, serving the company’s largest market in the world, with more than 50,000 employees and over $23 billion in revenues and $5 billion in annual exports. In this role, Mike is responsible for developing and executing human resource strategy in support of the overall business plan and strategic direction of the organization, specifically in the areas of succession planning, talent management, change management, organizational and performance management, training and development, and compensation.
Linda Mountford
Northern Europe Commercial HR Director
Trish McFarlane
CEO / Principal Analyst
Trish McFarlane is the CEO/ Principal Analyst of H3 HR Advisors. Trish is a former HR executive, HCM product leader, and analyst with over 20 years of experience in Big 4 public accounting, PR, healthcare, manufacturing and IT. She is the author of the popular Trish McFarlane blog (formerly HR Ringleader) and co-host of the most listened to HR industry podcast, the HR Happy Hour. Trish recently released her 2020 HCM Trends Report, where she and colleagues with the HR Federation identified where the industry is headed.
Rupert Morrison
CEO
Pep Rosenfeld
Co-Founder and Director of Content
As Boom Chicago For Business’s Director of Content, Pep does it all: high level event host & facilitator, writer, stand-up comedian, public speaker, coach, and creator of innovative corporate programs. A co-founder of Boom Chicago, Pep’s passion is using comedy to make hard-to-communicate messages land and stick, as featured In his 2012 TED talk, ‘Fight, Flight or Make Your Opponent Laugh.’ Pep hosts events like TEDx Amsterdam, The Next Web Conference and The Nordic Business Forum to rave reviews, even making President Obama laugh at the NBF. He was nominated for an Emmy for his writing on America’s long-running television show, Saturday Night Live.
Arjen Swank
Engagement Specialist
Peter Meyler
Head of HR Analytics & Consulting
Peter uses HR strategy, analytics and insight skills to help clients identify and maximise the drivers of organisational and employee value and well-being to create a great employment experience and long term sustainable business success.
Peter’s expertise has been built through working consultancy and client side in HR strategy, proposition and policy development, employee engagement and well-being, employee research, HR metrics, analysis, insight and reporting, strategic workforce and business planning and Diversity & Inclusion.
Peter’s clients are primarily senior strategic HR leaders across multiple sectors who are looking to maximise the experience, well-being, performance and value generated by their workforce.
David Collington
Head of Benefits Consultancy
If you work in employee benefits, chances are you’ve come across David in one form or another. David has built a solid reputation as someone who believes passionately in the value of a clear, well considered benefits strategy. After all, employee benefits without a purpose risks being just another drain on budgets and resources.
With over 20 years delivering employee consulting services, David’s list of achievements is considerable. He has helped a broad scale of organisations – from SMEs to large FTSE 100 companies – and worked across a wide range of employee benefit areas.
What does David enjoy most about his role? It’s in seeing the value generated for clients by an innovative, well thought through employee benefits strategy. One that really meets the specific needs of an employer, as well as the people who work there.
Liz Pavese-Kaplan
Senior Director – Limeade Institute
As a talent management and employee experience practitioner for over 10 years, Liz has a true passion for marrying the art and science of psychology with an organization’s context to ensure leaders and employees have the right tools at the right time for sustainable change. Liz earned her Ph.D. in Industrial-Organizational Psychology from Seattle Pacific University, where she also completed her M.A., and also holds a B.A. in Psychology from SUNY Geneseo.
Cristina Wilbur
Chief People Officer
Cristina A. Wilbur is Chairman of International School of the Basel Region AG and Head-Group Human Resources at Roche Holding AG.
In the past she occupied the position of Global Head-Human Resources & Senior VP at Roche Diagnostics (Switzerland) AG, Head-Group Human Resources at Roche Group, Director-Human Resources at EG&G, Inc., Director-Human Resources of PerkinElmer Optoelectronics, Inc. and Director-Human Resources at Roche Diagnostics Corp.
Arianna Huffington
CEO and Founder of Thrive Global and Founder of The Huffington Post
Arianna Huffington is the founder and CEO of Thrive Global, the founder of The Huffington Post, and the author of 15 books, including, most recently, Thrive and The Sleep Revolution. In 2005, she launched The Huffington Post, a news and blog site that quickly became one of the most widely-read, linked to, and frequently-cited media brands on the Internet. In 2016, she launched Thrive Global, a leading behavior change tech company with the mission of changing the way we work and live by ending the collective delusion that burnout is the price we must pay for success.
She has been named to Time Magazine’s list of the world’s 100 most influential people and the Forbes Most Powerful Women list. Originally from Greece, she moved to England when she was 16 and graduated from Cambridge University with an M.A. in economics. At 21, she became president of the famed debating society, the Cambridge Union.
She serves on numerous boards, including Onex and The B Team.
Her last two books, Thrive: The Third Metric to Redefining Success and Creating a Life of Well-Being, Wisdom, and Wonder and The Sleep Revolution: Transforming Your Life, One Night At A Time, both became instant international bestsellers.
Steve Cottle
Vice President Business Development, EMEA Region
Dr Anna Koczwara
Head of Behavioral Science
Dr Anna Koczwara is Head of Behavioural Science at NatWest Group. She is a chartered occupational psychologist, with experience in academia, consultancy and working in-house for both public and private sector organisations . She has a PhD from Goldsmiths College, researching leadership and diversity in investment banking. Anna has published a number of peer reviewed articles and presented her work nationally and internationally. She was previously named Occupational Psychologist of the Year by the British Psychological Society.
Caroline Oswald
Audience Engagement Specalist
Terence Mauri
Future of Leadership Thinker
Luuk Sombezki
EX Lead
Luuk is a creative and innovative leader driving a progressive HR agenda with a focus on human centred design. In his current role he is responsible for managing Employee Experience at ABN AMRO with the main goal to ensure products and services are designed which employees really want and need.
Marcelle van der Busse
Strategy & Change Consultant
Marcelle is a proactive energetic and people orientated strategy consultant. Currently they are building the Employee Experience at ABN AMRO focusing on HR, Strategy and Innovation
Annemarie Matze-Mennes
HR Strategy Consultant
HR strategy consultant at ABN AMRO. Working on improving the employee experience.
Jeri Doris
Chief People Officer
Jeri Doris joined Delivery Hero in January 2018 as Chief People Officer. Jeri is responsible for all things that impact the employee experience at Delivery Hero, from ensuring a positive environment to managing the people development programs. Before joining the team, she was Head of HR at Rakuten USA based in Silicon Valley. Jeri has extensive background managing the employee experience at both established and start-up companies, and prior to moving to Silicon Valley she held various international leadership positions at Groupon in Chicago.
Karin Volo
CEO and Director
Karin is an expert in engagement, personal and organizational development, and is an international best-selling author. With over 20 years experience working with Fortune 500 companies globally, she has insights on business building, cultural transformation, building trust, purpose, and high performance. Karin loves working with cultural development, employee engagement, leadership training / mentoring, professional inspirational speaking and writing. She is also a Certified C-IQ™ Coach. Karin has been recognized as a global leader and employee engagement expert the last four years on the Engagement 101 list, the Top 30 HR Influencers and the 15 Most Influential Women in HR lists, and recently named on the 2020 Top Thought Leaders in Trust list. Her purpose is bringing joy to the workplace.
Georgiana de Noronha
President, Northern Europe
Georgiana de Noronha was appointed in October this year to the role of President Kraft Heinz Northern Europe which spans the UK, Ireland and the Nordics. She was promoted from her previous role as VP People & Performance for Kraft Heinz EMEA where she led the shift to a performance and learning based culture with diversity and inclusion at its core. With a previous career background in finance, Georgiana joined Kraft Heinz in 2015 as sales director for the Tesco account before being promoted to head of talent for Kraft Heinz EMEA in 2016 where she developed a strong graduate and MBA entry programme to attract top talent across the zone. Georgiana has a BA in economics from the University of Virginia in the US.
Sascha Schneider
CHRO
Since 2009, Sascha Schneider has been Executive Vice President Human Resources & Organisation and a member of the Executive Board of the Hamburg luxury label Montblanc, which is part of the international luxury goods group Richemont. He is thus responsible for 3,300 employees worldwide. A graduate in law, Sascha has been working for 20 years in international management positions in Human Resources and IT & Organization in various industries, such as FMCG and banking. Sascha, who sees effective HR work as the enabler of sustainable value creation, is working in particular on tomorrow’s work organization, the changing role of HR, the effects and changes of the digital transformation on companies and employees and global talent management.
Dan Pontefract
Speaker, Author
Dan is the founder and CEO of The Pontefract Group, a firm that improves the state of leadership and organizational culture.
He is the best-selling author of three books: OPEN TO THINK, THE PURPOSE EFFECT and FLAT ARMY. A renowned speaker, Dan has presented at four different TED events and also writes for Forbes and Harvard Business Review. Dan is an adjunct professor at the University of Victoria, Gustavson School of Business and has garnered more than 20 industry awards over his career.
His third book, OPEN TO THINK is the 2019 getAbstract International Book of the Year winner and the 2019 Axiom Business Book Award Silver Medal winner in the Leadership category.
Previously as Chief Envisioner and Chief Learning Officer at TELUS—a Canadian telecommunications company with revenues of over $14 billion and 50,000 global employees—he launched the Transformation Office, the TELUS MBA, and the TELUS Leadership Philosophy, all award-winning initiatives that dramatically helped to increase the company’s employee engagement to record levels of nearly 90%. Prior to TELUS he held senior roles at SAP, Business Objects and BCIT.
Dan and his wife, Denise, have three children (aka goats) and live in Victoria, Canada.
Kristin Holter
Global Head of HR Transformation
Kristin Holter is a global HR leader with extensive experience managing the people & change aspect of transformation. As an HR leader, she enjoys solving problems, building great teams, creating engagement, partnering with peers, project management, change management, and above all working together to deliver results. Kristin is currently interested in digital and the future of work and has always been a passionate student of inclusion and diversity.
