The Ivy Podcast: Recent Episodes
Jahn Karsybaev
Weekly conversations with Top Executives from Fortune 500 with focus on strategy, innovation, hiring and all about leadership. Ivy Podcast features Thought Leaders who share practical insights for effective leadership, continuous innovation and strategy execution.
Ganhuyag “Gan” Chuluun Hutagt is a leading Mongolian banking executive and entrepreneur with 30+ years of experience shaping the country’s financial and capital markets. He is the Founder and Executive Chairman of Ard Financial Group, a publicly listed holding company that has grown into one of Mongolia’s most diversified financial and technology ecosystems, spanning 50+ subsidiaries and affiliated businesses.
Earlier in his career, Gan founded Mongolia’s first non-bank financial institution, which later evolved into XacBank, now one of the country’s leading development-oriented banks. He has been a long-time advocate of financial inclusion, institution-building, and responsible market development, playing a key role in revitalizing Mongolia’s capital markets through the “Investor Nation” movement. Under his leadership, Ard was also an early pioneer in blockchain adoption, including ArdCoin and CryptoNation, the first crypto-investment company listed on the Mongolian Stock Exchange.
Gan currently serves as CEO of AIGroup, overseeing Ard’s non-financial and real-economy businesses across media, technology, digital exchanges, and emerging sectors. He is also Secretary General of the Mongolia Economic Forum, a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader alumnus, and a board member of Global Dignity International. Widely known to the public, he is also the host of The Apprentice Mongolia.
Jose Kont is the CEO of Cuantico VP and Venture Partner at Impacta VC. With over 20 years of experience, he is a recognized leader in digital marketing, communication, and venture capital across Latin America.
Currently, he serves on the Editorial Board of ILB MEDIA GROUP, a network of market intelligence platforms and B2B media serving Mexico, Central America, and Colombia. His perspectives on innovation and venture capital are regularly featured in Forbes México, Pulso Capital, and other regional business publications.
Leah Price Williams is the Founder and CEO of Mercury, a peer-driven global leadership network and development platform for tech CXOs and their successors. She leads a rapidly expanding community that brings together the industry’s most respected technology leaders for peer exchange, strategic development, and curated experiences.
Before founding Mercury, Leah spent more than 13 years operating exclusive private events for Fortune 1000 executives in New York City. During this time, she saw firsthand how essential high-value, trusted relationships are for solving real-time business challenges. Her client base grew rapidly thanks to her relentless focus on ensuring that every moment executives spent out of the office delivered meaningful impact. She also led and trained global teams, consistently producing sold-out executive programs and building deep relationships across industries.
This experience ultimately inspired the creation of Mercury. Driven by a belief that leaders need trusted peers and not more noise, Leah built Mercury to create meaningful, high-trust spaces where senior technology leaders can learn from each other, renowned speakers and academic faculty, and share challenges openly to accelerate their leadership growth.
Under Leah’s leadership, Mercury has become known for its high-caliber, vendor-agnostic programming and signature initiatives such as the Mentor Exchange Leadership Development Program. She partners closely with renowned university faculty translating cutting-edge research into experiences that elevate how executives lead, communicate, and make decisions.
Leah holds a Bachelor of Communication from the University of Georgia.
Vivek Bharadwaj is Chief Information Officer at Happy Socks, a Swedish fashion retail brand, leading a unique portfolio spanning technology, digital, data and growth marketing. He’s pioneering agentic AI automation, delivering hundreds of thousands of euros in savings through intelligent agents for ecommerce, marketing and customer service. His 18 year career journey spans four continents: After starting in India, he moved to Australia for his MBA and built his career in data science and technical leadership there. He co-founded a venture backed AI startup in Sydney in 2020, then went on to become Division Vice President at Hudson’s Bay in Canada, where he uniquely led both data science teams and marketing optimization. While in Canada he also established an India based engineering hub for the company called “Gigafactory”.
Now in New York as the Global CIO for Happy Socks, Vivek brings a unique global perspective from Australian startups, Canadian and US enterprises as well as Indian and Australian engineering and leadership teams.. As both a former startup founder and current industry leader, Vivek understands the full spectrum from scrappy startup innovation to enterprise scale transformation. He brings a rare perspective that spans across commercial and technical, from building cloud data foundations to optimizing marketing spend through incrementality testing, understanding how technology and growth must work together. He’s particularly passionate about the future of digital and AI led transformation through agentic AI, not as a buzzword but practical steps organizations take in agentic AI to solve real business problems today.
Rob is the CEO and Co-Founder of GloCoach, a pioneering platform that links leadership talent with
AI-driven, human-centric talent development solutions. The vision is simple: to transform talent
development and prepare people for success in a world that is increasingly integrated with artificial
intelligence. He spearheaded the creation of the industry’s first comprehensive platform that
leverages advanced AI to improve the entire talent development lifecycle, markedly boosting both
efficiency and effectiveness.
Before establishing GloCoach, Rob founded Engineered Multimedia and spent over a decade as a
technology-focused program consultant for NASA. There, he produced widely acclaimed computer-
generated simulations for some of the agency’s most notable interplanetary missions. Notably, his
contributions led to his name being sent to planet Mars aboard the Mars Pathfinder mission—really,
ask him about it sometime! He also held the position of Managing Director at M1 Capital Group, a
boutique investment bank catering to emerging markets in the Asia Pacific region. Rob’s academic
credentials include a BS in Physics from Boston College, an MS in Aerospace Engineering from Georgia
Tech, and an MBA from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Rob has served on the Board of Governors at AmCham Shanghai and was honored as Cubmaster of
the Year by the Boy Scouts of America for his leadership with Shanghai’s Pack 12 Scouts. His early
career was distinguished by several prestigious recognitions including the Council of Outstanding
Young Engineering Alumni from Georgia Institute of Technology, Young Entrepreneur of the Year by
Ernst & Young and the US Small Business Administration, and Outstanding Georgia Citizen by the
Secretary of State. After nearly 20 years living in China, Rob has been a resident of Malaysia since July
of 2025. He is a devoted family man to his wife and three sons.
Dulatbek Ikbayev is the Managing Partner of McKinsey & Company’s office in Central Asia, where he leads the firm’s regional operations across Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. With over a decade of consulting experience, he advises governments, financial institutions, telecom operators, and resource-sector companies on strategy, digital transformations, organizational redesign, and launching new digital businesses. 
Before joining McKinsey in 2014, Dulatbek built a successful corporate career spanning 10 years at global companies such as Procter & Gamble and 3M, where he served as Finance Director for Central Asia. His early foundation in finance continues to shape his holistic, data-driven approach to problem-solving and business building. 
Beyond consulting, Dulatbek is deeply committed to the development of the region’s talent and entrepreneurial ecosystem. He is the Co-Founder and Chairman of the Board of Trustees of two major social initiatives: Teach for Qazaqstan and the KIMEP Alumni Endowment Fund—organizations dedicated to improving education and supporting future leaders. He is also an active angel investor, backing tech-enabled startups across Central Asia and advising early-stage founders on scaling, strategy, and leadership. 
A native Kazakh fluent in English and Russian, Dulatbek holds a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration (Finance) from KIMEP University. His career journey—from corporate finance to regional leadership at one of the world’s most influential consulting firms—provides a powerful blueprint for aspiring professionals, leaders, and young entrepreneurs across the region.
As Global Vice President of Product Marketing at UiPath, Yiannis leads a multidisciplinary team focused on bringing Agentic AI and automation solutions to market. Headquartered in New York, UiPath is a $9B automation and AI scaleup which, in 2021, did one of the largest software IPOs in history.
His work centers on helping businesses unlock the transformative power of AI, enabling them to operate more intelligently, efficiently, and sustainably.
Yiannis has had the privilege of investing and working across the AI and automation space—leading go-to-market strategies, product development, and business growth for both startups and Fortune 500 companies over the past two decades.
Before joining UiPath, he played key roles at Celonis, co-founded and led several AI-driven ventures, and is still fortunate to serve as an Adjunct Professor at NYU’s Tandon, Stern and Courant schools, mentoring entrepreneurs in technology, venture creation, and Lean Startup methodology.
Eugenia Maria Di Marco is a global legal-business strategist and Venture Partner at Big Sky Capital, where she works with founders and investors at the intersection of law, governance, and growth.
As the Founder & CEO of Sisu Powerhouse, Eugenia leads a boutique consultancy that helps startups turn legal structure into business strategy — guiding early-stage and scaling companies from formation to global expansion.
A licensed attorney educated at Berkeley Law, London School of Economics, and MIT, Eugenia has built a career helping founders align capital, governance, and strategy across markets. Her unique approach blends legal clarity with entrepreneurial vision, empowering teams to grow securely and sustainably.
Recognized as an Emerging Leader by the London School of Economics (2022) and a MIT Digital Transformation alumnus, she is also an international speaker passionate about startup law, founder empowerment, and cross-border scaling.
Roxette Irvine is a Partner at 305 Works, where she has pivoted from early-stage tech investing to focus on acquiring and rolling up established businesses. A Miami native an ecosystem builder, she brings experience from successful exits in med-tech and software sectors, combined with Fortune 500 expertise.After years of working with high-risk tech startups, Roxette recognized the opportunity in traditional, cash-flowing businesses owned by retiring baby boomers. She is now executing a roll-up strategy, acquiring complementary businesses in fragmented industries to build scale and operational efficiency. Her goal is to raise a dedicated acquisition fund to accelerate this strategy and create a portfolio of profitable, essential-service businesses.As former Managing Director of The LAB Miami and Co-Founder of Founder Institute Florida, Roxette has been instrumental in developing South Florida’s startup ecosystem. She co-founded Pitch Night and received the Founder Institute’s Global Startup Leadership Award for her contributions to entrepreneurship.Known as Miami’s “dot connector,” Roxette now leverages her extensive network and fundraising expertise to identify acquisition targets, structure deals using SBA financing and seller notes, and raise capital from investors seeking lower-risk, cash-flowing returns. Her unique background positions her to bring tech-enabled operational improvements to traditional businesses while maintaining their proven business models.
Cesare Pesci is an Associate at YXS Capital with a strong background in venture capital, growth equity, and technology investments. He has supported the deployment of over $10.4 million in investments and contributed to raising more than $71 million for unique founders across the tech and AI landscape. Cesare has hands-on experience in investment banking, sustainable finance, trading, and consulting, and excels in multinational, high-performance environments. Currently completing his MSc in General Management and Analytics at Copenhagen Business School, where he is also minoring in Risk Management, Cesare previously earned a BSc in International Business from CBS, the most competitive undergraduate business program in the Nordics. He has lived, studied, and worked in Italy, France, the UK, Japan, and Denmark, making him highly adaptive and culturally perceptive. Native in French and Italian, Cesare is also fluent in English and Spanish. Recognized for his international perspective, technical finance skills, and relentless drive, Cesare is valued by peers as both a competitor and a bellwether for high standards.”
Azbayar Altangerel is the General Partner of Exponential Zaisan Partners (XZP), an early-stage venture capital firm based in Mongolia that supports visionary founders with global ambitions and sustainable growth strategies.
He brings over 15 years of experience in finance, investment, and entrepreneurship, spanning commercial banking, venture capital, and international business development. Early in his career, he managed projects funded by the Asian Development Bank and KfW Bank, gaining deep expertise in risk assessment, lending, and small-business finance.
After earning his MBA in International Finance from Virginia International University, Azbayar spent a decade in the United States, collaborating with global institutions such as the World Bank and IFPRI. Returning to Mongolia in 2016, he has since played a pivotal role in shaping the country’s innovation ecosystem as Local Leader of the Founder Institute, Global Advisor to The Global Chamber, and Board Member of Ard Pension Account.
Azbayar is passionate about empowering entrepreneurs, fostering cross-border collaboration, and driving the next generation of Mongolian innovation.
Johan is the Managing General Partner of Askari Ventures. He held Executive positions at Amazon, Liberty Global, Enel, and Hanbro. He has worked across a diverse range of industries, including defense, aerospace, renewables, automotive, healthcare, fintech, IT, agriculture, consumer electronics, and logistics.
He is an expert on strategy, innovation, and growth, emphasizing corporate entrepreneurship. A proven business leader in building successful startups and accelerating the growth of well-established businesses in highly competitive international markets.
His background blends consulting, management and business development across private and public companies.
Johan studied Political Economy at Kellogg College, Oxford University and is a columnist for Forbes, Entrepreneur and HuffPost. He is the author of Garage Thinking.
Ken is a Principal at BackFuture Ventures, a fund spinning out of the SaaStock Conference.Originally a native New Yorker, he’s been living in London for five years, having shifted his career from banking to fintech startups with that transition.He’s worked in bootstrapped and VC-backed businesses and now invests in businesses at the (pre-)seed and seed stage.
Askar Bilisbekov – Chief Executive Officer of Qazaqstan Venture Group Ltd., Member of the Board of Directors
20 years of experience in investments, corporate management, asset management and entrepreneurship.
Co-founder of the vc firm byb capital Ltd.
Previously served as Chairman of the Management Board and Member of the Board of Directors at SPK Almaty and Estate Management Company, totaling over $1.5B AUM.
Served as the CEO of BMW and Rolls-Royce Motor Cars in Kazakhstan.
Launched as the business owner distribution and PR/Marketing companies.
Serves as the member of Advisory Board at Sovereign Fund “Samruk-Kazyna” and Chairman of the VC and Creative Industries Council at National Chamber of Entrepreneurs Atameken.
Holds an MA from the University of Westminster, Westminster Business School. Stanford Graduate School of Business Alum, took certificate courses in “Venture Capital” and “Leadership and Change” at Columbia Business School, and the London School of Economics and Political Science respectively.
Released the book “Venture Mindset” by Ilya Strebulaev and Alex Dang in Kazakh language.
Robert Lamm chairs the Securities and Corporate Governance practice at The Gunster Law Firm in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and is an Independent Senior Advisor to the Deloitte Center for Board Effectiveness. He previously held senior legal positions at several large companies, including W. R. Grace & Co., CA Technologies, and Pfizer Inc., where he was Assistant General Counsel and Assistant Secretary. He also has extensive experience with small- and mid-cap companies as well as private companies and non-profit organizations.
Welcome to Ivy Podcast! On this Executive Leadership Podcast we interview top executives from Fortune 500 with a focus on strategy, innovation, negotiation and everything about leadership.
Our Podcast for Executives features Thought Leaders who share practical insights for effective leadership, continuous innovation and strategy execution.
Ivy Podcast is a rapidly growing Executive Podcast, which covers topics like Hiring and Retention Strategies, Talent Acquisition, Innovation, Digital Transformation and much more.
On this Leadership Podcast, you will find conversations with the most accomplished executives from Fortune 100 companies. We aim to cover a broad range of industries and create a learning platform for the most ambitious and high potential professionals who are looking to learn from the most accomplished Executives on this Business Leadership Podcast.
Runa Capital is a $0.5B global venture fund that has invested in 100+ early-stage startups in Fintech, Deeptech, B2B SaaS, Digital Health and Edutech. Seed / Series A. Average check: $1-10M. Notable investments: Mambu ($5.5B valuation), Nginx (acquired by F5 for $700M), Zopa ($1B challenger bank), Pasqal (cold atom quantum computing).
Denis’ mission is to drive the cross-border investment and collaboration between EU/US and Asian tech companies. He’s helping 10+ of the portfolio startups expand into APAC markets and raise funds from Asian investors. He’s also looking for promising early-stage Asian startups (Enterprise Software / Fintech / Deeptech) which have an ambition to become global companies.
Welcome to Ivy Podcast! On this Executive Leadership Podcast we interview top executives from Fortune 500 with a focus on strategy, innovation, negotiation and everything about leadership.
Our Podcast for Executives features Thought Leaders who share practical insights for effective leadership, continuous innovation and strategy execution.
Ivy Podcast is a rapidly growing Executive Podcast, which covers topics like Hiring and Retention Strategies, Talent Acquisition, Innovation, Digital Transformation and much more.
On this Leadership Podcast, you will find conversations with the most accomplished executives from Fortune 100 companies. We aim to cover a broad range of industries and create a learning platform for the most ambitious and high potential professionals who are looking to learn from the most accomplished Executives on this Business Leadership Podcast.
Alina Abdrakhmanova – managing director of international corporate fund for IT startups “Astana Hub”.
Member of National commission for women, family and demographic policies under the supervision of the President of the republic of Kazakhstan , member of steering committee for Q88 Kazakhstan Urbanists Association, member of Qazaq Independent Directors Association.
Former: director of KAZGUU Business School, executive director for Q88 Kazakhstan Urbanists Association, independent director at “Science Fund” JSC, CEO and co-founder of IN-VR Ltd (VR startup), CEO and founder of Geneva Business School Kazakhstan campus.
Master in finance, doctorate of business administration in urban development.
Astana Hub website: https://astanahub.com/
Welcome to Ivy Podcast! On this Executive Leadership Podcast we interview top executives from Fortune 500 with a focus on strategy, innovation, negotiation and everything about leadership.
Our Podcast for Executives features Thought Leaders who share practical insights for effective leadership, continuous innovation and strategy execution.
Ivy Podcast is a rapidly growing Executive Podcast, which covers topics like Hiring and Retention Strategies, Talent Acquisition, Innovation, Digital Transformation and much more.
On this Leadership Podcast, you will find conversations with the most accomplished executives from Fortune 100 companies. We aim to cover a broad range of industries and create a learning platform for the most ambitious and high potential professionals who are looking to learn from the most accomplished Executives on this Business Leadership Podcast.
Cary is a CEO at WageScape (formerly Greenwich.HR), they believe that their client’s time is best spent creating solutions, not collecting data. They have made it their mission to offer the most comprehensive and up-to-date labor market data, opening doors to efficient, world-changing innovation.
Welcome to Ivy Podcast! On this Executive Leadership Podcast we interview top executives from Fortune 500 with a focus on strategy, innovation, negotiation and everything about leadership.
Our Podcast for Executives features Thought Leaders who share practical insights for effective leadership, continuous innovation and strategy execution.
Ivy Podcast is a rapidly growing Executive Podcast, which covers topics like Hiring and Retention Strategies, Talent Acquisition, Innovation, Digital Transformation and much more.
On this Leadership Podcast, you will find conversations with the most accomplished executives from Fortune 100 companies. We aim to cover a broad range of industries and create a learning platform for the most ambitious and high potential professionals who are looking to learn from the most accomplished Executives on this Business Leadership Podcast.
Dmitry is a Founder and CEO at ElectroNeek Robotics. He is a former physicist (quantum electronics) passionate about science and innovation.
Welcome to Ivy Podcast! On this Executive Leadership Podcast we interview top executives from Fortune 500 with a focus on strategy, innovation, negotiation and everything about leadership.
Our Podcast for Executives features Thought Leaders who share practical insights for effective leadership, continuous innovation and strategy execution.
Ivy Podcast is a rapidly growing Executive Podcast, which covers topics like Hiring and Retention Strategies, Talent Acquisition, Innovation, Digital Transformation and much more.
On this Leadership Podcast, you will find conversations with the most accomplished executives from Fortune 100 companies. We aim to cover a broad range of industries and create a learning platform for the most ambitious and high potential professionals who are looking to learn from the most accomplished Executives on this Business Leadership Podcast.
Rachel Lyubovitzky is the CEO and Chairwoman of Setuply. Rachel leads a team of talented professionals who are passionate about […]
Arun is a passionate value investor in the public and private market space. Strong operator (6 years in the startup ecosystem) and finance professional background (10 years in Investment Banking) with a B.S. magna cum laude degree in Electrical Engineering from Georgia Institute of Technology.
Arun is a passionate value investor in the public and private market space. Strong operator (6 years in the startup ecosystem) and finance professional background (10 years in Investment Banking) with a B.S. magna cum laude degree in Electrical Engineering from Georgia Institute of Technology.
Welcome to Ivy Podcast! On this Executive Leadership Podcast we interview top executives from Fortune 500 with a focus on strategy, innovation, negotiation and everything about leadership.
Our Podcast for Executives features Thought Leaders who share practical insights for effective leadership, continuous innovation and strategy execution.
Ivy Podcast is a rapidly growing Executive Podcast, which covers topics like Hiring and Retention Strategies, Talent Acquisition, Innovation, Digital Transformation and much more.
On this Leadership Podcast, you will find conversations with the most accomplished executives from Fortune 100 companies. We aim to cover a broad range of industries and create a learning platform for the most ambitious and high potential professionals who are looking to learn from the most accomplished Executives on this Business Leadership Podcast.
Robin Butler is a Partner at Sturgeon Capital, a London-based VC investing in frontier and emerging market startups that are solving the key problems affecting the day to day lives of businesses and consumers.
Robin Butler is a Partner at Sturgeon Capital, a London-based VC investing in frontier and emerging market startups that are […]
Peter is an investor, VC and a partner at Anchorless Bangladesh. Welcome to Ivy Podcast! On this Executive Leadership Podcast […]
Pedro is an engineer turned manager, with deep experience in the tech world. He got his Ph.D. from U.C. Berkeley, and hisresearch and publications have received awards both in Europe and in the US. After doing his time as management consultant, Pedro started building companies. First venture was backed by NEA and DFJ and they created tools to help companies sell, and consumers buy, safer and healthier products. These tools are used today by millions of users around the world, and by a diverse set of companies ranging from small companies to large Fortune 500, including the major US retailers.
After that Pedro started West to West and the Discoveries Syndicate to help other entrepreneurs succeed in Silicon Valley. He has experience on both sides of the table as operator and investor, and with all the different stages of a venture from idea to growth, through fundraising, product development, engineering management and biz dev. Pedro brings in strong domain expertise in the Green and Digital Health spaces, but more generically strong analytical skills, data, science and technology expertise. He uses all this experience to invest and advise both EU and US startups including TalkDesk (500S), HypeLabs (AngelPad), Prodsmart (500S), Utrust (500S), Agroop (Top Seedrs) and ClimateEarth (UB Berkeley).
Global 500 Accelerator: https://500.co/accelerators/500-georgia
Pedro is an engineer turned manager, with deep experience in the tech world. He got his Ph.D. from U.C. Berkeley, […]
Nhi Lê is a Principal at Alpha Intelligence Capital, an entrepreneurs-led, entrepreneurs-invested, global closed-end private venture capital fund. It invests in deep Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning (AI/ML) technology-based companies.
Nhi Lê is a Principal at Alpha Intelligence Capital, an entrepreneurs-led, entrepreneurs-invested, global closed-end private venture capital fund. It invests […]
Kawana T. King is a Senior Technology Advisor and Counsel at Google LLC, where she supports Google’s advertising business. In […]
Denis is a Principal at I2BF Global Ventures, a New York seed stage VC. He focuses on startups transforming boring industries like Manufacturing, Construction, Logistics, Utility, and others with frontier tech such as SaaS, ML & computer vision, AR/VR. IoT & wearables, RPA & Automation, etc. Over his career at I2BF he invested in 10+ portfolio companies and he has 1 exit so far.
Show notes:
- Space blog: https://spaceambition.substack.com
- SpaceTech services: spaceambition.org
- Ask VC Website: https://www.askvc.org
- Ask VC YouTube: https://youtube.com/@askvc
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/zadenis
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/denis-kalyshkin-b634592a
Denis is a Principal at I2BF Global Ventures, a New York seed stage VC. He focuses on startups transforming boring […]
Siya Raj Purohit is the Global Edtech & Workforce Development Lead at AWS and a General Partner at Pathway Ventures. […]
Bharat is Co-Founder & CEO of Pippin Title. Pippin Title offers comprehensive title search across all 50 states. We take pride in being responsive and helpful no matter what your needs may be. Our cloud based software allows title insurance brokerages, lenders, and attorneys to manage their workflows efficiently and effectively, saving them time, money, and hassle.
Welcome to Ivy Podcast! On this Executive Leadership Podcast we interview top executives from Fortune 500 with a focus on strategy, innovation, negotiation and everything about leadership.
Our Podcast for Executives features Thought Leaders who share practical insights for effective leadership, continuous innovation and strategy execution.
Ivy Podcast is a rapidly growing Executive Podcast, which covers topics like Hiring and Retention Strategies, Talent Acquisition, Innovation, Digital Transformation and much more.
On this Leadership Podcast, you will find conversations with the most accomplished executives from Fortune 100 companies. We aim to cover a broad range of industries and create a learning platform for the most ambitious and high potential professionals who are looking to learn from the most accomplished Executives on this Business Leadership Podcast.
Deep Singh is the CEO of Credilinq.AI. He is pioneering alternative financing for businesses in Asia and around the world to democratize their business lending experience.
Olzhas Zhiyenkul is a CEO at Paladigm Capital and Investbanq. He's a fund manager, entrepreneur and an early-stage impact investor with over 10 years of experience in asset management, venture capital, financial inclusion, insurance, brokerage, investment strategy, financial modelling, anti-money laundering and due diligence.
Vyom Upadhya is the Executive Director for Digital at MDVIP in Boca Raton, FL. A Goldman Sachs and Charles Bank backed company, MDVIP operates a network of 1,200 physicians serving over 380,000 patients across the United States with personalized, preventative primary care medicine. As a senior technology executive, Vyom leads multiple teams with multi million dollar budgets focused on delivering a technology enabled healthcare experience. During his tenure, he has led company wide strategic initiatives, managed enterprise partnerships, and has been recognized both as an employee of the year and a culture champion.
During Vyom’s 20 year career, he has held leadership roles in engineering, product development, strategy, implementation, sales and management consulting. Outside of MDVIP, Vyom focuses on providing fractional CIO and CTO advisory services to mid market firms looking to drive growth and value from technology. From Georgia Tech to Florida International University, Vyom holds a Bachelors in Computer Engineering, a Masters in MIS, and an MBA focused on Finance and Entrepreneurship.
Most recently, Vyom has taken on the role of President at the Society of Information Management’s South Florida chapter. Our chapter is executing against a vision of helping build better CIOs and CTOs, ultimately leading to a technology “leadership” hub in South Florida.
Yerjan is CEO and Founder of Clockster. Clockster is a company that specializes in providing advanced staff management tools for the F&B, Retail, and Hospitality sectors. Their comprehensive suite of solutions is specifically designed for blue-collar workers and includes features such as shift scheduling, attendance tracking, payroll management, communication channels, and recurring task assignment.
Iz-Lynn is the Chief Executive Officer of the Manager. She is responsible for steering BHG Retail REIT’s strategic direction alongside the Board, and delivering the overall business plans with the support of the management team.
The Asia Corporate Excellency & Sustainability (ACES) named Iz-Lynn as one of Asia’s Most Inspiring Executives in 2022 for her stellar management, operations-savviness and investor relations.
Prior to driving the REIT’s listing, lz-Lynn headed Beijing Hualian Department Store Co., Ltd’s (the “Sponsor”) Mall Management Operations and was based in Beijing. In this capacity, Iz-Lynn oversaw active mall management of this Shenzhen-listed group’s nation-wide portfolio of properties. She was also part of the senior management team responsible for directing the Sponsor’s future strategic development.
From 2005 to 2013, lz-Lynn held various positions in Far East Organization. She was the Assistant Director of the Retail Business Group where her primary responsibility included maximizing the business performance of the flagship asset Orchard Central, while her concurrent role as Vice-President (Retail Consultancy) involved the exploration of international new-to-market brands to the retail portfolio. In the Hospitality Business Group, comprising hotels and serviced residences, she was responsible for the delivery of the business unit’s operational and service excellence. During her tenure, lz-Lynn also concurrently held the position of the Head of Service Quality at the group’s corporate level.
Iz-Lynn began her career with Singapore Airlines where she had varied roles which enhanced her exposure to different aspects of airline operations. She became Singapore Airline’s first female Station Manager and was entrusted to manage overseas stations’ airport operations in Frankfurt, Copenhagen, New York and Hong Kong.
lz-Lynn holds a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) in English from the University of Leicester, United Kingdom and she completed the General Management Programme at Harvard Business School. Iz-Lynn was also the case protagonist in Harvard Business School Case Study “Iz-Lynn at Far East Organization”.
Jason is a Partner and founding member at new early stage venture capital firm Aksara Ventures. Before Aksara Ventures he held growth and product roles at various startups and was at VC firm Monk’s Hill Ventures before starting Aksara Ventures. He graduated from University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign with a degree in Mechanical Engineering Aksara Ventures is on a mission to discover startups with the potential to change the way we function in the future. They look to back the bold ideas and resolute operators at the edge of breaking out.
Marcia Custodio is the National Sales Director with Modis now Akkodis, a global leader in Tech Consulting, Tech Talent Services, and Tech Academy Solutions. She is currently responsible for developing and implementing customized training solutions that assist organizations in future-proofing their workforce. During her 15+ years with Modis she has earned top accolades in her various roles due to an unrelenting passion for people and community; from building a local branch, expanding a global offering across North America, to leading community impactful initiatives. Marcia started her career in the IT Staffing industry back in 1998 right after graduating with a Bachelor’s in Marketing from Texas A&M University. Outside of work, she loves spending time with her family, staying physical active, and traveling. Marcia currently resides in San Antonio, Texas with her partner George and teenage son Jedi.
Rajeeva is the Senior Director of Accounting and Finance at Blink Charging. Blink Charging is a leader in developing electric vehicle charging infrastructure. At Blink Charging, his responsibilities include corporate financial reporting, internal controls, banking, mergers & acquisitions, global financial integration of newly acquired entities, and developing people and processes for the finance team.
Rajeeva started his career as a public accountant at Deloitte & Touche, where he performed external financial audits for large national international corporations for 15 years. Rajeeva is a Certified Public Accountant. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Finance and Accounting from University of Charleston and a Master of Business Administration from University of Maryland.
Topics:
- Reasons for growth in the adoption of EVs
- Transitioning from a global accounting firm to a young company in an emerging industry
- Challenges facing the accounting profession in today’s changing society
Maria Pope is based in Washington, DC and runs the Venture Partner Program at Republic, a global equity crowdfunding platform. Previously, she was at Black Girl Ventures. She also serves on the steering committee of the AllRaise DC chapter, is an associate at Potomac Angel Capital, and sits on the Advisory Board for Village Capital’s Capital Diagnostic, a tool to help founders assess what types of alternative funding are a fit for their business needs.
Kirk-Anthony Hamilton is an architectural designer turned entrepreneur, investor, community curator and founder of the Infiniti Partnership Inc., Tech Beach Retreat and The Destination Experience. He is also a Principal and Founding Partner of Novamed Health, a healthcare operator with assets across the Caribbean. Kirk is on a mission to build a new global business ecosystem for the Caribbean with platforms designed to attract investment, innovation, influence and big media to the region with an aim to catalyze new enterprise and wealth creation opportunities. Participants in his knowledge and opportunity exchange platforms collectively control in excess of US$140 billion in equity and investment capital and to date they have seeded over US$300 million in investments across various sectors. In May of 2015 he was celebrated as one of 75 Emerging Global Entrepreneurs by President Obama at the White House and in January of 2016 serving as curator of the Global Shapers Kingston Hub he was selected as one of 50 Global Shapers to participate in the Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum. His work and profile have been featured in publications including Forbes, the Wallstreet Journal, Essence and the New York Times. Kirk-Anthony possesses a Professional Master of Architecture Degree from the Savannah College of Art and Design.
James Bara is currently the head of development at Curity focusing on using software to fundamentally change the healthcare industry. Having started as a developer, he has worked his way up the leadership ladder and now focuses on creating and growing hyper performing development teams in both the North American and LATAM regions. Having been at some of the biggest companies in the industry (Google, Amazon, Carrier, etc), James is no stranger to complex projects impacting on a global or industry wide scale. James brings a culture and value driven west-cost methodology and blends it east-coast style delivery utilizing global resourcing to drive value and continously push for more difficult challenges.
Jose is the CTO of Automation for IBM Expert labs, and a Certified Executive Architect with over 30 years of experience in IT roles ranging from CTO IBM Automation Expert Labs, Americas Delivery Lead for Garage Expert Labs, Chief Architect for IBM Software Adoption, Cloud Expert & Certification Lead, Senior Software Engineer, Business Integration Specialist, and Robotics Specialist.
He is a Thought Leader responsible for defining the technical landscape that leaders across IBM Expert Labs use to guide clients in automation, from business automation, to integration, AIOps, and network automation. Jose is responsible for designing IBM Expert Labs’ overall automation mission and strategic goals, as well as overseeing the development and dissemination of technologies and reusable assets that can help clients reach straight-through processing. He has a specialization in cloud architecture, design, adoption, and deployment, as well as digital transformation and automation.
Stanley Mak has almost 18 years of experience in the financial services/capital markets industry building high performing technical operations teams. He has successfully navigated these teams through various financial crises and the most recent global pandemic. His passion lies within his ability to get the most out of teams, ability to connect with people, and vision to build things from scratch.
Vanessa Miller, VP of Talent Technology, is a dynamic and innovative leader. Joining Atrium in 2014, Vanessa blazed a path of innovation based on extensive experience in RPO & MSP Programs and related technology platforms. Vanessa and her team are responsible for Client technology strategies, system analysis/consultation, sales support, and product recommendations. Atrium operates as a tech-agnostic partner to clients to optimize their existing HR Tech or introduce market trends and new product options, where appropriate. Her passion is selecting and implementing the best fitting platforms via strong channel tech partnerships to transform client external workforce strategies and processes.
Todd has been in HIT for over 17 years serving in a myriad of roles, from Management Consulting Dir, Dir of IT, VP of Provider Services, all while working for three large consulting firms. Post leaving the consulting world 6 years ago to spend more time with his family, Todd accepted a FT position with Envision Physician Services, to provide Program Management services within the Radiology service line. During his career he has had the privilege to work with some of the finest people and teams, all while working with upper echelon healthcare systems such as MD Anderson, Texas Heart, Yale New Haven, City of Hope/Cancer Treatment Centers of America, NY Presbyterian as well as, over 30 more during my consulting career. In hiscurrent role of Dir of Portfolio Management of 3 services lines at Envision, Todd has been honored to serve a large team of PM’s, BA’s and many technical stakeholders, and truly enjoys his work family.
LaShaun is an industry expert committed to promoting DEI in the staffing industry. For the past 14 years, she has developed and implemented DEI strategies for Fortune 50 companies.
As the Head of DE&I Partnership Development & Strategy for Pyramid Consulting, LaShaun oversees Pyramid’s intentionally inclusive efforts around recruitment and engagement. As an extension to her role, she serves as the Chair of the Technology Association of Georgia DEI Society.
Allison Baron is a dedicated and passionate Client Executive for EY. Allison joined EY in 2014 and has been with Business Development in the EY Detroit office for the entirety of her career.
Allison has proven success in building trusted relationships, making actionable connections, project management, and team leadership. A continuous learner, Allison is always looking for ways to educate herself with sector knowledge, new firm methodologies, and widen her network to ensure she can connect the dots between her client’s needs and EY’s expertise. A deep desire to foster an inclusive and empowered environment through education, awareness and celebration of differences continues to set Allison apart from her peers.
Maari is an ad-agency art director turned freelancer turned entrepreneur. After leaving the full-time agency space she set-out into freelance only to discover a void between the quickly growing talent pool of freelance consultants and clients looking to connect with this resource. In 2015, Maari launched Uncompany to bridge this gap. Uncompany is a modern digital talent agency that connects clients with flexible, on demand access to talented freelancers and hybrid teams.
Lisa Williams received a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from Prairie View A&M University in Prairie View, Texas and a Master in Manufacturing Management from The Pennsylvania State University in State College, Pennsylvania. Lisa joined Dow in 1998 as a Mechanical/PCE Design and Construction Engineer and led over $25MM design and construction projects as a young engineer. In 2001, she transitioned her career into Supply Chain serving in various business planning and supply chain improvement roles until ultimately becoming a Subject Matter Expert in the Supply Chain Technology and Expertise Center. In 2010, she followed her passion for education and change management by taking a role in the Diamond Systems Solution organization traveling to Brazil, India, and the Middle East training employees on new supply chain technology. In 2015, Lisa again transitioned her career into the Global Purchasing organization as Global Category Leader for Process Containment Equipment developing strategic sourcing strategy for $100 MM in capital equipment and services. In 2018, Lisa moved to Midland to become the Global Category Leader for Bulk Marine and Terminal managing a portfolio of marine transportation and terminal services at almost $1.1 billion. In 2021 Lisa was named into her current role leading a team tasked to establish a new contract labor strategy and governance system for over 30,000 contract laborers in Dow across several billion dollars in spend. Lisa is a Six Sigma Black Belt, APICS Supply Chain CPIM and CSCP, and Prosci ADKAR change management certified. Lisa has participated in several elite Dow senior leadership programs such as the HH Dow Academy, Lead To Exceed, Dow Leadership Institute, and Dow executive coaching.