Valerie Hughes-D’Aeth
Consultant
Kate Philpot
Senior Director, Global Sales Enablement
After fifteen years in front-line sales, Kate moved into what was then called Capability Development since which time she’s never looked back. Kate has worked in industries as varied as oil and gas and food manufacturing, she’s worked for herself and now, leads the Enablement function for Getty Images, an organisation that, relatively speaking, is still in its infancy. Kate feels lucky to work for a company whose goal is to move the world through the images we produce and to be surrounded by people who are experts in their field.
Her team is responsible for the end-to-end development of their sellers; from onboarding, through Sales skills and Sales leadership training to Product, Process, and Systems. They are less instructors than “suggesters” and facilitators. “Suggester” of different ways of doing the habitual that inspires these already skilled adult learners to tweak or change their behaviour and facilitator of simplification, removing barriers that get in the way people doing their best work
Andrew Saidy
Vice President Global Talent
Digitally savvy Human Resources executive with 15+ years of progressive experience with multinationals and international organizations.
Proven track record in HR Business Partnering, Talent Acquisition & Management, Digital Transformations, Leading change, HR Technologies, Employer Branding, University Relations, Executive Coaching, Training & Development, and HR Project Management.
*Top 100 HR Tech Influencer 2020 – HR Executive Magazine / HR Tech Conference
*2020 HR Executive of the Year – Stevie Awards
*2020 HR Tech Professional of the Year – Stevie Awards
*Top 20 HR Thought Leaders to Follow in 2021 – PeopleHum
Michael Fraccaro
Chief People Officer
Michael Fraccaro is the chief people officer of Mastercard. In this role, he is responsible for all human resources (HR) functions globally, including driving cultural transformation, building leadership capability and creating a company that is “most valued to work for”. He is a member of the company’s management committee.
From 2012 until assuming his current role, Michael served as executive vice president of human resources for the company’s Global Products and Solutions business. In this role, he supported the company’s growth in key businesses and markets and optimized talent programs in a competitive environment. He also was responsible for leading the global HR integration of new acquisitions and joint ventures. Michael serves on the boards of HR Policy Association and SHRM’s HR People + Strategy Network.
Prior to joining Mastercard, Michael was a core member of the HR leadership team at HSBC Group for nearly 12 years, based in Hong Kong. Earlier, he held senior HR positions in banking and financial services in Australia and the Middle East, working extensively across different cultures.
Michael holds a Masters of Applied Science, Communication Management from the University of Technology, Sydney, and a Bachelor of Education from the Australian Catholic University. He also has accreditation in change management from the Australian Graduate School of Management and attended leadership programs at Duke Fuqua and INSEAD.
Harsha Jalihal
Chief People Officer
Jalihal oversees MongoDB’s human resources operations globally, supporting 2,100+ people in 29 countries. In this role, she leads workforce strategy, talent acquisition and development, diversity and inclusion, total rewards, and employee engagement.
Ed O’Brien
Head of Learning and Development, Europe and Latin America
Ed O’Brien has been Head of Learning for Europe and Latin America in Ericsson since 2017. With over 14 years of learning experience, Ed has been involved in driving transformation programs, delivering key strategic competence solutions and ensuring that he and his team act as coaches and partners to the business.
Prior to moving into the learning field, Ed has held Consulting and Product Management positions in Ericsson and Eir. Outside of learning, Ed is a keen runner and even running, there are many ways to learn!
Amanda Manzoni
CHRO
Amanda was appointed to the position of CHRO of Ansell in 2019. Amanda began her career as a graduate in HR at Shell. She worked globally with Shell for 28 years in a variety of HR, Change and Transformation roles, most recently serving as the Vice President of Human Resources for Shell’s retail business globally. Amanda has experience working in in a variety of business sectors, including Manufacturing, Distribution, Supply Chain, Operations, Marketing and Retail. Her expertise is in HR strategy, leadership development, executive coaching and change management. Amanda was born in a the UK and studied Sociology and Psychology at Southampton University.
Trudie Adcock
Enterprise Learning Director
Christian Busch
Faculty & Director
Janine Vos
CHRO/Member Managing Board
Kaisa Aalto-Luoto
SVP, Human Resources & Communications
Richard Batten
Global Chief Sustainability Officer
Richard has spent the last 35 years working in the real estate business. His work initially focussed on advising investor clients on commercial properties, sales, and acquisitions. This developed into advising on government privatisations, funding provision of finance, acting as LPA receiver, and advising commercial and residential companies moving from private to listed status or vice versa.
Richard became Joint Senior Partner of King Sturge in 2005 and led the company into the merger with JLL in 2011. He has subsequently been Chairman of the UK business and in 2012 a Member of the EMEA Management Board with responsibility for CEE, the Middle East, and Africa together with the industrial sector and sustainability. He took up his current role in January 2017.
Richard is a keen family man and a triathlete, gardener, and choral singer.
Angela Williams
Chief People Officer
Lisbeth Nielsen
VP HR, Head of Workforce & Location Strategy
Katrin Schmallenbach
Vice President Human Resources
Dr. Katrin Schmallenbach was born in the Ruhrgebiet / Germany in 1968. She studied veterinary medicine in Antwerp, Berlin and Gießen. This was being followed by accomplishing a PhD in Edinburgh, working in several positions in veterinary practice and a obtaining a Masters Degree in Pharmaceutical Medicine.
Her professional career in industry started in drug development, continued in managing the implementation of a large compliance project for Henkel and setting up a department at Evonik, that deals with safeguarding the safety of chemicals.
Since 2017 Katrin Schmallenbach enhances business productivity and efficiency by designing and developing appropriate strategies to increase gender diversity at Evonik.
By focusing on diversity Evonik aims to hire staff with high potential. Creating and developing innovative ideas to accomplish business targets is one of her areas of action. Katrin Schmallenbach has successfully managed and completed diversity projects, resulting in increased gender diversity and created awareness on strategical development of gender diversity by collaborating within global HR community.
Katrin Schmallenbach is married and has two children of the age of 18 and 17.
DK Bartley
Chief Diversity Officer
D.K. Bartley has been accurately characterized as a subject matter expert for Diversity, Inclusion, and Talent Acquisition, having worked at organizations such as dentsu International, HarperCollins Publishers and Sony. He is currently CDO – Chief Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Officer at Moody’s, the global integrated risk assessment company. Having delivered on multiple diversity initiatives, D.K. strongly believes organizational impact is achieved by looking through the diversity lens. During this session, D.K. will expertly guide you through how to achieve best-in-class diversity and inclusion practices, sharing and utilizing his experiences whilst navigating reduced budgets.
Dan Wang
Associate Professor of Business
Dan Wang is David W. Zalaznick Associate Professor of Business at Columbia Business School. He teaches the MBA and PhD courses on Strategy Formulation, Technology Strategy, and Organizational Theory. He has been named to the Poets and Quants list of “Best 40 Business School Professors under 40” and has won the Singhvi Prize for Scholarship in the Classroom, Columbia Business School’s top teaching honor. He received his PhD from Stanford University and BA from Columbia University.
His research analyzes how social networks can create change in organizations and society through innovation and entrepreneurship. His main research agenda focuses on how overseas work experiences impact the career success and rate of new venture formation among skilled professionals. In other work, he has analyzed how venture capital investment syndication affects the innovation and exit performance of high-tech start-ups. His recent research aims to understand how entrepreneurial ideas emerge from group interactions. His work has been recognized with awards from the Kauffman Foundation and the Academy of Management.
Alastair Procter
CHRO
Aleksandra Rychta
HRBP Director Operations Europe
Graduate of University of Lodz, Poland, faculty of Marketing and Management, specialising in HR Management. Post-graduate in Project Management. Over 20 years of experience in recruitment, sales and HR. Last 10 years exercising HR business partnering at Electrolux, a leading producer of home appliances. Worked with commercial organisation in CEE region incl. Russia&CIS and now strategically supporting Manufacturing, Supply Chain, Purchasing and Quality in Europe. True believer that all starts with right leadership and with the good purpose of the organisation. Simplicity, efficiency, agility are the core elements of her approach to everything. Constantly inspired and energized by people, travels and own kids.
Pymetrics
Marga Hoek
HRD Thought Leader
Marga Hoek is a member of Thinkers50, she is that rare combination: a true visionary on sustainable business and capital and a successful, innovative business leader who understands and applies the commercial realities of business. Operating at the highest level with ministers and presidents, Marga is a global voice for G20, G7 Climate Change and Cop 23 and a regular contributor for prestigious, global media like Forbes Magazine, Fortune and The Huffington Post. Her latest book The Trillion Dollar Shift, on the business opportunities of the Sustainable Development Goals, received an international, gold medal.
Marga is a non-executive director for various, international companies after a successful CEO, executive career as well an appreciated and sought-after boardroom advisor. She is connected with multinationals in all sectors, but also with many inspirational start-ups and scale-ups around the world. She is the unique in demonstrating in how today’s ICT’s and technological innovations can be a huge force for good and is thus the only speaker in the world that inspires with her view on disruptive sustainability.
As the most authoritative and appreciated speaker on sustainable business and capital and as a multiple awarded author, she is considered one of the most influential thought leaders leading the way in the transition towards a sustainable world
Ericsson
Societe General
Coursera
Limeade
Employment Law Alliance
ABN Amro
Fuel50
Aon Hewitt
Effectory
IUS Laboris
SplashBI
Saint-Gobain
InterXion Holding
Electrolux
Schouten Global
Intuo
Optum
Hive Learning
Impact International
Hogan
Hogan
Rob Veersma
Global Director Training & Development, Gazprom International
Ajay Dhillon
Director – Global Human Resources
Ajay is a global HR professional with 14 years of experience in Emerging & Mature countries. He has worked with senior leadership teams at regional and global levels on strategic initiatives aimed to grow and transform businesses. He has diverse HR experience in roles as HR Business Partner, Talent Management, HR Analytics & Employee Relations. Ajay is passionate for driving business transformations & creating lean teams for a sustainable, profitable and future-ready organization.
Dite Jakupovski
Director, Talent Development
Dité is strategic global HR professional with more than twenty years of experience. She has worked across a wide range of industries including; digital technology, biotechnology, commercial real estate, financial services and telecommunications.
Dité is a HR visionary and leadership coach. She has a track record of designing and implementing relevant, scalable and integrated talent solutions in post-merger, and dynamically changing environments.
Sharon Doherty
CPO
Gianpaolo Barozzi
Senior Director, HR
Gianpaolo Barozzi is a Sr. Director in Cisco HR, leading the Digitalization Office and the Intelligent Human Network project in the HR Leadership & Team Intelligence organization. His team is responsible for the design and development of innovative workforce experiences and solutions in multiple HR areas at Cisco. His passion is re-defining the future of work in corporations – particularly how talent is identified, developed, allocated and engaged – and its implication on people, HR and ultimately the society. In 2018 his team was invited to showcase their latest work at the Ars Electronica Festival in Linz, https://ars.electronica.art/error/en/digiti-light/ .
Gianpaolo is also the Strategic Director of the Department for Innovation Design at the Institute of Art and Applied Arts (IAAD) in Torino.
He is based in Milan, holds a degree in Physics and prior to transitioning to the HR world, he led R&D teams, authored >40 technical papers and 7 international patents.
Diana Croitoru
CHRO
Diana is a Global HR Leader with a focus on transforming the HR function; in almost 25 years spent at P&G, GE and DSM she has been leading HR change for the past 20 years, having been at the forefront of the from operational HR to true business partnering. She is currently Chief HR Officer at LifeStyles, where she joined a leadership team that came together from “best in class” employers to build the largest Global Sexual Wellness company in the world, with the Financial support of Chinese investors Humanwell and CITIC. Diana is passionate about building the effectiveness of both the HR function and of Organizations in the pursuit of higher performance.
Jessie Scheepers
Head of People
Jocelyn Phelps
Program Director, Leadership and Organization Development
Joceleyn is a specialist in HR and organizational development, using the full range of HR and OD processes. As a coach she help individuals, teams, and groups discover and reveal their greatest potential to reach their objectives. She believes in linking development and transformation interventions to the business’s core activities for continuous learning – critical in a time of rapid organizational transformation.
Both as a consultant and in corporate HR functions, she has addressed management challenges including performance management, talent management, leadership development, engagement, diversity, and competency development. She has designed and delivered tools, processes, and interventions to meet the needs of clients and business partners.
She has worked in financial services, consulting, education, and technical services, in various global markets. For the last 19 years her work has been with Société Générale. She is a graduate of Princeton University and INSEAD.
Jorgen Pedersen
Vice President Compensation & Benefits
Jorgen is Vice President Compensation & Benefits for the Saint-Gobain Group, which is a global company with 180.000 employees in 69 countries. He came into this role after having been HR Director of one of the large regions of the group, in order to bring more customer focus and internationalization to the function. He joined the HR function 10 years ago from a background of being managing director of international businesses, in order to bring business and HR closer together. Jorgen has lived and worked in 5 countries and enjoys international organizations.
John Gustaffson
VP HR
Mariam Kakkar
Chief, Talent Development Unit, Office of Human Resources
Mariam leads and manages the Talent Development Unit of UNDP, which is responsible for enabling and fostering a culture of life-long learning and building a pipeline of leaders across the organisation. She’s passionate about creating cultures where wellbeing and resilience are central to the organisation. She has been with the UN in various roles across the last 17 years, including as part of UNICEF and the UNFPA
Anthony Parker
Former VP, Talent Acquisition
Most recently Anthony held the position of Vice President of Global Talent Acquisition & Mobility for Christian Dior Couture a LVMH Inc. brand and is soon to move into a new role as Interim Recruitment/Executive Search Leader at Moet Hennessy. Based in the HQ of Paris, France, Anthony managed the global talent acquisition strategy, tracking metrics, follow-up tools, international head-hunting for executive and C-suite roles, international school relations, and recruitment of interns/apprentice.
Anthony joined LVMH Inc. in 2015 in New York City as the Recruitment Manager for Moet Hennessy USA and after 3 years he was promoted to a project in Hong Kong as the Regional Senior HR Manager – Talent Acquisition & Development for all of APAC, 15 countries and 1400+ employees.
Before joining LVMH Inc., Anthony had 15 years in recruitment and human resources with several fashion and beauty brands within luxury retail. He has worked in New York City for over 10 years with such brands as; Chanel, kate spade, Elizabeth Arden, Cole Haan/NIKE, Tiffany & Co., Calvin Klein, Alexander Wang, Eileen Fisher, and John Varvatos.
Anthony is passionate about developing future leaders, fair and equal practice in the workplace, diversity and inclusion. He volunteers in various community organizations and believes in giving back his time.
Sarajeni Hammond
Sr. Director, HR Transformation
Alexandra Powell
Director of Client Culture and Engagement
Alex is a highly experienced employee engagement consultant, trainer and speaker. For over 15 years she has helped HR and business leaders implement strategies that drive true culture change. Her wealth of knowledge comes from coaching and training thousands of managers from a wide range of industries across the globe. Alex focuses on providing organizations with proven practices that drive results for varied leadership styles and the multiple generations in the modern workforce. Her presentation will leave you motivated and better equipped to lead your organization on a path to a more engaged workforce, making the world a better place to work.
Laurie Ruettimann
Author & HR Consultant
Ben Eubanks
Principal Analyst
Ben Eubanks is the Principal Analyst at Lighthouse Research & Advisory and the author of Artificial Intelligence for HR: Use AI to Build a Successful Workforce.
Ben is an expert in the future of work as it relates to talent, technology, and innovation. His book on artificial intelligence debuted at the #1 spot on the New and Noteworthy list on Amazon upon its release and is currently being translated into Chinese.
Previously an HR executive for a global technology startup, he currently heads up research and operations at Lighthouse Research & Advisory, a human capital advisory services firm. He works with HR, talent, and learning leaders across the globe to solve their most pressing business challenges with a research-based perspective tempered by practical, hands-on experience.
He has developed hundreds of reports, case studies, and other resources to support his life’s mission: making HR better, one HR pro at a time. Ben is the founder of upstartHR, a blog that has touched the lives of more than one million business leaders since its inception, and he also hosts “We’re Only Human,” a podcast that examines the intersection of people and technology in the workplace.
Most importantly, he has four children, a wonderful wife of ten-plus years, and a preference for running in a variety of outlandish races for fun.
Jason Allen Ashlock
Senior Vice President
Jason is Senior Vice President at Kuehne + Nagel, one of the world’s leading logistics companies, where he leads global efforts in Organizational Development, Customer Experience and Employee Engagement. He lives and works in Manhattan.
Leonard Beyeart
Client Success Manager, Virgin Pulse
Leonard Beyeart is responsible at Virgin Pulse for strategic customers in Dutch and French-speaking countries as well as international clients. He brings experience in occupational health management as well as the consultation, implementation and above all marketing of health initiatives in various industries. He will provide insights into his experience across industries, as well as Virgin Pulse’s 15-year expertise in healthy corporate cultures and employee engagement.
Rita McGrath
Faculty
Rita McGrath is a best-selling author, a sought-after speaker, and a longtime professor at Columbia Business School. She is widely recognized as a premier expert on leading innovation and growth during times of uncertainty. Rita has received the #1 achievement award for strategy from the prestigious Thinkers50 and has been consistently named one of the world’s Top 10 management thinkers in its bi-annual ranking. As a consultant to CEOs, her work has had a lasting impact on the strategy and growth programs of Fortune 500 companies worldwide.
She received her Ph.D. from the Wharton School (University of Pennsylvania) and has degrees with honors from Barnard College and the Columbia School of International and Public Affairs.
Follow Rita on Twitter @rgmcgrath and view her channel on YouTube. For more information, visit RitaMcGrath.com.
Evelyn Doyle
Head of People & Culture International
Evelyn Doyle is Head of People and Culture, International, for Patagonia, based in Amsterdam. Originally from Ireland, Evelyn has lived and worked in Russia, Africa and Switzerland, holding leadership roles in the fields of human resource management, talent management and culture and organisation development initiatives for global organisations in with-profit, non-profit and social entrepreneurship sectors.
Evelyn is passionate about positively transforming work environments and business models, nurturing employees to develop their individual voices, through a collaborative, human-centred culture, where everyone is welcomed and valued. She has been instrumental in establishing bespoke, structured programmes, featuring external experts in the fields of leadership development, environmentalism, , academia and business, for personal and professional development. At Patagonia, she is responsible for building an international employee community, across EMEA, APAC and LATAM, that embodies the brand’s reason for being: We’re in business to save our home planet.
Outside of her work at Patagonia, Evelyn is a member of the advisory board of Net Impact Amsterdam, and held the Chairperson position at NGO Designathon Works for a number of years. Relentlessly working to advance industry standards for culture, leadership and employee empowerment, she brings her voice to debate and conversation, through live speaker opportunities and panels, podcasts, interviews and thought leadership pieces in the media. Her loves include family and friends, music, remaining closely connected to news and cultural developments from around the world, and all things food.