In addition to her core role, Lisa is currently global co-chair emeritus of the Global African Affinity Network (GAAN) Leadership Council, Dow’s 2nd oldest employee resource group (ERG). In her tenure GAAN has globalized to all four regions, launched the first ERG-created sponsorship program called Advocacy in Action, helped author the Dow ACTs commitment to racial equity, and secured over $10 MM in investment to HBCUs and recruiting under-represented talent to Dow. Lisa joined the Midland Area Community Foundation grant committee to leverage her passion for philanthropy and financial stewardship into the Midland community. Finally, Lisa is also a member of Delta Sigma Theta, Incorporated, a global public service sorority and active in the Houston area.
Lisa is a native Houstonian and currently lives there with her husband and son. Lisa is a strong fitness and nutrition advocate and supports various leadership development and public service organizations.
Erica Rooney is an Executive Coach & HR Consultant, Chief People Officer and host of the Podcast, From Now to Next. She is on a mission to help women get seen, get heard, and GET PROMOTED by breaking out of their “sticky floors”, and busting through the glass ceiling, to live a life filled with purpose and passion. As a top Culture Expert, Erica invigorates and educates organizations through change, driving a positive experience for employees, and guiding executives through the process of change to lead to massive success.
Keith Bozeman spent 25 years in the IT Staffing and Services industry. He was President of TEKsystems, the largest IT Staffing and Services Company in the US, for 12 years. After retiring from TEKsystems in 2015, he has been a Principal with Blu Venture Investors. Blu Ventures is an early stage Venture Capital company focusing on Cyber Security and other leading technology companies. He is also involved with PAX Momentum, an IT Accelerator, providing hands on training and mentorship to start up founders.
Benjamin De Point has been in the software industry since 1998, working mostly in SaaS, and in engineering leadership since 2005. During his career, Benjamin has built top performing teams in both a start-up and growth mode contexts. He specializes in process improvement, change management, cross-functional leadership, employee engagement, performance management, and architectural oversight.
Topics:
- Ethical perspectives of AI advancements
- Preparing for leadership roles in new environments
- Qualities that distinguish good leaders in organizations
Craig Richardville is chief digital and information officer and senior vice president of Intermountain Healthcare.
As a member of the enterprise leadership team, Richardville’s responsibilities include the health system’s information technology, data and digital services involving all aspects of technology including, but not limited to, strategy, operations, applications, cybersecurity, and emerging technology.
Richardville previously served as senior vice president, chief information and digital officer, at SCL Health, where his responsibilities included leading, innovating, and transforming all aspects of the health system’s information technology and digital services.
Prior to his time at SCL, he served as senior vice president and chief information and analytics officer at Atrium Health for more than 20 years, where he transformed the growing company into a national leader in the effective use of technology, utilizing data as a driver and digital services as a differentiator.
Richardville received the 2021 National CIO of the Year Healthcare ORBIE Award, the 2020 Colorado CIO of the Year award, and in 2017, the Carolinas CIO of the Year for continued leadership and impact using technology and digital services.
He also earned the prestigious 2015 John E. Gall, Jr. National CIO of the Year Award from CHIME and HIMSS. He is an active member of CHIME, a fellow with ACHE, a fellow with HIMSS and serves in various capacities on a number advisory and community boards. Richardville holds a master’s degree in business administration and a bachelor’s degree in computer systems from the University of Toledo.
Topics:
- How the role of the healthcare CIO has transformed in recent years
- The adoption of AI in the healthcare space
- Tips on attracting top talent in an extremely competitive job market
Khursheed has over 17 years of experience in the IT recruiting world. She was an early employee of two IT consulting startups in Silicon Valley, both of which were ranked in multiple fastest growing company lists for numerous years, and both of which were successfully acquired. Khursheed has vast recruiting experience spanning IT project/program management, product management, software engineering and executive level placements. She is an active networker and a well-known name in the Silicon Valley Project Management community.
Born and raised in Mumbai, India, Khursheed moved to the US 20 years ago, married to a hardware engineer who is now Director of Product at Intel, and raising two teens, and a cute little Labradoodle.
Topics:
- Impacts of the great resignation on employers and job seekers
- How startups can compete with established companies for top talent
- Attributes that help develop top-performing teams
Sunny joined SThree in February 2021 as the newly appointed President where she oversees the growth strategy for the world’s largest staffing and consulting market within the life sciences, energy, and technology sectors. As a veteran in the human capital industry, Sunny brings a wealth of experience in executive leadership roles within the HR and technology space. Sunny has a proven track record of driving change and delivering results, including architecting multiple turnarounds, and leading a $1.5 billion operating unit to sustained record-setting profits.
Before her appointment as President for SThree, Sunny was the President of the Americas for Frank Recruitment Group where she was responsible for the company’s largest region, leading professional IT experts in developing specialty markets, new brands and client expansion in North America. Sunny also spent over 14 years in a variety of executive positions with ManpowerGroup. As Senior Vice President and General Manager for ManpowerGroup, Sunny led the most significant business in North America, with over 412 offices employing approximately 50,000 people every week. In this position, Sunny oversaw a diverse team of sales and talent experts who connected clients with workforce solutions and people with meaningful work. Throughout her career, Sunny has worked with elite Fortune 500 clients and industry leaders as a strategic advisor and business partner, providing knowledge and experience, while keeping ahead of fast-moving market trends in a complex and ever-changing labor market. Sunny has over two decades of industry experience and is recognized for conceptualizing and aligning talent and workforce strategies to business strategies.
Staffing Industry Analyst named Sunny to the “Global Power 100” – the most influential women in staffing the past three years. Sunny is passionate about and often called upon to discuss industry topics such as women in STEM, careers, and workplace trends, and she Chaired ManpowerGroup’s global women’s employee resource group. Sunny resides in Dallas, Texas.
Brooke has been in recruiting and account management her entire professional career – over 11 years! She has a passion for matchmaking great companies with talented individuals. In addition to running sales and recruiting efforts at Backpack Talent, Brooke is active in the local community. She donates her time to several community organizations. When she isn’t working, she is in her van and exploring new mtb trails with her family. #VanLife
Lauren is an accomplished sourcer, recruiter and people operations professional who has placed hundreds of candidates into full-time roles. As an account manager and recruiter, she draws on her experience working in diverse settings: biotech, agency, and high-growth SaaS startups, to name a few. She lives in Durham, North Carolina, where she works, plays, and enjoys long hikes in the woods with her husband and two sons!
Willie Newman is the Founder, President and CEO of Homepoint, the nation’s third-largest wholesale mortgage lender. An acknowledged expert and innovator in the mortgage industry with over 30 years of experience in the field, including three start-ups, Newman is widely recognized within the industry as the “Godfather of Wholesale”.
In 2014, Newman joined forces with Stone Point Capital to form Home Point Capital. Under his leadership, Homepoint has rapidly scaled to become the third-largest wholesale lender in the country, as well as a Top-10 non-bank loan originator.
Previously, Newman was one of the primary architects behind InterFirst Wholesale Mortgage Lending’s development, growing the company from a small local mortgage originator to a leader in third party lending. In 1997, InterFirst’s parent company, Standard Federal Bank, was acquired by ABN AMRO. Newman helped create what would become ABN AMRO Mortgage Group (AAMG) a diverse, multi-channel Top-5 mortgage lender and Top-10 mortgage servicer. After AAMG was sold in 2007, Newman partnered with
Cole Taylor Bank in 2009 to start up Cole Taylor Mortgage (CTM), helping them become a Top-40 lender and servicer.
Recently, Newman has taken a lead role in advocating on behalf of the mortgage broker community, including removal of the agency TPO surcharge as well as utilizing HMDA data to promote the “Broker Advantage”.
Newman holds a BBA in Finance from the University of Michigan and an MBA, Finance and Business Economics from Wayne State University.
Darryl Maraj is the Chief Technology Officer at GA Telesis, one of the world’s largest commercial aviation firms, with over $1.0 billion in assets under management through its sales, leasing, distribution and maintenance facilities across the globe.
As Chief Technology Officer, Darryl Maraj is charged with identifying, prototyping, and transforming data-driven opportunities in the commercial aviation and fintech sectors under the newly formed digital division at GA Telesis. Darryl has been part of the GA Telesis leadership team for the past nine years, leading a global team of IT professionals responsible for managing and delivering IT resources and solutions to improve global operational efficiencies, increase customer engagement and lead new product development.
Darryl is a founding member and currently serves as the Chair for SouthFloridaCIO, a peer-based approach to helping CIOs maximize their leadership effectiveness, create value, reduce risk, and share success. The core focus of SouthFloridaCIO is to attract, retain and elevate the talent pool of South Florida while making a positive difference in the community we serve.
Topics:
- Cloud migration tactics that help propel businesses forward
- The role of today’s CTO
- Understanding how to apply digital transformation to operational processes within companies
Pankaj Jindal is a staffing industry veteran and the co-founder of Sense, the first talent engagement platform designed specifically for the staffing industry. With over 20 years of running staffing and recruiting technology companies, Pankaj is an expert on candidate experience, recruiter productivity, redeployment, and understanding the day-to-day problems faced by recruiters. Pankaj used this practitioner’s knowledge to create Sense, which can help transform the consultant-care paradigm for staffing companies.Prior to founding Sense, Pankaj was the CEO of Akraya, President of Aditi Technologies and Aditi Staffing, and completed the Advanced Management Education Program from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management. He routinely speaks at Industry Conferences on candidate engagement, employer branding and increasing retention.
Katie Breault is the Senior Vice President of Growth & Impact at Year Up Professional Resources, PBC (YUPRO), the nation’s leading Opportunity Talent Placement Firm and wholly owned subsidiary of Year Up, Inc. YUPRO champions traditionally underrepresented talent placement where fair market wages, economic mobility and career progression are priority as partners commit to removing barriers for entry-level and middle-skill talent hiring.
Katie’s background in public policy and community activism led her to Year Up in 2013 through an opportunity to mentor a young adult who exemplified the qualities she was seeking in hiring entry-level talent: grit, professionalism, and an enthusiasm to learn and grow. Through this relationship, Katie experienced firsthand how talent is everywhere, but opportunity is not for young adults like her mentee who just need a fair chance to launch their careers and enter the economic mainstream. With her mentee at the forefront of her mind, Katie is dedicated to connecting forward-thinking companies with this skilled and determined, yet often overlooked, talent through YUPRO.
Under Katie’s leadership, YUPRO has been recognized with the American Staffing Association (ASA) Elevate Award for Best Work-Based Learning Program and the ClearlyRated Best in Staffing Client Satisfaction Award for two consecutive years. Katie was named on the Staffing Industry Analyst (SIA) 40 under 40 list in 2021 and to close out the year, YUPRO earned #38 of 52 on the SIA Fastest-Growing US Staffing Firms, as the company doubled in Opportunity Talent placements, revenue, and earnings.
With Katie’s passion to support companies seeking to build diverse and inclusive workplaces, she also serves as the Program Chair for the ASA’s Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Access (IDEA) Council bringing awareness and mentorship to the industry on socially impactful topics.
Jeff Nugent, founder, and CEO of Contingent Workforce Solutions, has an uncanny ability to anticipate the future and be in the right place at the right time.
At university he wasn’t content to just study and hang out in the pub. Noting the lack of quality student housing, he bought a house with a friend and rented it to fellow students. That one house turned into 10. When he graduated, he had tasted entrepreneurial success and wanted more.
The technology sector was exploding and Jeff felt IT was the place to be. “I applied to an IT consulting company, thinking it was an traditional consulting firm. It turned out to be an IT recruiting firm and that’s how I landed in the recruiting business.”
It opened his eyes to a fascinating career opportunity.
In his first recruiting role Jeff quickly became one of the company’s top account managers, uncovering a talent for building client relationships and developing a reputation for being honest and reliable.
Wilson Cole is the president and founder of Adams Evans and Ross. The nation’s largest collection agency specifically for the staffing and recruiting industry. Wilson’s company has processed over a billion dollars of staffing and recruiting debt for over 3,500 staffing and recruiting firms over the last 30 years.
John B. Owens II leads the Enterprise Solutions Group (ESG) at CGI Federal, a wholly-owned U.S. operating subsidiary of CGI, Inc., where he oversees product development of all CGI Federal intellectual property (IP) offerings and the continued development of innovative solution which serve CGI’s clients across civilian, defense, and intelligence sectors of the U.S. federal government.
Topics:
- How agencies remain vigilant to protect against cyber attacks
- Challenges of implementing cybersecurity at Federal agencies
- How Zero Trust Architecture changes the federal cyber landscape
Angela is the CEO of Elevate, a Cyber Security Consulting and Staffing Firm headquartered in Miami Florida. Angela is in charge of the strategy and culture of the firm where inclusivity and teamwork is at the core of Elevate’s values. Angela truly enjoys client service and has worked and served over 200 different clients and various industries throughout her career.
Angela began her career working for large international consulting firms: Arthur Andersen and Deloitte in their Risk Advisory Practices. Angela managed large scale assurance and IT consulting engagements which required working with international offices and client locations in Latin America and Europe.
Angela has a bachelor’s degree in accounting and a bachelor’s degree in Management Information systems from Florida International University and several certifications in the IT and accounting field.
On her spare time, Angela enjoys spending time with her family, working out, listening to audiobooks on leadership, spirituality, and human development.
Georgia is an Associate Vice President and Sr Project Controls Manager with AECOM. She has over 22 years of program management experience. She specializes in establishing program management offices for large government agencies and has managed interdisciplinary teams for program management and program controls assignments calling for up to $1.5 billion yearly in construction/project execution. Georgia has in-depth knowledge of project and program controls best practices and has extensive experience providing training to client project managers. Lastly, she has overseen the successful implementation and maintenance of several program
Amy Geiger is the Director of FLEX Talent Solutions at Marriott International, a leading global lodging company with more than 8,000 properties in 139 countries and territories. FLEX Talent Solutions is the company’s longstanding internally managed contingent workforce PMO. FLEX has evolved from Marriott HQ Temporary Services in the 1970s to a branded and well-recognized program that plays a strategic role in the company’s approach to total talent management in the US.
A lifelong lover of luxury hotels and the hospitality industry, Amy began her career working in guest services and front office for The Ritz-Carlton, one of Marriott’s 30 brands. Her first brush with compliance came from managing the conference center for international law firm Kirkland & Ellis LLP in downtown Washington DC. Prior to rejoining the Marriott family in 2021, Amy spent 5+ years at MBO Partners helping enterprise organizations across all industries navigate the complexities of independent contractor compliance, payrolling, VMS technology, and direct sourcing.
Liz Agosto is an Executive Director, Global Chief Operating Officer (COO) for Information Security Division (ISD) and reports directly to BNY Mellon’s Chief Information Security Officer. In her role, she leads business operations and Program Management for ISD with a focus on financial accountability, expense management, employee engagement, DE&I, talent management strategies and transparency into the organization. Since joining in 2015, Liz has focused on optimizing operational processes, driving key change and transformation initiatives, and designing a framework to implement strategy into operation. Liz currently serves on the Advisory Council of the NYU Tandon School of Engineering’s Center on Cybersecurity.Liz is a champion for DE&I inside and outside of the company. She is Co-Chair, Year Up Financial Services Technology Advisory Council, a Steering member of the company’s DiverseTech Committee, and she is part of the GOTVET Steering Committee, Latin Advisory Council, a member of Hispanic Latino Leadership Forum (HLLF), WIN, WIT, The National Hispanic Corporate Council (NHCC) and a member of the Association for Latino Professionals for America (ALPFA). In 2020, Liz was named one of the Top 100 Most Influential Latinas in the nation by Latino Leadership Magazine.
Topics:
- Innovative workplace solutions for connecting global teams in hybrid environments
- Influencing corporate leaders to keep investing in women in cybersecurity
- Strategies for improving Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DE&I) within organizations
Links:
ITSMF – Networking Org for AA / people of color
HITEC – Networking org for Latinx / people of color
YearUp – Opportunities to close the opportunity divide in diverse communities
NYU Tandon School of Engineering – Center for Cybersecurity
Mitali Saxena holds a Bachelors in Computer Engineering and Masters in Electrical Engineering . After her 8- year career in wireless communications, she founded her fashion tech startup – Fashom – in Miami, with a mission to promote body positivity in women. She’s currently working on launching a fashion Web3 company in Miami, and runs her own program for feeding underprivileged kids in Swaziland, Africa called Foodom. She supports nonprofits for animals and has personal interests in yoga, spirituality, technology, and fashion.
Topics:
- Implications of Web3 in the fashion industry
- Perks associated with companies adopting the use of NFTs
- How use cases for the metaverse can grow over time
Elizabeth has over 20 years of experience in Product Development and IT. As CIO of One Inc, she oversees the implementation of the company’s global IT roadmap, the development of overall strategic planning, transformation, and innovation initiatives, and the security of technology solutions in support of partners and customers.
Most recently, Elizabeth led the company’s partnership with Visa to bring network tokenization to the insurance industry, which empowers banks, merchants, regional payments schemes, clearing houses, and other payments stakeholders to build, manage and control their own tokenization capabilities.
Prior to joining One Inc, Elizabeth was the Sr. Vice President of Enterprise Engineering and Technology Strategy at U.S. Bank. There she led a global organization of over 300 associates in the U.S., Philippines, Ireland, Poland, and India.
Topics:
- Successful approaches to adopting digital payments
- Balancing the benefits and risks of implementing AI strategies
- Cybersecurity within the rapidly growing digital payments industry
Leslie Vickrey is a marketing expert and business advisor who found a niche in technology and talent as the head of marketing for Spherion’s technology division. She founded ClearEdge Marketing in 2006, which is now a go-to, fully integrated marketing agency for talent and technology firms.
Leslie’s impact far exceeds her day-to-day work as CEO. Passionate about the importance of diversity, Leslie is a frequent speaker on the topic and even co-founded ARA, an organization that seeks to attract, retain and advance women in technology – 6,000 people strong. She is part of the ASA’s Women in Leadership Council; was recognized as one of 100 of Chicago’s most compelling innovators and entrepreneurs; is part of the UIC Entrepreneurship Hall of Fame; and was named a Staffing Industry Analysts Top 50 DEI Influencer two years running. Leslie is the host of an executive women in recruitment podcast, TheEdge, and most recently launched a book called Together We Rise with 14 other staffing industry executives. Connect with Leslie @ linkedin.com/in/lvickrey.
Vanessa Miller, VP of Talent Technology, is a dynamic and innovative leader. Joining Atrium in 2014, Vanessa blazed a path of […]
Joy Grassi is owner and Founder of DTRT Healthcare Consulting and Advocacy. Hired by agencies to start them, fix them, brand them. She is also a pro bono healthcare advocate. She teaches, trains and supports.
Matt Sharples is one of the rare people that didn’t just fall into staffing. He grew up in Ann Arbor, Michigan and his mother’s good friend owned a temp firm and put him to work during summer’s off in college. After graduating and having developed an interest in both computers and business (Matt’s favorite class in college was Organizational Psychology), he found a list of staffing firms from a book in the library. Matt sent his resume to them for internal roles and moved to KC after graduating starting as a recruiter in data processing.
Daniel Callaghan is CEO of Veremark, a world-leading background and pre-employment screening platform for fast-growing businesses.
With more than a decade in innovation around the Future of Work, Daniel built one of Europe’s top freelance marketplaces and previously ran the digital innovation and investment unit across APAC for the world’s largest recruitment company, Adecco Group.
He is an internationally published author on career development and has degrees from IESE Business School and Durham University.
Maria Pope is based in Washington, DC and runs the Venture Partner Program at Republic, a global equity crowdfunding platform. […]
Thomas Haun is the President of Turner Staffing Group. Experienced in new business creation, Thomas has held leadership roles across human capital, operations, sales, marketing, strategy, and finance.
Before starting Turner Staffing Group, Thomas was the Chief Operating Officer of Turner Mining Group, overseeing the organization, its operations, and its strategy. Previously, Thomas led global business teams for PrecisionHawk overseeing strategic direction, ecosystem development, and commercial partnerships. Thomas was part of DuPont’s Corporate Leadership Program, where his responsibilities included building new markets for DuPont Pioneer’s technology and services business. Additionally, Thomas led proposal management for Northrop Grumman Corporation.
Thomas holds an MBA from Harvard Business School, BS in Mathematics and BA in Economics from the University of Maryland.
Wayne Technologies is a recruitment data services firm using the most advanced suite of technologies and strategies to identify relevant candidates, deliver an actionable data-set, and provide first-touch outreach services.
The company works with a diverse group of clients including: Uber, Whole Foods, The New York Times, Waste Management, GIPHY, PwC, Ross Stores, Bridgewater, DE Shaw, Relativity Space, Wyman Gordon, Walter P. Moore, Redis Labs, and more.
The Vision: Harnessing individual superpowers to create synergies that elevate the Talent Acquisition industry.
The thing Mike is most proud of that they’ve created, is not their complex, technologically advanced, sourcing methodology – it’s actually their culture.
Mike strives to continue evolving as a pure implementation of what D&I could be within an organization.
Katie Larson just celebrated her seventh anniversary at Celarity, an award-winning Staffing and Recruiting agency for marketing, creative and digital talent. During her tenure, she has been promoted to various positions and is currently on the Celarity leadership team in a Recruiting Manager role.
Having placed over 300 candidates, Katie is also responsible for leading a team of recruiters, managing the account of a large global client, and overseeing Celarity’s Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging (DEI&B) initiatives.
Katie is incredibly passionate about female empowerment and education around empathetic leadership. She strives to create inclusion in the workplace so that fellow team members feel comfortable bringing their authentic selves to the table.
A recent career highlight of Katie’s was being named a recipient of the Women’s Leadership Scholarship for the American Staffing Association, which included an invite to attend the 2021 Staffing World conference in Denver, CO.
Katie resides in the Twin Cities with her husband, two daughters, and family dog. Outside of work, Katie is an active “Soccer Mom”, and is a leader of a Working Mom’s support group at her church.
Kim leads Cobalt Compass Solutions, which provides consulting and training services for the staffing industry. Training programs encompass the full life cycle of sales in staffing and teach the skills and strategies to create lasting customer relationships.
Prior Cobalt Compass, Kim had 28 years in the staffing industry and served as a member of executive leadership at Hays PLC. As SVP of Client Services and Global Accounts, Kim was responsible for the development of international and strategic accounts, and she also established the Government Solutions business which acquired clients at the state / DOD level.
Before joining Hays, Kim worked for Kforce Inc where she served on the executive committee and was responsible for the acquisition and development of strategic accounts as well as the national sales strategy with execution across product lines.
Topics:
- Benefits of gathering and sharing performance feedback with your clients
- Ways to showcase value and strengthen bonds with clients
- Improving your competitive advantage by becoming a specialist
Daphne E. Jones is a seasoned executive with extensive experience transforming business processes and implementing digital technologies to drive market growth, seamless customer fulfillment & internal efficiencies within Fortune 50 corporations. She has over thirty years of experience in general management and executive level roles at IBM, Johnson & Johnson, Hospira (now Pfizer) and General Electric. During her tenure at GE, she served as: SVP for Future of Work, and ran IT as SVP & CIO Product Engineering, Imaging & Aftermarket Services, a $13B segment of GE Healthcare. She helped innovate with AI, enabling predictive maintenance, design for additive & other advanced technologies to help GE be first movers in the healthcare market. She co-led a global team that defined GE’s Digital DNA.
Prior to GE Healthcare, her early career days were spent at IBM and Johnson & Johnson as Executive Director, VP IT, followed by her role as SVP & CIO at Hospira, Inc. a $5B global pharma & and infusion technology company. At Hospira, she led all aspects of Hospira’s enterprise, infrastructure, cyber, digital & analytics technology.
Daphne serves on the board of directors for AMN Healthcare, Inc., Barnes Group Inc, and Masonite International Corp, and is on audit, compensation & governance committees. Named by Savoy Magazine, “one of most influential AA Directors in 2021”, she is a member of the NACD, Accenture Cybersecurity Council, The Digital Directors Network (DDN), and the ELC.
She is the founder of The Board Curators – a company that prepares senior leaders for board service (www.theboardcurators.com) and is launching her book in Fall 2022 from McGraw-Hill entitled ‚“Win When They Say You Won’t“.
Tom Kosnik, Founder and President of Visus Group is the staffing industry’s leading expert offering a unique combination of business consulting acumen and experience to independent staffing firms. He advises on all aspects of running a staffing firm including organizational performance; change management; strategic planning; financial analysis; compensation plan design; process and profit improvements and business value enhancement to help staffing firms across the country improve operations and the bottom line.
In 1995, Tom started Presidents’ RoundTables to improve leadership capabilities of independent staffing firms’ management through creative idea generation, sharing, collaborating, and addressing industry challenges. The RoundTables have expanded to include CFOs, CROs, and CMOs. Tom holds a Master’s degree in Organizational Development from Bowling Green State University, a B.A. in psychology from Seattle University, a Masters of Divinity degree from Catholic Theological Union and is certified with the Center for Creative Leadership. This specialized educational and professional background equips him with a unique skill set for guiding independent staffing firms.
Being the chief talent officer at a talent-focused firm might sound like a challenge, but our CTO, Kaleen Robinson, has it covered. She leverages her extensive experience in making connections and managing geographically dispersed workforces to help Salo create meaningful career experiences for our nationwide consulting and internal employee teams.
Kaleen comes to Salo from Alight Solutions, where she was the vice president of human resources. While there, she oversaw the development and implementation of dynamic workforce strategies that accelerated business growth. For example, she led annual talent review processes and succession plans in business units of more than 10,000 employees. She also played the role of executive coach to many leaders across the business. Finally, she led high-performing HR teams across North America, India, and Poland—partnering closely with the global business to deliver results.
Prior to Alight, Kaleen worked as the vice president of human resources for Hewitt Associates (which was then acquired by AON)—a complex, highly matrixed organization with anywhere from 35,000-75,000 employees and contractors in 120 countries. At AON, she led the development and implementation of business-aligned HR strategies, solutions, and programs. She also drove the cultural shift to integrate the company’s global footprint by building strong cross-cultural competencies and training for managers and teams.
Kaleen lives in the Chicagoland area with her wife and three dogs. They have four grown kids and one daughter-in-love, all in various stages of college, transition program, working, and parenting of their three granddaughters. She loves anything out-of-doors, especially water sports like swimming, paddleboarding, and kayaking.
Kathy Azeez-Narain is the Chief Digital Officer (CDO) for Hoag. In this role, Kathy leads the development of Hoag’s Digital Strategy & Transformation to maintain Hoag’s position as an innovator in delivering both the highest quality care and exceptional patient experiences. This includes optimizing the relationship between our patients and their health journey, utilizing digital tools to develop, design & enhance the patient experience, and effectively moving patients from offline to online by way of a comprehensive digital eco-system.
Kathy is a digital product leader with more than a decade of experience in product development and marketing within the financial services industry. She joins Hoag from American Express, where she held various leadership roles driving digital product, marketing, and data strategies for the company. It was here that she delivered some of the first ever digital solutions for the organization including mobile experiences that better connect businesses to their cards, centralized data platforms and in-house design/creative solutions and teams.
Kathy earned her Bachelor of Science in Computer Science from Hofstra University.
Lauren Weggeman is Head of Training and one-on-one Executive coach at Mindmaven.
Mindmaven is an executive coaching firm that’s spent the last 12+ years working with hundreds of leaders, including unicorns like Thumbtack, Reddit, and Outreach.io, as well as heavy hitters such as Sequoia Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, Benchmark, and First Round Capital.
Mindmaven drives greatness by unleashing three key executive superpowers: Leverage, Intent, and Fellowship.
With Leverage, they help executives free up 8-10 hours of their time each week by fundamentally changing how they work with their EA/Chief of Staff. With Intent, they enable leaders to become more proactive and highly focused on growth, mastery, and the things that matter most. With Fellowship, they teach how to build an irrationally loyal following of people (both within the company and greater network).
Topics:
- Lauren’s Mindmaven journey
- Biggest beliefs holding executives back
- The 3 superpowers: leverage, intent, and fellowship
- Why hire an Executive Assistant? Do executives really need one?
- The difference between an executive assistant and an engagement manager?
- Scheduling whitespace time, getting the most out of that time and protecting that time at all costs.
- How 5-minute watercooler conversation can be used to deliver deep, meaningful interactions.
Theresa Sloan has fostered a decades-long and healthy career in high-level personnel recruitment. She is a consummate leader in the career development of countless Life Sciences, PGx, CGx, and Biomedical Professionals. Additionally, she places a strong concentration in the spaces of Telecom, Mobility, and IT Management globally. She is relentless in her pursuit to advance the careers of her peers and leaders. Her network of warm handshakes is unmatched, as is her spirit and attentive care to everyone she collaborates with. She serves as a mentor and life coach to those that know her best. Always available for an encouraging dialogue, Theresa enjoys boating, yoga practice, meditative reading, and the beach in her spare time. She can be contacted by email at: Theresasloan@SloanStaffingSolutions.com, and on the web at: www.sloanstaffingsolutions.com
Maari is an ad-agency art director turned freelancer turned entrepreneur. After leaving the full-time agency space she set-out into freelance […]
Noel Wolf is a respected and renowned leader in IT Recruiting in the Chicago metropolitan area. He has more than 25 years of Information Technology experience in recruiting, sales, and operational management. Noel has successfully led and developed recruiting teams in multiple consulting organizations, resulting in millions of revenue growth and positioned those organizations for subsequent acquisition.
Noel serves as the Midwest Chapter President of TechServe Alliance – Midwest Chapter, a national IT staffing association dedicated to advancing excellence and ethics within the IT staffing and solutions industry. Additionally, Noel serves as the co-state manager for the National Veteran Business Development Council’s 50 State Manager Scholarship Program. The program was established to invest in our future leaders and show appreciation to those enrolled in an ROTC program by providing college scholarships that provide funds to individuals of veteran families who are enrolled in an ROTC program while attending a high school or higher education institution.
As the founder and Managing Partner at Collinwood, Noel oversees day-to-day operations and also leads and trains the recruiting staff. Noel is a Marine Corps Veteran (serving 1988-1996) and was on active duty during Operation Desert Shield (1991). Noel attended Cleveland State University with a double degree focus in English and Political Science. He currently lives in the southwestern suburbs of Chicago.
Doug Dandurand is the current President of TalentLaunch, a nationwide network of independently-operated staffing and recruitment firms under common ownership. In this role, Mr. Dandurand is responsible for the overall strategy and growth of the organization.
Previously, Mr. Dandurand was the President of Advantage Resourcing North America, a $430M staffing company owned by Recruit Holdings. By effectively leading five divisions through a significant strategic refocus, he was able to consistently exceed financial targets and led Advantage Resourcing to several industry awards including ranking 8th out of 250 companies in Forbes Magazine inaugural ranking of America’s Best Professional Recruiting Firms.
Topics:
- The secret to loving what you do every day.
- Doug’s journey into the staffing industry.
- What ideas/trends excite you the most in the staffing & talent acquisition space? What practices are here to stay? How can we best prepare to leverage those trends?
- Where do you see the biggest growth opportunity in the staffing industry in the next 5 years?
- What advice would you give a new start-up agency looking to establish itself in the market?
LaShaun is an industry expert committed to promoting DEI in the staffing industry. For the past 14 years, she has developed and […]
Keith Bozeman spent 25 years in the IT Staffing and Services industry. He was President of TEKsystems, the largest IT […]
Dustin Talley is the founder and lead consultant at Talent Simplified. Talent Simplified is a consulting firm focused on helping companies build and grow direct-to-talent solutions. In In addition to Talent Simplified, he leads Direct Collective – a community of contingent program leaders for education and networking.
Dustin spent the last 15 years building better contingent labor programs. He combines his background in MSP, VMS, IC Compliance, Payroll, and Direct Sourcing to help companies build manager and talent centric programs and solutions. As an early advocate in direct sourcing, Dustin has implemented over 30 direct sourcing programs. He also launched a two-sided talent marketplace and commercialized digital staffing platform.
Harry is an IT Consulting and Staffing Leader with 15 years of experience in the IT Consulting/Staffing industry. His passion is creating solutions that makes impossible situations, possible. He enjoys working with clients and connecting with Information Technology professionals to create solutions. Harry has a track record of building successful consultative Staffing Practices from the ground up to become highly profitable revenue streams for the organization.
Harry is currently the Director, Staffing Solutions for Arraya, where he is responsible for building, growing, and managing all aspects of the Staffing Service Practice. We focus on contingent and consulting IT resources to support mid & enterprise organizations help manage their business and technical needs.
Benjamin De Point has been in the software industry since 1998, working mostly in SaaS, and in engineering leadership since […]
Founded in 1994, Peak Performers employs skilled and dedicated people in administrative, professional, accounting, and information technology jobs. Peak recruits for contract, temporary, temp-to-hire, and direct hire positions in State of Texas and other local government agencies. As part of their nonprofit mission, Peak is setting a new standard of employment for people with disabilities and chronic medical conditions.
Brought in as a digital strategy consultant in 2012, Bree Sarlati, President of Peak Performers, began her tenure helping re-brand the company website and optimize it for search engine performance. Since then, Bree has worked in every part of Peak’s business: payroll, marketing, recruiting, staffing, and office management. Bree joined the leadership team in 2017 and has contributed to explosive growth in existing accounts and new service offerings. Under her leadership, Peak’s book of business has grown 40% and has begun offering services in direct hire and executive search. Bree has also led a series of organizational transformations such as a move toward a cloud-based recruiting and HR management software.
Bree brings to the organization a diverse, human-focused educational background of sociolinguistics and anthropology and leverages her background of working for nonprofit organizations around the world.
Bree has been recognized (2020) by Staffing Industry Analyst as a “40 Under 40” leader, trailblazing and innovating in the workforce solutions ecosystem.
Topics:
- Bree’s obsession with old books
- Bree’s journey into the staffing industry
- Biggest lessons learned while building Peak Performers Staffing Agency
- The candidate’s experience for people with disabilities and chronic medical conditions
- The importance of working with clients that align with your values
- What are some of the unquestionable qualities attributed to a successful recruiter?
- The power of cultivating authenticity in the workplace
Kelli is the Vice President of Sales at Parqa, a performance marketing agency revolutionizing the staffing industry by leveraging technology and marketing to create great candidate and client experiences, and drive enterprise-level value. Kelli has spent the past decade driving marketing-led results for staffing and recruiting firms, and has consulted hundreds of business leaders across the country on their growth strategies. Her passion for marketing has inspired her to share her expertise, and she regularly hosts fireside chats with industry leaders, conducts speaking engagements, and sits on boards and committees. She has contributed to industry groups such as American Staffing Association, World Staffing Summit, and New York Staffing Professionals, and she currently sits on the ASA Women in Leadership Council and ASA Industry Marketing & PR Committee.
As a successful manager in Big Box Retail for many years Naomi Mosley was starting to experience challenging times. Naomi for the first time was not doing well in her career anymore and she was not understanding why. Unfortunately, after a year sabbatical Naomi’s Doctor diagnosed her with Multiple Sclerosis and the whirlwind downward spiral started. The depression and the pain in and out of the hospital was extremely hard on Naomi and she thought that she would never work again since she was approved for Social Security Disability on the first round. The doctor told her that there was no way she could have completed her Masters degree with this disability since she was now on a 4th grade level.
It took years for Naomi to get on the right medication for her MS and she was ready to get back to helping people. Since the world was experiencing “The Great Resignation” a silent partner reached out to her about starting a Recruitment agency. Hudson-Ann Staffing Solutions was created in 2021 and Naomi placed 2 Vice President’s in the first 3 months of business. What is the secret, well we treat people like humans not robots. We have successfully built relationships with over five hundred people and counting.
The first single partnership was with Tru-Bridge located in Tampa Fl, this partnership was fantastic with Bobby Pastorius he spent time coaching Naomi and helping her understand the accounting industry. After many unsuccessful attempts with placements, Naomi decided to switch gears. H.A. Staffing Solutions joined Top Echelon and that was when the light bulb went off. Our commitment is to help our recruiters make placements after the position has been on the market for an extended period of time. Currently we have partnerships with over 1 thousand recruiters, but our top priority is the current partnership with Matt O’Mara, President of Cranbrook Search Consultants in the marketing industry. Matt is her coach and mentor in the marketing industry, and Gary Doersching who is the president of Next Level Exchange is her coach in the recruitment industry. This team is the reason Hudson-Ann Staffing Solutions is so successful!
Leenna is one of the emerging south asian women in the technology recruitment industry.
She boasts over 20 years of HR recruitment and management experience and is passionate about using her entrepreneurial spirit to help IT and non IT talent succeed in the workplace.