Kirsty Devine
Head of US HR and Global Projects
A versatile global leader with 20+ years HR experience gained in fast paced, transformational environments, 7 of which have been with the Financial Times. A successful strategic business partner adept at developing, designing, leading and measuring people strategies to maximise commercial impact. An innovative problem solver with significant experience in advising and influencing senior stakeholders and navigating successfully through complex, matrixed organisations. In addition to managing HR for the FT in the US, Kirsty also lead on global HR projects, most recently designing and implementing a new global HR structure to ensure teams are most effectively supporting the transformation which our business and industry continues to go through. Kirsty’s passion is Global HR and she is GPHR certified.
Dr. Claudia Rohde
Head of HR Development
After her Ph.D in Physics, Claudia started her professional career as a consultant with McKinsey. She entered the HR world at Bahlsen, a premium cookie producing company. Today Claudia is responsible for the whole of HR development range at the Mast-Jägermeister SE, home of the world famous liqueur.
Her scientific approach lead to a HR development concept, which is based on findings from Positive Psychology and other related fields. Combining this with her profound HR experience she creates tools and processes which enhance the success of employees and the company.
Anouk Geertsma
HR Director EMEA
Uber’s mission is to create opportunity through movement. Uber started in 2010 to solve a simple problem: how do you get access to a ride at the touch of a button? More than 10 billion trips later, Uber is building products to get people closer to where they want to be. By changing how people, food, and things move through cities, Uber is a platform that opens up the world to new possibilities.
Anouk Geertsma has been Uber’s HR Director for EMEA since 2017, overseeing the company’s HR in 40+ countries across the region. Anouk enjoys the diversity but also the challenges that such a complex region entails, both from a business and people standpoint and in a fastpaced environment.
Anouk joined Uber from Booking.com, where she lead HR for their EMEA region for three years. She was directly responsible for a team supporting a staff of nearly 8000 across 50 countries.
Anouk’s background is combined with deep HR operational expertise with consulting experience, having spent 11 years at Accenture within their Strategy division. During her time there she worked across multiple industries in multiple locations (France, UK, Sweden, Netherlands) with a focus on HR strategy, organization and transformation.
Anouk holds a Master’s degree in Organizational Management and Bachelor’s degree in psychology. She hails from France originally but has been living in Amsterdam for the past ten years with her husband and two young kids, which keeps her fairly busy outside of work.
Marianne Davies
VP Human Resources
Chuck Heaton
CHRO
Chuck Heaton, SPHR, SHRM-SCP is the CHRO for Camin Cargo, HRD Thought Leader, and a global HR Executive with over 30 years of experience leading HR Teams in multi-national companies.
Perry Timms
Founder and Chief Energy Officer
Perry Timms is the founder and Chief Energy Officer of PTHR – a niche consultancy, with the mission
to create better business for a better world. PTHR is in its 10th year of operating, is a Certified
BCorporation, a Gold-Standard 4-day Working Week organisation, an accredited Living Wage
employer and a Climate-Positive enterprise.
Perry is a proud Chartered member of the CIPD and is a 5x member of HR Magazine’s HR Most
Influential list making the top 10 in 2018, 2019 & 2021 and ranked Number 1 Most Influential Thinker
in HR for 2022.
He is an international and 2x TEDx speaker and award-winning writer on the future of work, HR &
learning. He is a recently certified Semco Style Institute Expert in Self-Managed systems of work.
His 2017 book Transformational HR was named one of the Top 100 Business Strategy books of all
time and published as a second edition in July 2021.
His second book – The Energized Workplace – was published in August 2020 and was shortlisted for
the UK Business Book of the Year 2021.
Perry is Adjunct Professor at Hult International Business School and Ashridge Management
School; a visiting fellow at Cranfield School of Management, and Sheffield Hallam University.
He is a Top 100 Global HR Influencer on numerous lists, a LinkedIn Learning instructor, a member of
the European Organisation Design Forum, the Institute for Organisational Dynamics and The OD
Academy and a Fellow of the RSA.
Mervyn Dinnen
Analyst & Author
Bill Boorman
Thought Leader and Talent Technology Expert
Mark Ellis
Author and Service Operations Director
Mark is a highly experienced organisational development consultant, specialising in cultural transformation, employee engagement and executive facilitation. He spent two decades in the IT industry and was responsible for building global operational, data and business intelligence structures and processes for some of the largest companies in the world – expertise he now uses helping others with their data challenges and measuring engagement, diversity, values perception and the effects of cultural change against business performance.
He is the author of “Digitox – How To Find A Healthy Balance For Your Family’s Digital Diet”, the story of how his family gave up the internet for one day a week, every week for the last three years – and how research shows that doing the same can make you and your family happier, healthier, safer and smarter.
Outside his professional life, he is a co-founder of Red Trouser Day (a charity supporting bowel cancer research), and a director and co-founder of FLTR Coffee – a not for profit community coffee shop in the heart of a housing estate in Bicester, Oxfordshire.
He is also an advisory board member and conference chair for the HR Directors Business Summit, a member of the judging panel for the UK HR Distinction Awards, an Associate Lecturer at Oxford Brookes University. You can find him online @cultureeffect.
Anneloes Raes
Assistant Professor of Managing People in Organizations
Anneloes Raes is Assistant Professor in the Department of Managing People in Organizations at IESE. She holds a PhD in Organizational Behavior from Maastricht University and a M.A. in Psychology at the Radboud University Nijmegen in the Netherlands. Prior to joining IESE, Prof. Raes worked as an Assistant Professor at the University of St. Gallen in Switzerland, and she held visiting scholarships at UCLA’s Anderson School of Management and Harvard University.
Prof. Raes’ research expertise includes the fields of top management teams, teamwork, self-management, and leadership. Her work has been published in academic journals such as the Academy of Management Review, Journal of Applied Psychology, Journal of Business Research, and Human Relations, and was awarded with various grants and awards. It has also been featured in press outlets in multiple countries, including the Financial Times, Forbes, and Expansion.
At IESE, Prof. Raes teaches classes on Leadership, Teamwork, Human Resources Management, and Self Management, at the MBA and executive levels. She has worked with organizations such as Danone, Nestlé, Ferrero, BBVA, Deutsche Bank, Rabobank, Rijk Zwaan, Henkel, Dow, Vueling, and UNICEF. Also, she has an online course on Organizational Behavior on the online learning platform Coursera.
Francisco Cherny
CEO & Managing Director
As a member of Axialent’s founding team, Francisco Cherny combines the experience of being an entrepreneur and a business leader when engaging with global clients in their transformation journeys. He’s been widely recognized by his capacity to make things happen by turning ideas into action and creating business operating platforms.
He is currently Axialent’s managing director and has vast experience partnering with organizations, working with their top executives and senior leadership teams in identifying and implementing their desired organizational culture.
For more than 10 years, Francisco has led global and regional change strategies with clients such as AXA, BSH, Procter & Gamble, AstraZeneca and Microsoft among others.
Dr. Robert Hogan
International Authority on Leadership and Co-founder Hogan Assessment Systems
Dr. Hogan is an international authority on personality assessment, leadership, and organizational effectiveness. His theory-based work in personality measurement has contributed to the development of socioanalytic theory, which maintains that the core of personality is based on evolutionary adaptations. He is widely credited with demonstrating how personality factors influence organizational effectiveness in a variety of areas, ranging from organizational climate and leadership to selection and effective team performance.
As an iconoclastic observer of American psychology, Dr. Hogan maintains that personality is best examined from the perspective of the observer (reputation) rather than the actor (a person’s identity). As a consequence, he asserts that personality tools should be evaluated in terms of how well reputations (defined by personality tests) predict behavior on the job and in relationships.
Dr. Hogan is the author of more than 300 journal articles, chapters and books including Personality and the Fate of Organizations (2006). His recent author, co-author, and editing credits also include: The Hogan Guide (2007), Personality: Theories and Applications (2008), The Handbook of Personality Psychology (1997), The Perils of Accentuating the Positive (2009), the Hogan Personality Inventory, the Hogan Development Survey, the Motives Values and Preferences Inventory, and the Hogan Business Reasoning Inventory.
Dr. Hogan received his Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley, specializing in personality assessment. He served as McFarlin Professor and chair of the Department of Psychology at The University of Tulsa for 17 years. Prior to that, Dr. Hogan was professor of Psychology and Social Relations at The Johns Hopkins University. He is a fellow of the American Psychological Association and the Society for Industrial/Organizational Psychology.
Sigrid Nauwelaerts
Regional Director, Talent Mobility – EMEA
Sigrid Nauwelaerts joined Johnson & Johnson as Regional Director, Talent Mobility Advisory – EMEA in April 2013. In this role, Sigrid has responsibility for developing and executing talent mobility strategies to support the J&J businesses in the EMEA region.
Sigrid has considerable experience in the global mobility and international tax field. Prior to joining Johnson & Johnson, she was a Global Mobility Manager EMEA with Cargill Europe, and before that was employed by PricewaterhouseCoopers in Belgium and the United Kingdom.
Sigrid has a Master in Applied Economics, majoring in International Economics and Business, from the University of Antwerp, Belgium and completed a Masters degree in Tax Management and holds a certification as a Belgian Tax Consultant. She also completed a Masters degree in European Studies from UCL (Belgium) and Pantion University in Athens, Greece
Siriana Sopranzi
Group Head of Expatriate Management
Marc Bruins
Global Mobility Lead Advisor
Binding people, sharing knowledge, leading projects and at the same moment achieving mutual goals, getting results, while serving the interests of the organization and advising the business, is what makes me a HR professional. The basis of my professionality lies in my broad knowledge, personal interest, skill set, decisiveness, quality-client focused and flexibility. I know how to find the right balance between a driven mentality and a cheerful attitude while working with other professionals and teams in and (inter)national setting and getting things done.
YouMe Jeon
Managing Director
YouMe heads BTI Consultants / Kelly Services in Korea after successfully launching it in 2008. With more than 20 years of experience in the business of executive search industry in Korea and Singapore, she has counseled a wide range of senior executives of multinational corporations, providing them with strategies for a broad array of initiatives including market entry, recruiting, retention, corporate restructuring related to human resources.
Especially sought after by clients from the Asia financial service industry to consult on high-level management and human resources issues as well as to recruit executive management talent for their operations, YouMe’s strong track record works predominantly with CEOs and board members in multi-cultural projects, especially for Hong Kong, Singapore, China, India, UK, US and Korea.
As Asia’s best performer, YouMe won the Kelly Star Awards (The highest Achiever Award) in 2006 and 2007.
Richard Bradley
VP Kelly Services Europe
An Economics & Politics graduate from the University of Hertfordshire Richard has spent the last 24 years within the recruitment industry.
Having started his career with Hays Richard spent 12 years agency side with the Likes of TMP/Hudson and a niche Executive Search consultancy, Astralis, before moving into the world of Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO)
Richard has undertaken a number of high profile roles where he led the resourcing function for leading multi nationals through the operational delivery of RPO services with Alexander Mann Solutions.
Quickly gravitating to a senior leadership role Richard was critical in driving innovation across the business with a real focus on Sourcing, Talent Acquisition and organizational design.
Richard joins Kelly with over 15 years’ experience of bringing strategic vision and Operational Recruitment experience to organizations to help them win an unfair share of talent.
Damien Hooper-Campbell
VP, Chief Diversity Officer
Damien Hooper-Campbell is eBay’s first Chief Diversity Officer and has deep expertise as an agent of change within the technology and finance industries, non-profit sector and academia. He is responsible for leading the design and implementation of eBay’s strategy for embedding diversity and inclusion across its global workforce, workplace and marketplace. He also leads eBay’s University Recruiting & Programs team.
Prior to eBay, Damien served as Uber’s first Global Head of Diversity & Inclusion where helped to set the company’s foundational Diversity and Inclusion strategy and led its community engagement efforts with the City of Oakland, CA. Before Uber, he advised Google’s senior leaders and built partnerships within the Black community as a Diversity Strategist within the company’s Diversity team. Prior to Google, Damien coached Goldman Sachs’s senior-most leaders as a Vice President in its Pine Street Leadership Development Group. Prior to Goldman Sachs, he led underrepresented minority outreach for Harvard Business School’s Admissions Board and empowered Harlem’s non-profit community as an Associate Program Manager at the Upper Manhattan Empowerment Zone Development Corporation (UMEZ). He also completed the Investment Banking Analyst Program at Morgan Stanley.
Damien has served on the Board of New Jersey Needs You and as a mentor in Morehouse College’s Executive Mentorship Program. He graduated with a B.A in economics from Morehouse College and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School, where he was both a Bert King and Morgan Stanley Fellow.
Renee Atwood
Former CHRO, Twitter, and Former Global Head of People & Places, Uber Technologies
Renee was most recently at Twitter serving as the Chief Human Resources officer. Prior to joining Twitter in 2016, Renee served as the Global Head of People & Places at Uber Technologies. During her tenure, Renee led Uber’s expansion from 500 employees to 9,500+ employees globally, in just 28 months; a period of unprecedented growth.
Before Uber, Renee spent 4 years at Google as the head of Human Resources for the Ads team and Finance team, where she collaborated with some of Google’s largest divisions responsible for more than $50 billion in annual revenue. Renee started her career at Capital One where she held a variety of roles over the course of 11 years, including the human resources leader for several business units. Renee received her Bachelors of Art from University of Texas at Austin in Psychology. She also sits on the Heinz’s Advisory Council at Carnegie Mellon University.
Arne-Christian Van Der Tang
SVP Group Human Resources
Arne-Christian van der Tang is Senior Vice-President of Group Human Resources at TomTom.
Passionate about people, innovation and agile working, he takes an entrepreneurial approach to HR.
Throughout his career Arne-Christian has lead the way in the alignment of HR to business and company objectives. His vast experience in management roles has given him a different perspective on HR and organisational effectiveness, forming his unique and strategic approach to business challenges.
Arne-Christian’s career began in the early nineties, when he started a Human Resources course at the University of Rotterdam, but dropped out. He embarked on a career in commercial and operational management roles, working for a Texan freight forwarding organization, Eagle Global Logistics.
After 11 years with one company, now CEVA logistics, Arne-Christian moved from his role as HR Director for EMEA to TomTom in 2008. Fascinated by the business, he joined as HR Manager for TomTom’s Customer Care unit. He was quickly promoted, after just one year, to a member of the Consumer Management Board. Since early 2014, Arne-Christian has held the position of Senior Vice-President, heading the global HR team.
Under his leadership, the department has embarked on a change path with a clear strategy, relentless ambition and pragmatism. Ensuring HR is relevant for the needs of the business and operating an insight driven product orientated function, with the overall objective for TomTom to become the tech employer of choice in Europe. In 2016, Arne-Christian was awarded CHRO of the Year – Lifetime Achievement.
Yuval Dvir
Head of Online Partnerships
A Transformation Leader with deep knowledge on combining Product, Data, Strategy and Operations to lead change, innovation and growth in global organizations. Industry speaker, evangelist and thought leader on developing and leading high performance teams, divisions and companies using analytics, culture and agility as main pillars.
Currently Head of Online Partnerships @Google Cloud, helping organizations change and transform by adopting a lean, agile and modern way of working powered by Google’s Cloud Platform and G Suite infrastructure and productivity suite. Prior to that led Product Strategy and Operations across Search ads, display, programmatic, YouTube and Shopping.
As Microsoft’s Global Head of Business Transformation, re-built Skype’s data infrastructure and visualization layer to be later managed under a newly designed Global Insights team. The transformation effort created a modern digital ecosystem, hard-wiring product, engineering and business functions across all levels, making it the de-facto operating model of Skype. This promoted the behavioural and cultural changes required to create a more nimble, adaptive, and data-driven culture throughout. The change enabled Skype to reach its peak connected users, 10X mobile engagements, 50% more revenue and significant uptick in NPS and customer experience.
As Skype’s Lead for Product Strategy, radically accelerated the shift to mobile and cloud, streamlined the user experience for a similar ‘look & feel’ across all platforms, drove the migration of hundreds of millions of Skype and MSN Messenger customers onto a single network under the Skype brand, and co-led the merger with Lync to become a unified consumer + enterprise global business.
Yuval holds a B.S.c from the Technion – Israel’s Institute of Technology and an M.B.A from INSEAD Business School in France and Singapore.
Niriti Mehta
Group HR Director – Cocoa and Chocolate
Global Human Strategy and Development experience of more than 20 years, across various functions and industries, and in very different cultural environments spanning 5 continents, along with a strong educational background of Organizational Psychology, Business Management and HR. Certified Co-active coach. As the Group HR Director of Cargill, Niriti is a member of the Group Leadership team and responsible for Human Capital strategies and coaching senior leaders. Her focus is on Performance Culture, Organisation & Talent Growth and Business Success. Member of the FIBI HR Leadership team and leading discussions on some key topics – Performance Edge, Leadership Development and Organisational health.
Raymond Huner
Director
Raymond has worked for large corporations such as IBM and HP, and started his job as Director of Talent Solutions at LinkedIn just over a year ago.
Raymond is responsible for Talent Solutions Business Benelux, LinkedIn’s largest B2B brand (Marketing Solutions, Sales Solutions and Learning Solutions). LinkedIn helps companies build employer brands and find, attract and develop top talent through innovative tools.
Noor van Boven
VP, Global Head of People
As VP People at SoundCloud, Noor is responsible for organizational development and specifically on building high performing teams with a healthy balance of acquiring talent and developing talent internally. Noor has over 15 years of experience in HR, predominantly as HR Business Partner and Talent leader in several leading Technology companies. Noor joined SoundCloud almost three years ago, following her role as Director, Talent, and Organizational Development at TomTom.
Robert Hooijberg
Professor of Organizational Behaviour
Robert Hooijberg is Professor of Organizational Behavior at IMD.
He has a PhD from the University of Michigan and teaches at IMD in Lausanne. His areas of special interest are leadership and 360-degree feedback, negotiations, team building, and organizational culture.
Before joining IMD in September 2000, Professor Hooijberg taught at Rutgers University in their MBA and Executive MBA programs in New Jersey, Singapore, and Beijing. In 1997, while at the Rutgers Business School, he was named Professor of the Year by both the MBA students and the faculty.
His research has appeared in such journals as the Academy of Management Learning and Education Journal, the Leadership Quarterly, the Journal of Management, Human Relations, Organization Science, Human Resource Management, Hospital and Health Services Administration, the Journal of Applied Social Psychology, the Journal of Management Education, Administration and Society, the International Journal of Organizational Analysis, and the Journal of Organizational Behavior.
He has provided programs for and consulted with companies such as: Vale, Wavin, Ernst & Young, DSM, Rabobank, Axel Springer, Credit Suisse, EMC, Novo Nordisk, Carlsberg, DNV, HSBC, Unilever, Bekaert, Roche Pharmaceuticals, Roche Vitamins, PSE&G, The Department of Environmental Protection, Merck, AT&T, Korea Telecom, Lucent, The Dutch Ministry of Social Affairs and Employment, Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey.
In 2007 he published an edited book entitled: Being there even when you are not: Leading through strategy, structures and systems.
Jorrit van der Togt
Executive Vice President Shell Downstream HR
Jorrit is EVP Human Resources Shell Downstream, a 27,000 people business including chemicals, trading, lubricants, and gas and EV stations. He also serves on the Supervisory Board of Shell Germany. Jorrit is dedicated to growing the people, capabilities and culture to deliver to Shell’s 30 million retail and 1 million B2B customers today, and to transform the business to net-zero carbon for a better tomorrow. Previously, he was Shell’s EVP HR Strategy and Learning leading, among others, the people component of the $64B acquisition of BG, the transformation of Shell’s HR model and Workday implementation, the introduction of HR analytics, and world-class Learning. He is married with two children.