In addition to her current role as President with Placement Experts USA, Leenna Choudharry is the founder of American College Gurus, an online platform that provides educational services including tutoring, test prep, college prep and concierge services within the US and for international students. She’s demonstrated an exceptional commitment to the students she has educated and supported on this platform over the years, onboarding many international students to her payroll before placing them with contract roles all across the United States.
Aside from her current work with Placement Experts and ACG, Leenna has also founded Global Design Feature, a digital platform focused on mentoring, networking, career growth, and economic development of artists in the fashion industry.
She also volunteers at several non profit coding bootcamps in St. Louis where she offers career advice to job seekers and across the globe via Clubhouse and LinkedIn.
She has stayed connected with her Indian roots and volunteers to speak on culture and Hinduism.
Sunny joined SThree in February 2021 as the newly appointed President where she oversees the growth strategy for the world’s […]
CJ Tufano is the Founder of Cherrypicker, a diversity-friendly talent marketplace that connects high performing candidates who are confidentially seeking better opportunities to hiring managers across the United States. He previously worked as a public/private accountant for large corporations and spent the last 8 years as a successful Accounting/Finance Recruiter at NYC’s top recruiting firms. After years of personally experiencing a disjointed hiring process from all sides, he created Cherrypicker out of necessity to solve the points of job searching and hiring talent. His goal is to create a seamless, stress-free hiring ecosystem that is removed of bias while helping companies reduce their costs when hiring top talent. Independent recruiters can leverage Cherrypicker as a digital storefront (like Shopify) and join Cherypicker’s Trusted Recruiter network and create additional revenue streams with their candidate database. Every candidate is professionally vetted before they are invited to download the Cherrypicker mobile application, this gives hiring managers confidence to jump into a first-round interview once mutual interest has been established from both sides. Prospective candidates will be in full control of who they decide to share their information with allowing them to search for their next great role confidentially while remaining gainfully employed. Cherrypicker will invite hiring managers to access to this diverse, vetted talent pipeline to increase hiring speed without sacrificing quality of hire. For more information to join, check out www.getcherrypicker.com or follow us on social media @getcherrypicker on Twitter and Instagram. To contact Cherrypicker about affiliate/strategic partnership opportunities contact CJ Tufano at cj@getcherrypicker.com or connect with him on Linkedin.
Craig Richardville is chief digital and information officer and senior vice president of Intermountain Healthcare. As a member of the […]
Khursheed has over 17 years of experience in the IT recruiting world. She was an early employee of two IT […]
Brooke has been in recruiting and account management her entire professional career – over 11 years! She has a passion […]
Danny Cahill started at Hobson Associates right out of college. He became its Rookie of the Year, top producer and general manager by the age of 26. At 27 he bought the company and built it into one of the country’s largest search firms. He is the only industry “guru” that runs a search firm every day. He does what you do.
He was the Educational Chairperson of the Pinnacle Society, 75 of the highest achievers in the industry and he still personally mentors many members. He also owns and runs AccordingToDanny.com, an online training and mentoring company dedicated to enhancing the skills and jumpstarting the spirits of recruiters worldwide. His keynote presentations have made him one of the most sought-after speakers in the country.
He was elected to the NAPS Hall of Fame in 2006, and received the Dave Knutson Lifetime Achievement Award. HireAbility overwhelmingly voted him the industry’s most popular speaker.
In his other life, as a playwright, he has had works produced off Broadway, and won both the Maxwell Anderson and the CAB Theatre Award for playwrights. He has written for CBS Television, Muscle and Fitness Magazine, as well as numerous magazines. Danny’s book, “Harper’s Rules”, a business novel/parable, which of course features a headhunter, won the 2011 Axiom Award. His screenplay, “Breakpoint” was optioned by Dialogue Pictures, and his memoir, “Aging Disgracefully” is in bookstores and on Kindle and hit Amazon Best Seller status!
Willie Newman is the Founder, President and CEO of Homepoint, the nation’s third-largest wholesale mortgage lender. An acknowledged expert and […]
Zia Rahman is the Founder & CEO of Wanderly, a Healthcare Staffing Marketplace and also a Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS). Wanderly is the leading PaaS for Managed Direct Sourcing which empowers many hospitals. Zia has over 25 years of leadership experience in technology, healthcare, federal (DoD, FAA, VA), state, and local government. Prior to Wanderly, Zia was the President and partner of USSI Staffing based in Torrance, CA. Under his leadership, USSI grew its revenue by six-fold in under four years. He was also the COO of Emerald Healthcare Services for seven years and led the company in tripling its revenue. Previously Zia was CTO, CIO, VP of Technology of various companies. He holds a BS in Computer Science from University of Maryland, College Park.
Kyle Decker joined the Job Center in 2009 and has successfully led the company from sales of $2.3 million then to sales of $97 million in 2020. In 2018 he co-founded MOR Talent Solutions because he saw the need for professional-level recruiting in the manufacturing, engineering, and skilled labor space. In 2019, Decker founded the “Underdog” podcast because he believes that everyone has an underdog story. Also in 2019, Riley Decker Cos. was established to provide a centralized solution for clients and all their staffing needs. During his 12-year staffing career, he has been on the SIA “40 Under 40” list.
Favorite Quote: “Business, like life, is all about how you make people feel. It’s that simple & it’s that hard.” -Danny Meyer
Favorite Books: Two of the books that have changed my mindset are The Energy Bus by John Gordon and Welcome to Management by Ryan Hawk.
Topics:
- Kyle’s journey into the staffing industry
- What ideas/trends excite you the most in the staffing & talent acquisition space? What practices are here to stay? How can we best prepare to leverage those trends?
- Where do you see the biggest growth opportunity in the staffing industry in the next 5 years?
- The last 18 months have seen explosive growth in staffing firm interest and adoption of platform-based models to enable “recruiter-less” staffing and direct connection between temporary workers and clients. What is your take on that? Is the recruiter going away anytime soon?
- What advice would you give a new start-up agency looking to establish itself in the market?
- In a world where the talent delivery model is rapidly changing, there has never been an easier way to find a job than there is now.. how can recruiters stand apart from all the noise?
- What are some of the unquestionable qualities attributed to a successful recruiter?
Darryl Maraj is the Chief Technology Officer at GA Telesis, one of the world’s largest commercial aviation firms, with over […]
Connie Rose is the CEO of Empire Jobs, A division of Empire Insurance Recruiters, Inc. a web-based employment-related search engine. Empire Jobs serves the Insurance and Property Restoration industries.
Her experience is within the Property and Casualty and insurance, and property restoration. Connie has staffed professionally for 26years. She worked directly in the insurance industry for twelve years, as a P&C agent, Sales/Marketing, Underwriting, and Property Restoration.
Pankaj Jindal is a staffing industry veteran and the co-founder of Sense, the first talent engagement platform designed specifically for […]
Katie Breault is the Senior Vice President of Growth & Impact at Year Up Professional Resources, PBC (YUPRO), the nation’s […]
Mark has spent over 20 years leading HR, IT and business transformation teams, for some of the largest and most complex of global enterprises. He has travelled widely and built and run Global HR Shared Services Centres in India and the Philippines. More recently, Mark set up LavasourceHR- the first truly global talent marketplace, dedicated to the diverse fractionalisation of HR and HR IT talent. Lava also provides established HR Consulting solutions for those who require support across the HR and IT spectrum.
Jeff Nugent, founder, and CEO of Contingent Workforce Solutions, has an uncanny ability to anticipate the future and be in […]
Wilson Cole is the president and founder of Adams Evans and Ross. The nation’s largest collection agency specifically for the […]
Brian McGuire is an EVP and Managing Director of TalentBelt. TalentBelt is a Direct Sourcing advisory firm that assists Fortune 500 customers with Business Case Development, Solution Design, and Supplier Evaluation. Mr. McGuire is a 25-year veteran of the Staffing Industry. He started his career in the 1990s as an IT recruiter in Silicon Valley. In 1999, he cofounded a nationally-recognized SAP staffing firm. Since 2007, he has designed and sold enterprise BPO programs for globally-recognized Staffing leaders. During the onset of the Covid Pandemic in 2020, he co-founded TalentBelt because traditional staffing models have become outdated and few organizations have adopted a digital transformation strategy to mitigate against talent supply interruptions. In his spare time, he rebuilds classic bicycles, plays guitar, and enjoys outdoor activities.
Georgia is an Associate Vice President and Sr Project Controls Manager with AECOM. She has over 22 years of program […]
Angela is the CEO of Elevate, a Cyber Security Consulting and Staffing Firm headquartered in Miami Florida. Angela is in […]
Gabe Diaz was born and raised in South Florida and has built an exemplary recruiting track record having spent more than 13 years working for agency/search firm, start-up, and large publicly traded companies. Although he resides in Miami Beach, Gabe has spent the last 6+ years recruiting for prominent Silicon Valley software companies working alongside some of the most influential technologists and placing key leaders across the world. In November 2021, Gabe founded Medalist Talent Group, LLC, a boutique retained search firm catered to assisting cloud native, SaaS, data, and other modern tech companies in filling key strategic hires and executive roles.
Cindi Grace is an author, speaker, international transgender consultant, LGBTQIA+ Trainer, Coach and Therapist. She is a woman who has lived a life of challenge and success. She has been through multiple major life transitions, including transgender transition and career transition. Cindi Grace’s work Specializes in increasing ROI, and employee engagement with inclusion strategies and organizational authenticity.
Jeff has more than 25 years experience in human resources. He has worked at companies that specialize in manufacturing, construction, and software development. During his career he has worked to recruit, retain and develop employees, at companies including ConAgra Foods, SPX, Midas International and American Crystal Sugar. Jeff is the founder of Human Asset Management LLC, which helps organizations to recruit, engage, develop and retain talent. He is a member of the National Speakers Association (NSA) and a frequent speaker on the topic of loyalty, employee retention, recruitment and culture building. He is an avid high school wrestling fan, CrossFit participant and US Army veteran. Jeff is the author of Give Your Employees C.R.A.P…and 7 Other Secrets to Employee Retention and HR Horror Stories…True Tales from the Trenches. For more information visit http://www.jeffkortes.com and follow Jeff on Twitter @jeffkortes
Amy Geiger is the Director of FLEX Talent Solutions at Marriott International, a leading global lodging company with more than […]
Monique Davis is a Talent Success consultant specializing in team dynamics, recruiting and training. After nearly a decade in corporate recruiting, Monique offers direct support to organizations through consulting and training models. Her areas of focus include HR, IT, Marketing and Professional Services. Recognizing that making the right hire can make or break business results, a significant portion of Monique’s hiring initiatives also focus on Predictive Index, A.I. & Data.
Monique is an industry-leading recruiting and talent strategy resource delivering innovative business solutions. She is best known for interactive seminars and consultations that target the root cause of pain points in the hiring process. The result? An authentic, intentional approach to building success. Monique has provided training in the areas of Talent strategy, Career Development, and Team Management.
Born in Indiana and raised in Atlanta, Georgia, Monique possesses a knack for interacting with people from all walks of life. The compassion and genuine interest she applies to relationship building allows her to quickly build rapport and offer support. Monique’s approach to team building and recruitment incorporates best practices and exercises that speak to real-world challenges and offer effective, real-life solutions. As an author, she shares some of this insight in her debut book, Respect the Code: Laws for Career Strategies and Code-Switching. Her perspectives have also been shared on platforms such as LinkedIn and Forbes.com. Monique has also been recognized as part of the Forbes Coach’s Council for her efforts in the industry.
Monique is the founder of Fresh Talent Sources. The organization’s mission is to provide quality training and recruiting that drives hiring success for small and mid sized businesses. Monique & her team partners strategically with organizations and individuals for the delivery of customized affordable solutions in RPO style Talent Sourcing, Full Arm Recruiting, Career and Team Development based on behavior & predictive analytics. Connect with Fresh Talent Sources to succeed intentionally in all hiring and retention initiatives. She is also the Female Founder of a tech start up, Talent2go which is a US based web app geared towards Small and Start Up businesses that desire to grow and scale their businesses through gig work and technology. Talent2go web app stands out due to its exclusive vetting process and thorough assessment of freelancers from all over the globe. Everyone that applies can’t join in. There’s even AI tech integrated to tell business owners the behavior patterns and personality traits of their potential gig worker encouraging long term gig work and stronger rapport. Talent2go is an exclusive web app catered towards US & Canadian businesses that desire an affordable way to build their business without miscommunication like other gig based platforms.
Monique resides in Atlanta with her husband, Rashad, and their two children. When she’s not in work mode, you can catch her volunteering and being an advocate for underrepresented individuals through her various community organizations and efforts. She is also behind the Succeeding Intentionally, and Intentional Recruiters Changing the World movements.
Cindi Grace is an author, speaker, international transgender consultant, LGBTQIA+ Trainer, Coach and Therapist. She is a woman who has […]
Chuck is the proud father of 2 amazing young daughters and he has been in technology recruiting most of his career. Most recently Chuck leading talent acquisition efforts at high growth startups. For the past 10 years he has been working remotely from Florida, for Silicon Valley based technology startups. He has learned that his passion lies in the constant change, ambiguity and build phase of pre-IPO companies. After a 15 year career on the IT staffing side of the house, Chuck moved to his first startup called “Hortonworks”. He was the 130th employee and oversaw global hiring through IPO, over 1,500 employees and then into a merger with their closest competitor. About three years ago, Chuck chose to lead hiring at his current company called Kong, and started as the 120th employee of the company. Kong is now 380 employees in over 28 countries, growing to over 600 employees this year with the goal of breaking 1,000 next year!
Sara Stoub is a recruiter with over 10 years of experience in the industry. She has a Bachelor of Science in Human Development and Biology from Texas Tech University and began her recruiting career with one of the largest privately-held staffing agencies in the United States. After working as a Field Recruiter for a beverage manufacturing and distribution company, she became specialized in non-exempt recruitment for Market Units in Memphis/Little Rock, West Texas and Dallas/Fort Worth. Sara is also certified as a CIR (Certified Internet Recruiter) and CSP (Certified Staffing Professional).
Sara is currently a recruiter for High Profile Staffing. Since 1987, High Profile Staffing has provided hundreds of Dallas companies with people everyday to fill administrative, human resource and financial positions.
The High Profile staff are experts in their field holding designations for Certified Temporary Staffing Specialist (CTS), Certified Personnel Consultant (CPC), Certified Staffing Professional (CSP) and Professional in Human Resources (PHR). Our recruiters have been trained and tested on employment law.
High Profile is a member and has held leadership positions with the Dallas Human Resources Management Association, the Society of Human Resource Management, the Texas Association of Staffing, the National Association of Temporary Staffing Services as well as various local Chambers of Commerce.
Topics:
- Sara’s journey into the staffing industry
- What’s broken with the way most companies hire candidates today?
- What’s the right length of interview numbers? Are 4 interviews enough to determine if a candidate should get hired?
- Tips to increase the employer value proposition
- Tips to nurture candidates after they are hired or placed
- Most effective strategies to retain talent
Mr. Larson engages as the lead consultant for those staffing industry companies desiring to understand the M&A landscape. Working through a unique TechServe process, John and his team provide education and specific information about a company’s value and market expectations. He assists owners in making the transition from being daily operators to creating and implementing a defined exit strategy.
John provides strategic and operational insight for entrepreneurs with over 20 years of experience in the IT staffing industry. He focuses on providing actionable initiatives for personnel and performance with the objective of enhancing enterprise value. John specializes in working with owners and partners in positioning their company for various growth strategies.
He was President for three different staffing company founders before acquiring and building his own IT staffing company with a partner. They recently sold their company. He has a multi-discipline perspective, having functioned as the senior operations manager and often as an advisor to the company founder. Before the staffing industry, John held various sales positions in the technology industry. John is also a Certified Advisor for Recruit the Best. He is currently a member of the Board of Directors for TechServe Alliance.
Liz Agosto is an Executive Director, Global Chief Operating Officer (COO) for Information Security Division (ISD) and reports directly to […]
As the Executive Director of CyberUp, Tony Bryan is committed to cultivating the cybersecurity talent pipeline for today and tomorrow. He joined CyberUp as the first employee in 2016 after serving the St. Louis region’s nonprofit ecosystem for nearly 10 years in various roles. With over 20 years of leadership experience, he has become an apprenticeship and cybersecurity workforce advocate. Tony’s focus is on creating high-quality apprenticeships and gamifying cybersecurity learning for K12 students. His work has been recognized with invitations to serve on the State of Missouri Workforce Development Board and to lead the National Initiative for Cybersecurity Education (NICE) Apprenticeship Community of Interest. Tony was raised in St. Louis, Missouri. He honorably served in the United States Army for 9 years. During that time, he completed his Bachelor of Science in Business from Columbia College and a Master of Business Administration from Webster University. Tony is proud to be #STLMADE and a self-proclaimed “nonprofit nerd.” When he is not working, he enjoys spending time with his wife Addie and their four children. He is a football fanatic and an avid video gamer. He also serves on the board of directors of the Sparrow’s Nest and The Vetwork.
Mitali Saxena holds a Bachelors in Computer Engineering and Masters in Electrical Engineering . After her 8- year career in […]
Simon Hill is the CEO and Co-founder of Wazoku.
Wazoku is an idea management software that enables businesses to gather, manage, develop, analyze and implement ideas that creates solutions to their problems as well as identify new opportunities. This approach can achieve both innovation and strategic objectives.
Simon is an active author, blogger, and speaker on topics relating to collaborative innovation, crowdsourcing, co-creation, intrapreneurship, and more. His expertise has been recognized extensively, being awarded the prestigious title of Guardian SME Leader of the Year 2014 and noted as a Top 15 influencer in crowdsourcing both in 2013 and 2014. He is also an Angel Investor and advisor to several B2B and B2C early-stage tech businesses.
Topics:
- How Simon came up with the name for Wazoku
- How to drive change inside your organization at scale
- The force multiplier that allows organizations to punch above their weight
- Where do ideas come from? It might not be what you think.
- The agile approach to problem-solving
- Crowdsourcing and innovation as a tool for recruitment
- Open innovation challenges as an alternative channel to recruit top talent
Sean Kogan is co-founder of Recruiting in Motion; ranked in the “Growth 500” as one of the fastest-growing companies in the country for three consecutive years. He has been in the recruitment industry since 1998; commencing his career with Robert Half, one of the world’s largest professional staffing agencies. He co-founded Recruiting in Motion (RIM) in 2010 in Toronto, Canada, with the vision of providing employers and jobseekers a more customer-centric experience. RIM is a pioneer in the industry by being one of the first agencies to include candidate video presentations into their client experience, decreasing hiring costs and shortening the interview cycle. In 2020, on the heels of its Canadian success, RIM introduced a new business model in the US by offering agency professionals the ability to maximize their earning potential. This unique team-based model provides a platform for entrepreneurial individuals with a passion for the industry to be part of a unique peer-to-peer recruitment network. RIM focuses on direct-hire, contract, and contract-to-hire recruitment solutions and is growing rapidly with dedicated professionals in 17 US states and 8 offices in Canada.
Elizabeth has over 20 years of experience in Product Development and IT. As CIO of One Inc, she oversees the […]
Eve Cartwright is the Founder and Managing Partner of Cartwright Search Group (CSG), a woman-owned boutique Executive Search-Staffing firm based in Boston, MA.
Eve has over 30 years of combined experience in Corporate Human Resources and as a Recruiter and Career Consultant in Executive and Contingency Search. She started her own firm in 2007. Her commitment to quality, transparency and a thorough understanding of a client’s requirements and unique culture is the key to her success. Eve’s reputation has been built on relationships, working in lock step with her clients as a partner, and being results oriented.
Eve worked for Gartner as the HR Recruiting Manager and Staffing Administrator, for 10 years helping to grow the firm from a privately held company with under 200 employees to a publicly held firm of over 3000 (which now has 15,000 employees in 100 countries). Additionally, she staffed many of Gartner’s subsidiaries as a consultant through the years. Eve worked for Tech Target as a Recruitment Manager for all C-Level Conferences as well as with Search Firms on the Retained and Contingency side on national searches in a variety of disciplines.
Specialties: Technology Transfer and Commercialization, Innovation and Development, Biotech and Pharma. Additional Industries include: Professional Service, Research and Advisory, Management Consulting, Life Sciences, Healthcare,Marketing/Communications, Not-for-Profit and Technology.
One of her “give backs” is pro bono consulting for SongwritingWith:Soldiers (SW:S), a not-for-profit organization, based in Nashville, Tennessee that pairs veterans and active-duty service members with professional (Grammy Award winning) songwriters in retreat settings to craft songs about their experiences and return home.
Eve is a graduate of Lasell College and Simmons College in Boston, MA. She is a NAPW member and CPC certified. She resides in Chatham, MA.
Tom Nunn is the president of Tom Nunn Consulting, LLC, a company he started in 2009 that specializes in helping owners and executive teams of growing companies implement best practices to enable long term growth, profitability and health. Since starting his consulting practice, Tom has worked with over 100 IT & Engineering staffing company across the country and also facilitates several industry roundtables. He is actively involved in TechServe Alliance as a speaker, facilitator and currently serves as Secretary-Treasurer for the Board of Directors.
Prior to starting his own company, Tom was president of a national IT staffing company headquartered in Boston, MA. Over the nine years that he was there, Tom helped develop and lead a high performing team that grew the company from $25MM to $100MM and top quartile profitability. Tom has over 40 years of diverse business experience including many years as an executive in the financial services industry where he led teams that oversaw IT and back-office support for various investment management functions in multi-national banks.
Joy Grassi is owner and Founder of DTRT Healthcare Consulting and Advocacy. Hired by agencies to start them, fix them, […]
Rocío is the Executive Director and Co-Founder of Latinas in Tech. Rocío graduated with honors from Tec de Monterrey with a degree in Marketing, and until recently, Rocio was the Director of Product Marketing at Prezi where she spent several years launching Prezi’s products nationally and internationally. Prior to her role in Product Marketing, Rocio was General Manager of Prezi Latin America making Prezi one of the leading presentation platforms pushing the boundaries of innovation and effective communications.
Rocío has been an advocate for tech inclusion, participating in multiple boards of charitable organizations that push forward the participation of underrepresented minorities. Besides Latinas in Tech, Rocio has co-founded Silicon Valley Day – a conference that brings the best minds of Silicon Valley to multiple cities and countries in Latin America, helped start Red Global de Talentos Mexicanos in San Francisco, as well as the EXATEC alumni group in San Francisco, and Rocío serves as an advisor to the cultural festival MEXAM in San Francisco.
Born in the Bay Area to Mexican parents, growing up in Mexico, Germany, France, and Boston, Rocío is a proud wife and mother of two and she enjoys the outdoors, traveling, literature, and extreme sports.
Topics:
- How can we address the lack of Latina representation and what will it take to improve access to jobs, education, and healthcare?
- What should be done to create pathways to opportunity and growth across all sectors?
- Barriers that hinders Latinas from career advancement
- What is one common myth or misconception that employers have about Latinos in Tech?
- Becoming an advocate for Latinx talent in Tech
- Recommendation for Latinos looking to break into tech
- Rocio’s advice to women who want to be a leader but don’t know how to get started
Thomas Haun is the President of Turner Staffing Group. Experienced in new business creation, Thomas has held leadership roles across […]
Matt Sharples is one of the rare people that didn’t just fall into staffing. He grew up in Ann Arbor, […]
Daniel Callaghan is CEO of Veremark, a world-leading background and pre-employment screening platform for fast-growing businesses. With more than a […]
Wayne Technologies is a recruitment data services firm using the most advanced suite of technologies and strategies to identify relevant […]
Katie Larson just celebrated her seventh anniversary at Celarity, an award-winning Staffing and Recruiting agency for marketing, creative and digital […]
Vlad is a Regional Director of Investments at Assure Syndicates, a group of High Net Worth Individuals and Family Offices focusing on early-stage private equity deals from Pre-Seed to Series B. He specializes in cross-border financial structures and leads client management for US East Coast and Europe-based clients. He is also the founder and CEO of Flowlie, a data infrastructure business for the private equity and venture capital world. Previously he was with VU Venture Partners and ff Venture Capital and is the author of “When They Win, You Win: A More Human Approach to Supporting Entrepreneurship”. Vlad graduated with a dual-degree from the University of Rochester and with a master’s from McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas at Austin.
Participants:
- Jon Younger, Forbes Writer & Founder of Agile Talent Collaborative.
- Fitzgerald Ventura, Founder And CEO Of 1099Policy.
- Terri Gallagher, Founder And CEO Of Gallagher And Consultants.
- Rachel Stonestreet, Director Of Compliance & Operations at myBasePay.
Topics:
- 45% of freelancers think their clients really know how to work with them. What’s the secret sauce of companies that are successful in building relationships with freelancers? Why does that matter?
- Independent contractors don’t want to be risk-managed; they want to be enabled
- The importance of educating organizations and independent contractors on risk and compliance topics.
- From loyalty and inputs to flexibility and results: the mindset shift needed for a successful contingent workforce strategy.
- Partnerships as a way to drive strategic value for freelancers.
- Recommendations for someone getting started as an independent contractor.
Megan McCann is an established IT recruitment and technology services leader known for building and leading highly successful IT services firms, and for the work she does to advance diversity and cultivate talent across the technology industry.
Megan is the CEO of leading IT recruitment firmMcCann Partners, which she founded in 2011. She and her team deliver IT recruitment with intention and integrity to a growing portfolio of innovative organizations—from Chicago-based startups to companies with a global footprint. McCann Partners is dedicated to creating a more equitable and diverse workforce, and proud that more than 70% of their talent placements in the past two years have been diverse hires. Prior to McCann Partners, Megan co-founded and helped build Geneva Technical Services (GTS), and was a strategic force in growing SelecTech—both premier IT recruitment firms.
Megan’s impact on the tech community far exceeds her day-to-day work as CEO of her own firm. Passionate about attracting, retaining, and advancing women in technology, Megan is a proud co-founder ofARA, a national organization that seeks to promote women in technology and leadership through mentorship, events, and programs. Her additional industry and leadership affiliations include membership in the American Staffing Association, CHIEF, and the TechServe Alliance.
She is also a founding partner of theChicago Executive Women’s Networking Group and an active member of Chicago Innovation’s Women’s Mentoring Co-Op. In addition, she’s been recognized as a Chicago Business Journal Bizwomen Headliner in Technology, Chicago Business Journal Women of Influence, a three-time Midwest Women in Tech Awards finalist, and an Illinois Technology Association CityLIGHTS finalist. In 2021, Megan was named to Staffing Industry Analysts inaugural Top 50 DE&I Influencers list and selected as a ChiTech Academy Young Women’s Leadership Society Ambassador of the Year.
Jan is a technology entrepreneur born in Vienna, Austria. He is the co-founder and CEO of Candidately. At Candidately Jan and his team are building the digital storefront for staffing and recruiting companies. Jan graduated from Y Combinator 2017 and raised over $4M in venture capital from investors like Speedinvest, Beenext, YouTube co-founder Jawed Karim among many others. Jan is also the co-founder of the World Staffing Summit, an annual online conference for staffing owners and operators.
Currently based in Vienna, Austria, Jan is passionate about the staffing industry as well as supporting other founders to help them succeed. He actively advises technology companies and is a Venture Partner at Pioneer Fund and Calm Storm Ventures.
Topics:
- Why host a virtual conference/event?
- The impact of the pandemic on the events industry
- The ROI of virtual events
- The perception of virtual events v.s. in-person events/conferences
- Closing the Staffing Industry gap with interactive content and community
- Most important takeaways from World Staffing Summit 2022
Robin Bienfait was the chief enterprise innovation officer and senior advisor for Samsung, responsible for building strong partnerships with large global customers to deliver enterprise class services. Robin joined Samsung with over 30 years of experience in mobility, security, business development, enterprise sales, wireless network operations and engineering. As a global intrapreneur, Robin launched Samsung Business Services and advised on the B2B investment strategy. Now as CEO for Emnovate, Robin is advising and providing software solutions to emerging businesses. Prior to Samsung, Robin served as chief information officer for BlackBerry, where she led the enterprise business unit and software development team, end to end product security, tier 3 technical customer service, global network services, corporate security and corporate IT. For the majority of her career, Robin held senior leadership positions across AT&T including Bell Labs, Global Network Services/GNOC, business continuity and disaster recovery, and compliance. As an officer at AT&T, Robin’s last role was leading global network services and chief compliance officer, environment, health and safety. Robin holds a bachelor’s degree in engineering from Central Missouri State University and a graduate of the Georgia Institute of Technology with a master’s degree in management of technology. A global influencer holding 15 patents, she is the recipient of several awards and was named as one of the top 100 CIO’s in STEM. Robin currently serves on multiple boards as an independent director, Empower Retirement, Putnam Investments, GW Lifeco and MUFG. Tamara Lopata began her career designing and creating marketing materials for a variety of technology companies which ignited her passion for the industry. Her enthusiasm for technology led her to volunteer in the Atlanta technology community with organizations such as Women in Technology (WIT), Technology Association of Georgia (TAG), and TechBridge, a nonprofit that uses technology to expand the impact of other nonprofits. As a volunteer with these organizations, Tamara led multiple programs and developed relationships with many leaders in Atlanta’s technology community. After several years as a TechBridge volunteer, Tamara made the pivotal move to join the nonprofit to manage its marketing and subsequently its corporate relations efforts. As the Corporate Relations Manager, Tamara built meaningful relationships with CIOs and other leaders who supported TechBridge in Georgia, Alabama, and Tennessee. In 2017 Tamara had the opportunity to join the Inspire CIO Leadership Network (InspireCIO) which was just beginning its national expansion. Tamara served as Executive Director for both the GeorgiaCIO and AlabamaCIO chapters and helped kick off other chapters around the country. Serving the needs of CIOs gave her a unique perspective into the challenges they face and the importance of strong peer and partner relationships to their success.
Luke Carignan is a Talent Acquistion SaaS guru, staffing firm owner, and podcast host. Obsessed with getting better every day and learning from others.
Megan McCann is an established IT recruitment and technology services leader known for building and leading highly successful IT services […]
Ameen is currently the Chief Data and Analytics Officer at Orangetheory Fitness. Over the course of his career, he has had the opportunity to use machine learning in a variety of fields ranging from clinical research, medical imaging, data warehouse design, e-commerce, and now health and wellness. His core areas of interest shift depending on the problem he is tackling. He is currently focused on the challenges of operationalizing large volumes of data into scalable customer solutions and strategic initiatives. A core belief of his is, “Build experiences, not algorithms”, which drives his team to put forward scalable solutions with measurable impact on real world use cases.
In his free time, Ameen enjoys keeping up to date with the latest methods in Artificial Intelligence, the newest Comedy Specials on Netflix, burning his savings on expanding his Smart Home, and marching down the path of becoming bionic by quantifying himself with any and all wearable fitness tech.
Topics:
- Effectively generating more value from their analytics operations
- Strategies for efficient cloud migration
- Attracting and retaining top talent in Data and AI teams
Paul Szyarto is an Oxford University and Wharton Business School educated expert in business operations and technology and has spent the last twenty years maximizing the bottom line of more than 1000 global companies including Microsoft, Goodyear, BP, GE, United Technologies, Kellogg, Alcoa, Autoliv, Darden, Yum, and many more from the Fortune 500 list by redefining how they operate in regards to people, processes, and technologies.
He is an expert in business transformation focusing on the domains of Project/Program Management, Digital Transformation, Data Science, ERP Architecture, and Corporate Finance Optimization. In addition, he has personally supported the development of more than 20 entrepreneurial assets with cumulative revenues exceeding $350 million.
Paul is highly sought after for his speaking abilities with more than 200 events under his belt, and for his insight regarding business and digital transformation by hundreds of agencies including Fox, NBC, The NY Times, Reuters, The Inquirer, Digital Journal, Data IQ, and many more with impressions reaching millions.
Topics:
- Best practices for implementing AI strategies
- How to communicate like a leader
- Leadership through the development of trust and honesty within teams
Collecto is a curated homeware retailer and wedding registry bringing together a selection of distinctive European and Latin American brands, where each piece embraces the value of craftsmanship, heritage and design. Our selection is meant to inspire you to bring distinctiveness to your table and home—different colors, textures, materials— while combining pieces that are timeless with others that are festive and unique.
Sebastian Nemec (he/him) is a life coach, speaker and author on a mission to help LGBTQ+ people build queer wealth through entrepreneurship. To do this, he founded Coach Bastian LLC in 2021.
Sebastian Nemec served ten years in the Minnesota Army National Guard from 2011-2022. He enlisted when he was 17 years old, right after Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell was repealed. Sebastian shares his story as an openly transgender Soldier in With Honor and Integrity: Transgender Troops in their own Words, published in 2021.
Anne is passionate about the open talent economy and creating solutions for independent talent and companies. As the Founder & CEO of Elasta Jobs, Anne connects skilled HR freelancers with companies. She has also held Fortune 100 Executive roles in Talent, Operations, and Technology. Anne holds her bachelor’s degree from Boston College and master’s degree from Harvard University.
Rob Toews is a Partner at Radical Ventures, an AI-focused venture capital firm, where he leads the firm’s investment efforts in the Bay Area. Prior to joining Radical, Rob was a VC at Highland Capital Partners, where he led the firm’s AI investing. At Highland, Rob sourced and co-led investments in StackRox (acquired by Red Hat), Domino Data Lab, Eko and Idelic. Previously, he spent several years in the world of autonomous vehicles, including helping lead the Strategy team at Zoox (acquired by Amazon for $1.3 billion) and working on autonomous vehicle policy in the White House under President Obama. He started his career in management consulting at Bain & Company. Rob writes a regular column for Forbes about the big picture of artificial intelligence. Rob holds an MBA from Harvard Business School, a JD from Harvard Law School (magna cum laude), and an undergraduate degree from Stanford (Phi Beta Kappa).
Rick Carlson has been selling, managing, and training sales, recruiting and management teams for more than 30 years. The past 20 have been spent in the staffing world. Rick has held various senior-level positions at Modis, Kforce, and Corestaff Services Group. In each organization, Rick has been tasked with revitalizing struggling offices, regions, and divisions. His hands-on approach to ensuring that team members are properly trained and adequately challenged have been the catalyst to his team’s successes. Rick is the owner and founder of Harvyst Consulting Partners, a company that customizes growth solutions specifically for staffing organizations, and the Director of the TechServe Sales Management Program.
Topics:
- Rick’s journey into the staffing industry
- What staffing companies can do to enhance the candidate experience
- Reducing staff turnover with exceptional onboarding
- Biggest growth opportunity in the staffing industry in the next 5 years?
- Rick’s advice to someone looking to start a staffing agency today
Jerry Grady is the Ann Arbor Office Managing Partner for UHY LLP and board member of UHY Advisors, Inc. He has acquired a wealth of knowledge throughout his more than 35 years in public accounting. Jerry is a leading member of the firm’s National Management and Technology Consulting Services Group as well as a member of the National International Financial Reporting Standards Committee. He is also the chairperson of the firm’s National Staffing Practice that provides services to more than 200 staffing companies across the U.S.
Dror is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Velocity Career Labs ™ and the Velocity Network Foundation®. These organizations co-exist to reinvent how career records and credentials are shared across the labour market, empowering individuals, businesses and educational institutions through transformational blockchain technology. Prior to his current work, Dror served as Co-Founder and Managing Partner of AKT Solutions, one of the largest HR Tech system integrators across EMEA, working with the largest enterprises in the region to transform their HR infrastructure. Dror’s +25 years of experience in human capital management, training and workforce enablement technologies, has made him a sought-after keynote speaker on innovations in HCM processes and technology and the Future of Work.
Political Risk entrepreneur with over 15 years of experience working at the intersection between business, government and society.
Founder of PROFITAS, the leading political risk consultancy in the andean region.
Co-founder of Friendly Transfer, the award winning, peer-to-peer platform, allowing people in different countries exchange small amounts of fiat money locally, instead of making expensive international money transfers.
Holds a bachelors in economics from Universidad CatOlica (Quito), an MBA from the McCombs Business School at the University of Texas (Austin) and a MPA from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. Columnist and analyst on politics and business whose views have been published in local and international publications like El Comercio (Quito), El Nuevo Herald (Miami), El Tiempo (Bogota), The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, Forbes and others.