Rebecca Winter
HR Director
Rebecca Winter began her career at Microsoft as a Development Lead in 2000 following several years as a consultant in the Bay Area. Over the last 15 years Rebecca has extended her experience at MSFT into 3 professional categories: Business Leadership, Global Change, and now HR in the Talent Management and OD space.
Rebecca has a BA in Psychology and an MBA from Haas School of Business in Berkeley. She’s a life-long learner and constantly pursuing Certifications in enriching areas related to my work. Originally from San Francisco – Love, not work, brought her to the Netherlands. She is happily married to a Dutch citizen and has a 4 year old daughter. Needless to say – her free time is taken up with art projects and games of hide and seek, and occasionally in between – she may even enjoy Cross Fit, Reading and maintaining a small coaching and training consultancy on the side.
Joel Casse
Global Head of Executive & Leadership Development
Joel is Global Head of Executive & Leadership Development for Nokia. His team oversee Corporate Leadership Programs, Assessments and 360 Assessments, Executive Assessments, internal and external coaching.
Over the last 9 years he has overseen the centralization and design of corporate leadership programs, introduced new tools and methodologies for talent identification, managed a management appraisal for the Top 100, designed and launched Nokia’s new leadership framework and facilitated numerous CEO-level talent summits. Prior to this he was Global Head of Leadership & Talent Management at Nokia Siemens Networks. Before entering the Telecom industry, he had a similar role in the Pharmaceutical Industry for Novartis in the Consumer Health Division for CIBA Vision.
German Valencia
Chief Transformation Officer and Chief Information Officer – Business Process & Customer Service
Giovanni Manchia
SVP Human Resources
Giovanni Manchia is SVP Human Resources within Rabobank, a global leader in food and agri financing and sustainability-oriented banking with 50.000 employees in 44 countries. Giovanni Manchia joined Rabobank in 2011, where he managed the transformation of the global human resources function within the bank, creating a more agile HR organisation with a strong business orientation. Prior to Rabobank, he spent more than 15 years in international HR leadership positions at various multinationals. He worked as the HR Director Benelux, Middle East and Africa within American Express. Before joining American Express, he worked at Shell in various international positions such as HR Manager for Shell Hydrogen and Global HR Business Partner for its IT division.
Giovanni Manchia holds a Msc degree in Management and Organization from TiasNimbas/Tilburg University (cum laude) and a MA degree in Consulting and Coaching for Change from INSEAD (cum laude).
Shakil Butt
Human Resources and Organisational Development Director
Shakil (FCIPD, FCCA, DChA) is a values driven, award winning HR and OD director, with over 20 years of experience leading an award winning global HR team of one of the largest relief and development charities in the world.
Shakil sits on the CIPD’s trustee board and in the community is part of Mosaic’s regional leadership group. Holding two professional qualifications, Shakil adds value in various leadership roles including chairing the audit committee, remuneration and appointments committee and strategy boards as well as judging HR awards and speaking at conferences.
As a certified Adair International trainer and MBTI practitioner Shakil has delivered ILM accredited management and leadership interventions globally. Featuring in leading HR publications, Shakil has highlighted a range of areas from performance management to diversity and inclusion.
Shakil is an engaging speaker using his life experiences and sense of fun to bring topics to life and to the mainstream.
John Rason
Head of Consulting Services
John Rason is a commercial HR professional specialising in International HR and Global Mobility. With 25 years senior management experience at global US and UK organisations, including nearly a decade as a global mobility consultant for a leading professional services firm, his career includes two international assignments in the Nordics and Middle East and short assignments in Europe, Pakistan and the Maldives. A Chartered Fellow of the Institute of Personnel and Development, John holds an MA in Managing Human Resources from Kingston University Business School, UK.
Hays Steilberg
Executive Vice President Corporate HR, Executives and Talent
Dr. Hays Steilberg is an American who has lived and worked in both the U.S. and Germany over the course of many years. He studied at the University of Heidelberg and earned his PhD in Germany. After joining German media conglomerate Bertelsmann, he worked initially as a publisher and then in corporate development. From 2005 to 2008, Dr. Steilberg was responsible for global Human Resources at Random House Inc., the world’s largest trade book publisher, headquarted in New York. Since 2009, he has served the parent company Bertelsmann SE where, as Executive Vice President, he is responsible for all corporate Human Resources management, top executives and global talent management. He reports into the executive board of the company and directs his efforts toward ensuring that Bertelsmann hires, develops and retains the best available talent for the ongoing success of the company.
Prof. Gianluca Carnabuci
Associate Professor of Organizational Behaviour
Gianluca Carnabuci joined ESMT Berlin in 2016 as an associate professor of organizational behaviour. Previously he was an associate professor of organization and management at the University of Lugano and an assistant professor at Bocconi University. He holds a PhD in Social and Behavioral Sciences from the University of Amsterdam.
His research interests revolve around the analysis of inter- and intra-organizational networks, with particular regard to the generation and recombination of technological knowledge.
He has taught or teaches courses in Organization Theory, Organizational Behaviour, Organizational Design and Change, Networks and Organizations, Knowledge and Organization, Human Resource Management, Negotiation, and Leadership.
Andre de Wit
VP Capability Building and Learning
Andre de Wit is a designer and facilitator of Learning concepts for Executive Leadership Development. Currently the Vice President of Capability Building and Learning at Carlsberg Breweries A/S, Andre is an experienced motivational speaker, regarded for his combination of global successful operational leadership experience and strategic Human Resource experience in leading international companies. Andre previously held the position as CEO IKEA Iberica for seven years and prior to that the CEO Metro Cash & Carry in Croatia.
Based on his extensive experience in leadership Andre has developed and implemented successful Leadership Learning Concepts that aim to support executive leaders in the fast changing environment they work in. These learning concepts are renowned for creating a high degree of inspiration and impact for the participants and the organisations they work for. The impact of these programs on leadership are translated in improved business results triggered by higher engagement.
Gary Kildare
Chief HR Officer
Gary Kildare is an energetic and progressive international business leader. He has deep knowledge of complex business talent and people management across many different countries and cultures. He has lead transformational change reflecting technology and market shifts from software and services to the social, mobile, digital and the emerging, artificial intelligence agenda. He has served as Chief HR Officer for Global Business Services (IBM’s consulting business), Global Vice President of HR for Americas, EMEA and Asia Pacific with accountability for over 430,000 employees worldwide, Chief HR Officer for Global Technology Services Division and is currently Chief HR Officer IBM Europe. He is currently based in Madrid and is a member of IBMs Growth & Transformation Team (a group of Senior Executives appointed by the CEO to provide Global Leadership across key strategic areas).
Outside of IBM Gary is a Chartered Fellow of the Institute of Personnel and Development, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, a GlobalScot and sits on the Criticaleye Advisory Board. He has served as a Non-Executive Director of Education Scotland, as a member of the Scottish Government’s Education study – ‘The Curriculum for Excellence’, a Non-Executive Director of the National Skills Academy (Financial Services), a Non-Executive advisor to Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC); a member of the HRMC People Committee and Pay Review Committee; and a member of the CBI Business Council for Scotland. He received an honorary doctorate from Edinburgh Napier University in June 2012.
Senior Representative
Catherine Berney
International Leadership and Organisational Development Consultant
Catherine is an International Leadership and Organisational Consultant and an expert on Purpose
BCL MSc Organisational Psych. NED Mediator Solicitor FRSA Fellow Cranfield School of Management
As an organisational psychologist, with a background in international finance and law, Catherine works systemically enabling her client organizations and leaders to meet the challenges they face, become more effective in their role and develop their organizations; thereby helping their organizations to better serve their sector based clients and communities.
For more information on her context based systemic approach visit her ‘purpose’ session, roundtable discussion, panel Q+A on the future of leadership and come to her book signing for ‘The Enlightened Organization’
Senior Representative
Gerrit Brouwer
CEO and Founder
Gerrit Brouwer, CEO at Appical Gerrit is the key leader at Appical and built the company from the ground up. He is a pure-bred entrepreneur, game-changer, and an enormous tech- & gadget freak. He has a clear passion for people and technology and is able to transform a creative idea into an attractive employer brand. Within the industry Gerrit is seen as an international thought leader, sharing his view and opinion with highly regarded conferences, journalists, and customers. Quote Gerrit: “Companies that invest in the experience of a new hire, the same way they do for their customers, will be reaping the fruits of their efforts in 2018.” Gerrit Brouwer, CEO at Appical.
Mark Hurrell
Development Manager
Mark is a Development Manager at Cambridge English Language Assessment, part of the University of Cambridge. He has over nine years’ business development experience, primarily in the education sector, working with schools, governments and Higher Education providers.
He holds a degree in Business and has recently discovered an interest in coaching. He is currently working towards an ILM Coaching Qualification and provides internal coaching for colleagues looking to improve their performance.
Mark will be will talking about ‘English at Work: a global analysis of language skills in the workplace’ on Tuesday, May 30. This is the first global, cross-industry overview of English language skills at work.
Martin Wilckens
HR Digital & Innovation
Martin Wilckens is Senior Executive HR Digital & Innovation and former Vice President Group Strategy and Transformation at Deutsche Telekom, based in Bonn. He is driving the digital transformation in DT’s HR function and for collaboration throughout DT Group. His activities are inspired by design thinking and agile working formats, involving stakeholders from all levels and functions. In his former position as Vice President Group Strategy & Transformation he was over years responsible for developing and anchoring Group Strategy of DT. Before joining DT he was Senior Consultant in the area of transportation and Senior Expert for high speed railway traffic, working in Paris. He holds an degree in economics.