Megan Burke Roudebush is a compliance person, who also happens to be a networking guru. She is the founder of keepwith®, a platform, with an app expected Spring 2022, that teaches networking. Megan began her career at age 8 as a reporter and editor of the Children’s Express News Service, interviewing many notable people (including Janet Reno, Amy Tan, Bella Abzug, and Chuck Norris). She understands the importance of deliberately choosing one’s key advisors and building and maintaining strong and authentic, reciprocal relationships. She has written articles on networking topics for publications including Fast Company, Thrive, TLNT, and Law360.com. Megan has spoken to an array of global audiences about networking well. Megan enjoys volunteering, mentoring and, most of all, networking well. She prioritizes exercise and wellness. She currently lives in the Chicago suburbs and is originally from New York City. Professionally, Megan was a financial services industry leader focused on regulatory compliance. She received her BA in Peace and Conflict Studies from Bryn Mawr College and her JD/MBA from Albany Law School and Union Graduate College. She is a member of the Economic Club of Chicago, a member of the Executives’ Club of Chicago, previously served on the Guild Board at the Lyric Opera and is engaged with the Bryn Mawr College Chicago Club.
Kevin Sturge is an Independent contractor helping drive Contingent Labor strategies. Kevin gets the best out of extended workforces whilst protect a company’s brand and driving value. Kevin previously ran Cisco’s global contingent workforce covering 55,000 contractors.
Rich Wilson is a former executive at US staffing firm Allegis Group and Gartner, founder at Gigged.AI which is an ecosystem for the gig economy built on AI and blockchain technologies.
Tom Cooke is the co-founder and CEO of Spacely, a digital marketplace connecting independent workers to the aerospace industry. Tom is a U.S. Air Force Academy graduate and spent 16 of his 24 years of service in space systems development and operations. After retiring from the Air Force in 2017 he began researching open talent marketplace utilization across industries and potential applications for the aerospace industry. This led to the formation of Spacely in January 2020. In June 2020 Spacely was selected to be part of a 5 year contract effort to bring forward aerospace specific expertise to support NASA’s Open Innovation efforts through an open talent marketplace model. Spacely’s goals are to be a trusted network partner in providing access to talent for the aerospace industry and to bring forward opportunities to those who want to contribute and take part in the growing space economy.
Jon Younger is the founder of the Agile Talent Collaborative, an informal collaboration of freelance platform executives, thought leaders in the future of work space, and researchers interested in the freelance revolution. Jon sits on a number of advisory boards and is an early investor in HR tech and co-learning platforms. He co-authored five books on the future of work including Agile Talent (Harvard, 2016) HR From the Outside In (McGraw Hill, 2012), and HR Transformation (McGraw Hill, 2009). He is a contributor to Forbes, has authored many articles in HBR, Talent Quarterly, HR Management, and the Strategic HR Review, and is a well-known consultant in HR transformation. Jon is an occasional faculty member in executive education at the University of Michigan (US), the Indian School of Business (India), and the Copenhagen Business School (DK). His PhD is from the University of Toronto.
John is workforce strategy and solutions expert who has spent his career connecting people with work and connecting enterprises to the talent needed to execute their business strategy. He brings a unique blend of traditional executive leadership skills with the practical experience of being the internal agitator who develops and executes the strategies needed to remain on the forefront of a rapidly evolving industry.
John believes that the current systems that connect people with work are broken, and that radical transformation in the systems, operating models, and beliefs that form the workforce strategy of enterprises is critical to competing in our new economy.
For the past 20 years, John has been engaged by executives across the globe to help define, build, and execute their business strategy by redefining the ways that they engage talent. He leverages his broad network and deep curiosity to identify new market opportunities for startups and established enterprises.
At Kelly, John was responsible for launching the Office of the Future of Work. He balanced researching the evolving role of the organization and the barriers and opportunities related to work across four dimensions – the workforce, the workplace, technology, and social norms – with deploying the resulting products and open talent solutions both internally and externally.
John is sought out for his provocative positions and pragmatic solutions in areas related to open talent, talent supply chains, the passion economy, human agility, enterprise enablement, workforce strategy, and people analytics.
He continues to represent Kelly and the industry as Vice President of The World Employment Confederation, where he advocates for healthy labour markets globally and serves as chair of their blockchain taskforce. His commitment to public education and the importance of lifelong learning remains active through his role on the Board of the Public School Forum of North Carolina.
Amos Schwartzfarb has been the Managing Director of the Techstars Austin Accelerator since 2015. With over 70 seed-stage investments including Scalefactor, Chowbotics, Storyfit, VanRobotics, Skipper, Helpberbees, Convey, Docstation, and Allstacks. Amos has become one of the most active early-stage investors, via Techstars Austin, in all of Texas. He is the author of two books: Sell More Faster—The Ultimate Sales Playbook for Startups and Levers: The Framework for Building Repeatability into Your Business.
Topics:
- Amos’ biggest learnings as a startup founder and mentor.
- Lessons learned from running 6 Techstars programs and investing in over 90 companies.
- Startups’ biggest mistakes when looking to implement repeatability into the business.
- The importance of the W3 framework and what most startups get wrong.
- Amos’ perspective on Austin’s booming startup ecosystem.
Notes:
Levers: The Framework for Building Repeatability into Your Business
Alexis Espinosa, MS, RT(R), ARDMS currently serves as Chief Operating Officer of Cleveland Clinic Weston. Alex received his Master’s Degree from Barry University in 2009 and has 26 years of experience working in the medical field. He joined Cleveland Clinic Florida in 2000 and worked as Director of Radiology for eleven years. He then served as Senior Director of Hospital Operations and Administrator of the Center for Hospital Specialties for five years overseeing the clinical departments of Emergency Medicine, Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Imaging, and Anesthesiology. In January of 2019, Mr. Espinosa was named Chief Operating Officer of Cleveland Clinic Weston. In his new role, he is responsible for the planning and direction of operations for all of Cleveland Clinic Florida’s Broward and Palm Beach facilities, including the Weston campus hospital. Alex is currently a member of the American College of Healthcare Executive, the Rotary Club and serves as a Board Member for the YMCA of South Florida and the Weston Park of Commerce.
Ajay invests in seed and Series A business software and has spent the bulk of his career building and investing in software companies. Prior to Bain Capital Ventures, Ajay led product and sales as an early employee at Trilogy, an enterprise software pioneer, growing annual revenues to $300 million.
Ajay’s primary investment themes include front-office applications (Clari, Gainsight, Reprise), digital commerce enablement (Bloomreach, ShipBob, Kiva Systems), bottom-up and developer led software (Clockwise, Sendgrid), supply chain and industrial automation (FourKites, ShipBob, Vention), and the intersection of application software and fintech (Airbase, Argyle, Homebase). Through his time at BCV, Ajay has been named multiple times to the Forbes Midas List of Top 100 Venture Capitalists.
Ajay has a Bachelor of Science in electrical engineering from Stanford University and a Master of Business Administration from Harvard Business School. In addition to his firm and portfolio company responsibilities, Ajay serves as a National Board Member for BUILD, a not-for-profit dedicated to harnessing the power of entrepreneurship to ignite the potential of underprivileged youth.
Ajay grew up in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and is a die-hard Steelers fan. In addition to technology, Ajay enjoys literary fiction, playing tennis, and spending time with his family.
Alistair Russell is CTO and co-founder of Tray.io. A graduate of the University of Southampton, he collaborated with computer scientist Sir Tim Berners-Lee on Semantic Web UX research as part of the Web Science Research Initiative. Ali co-founded Tray.io because he saw there was a shortage of the software engineering skills that modern companies need to scale in a world overrun by SaaS. Making the creation of software more accessible to business professionals has been a key tenet of his career.
Tray.io is low-code automation for everyone. The Tray.io General Automation Platform democratizes automation and integration so anyone can easily turn their unique business processes into repeatable and scalable workflows that evolve whenever business needs change.
Topics:
- Allistair’s journey to Tray.io
- Biggest lessons in co-founding and building Tray.io
- Allistair’s advice if you are looking to learn low-code automation implementation today
- How enterprises can leverage low-code tools to reskill employees and enable them to innovate business processes
Kim leads Cobalt Compass Solutions, which provides consulting and training services for the staffing industry. Training programs encompass the full […]
Daphne E. Jones is a seasoned executive with extensive experience transforming business processes and implementing digital technologies to drive market […]
Rebecca Macieira-Kaufmann is a seasoned CEO and veteran Fortune 50 Global Executive. She draws on deep expertise in the financial services industry and has a demonstrated track record of leading highly successful business turnarounds, scaling new businesses, and expanding operations globally.
She is the founding member of the RMK Group, LLC, an advisory and consulting service focused on fintech, digital currency and payment systems, which was formed in June 2020. Rebecca is a frequently sought-after speaker on leadership and business transformation, life and work integration, culture change, and building high-performing teams. She recently wrote a book, FitCEO: Be The Leader of Your Life, about achieving holistic health– at work, home and play.
Topics:
- Rebecca’s four-pronged approach to business culture
- Recommendations to overcoming risks faced by startups that are looking to scale
- Top attributes to look for when building high-performing C-level teams
Danny Morrow is the CTO & Co-Founder of Extend, the fintech modernizing the payments industry from the inside out. Extend provides digital payment infrastructure for trusted financial institutions to enable modern card experiences. Leading banks, businesses, and other innovators can use the platform to access the full power of virtual cards for their business, products, and clients.
Topics:
- Lessons learned from transitioning to fully remote teams during the pandemic
- How Extend positioned themselves to take advantage of the biggest FinTech trends
- Innovative ways for maximize existing resources to gain a competitive advantage
Henry Schuck is the founder and CEO of ZoomInfo, (NASDAQ:ZI) a Go-To-Market Intelligence Solution for more than 20,000 companies worldwide. The ZoomInfo platform empowers business-to-business sales, marketing, and recruiting professionals to hit their number by pairing best-in-class technology with unrivaled data coverage, accuracy, and depth of company and contact information. With integrations embedded into workflows and technology stacks, including the leading CRM, Sales Engagement, Marketing Automation, and Talent Management applications, ZoomInfo drives more predictable, accelerated, and sustainable growth for its customers. ZoomInfo emphasizes GDPR and CCPA compliance.
Topics:
- How ZoomInfo is helping businesses (both large and small) modernize their sales, recruiting, and marketing motions
- Why data and automation are more important than ever in the pandemic and post-pandemic sales environment
- How the company has successfully doubled its workforce during the pandemic and onboarded new employees remotely
- Zoominfo’s impact on businesses impacted by the pandemic
Being the chief talent officer at a talent-focused firm might sound like a challenge, but our CTO, Kaleen Robinson, has […]
Art Papas is the Founder and CEO of Bullhorn, Inc., the global leader in software for the staffing & recruitment industry. Art was the original architect of Bullhorn’s flagship Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system, which now helps more than 10,000 companies around the world run their businesses. In 2014, Ernst & Young named Art an EY Entrepreneur of the Year Award Winner in New England. Prior to starting Bullhorn, Art started his career as a software engineer at Thomson Reuters. Art is a graduate of Tufts University, holding a Bachelor of Science degree in Mathematics. Art currently serves on the Tufts Computer Science External Advisory Board
Fatimah Abbouchi is the Founder and CEO of Agile Management Office®; a thought-leader providing governance solutions for organisations to manage and govern projects in the agile era. Fatimah is also founder of Return of the Panda®, a not for profit focused on improving the mental health of the millions of anxiety sufferers worldwide. As a successful businesswoman, Fatimah has been supporting businesses from start-ups to enterprise internationally for the past 18 years as an advisor, educator, and award-winning thought leader.
A writer, speaker and host of the ‘Agile Ideas®’ podcast, Fatimah has appeared in The Age, UK Business Telegraph, PM Review Magazine China, Business Chick’s ‘Latte Magazine’ and featured on CIO.com.au. Fatimah has been invited to speak at dozens of events globally. She is also a guest lecturer at Aarhus University in Denmark in the International Project Management Programs and acts as a Corporate Governance Advisor to them.
Personally, Fatimah is passionate about supporting those in the community with anxiety and depression through beyondblue; having spoken at 45 events aimed at raising awareness, reducing stigma, and encouraging others to similarly get involved.
Topics:
- New trends that will heavily impact Project Management
- Collaboration techniques between Project Managers and Product teams
-
Strategies for dealing with difficult stakeholders
-
www.agilemanagementoffice.com
- www.returnofthepanda.org
Kelly is the Head of MSP at Real Staffing, an SThree company, managing partnership strategy with the world’s best and largest Managed Services Providers around the world. She works with a dedicated team of recruiters, account managers and leaders to deliver best in class results in programs.
She is a 25 year veteran of the staffing industry and began her career leading sales and recruiting teams across North America, working with top Fortune 500 brands.
Kelly is active in the staffing industry, including the American Staffing Association (ASA) and Staffing Industry Analysts (SIA). She is particularly passionate about supporting women in the industry. Kelly is the Chair for the Women in Leadership Council for the American Staffing Association, and also mentors women in staffing through the ASA Mentoring program.
She has been recognized for the past three years by Staffing Industry Analysts on the Global Power 150 Most Influential Women in Staffing. She was recently named one of Pride Global’s Trailblazing Women for promoting Diversity, Equity and Inclusion and advancing opportunities for women.
Kelly recently co-authored a book, “Together We Rise” with several iconic women leaders in our industry.
Alfonso Dager is an IT Manager of the Development-Security-Operations (DevSecOps) team at FedEx Express’ Latin-America and Caribbean Division based in Miami, Florida. In this role, he leads a team to implement modern technologies, processes and culture change to enable IT development teams to work with greater efficiency while promoting greater visibility and fewer obstacles to promote software changes to end-users. In 2016, Alfonso received the Professional Engineering in Software license from the State of Florida. He graduated with a Master’s in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Georgia Tech in 2009 and from the University of Miami with a Bachelor’s in Computer Engineering in 2007. As a volunteer with the University of Miami, he has served as President of the College of Engineering Alumni Association from 2011 to 2014, uShadow Mentor and member of the Young Alumni Leadership Council. He is a married father of three ranging from 17, 14 and 1 years old. He is also a avid pig roaster and tailgater.
Jason Wilk is the co-founder and CEO of Dave. Born and raised in Los Angeles, Jason is a lifelong entrepreneur who’s always had a passion for building products that help solve problems for everyday hard working Americans. Currently, founder and CEO of Dave, a leading challenger bank focused on lifting the collective potential of America. The company has amassed 10 million users with its innovative checking account that was first to market in 2017 with fee-free overdraft, credit building, expense predictions and a gig-economy focused job board. As CEO, Jason sets the vision and product strategy for the 200+ person company. Dave is the #1 Forbes ranked startup employer in LA, a member of the CNBC Disruptor 50, Forbes Fintech 50 list and the #5 fastest growing company on the 2021 Inc 5000 list. Jason was also named 2020 entrepreneur of the year in Los Angeles by EY.
Theresa Sloan has fostered a decades-long and healthy career in high-level personnel recruitment. She is a consummate leader in the […]
Kelly is the Head of MSP at Real Staffing, an SThree company, managing partnership strategy with the world’s best and […]
Katrina Collier is on a mission to end the collaboration chaos that ruins recruitment and candidate experience; exacerbated by hybrid working. Her inclusive workshops help companies fix the real issues preventing successful talent acquisition, and her unique shared-learning Mastermind program develops the skills HR & recruiters need to partner effectively with the business and candidates. She is also a Mentor, Author of The Robot-Proof Recruiter, a global keynote speaker, and host of The Hiring Partner Perspective (Unedited) podcast.
Katrina is an Ambassador for Hope for Justice charity, and you’ll find her on LinkedIn and on Instagram & Twitter @KatrinaMCollier.
Founder and president of Excellius Leadership Development, an organization focused on coaching mid to senior-level leaders and their teams in business environments. With over 25 years of innovative leadership and management experience, Ed possesses the ability to build awareness, create action, and deliver results. He is known for his business acumen and his ability to resolve complex human relations issues, and his enthusiastic, accessible and responsive style. Ed partners with managers and leaders in business teams to explore clarity and communication and traverse conflict and change. And today, Ed and I are going to be talking about how you can drive your career.
Ed Evarts is the founder and president of Excellius Leadership Development, a Boston-based coaching organization. He works with successful leaders to increase their self-awareness so they can manage themselves more productively; with successful teams to ensure their time together is as productive as possible; and with smaller organizations, at a pivot point in their evolution, to help them plan strategically and purposefully.
Ed is also the author of “Raise Your Visibility & Value: Uncover the Lost Art of Connecting on the Job” and the host of Be Brave@Work, a weekly podcast in which leaders share stories about bravery—or the lack of it—in their careers, and the impact their choices have had on their career progression.
Topics:
- Ed’s journey into leadership coaching.
- Why do we need to take responsibility for our own careers
- The importance of soft skills like curiosity, empathy, and active listening
- Aligning communication styles and expectations with your boss
- Self-awareness as the key to unlocking a successful career
Go-giving entrepreneur who uses the world as inspiration for community innovation. Born to Jamaican parents who migrated to the United States, Jeanine prides herself on being a global citizen who speaks three languages, dances salsa and samba, and has shared meals with strangers in nearly 20 countries. She lives by the credo, “Always give more in value than you receive in payment,” and trusts that genuine relationship-building and persistence are the keys to success.
- Topics:
- Recommendations on how minorities can access VC funding
- Attributes of an effective pitch deck
- Alternative avenues for founders to obtain funding
Andrew is a Founding Partner of GrowthX. He has been in the technology sector since 1998, based in New York City, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Palo Alto. Andrew began his career in technology as a lawyer for the early Internet pioneers in Search (Alta Vista and Yahoo), AdTech (DoubleClick), SaaS (Salesforce) and others while practicing law. He left private practice at Skadden Arps to join DoubleClick leading up to the Google acquisition and then co-founded a financial news business at Thomson Financial leading to the Reuters acquisition. He then served as Publisher of Reuters News and then Co-Founder and Managing Director of the company’s legal media business in Asia Pacific and the Middle East.
In Silicon Valley, Andrew was early at Guidespark, an employee communication SaaS startup, and BrightTalk, a content marketing SaaS startup. He then co-founded GoodMoney to democratize high-performance, values-based investing. During that “wonderful learning opportunity,” Andrew met his current partners and co-founded GrowthX.
Andrew is a Kauffman Fellow, Regional Board Member of Venture for America, and a Mentor at Endeavor, Alchemist Accelerator and Galvanize. Andrew teaches Venture Capital at Vanderbilt’s Owen Graduate School of Management. Andrew received his undergraduate degree from the University of Cincinnati and his law degree from Georgetown University.
Hans started working at Bertelsmann after graduating from Stanford. Has led different publishing business within Bertelsmann in Germany, France and Spain. In 2000, he founded Cocomore together with Bertelsmann. Cocomore is a full-service digital agency realizing digital projects for clients like Nestlé, Samsung, P&G or Sanofi. Today, Cocomore is one of the few remaining independent digital agencies and has around 250 employees. Next to the Cocomore business, Hans has built up several start-ups of which the last one, Kairion, was sold to the TV media conglomerate ProSiebenSat1. Vicoland is the youngest incubation of Cocomore and the first one operating in the same business field as its mother agency. At Vicoland, he currently focuses on setting the strategic direction for sustainable growth of the company.
After graduating from business school, Niklas worked in a digital agency in Munich learning the fundamentals of how digital professional services projects are realized. He was mainly focusing on advising clients on digital transaction projects and digital execution strategies setting them up for growth. As he experienced the talent shortage problems typical for the agency industry at Ommax, he realized the potential of the Vicoland product and joined the team to build up the business development department. Niklas mainly focuses on shaping the go-to-market strategy for Vicoland and scaling profitable sales verticals. In addition, he oversees the implementation of processes ensuring a smooth hand-in-hand flow between the Vicoland technology and human service.
Frank Cespedes teaches at Harvard Business School and for 12 years was Managing Partner at a professional services firm. He has worked with many companies on go-to-market and strategy issues, and has been a Board member at consumer goods, industrial products, and services firms. He has written for numerous publications including Harvard Business Review, European Business Review, Organization Science, and The Wall Street Journal; and he is the author of six books including Aligning Strategy and Sales which was cited as “the best sales book of the year” (Strategy & Business), “a must read” (Gartner), and “perhaps the best sales book ever” (Forbes). His newest book is Sales Management That Works: How to Sell in a World That Never Stops Changing (Harvard Business Review Press, 2021).
Dave Nerz is the president of the NPAworldwide Recruitment Network. He has served as the leader of this 65-year-old member-owned cooperative since 2006. The network facilitates split fee recruiting for the independent recruitment firms it counts as members. Under his leadership the membership has grown as large as 575 members and annual shared revenues have exceeded $8,000,000 in fees. The membership of NPAworldwide is currently comprised of member firms on six continents and more than 42 different countries.
Dave has been a speaker and presenter at numerous recruitment focused events including the Recruitment Agency Expo in London, the National Association of Personnel Services (NAPS) Annual Conference in the US, and most recently at NPAworldwide conferences on 5 continents including events in Dublin-Ireland, Melbourne-Australia, Beijing-China, Sao Paulo-Brazil, and Las Vegas-US.
Mr. Nerz is a graduate of the University of Pittsburgh, has served previously as a volunteer on the Board of Directors for the National Association of Personnel Services, was the NAPS Chairman’s Award winner in 2009 and 2013 and holds a credential from NAPS as a Certified Personnel Consultant (CPC)
Mendy Yang is an investor at Lerer Hippeau, an early stage venture capital firm based in NYC. At LH, Mendy focuses on B2B software investments and is particularly interested in future of work, fintech, digital health and other verticalized SaaS of all kinds. Prior to joining LH, she was an early stage VC at Soma Capital in San Francisco. She also spent 4 years at Vista Equity Partners, where she began her investing career and discovered her fascination with software technology. Mendy enjoys adventures across the world, wineries & breweries, international cuisines and outdoor excursions.
Doug Dandurand is the current President of TalentLaunch, a nationwide network of independently-operated staffing and recruitment firms under common ownership. […]
Morgan Borer is a Partner at Bevel, leading communications consultancy driving quantifiable results for clients in finance, tech, venture capital, consumer brands, entertainment and more. Bevel works with category-leading brands across sectors, with a business model that combines the power of influential storytelling with the analytical mindset of a start-up.
As the first employee at Bevel when the firm launched in March 2017, she helped grow the firm from two to 25+ employees alongside Bevel’s founder and Executive Chairwoman, Jessica Schaefer, former Head of Communications for Steve Cohen’s Point72. Morgan helped to open the firm’s first office in downtown New York City and later, a second in Santa Monica.
Since inception, she’s helped grow the firm’s client base from three to nearly 40 unique brands, including Acorns, Dave.com, Yieldstreet, Greycroft, Rally, Rho Business Bank, Torch Capital, Avid Ventures and more.
Topics:
- Challenges faced by PR companies during the pandemic
- Risks associated with companies rebranding their name
- PR roles in handling responses to corporate crises
Frederik Mijnhardt is the CEO of Secfi and a member of the Board of Directors. Prior to Secfi, he was the Corporate Development Lead at Karhoo, and a Strategy Consultant for digital transformation projects for Accenture’s Global Strategy division.
As founder of the UUBC start-up incubator, he was awarded the Google Internet Impact Award for groundbreaking research into the intersection of business and technology. He has deep expertise in start-ups, innovation, private equity, corporate strategy, business development, engineering, and product.
Topics:
- Exercising equity options prior to an exit
- Challenges facing financial regulators when dealing with FinTech companies
- Potential impacts of digital currencies on future equity grants
Founded in 1994, Peak Performers employs skilled and dedicated people in administrative, professional, accounting, and information technology jobs. Peak recruits […]
Keith Smith is the co-Founder and CEO of Payability. He originally hails from the Pacific Northwest and now calls New York City home. Keith spent the initial few years of his career working as an analyst at a few financial institutions before founding CyberMortgage and then Zango. He was most recently co-Founder and CEO of BigDoor, which provides loyalty programs to large consumer brands, including; NFL, MLB, CBS, Viacom, and Starbucks. A successful entrepreneur, Keith regularly lends his time to early-stage startups via TechStars and also serves as an advisor, investor, and board member for multiple tech startups.
Topics:
- Overcoming risks and barriers for startups
- New trends that will dominate the FinTech industry
- The role of empathy in company leadership
Edward Sullivan is the CEO of Velocity Group and throughout his 20 year career, he has coached and advised start-up founders, Fortune 500 executives, and political leaders.
His client list includes leaders from AirTable, Bombas, Clear, DoorDash, Google, Harry’s, Hinge, MasterClass, Polaroid, and many others. Edward helps Startup CEOs and their executive teams scale their leadership skills and build cultures of collaboration, high performance, and psychological safety.
Topics:
- How executive leaders can develop skills for exerting positive influence
- Differences in leadership styles between political leaders and corporate leaders
- Attributes to look for before investing in startups
Maxat Kadyrov is a Senior Software Engineer at Linkedin and founder of oneunion.io. Maxat has been 10 years in the industry working in big and small companies as well as startups. One of the startups he worked on was awarded as “Most Social Impact”. Maxat is actively sharing his tech knowledge in social networks and also mentoring young folks on how to land a dream job in Silicon Valley.
As a successful manager in Big Box Retail for many years Naomi Mosley was starting to experience challenging times. Naomi […]
Kai is an Analyst at Primary and is a native of The Bronx. Kai focuses on investing in enterprise technology across all industries.
Previously Kai has program-managed the Blackstone Launchpad in partnership with Techstars and Future Founders; interned at Alphabet’s independent growth fund CapitalG; founded an incubator at Tsinghua University in Beijing as a Schwarzman Scholar; and founded an entrepreneurship program at Williams College.
Most recently, he was a Financial Rotational Program Analyst at Microsoft, where he aided in maintaining financial models related to Microsoft’s carbon tax revenues, carbon offset portfolio, and venture capital arm (M12). As a lover of Latin dancing, Kai spends his free time learning every form of Latino and Afro-Latino dance, from Colombian and Cuban Salsa to Angolan Kizomba.
Amanda Eisel has focused the last 20 years of her career at the intersection of healthcare and technology. She has been deeply involved in creating and scaling multiple growth technology companies including Waystar, Applied Systems, and Viewpoint. Amanda has been a member of the Zelis team since 2019, playing a leadership role across Zelis’ growth, operational and talent strategies. Amanda started her career at McKinsey & Company, where she spent nearly a decade advising consumer companies. Prior to Zelis, Amanda was an Operating Partner at Bain Capital focused on technology and healthcare IT companies.
Amanda is a member of the Board of Directors of two non-profit organizations, Youth Villages of Massachusetts and New Hampshire and Make-A-Wish Foundation of Massachusetts and Rhode Island. She is also on the Board of Directors of Rocket Software. She has a Bachelor of Science in Commerce from the University of Virginia and a Master of Business Administration from Harvard Business School.
Topics:
- What sets Zelis apart from other similar organizations
- Amanda’s leadership lessons going from consultant to CEO of Zelis
- Amanda’s recommendations to improve the overall US Healthcare system
- Biggest trends shaping the Healthcare industry
- Amanda’s advice to women looking to step into a leadership role
A leading authority on workforce solutions worldwide, Barry Asin is renowned for his expertise in staffing and contingent labor. President of Staffing Industry Analysts (SIA) since 2010, Asin holds overall responsibility for the company’s strategy, operations, and growth on a global basis. He has been with the company since 2003, where he previously held the position of Chief Analyst, leading the team responsible for SIA’s award-winning research and content.
Asin is the co-author of Breaking Through: Leadership Disciplines from Top Performing Staffing Firms and is a frequent speaker at industry events, sharing essential insights on leadership and the challenges, opportunities, and rapid transformations around work today. He is quoted in major business and industry publications, including the New York Times, BusinessWeek, Inc. Magazine, The Atlantic, Bloomberg Business, CNBC, Marketplace, USA Today and MarketWatch among others.
Prior to joining SIA, Asin spent nearly 12 years as a senior executive at global staffing leader Adecco SA. Before Adecco, he held operations management positions with PepsiCo, and he began his professional career with Andersen Consulting, the predecessor of Accenture. He holds an M.B.A. from Harvard University and a B.S. in engineering from Princeton University.
Topics:
- Barry’s journey into the staffing industry and SIA.
- Barry’s advice on leveraging the contingent workforce trend as an opportunity for growth.
- Practical insights for staffing firm owners from Barry’s book Breaking Through: Leadership Disciplines from Top Performing Staffing Firms.
- The impact of technology and digital disruption in the staffing industry.
- Common mistakes when implementing a contingent workforce program.
Elizabeth is the Director of Strategic Partnerships at Empire Office, the largest commercial furniture dealer in the world delivering workspace solutions to activate brands.
In her role, Elizabeth works closely with regional leadership to strengthen relationships with key partners in the South Florida area. Having previously worked on both the dealer and manufacturing sides of the industry, Elizabeth has extensive experience in strategic sales, product positioning, contract negotiations, change management, and network development. She has also served on the IIDA South Florida board for over five years and is actively involved in many design and construction organizations throughout the tri-county area.
Elizabeth is also the co-host for the Infinite Attraction podcast, where she helps you uncover and navigate everything happening with MiamiTech.
Topics:
- Elizabeth’s journey into an interior design career and the MiamiTech ecosystem.
- Designing physical spaces for the future of work.
- Learning to adapt and reinvent yourself as a future-proof skill.
- Elizabeth’s recommendations if you are planning the move to Miami.
- Miami’s “How Can I Help?” new way of doing business.
Mark Roberts is CEO of TechServe Alliance, the national trade association serving IT and engineering staffing and solutions firms. Roberts is a noted authority and spokesperson on industry trends. Under his leadership since 2003, the organization has expanded significantly moving beyond traditional association offerings creating multiple innovative programs designed to drive member firm growth and profitability. From its unique member-owned insurance program, account executive and recruiter certification, Excellence Awards, to contract and compliance assistance hotline and sales and recruiter management programs, Roberts has led the organization through its transformation.
Before joining TechServe Alliance, Mr. Roberts was a partner in the Labor and Employment Group of a major law firm and served four years on Capitol Hill. He earned his undergraduate degree from Haverford College and his law degree with distinction from Emory University. Mr. Roberts currently serves as a member of the Labor Relations Committee of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. He has been repeatedly named to the Staffing Industry 100 List and is a member of the Hall of Fame.
Topics:
- Mark’s journey into the IT staffing industry and Techserve’s leadership.
- What staffing firms can do to address the talent gap and mitigate risks associated with it.
- The importance of partnerships to grow and scale your staffing firm.
- The impact of remote work on talent diversity.
- Considerations when looking to implement an offshoring and nearshoring strategy.
Jeff has more than 25 years experience in human resources. He has worked at companies that specialize in manufacturing, construction, […]
Stephen helps creative agencies and growing organizations find talented professionals. He founded Counterpoint Solutions in 2017 to help candidates and […]
Brian McGuire is an EVP and Managing Director of TalentBelt. TalentBelt is a Direct Sourcing advisory firm that assists Fortune […]
Sam Palazzolo is the Founder/Managing Director at Tip of the Spear Ventures, a Private Equity firm that provides early-stage Entrepreneurs with venture capital, has a holding portfolio from Mergers & Acquisitions, and conducts Business Funding services. During Sam’s time at Tip, he and his team built the organization into one of Venture Capital’s favorite firms, a sustainable leader, and an innovation early-adopter, dramatically increasing customer satisfaction and growing financial results for the companies they help grow. His greatest achievement, however, may have been to make himself a better leader: he decided to work on his leadership skills relentlessly, and grow the next generation of leaders. Sam’s purpose in life is to make a positive difference on people around him and use the platform he has to make a positive difference in the world. In addition to serving on several board of directors, he spends time as an Adjunct Professor at the University of Nevada Las Vegas and supporting other leaders seeking to become the best versions of themselves and to lead with purpose and humanity at the Javelin Institute, a 501(c)(3) he founded. He is also actively invested in efforts to advance meaningful diversity and inclusion.
As a CEO and Design Director, the work he does is not only a mission; it’s personal. Finding that harmony makes each project a learning process that starts with listening and building an empathetic understanding of every stakeholder’s needs. For 25 years, his forward-looking entrepreneurship and dedication to design excellence has contributed to over 40 patented and award-winning innovations in robotics, marine, medical, military, industrial, and powersports markets. It has also led his design teams to work all over the world, including Capitol Hill, where he has shared his commitment to creating innovation that can impact the quality of life for those afflicted by the opioid epidemic. Today, he has come to appreciate the personal side of design leadership that stems from building relationships to make a real difference in the world.
As the Executive Vice President and Managing Director at Resource 1, Anastasia is responsible for technical recruiting, technical infrastructure, marketing and human resources initiatives. With over 20 years at Resource 1, she is on the Board of Directors involved in the overall strategic planning and implementation of long and short-term goals. Over the last 25 years, Anastasia has assisted global organizations in developing leading edge technology through identifying and positioning talent. Anastasia also provides human resources consulting services for several Resource 1 clients, which encompass strategic management, IT workforce planning/employment, human resources development, compensation/benefits, and employee relations.
Anastasia is a two-time recipient of the Staffing Industry Analysts “Hackathon” award, featured technology panelist for StaffingTec, finalist for “Technical Innovation” award from Bullhorn, and featured in “Woman in Staffing” spotlight from ClearEdge Marketing.
Margaret Meloni, MBA, PhD is the pmStudent.com community leader. pmStudent.com is devoted to helping Project Managers successfully navigate the art and science of project management.
Her background in IT Project Management and PMO Leadership, which enables Margaret to understand the challenges PMs face in managing projects. A recipient of the UCLA Extension Distinguished Instructors award, her wish is to see her students take on tough projects and emerge as strong and sought-after Project Managers.
Topics:
- How project management has transformed over the last decade
- Impacts to stakeholder management for co-located teams
- Latest PM trends that can make new Project Managers successful from Day 1
Walt Carter has over thirty years in technology leadership roles. He is adept at working through complex business challenges and has successfully implemented enterprise-wide packaged software solutions in several fast-paced technical environments. Walt and his teams delivered enabling technology upgrades for a national mortgage company to drive 205% growth in origination volume in just two years. His teams have received accolades from the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, Kiplinger’s, Bloomberg and MarketWatch for innovative use of technology in Financial Services firms.
With and undergraduate degree in Physics, Walt started his career as a technical officer in the US Air Force serving in the nuclear missile arena and Cold War command posts. He’s won awards for his leadership on a $100 million transformation at a major airline and he was named Georgia Corporate CIO of the Year in 2014 by the Georgia CIO Leadership Association for his ground-breaking work at Generation Mortgage. Most recently he was selected as a member of the 2020 Constellation Research Business Transformation 150.
A polished speaker, Walt frequently provides compelling keynotes on change leadership.
Archana Subramanian, celebrating her tenth year at Salesforce this year, serves as the COO for the Australia/New Zealand and ASEAN regions.
Prior to this served as the COO to the AMER Verticals and Marketing Cloud Operating Units leading the Sales Strategy and Sales Development teams. Over the past decade she has had tremendous impact on the North America business leading teams through multiple complex go to market transformations.
Born and raised in India she has spent the last 14 years in the United States, and has recently moved to Sydney, Australia with her husband and two girls (Aria, 8 and Jia, 5 years old) and their dog Kulfi.
Winter Mead has worked in financial services for a decade investing approximately $900 million across 80 private equity and venture capital firms as a Limited Partner, specializing in venture capital. Currently he is CEO and Co-founder at Oper8r, a cohort-based training program for emerging VCs. Before becoming an investor, Winter Mead worked in the technology world at three different angel and venture capital financed start-ups. Winter has also been involved with two leading industry organizations, National Venture Capital Association (NVCA) and Institutional Limited Partners Association (ILPA), and in his spare time helps teach a course at Stanford University focused on entrepreneurship and venture capital. He is also a Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst, which is a professional designation for those specializing in alternative investments, such as venture capital. Winter is the author of How To Raise A Venture Capital Fund: The Essential Guide On Fundraising And Understanding Limited Partners.
Steve O’Brien serves as President, Staffing at Job.com and and specializes in global high volume Talent Acquisition and artificial intelligence for Talent Acquisition processes. Steve has lead global recruitment for multiple fortune 100 organizations, delivering over 50,000 specialized hires a year. He additionally holds several patents for his work in the areas of machine learning for recruitment.
Prior to joining Job.com, Steve served as Vice President of Talent Fusion with digital recruitment leader Monster.com and has over fifteen years of diversified recruitment experience. He began his career in agency search, boutique retained projects and global Recruitment Process Outsourcing before selecting the interection of technology and talent acquisition as his focus.
Steve holds a Bachelor’s degree in Philosophy from The Pennsylvania State University.
With more than 15 years of experience in the Latin American financial markets, Felipe is currently based in Miami, leading the strategic business development of the StoneX Wealth Management franchise, through the research for and management of portfolios of high and ultra-high net worth individuals and family offices. Prior to joining StoneX in early 2020, Felipe spent 14 years at BTG Pactual, an innovative global financial firm operating as a meritocratic partnership. Felipe held several different positions at BTG Pactual, ranging from legal counsel in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, to Head of Investor Relations in New York and, finally, Global Investor for the Private Wealth Management business in Miami. During his tenure at BTG Pactual, he learned to appreciate, value and strive for implementing a true run the extra mile, hard work and meritocratic approaches to all-things in life.
Born in Brazil, Felipe is not only a proud Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro (UERJ) Law School graduate but also (and in spite of being a lawyer) a CFA charterholder.
When not working, you can find him with his wife and Chief (his golden retriever best four legged family member), or probably just playing tennis or enjoying some outdoor sport. Perhaps Felipe’s greatest joy is to inspire people to achieve their fullest potential and to believe that anything is possible, provided you are committed to setting it as your true priority. Tipping points can and do happen, but as the great NAVY SEAL quote teaches us “you don’t rise to the occasion, you sink to the level of your training”, so you better focus and give your best every single day.
Ray has over 25 years of experience in the contingent workforce industry. He is a recognized expert on all aspects of the business, including temp, contract, direct-hire, HR technology, and RPO/MSP software solutions. His extensive knowledge includes designing go-to-market and talent acquisition strategies across multiple channels as well as managing both sales and operations on a global level.
Topics:
- Ray’s journey into the contingent workforce ecosystem.
- Biggest changes in contingent workforce management.
- When to hire contingent workers.
- Challenges with implementing a contingent workforce program and how to mitigate them.
- Disrupting trends in HR and Contingent Workforce management.
Ashley Martis is a startup ecosystem expert and super connector. He is a startup valuation expert by education, and is a startup founder and VC venture partner. His mission is to make the startup ecosystem more efficient for every organization involved. He has spent the last 9 years attending 750+ networking events in 30+ cities around the world studying and learning how the global startup ecosystem can better interact and do business with each other. He has a strong passion in impact, and is a huge advocate of removing Human Bias in VC to support diversity, sustainability, and community.
Braughm is the founder and Chief Executive Officer at Aduro Advisors. As founder and CEO, Braughm drives the company direction and builds critical relationships with Aduro’s clients, investors, and other industry service providers. With twenty years of financial experience in the venture capital industry, Braughm brings his knowledge and operational prowess to Aduro Advisors. He maintains close relationships and lends financial and operational support to Aduro Advisors’ clients, having worked extensively with early-stage Venture firms throughout his career. Prior to founding Aduro Advisors, Braughm was a founding member and CFO of True Ventures. He was the Controller at 5AM Ventures, and served as an Interim Chief Financial Officer to several True Ventures portfolio companies including about.me and GigaOM. He began his career in venture capital in 1999 and was the Controller at Sofinnova Ventures. Before working in the venture industry, he was an Accounting Analyst at Fidelity Investments. Braughm holds his B.S. degree in Accounting from Plymouth State University.
Adam Hadi is the VP of Marketing at Current, a leading U.S. financial technology platform serving Americans working to create a better future for themselves. Prior to leading marketing at Current, he was VP of Marketing at Quidd (acquired by Animoca), head of marketing at DRAFT (acquired by Paddy Power Betfair) and led user acquisition at Topps Digital after spending several years as an economist for the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Josh Stephens is the VP of Product at Current, a leading U.S. a leading U.S. financial technology platform serving Americans working to create a better future for themselves. Prior to joining Current, Josh served as a product manager and product lead at various companies, including Zynga. He joined Current in 2016 to lead product, helping the company grow into a multi-product fintech focused on solving problems of faster and better access to money and improving financial outcomes.
Tom McDonald has over 25 years of broad business experience including business development, operations, client management, finance, accounting, business startups, and market development. He has extensive experience in small, mid-market, and large brand-name organizations covering a wide variety of industries. Over the years, Tom has cultivated a large professional network in local and national business communities. Tom has been called the “Networking Ninja” with a knack for knowing who to connect people to for mutual benefit. He holds a B.S. in Management from the University At Buffalo, and an MBA from the University of North Florida.
Deb Cupp is President of Microsoft US, a $47 billion subsidiary responsible for delivering the full product and services portfolio of Microsoft to all customers based in the United States. The US subsidiary is Microsoft’s largest regional operating unit, managing over 11,000 customers and 900 partners. Deb is responsible for the sales strategy, execution, and revenue growth for the Microsoft US business which spans enterprise, public sector, small and medium businesses, services, and partner communities. She leads a 10,000-person team pursuing Microsoft’s mission to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more.
Prior to her current role, Deb was Corporate Vice President of WW Enterprise and Commercial Industries. She was responsible for the development and execution of Microsoft’s strategy and go-to-market approach with enterprise customers across seven commercial industries: Automotive, Energy, Financial Services, Healthcare, Manufacturing, Media & Communications, and Retail & Consumer Goods. Deb led a team accountable for driving the industry point of view through both product development and customer delivery in both strategic and scale motions.
During her tenure, Microsoft launched the first Industry Cloud for Healthcare in October 2020. This was followed by the announcement of additional Industry clouds in February 2021 when Microsoft shared their continued commitment to expand industry investments.
Deb also serves on the Board of Directors for Avanade, the leading provider of innovative digital and cloud services, business solutions, and design-led experiences on the Microsoft ecosystem.
Balazs is a Sourcing Leader, Keynote Speaker and Talent Acquisition Strategist. Since 2020 he’s leading a boutique Sourcing Advisory Agency […]
Peter N. Tannenbaum has dedicated over thirty years to the executive search field and founded Ramax Search, Inc. in 1991. As a unique recruiting firm specializing in the placement of high caliber business leaders and professionals primarily to the financial services community, Ramax Search, Inc. has continued to deliver efficient results to clients including the world’s largest companies to medium-sized businesses and entrepreneurial start-ups. Peter’s expertise encompasses hedge funds, private equity firms, RIAs, Investment Partnerships, Broker Dealers, and all segments within the banking community. Ramax Search ascribes to ethical standards which focus on: professionalism, integrity, competence, objectivity, accuracy, avoidance of conflicts of interest, confidentiality, loyalty to the client and candidate, equal opportunity, and the public interest. Ramax Search, Inc. is continually recognized as one of the Best Executive Recruiting Firms in America by Forbes in their annual rankings.
Topics:
- The evolvement of recruiting in the last 30 years
- Strategies to attract and retain top talent
- AI & Automation Influences into the Recruiting Space
Michael Yahkind is the owner of Technical Paradigm, tech contributor for Shift_TheParadigm, a speaker at various tech conferences including Microsoft Ignite Chicago and TCnewTech. Technical Paradigm was recently featured on Startup Recruiter and Medium as the “recruiting company you should know.” Mike got involved with Fintech as a recruiter, investor, and enthusiast in 2015. At the time, he was the Director of IT Talent for a large staffing firm in Chicago, and he observed fintech companies sprout up left and right. The following year, Michael spearheaded a managed staffing project responsible for the first institutional trade transaction via blockchain. The relationships he formed with talent in blockchain, machine learning, and predictive analytics helped him launch Technical Paradigm. Michael’s firm is currently growing faster than ever, thanks to the recent surge in the NFT space. Once again, Technical Paradigm is branding themselves as pioneers in the blockchain community. Additionally, Michael is an NPA partner, overseeing the fintech group and has placed over 1 million dollars worth of candidates within the program.
Topics:
- The agility and sheer growth of blockchain as an industry and how this was applied to a staffing talent agency startup
- How the RAS Model “Recruiting as a Service” is perfect partnering with the startup nature of a fintech company
- The lack of supply lending to the necessity of foreign talent and best practices to partnering with staffing augmentation
- The Generational Impact we can look to expect with Generation Z and Millennials
Kasia is a passionate HR leader with over a decade of experience building and scaling retail and hospitality teams. Most recently, her focus has been on team development and workplace culture. Kasia believes the modern workplace will emphasize our human connection by placing the greatest emphasis on employees’ talents, strengths, and skills. When managers effectively do this, Kasia has witnessed remarkable results unfold with individuals and entire teams. Kasia’s heart-centered leadership approach is proven to increase overall productivity, improve P&Ls, increase retention, and decrease turnover. Incorporating principles of Human Design, Kasia is now partnering with Mission Recruit and engaging with leaders and entrepreneurs to usher in this powerful new paradigm of leadership and workplace culture.
Participants: Jon Younger, Forbes Writer & Founder of Agile Talent Collaborative. Fitzgerald Ventura, Founder And CEO Of 1099Policy. Terri Gallagher, […]
Donna Hamlin is an executive with strategic vision, record for implementing creative solutions to complex, culturally diverse global challenges and building competent teams and improve market share, revenues, EBITDA and value in companies in 46 countries. She is a change driver with deep experience in business transformation, strategic planning and operational execution, restructuring, brand breakthroughs, and innovative talent development. Contributions span Global 1000 companies to founding successful early stage companies. Recognized as developer of award winning CASCADE© market research method and inventor of BOARD BONA FIDE™ global governance analytical tools. A popular global speaker about governance and leadership and active board director.
In 2011 Donna became the founder and the CEO of Boardwise, Inc., global, best practices board governance firm, designing and introduced fresh approaches and tools for improving governance, director competency and effectiveness and performance improvements.
Topics:
- Vitality of a board lending to proper corporate governance
- Influences of the Start-Up Culture seeping into boardrooms
- DE&I Top of Mind Topics in every boardroom
Wen has over 20 years’ experience in the human resources, staffing and recruiting industry including service in the U.S. Air Force. Wen has created industry changing models like direct-sourcing and DEI contingent processes to open the door for more gig professionals. Wen is the CEO and Co-Founder of Omni Inclusive, DE&I arm of TechDigital Group, that focuses on diversity & inclusion of the contingent labor workforce. Wen is the recipient of numerous industry awards to include being named to SIA’s 2021 DE&I Influencer list and as an SIA Contingent Workforce Game Changer for two consecutive years. Wen holds a master’s in psychology specializing in gender and sexual fluidity from Northcentral University and a bachelor's degree in Human Resource Management from Regis University.
As a pioneer within the Direct Sourcing Movement, Aashir shares with us his experience in blueprinting the technology behind one of the largest Contingent Worker programs in the Direct Sourcing space. Aashir talks us through his thoughts on the future of work and the incredibly important role technology plays as organizations and candidates alike modernize the notion in work fulfillment.
Brandon recognized the need for an agile, dynamic financial platform as a founder at Talent Rover (acquired by Bullhorn). He started Place to help businesses of all sizes leverage accurate, real-time financial insights to make better decisions.
Robin Bienfait was the chief enterprise innovation officer and senior advisor for Samsung, responsible for building strong partnerships with large […]
David is the Chief Digital Health Officer of Boston Scientific and a VP within IT responsible for Digital Health and Data Solutions, Chair of the Brigham and Women’s Center for Patient Safety Research and Practice Executive Council, a thought leader in information-enabled healthcare safety, and a Governance Committee member of NESTcc, an organization driving leverage of Real World Evidence. He has spent the last two decades envisioning and developing digital health solutions and organizations, influencing industry policy and leading large MedTechs through transformation.
At Boston Scientific, David is responsible for establishing and leading Digital Health Development Studios, Remote Engagement, Internet of Things and Advanced Data Intelligence teams, and partnering to establish the evolving capabilities that will ensure enterprise success in Digital. Through the pandemic, David has focused on driving Tele-First digital care solutions that enable Boston Scientific, physicians and health systems to safely deliver care.
Prior to joining Boston Scientific, David served as Vice President of Health IT Integration and Strategic Innovation at Becton Dickinson (BD), where he led enterprise-wide health information technology capability development efforts to ensure commercial success and developed actionable strategies to improve patient outcomes, drive health system efficiency and enable BD’s growth through the application of information technology. As Vice President of Corporate Strategic Innovation at BD, David was responsible for integrating company-wide activities focused on the identification of new market opportunities outside of existing core areas, the development of high-impact growth concepts that fall outside of, or cut across, existing business units and incubation of non-core offerings.
David received a PhD in Mechanical Engineering from U.C. and an MBA from the Harvard Business School.
Mike Clayton is the Founder of OnlinePMCourses.com, where he provides a wealth of free Project Management knowledge resources and paid courses. Attached to this is his OnlinePMCourses YouTube channel, which recently gained a sister channel, Management Courses.
Mike has been a trainer, speaker, and trusted advisor since he left Deloitte in 2002, where he was a Senior Manager responsible for Project Leadership engagements. He is an author of 14 print books and serves clients from his home in Hampshire, England.
Topics:
- How Project Managers can capitalize on new PM trends
- Impact of AI on the project management profession
- Effective ways to manage conflicts within remote teams
Angela is a Detroit native living in Costa Rica and a veteran recruiter in the natural products industry. She and her partner Matt founded Orchid Holistic Search in 2010. They work with conscious, mission driven food, beverage and supplement brands on key executive hiring needs; guiding them towards aligned talent who will drive growth and foster culture.
Acknowledged as one of the Top 100 Minority Executives two years in a row, Rocki Howard is Chief Diversity Officer for SmartRecruiters, host of the Voices of Diversity podcast, and a tenured talent acquisition strategist.
She is a proud over 40, black, Christian wife and mom who prioritizes being a voice for the underrepresented. Rocki is on a mission to disrupt the intersection of diversity and recruitment to create sustainable change.
She believes that “If we change the lives of the underrepresented, we change the world.”
Topics:
- Innovative ways for promoting diversity & inclusion
- How diversity influences the future of work
- What companies can do to attract diverse talent
https://hiringsuccess.com/diversity-and-inclusion/?utm_source=RockiHoward
Mandy Mok has three decades of corporate experience driven by a deep passion for the advancement of Higher Education. Joining Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) in June 2002 was a major career move which gave her ample opportunities to spearhead their pioneering work for International Higher Education, particularly in Asia, Middle East and Africa (AMEA). In her capacity as CEO of QS Asia, Mandy has offered the best of branding, consultancy, and student recruitment services to Universities in the region.
Sensitive to the specific needs of institutions that fall outside of established ranking performance measures, Mandy has left QS to start AppliedHE on 1st January 2020, a new higher education branding and rating agency which is focused on employability, quality of teaching and learning, and collaboration with industry.
AppliedHE brings the benefits of a fresh, new technology-driven operation to the field of higher education branding, ratings and professional networking. It leverages big data and artificial intelligence together with Mandy’s vast and specialist experience to reinvent her industry and with it, the higher education sector.
Topics:
- Switching from the business world to the academic side
- Criteria that go into the ranking of colleges and universities
- Benefits to employers and students as it relates to using rankings
Mr. Feldman served as President and CEO of the Federal Home Loan Bank of Chicago from April 2008 until December of 2020. Mr. Feldman had been with the Bank since September of 2003 and served in several executive capacities, including Chief Risk Officer and Executive Vice President, Operations and Technology.
Prior to his employment with the Bank, Mr. Feldman was Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Learning Insights, Inc. from 1995 to 2003. Mr. Feldman conceived, established, financed and directed the operations of this privately held e-learning company.
Mr. Feldman was previously President of Continental Trust Company, a wholly owned subsidiary of Continental Bank, and served in a number of other roles in capital markets, investments and general management during his 15 years there.
Mr. Feldman holds degrees from Case Western Reserve University and the Kellogg School of Management of Northwestern University where he is a life-member of the Kellogg Global Advisory Board and a member of the Kellogg Inclusion Coalition.
Mr. Feldman serves on the Board of Directors of Recology, Inc., an ESOP-owned, waste management and resource recovery company based in San Francisco, CA, where he is Chair of the Governance Committee and serves on the Audit and Risk Oversight Committees.
Mr. Feldman served on the Board of Directors of the Office of Finance of the Federal Home Loan Banks. He is a former Chair of the Bank Presidents Conference.
He is the immediate past Chair of the Pentegra Defined Benefit Plan for Financial Institutions.
He is immediate past Co-Chair of the CEO Council of the Financial Services Pipeline Initiative.
He serves as a member of the Board of Trustees of the Evanston Community Foundation where he serves as Chair of the Racial Equity Task Force, Treasurer; Chair of the Audit and Finance Committees and a member of the Investment Council.
He is also a member of the Board of Trustees of the Beth Emet Foundation and a member of the Racial Justice Committee of Beth Emet Synagogue.
Nadav Ben-Chanoch is the chief of staff at Pareto Holdings, where he oversees investments in a wide-range of industries and helps launch and scale tech companies. Nadav is also a co-founder of Rowgatta, a health and wellness brand headquartered in New York City. Prior to launching Rowgatta, Nadav was a corporate lawyer at Kirkland & Ellis’s New York office, specializing in private equity mergers and acquisitions. Outside of work, Nadav is a travel and fitness enthusiast. He is a 2-time Ironman, marathoner, and avid scuba diver. Nadav studied Chemical Engineering at the University of Florida and got his JD from Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law in New York City. Nowadays, you can find him strolling around Coconut Grove with his Goldendoodle, Rosie.
Mike Sarraille is a retired U.S. Navy SEAL officer and a former enlisted Recon Marine and Scout-Sniper. A graduate of the University of Texas McCombs Business School, he is the founder and CEO of Talent War Group, a specialized executive search firm and talent advisory that finds high-performing business leaders for senior, executive, or other critical leadership positions. He is co-author of ‘The Talent War: How Special Operations and Great Organizations Win on Talent’ and a columnist for Men’s Journal and Men’s Fitness under ‘The Everyday Warrior’ column. He founded and served as a board of director for the VETTED Foundation, a cutting edge executive level transition program, and was a former principal at Echelon Front, a management consulting firm alongside the co authors of Extreme Ownershin Jocko Willink and Leif Babin. Mike enlisted in the Marine Corps after high school. He became a Recon Marine and also served as a scout-sniper. He was selected for a Marine officer program, but after finishing his bachelor’s degree at Texas A&M University, he sought a commission in the Navy to try out for the SEAL Teams. After completing the Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL (BUD/S) Training, Mike served in SEAL Team THREE, Task Unit Bruiser, the most decorated Special Operations Task Unit of the Iraq war, where he led major combat operations during the Battle of Ramadi in 2006. In 2008, Mike returned to Iraq and led historic combat operations in during the Battle of Sadr City. In 2008-2009, Mike served as the SEAL Junior Officer Training Course (JOTC) Director where he coached, mentored, and prepared junior SEAL officers to lead combat operations. Mike was then assessed and selected for assignment to Naval Special Warfare Development Group (DEVGRU), part of the elite Joint Special Operations Command, in support of global counter-terrorism operations. Mike completed a total of ten (10) combat deployments in support of the Global War on Terrorism. Mike is a recipient of the Silver Star, six (6) Bronze Stars for Valor, two Defense Meritorious Service Medals, and a Purple Heart. He is a recognized keynote speaker and subject matter expert in leadership development, talent acquisition and talent management.
Ginnette launched Harper & Gray in 2021 to follow her passion to drive equity into the talent management process. She is driving change in the industry by providing talent solutions that put Diversity and Inclusion first.
Before this Ginnette spent 15 years as an SVP at Specialist Staffing Group, Inc., the US subsidiary of the international STEM recruiting firm SThree Plc. Ginnette led Real Staffing, the company’s largest brand in North America. Ginnette achieved relentless year-on-year double-digit growth for the brand, and Real was and still is the company’s best performing contract business globally.
As the co-founder of SThree’s North American business, Ginnette played a vital role in marking the US as SThree’s highest producing territory taking it from 0 to $280m. Within the portfolio she grew the Real staffing business organically, and it is now one of the largest life science staffing firms in North America with over $100m in annual revenue.
In addition to this, Ginnette prides herself on more broadly championing diversity and inclusion and advocating for gender equality in leadership. Ginnette is a member of the American Staffing Associations Council of Women in Leadership. Her accomplishments also include being named a Woman of Influence by Chicago Business Journal, receiving the Woman of the Year Stevie Award, presented by the American Business Awards, and was named on SIAs 2020 list for the Top 100 most influential leaders in staffing.
Keith Meier is the Chief Operating Officer at Assurant. Previously, Mr. Meier served as senior vice president, Global Strategy and M&A for Assurant. During his time in that role, he took on the responsibility of president, Emerging Markets with a focus on Asia Pacific. Prior to that, as senior vice president, Extended Protection Solutions, Mr. Meier was responsible for the extended service (consumer products) and vehicle service contract businesses. Formerly, as senior vice president and general manager, he was responsible for the extended service business. Mr. Meier was the chief operating officer for the business before becoming the general manager and held other executive positions since joining the company in 1998.
Prior to Assurant, Mr. Meier was with Price Waterhouse LLP in Miami, FL where he specialized in insurance and large corporate accounts.
He is active with the United Way, where he has served as a member of the Greater Atlanta United Way Advisory Board and as the company campaign chair.
Mr. Meier holds a Bachelors degree in Finance from Florida State University and a Masters degree from Florida International University.
Javier Guerra is a Team Strategist who partners with CxOs and Technology Leaders to help them intelligently scale team capabilities.
After spending years working with multibillion-dollar technology organizations and having a hand in founding multiple startups, his passion for positive change led him to co-found TechHuman™ in 2016.
Javier knows what it takes for a team to reach peak performance—and it’s not the same old leadership methods and tactics you’re used to hearing about.
It starts with understanding, treating, and leading teams like they are your organizations most valuable asset.
Javier and his organization help venture-backed startups to Fortune 100 technology teams ScaleSmart™. In the process, they help leaders increase their TechTeamiQ™ as they leverage new team intelligence that enables them to discover, validate, and transform team data into powerful business information. His clients take advantage of their TechTeam10x™ solutions to accelerate team collaboration, increase performance, and have a better grip on how their best teams turn time into money.
In addition to his experience delivering Technology Team Solutions, Javier is trained as a professional coach.
He holds a degree in Biological Science and continues his studies in the field of Behavioral Neuroscience.
As the CEO & Founder of Atlanta-based Mission Recruit, Patricia is driving force introducing human design to corporate America. With more than a decade of experience working with Fortune 500 companies nationwide, she launched Mission Recruit with the vision of delivering best-in-class services by combining the sophistication of a large recruiting company with the heart and personalization of a smaller staffing agency. Her extensive background in the industry started with a corporate recruiting career with a global leader in the IT staffing industry before transitioning to national staffing, as well as positions in strategy and philanthropy. Her strong entrepreneurial spirit is a result of her parents’ influence, immigrants from the Philippines, who taught her life’s most important lessons – and above all – the significance of giving back.
Topics:
- Business differentiators for a successful Agency setup
- First generational impacts into the mindset of the entrepreneur
- The element of Human Design as a tactical recruitment strategy
John Lewin is President of Stivers Staffing Services, a professional and specialty recruiting firm historically headquartered in Chicago, IL. In his current role, he leads a strategic community of recruiting and sales specialists responsible for engaging and creating niche talent pipelines that align with the workforce needs of Stivers clients. The company focuses on office, professional, supply chain, and retail merchandising placements. Stivers is a member of TalentLaunch, a nationwide network of independently operated staffing and recruitment firms under common ownership. We are united by our commitment to a strong sense of culture which drives our collective growth.
He joined Stivers as President in 2019 and has 24 years of experience in the workforce solutions industry, including leadership roles with Kelly Services and Ajilon Professional Staffing, a subsidiary of the Adecco Group.
He holds a bachelor’s degree in Public Administration and his MBA from Northern Kentucky University. With his deep industry expertise, coupled with his exposure to global managed services and professional staffing firms, John provides key insights to clients who are seeking talent in today’s tight labor market.
Topics:
- Tactical business agility expansion in the pandemic
- Direct Sourcing impacts on the Staffing Industry
- AI & Automation Trends
- In demand industries aligned for the Future of Work
Christopher J. Dwyer is the Senior Vice President of Research at Ardent Partners and the Managing Director of the Future of Work Exchange. He has been the market’s leading authority on contingent workforce management, staffing, HR and related technology, and talent management for the past 15 years. Dwyer was an early architect of the Future of Work movement and evangelizes the progressive strategies, solutions, and technologies that optimize how work is done. He has written hundreds of research studies on the evolution of talent and work and also serves as the host for the groundbreaking Contingent Workforce Weekly podcast. Dwyer is actively engaged by global business leaders for guidance on staffing technology adoption, business transformation, and work optimization.
Political Risk entrepreneur with over 15 years of experience working at the intersection between business, government and society. Founder of […]
One of the few American women leading a multi-billion-dollar company, Lisa Lutoff-Perlo is a trailblazer in the global hospitality industry. She is recognized as the driving force behind transforming and re-defining today’s new luxury cruise experience and building demand with unparalleled brand vision and stewardship; award-winning guest service and operational expertise; and an innate ability for building high-performing, culturally-inclusive teams, among others.
Taking the helm as President and CEO at Celebrity Cruises in 2014, Lutoff-Perlo led the company into an era of unprecedented growth, including accelerated financial performance. Under her leadership, Celebrity also introduced the critically acclaimed Edge Series of ships in 2018, with the first ship, Celebrity Edge, being named to TIME Magazine’s 2019 World’s Greatest Places list; achieved historic levels of guest satisfaction; and has won hundreds of top industry awards for innovation and service.
She is a member of the Board of Directors of Fortune 500 company AutoNation (NYSE: AN), America’s largest and most recognized automotive retailer, where she sits on the Audit and Governance Committees. She also actively lends her expertise to numerous international and regional nonprofit organization boards including Best Buddies Global Board of Directors, United Way of Broward County and Nova Southeastern University, Broward Center of Innovation.
Lucas Caneda is Global Team Lead at UNIQORN Incubator and a professional rugby player for Sarlat Rugby Team. A student of engineering, management, economics, and self-taught in nutrition and fitness, Lucas has always had a very keen interest in business, entrepreneurship, and personal development. Which lead him to be the Director of one of UNIQORN startups, ChallengerX, a SaaS company who is turning amateur sport clubs into pro.
Amos Schwartzfarb has been the Managing Director of the Techstars Austin Accelerator since 2015. With over 70 seed-stage investments including […]
McKeever “Mac” Conwell II is a software engineer by trade and was a former DOD contractor with a top-secret clearance. He was a two-time founder with an exit and a failure. Next Mac moved on to the venture capital world via the Maryland Technology Development Corporation as part of their Seed Investment Team.During his four years there, Mac amassed experience leading an initiative to create the Minority Business Pre-seed Fund, the first and only, at the time, state-backed pre-seed fund for women and minorities in the country. The program institutionalized the friends and family round for black-, women-, and minority-led startups and was subsequently funded long-term by the state of Maryland. In September 2020, Mac founded RareBreed VC, a pre-seed fund that invests in exceptional founders outside of large tech ecosystems.
Marshall Neill has almost 30 years of experience in healthcare search and has been involved in over 600 hundred senior-level assignments. He’s held leadership roles with significant executive search firms. In 2017 helped create and is currently the Chairman of HealthSearch Partners, the sixth-largest healthcare executive search entity in the U.S.
HealthSearch Partners combines CES Partners, FaithSearch Partners, and Southerland Partners, creating a unique platform to provide a better executive search product.
Marshall’s newest venture is leading groups of late-career senior executives through a process called the Grey Hustle. The Grey Hustle is a retirement vehicle for seniors executives to stay involved in their industry after retirement with financial benefits.
In 2014 Marshall co-founded, Southerland Partners, an executive search firm specializing in recruiting leaders for hospitals and other healthcare organizations. Southerland Partners conducted 80 projects, 12 Chief Executive Officers, including the Chief Executive Officer searches for Intermountain Health Care and Baptist Health in Louisville, 7 Chief Operating Officers, 9 Chief Financial Officers, and numerous other executive-level projects.
In 2005, Marshall founded Marshall Koll & Associates, an executive search firm specializing in recruiting leaders for healthcare organizations. In 12 years, they conducted 150 projects for their hospital clients.
Before Marshall Koll, Neill was a senior consultant with Witt/Kieffer in Dallas. Witt/Kieffer is the largest executive search firm in the U.S., specializing in healthcare and higher education. At the
firm, he was responsible for executive search assignments for client organizations and received the firm’s Quality Award in 2004. While there, he was involved in over 350 senior-level assignments, including 50 for CEO.
Neill was previously director of marketing for Merritt, Hawkins & Associates, the nation’s largest physician search firm. Early in his career, he was an area sales manager for Hematronix, a laboratory supply manufacturer, and an operations manager for Ferguson Enterprises, Inc., an industrial supply firm.
A serial entrepreneur who has started three successful companies, Marshall has spoken to professional groups, trustee groups, and boards of directors on executive recruiting and other healthcare issues and has written numerous articles and promotional publications.
Neill earned a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration/Management from Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas, where he helped grow the Society for Entrepreneurship and New Ventures (ENVE) into one of the most respected student-led organizations on campus. He served in various leadership roles, including vice president and marketing director
Matt Clifford MBE is cofounder and CEO of Entrepreneur First, the leading technology company builder in Europe, South East Asia and Canada. Entrepreneur First invests in top technical individuals to help them build world-class deep technology startups from scratch in six locations across Europe, Asia and Canada. Since 2011, Entrepreneur First has created over 300 startups worth over $3bn including Magic Pony Technology, Tractable and Transcelestial.
Matt sits on the board of Code First Girls, which he co-founded in 2013 to teach young women how to code, and is a member of the Innovate UK Council.
Matt started his career at McKinsey & Co. and holds degrees from Cambridge and MIT, where he was a Kennedy Scholar. He was awarded an MBE for services to business in the 2016 Queen’s Birthday Honours.
For the past 20 years, Joe Gross has built and led high performing sales, recruiting and HR teams, attracting the top industry talent, while focused on delivering a top-notch customer experience.
As president of CIO Partners, Joe Gross leads the practice development organization and the strategic implementation and execution of recruitment best practices for the firm’s client partners. Previously, Joe served as COO for the firm while effectively managing, improving, and scaling all company operations.
Prior to joining CIO Partners in 2015, Joe was the southeast U.S. regional sales leader for Recall Information Management, a $2B global leader in document management and digital solutions, secure destruction, and data protection. There, Joe and his team were annually recognized as President’s Club recipients. During his six-year tenure at Recall, Joe also served as staffing manager for North America. From 2002 to 2010, Joe held multiple leadership roles with HRworks, an executive search and recruitment process outsourcing (RPO) firm, where he was instrumental in the development and execution of a flexible, scalable recruitment solution that served a diversified $1M-$50B client base. Joe began his career in the technology sector as a technical recruiter and progressed quickly into an account executive and branch manager for an IT consulting firm with a national reach.
Mark Settle is a seven time CIO, three time CIO 100 award winner and two time book author. His most recent book is “Truth from the Valley, A Practical Primer on IT Management for the Next Decade”. Settle serves on the advisory boards of several venture capital firms and multiple startup companies. Seven members of his prior management teams are currently sitting CIOs within publicly traded companies.
Voigt joined Genesis in 2011, when he served as Administrative Fellow to Genesis Health System President & CEO Doug Cropper. Following completion of his Fellowship in 2012, Voigt was named Executive Director of Clinical Operations & Programs for GMC-Davenport. In May 2013, he was named to the position of Administrator, GMC-West Central Park, which expanded to the position of Administrator, GMC-Davenport. In 2014, he was named President of GMC-Davenport.
Voigt is a member of the American College of Healthcare Executives. He earned a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and Business Administration, with a concentration in Management, at Augustana College, Rock Island, Ill. He also holds a Master of Science in Healthcare Administration, with a Certificate in Health Care Financial Management, from The University of Alabama at Birmingham. He also has previous experience from Northwestern Memorial Hospital, Chicago, and HealthSouth Lakeshore Rehabilitation Hospital in Birmingham, Ala. In his free time, he can be found running, biking or enjoying the outdoors with his Newfoundland dog, Bama.
Nitin is a founding partner at Unshackled Ventures, a venture fund designed to help immigrant founders in the US succeed faster. Building on his lived experiences as a founder on visa, Nitin is dedicated to not letting the immigration journey slow down a founder’s entrepreneurial journey.
Keith Wolf is the Managing Director of Murray Resources, a national recruiting and staffing firm headquartered in Houston. As Managing Director, Wolf leads the company’s strategy, marketing, and sales efforts. Wolf joined the company in 2011 and helped drive the firm’s growth and ascension to the Inc. 5000 list of fastest-growing private companies in the U.S. The company has been named the fastest growing staffing firm in Texas by Staffing Industry Analysts and has landed on the Inc. 5000 six times. Murray Resources was also awarded the #1 best medium-sized staffing firm to work in the U.S and has consistently been named one of the best places to work in Houston by the Houston Business Journal.
Wolf is regularly called upon to provide insights on matters relating to staffing, recruiting, and employment trends by publications such as The Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Houston Chronicle, Houston Business Journal, Bloomberg BusinessWeek, Reuters, CNBC, and Houston Public Radio. Prior to Murray Resources, Wolf held various executive and marketing roles with companies such as Procter & Gamble, Invisalign, OrthoClear, and BlueStar. Wolf graduated from the University of Texas at Austin with a bachelor’s degree in marketing and has an MBA from Harvard Business School.
Topics:
- Modern day talent strategies required for today’s competitive talent market
- Tactical tips for hiring top sales and recruiting professionals
- Candidate preparation for the interview and a client guide on retainment for top talent
Adrian Garcia-Aranyos is the President of Endeavor, a global community of high-impact entrepreneurs present in ~40 markets with a rules-based venture arm, Endeavor Catalyst. Prior to that role he was the Founding Managing Director at Endeavor Spain. Before Endeavor he took on several roles at J.P. Morgan Chase & Co; The Economist Newspaper Group; The Spain-US Chamber of Commerce; and CM Capital Markets.
Since 2004, Mr. Garcia-Aranyos serves as board member at Thune Eureka, an industrial engineering firm specializing in capital goods and focused on deep-sea energy components, paper industry parts and defense mechanisms.
He obtained his BA in Political Science from Universidad Complutense de Madrid and has an MA in Trade & Commerce from CECO-ICEX. Plus a series of certificates from IEB, Kellogg, IESE & Harvard.
Minn Kim is Partner at On Deck, an education technology startup supporting ambitious, talented individuals start or join high growth companies. Previously, she was Principal at Bloomberg Beta, an early-stage venture firm focused on investing in the future of work, having backed companies like Flexport, MasterClass, and LaunchDarkly. At Bloomberg Beta, she invested in startups across workflow automation, productivity, machine learning applications, and robotics. She lives in San Francisco and loves to write. You can reach her on Twitter and LinkedIn.
Dan spent 5 years with TekSystems, cofounded IT Resources in 2000. Become the sole owner and President of the firm in 2006, IT Resources has become a leading provider of Technology staffing solutions. Companies and top IT talent seek the expertise the IT Resources team brings in extensive industry/market knowledge delivering value with honesty and integrity
Born in Iowa and raised in New Mexico, Ohio and graduating high school back in Iowa, Dan is a proud Northwestern University and University of South Florida graduate. Playing collegiate and professional baseball set the cornerstones of passion for hard work, leadership and teamwork.
When he’s not at work you can find him with his wife, daughter or son, probably playing or enjoying sports. Dan’s greatest joy is helping people create inflection points in their careers and reaching their full potential.
Alistair Russell is CTO and co-founder of Tray.io. A graduate of the University of Southampton, he collaborated with computer scientist […]
In 2002 Max Borges started a marketing agency with a laptop on his dining room table. He quickly became overwhelmed with client demands and employee needs. Over the next few years, having studied the habits of business and strategy icons, he developed a strategic approach that allowed him to scale his agency to more than $10 million/year — with happy staff and clients on board.
Max took his agency to a place where it thrives, while no longer needing him to operate it. In a word, it’s Autonomous. Better still, he did it all without ever borrowing a penny.
He now spends his time writing, podcasting, investing, helping existing and aspiring service firm owners adopt his Autonomous approach…and listening to heavy metal.
Max’s Book: https://www.amazon.com/dp/0578838354/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_glt_fabc_KG103AWNYMN1CKMJAC06
Tony Ambrozie is Senior Vice President and Chief Digital Officer/Chief Information Officer for Baptist Health South Florida, the largest not-for-profit healthcare organization in South Florida. He is responsible for all Technologies, Digital and Data efforts, with immediate focus on consumer and patient experience as well as clinical digital and data.
Before joining Baptist Health, Mr. Ambrozie served as Senior Vice President, Technology and Digital at The Walt Disney Company. In this role, he was responsible for a number of digital and core systems and technologies, engineering, data analytics and machine learning for Disney Parks and Consumer Products, Games and Publishing.
Prior to joining Disney in 2013, Mr. Ambrozie was Vice President for Digital Platform Technologies at American Express, where he was responsible for platform engineering, shared services development and application security, with previous roles focused on application architecture, development, engineering and performance.
He is a proven leader in the technology and digital space with a keen focus on using technology and data to enhance the consumer experience.
Prior to spending the past two decades focused on large business operations, he launched his technology career as the cofounder of a software development startup, specializing in building unique, small business applications.
Mr. Ambrozie holds a dual MBA and Master’s Degree in Information Management from the W.P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University.