Katharina Pahl
Former CHRO, Dow Chemical
Katharina Pahl is committed a holistic and efficient Human Resource approach, which focusses on people and their value add into the focus and in addition increase sustainably the company value.
She pursues personnel work to comprehensively empower an organisation for strategy transformation and provision of a defined value add. In doing, topics like transformation, human resource strategy, culture, communication, leadership, acceleration, digitalization, organisational development plus increasingly “new work” and agility own an extraordinary significance.
“Instead of simplifying complexity the utmost target is to empower managers and staffs based on their strengths. Thus, to master effectively, robust and sustainably all volatility, uncertainty, ambiguity and complexity in the actual economic world.”
Before her self-employment as from 2014, Katharina Pahl owned successfully different roles in change management, transformation and composition of high performance teams, organisations in local and international environments.
At last Katharina Pahl hold the position as Chief Human Resources Officer (CHRO) of the board of directors in DORMA Holding GmbH + Co. KGaA heading the departments human resources, organisational development, communication and compliance. The intentional composition of those departments created an exceptional power, dynamic and impact for change.
Prior to this she was responsible as Division Manager Human Resources for the entire personnel work at METRO Group Buying International GmbH. Earlier Katharina Pahl held different sales and human resource management positions in Kaufhof Warenhaus AG and OBI Bau- und Heimwerkermärkte Systemzentrale GmbH & Co. KG.
Brian McBride
Chairman of ASOS and Former CEO of Amazon UK
Brian McBride is Chairman of ASOS, the leading on-line fashion retailer, and Wiggle, the on-line cycling retailer, where he led the recent merger with Chain Reaction Cycles. He is also Senior Non Executive Director at AO.com, Senior Adviser to Lazard’s Global Financial Advisory business, Senior Adviser with Scottish Equity Partners. He is a member of the UK Government’s Digital Advisory Board, which steers the digital delivery of Government services to citizens.
He was CEO of Amazon.co.uk from 2006 to 2011 having led it through its high growth period. He began his career with Xerox and subsequently worked in Senior roles at IBM, Dell Computers and as Managing Director of T-Mobile (UK). He has been a Non Executive Director of Celtic Football Club PLC, SThree PLC, and Computacenter PLC and has served as a Non Executive Director on the Board of the BBC and the Advisory Board of Huawei UK.
Alberto Platz
VP Global Talent Acquisition & Engagement
Alberto Platz has been working for Swarovski for over 30 years; the first eleven years based in Barcelona selling their crystal components in the B2B area and managing the Spanish and Portuguese Markets. The last thirteen years Alberto has been based in the Gemstones Business holding several positions such as Sales Director in the European and Middle Eastern Territories. For that role, he lived approximately 2 years in Austria and 3 years in Switzerland. In 2012 Alberto joined the Corporate HR team as the Global Director of Engagement. In 2015 he took over the internal and external HR communication, the talent acquisition, and inclusion & diversity topics from a global strategic perspective. Alberto takes an active part in a Network called “Spirit Momentum Team” that has a main objective to anchor the Swarovski Spirit values throughout the entire organisation. Alberto is definitely proud to be ‘Swarovski’.
Stijn Nauwelaerts
HR General Manager
As GM of HR for GSMO, Stijn Nauwelaerts supports the global leaders of sales, marketing and services for 122 subsidiaries worldwide, driving the people agenda, global talent management, culture work and other strategic people initiatives in developed and emerging markets. In addition, Stijn leads a global team of approximately 300 HR professionals committed to transforming the profession and the way they work.
Stijn has a Masters in Law from the University of Leuven (Belgium) and Poitiers (France), and a Masters in Social Law from the University of Liège (Belgium).
Since joining Microsoft in 2001 as the HR Country Manager for Belgium and Luxembourg, Stijn has held a number of strategic HR roles with progressive leadership responsibilities. In 2004 he was appointed to lead the HR function for the Microsoft EMEA Headquarters in Paris, and in November 2006 was promoted to HR Director for Central and Eastern Europe. He has been the GM of HR for GSMO since 2011.
Tom Haak
Director
Tom Haak is the director of the HR Trend Institute, which follows, detects and encourages trends in the people and organization domain and in related areas. Where possible, the institute is also a trend setter.
Tom has an extensive experience in HR Management in multinational companies. He worked in senior HR positions at Fugro, Arcadis, Aon, KPMG and Philips Electronics.
Tom has a keen interest in innovative HR, HR tech and how organizations can benefit from trend shifts.
Koen DeMarteau
Director HR and Corporate Operations
Over 25 years of professional experience and passion for people, leadership, development and transformation.
Koen’s path led through different companies and roles – from Commercial to Procurement, from Ops excellence to HR but mostly within Deutsche Post DHL Group. He contributed to several HR books and trainings.
Working across several continents with intercultural teams and experiencing how the HR topics are perceived differently strengthens the belief that in a globalized society companies have a gigantic role to play in the development of the communities. Challenging the status quo, driving positive change and owning a better future are key motivators for everyone involved in leadership and HR.
Mandy Chooi
Global Director of Strategy & Innovation for HR
Mandy Chooi is grateful for a meaningful and global career spanning Fortune & FTSE 100 companies in the US, Europe and Asia-Pacific, in technology, automation, aerospace, FMCG, management consulting, and financial services.
The red thread through her work has been creating the right performance culture via the right leadership and the right talent solutions.
Many believes the key to how quickly an organization achieves its strategic goals is the performance culture that’s created by leaders and reinforced by the experience of working there.
As ING’s Global Head of Strategy and Innovation for HR, her aim is to help ING win by being an innovative, exciting and rewarding place to work. HR must lead the way in anticipating future needs, the solutions for which may disrupt conventional HR models and practices. Previous roles include Global Head of Talent, Learning and Organization Development at ING, SC Johnson, Honeywell, and various leadership roles at Motorola.
Peter Flade
Senior Advisor
Peter Flade advises some of the world’s most influential companies how to increase productivity and grow by unleashing the potential of their people. He has helped leaders and managers increase the engagement, productivity and customer focus of hundreds of thousands of employees.
Particular focuses of Peter’s work are helping companies grow organically through enduring customer relationships built by their employees, encouraging leaders to take personal responsibility for improving lousy workplaces and helping companies’ unearth their values and implementing the corresponding leader and manager behaviours required to bring them to life.
His research has been published in the Harvard Business Review, quoted in the FT and he is a regular contributor to the Gallup Business Journal
Peter has been with Gallup for 17 years, the last decade as a managing partner, and he is now a senior advisor to the company. He recently founded an advisory firm serving treasured clients BT, GKN, Dr Martens, Al-Futtaim, Permira and Siemens
Peter studied at the University of Kent, the London School of Economics and Trium.
Mariska Van IJzerloo
Director of People and Organisation
Mariska van IJzerloo leads the Global People and Organisation team and is a member of the leadership team at Ampelmann, one of the most inspirational Scale-Up companies in the Netherlands.
Mariska has worked in leading global roles at several high end engineering companies, and leans on a 20 year background in Leadership Development, Talent management and Global HR. She enjoys leading people, departments and companies through the adventurous ‘Scale-Up’ phase; growing beyond the start-up and resisting the pull of the ‘big enterprise’ while staying high performance and fast growth oriented. Not for the faint-hearted. She is able to share with you how to ensure that your talent agenda directly drives high growth, and she will lead you through the territory of scaling up companies and all the big transitions and HR choices that go with that challenge.
She loves working with ‘techies’ and engineers at Maker-companies; those companies that create real innovations, deliver products that can be touched and solve real world problems. She loves the ocean, and at Ampelmann, the famous and now global tech Scale Up from Delft, the Netherlands, she find the best of both worlds. Ampelmann has changed how people go to work at sea, by designing gangways and solutions that are fully motion compensated for waves, and by doing so, made ‘off shore access as easy as crossing the street’, as well as making it a safer and more efficient process. Ampelmann is active in the Wind Offshore world, an in all people and cargo transfers to platforms and vessels on our oceans.
Johanna Soderstrom
Corporate Vice President, CHRO, Human Resources & Aviation
Johanna Söderström is the Corporate Vice President of Human Resources and Aviation for The Dow Chemical Company. In this role, Söderström leads Dow’s global Human Resources strategy and operations, and oversees Dow’s Corporate Aviation team. Söderström started her career with Ericsson in Finland, where she held positions in Human Resources and Finance. She joined Dow in Helsinki, Finland in 1999 as HR Manager for the Nordic region. Söderström progressed through a series of Dow Human Resources positions in the Nordic, Germany and Switzerland. In 2000, she moved to Dow’s location in Stade, Germany to serve as HR Workforce Planning Implementation Leader. Three years later she was appointed Compensation & Benefits Leader for Southern Europe, Middle East, Africa and India and relocated to Horgen, Switzerland. In 2005 Söderström assumed the role of HR Business Partner for Dow’s Hydrocarbons & Energy business. She left Dow in 2006 to join Huhtamaki in Finland as head of global Compensation & Benefits and then rejoined Dow in October 2007 as HR Geographic Leader for Germany. Two years later, Söderström assumed additional responsibility as HR director for Dow Europe, Middle East & Africa, based in Horgen, Switzerland. In late 2010 Söderström was appointed Global HR Director for Dow’s Performance Materials Division in Midland, MI. She was subsequently named Vice President of Dow’s HR Center of Expertise in September 2012. Söderström was named to her current role in December of 2014.
Paolo Vasques
Global HR Director
Pablo Vercelli joined ASML in 2013 as Vice President Human Resources for Corporate Projects. Mr. Vercelli joined ASML from AkzoNobel where his most recent role was Global HR Director for the Decorative Paints business. Before AkzoNobel, he worked for a number of global organizations such as PPG Industries, ICI Paints. He completed a Master degree in Human Resources and Organizational Change Management in Buenos Aires and later on overtook an MBA in Warwick Business School, England.