Sanjay K. Bhasin has served as President and Chief Executive Officer of the Federal Home Loan Bank of Dallas since May 2014. Under his leadership, the value proposition for members has been strengthened through enhanced products, services and funding solutions. He also serves on the Council of Federal Home Loan Banks, the trade association for the 11 Federal Home Loan Banks.
Prior to joining the Bank, Mr. Bhasin was Executive Vice President, Members and Markets, at the Federal Home Loan Bank of Chicago (Chicago Bank). Mr. Bhasin joined the Chicago Bank in 2004 as Vice President, Mortgage Finance, and he was promoted to various leadership roles throughout his tenure.
Prior to joining the Chicago Bank, he was responsible for managing the interest rate risk associated with Bank One, NA’s mortgage pipeline holdings from 1999 to 2004. Mr. Bhasin holds an MBA in Finance from Indiana University.
Since founding Impact Personnel in 1989, Maryann has maintained a long-term commitment to staffing excellence. Working with her team of expert consultants, Maryann has built one of the premier staffing firms in the recruiting industry. Maryann has wide-ranging ties in the Fairfield County and metropolitan New York business communities. She is a graduate of Fairfield University where she has served on the Alumni Board of Directors. She is a member of Who’s Who in the East and of the prestigious Women Presidents’ Organization (WPO). She recently chaired the Career Committee for the Gettysburg College Parents Advisory Board, was Director of Membership for the Southern Connecticut SHRM board, and was a member of the board of directors of Dress for Success Mid-Fairfield County.
Ken has vast experience successfully running & building global businesses across the TA & recruitment ecosystem. Ken leads the TALiNT […]
Daniela pairs extensive global strategic and operational expertise with a strong believe on entrepreneurship as a driver of change. For more than 15 years, she’s been working with leaders around the world to transform entrepreneurial ecosystems and create long term economic development in the for-profit and nonprofit spaces. Daniela is the Co-founder and CEO of Elephant in a Box, a New York-based home furniture innovation company with products that (un)fold instantly, come in one box and are delivered to your door in 2 days. Formerly CEO of Global Health Corps, building the next generation of health leaders, where as the first non-founder CEO, spearheaded the organization’s transformation towards sustainable growth. Before she served on the executive team at Endeavor Global through a period of expansion across five continents and multiple industries, to continue as the leading organization for the high impact entrepreneurship movement worldwide. She was responsible for launching offices in Europe, Africa and Middle East, as well as managing operations in 10+ markets. She has also held executive roles in the private sector serving as Managing Director at Biblomodel – Allsteel a multinational furniture enterprise. Daniela holds a BA in International Business from Universidad Anahuac (Mexico) and is an active alumnus at Harvard Business School (PLD23). She has also participated in several executive education programs on leadership and growing ventures at Stanford Graduate School of Business and Thunderbird School of Global Management. She’s based in New York, USA.
Sandy Carter is Vice President, Public Sector Partners and Programs at AWS. In this role, she is responsible for driving next-generation partnering. Her responsibilities include evolving partner models to intensify partner innovation, AWS cloud adoption and creation of mission critical cloud solutions with partners across public sector. She is focused on growing the partner ecosystem as a major driver for public sector and contributing significantly to the success of public sector customers. She previously built an enterprise workload team as the Vice President of Enterprise Workloads at AWS focused on migration and modernization through containers and serverless.
Sandy has been a founder and CEO of a startup, and her last role at IBM, she ran the Cloud and AI/ML Ecosystem on behalf of the IBM corporation. Sandy is the Chairman of the Board of Girls in Tech, Chairwoman for WIoTCoE, and an adjunct professor at Carnegie Mellon University Silicon Valley.
She is the author of Extreme Innovation: Three Superpowers for Purpose and Profit. Sandy is a Federal 100 Award Winner, Stevie Award Winner for Women of the Year Technology, Women in Tech: Top 50 Influencers, CRN Women of the Channel 2021 Power 100, 2021 Cloud Girls Rising Inaugural Visionary Award, Top 50 Influencers, Top 150 Global Cloud Thought Leaders and Next Generation Leaders of 2021, Top 40 Cloud Computing Influencers on Twitter, Top 50 Digital Influencers, Awards Magazine Top 50 Women of Influence, Top 15 IoT Premier League, Lifetime Achievement Winner, ‘Excellence in Cloud Achievement’, AI Innovator Nominee of the Year, Top 10 AI Influencers 2019, Verdicts ten of the most influential people in artificial intelligence on Twitter during Q4 2020, and the Top 10 Cloud Computing Influencer
Roger Whiteman began his career in recruiting in 1993 and has been in the IT staffing business for over 25 years. He worked for some of the larger agencies, small to mid-sized organizations that became large where he served as both branch and regional manager as well as managing director, and now finally his own company, Kolter Solutions, for the last 11 years. After a challenging period during the Great Recession of 2008 and for the next couple of years, Roger eventually founded Kolter Solutions in 2010. In the next couple of years Kolter began to experience a 48 % average ‘year over year’ growth between 2015 and 2020.
Today, Kolter has 20 internal employees including sales, recruiting, and administrative and operational staff. They have over 100 IT consultants, primarily in Central Florida and in 11 other states. Kolter won Staffing Industry Analysts “Best Places to Work” award in 2021, Best Places to Work in Central Florida in 2020, and the Fast 50 (fastest growing private companies in any industry in Central Florida) according to the Orlando Business Journal.
Roger’s focus today is primarily on the Operational Side, helping paint a shared vision, finance, compliance, legal and generally helping others to solve problems; keeping everyone rowing the boat in the same direction.
Danny Morrow is the CTO & Co-Founder of Extend, the fintech modernizing the payments industry from the inside out. Extend […]
Henry Schuck is the founder and CEO of ZoomInfo, (NASDAQ:ZI) a Go-To-Market Intelligence Solution for more than 20,000 companies worldwide. […]
Laura worked in a wide range of recruiting environments and is passionate about creating successful professional connections. She opened her […]
Deborah Cento Skender has spent her career working in the staffing and recruiting industry from running a full life cycle […]
Alfonso Dager is an IT Manager of the Development-Security-Operations (DevSecOps) team at FedEx Express’ Latin-America and Caribbean Division based in […]
Jason Wilk is the co-founder and CEO of Dave. Born and raised in Los Angeles, Jason is a lifelong entrepreneur […]
Katrina Collier is on a mission to end the collaboration chaos that ruins recruitment and candidate experience; exacerbated by hybrid working. Her […]
Mendy Yang is an investor at Lerer Hippeau, an early stage venture capital firm based in NYC. At LH, Mendy focuses on B2B software investments […]
Angela is a Detroit native living in Costa Rica and a veteran recruiter in the natural products industry. She and her […]
Brendan is the Founder of Climate People, a climate tech search firm mobilizing a workforce transition to fighting climate change. Brendan and his team partner with top Climate Tech companies, Venture Capital firms and their portfolio companies to identify mission-driven technical talent that can help accelerate the development and adoption of technologies to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions, remove carbon from the atmosphere and help build climate resilience.
Brendan is passionate about making an impact on climate by bringing the best and brightest minds to the fight. He’s an advocate for diversity, equity and inclusion as a pillar for company success. His approach to recruiting is to lead with impact and place the opportunity for impact over profit. Climate People is proud to partner with 1% for the Planet, a network of environmental non-profits. They donate 1% of each placement fee to an environmental non-profit of the candidate’s choosing.
Outside of his work with Climate People, Brendan is an active member in his community of Framingham, MA. He is a Co-Founding board member for Framingham Youth Basketball and has spent 10 years coaching both boys and girls youth basketball, as well as youth baseball. He is married with 2 teenage kids.
Michael Weisz is an award-winning entrepreneur and Founder and President of Yieldstreet, a next-generation digital investment platform powering the modernization of today’s portfolios by unlocking access to income-generating alternative investments. In 2020, Yieldstreet was named Financial Time’s 12th Fastest Growing Company in the US, and for 2 consecutive years, Yieldstreet was named one of the top 50 Fastest-Growing Companies by INC.
Prior to founding Yieldstreet, Michael worked across the specialty finance spectrum, including pioneering the Litigation Finance sector. Michael has managed over $2.5 billion in transactions across multiple asset classes, including Real Estate, Marine Finance, Art Finance, Legal Finance, and Non-traditional Commercial and Consumer Loans. At Yieldstreet, Michael is responsible for the company’s investment and portfolio strategy, originator network as well as general corporate strategy, including M&A and investment partnerships.
Sam Alkoubey was born in Philadelphia and grew up in Miami. He is currently the Head of Sales for a practice management software company called PracticePanther. He is an expert communicator with over 15 years of experience in business development, management, and sales. You can find Sam hanging out with his family or playing basketball with friends in his off time.
Topics:
- Parallels from different industries that make someone a stronger salesperson
- Strategies for excelling in Sales post-pandemic
- Consultative approaches to change management
Isabelle Steichen, Co-Founder + CEO moved from Europe to the US in 2013. She worked closely as an early employee in operations, customer service and business development, with founding teams for various early stage, VC-backed startups (Kitchensurfing, Sawyer, Voyage Control) in NYC in the food and tech space. Isabelle has additionally worked as a consultant with IfOnly, Hungryroot, and various other startups. As a long time passionate vegan, certified in plant based nutrition from e-Cornell, as well as the founder of the Plantiful Podcast, she is now combining her startup background with her desire to spread plant-based eating through Lupii. Isabelle has been studying lupini beans for the last 5+ years and has developed close relationships with suppliers across Europe.
Topics:
- Isabelle’s journey to building Lupii and launching 2 months before the pandemic in 2020.
- Lupini bean as a sustainable alternative to animal protein.
- Building a newsletter as a channel to build great relationships with your customers.
- Consumer testing and feedback as the key to succeed in the consumer goods sector.
- Growing trends in the consumer goods industry.
- How building a business is similar to training for a race.
- Isabelle’s advice to women on their entrepreneurial journey.
Adam is a staffing industry veteran with over 20 years of industry experience as a recruiter, staffing manager, executive, and entrepreneur, who is passionate about elevating the recruitment industry. He is the founder of Great Recruiters— The #1 Experience and Reputation Management platform for the Recruiting and Staffing Industry. In his free time, you can find Adam on the baseball diamond coaching his two son’s teams and watching his daughter do flips and cartwheels all day long.
Len Adams is Chief Executive Officer and Founder of Adams Consulting Group/ACG Resources. He has a 40-year record of achievement in meeting the Talent Acquisition (Executive Search, Staffing and Consulting) needs of many prestigious corporations, software companies, banks, Insurance companies and financial services institutions – locally, nationally and internationally. In addition, the firm works with a diverse portfolio of client companies, ranging from Start ups to Middle market firms.
Along with the entire team, Len is committed to ensuring that ACG consistently provides clients and candidates with the highest quality of service possible in the Search and Staffing Industry. As a career Certified Personnel Consultant, Adams is an accomplished lecturer at the university and secondary school levels on various subjects relating to career planning, business ethics, recruiting and search.
Trish is passionate about designing high impact, community-driven experiences that connect people and possibility in new ways. Her approach is influenced by her background in behavioral economics, belief in entrepreneurship, and global perspective from her nomadic lifestyle.
She is currently VP, Experience at On Deck, where her team is focused on deeply understanding and serving the needs of top talent through community-based fellowship programs. Previous experience includes VP, Experience at Remote Year and Global Program Manager at Unreasonable Group.
Topics:
- Trish’s journey to designing world-class experiences for the On Deck community.
- How to figure out the next step in your career and what skills you should work on.
- Prioritizing relationships is the foundation for the future of work.
- Bridging the gap between traditional education and skills-based hiring.
- The power behind building and sharing your projects in public.
- Trish’s advice to women in leadership roles.
Art Papas is the Founder and CEO of Bullhorn, Inc., the global leader in software for the staffing & recruitment industry. Art was the […]
Jodi Frank was raised in a small town outside of Pittsburgh, PA, where she developed passions for both innovating and baking. A cookie recipe unique to the Pittsburgh area (Lady Locks) would later spark the inspiration for Jodi’s company, What’s for Dinner Technologies and their brand Culineer.
After graduating with a BA in Speech Communication from the University of Pittsburgh, Jodi earned her MBA from Penn State. She has worked in a variety of roles for an array of companies and industries, and feels that her entire career has prepared her for her role today as the Founder and CEO of What’s for Dinner Technologies.
Jodi was inspired to develop Culineer by her challenges around locating and managing recipes. Driven by her entrepreneurial spirit, she soon identified a much larger opportunity to fill a sizable void in the American marketplace. Jodi envisions Culineer as an innovative and flexible solution that empowers people everywhere to not only share recipes, but create homemade food and positively impact both individual and community health.
Topics:
- Why selling is one of the most important skills you can develop for your career.
- The importance of mentors that nurture a leadership mindset in you.
- How Jodi’s frustration with food deserts and digital recipes led her to founding Culineer.
- Jodi’s biggest lesson from her entrepreneurial journey.
- How to attract the right talent for your startup.
Ashley Connell, CEO and Founder of Prowess Project, is one part fearless entrepreneur, one part fearless women’s advocate. She has been an unstoppable tech marketer and entrepreneur in both Austin and London over the past 15 years of her career. With a keen ability to marry the art and science of marketing, she has honed her dynamic skills in key positions including launching and driving all European marketing initiatives during her tenure at Spiceworks, and managing Global Field Marketing at SanDisk.
Her commitment to changing the lives of overloaded employers, women seeking rewarding work, and those affected by the gender pay gap, has landed her thought leadership pieces in Forbes, Built in Austin and at SXSW. In her pretty much non-existent spare time she enjoys yoga, walks with her bulldog, cheering on her beloved Longhorns, and spaghetti and meatballs.
Topics:
- The Harvard Business Review statistic that inspired Ashley to found Prowess Project.
- The number one barrier for women wanting to return to the workforce after a 2-3 year break.
- Why having a working mom as a leader is better for business.
- How Prowess Project helps hiring managers make better hiring decisions.
- Ashley’s recommendations for founders looking to pitch their startup.
- Customer satisfaction as Prowess Project’s north star.
Dave Nerz is the president of the NPAworldwide Recruitment Network. He has served as the leader of this 65-year-old member-owned […]
Frank Cespedes teaches at Harvard Business School and for 12 years was Managing Partner at a professional services firm. He […]
Kasia is a passionate HR leader with over a decade of experience building and scaling retail and hospitality teams. Most […]
Tom McDonald has over 25 years of broad business experience including business development, operations, client management, finance, accounting, business startups, […]
Morgan Borer is a Partner at Bevel, leading communications consultancy driving quantifiable results for clients in finance, tech, venture capital, […]
Devon joined Silversmith Capital Partners in 2021 and is currently an Associate. At Silversmith, Devon focuses on investments across the firm’s two core verticals, Healthcare IT & Services and SaaS & Information Services.
Prior to Silversmith, Devon worked at Blackstone in their Strategic Partners group, focusing on co-investment and secondary transactions across industries and asset classes.
Devon is an avid soccer fan and player, a native of Philadelphia and active volunteer with numerous charitable organizations. In his spare time, Devon enjoys Skiing, Running and supporting lackluster Philadelphia sports teams.
Education: BBA, magna cum laude, in Finance from Morehouse College
Carolyn Pitt is Founder and CEO of Productions.com, the job marketplace for production professionals that connects studios, music labels, and corporate brands to vetted local production talent.
Productions.com is headquartered in Atlanta and partners with clients nationwide. The company advocates for production professionals of all backgrounds and is proud to help level the playing field for women and professionals of color, who are underrepresented in the entertainment industry.
Immediately prior to the passage of the CARES Act, Carolyn addressed the U.S. Senate and House Subcommittee for Small Business and Entrepreneurship to advocate for stimulus funding for the film industry and underrepresented founders. She also participated in two small business roundtables at the behest of the Biden-Harris campaign. Carolyn was recently recognized as a recipient of Google’s inaugural Black Founder Fund and was named 2018 Entrepreneur of the Year by Envolve Global.
Carolyn is an Intellectual Property and Entertainment Attorney with significant experience in Management Consulting, Strategy, and Business Development. She previously practiced at Alston & Bird LLP and received her BS in Psychology from Vanderbilt University and her JD from American University’s Washington College of Law.
Hank Levine is the President and CEO of iPlace USA, the largest company providing professionally managed recruiting services for companies worldwide. Founded in 2006, iPlace has over 800 employees, 100 clients, and has placed over 17,000 professionals in 21 countries on five continents.
Hank has served in senior management positions in sales, business development, marketing, and general management. He has created the marketing and business strategy for six companies – four of which were acquired for a total of $92 million. Hank holds his Master’s in Management from the Sloan School at MIT and Bachelor’s in Engineering from the University of Pennsylvania.
Mehrshad is a veteran technology innovator with more than thirty years of experience under his belt. As CTO, Mehrshad leads NextHealth’s team of engineers and developers with a mission to improve healthcare affordability. With passionate belief in the power of individuals and teams, Mehrshad is a value-based leader who turns complex software ideas into optimized, scalable businesses. He joined NextHealth Technologies from Oracle Inc. where he managed a large distributed engineering team responsible for a social media gateway for all Oracle clouds. Prior to his role at Oracle, Mehrshad was part of the startup company, Collective Intellect, which was then acquired by Oracle Inc. An avid athlete, Mehrshad believes a healthy body cultivates a healthy mind and spirit. He enjoys long distance swimming, downhill skiing, hiking, traveling and spending time with his family.
As a trilingual, Mehrshad began his computer science degree at Switzerland’s EPFL, The Swiss Federal Institute of Technology of Lausanne. He went on to obtain his BS in Computer Science and MS in Software Engineering from Southern Methodist University.
Jan is a technology entrepreneur born in Vienna, Austria. He is the co-founder and CEO of Candidately. At Candidately Jan and his team are building the digital storefront for staffing and recruiting companies. Jan graduated from Y Combinator 2017 and raised over $4M in venture capital from investors like Speedinvest, Beenext, YouTube co-founder Jawed Karim among many others. Jan is also the co-founder of the World Staffing Summit, an annual online conference for staffing owners and operators.
Currently based in Vienna, Austria, Jan is passionate about the staffing industry as well as supporting other founders to help them succeed. He actively advises technology companies and is a Venture Partner at Pioneer Fund and Calm Storm Ventures.
Alex is VP of Platform Solutions at Shutterstock where he is responsible for leading a team that delivers a best-in-class product powered by AI-based search tools, to improve workflow processes for creatives and professionals around the world by deeply integrating Shutterstock’s Platform Solutions capabilities into the applications and workflow environments they are already using. Alex has directly led 100+ API deals with leading technology companies including Facebook, Google, Apple, IBM, Snap Inc., Magic Leap, & more.
Alex started his career as a management consultant at Bain, focusing on growth strategy and M&A across a broad portfolio of Fortune 500 Tech companies. He later transitioned to travel startup, Peek, where he helped grow the company from 25 employees to over 100 and then joined YP (Yellow Pages) as Director of Consumer Business Development, where he built net new monetization partnerships with esteemed consumer brands including Uber, Apple, Opentable, and TripAdvisor. Alex earned his Bachelor of Business Administration degree in Consulting & Venture Management, Marketing from Emory University.
Keith Smith is the co-Founder and CEO of Payability. He originally hails from the Pacific Northwest and now calls New […]
Edward Sullivan is the CEO of Velocity Group and throughout his 20 year career, he has coached and advised start-up […]
Marcos Marrero is an IT Risk & Information Security professional with 20+ years of experience establishing and managing IT Risk & Information Security programs. Mr. Marrero first started his career in Information Security with Lloyds Banking Group in North America. At LBG, he assisted in establishing and later was responsible for managing LBG’s first IT Risk & Information Security program. After several years at Lloyds Banking Group, Mr. Marrero moved on to the Legal industry to implement an Information Security Program for international law firm Greenberg Traurig. While at Greenberg Traurig, Mr. Marrero discovered the unmet need within the Legal Industry for Information Security Programs. Once he completed the implementation at Greenberg Traurig, he took the opportunity to assist Greenspoon Marder with establishing an IT Risk and Information Security Program. After Greenspoon Marder, Mr. Marrero moved on to Itaú International, the private banking arm of Itaú Unibanco, serving as the VP & Information Security Officer, responsible for the organizations’ Caribbean, South American, and Florida Information Security Programs. Currently, Mr. Marrero is the Chief Information Security Officer for H.I.G. Capital, a multi-national private equity firm with over $45bn assets under management.
Jeff Buck is the Vice President of Business Optimization and is responsible for the development and execution of global business strategy which includes exploring and implementing new offerings. In this role, Mr. Buck collaborates with Operations, Finance, IT, and Business Development teams on strategic initiatives and transformation opportunities across various business units.
Mr. Buck brings over 15 years of thought leadership and experience shaping strategy and planning. Mr. Buck has been with Lash Group for seven years, most recently working within the organization’s Strategy Department and the Business Transformation and PMO business units. Prior to joining AmerisourceBergen in 2013, he served in the United States Marine Corps in various roles.
He earned a bachelor’s degree in Architecture from the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, CA. He also earned a master’s degree in Business from East Carolina University in Greenville, NC and a Post Graduate Certificate in Data Science and Analytics from Northwestern University in Chicago, IL. Mr. Buck holds certifications in Project Management Professional (PMP), Risk Management Professional (RMP), and a Black Belt Six Sigma.
Jon Semingson is the Managing Partner of Peak Demand where he and his team help some of the best renewable energy companies build the teams they need to enable the renewable energy transition. He has spent 13 years focused exclusively in Renewables and the individuals that Peak Demand have placed have impacted nearly 10 GW of installed renewable energy in the US.
Sam Palazzolo is the Founder/Managing Director at Tip of the Spear Ventures, a Private Equity firm that provides early-stage Entrepreneurs […]
Steve O’Brien serves as President, Staffing at Job.com and and specializes in global high volume Talent Acquisition and artificial intelligence for Talent Acquisition […]
Kai is an Analyst at Primary and is a native of The Bronx. Kai focuses on investing in enterprise technology […]
A leading authority on workforce solutions worldwide, Barry Asin is renowned for his expertise in staffing and contingent labor. President […]
Mark Roberts is CEO of TechServe Alliance, the national trade association serving IT and engineering staffing and solutions firms. Roberts […]
Elizabeth is the Director of Strategic Partnerships at Empire Office, the largest commercial furniture dealer in the world delivering workspace […]
Courtney Boyd Myers (CEO, CMO of AKUA) is an entrepreneur, environmentalist, and writer. Prior to launching AKUA, she helped build the Summit Community, a global network of founders, creatives, and innovators. Previously, she helped market companies such as Four Sigmatic and Unframed Ice Cream. She began her career as a journalist at Forbes Magazine and The Next Web and has been recognized as one of Fast Company’s Most Creative People in Business. She currently serves as an advisor to GreenWave, a nonprofit that supports the regenerative ocean farming industry.
Topics:
- How ocean farming and a kelp farm tour led Courtney to find her calling and build AKUA.
- The importance of kelp farming as a more sustainable form of food agriculture.
- Community as the ultimate tool for product development.
- Leveraging the power of crowdfunding as a marketing tool to build brand awareness.
- Courtney’s advice to women entrepreneurs going through challenging times.
- Biggest challenges in building a sustainable seagreens-based food consumer brand.
- Prioritizing self-care as an entrepreneur.
Show notes:
- AKUA
- Courtney Boyd Myers
- Alo Yoga
- Republic
- Kickstarter
- How to rock a Republic crowdfunding campaign
IT executive with a proven track record of success in both private and public companies including 3 IPOs – Excite@Home, Salesforce,com, and MobileIron. Expertise in building high performing, collaborative teams (90+), delivering on business strategy, and generating new revenue while decreasing operating costs. Extensive experience managing local and remote teams across time zones and continents. First IT leader hired at Salesforce.com. Lead the security function at companies and successfully completed SOC 2 Type 2 compliance for 2 pre-IPO companies.
Maggie Vo, CFA®, is a finance expert with more than a decade’s experience in the public markets, analyzing and managing investments across a wide spectrum of asset classes. As Chief Investment Officer and Managing General Partner of Fuel Venture Capital, Maggie spearheads due diligence processes that determine prospective investments and capital deployment and steers valuation analyses of existing portfolio companies. Maggie sits on the board of Bolt Mobility, Eyrus, Soundtrack Your Brand and Ubicquia.
Al Crawford is a Co-Founder of BHG and currently serves as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. He is responsible for overseeing all facets of the company and its operations.
For 30 years, Al has expertly coordinated loan/lease sales and financing between community banks and companies. His unique passion and excitement for creating financial solutions shines at BHG. He has facilitated over $10 billion with financial institutions, including more than 1,300 banks nationwide.
Al provides guidance and mentoring to his Leadership Team, who he meets with regularly. These 8 direct reports are leading their respective teams, and running the day-to-day operations of the company alongside Albert. Because of his hands-on, inclusive management style and thirst for knowledge, his presence in all locations and departments is evident.
In 2012, Al, along with co-founders Bob and Eric Castro, was named an Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year for Financial Services. And in 2009, he was one of an elite 10 selected from hundreds of the nation’s top CEOs to be a member of the Inc. magazine CEO Project.
Al earned his bachelor’s degree from Gettysburg College. He has held licenses as both a commodities broker (Series 3) and a stockbroker (Series 7).
Jessica is the 2nd growth marketing hire at Series C, General Catalyst backed Zageno, the B2B procurement marketplace for the life sciences. She also heads content for Elpha (Y Combinator S19, community of 45K+ women in tech), Harvard in Tech, and Techstars Boston. She is the first industry fellow with Pear VC, a founding fellow at On Deck, a contributor at TechCrunch, a writer at Pinduoduo, an angel investor, and a content and marketing consultant with many startups and venture funds. She has previously worked in venture capital at Soma Capital (employee #1), General Catalyst, Romulus Capital, Global Founders Capital, and Female Founders Fund; in growth and operations at Morning Brew (acquired by Business Insider) and Luxe (Google Ventures backed and acquired by Volvo); in investment banking at Morgan Stanley; and in public markets at Northwestern Mutual and a family office. She graduated from Harvard with high honors in applied math, computer science, and economics, where her thesis research was completed with the 2016 Nobel Laureate in economics, Oliver Hart. She has worked with startups in MassChallenge, Techstars, Alchemist, Envision, Zane, Plug and Play, 500 Startups, and other programs.
Philippe Saint-Just is the Co-Founder and SVP of Product at Miami-based REEF Technology. At REEF, Philippe has led the evolution of REEF’s technology-enabled products, enabling the company’s ambitious mission to connect the world to your block. Philippe founded REEF after a decade in the enterprise technology sector leading digital transformation in Fortune 500 companies across banking, pharmaceutical and insurance industries. He holds a Bachelor of Science in computer science from the University of Alabama and currently resides in Coral Gables, FL with his wife and two daughters.
Walt Carter has over thirty years in technology leadership roles. He is adept at working through complex business challenges and […]
Christopher J. Dwyer is the Senior Vice President of Research at Ardent Partners and the Managing Director of the Future of […]
Archana Subramanian, celebrating her tenth year at Salesforce this year, serves as the COO for the Australia/New Zealand and ASEAN […]
Originally from Colombia, Carolina Lasso cares deeply about growth. As a marketer with 14+ years of experience, she has worked with companies of all sizes to elevate their brands and grow. As someone passionate about personal development , she practices and teaches ways for anyone to grow and attain their full potential.
Carolina graduated from the University of Maryland with a bachelor’s degree in International Business and received an MBA from New York University, specializing in Marketing and Finance. She has worked as a marketing professional in companies that include ZGS Communications, Telemundo and American Express. Most recently, she worked as Product Marketing Manager at Google for 7 years.
In 2018 she joined the Search Inside Yourself Leadership Institute as Marketing Director and currently leads the organization’s efforts to grow reach and impact across marketing channels.
Carolina is a certified Search Inside Yourself teacher and also a certified meditation facilitator. She is the author of the book Plenitud and the creator of plenitud.net serving the Spanish-speaking community interested in mindfulness and personal growth. She currently lives in San Francisco and enjoys oil painting, writing and traveling. She loves oil painting, dancing, and discovering new places around the world.
Topics:
- Carolina’s journey to learning how to prioritize her own personal and professional development.
- Burnout and how it can be a sign to evaluate what’s important to you.
- Carolina’s recommendations if you find yourself unfulfilled.
- Biggest challenges to cultivate a more mindful workplace.
- Fostering psychological safety in a remote environment.
- The underrated tactic for a successful customer acquisition strategy.
- Why sharing your story matters.
- The seven mindfulness practices to cultivate a state of fulfillment.
Resources for the show notes:
- Project Aristotle: The secrets of effective teams at Google
- Plenitud: Siete principios para una vida moderna plena, abundante y con propósito (Spanish Edition)
- Search Inside Yourself Leadership Institute
- Self-Compassion: The Proven Power of Being Kind to Yourself
- Radical Candor: Fully Revised & Updated Edition: Be a Kick-Ass Boss Without Losing Your Humanity
- Find Carolina on LinkedIn
Margaret Meloni, MBA, PhD is the pmStudent.com community leader. pmStudent.com is devoted to helping Project Managers successfully navigate the art […]
Marshall Neill has almost 30 years of experience in healthcare search and has been involved in over 600 hundred senior-level […]
Raised in Tampa Bay, Fred Rosario is the Site Director of Year Up Tampa Bay, a non-profit workforce training program, with an enterprising partnership with St. Petersburg College. Year Up’s mission is to close the Opportunity Divide through a training model that consists of career exploration, technical and organizational skill building, and an earned 6-month professional internship with a corporation for Opportunity Talent ages 18-26 years old.
Fred has 20 years of experience working in non-profit organizations, specifically working with Opportunity Talent, with several diverse organizations, to include, Alonzo Mourning’s Overtown Youth Center, Children’s Home Society of Florida, and Year Up South Florida. He is passionate about social change, race equity and focused on creating and investing in real change within the communities he lives and serves.
Previously residing in Miami for 15 years, Fred received his MS in International/Intercultural Education from Florida International University in 2012 and his BA in Liberal Studies in 2007. In 2019, he returned to Tampa Bay and continues to seek opportunities to connect, collaborate and participate in the community and the diverse people within it.
Mousa Hamad currently resides on the Gulf Coast of Florida. There, he is a partner and a father to a vivacious three year old. Which, he will tell you, is a great tune up for his day job as the Director of Operations and Procurement at J2 Global, Inc. Mousa has been in the Information Technology industry for the last 15 years getting his start on the front lines as a Tier 1 tech. He is a customer centric executive who loves being a part of great teams that deliver results.
As the Executive Vice President and Managing Director at Resource 1, Anastasia is responsible for technical recruiting, technical infrastructure, marketing […]
Chris Burkhard is a 4th generation entrepreneur, and has been running his business for over 20 years. Placers is a workforce company that not only helps people find jobs but consults with businesses on how to best use a contingent workforce. In running Placers, Chris is known as being a cultural servant leader. The Placers community is unique and gives back to the local community. He emphasises the importance of having an environment where people can be themselves. Culture led business that has steered Placers towards being listed on Inc 5000 list a combined 10 times in its history. His way of leading also earned Chris the SBA Small Business Person of the Year for the State of Delaware in 2020.
Chris has a love of the outdoors and would prefer to be forest bathing. Chris currently lives in Lewes, Delaware but daydreams of living in the mountains of Wyoming. He is an active business person and Scaling Up Coach who loves to mentor entrepreneurs towards building their own successful businesses. Chris lives his life the same way, whether it is business or personal. He is a dedicated husband to Kim and father to Josh and Hallie. His true love are his 2 aussie shepherds Gracie and Ziggy.
Winter Mead has worked in financial services for a decade investing approximately $900 million across 80 private equity and venture capital firms […]
Mike Sarraille is a retired U.S. Navy SEAL officer and a former enlisted Recon Marine and Scout-Sniper. A graduate of […]
Sue rejoined The Healthcare Initiative in 2019 after leading the Executive Talent Acquisition Center of Excellence for a $4.8 billion health system (a CHI MBO) where she was responsible for executive talent acquisition for 17 hospitals, medical group, health system, and network affiliates. With over a decade of healthcare executive talent acquisition within a large system transforming the landscape of healthcare, she brings her leading edge industry expertise and passion to deliver a proven process that can identify; attract; evaluate for skills, emotional intelligence and cultural alignment; and land the top talent clients are seeking to engage to lead the tsunami of change health system leaders face today in the world of complex, matrixed environments to build alignment, standardization, eliminate silos, increase consumer/employee engagement, reduce costs, and provide new models of care.
Sue has impacted and helped advance the careers of over 1,500 director and c-suite healthcare executives across the healthcare continuum. In addition to healthcare, her business acumen includes over 30 years of experience in healthcare, high tech, consumer products and financial services with small, medium, large and international organizations (as a consultant and direct leader).
With more than 15 years of experience in the Latin American financial markets, Felipe is currently based in Miami, leading the strategic […]
Alejandro Mainetto is a Managing Partner with Overactive where he advises multiple companies in areas such as digital transformation, business and product strategy and building new digital products and services. Before joining Overactive, Mainetto worked as a Digital Partner for Ernst & Young (EY) and focused on helping customers strategize and execute on their digital transformation strategy and journey and provide solutions to create next generation customer experiences, digital platforms and new digital business models. Before joining EY, Mainetto was an entrepreneur and ran a successful digital strategy consulting business, New Media Strategy, where he provided technology strategy advisory consulting services for key clients in media, travel, retail, education and healthcare industries across the US. Advised major organizations on how to drive digital and consumer experience transformations across their businesses.
Before New Media Strategy, Mainetto spent many years in Corporate America in the Media and Entertainment and Education industries working as the Global CTO for Kaplan, Deputy CIO for NYC Department of Education and the Head of Software Engineering for Disney Corporate. Prior to Disney, he also held various management positions at firms such as IBM, Verizon and Con Edison. Mainetto received his Executive M.S. in Management of Technology and a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from NYU-Polytechnic University.
Andrew is a Founding Partner of GrowthX. He has been in the technology sector since 1998, based in New York […]
In 2008, Mike Tognotti saw an opportunity to apply the Scientific Method to recruiting, and 12 years later his company, Raindance Partners, Inc., is one of the nation’s most successful boutique Life Science executive search firms that has helped shape the landscape of the Biotech industry.
As he describes in this exciting podcast, Mike’s focus on detail, process, and personal touch have proven to be a lasting formula through changing economies, competitive market conditions, and even during the pandemic.
Mike grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area and was fascinated by the advances in Scientific tools used in Scientific research to advance drug development and diagnostics. He also loved the 49ers and marveled at how the team identified and developed some of the most talented football players of the 80s and 90s. The 49er’s leadership and culture stood out to him as the key difference-maker. After working for Genentech, Mike joined Illumina, the market leader in DNA sequencing. This is when Mike truly recognized that innovative talent, leadership, and healthy company culture are critical ingredients for a company to be successful. Mike was inspired by the leadership at Illumina and 49ers and gained an appreciation and passion for identifying and developing top talent . He decided to change the recruiting industry by applying what he learned from his influences and also incorporate the Scientific Method to his recruiting methodology after starting Raindance Partners several years later.
Today, Mike lives in North Carolina with his wife Audrey and three children. He loves to spend time with his family, surf, run, and volunteer for Unite To Light.
Braughm is the founder and Chief Executive Officer at Aduro Advisors. As founder and CEO, Braughm drives the company direction […]
Don Townsend is an executive search consultant and an executive coach for senior leaders new to their roles. Don has experience in the energy, computer, telecommunications, instrumentation, IT services, financial services, and engineering/construction industries. He has conducted senior leadership and board of director assignments in Canada, France, Germany, Great Britain, Japan, Mexico, the Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United States. He is particularly skilled in finding European leadership for US firms and American leadership for the US operations of European firms. In addition to his executive search work, Don assists chairmen and CEOs in recruiting directors for their boards. He has published articles on governance topics in Directors Monthly and Strategy & Leadership. Don was a Vice President at A.T. Kearney, the global management consultancy, from 1997 to 2003. Prior to that, he held Human Resources positions with Hilti AG, Teradata, and AT&T. During his industry years, Don also held leadership roles in Quality and Marketing. Don has bachelors and masters degrees from The University of Texas at Austin. He lives in Dallas, Texas.
Chris Perrotti has been the Chief of Staff for LogMeIn’s CEO for the last 2 years. In his role, he is responsible for driving aligned focus against the most critical priorities at LogMeIn. In addition, he has been focused on transitioning to a permanent remote-centric workplace for roughly the last year. Chris leads a small team of program & change management professionals to support and drive the transformation. Prior to the Chief of Staff role, Chris spent about 15 years building and leading teams delivering insights and efficiency through data and business applications, both at LogMeIn and Forrester Research.
LogMeIn’s category-defining products unlock the potential of the modern workforce by making it possible for millions of people and businesses around the globe to do their best work simply and securely—on any device, from any location and at any time. A pioneer in remote work technology and a driving force behind today’s work-from-anywhere movement, LogMeIn has become one of the world’s largest SaaS companies with tens of millions of active users, more than 3,500 global employees, over $1.3 billion in annual revenue and approximately 2 million customers worldwide who use its software as an essential part of their daily lives.
Brittany Dolin is Co-Founder of Pocketbook Agency. Inspired by her own career as a personal and executive assistant for high profile families, Brittany was determined to create a search firm that fosters long term relationships to help both clients and candidates feel more productive, successful, and fulfilled in the hiring process. Brittany’s years of experience in assistant roles allowed her to see what was missing from the traditional placement process. This critical understanding is what she turns to every day, working with Fortune 1000 companies & leaders, high profile early-stage businesses, ultra-high net worth families, and everyone in between. Brittany's specialty lies within the high net worth family office industry, where she has advised and worked with some of the most prominent family offices across The United States. Brittany has been quoted in leading publications such as The Financial Times and Forbes as an expert in the recruiting sector. Brittany is a Los Angeles native where she currently resides with her husband Derek and two Maltese dogs, Bentley & Teddy.
Maria Salamanca is a venture capitalist at Unshackled Ventures, a fund that fills a unique space in the entrepreneurial ecosystem, funding teams with immigrant founders at the earliest stage of pre-seed and seed. Maria joined the fund in 2015, during her time she has been involved in all 38 investments and has evaluated more than 2,500 deals. In 2018, she was first Latina named Forbes 30 Under 30 for Venture Capital and Business Insider’s Under 30 Rising Stars. Her support for the Latinx community also won her the the 2017 California Hispanic Chamber of Commerce Shark of Year.
Previous to joining Unshackled, Maria worked at FWD.us an immigration lobbying group founded by Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates, Ron Conway, Reid Hoffman and other tech leaders. She attended UC Berkeley where she studied Government and Legal Studies.
Liam Mulcahy is the Director, Sales GTM at Unusual Ventures where he works directly with enterprise portfolio companies to go from pitch deck to product-market fit, paying customers, and beyond. Prior to joining Unusual, Liam worked at MongoDB, pre/post IPO, as one of the top sales reps before going on to manage the top-performing sales team worldwide. Earlier in his career, he worked at a healthcare analytics startup, at the advertising agency McCann Erickson, and built/launched a networking app for coworking spaces.
Jon Younger PhD is the founder of the Agile Talent Collaborative. He is a thought-leader in the freelance space, sits on several advisory boards, and is the author of Agile Talent (Harvard, 2016) and writes regularly on the freelance revolution for Forbes.
Adam is the VP of Restaurants at Wix.com, the world’s largest platform for creating, managing, and growing an online presence, serving over 200 million customers worldwide. As VP of Restaurants, Adam helps guide business strategy that empowers restaurants to more easily offer online ordering, delivery, curbside pickup, and connect with their customers.
Prior to his role at Wix, Adam was the co-founder and CEO of SpeedETab, which was acquired by Wix in February 2021. SpeedETab offers online ordering and mobile apps to restaurants, easily integrated directly with their point of sale.
Adam is a Miami native, and after some time in Boston, returned to Miami in 2014 when starting SpeedETab. He’s an avid cyclist and runner and a novice tennis player. He also recently started the Adam Garfield YouTube channel, geared towards a vlog style sharing of entrepreneurial life, startup learnings, and Miami living.
Steve is currently a Senior Director at NTT Data working as a Agile Practice Consultant. Steve works as an Agile Transformation Lead and trainer heading organizational agile implementation and adoption for a broad set of industries that include multiple companies in the Commercial, Federal, Non-Profit, Cybersecurity, and Military sectors. Steve holds numerous certifications from Scaled Agile, Scrum Alliance, and the Project Management Institute, and earned his BA and MBA from Florida International University. Steve has also proudly served his country by earning the distinct title of US Marine.
Dan Brunell has over 30 years of talent acquisition experience. Serving in front line to executive management roles in the staffing industry, Dan has worked in both public and private organizations in sales, operations, and administration. He is experienced in start-up and turnaround strategies and has started multiple businesses including home care franchises. He is President of Dearborn West, LLC – a specialized consulting firm that recruits owners for top franchise systems throughout North America.For almost two decades, Dan has been a leader in establishing best practices and ethical guidelines for the franchise brokerage industry. He has developed franchise broker training programs for multiple broker networks and has personally trained hundreds of brokers. He has authored books on brokering and franchise selection as well. Dan is passionate about matching talent to opportunities and ensuring that every franchise broker is equipped to excel in this exciting space.
Joshua Smith serves as Senior Vice President of Advantage xPO, the workforce solutions division of Staffmark Group, providing Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO), Managed Service Provider (MSP), and Business Process Outsourcing (BPO). Since joining Staffmark Group in 2004, Joshua has held a number of positions with increasing responsibility in both operations and sales throughout his tenure. He is responsible for leading client development, account strategy and service delivery across the Advantage xPO client portfolio.
As an experienced practitioner in strategic workforce solutions, Joshua has distinguished himself as a results-driven leader with a strong business acumen for developing and deploying best in class programs within this discipline throughout the United States and Canada.
In 2019, Joshua was named to Staffing Industry Analyst’s 40 Under 40 list.
He holds a BS in Marketing from St. Cloud State University – Herberger Business School.
Topics:
- Fundamentals around MSP’s and RPO’s
- Analyzing the typical MSP Profile
- Direct Sourcing Initiatives
Brett Haralson is best known as WIX.com’s Global Community Manager, where he works with one of the most passionate global online communities in the world.
Arran Stewart is the Co-Founder and CVO of blockchain-powered recruitment platform Job.com. Arran has spent over a decade working to disrupt the recruitment industry with innovative, first-of-its-kind technology. His expertise on hiring, recruitment, technology, and macro job market trends has been featured in Forbes, Inc., Reuters, Wired, Fortune, and Nasdaq, among others.
Terri Gallagher is the founder of Gallagher and Consultants, a WBENC Certified Gig Workforce Solutions Company. She has over 20 years’ experience as a Gig Workforce Expert and has made it her personal mission to elevate the Gig workforce industry by leveraging a trademarked ecosystem model of delivery that includes best of breed talent, technology, and alliance partners to provide contingent workforce and multi talent supply solutions. She is also an accomplished speaker, writer and published author.
Topics:
- The rise of the external workforce and Soloprenuer movement
- 3rd party platforms engaging workers
- Terri’s creation of the “Agile Talent Program”
- Tips for Staffing Agencies responding to the Direct Sourcing Trend
Rosie is the co-founder of Magical, a SaaS productivity startup focused on automating mundane tasks and works. She is also an Executive in Residence at Inovia Capital, a venture capital firm that’s invested in companies like Sonder, App Direct, and Forward. Rosie was previously the Head of Business Operations, Monetization & Strategy at Atlassian, managing a 20+ person team and reporting directly to the CFO. Over her 4+ year tenure, she played an essential role in the growth and scale of the business globally.
Topics:
- Practical recommendations on how to succeed when transitioning from corporate to startup environments
- Overcoming barriers that female entrepreneurs and female-led startups face when seeking funding
- Data attributes that strategy teams use to ensure their companies are on target to meet set objectives
Mayor Manny Cid is a 27-year resident of Miami Lakes. He is an associate at Horizon Properties of Miami, Inc., and Owner of Mayor’s Café – Miami Lakes.
Mayor Cid served Miami Lakes residents as the Senior Legislative Aide to two State Representatives and served on the town’s Youth Activities Task Force and Economic Development Committee.
During his seven years as a Sr. Legislative Aide in the Florida House of Representatives, he successfully worked on important pieces of legislation- such as the “Carbon Monoxide Safety Law” and a bill which helped Florida International University recruit a new Medical School Faculty. Additionally, while in the State Capitol, he worked on various appropriations for Miami Lakes residents including funds for the Town of Miami Lakes Bull Run Roadway and Drainage Improvement project.
Elected in 2012 to the Miami Lakes Council and subsequently selected as Vice-Mayor in August 2013. In November 2016, Manny was elected Mayor of the Town of Miami Lakes.
He is also a graduate of the Institute for Elected Municipal Officials (IEMO) I, II, & III. The educational program is sponsored by the Florida League of Cities and the John Scott Dailey Florida Institute of Government.
Mayor Cid and his wife Melissa reside and are raising their two sons in Miami Lakes’ Villa Vizcaya neighborhood where he previously served as a Board Member of its Condominium Association.
A serial entrepreneur and architect by training, Dave Fano has built his career by creating high-growth teams. He founded the successful building information and technology consultancy CASE and ultimately sold it to WeWork, where he served as Chief Growth Officer and increased the unicorn startup’s revenue 100% YoY for four years and led a global team of 3,400 people. In 2020, Dave launched his latest mission, Teal, which offers tools and resources that puts career development back in the hands of the individual so they can pursue a fulfilling career.
Originally from Lithuania, Karl started spending summers in United States at the age of 12 and finally made a permanent move at 17. Being very passionate about technology, movies and games, he pursued all three careers. From filmmaking and photography to fine arts and 3D computer animation to software and games development. Karl has worked on visual effects for films such as Iron Man, Captain America and many others. He has created over 60 computer applications for the real estate industry and led game development teams in the creation of mobile games. Currently, Karl, is solely focused on the latter.
Chris Allaire is the CEO and Founder at Averity. The Purpose of Averity: To build a company that pioneers a change in the recruiting industry by providing an unparalleled experience with everyone they interact with. His Vision: Build the best company to work for in the US.
Chris has simple philosophies in life and business: “If it’s not fun, it’s not worth doing.” And “find something you’re good at and do it better than anyone else.” Chris is a proud husband and father to 2 incredible girls. He believes his calling in life is to influence people to find the best in themselves; a power they have within that they never knew how to tap into, and put this power into action. Chris craves growth and constant improvement, backed by passion.
Samantha Huang is a Principal at BMW iVentures, where she focuses on investments across AI and big data, autonomous driving, Industry 4.0, sustainability, and the next generation of human experiences. She also serves as Head of Content for the Emerging Venture Capitalists Association, which is the most active pre-partner nonprofit organization for empowering the next generation of venture capitalists. Samantha previously worked at Robert Bosch Venture Capital and in corporate development at SK Telecom. She also worked as Lead Researcher at the Rock Center for Corporate Governance at Stanford University on research projects centered on innovation and entrepreneurship. She holds a J.D. from UC Berkeley Law School and an MA in history from Stanford University. Samantha is also a licensed California attorney.
Chris Allaire is the CEO and Founder at Averity. The Purpose of Averity: To build a company that pioneers a […]
Larry Brantley is the president of Chaloner. Chaloner is a national executive search firm specializing in communications, public relations and marketing recruitment.
Larry has more than 30 years of experience in the communications, marketing and advertising fields. One of his first key jobs was as a packaging designer at Frito-Lay where he developed his networking and people skills. He eventually started the first creative staffing firm in the DFW area. Since then he has been involved in recruiting and placement of industry professionals both nationally and internationally.
Larry has worked with such firms as JCPenney, HP, Perdue Farms, McDonalds, Texas Instruments, Johnson Outdoors, PRSA, TracyLocke, MaDougall Biotech, Phillips 66, Frito-Lay and Edelman. He has placed brand, creative, account service, interactive/web, public relations, marketing, media, traffic, production and other executive level talent.
Larry has been interviewed as a staffing industry expert by Business Insider, The Wall Street Journal, The Dallas Morning News, The Houston Chronicle, PROMO Magazine, Communication Arts Magazine, Dallas Men Magazine, The Dallas Business Journal and The Houston Business Journal. He is an award-winning designer through IABC (International Association of Business Communicators) and is a long-term member of AAF where he serves as a part of the executive leadership for the 10th district and Vice Chair for AAF Council of Governors on the national level.
He currently splits his time between Dallas and NYC. He has 3 sons.
Philippe Saint-Just is the Co-Founder and SVP of Product at Miami-based REEF Technology. At REEF, Philippe has led the evolution […]
Dan Fantasia is the President of Treeline, Inc., the nation’s top sales recruiting firm. Dan founded Treeline, Inc. in 2001 and since its launch the company has helped its clients hire more than 3,000 sales professionals nationally. The company has been recognized as One of America’s Best Executive Recruiting Firms by Forbes, an Inc. 5000 Fastest Growing Company, one of the Best Places to Work in the Country and in Massachusetts for two decades by Inc. and the BBJ, one of the 50 Fastest Growing Private Companies in MA, and has received numerous awards for its sales hiring technology that gives hiring executives more insight into the hiring process. Dan Fantasia is recognized as an expert in the sales industry, and a trusted advisor to companies looking to harness a sales network of hidden talent.
Mario Faria is part of the Gartner Research Board organization, responsible for the Data & Analytics Board, supporting CDOs and D&A Leaders of the largest corporations. Mr. Faria helps clients define data, analytics and digital roles, staffing requirements, and organizational design and structures. Before moving to GRB, Mr. Faria was a Team VP, creating and leading the Office of the CDO Gartner research team. Prior to Gartner, Mr.Faria has worked for ServiceSource, Equifax-Boa Vista, IBM, Accenture and Microsoft. He was also one of the first chief data officers in the world.
Topics:
- The Future of D&A
- Evolution of the CDO role
- How to Use D&A to drive Innovation
Mario Faria is part of the Gartner Research Board organization, responsible for the Data & Analytics Board, supporting CDOs and […]
As SVP, Head of Government and Industry Affairs with LHH, Murielle Antille is responsible for the relationships with external stakeholders such as policy makers, institutions, communities or think tanks. As a member of the Global Leadership Team and global thought leadership council, Murielle acts as an internal advisor on topics related to labor markets, regulations and further external developments impacting LHH’s activities. In the past, she held various functions in global sales as well as lead LHH European talent development business. Prior to joining LHH, Murielle worked in international business development, human capital management and partner management. Murielle is also the global chair of the Career Management Network at the World Employment Confederation, the global sector association of private employment firms.
Murielle holds an M.A. (lic. rer. publ. HSG) in economics, law and political science from the University of St. Gallen (HSG), Switzerland
Allen Cueli is responsible for Visa’s product suite in Central America and the Caribbean. In this role, Allen works closely with clients, fintechs and partners in bringing Visa’s consumer products and API-based capabilities into the markets as well as the development of new payment flows.
Most recently, Allen had been leading a number of transformation initiatives in Latin America, including introducing Agile into the organization, launching the Visa Everywhere Initiative, a platform to spearhead Visa’s fintech engagement efforts, driving Visa’s first equity investments in the region and managing the Visa Developer Platform, where the company exposes its capabilities through API’s.
Fluent in Spanish and Portuguese, Allen has both significant international and US experience, including leading engagements with a portfolio of signature US clients on collaborative innovation development to deliver differentiated payment experiences.
With over 20 years of experience, Mr. Cueli has developed a deep base of product management and business development expertise across both developed and emerging markets within the Innovation space with Ecommerce and Mobile payments as well as core payment solutions like Debit and Commercial Solutions.
Blair Lewis is the President of Global Recruiters of Mid-Cities and leads the executive retained search division. This division focuses on: Asset Management, RIAs, FinTech, Wealth Management, and Private Equity.
Before founding GRN Mid-Cities, Blair surpassed expectations in financial product sales at companies including Deutsche Bank, Cohen and Steers, and ING Funds. He has served leadership roles such as Master’s Council, Vice-President, and Senior Vice-President positions.
As President of GRN Mid-Cities, Blair taps into his experience in the finance industry to help companies acquire the best talent for strategic hiring initiatives. His unique professional experience of working in two start-up firms and two multi-national corporations imparted a passion for team building. His work as an executive recruiter is inspired by that passion today.
Blair is excited about building the best teams possible within an organization. He believes this is best done by evaluating culture, needs, expectations, and desire – not just a qualifying résumé.
Blair graduated with a B.S. in Business Management from Texas A&M University and studied Theology at TCU’s Brite Divinity School. Blair lives in the Dallas/Fort Worth area with his wife and has a Freshman daughter at Purdue University. He spends his free time playing tennis with friends, working out, and hosting two podcasts: Namastir and What’s Next with Dave and Blair.
Mirtes Lobaito is the Founder and CEO of AGM Tech Solutions Inc., an I.T. Staffing firm specializing in contract, contract to hire and full-time placement. From its infancy in late 2018, AGM has grown to producing $25 million in revenue supporting mid-sized to Fortune 500 companies. Mirtes was recently chosen by her employees as one of the top CEO’s on 2021 Glassdoor employees choice. She is responsible for leading the company, driving business growth and delivering outstanding service to fortune 400 clients.
Before founding AGM, Mirtes held National Account sales Manager positions in software companies as well as within the IT Staffing space. An entrepreneur with over 15 years of experience, Mirtes has dedicated herself to growing her client base and supporting them in all aspects of Staffing Augmentation.
Mirtes took the next step, in 2018 when she saw a gap in the market place for more minority and women owned staffing companies, disrupting the industry by providing a true consultative approach to clients and candidates competing with big names competitors in our space. Our focus will always be Quality and Execution while providing an excellent client experience.
Adrianna Samaniego is an Investor at Female Founders Fund, an early-stage fund investing in female-founded technology companies across B2B, Consumer, Healthcare, and Fintech. Female Founders Fund has invested in some of the fastest-growing female-led start-ups including Zola, Billie, Co–Star, Eloquii, Maven Clinic, Rent the Runway, Peanut, Tala, WinkyLux, and more. In her role, she sources, invests, and supports portfolio companies who are building category defining technology businesses.
Prior to joining Female Founders Fund, she worked as a Summer Investment Associate at JetBlue Ventures, Harlem Capital Partners, & New Media Ventures. Adrianna spent eight years in tech, formerly as Co-founder & Co-CEO at Area 120 Google’s Startup Incubator. In this role, she led a team to rapidly build and launch a B2B marketplace for Fortune 500 companies to procure from diverse-owned companies. Adrianna also formerly led and created Google’s Global Supplier Diversity Program that created over $1B in opportunities for diverse-owned businesses.
Adrianna is passionate about removing inequities and increasing diversity in VC and Tech ecosystems. Adrianna Samaniego is of Mexican descent and was born and raised in the small border town of Douglas, Arizona. She holds an MBA from Columbia Business School and a BA from University of Georgia.
Melissa Arnoldi is Chief Executive Officer of Vrio Corp., an AT&T digital entertainment services company in Latin America with $5 billion in revenue and more than 9,000 employees across 10 countries. She is responsible for driving business growth, bringing innovations and delivering superior customer experiences to more than 10.5 million customers. Her track record of deploying advanced technologies in fast paced industries drives the strategy to connect consumers in Latin America with the content they love through innovative products and services. Under her leadership, Vrio has seen double digit revenue growth and has been named as a Top 25 World’s Best Workplace by Great Places to Work®. Melissa was appointed to her current position in August 2018.
Before her current role, Melissa served as president of Technology and Network Operations, AT&T Communications, a wholly-owned subsidiary of AT&T Inc. She directed a team of nearly 200,000 employees and was responsible for global information, technology development, network deployment and operations, as well as AT&T’s Intellectual Property group, Labs and Foundries. She also led AT&Ts transition to a softwaredefined and future 5G network while leading the team to the award-winning recognition of Best and Fastest Network.
Dave specializes in the recruitment of exceptional CFOs and Board Members for technology companies located in tech hubs across the U.S. He works with clients backed by top-tier venture capital and private equity firms, and with public companies. Over the last ten plus years since forming Arnold Partners, Dave has placed CFOs in a wide variety of industry sectors in both Tech and Life-Sciences, Arnold Partners is established as the leading independent tech CFO resource delivering exponential value to clients.
Dave is a sought-after voice for the tech and CFO communities having been cited by The Wall Street Journal, CFO Magazine, Silicon Valley Business Journal, USA Today, Money Magazine, Los Angeles Times, San Francisco Chronicle, The Street and a host of prominent, on-line career and CFO resource publications. He has also been a featured speaker and panelist at CFO related conferences including FEI, ABFO, SHRM and BDO Roundtables.
Dave also served on the SFBJ Leadership trust. Arnold Partners’ focus is completing assignments that result in direct contributions by their placed CFOs to significant growth and profitability for their clients. To date, CFOs Arnold Partners’ placed CFOs have created over $22B in value in terms of market capitalization and merger and acquisition (M&A) exits.
Julian is President and CEO of Dynexus Recruiting, one of the premier Mid-Market ERP Recruiting and Staffing companies in North America.
As of 2021, DyNexus has placed talented job-seekers in the Mid-Market ERP workforce with hundreds of companies, and over 70 Acumatica ERP partners and end-user companies as a member of the SSA (Success Services for Acumatica), Acumatica’s select group of preferred service providers to the member companies of the Acumatica ERP partner community.
DyNexus Recruitment and Staffing specialties include: Functional/Technical Consultant, Cloud, Web & Mobile Developer/Architect, Sales Executive/Solutions Sales, Practice Manager/Consulting Manager, Systems Administrator/Business Analyst & Technical/Systems Analyst, Project Manager/IT-Ops Manager/Director of Operations/COO, Accountant/Controller/CFO
Julian was born and raised in Seattle, WA, and has worked for DyNexus since October 2008. He has over 20 years experience in Technology, Leadership and IT/ERP Recruiting. His early career was in the performing arts, as an actor and singer, which is how he met his wife Jenny.
Eric Bahn is a Co-Founder and General Partner at Hustle Fund, an early-stage venture capital firm ($50M under management) based in San Francisco. Hustle Fund invests in software startups at the pre-seed and seed stages, backing founders who exhibit great execution and high velocity (we call it ‘hustle’).
Previous to Hustle Fund, Eric was an angel investor and venture partner at 500 Startups. And prior to becoming a professional investor, he spent over a decade as an operator and entrepreneur. Eric draws from his product and growth experience to advise his founders in scaling their own enterprises.
Eric is a native of Detroit, Michigan and first arrived to Silicon Valley to attend Stanford University (BA, MA), which launched his career into software and startups. Eric is happily married with two kids.
Mark is a Founding Partner of Las Olas Venture Capital, an early stage venture fund focused on Florida and other underserved venture capital markets. The firm was founded in 2016, and has successfully deployed fund 1, and has started to make investments out of its second fund. Prior to starting Las Olas VC, Mark spent about 15 years at Higher One, a company he co-founded in 2000 while a senior in college. In his roles as CFO, Chairman and then CEO, Mark has had a major hand in steering the company from its first round of seed funding and multiple rounds of venture funding all the way to its successful IPO in 2010, and beyond. He helped grow Higher One from just three founders to more than 1,000 employees and guide the company through multiple acquisitions exceeding $150mm in aggregate value. When Mark left in 2014, Higher One’s products and services supported more than 1,900 schools and approximately 13 million enrolled students.
Mark Settle is a seven time CIO, three time CIO 100 award winner and two time book author. His most […]
Christian Schweizer is an experienced Marketing Leader with expertise in Business Strategy and development, analytics & digital marketing. He is the Head of Marketing Intelligence for Kaufman Rossin, where he leads the mission for analyzing, reporting and optimizing the firm’s marketing. He also works hand-in-hand with clients on strategic business and marketing initiatives, as well as on data analytics and insights.
Prior to joining Kaufman Rossin, he led the Global Business Analytics team for S&D Marketing at IBM, managing the Enterprise Marketing Analytics Centers which oversees all data, business & marketing insights. Christian has lived and worked in Europe and the U.S. He holds a degree in business administration from the University of Applied Sciences in Switzerland and is a graduate of Harvard Business School. He is an adjunct professor with the University of Miami lecturing Marketing Analytics. He serves on the board of the HBS Club and is also the President of the HBS Alumni Angels of South Florida.
Rebecca Danta is the Managing Director of Miami Angels, the largest angel network in Florida, which funds Seed and Series A technology companies with early traction across various sectors.
Miami Angels has deployed $13.6M into 33 companies since 2014, and Rebecca built a sustainable, independent business model for the organization.
Prior to joining Miami Angels, Rebecca managed global campus operations for General Assembly in New York City, the first accelerated learning provider, and the “Top Most Innovative Company in Education” per Fast Company. General Assembly had a successful exit in 2018. Prior to that, Rebecca worked at Macy’s in their Executive Development Program.
Rebecca is a Miami native and passionate about investing into markets and teams that are often overlooked in traditional venture capital. She serves on the board of the Florida Venture Forum and is a Class XI member of Miami Fellows.
Shirin Dehghan is an Operating Partner at Frog Capital. She founded and scaled Arieso before selling the business to JDSU. She is now Chair of mobile analytics software business Opensignal, tele-therapy solution provider Neurofenix and employee engagement AI software company, Winningtemp.
Roger Whiteman began his career in recruiting in 1993 and has been in the IT staffing business for over 25 […]
Lorie Camacho, MS is a LinkedIn coach, workshop facilitator, and corporate consultant who leverages a unique style to engage and motivate professionals to find more happiness in their current job, build an online presence and organize strategies for success in their career networking. Lorie has a master’s in teaching with technology and incorporates science-based learning and clear objectives into all of her engagements. Lorie manages a private coaching and corporate consulting business and can be found at: loriecamacho.com
Simon co-founded a ten-person boutique firm in 2004 that evolved into The Condo Store that now proudly hosts over fifty team members and more than 300 sophisticated high-net-worth clients from around the globe. Often recognized in Toronto as the architect of the pre-construction condo investment sector, with over $10 billion in transactions and a reputation that spans across North America as the creator of the bulk condo investment space.
Simon has long-term relationships with hundreds of clients that include doctors, medical practitioners and business professionals across Canada. These clients account for over $500 million in annual investments. Simon’s long-standing relationships with leading developers continues to fuel The Condo Store’s investment engine.
Topics:
- Strategies for winning competitive deals
- Critical partnerships that promote successful business ventures
- Supporting communities through corporate philanthropy initiatives
Based out of Denver, Colorado, Saba Karim is the Global Startup Pipeline Manager of Techstars, the worldwide network that helps entrepreneurs succeed – responsible for helping source 150 of the 450 startups from across the world that are accepted into its distinguished accelerator.
Saba is a public speaker, often delivering keynotes on pitching, growth marketing and fundraising. Saba is also often called upon as a judge at startup pitch competitions such as Web Summit in Lisbon (considered the largest tech conference in the world), Denver Startup Week (the largest free event of its kind) and many more.
Prior to Techstars, Saba was on the founding team of Evolve – the world’s first dating CRM, which went on to be acquired by Hubspot (NYSE:HUB). He is also part of the origin story of Orai – an AI powered public speaking app (backed by Comcast).
Additionally, Saba loves coaching founders, serving as a growth advisor to a number of consumer startups most commonly in the areas of Future of Work, Marketplaces, Mobile Apps and Retail. He also coaches founders through the recent creation of the Saba Says Podcast.
Topics:
- Saba’s journey to becoming a coach, mentor, and advisor for startups worldwide.
- The mindset of giving without expecting anything in return.
- Community as the unfair advantage for startups.
- Biggest misconceptions around building community around your startup.
- What Saba looks for when sourcing startups for Techstars Accelerator.
- Traits of a successful startup team.
- The art of a great pitch.
- The importance of celebrating the small wins throughout the startup journey.
Resources:
- Techstars
- Hacking Growth: How Today’s Fastest-Growing Companies Drive Breakout Success
- Steve Jobs: The Exclusive Biography
- The Secret
- The 5 AM Club: Own Your Morning. Elevate Your Life
- Saba Karim
Nitin is a founding partner at Unshackled Ventures, a venture fund designed to help immigrant founders in the US succeed faster. […]
Ryan Kovach is a 20+ year veteran of the staffing and recruiting industry. He is currently the President and CEO of RKCMO, a fractional outsourced CMO agency dedicated to helping staffing and recruiting firms grow their businesses.
With 5 American Staffing Voice Awards, for Overall Excellence in Marketing under his belt, Ryan and his team can help your staffing agency reach your growth goals.
Jan is a technology entrepreneur born in Vienna, Austria. He is the co-founder and CEO of Candidately. At Candidately Jan […]
Brendan is the Founder of Climate People, a climate tech search firm mobilizing a workforce transition to fighting climate change. […]
Dr. Gautham Pallapa is an Executive Advisor for VMware. He works with C-Suite and executives at Global 2000 enterprise customers in transforming their strategy, processes, technologies, culture, and people to achieve their objectives and business outcomes. His mantra is “Transform with Empathy” and has successfully led several business transformations and cloud modernization efforts in various industry verticals.
Gautham is an agile coach, a Lean Six Sigma Black Belt, a SAFe Agilist, and an Ambassador for the DevOps Institute. He writes/talks/works on transformation, elevating humans, helping underprivileged people, and giving back to the community. He has an upcoming book called “Lead with Empathy” which explores these topics in detail.
Yasemin Akcakaya is the VP of Consumer Marketing, leading integrated marketing, brand and product teams at Norwegian Cruise Line. She has a track record of combining strategic vision, strong analytical thinking and keen grasp of market trends to drive aggressive profitable growth in highly competitive B2B, B2C, Online and Retail landscapes. Since joining NCL in 2020, Yasemin has focused on developing innovative and impactful strategies that elevate brand, drive loyalty and increase consumer engagement. She has deep experience in the areas of brand strategy, customer retention, customer experience, loyalty marketing, CRM, personalization, integrated marketing, marketing analytics, and customer research. Prior to joining NCL, Yasemin led marketing teams at CVS, Liberty Mutual and FedEx.
Mike Hayes is the Chief Digital Transformation Officer at VMware. He joined VMware in October 2020, and leads the company’s worldwide business operations and the acceleration of the company’s SaaS transition. Prior to joining VMware, Mike served as Senior Vice President and Head of Strategic Operations for Cognizant Technologies, where he ran a $2B P&L for Cognizant’s largest financial services clients. Mike previously spent four years at Bridgewater Associates, an investment management firm, where he served in Chief of Staff to CEO and COO roles. Prior to Bridgewater, he spent 20 years in the U.S. Navy SEALs where his career began as one of 19 graduates from a class of 120. Mike served throughout South America, Europe, the Middle East, and Central Asia, including the conflicts in Bosnia, Kosovo, Iraq, and Afghanistan. His last job in the Navy was the Commanding Officer of SEAL Team TWO, which included ten months as the Commander of a 2,000 person Special Operations Task Force in southeastern Afghanistan. Before that, Mike was selected as a White House Fellow (’08/’09) and served two years as Director, Defense Policy and Strategy at the National Security Council.
Sean is the founder of MacLENS Inclusive Leadership. This practice helps leaders break away from the status quo by seeing problems and solutions through a broader, deeper, and more inclusive leadership lens – focusing on awareness, action, and accountability that optimizes the diversity of people and teams. As a consultant, coach, facilitator, and culture change agent, Sean is passionate about helping leaders transform the way they think and lead to advance their strategic plans and fulfill their larger purpose. He is an authentic advocate of Diversity & Inclusion with the ability to approach development, growth, and alignment by integrating both business and human resources principles and practices. Sean is described as “a courageous leader who challenges and enables others to see their environments from various perspectives and identify new ways to reach higher and more effective levels of performance.”
Sean’s podcast: https://bourbonbeerandboldconversations.libsyn.com/
Rachel is Senior Associate at Unusual helping to build and support the firm’s consumer investments. Rachel’s passion for business lies at the intersection of products and people. Rachel started her career as a consultant with McKinsey & Company with a focus on consumer brands, retailers, supply chain, and manufacturing. She then joined the Corporate Strategy team at Nordstrom Inc. Most recently, Rachel was an early-stage investor on the consumer team at Shasta Ventures. Rachel grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area, a place that has given her a deep appreciation for the entrepreneurial journey. She was a part of the team that launched SparkTruck, a non-profit organization that brought design-thinking curriculum to students across the country via a mobile classroom. She has been a speaker at TED events, for the Aspen Institute, and at Autodesk University. Rachel holds a BS from Northwestern University where she studied Manufacturing Engineering and Psychology.
Jeremy L. Strickland currently serves in the role of Chief of Staff at Google. Prior to returning to Google, where Jeremy also began his career, he worked as a Sales Innovation Manager at LinkedIn and in investment banking at Goldman Sachs. Prior to that, Jeremy completed the MPP / MBA degree program at Kellogg and Harvard and has also studied at Vanderbilt (undergraduate) and Stanford.
Having worked in Silicon Valley for nearly a decade, Jeremy brings a diverse set of experiences and background to his role as Chief of Staff, making him a valuable contributor capable of advising on a wide spectrum of issues, ranging from business and product strategy to financial design to public policy.
Outside of his role at Google, Jeremy advises start-ups and is currently working w/ the leadership of Pied Parker, a quickly growing start-up in the transportation / parking sector. Outside of the office, Jeremy (and his wife Grace) compete in CrossFit competitions, loves Atlanta Braves baseball, and holds a single-digit golf handicap.
Michael Weisz is an award-winning entrepreneur and Founder and President of Yieldstreet, a next-generation digital investment platform powering the modernization […]
Farah Allen is an accomplished media technology leader with over 17 years of experience. Allen is currently the CEO & founder of ‘The Labz, The Labz is an interactive events platform that allows event organizers and content creators an entertainment-focused event solution that increases their RSVP rate and drives more revenue. Whether presenting films, theater productions, episodic and panel discussions, The Labz makes an exciting theatrical online experience. Farah’s previous executive positions include President and CEO of The Allen Group Management consulting Agency, where her clients included fortune 500 companies, and CEO and Cofounder of Song Society App. Farah has the honor of being the AJC Women of the Year for technology and is featured in publications such as Forbes and The Washington Post. The Labz also was named by Atlanta American Inno top startup to watch.
Alex is VP of Platform Solutions at Shutterstock where he is responsible for leading a team that delivers a best-in-class […]
Jeff Buck is the Vice President of Business Optimization and is responsible for the development and execution of global business strategy which […]
Courtney Boyd Myers (CEO, CMO of AKUA) is an entrepreneur, environmentalist, and writer. Prior to launching AKUA, she helped build […]
IT executive with a proven track record of success in both private and public companies including 3 IPOs – Excite@Home, […]
Maggie Vo, CFA®, is a finance expert with more than a decade’s experience in the public markets, analyzing and managing investments across […]
Originally from Colombia, Carolina Lasso cares deeply about growth. As a marketer with 14+ years of experience, she has worked […]
Mousa Hamad currently resides on the Gulf Coast of Florida. There, he is a partner and a father to a vivacious three […]
Chris Burkhard is a 4th generation entrepreneur, and has been running his business for over 20 years. Placers is a […]
Sue rejoined The Healthcare Initiative in 2019 after leading the Executive Talent Acquisition Center of Excellence for a $4.8 billion […]
Chris Perrotti has been the Chief of Staff for LogMeIn’s CEO for the last 2 years. In his role, he […]
Steve is currently a Senior Director at NTT Data working as a Agile Practice Consultant. Steve works as an Agile Transformation Lead and […]
A serial entrepreneur and architect by training, Dave Fano has built his career by creating high-growth teams. He founded the […]
Samantha Huang is a Principal at BMW iVentures, where she focuses on investments across AI and big data, autonomous driving, […]
Brad is the founder & CEO of TalentBurst. He founded TalentBurst in July of 2002 with two colleagues from Monster Worldwide (parent of Monster.com). Under his leadership, TalentBurst has become one of the pre-eminent providers of IT, Engineering and Life Sciences staffing solutions to global enterprises including through MSPs. He was one of the first business leaders to embrace MSPs in 2005. In 2008 during the financial recession, Brad architected the move for TalentBurst to enter a niche vertical providing High Hazard Payroll and EOR services. EOR now accounts for almost half of all TalentBurst revenues. Prior to founding TalentBurst he was one of the founding team members of People.com, a provider of staffing services to dot coms. Brad lives in the Boston area with his family, loves to travel and enjoy different kinds of foods.
Chris Hopper is a Salesforce technical recruiter who assists clients and candidates with identifying and qualifying Salesforce talent. He enjoys speaking with Salesforce professionals around their career growth, trends he sees in the Salesforce job market and providing career advice when called upon. He’s an active LinkedIn connector, posting and collaborating on various Salesforce technologies, recruiting, book reviews and relevant career topics. Prior to recruiting, Chris was a technical consultant, delivery manager, independent contractor and career counselor and uses his past experience to help guide the next generation in the workforce.
Carolyn Pitt is Founder and CEO of Productions.com, the job marketplace for production professionals that connects studios, music labels, and […]
Darren Reinke fundamentally believes there is greatness within each one of us. His mission is to unleash the inner lion within leaders so that they can lead more authentic and joyful lives while creating stronger and more resilient teams, organizations, and communities.