Denise Haylor
Chief HR Officer
Denise Haylor began her career in HR with Siemens in 1988 and later joined Motorola in June 1998. She held a number of HR roles within Motorola and worked in many businesses. Denise’s final role at Motorola was Corporate Vice President and Deputy Head of HR for the Mobility business, where she played a key role in the divestiture of the Networks business and the formation of Motorola Mobility. Her most recent role was as Chief Human Resource Officer of Flextronics, who she joined in February 2011, based in San Jose, California. At Flextronics she was instrumental in the design, development and execution of the talent management strategy.
Denise Haylor has experience across the full spectrum of the HR discipline, including talent management, rewards, talent acquisition, organization design, mergers, divestitures and acquisitions, engagement and culture work.
She is a dual citizen of the UK and USA. Denise holds a Master’s Degree in Managing Human Resources from Kingston Business School in the UK.
Tom Brown
VP HR International
Tom has worked for eBay for five years during which he has covered several different roles. Currently he is responsible for leading HR across Europe and Asia Pacific for the eBay business as well as globally for the Classifieds business (Kleinanzeigen, Kijiji, Gumtree etc). He is based in Bern, Switzerland.
Tom has had a curious set of jobs cunningly masquerading as a career which include time with the military, in executive search, teaching, copy-writing, strategy consultancy and latterly, without any planning, HR. Most recently before he joined eBay he was Vice President HR at Juniper Networks.
Over the last 15 years Tom has moved regularly between Functional and Business Partner roles within HR and is determined about HR breaking down the siloes that seem to spring up like weeds in the function. He also doesn’t understand what the table is that everyone is desperately trying to get a seat at!
Educated in the UK at Leeds University and Cambridge University, he has spent considerable time overseas in China, Russia, Middle-East, Netherlands, UK, US and now Switzerland.
Executive Vice President and Global Chief People Experience Officer
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Executive Vice President and Global Chief People Experience Officer
Andrew Davis is the Executive Vice President and Global Chief Human Resources Officer at Sony Music Entertainment based in New York. In his role, Davis is charged with leading the Company’s global human resources function; including talent acquisition, talent management, compensation and benefits, as well as organizational development and corporate strategy. Davis will take on the key role of championing a culture of excellence and innovation across Sony Music’s global operations in 60+ countries.
Throughout his 22+ years in Human Resources, Davis has held several key positions of increasing responsibility at Yum Brands, Best Buy Company, The Home Depot and most recently served as Chief Human Resources and Inclusion Officer for Lennar Corporation where he was responsible for the areas of business transformation, talent management, organizational and performance management, learning and development as well as benefits for the Company.
Prior to Lennar, he spent more than a decade leading human resources teams and strategies at The Coca-Cola Company. During his tenure at the Company, he held several key positions of increasing responsibility including leading the Southeast Asia Human Resource function while based in Cambodia. Additionally, he served as the Global Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer where he was instrumental in driving strategic initiatives across 200+ countries.
Davis serves as an independent Board Director and Compensation Committee Chair for Adventist Health, one of the largest Westcoast healthcare systems, based in Roseville, CA. He is also a member of Emory’s Goizueta’s Business School Corporate Advisory Board, and a governing body member of Florida’s Chief Human Resource Officers’ Association. Davis is also a regular guest lecturer for business schools throughout the Atlanta and Miami area.
Davis has been honored and featured by multiple organizations, including being named Emory Goizueta’s Business School Centennial Honoree; CAA World Congress of Sports featured speaker; Bentonville Film and Essence Music Festivals featured speaker; and Black Enterprise Top Executive in Corporate Diversity. He is the recipient of the Caribbean American Cultural Arts Foundation Captain of Industry Award and Honoree for the South Florida Business & Wealth’s 2021 Excellence in Human Resource Awards.
Davis received his Bachelor of Science in Organizational Management from Washington Adventist University in Takoma Park, Maryland and his MBA from Emory University – Goizueta School of Business in Atlanta, Georgia. Davis also holds several Human Resources certifications in assessment systems and skills training.
Davis is a native of Jamaica, West Indies and proudly calls himself a ‘Ja-Merican’
Sarah Waltman
VP, Global Talent Management
Sarah Waltman is a seasoned HR professional with expertise in Talent Management & Performance, Transformation & Change, and Organizational Development & Effectiveness. Waltman has a proven record of accomplishment, improving the performance of global businesses by designing learning structures and comprehensive talent initiatives, such as succession planning, performance management, development plans, and behavior assessments. She excels at aligning management and employee development training strategies, ensuring that the organization is at peak performance. With her arsenal of skills and experience, Sarah is supercharging productivity within Dentsply Sirona, the world’s largest manufacturer of professional dental products and technologies- with a workforce spanning 9000+ employees.
Amanda Miller
VP, Total Rewards
Amanda Miller is a skilled HR professional with a focus on Rewards & Benefits and Employee Experience & Engagement. With extensive leadership experience in Compensation, Benefits, Executive Compensation, HR Systems, Data & Analytics, People Management Operations and Recruitment, Miller has demonstrated the acumen to drive Total Rewards at Trinity Industries (North America’s premier provider of railcar products and services), ensuring that their talent force of 3000+ employees feel valued and engaged while receiving the appropriate compensation and benefits for their work. Holding a bachelor’s degree in professional human resources Certification (PHR) and Certified Compensation Professional Certification (CCP), Miller is excellently positioned to assist senior leaders in developing an effective total reward strategy by identifying the key goals and objectives of the business and aligning the total reward package with those goals.
Mercedes (Meche) Escala
VP Talent, Learning and Employee Experience
Mercedes Escala leads Talent, Learning & Employee Experience at Genesys, a 7000+ employee strong software firm that sells customer experience and call center technology to mid-sized and large businesses. Leading regional and global teams in both generalist and specialist areas, Escala embraces challenges with curiosity and passion, leading the transformation around skills, while driving the best employee experience.
A people leader professional with over 30 years’ experience, Mercedes is superbly suited to guide senior leaders in upskilling their internal talent pool to become an impactful and competitive force, through aligning them with their company’s overall performance management and talent development goals.
Kimberly Ayers Shariff
Executive Vice President, Strategy for Diversity, Equity & Inclusion
Kimberly Shariff leads the implementation of Penguin Random House’s companywide DE & I strategy, overseeing the development of a broad-based vision for the company’s future, ensuring the creation of books for everyone, by everyone, out of a culture where all feel welcome and empowered.
Having contributed her knowledge to major platforms like the American Ballet Theatre, the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts and Black Entertainment Television, Kimberly has been commended for her keen ability to analyze the existing infrastructure of complex organizations, and then implement strategy to enhance inclusive culture, operational efficiency and channels of communication, without sacrificing culture, artistic integrity or entrepreneurial spirit.
As Chief People Culture Brand & Communications Officer, Tara Lockyer oversees human resources, change management and communications for ATB Financial (Alberta’s largest home-grown financial institution with a 5000+ talent count).
Lockyer currently serves as Advisor to the Official Administrator of AHS; and member to the Premier’s Skills Council. Prior to ATB, she was Manulife’s Global Head of Leadership and Organizational Effectiveness and CIBC’s Head of Enterprise Business Engagement and Implementation for Global HR. Tara’s wealth of skills and experience in people leadership perfectly equips her to help senior leaders understand and navigate generational differences in the workplace.
Yuri Kruman
Tech CHRO/CPO + C-Suite Coach
Yuri is a 3X, multi-award-winning CHRO and C-suite leadership coach, Top 5 Thought Leader and Influencer on Global HR and Entrepreneurship. CEO of HR, Talent & Systems Consulting, an industry leader consulting Fortune 500 companies and tech startups on strategic HR, he’s likewise a contributor to Fast Company, Entrepreneur, Forbes, Newsweek, CEO World and other top publications, as well as a frequent speaker for Fortune 500 companies (Google, EY, Medtronic), universities (Columbia, UPenn, NYU) and VC-backed startups. Yuri has authored / co-authored 9 books, including the award-winning, 4-volume “Be Your Own Commander-in-Chief” and “What Millennials Really Want From Work and Life.”
Adam Hickman
Vice President of Learning & Organizational Development
As a dynamic, hands-on, highly technical leader with a wealth of knowledge and experience building education, training, and organizational development programs, Dr. Hickman champions complex projects in research and development that uncover the need for continuing education and training throughout the organization.Dr. Hickman is a visionary leader who delivers growth and profit through technological innovations, customer experience, leadership development, and networking. He is a well-known published scholar with expertise in organizational and leadership development at Partners, a Walt Disney Company.
Njsane Courtney
Vice President, Human Resources
Njsane is an experienced HR executive and former U.S. Army officer with 20 years of global experience. He is currently the Vice President of Human Resources at the American Bureau of Shipping (ABS), where he leads all HR Operations for North and South America, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. he was recently appointed as ABS’s first Global DE&I Officer.
Njsane is the host of the monthly podcast “My Friend in HR” and is also a certified DE&I professional.
He graduated from the University of Houston with a BBA in Computer Information Systems and is pursuing his Master of Business Administration from the University of Illinois.
Tanika Scott
VP, Lead Business Execution Consultant (DE&I Focused)
Performance-driven and accomplished leader with more than 25 years experience in contact center management experience with primary focus on leading strategies to improve business performance, process improvement and the customer experience. Adept at leading high performing teams, building and deepening intrinsic relationships and finding solutions to complex issues. In her current role at Wells Fargo, she, with a talent for deepening relationships is finding solutions to complex issues. Able to work independently, yet proficient in collaboration with all levels of leadership. Long-standing history serving in leadership roles within employee resource networks including event planning, budgeting, marketing, risk assessment and success metrics.