Darren founded Group Sixty, an executive coaching and training company based in San Diego, to bring his purpose to life and to transform leaders, their teams, and their organizations. Group Sixty works with leaders and teams at Fortune 500’s, mid-market companies, fast-growing startups, and visionary non-profits.
Link to Darren’s book: http://thesavageleader.com/
Topics:
- Strategies on how to overcome barriers related to writing your first book
- Leadership styles and attributes that work best in terms of championing organizational strategy
- Biggest challenges facing corporate leaders today
Carlos Gonzalez de Villaumbrosia is an entrepreneur with over 10 years of experience building global companies and digital products in the US, Europe, and Latin America. Carlos founded Product School in San Francisco in 2014. Today, the company is the global leader in product management training with a community of over one million product management professionals.
Designed to fit into work schedules, classes are held in the evenings or on weekends.
All the instructors are real-world product managers, working at renowned tech companies like Netflix, Airbnb, Google, Facebook, Amazon, and Paypal. In addition to individual classes, Product School also delivers custom corporate training programs to Fortune 500 companies seeking to upskill their existing teams or onboard new talent.
Carlos is committed to pushing the product community forward. With this aim in mind, he published the Amazon bestseller, The Product Book. He also hosts Proddys – the annual awards honoring the best software products -, produces ProductCon – a multi-city conference attended by tens of thousands of product managers every year – and helps organize over 1,000 free events every year in 200 cities around the globe.
Topics:
- Carlos’ journey into product management.
- The value of failing and learning to carve your own path.
- Building the Product School community to over 1m product professionals worldwide.
- Keeping quality as your community and organization scales.
- Common misconceptions around product management.
- The brain of a product manager: resourceful, analytical, and empathetic.
- Customer retention as the key to growth.
Resources for the show notes:
- Product School
- The Product Book: How to Become a Great Product Manager
- Proddys: Annual awards to honor the world’s best digital products
- Product Career Fair
- Humor, Seriously: Why Humor Is a Secret Weapon in Business and Life (And how anyone can harness it. Even you.)
- Connect: Building Exceptional Relationships with Family, Friends, and Colleagues
Jessica is the 2nd growth marketing hire at Series C, General Catalyst backed Zageno, the B2B procurement marketplace for the life sciences. […]
David Spinks is the cofounder of CMX, where over 20,000 community professionals gather to learn and support each other and is the host of CMX Summit, the largest conference in the community industry. In 2019, CMX was acquired by Bevy, where Spinks now serves as the VP of Community, helping companies launch and scale event-driven community programs. David has personally advised and trained hundreds of organizations in community strategy including Facebook, Waze, Salesforce, Airbnb, and Google.
Topics:
- David’s journey to becoming a community professional.
- How following your genuine interests and curiosity can lead you to career growth.
- The power of bringing people together and creating a sense of belonging.
- Understanding and measuring the value of community for a business.
- The SPACES model as a framework to develop your community strategy.
- Common misconceptions around building community for a business.
- Hiring community professionals.
Charlie started BlueWave in 2014 with the intention of helping scale rapid-growth startups and recently funded companies. His passion for technology and startup culture quickly lead him into launching BlueWave Investment Partners, an Orlando-based angel investment group. Charlie is extremely active in the local community through his involvement in the Orlando Tech Council, Downtown Orlando Partnership, and organizing the newest Orlando technology group, Project Orlando.
Outside of work, Charlie is a husband and father of two adorable little girls, Zoe and Indigo. And we know if he had a choice, he would move the BlueWave office to New Smyrna Beach so he could catch a few waves before the work day.
Luis Andre Gazitua is a Miami-based attorney and lobbyist specializing in procurement in Miami-Dade County, the municipalities of the greater Miami area, and Miami-Dade Public Schools. He represents clients from pre-bid through bid protest, award, and project implementation stages. Gazitua represents clients in all industries, including technology, infrastructure, and transportation.
In 2017, Gazitua assisted private clients in closing almost half a billion dollars in competitive solicitations in the infrastructure and services sectors. In 2019, he closed under one hundred and fifty million dollars in the third quarter in the transportation and public safety sectors.
Gazitua is a National Board Board Member of Maverick PAC (MavPAC). MavPAC is the most active conservative political organization that engages next-generation leadership in the national political process. MavPAC’s fundraising history and achievements in membership growth have positioned MavPAC to develop the future base of the Republican Party further and lead a new generation of conservative activists, distinguished young professionals, and future public servants.
Pete Gibson is the CIO at Friendly’s and Johnny Rockets Restaurants brands where he is leading the technology and digital transformation efforts. He is an executive leader with a solid record of success leveraging technology, improving operations, developing high-performing teams globally, and has earned a reputation during his 28-year career for realigning organizations to increase business profitability, improve value, grow revenue, and drive down costs while improving overall operating efficiency.
He has managed resources for maximum revenue, growth, and productivity in a diverse field of business environments including Fortune 100 companies, start-ups, franchisors, research and development, and government organizations.
Gibson has led organizational change from multiple C-level posts, having directed six large technology organization turnarounds, improving overall company revenue by up to 31 percent, and reducing costs by as much as 30 percent.
He is known as an approachable and personable leader with a track record of strong employee retention. His business credo is, “Technology in business is as much about motivating employees for optimal performance as it is about creating innovative products that work.”
Topics:
- Discussion on leadership techniques between the military and corporate environments
- Approaches on the effective execution of technology strategies post-pandemic
- Innovative methods of solving new challenges for products or services during the pandemic
An Information Security Executive with over 15 years of experience, Margarita Rivera has thrived her entire career on solving complex problems. Margarita has dedicated her professional journey to building Information Security Risk, Compliance and Privacy Programs and continues to do so as the Vice President of Information Security at LMC, a Lennar Corporation.
Margarita has a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration and is currently pursuing her Masters in Information Systems Management at Harvard University. She has several professional certifications including the Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP), Certified Information Privacy Technologist (CIPT), and the Certified Risk and Information Systems Controls (CRISC) to name a few.
Margarita is also very involved within the Security community. She currently serves on the Governing Body for Evanta, the Advisory Board for SecureWorld and is a member of the ISACA and ISSA.
Derek Oats is the CEO of smartShift and is responsible for expanding the smartShift business globally. He has a successful track record of Global and American sales and leadership roles. He was recently the CEO of Americas for SNP, a leading software suite for data transformations. Prior to SNP, he was Global Vice President, Database and Data Management for SAP, the World’s Largest Provider of Enterprise Application Software. He is naturally customer experience focused and solution minded and has held various leadership roles at top technology companies including Tata Consultancy Services, IBM, and Oracle. In his spare time he enjoys playing golf, spending time with his wife Christina and their four children Alex, Ryan, Lizzie, and Sarah. He is also actively involved in coaching his son’s football teams.
Vicky is a passionate Information Technology Executive with 20+ years’ experience in leading global technology initiatives. She brings a broad range of capabilities and perspective for defining, building, and delivering transformation initiatives, as well as establishing and leading governance, projects and portfolio organizations. Vicky’s experience has been gained with global organizations such as Seminole Hard Rock, Royal Caribbean Group, and Andersen Consulting (now Accenture), as well as working with charities closer to home by Chairing the Board of Kakes4Kids – an organization dedicated to improving the lives and self-esteem of foster and underprivileged children in South Florida.
Topics:
- Role of the PMO in Digital Transformation
- Establishing Program Governance and Metrics
- Why Do Digital Transformation Programs Fail
Meera Clark is a Principal at Obvious Ventures, an early-stage venture capital fund based in San Francisco. Prior to joining Obvious, she spent several years at Morgan Stanley. At Morgan Stanley, Meera began her career on the Cross Asset desk within the Institutional Equities Division in New York. From Sales & Trading, Meera transitioned to Investment Banking, joining the firm’s Technology Banking Group in Menlo Park. Post Banking, Meera began her investing career within Morgan Stanley’s Multicultural Innovation Lab, the firm’s early-stage accelerator focused on backing and supporting women and multicultural founders. She graduated from Stanford University with a BS in Management Science and Engineering. Meera is on the board of Stanford Professionals in Finance (SPIF), the SF Chapter of Synergist Network and currently serves on the Steering Committee for the All Raise Summit.
As an angel investor, startup builder and scale-up executive, I believe entrepreneurship is one of the most effective ways to be a force for good. In the past 15 years, Martin has co-created and scaled up five companies, including a subsidiary for McKinsey & Company and the FinTech N26. Turning tech startups into unicorns is his passion.
As a serial entrepreneur, he believes we not only need more late-stage venture capital, but more skills and knowledge to turn more startups into scale-ups. To this end, he is currently writing the book “The Builder’s Guide to the Tech Galaxy – 100 Practices to Upgrade Startups into Unicorns Companies”. Martin believes that we, builders, are the inventors of the 21st century, and he is doing everything he can to support entrepreneurs working toward that mission.
Topics:
- Qualities that help in building high-performing teams
- Strategies on how small startups can acquire growth capital
- Finding your north star that can help serve as part of your organization’s guiding principles
Brittany Bankston is Co-Founder and President of Black Product Managers. She has had a vibrant career in product management, building products from the ground up in a variety of industries such as beauty, senior care, and social impact. She recently joined a startup called MainStreet, to help uncover government incentives for small businesses to close the opportunity gap. Her passions include singing, meeting interesting people, traveling, and eating her way through Brooklyn.
Topics:
- Skills that help Product Managers excel in their profession
- Creative ideas for team-bonding activities while working remotely
- How companies can improve on diversity in under-represented areas
Jason Field is the Founder and CEO of BrainStation, the global leader in digital skills training. Since 2012, BrainStation has trained more than 100,000 professionals around the world through corporate training, award-winning bootcamps, certificate courses, industry-leading events, and more, both online and at state-of-the-art campuses in cities such as New York, Miami, London, Toronto, and Vancouver. The company has also worked with over 4,500 corporations in the process of digital transformation, offering cutting-edge employee skills training and a pipeline of emerging tech talent.
Melissa Arnoldi is Chief Executive Officer of Vrio Corp., an AT&T digital entertainment services company inLatin America with $5 billion […]
Dave specializes in the recruitment of exceptional CFOs and Board Members for technology companies located in tech hubs across the […]
Julian is President and CEO of Dynexus Recruiting, one of the premier Mid-Market ERP Recruiting and Staffing companies in North America. […]
Rachel is Senior Associate at Unusual helping to build and support the firm’s consumer investments. Rachel’s passion for business lies […]
Angela Yochem is EVP, Chief Transformation and Digital Officer for Novant Health, a super-regional healthcare system with one of the largest medical groups in the US. She and her teams oversee growth initiatives, and deliver the world-class consumer capabilities, differentiating technologies, and advanced clinical solutions that allow the integrated system to provide remarkable patient care.
Angela has served as EVP/CIO at Rent-A-Center, Global CIO at BDP International, Global CTO at AstraZeneca, and divisional CIO at Dell. She’s held tech exec roles at Bank of America and SunTrust, and held senior technology roles at UPS and IBM. In these roles, she built B2B digital product lines, grew digital retail channels (B2C), created technical services lines of business, and transformed global technology capabilities.
Susana has over ten years of experience in Customer Experience. She is currently a Senior Manager of Customer Support at Loom where she empowers users to be their best selves at work and achieve more with their team. She is the 3rd employee at Loom and has helped the company scale to 120 Loommates. Before Loom, she helped launch and grow Airbnb’s European HQ to 600+ employees. When she’s not helping companies scale and deliver great customer experience, she is paying it forward as a mentor for the Portuguese Women In Tech community and sharing advice and resources for job seekers in her personal blog.
Topics:
- Susana’s journey to Airbnb and her current role at Loom.
- Common misconceptions about customer support.
- Biggest challenges when scaling a customer support team.
- The impact of COVID in the future of work.
- Susana’s mentorship experience with PWIT (Portuguese Women In Tech)
- Finding a work environment that promotes trust, transparency, and failure.
Tracy Kerrins is the Chief Information Officer and head of Enterprise Functions Technology for Wells Fargo Technology, one of the world’s largest and most innovative information technology groups with more than 23,000 talented team members who help keep Wells Fargo at the forefront of America’s diversified financial services companies. As the head of Enterprise Functions Technology, Tracy is responsible for providing technology solutions for Human Resources, Corporate Risk, Finance, Technology, Audit, Legal, Marketing, Stakeholder Relations, Data, and the Chief Operating Office. In addition, she is a member of the Wells Fargo India Private Limited board of directors.
Adam Smiley Poswolsky is a millennial workplace expert, internationally renowned keynote speaker, and author of three books: The Quarter-Life Breakthrough, The Breakthrough Speaker, and Friendship in the Age of Loneliness.
Smiley helps companies attract, retain, and empower the next generation, and he has inspired thousands of professionals to be more connected at work, through speaking at companies like Google, Apple, Facebook, Unilever, Deloitte, and Stanford University Graduate School of Business. Smiley’s TED talk on “the quarter-life crisis” has been viewed over 1.5 million times, and he has spoken in front of 50,000 people in 20 countries. Smiley has advised heads of state and foreign leaders about millennial talent, multigenerational engagement, and fostering belonging in the digital age.
Smiley’s work has been featured in The New Yorker, The New York Times, The Washington Post, Fast Company, CNN, and the World Economic Forum, among many other outlets. Smiley is a 13-time camp counselor at Camp Grounded: Summer Camp for Adults and advisory board member for Digital Detox.
In 2017, Smiley launched The Women, BIPOC and Inclusivity Speaker Initiative, a community that aims to increase the number of women and people of color speaking at conferences and companies, as well as ensure that women and other underrepresented speakers are paid competitively as compared to their colleagues. The group now has over 4,000 members.
Smiley is a proud graduate of Wesleyan University, and can usually be found dancing in San Francisco, California.
Topics:
- Smiley’s journey to becoming a millennial workplace expert.
- How pursuing things you care about can open up opportunities aligned with your values.
- What companies get wrong about building an engaged workforce.
- The challenges of building meaningful relationships at work.
- The reason we are more disconnected than ever despite technological advances.
- What leaders can do to reduce loneliness and increase belonging in a remote workplace.
- Common misconceptions people have about loneliness.
Resources:
Lost Connections: Why You’re Depressed and How to Find Hope by Johann Hari
Scotti was Born and raised in West Palm Beach, Florida. She was a four year Division 1 swimmer at the University of North Florida and graduated with a BA in Education. She started her career at Creative Circle in New York City, NY and absolutely fell in love with creative and technology recruitment. After Creative Circle, she opened her own recruitment firm, Digital Elite Staffing, which focused on permanent placements in the creative and emerging technology industry in the NYC, Philadelphia, Florida and Boston areas. Now back in South Florida at PeakActivity, she recruits for a company that embraces emerging technologies to a new level and focuses on creating the best culture a potential candidate can ask for in a workplace. She has been in recruitment for 10+ years and loves seeing candidates through the recruitment process. She still, to this day, gets overly excited to give a candidate a job offer. She is a connector; She connects great talent with great opportunities.
Johnny Quach is the CPTO at Hostelworld Group where he leads 120 people over a variety of functional areas. Previously, he was at Airhelp, a Y Combinator startup from 2014, where he helped scale the company from 400 to 800 people while creating over 400% growth over his 3 years there. He is passionate about making big impact — fast. After only six months at Rocket Internet, he launched three companies from scratch, operating across Germany, Indonesia, Thailand, Singapore, Brazil, Malaysia, and the UK. Fun Facts: He was a professional poker player for 2 years, his dance team won America’s Best Dance Crew Season 2, and he was a Master ranked Starcraft 2 player”.
Topics:
- The evolving role of product management
- Strategic recommendations on building a robust product vision
- Collaboration of Project Management and Product Management teams
Ryan Kovach is a 20+ year veteran of the staffing and recruiting industry. He is currently the President and CEO of RKCMO, […]
Lisa Lewis Miller is a career change expert and the founder of Career Clarity, a company helping individuals step into the careers they’ve been dreaming of. Her path evolved into coaching after working in digital marketing for nearly a decade at companies like 2U, Edelman, the American Cancer Society, Teen Vogue, Seventeen, Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship, and CBS College Sports.
Lisa’s work has been featured in The Washington Post, Business Insider, US News and World Report, Fast Company, Forbes, Refinery29, and more. She received her coaching certification as one of only seven coaches in the world trained in the Pivot Method. Clients praise her ability to see through their excuses, champion their possibilities, and give resume reviews that are like “purifying hellfire.”
Lisa is from Colorado and received her bachelor’s degree in economics from Barnard College in New York City.
If you’re looking for someone who will believe in your potential career happiness as strongly as you do — and help equip you with the ideas and resources to make it happen — you can learn more about Lisa’s work at GetCareerClarity.com.
Topics:
- Lisa’s journey to becoming a career coach.
- Making career moves that lead you towards more happiness and fulfillment.
- Lisa’s recommendations if your work has been impacted by COVID.
- The power of cultivating strategic relationships for your career success.
- Common misconceptions about building a successful career.
- The four pillars of career fulfillment.
- How to evaluate career opportunities that align with your values?
Resources:
Career Warrior podcast link: https://shows.acast.com/job-seekers-podcast/episodes/your-ultimate-guide-to-reach-out-messages-lisa-lewis
Career Clarity Show link: https://getcareerclarity.com/episode83/
Pivot: The Only Move That Matters Is Your Next One by Jenny Blake
Farah Allen is an accomplished media technology leader with over 17 years of experience. Allen is currently the CEO & founder […]
Jeremy L. Strickland currently serves in the role of Chief of Staff at Google. Prior to returning to Google, where Jeremy also began his career, […]
Dr. John Wensveen is Chief Innovation Officer at Nova Southeastern University and Executive Director of the Alan B. Levan NSU Broward Center of Innovation responsible for overseeing a multimillion-dollar public-private partnership to support the growing entrepreneurial ecosystem by attracting and retaining industry-leading entrepreneurs, technology, sources of investment capital, and supporting resources to create a premier innovation center and technology hub.
Prior to this role, John served as the Vice Provost of Academic Schools at Miami Dade College providing direct leadership and direction for the College’s professional education programs. He was responsible for creating corporate relationships with local, regional, national, and international boards and organizations and with leaders of foreign governments, businesses, and non-governmental organizations.
John has extensive academic leadership experience including Professor and Head of the School of Aviation & Transportation Technology at Purdue University, Dean of the School of Aviation at Dowling College, and Professor of Airline Management at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University.
Leo Toledo resides in Miami Florida with his wife and two young sons. He is the founder and CEO of Masterminds Consulting, Inc (MCI), a Sandler Training center. With 17 years of outbound and inbound selling experience, Leo has earned his recognition as a top producing sales professional. Drawing from his own experience in sales and the founder of MCI, he works with clients to improve sales performance, overall sales strategies, and personal and professional development.
Viewed as an emerging leader in the field of sales and customer service, Leo demonstrates through MCI’s training programs his vast understanding of core challenges that limit sales growth within an organization. While he has in depth sales knowledge and experience contributing to the bottom line of the organizations he has worked for, Leo also has experience driving performance through leading and managing sales teams. Drawing from his sales expertise in the field and coupling that with the experience of leading sales teams, Leo illustrates his capabilities through training, leading seminars, blogging, and producing daily content on sales and related subjects via major Social Media platforms.
Leo’s client list stretches to over 2,500+ loyal customers within his selling tenure and he successfully contributed to 30% YOY growth in sales in his previous career. His approach to his sales and business now ranges from mastering behavior models coupled with advanced selling techniques. Mastering the art of a winning attitude and the science of sales are the forefront of his approach.
David Spinks is the cofounder of CMX, where over 20,000 community professionals gather to learn and support each other and […]
Pete Gibson is the CIO at Friendly’s and Johnny Rockets Restaurants brands where he is leading the technology and digital […]
An Information Security Executive with over 15 years of experience, Margarita Rivera has thrived her entire career on solving complex […]
Derek Oats is the CEO of smartShift and is responsible for expanding the smartShift business globally. He has a successful track record […]
Carlos Gonzalez de Villaumbrosia is an entrepreneur with over 10 years of experience building global companies and digital products in […]
Luis Andre Gazitua is a Miami-based attorney and lobbyist specializing in procurement in Miami-Dade County, the municipalities of the greater […]
Pablo S. Quesada focuses his practice in the areas of corporate, real estate and international law, including mergers and acquisitions, private equity transactions, stock and debt issuances and offerings, financing and lending transactions, domestic and international commercial transactions, and other general transactional matters. Mr. Quesada has extensive experience in matters affecting corporations, limited liability companies and partnerships, and in manufacturing, distribution, licensing and technology-related transactions. In addition, given the litigation and trial experience gained by Mr. Quesada early in his career, he provides his expertise in the corporate arena to assist in the handling of complex commercial litigation matters involving corporate, stockholder and/or board governance issues. Mr. Quesada also serves as General Counsel and is a director for one of the largest U.S. military apparel manufacturers.
Susana has over ten years of experience in Customer Experience. She is currently a Senior Manager of Customer Support at […]
Tracy Kerrins is the Chief Information Officer and head of Enterprise Functions Technology for Wells Fargo Technology, one of the […]
Ben Dickinson leads Talent Acquisition for the Americas at Citrix Systems in Fort Lauderdale, FL where he guides a team of recruiters and sourcers to fulfill the talent needs of an leader in the virtualization, cloud, security and networking space. A career spanning over 15 years in Talent Acquisition, Ben has led TA functions in enterprise organizations, high growth mid-sized companies and start up environments in enterprise technology, fintech and consumer services. He has a passion for talent acquisition technology and the role that it plays in the future of recruiting efficiency and candidate identification as well as evolving the recruiting function from a tactical process to a business partnership by leveraging data analysis and insights to engage his internal clients.
A graduate of Florida Atlantic University and past Board Member and Chair of the National Alumni Association, Ben resides in Fort Lauderdale, FL with his family and enjoys running, golf and the opportunity to coach various youth sports teams through his son’s involvement.
Adam is an author, sales leader, and entrepreneur. In addition to leading Enterprise Sales for Automattic (one of the largest remote workforces in the world), Adam writes about how to create the best version of ourselves. His work has been featured on Men’s Journal, INC.com, The Huffington Post, Men’s Fitness, Lifehack, and Entrepreneur On Fire. He is the founder of The Vitruvian Project, Better Than Yesterday Publishing and former founder of Bodeefit, a fitness community of over 500,000 people worldwide.
Topics:
- How to create your best self?
- Challenges with building and scaling a global sales team
- Skills and strengths of best sales professionals
- Leveraging the power of content marketing and partnerships to build a startup
- Why is the act of writing a vulnerable act?
- Most important leadership traits
- Biggest lessons from failures
Rob Casas serves as the Senior Vice President, e-Commerce of Norwegian Cruise Line. Rob started at Norwegian Cruise Line in January of 2018. Rob currently resides in the Miami/Fort Lauderdale Area.
Nurasyl Serik is the Co-founder and CEO of Remoteam, global payroll and HR compliance for Remote teams. They provide Employer of Record (EOR/PEO) services for full-time employees and FREE contractors management & payment service in over 150 countries. Before Remoteam, he was the first Product Manager for a new division within JOB TODAY, the #1 mobile jobs platform in the UK and Spain where he developed a payroll system and executed the product vision, definition and go-to-market plan to achieve six-figure monthly revenue from 0 within 10 months. He is a product and remote work expert obsessed with understanding the customers.
Brian Oblinger is a strategic consultant and keynote speaker with over 20 years of experience helping enterprise brands leverage the power of community and customer experience to increase satisfaction, lower costs, and generate more revenue. He has helped companies like Acer, Alteryx, Autodesk, Comcast, eBay, The Home Depot, HP, and PlayStation connect with their customers to build an engine for engagement, satisfaction, and retention. He is also the co-host of In Before The Lock podcast where he talks about community, customer experience, and leadership at scale.
Billy Green started full time at Sunlight Foods Inc after graduating in June, 1994. In 2006, Sunlight Foods changed its name to Evergreen Sweeteners after the sale of the foodservice division to ADM). He grew customer & sales portfolio, built a sugar trading structure to manage commodity risk, grew business 12x between 2006 and 2010, lead the M&A team in the sale of a sugar production asset to NSM-Amalgamated Sugar-Sucden Americas in 2012. Currently Billy is a President & CEO of Evergreen Holding Corp which owns Evergreen Sweeteners, Evergreen Transport and various other companies that support the business.
Shelley Murdock was always a person to give something that piqued her interest a chance. Born to Caribbean parents, she knew that being an entrepreneur would have its challenges. She believes that you have to continuously put yourself in new situations and environments to foster your growth.
In the middle of her college career, she saw an ad for the US Military, looked at the perks, and evaluated its pros and cons. She decided to join the Air Force.
Things moved pretty fast, and when her time in the military came to an end; she became an exotic dancer to help pay to finish her degree. After Shelly graduated, she realized her love for the art of pole dancing and wanted to try and have a physical location where she and other women could train and focus on it as a sport. It awakened a passion in her.
Michael Phillips MD, MBA, Managing Partner and Director Intermountain Ventures, directs business development and venture investment for the Intermountain Venture Fund. The fund seeks to bring new technology and businesses to Intermountain Healthcare from both internal and external sources to improve the lives and health of our caregivers and patients. Previously, Dr. Phillips served as the Chief of Outreach and Clinical Services at Intermountain Healthcare supporting outreach, Telehealth, and clinical shared service design and deployment.
Prior to joining Intermountain, Dr. Phillips practiced as a clinical neuro-radiologist at Cleveland Clinic since 2002. He was director of business development in the Cleveland Clinic Imaging Institute and served on the Cleveland Clinic Board of Directors and as the co-chair of the Care Affordability Task Force, identifying and developing ways to improve efficiency and lower the cost of care.
Dr. Phillips earned his medical degree from Columbia University and his undergraduate degree from Amherst College. He completed a radiology residency at John Hopkins Hospital and a neuroradiology fellowship at the University of Pennsylvania. He earned an MBA from the University of Michigan.
Steven McCarty is a human resources executive who is currently the Chief People Officer for Apex Service Partners, a private equity backed HVAC, plumbing, and electrical services group that partners with dozens of industry leaders in 10 states. Apex has expanded rapidly and is investing significantly to be a world class, people first national platform. Previously, McCarty owned and operated 501HR, LLC, an HR consultancy which “helps small and mid-sized organizations with big company HR.” McCarty was also promoted through a variety of leadership and executive roles with Enterprise Holdings where he served as their global Vice President for Talent Development, their VP of Human Resources in Florida, and as a Corporate HR professional supporting the Midwest.
Chris Venditti is a skilled influencer with proven thought leadership experience in multiple industries & companies.
Chris has held leadership roles within the Banking, Consumer Packaged Goods, and Healthcare industries primarily partnering with Executive Leadership teams to build strategies and then execute upon the defined deliverables.
Currently, at Cardinal Health he is responsible for setting 12-18-month strategy for the largest growth segment within the company.
At The J. M. Smucker Company Chris led teams within Revenue Growth Management (RGM) and Sales Operations. During that time, his teams created and enhanced several new policies such as MAP Pricing and Unsaleables. Chris was the first ever “Big Winner” (Smucker’s highest award honor) for his functional area.
While at KeyBank, he held roles of increasing scope & responsibility including as a Certified Lean Six Sigma Black Belt responsible for creating and implementing strategy with the bank’s executive team.
He currently serves on Girl Scouts of NorthEast Ohio as the Vice Chairperson of the Board and resides in the Cleveland, Ohio area with his wife, Larissa and his two daughters, Layla (4) and Elliana (2).
An Executive Producer and creative force, Sergio is committed to making culturally impactful content for leading networks. Responsible for the development and production of original programming, ranging from live events to specials and numerous critically-acclaimed reality series. Extensive knowledge and expertise in the areas of sales, finance, development and distribution. Production highlights include over 50 live specials and awards shows, including the Emmys, Grammys, American Music Awards, the 2008 Presidential Inauguration, and the Music Rising Concert, which benefitted the victims of Hurricane Katrina. In addition, Sergio has also produced shows such as “Real Housewives of Salt Lake City”, “Bringing Up Bhabie”, “Into Alaska”, “Chad Loves Michelle”, “LA Ink”, “The Rachel Zoe Project”, “The Next Big Thing”, “BBQ Pit Masters”, “Swamp People”, “Next 15” and more.
Bryan is a globally recognized thought leader in the world of extended work and open talent. With a unique perspective on the ever-growing demand for comprehensive workforce solutions, he is a widely sought-after keynote speaker, a passionate evangelist for the open talent industry, and a highly sought out expert on emerging talent platforms, workforce management programs, labor models, HR technology, variable and future workforce trends. Through his boutique consulting firm, Defiant Solutions LLC, he works directly with HR tech providers, service providers, private equity, and enterprise clients to navigate the ever-changing global talent landscape. His firm utilizes an immense global network of industry experts and specializes in solving complex challenges. Just a few current projects include; working with an industry trade group to develop a unique set of industry standards for open talent platform businesses, creating new go-to-market economic model for a North American telehealth provider, developing a diversity certification for independent talent, building a new product offering for a talent platform based in the UK. You can find Bryan being featured in various industry publications, podcasts, webinars as well as Forbes, Fortune, Buzzfeed, to name a few. Bryan is featured extensively as an industry expert in an upcoming National Public Radio’s Marketplace episode on the future of work in America.
With close to 20 years’ experience working with brands to maximize their partnership investments, Chris brings a wealth of knowledge to lead REV/XP. Chris joined rEvolution from Dignitas, one of the most successful esports organizations in the world, where he led partnerships. Prior to Dignitas, Chris spent time at WME IMG and led T-Mobile’s entry into gaming and esports, securing many first of their kind deals with the biggest leagues, teams, and platforms in the industry.
Ken Patel has been in the Hospitality Business for over 20 years. Previously held senior level positions nationally, and built reputation on leading each market worked in, by building REVPAR Index growth year-over-year and GOP. As he has learned from my experiences in Dubai where he obtained my MBA in hospitality that operations and service are undervalued and can be overachieved. His experience encompasses all Brand-Types of hotels.
Ken has held Executive Positions from 2011 to 2018 before my relocation to Georgia from the NYC area and also has been voted under 40 to exceed expectations and made the cover of a travel magazine on a piece for resorts. The hospitality industry is all about giving and that is what Ken wants to demonstrate. Ken graduated high school in 1999 and have been in Hospitality ever since.
Vincent “Vinnie” Devoe serves as Senior Business Applications Manager at Signature Consultants. With 17+ years at Signature, Vinnie has supported the growth of the company in various capacities, serving as Senior Resource Manager and Manager of Development Programs before moving into his current role 5 years ago. Vinnie played an integral part in building out Signature’s award-winning training and development department. He currently manages the evolution of internal business technologies and solutions and has successfully deployed numerous technologies to improve efficiencies across Signature’s 28 offices including Bullhorn, Daxtra, Herefish, Cornerstone, Broadbean, and UpGlide.
Vinnie holds a B.S. in business administration with a concentration in management from Merrimack College.
As president of the industry’s leading provider of preventive care, Brian’s top priority is creating a high-performing, inclusive culture for Banfield Pet Hospital’s 19,000+ associates at 1,000+ hospitals across the country. Since Brian became president in 2017, Banfield has achieved the lowest turnover in its history while simultaneously averaging double-digit year-over-year growth. Over Brian’s time with Banfield, the multi-billion organization has grown by over 50 percent. He believes that pets, people and society are all connected and is passionate about ensuring Banfield is making a positive impact on the world.
Topics:
- Leadership traits that make for a strong leader in moments of crisis
- Accelerating innovation during the COVID-19 pandemic
- Effective communication strategies for senior leadership in a remote workforce environment
Ashish Nangla, the CTO of OpenBots, comes from an extensive IT and automation background and is a renowned subject matter expert in User Experience, AI, ML, RPA, and similar topics. Nangla believes that the RPA market was a natural fit for an open source model since, unlike other enterprise software, most commercial RPA software requires extensive implementation, maintenance, and support services on top of license costs. “OpenBots is our attempt to fulfill a promise,” said Nangla. “We want everyone to be able to create enterprise-grade simple to complex automations, very quickly, with little effort, and at very little cost. Our slogan ‘Open Source Automation for All’ explains our initiative very clearly. We want the democratization of automation and the widespread availability of the tools.”
Jomayra Herrera is a principal at Cowboy Ventures, a seed-stage focused venture firm where she focuses on investing in the future of work and edtech companies. Prior to Cowboy, she spent nearly 3 years as an investor at Emerson Collective. As an early hire on the investing team, she played an important role in building key investment theses, creating internal processes, and helping to grow the team. During her time there, she led the firm’s investments in companies like Handshake and Career Karma. Before Emerson Collective, she worked at BloomBoard, an early-stage education technology company, where she focused on customer success and sales.
Robert has established himself as a thought leader on immigration. He has implemented multiple programs surrounding work authorization, third party process, and international recruitment strategies during his 15 year career in the private sector. Launching TheH1BGuy.com in June 2020, Robert consults with employers and employees to help maintain compliance and implement automated processes surrounding employment based preferences. He posts weekly content to his Blog and YouTube channel where he covers News, Education, Advice and Reform discussions on the H1B Visa and other immigration benefits.
Marcus Session is the Vice President of Information Technology Services for Tampa International Airport (TPA). He is responsible for leading and advising on technology initiatives throughout the organization. He has 21 years of experience in Information Technology working in a variety of industries. Previously, he served as Interim CIO for USF Health and Senior Director of IT Operations for the USF System.
During his tenure at Tampa International Airport the ITS team has undergone significant change; restructuring of the IT project management office, information security team, hosting several local technology events, and strengthened relationships with other technology organizations throughout the country. This has increased visibility, collaboration, security, and efficiency of technology initiatives at TPA.
He has spoken at national conferences, led transformative initiatives, and promoted innovative ideas to help TPA reach its goals, and maintain its status as “America’s Favorite Airport”. He is also a leadership coach, college instructor, and holds a Master’s of Science in Information Technology, as well as a Bachelor’s of Science in Business Administration from the University of South Florida. He is also a member of the Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi and a Cisco Networking Academy alumnus.
Joel Patterson is the founder of The Vested Group, a business and technology consulting firm in the Dallas, Texas area. Joel has worked in the consulting field for over 20 years. He began his consulting career at Arthur Andersen and Capgemini before helping found Lucidity Consulting Group in 2001.
For 15 years Joel specialized in implementing Tier One ERP, software systems designed to service the needs of large, complex corporations with many departments and locations. These systems were too complex and expensive to meet the needs of his smaller customers.
With the small-to-medium market in mind and years of experience under his belt, he founded The Vested Group in 2011. The Vested Group focuses on bringing comprehensive cloud-based business management solutions to start-ups and well-established businesses alike. Joel and his exceptional team at The Vested Group strive to exceed client expectations and deliver solutions and support that allow companies to thrive.
Joel holds a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from Baylor University. When he’s not creating a fun company culture at The Vested Group, Joel enjoys watching baseball with friends, listening to new music, and spending time outside. He attributes his success to his lovely wife and his patience to his children.
Gerald is the Chief Information Security Officer/Vice President for Sprinklr’s products andcorporate assets.In his prior role as Chief Information Security Officer/Vice President for LogMeIn, he was responsible for the security, compliance, and technical privacy of LogMeIn’s products and corporate assets. Before, Gerald was Chief Security Officer for Demandware, a Salesforce Company, responsible for security and acting Chief Privacy Officer and Data Protection Officer for Demandware’s German subsidiary.Previously, he worked for Sun Microsystems, Inc. in various roles, including the BusinessAlliances Group of Sun’s Chief Technologist’s Office. He is a member of the Infragard Member Alliance Boston Chapter Board of Directors and the IT Sector Chief, as well as a National Subject Matter Expert for Infragard, and has served on the board of other national membership organizations.Gerald holds a Master of Science degree in theoretical physics.
Ericka Witkowski founded Witko Group to fill a void in today’s market. With a focus on the ability to be nimble and offer innovative, personalized and technology-based solutions to clients. As a boutique firm, Witko Group is able to curate the best-in-class professionals per project – allowing the firm to become a true extension of the team.
Witkowski has over 9 years of experience in the South Florida real estate sector, having participated in many projects ranging from master planning, design, marketing, lease-up, and sale and purchase of office and mixed-use assets.
Prior to launching Witko Group, Witkowski served in brokerage roles at some of the top commercial real estate firms transacting over 215+ leases and sales. Most recently she served as a Director for Cushman & Wakefield South Florida, where during her two and a half year tenure she was involved in sales and leases totaling $186.5 million encompassing more than 435,000 square feet of transactions. Witkowski holds a Bachelor of Science in Real Estate from Florida State University.
Galina Russell is the Chief Operating Officer of REEF Energy at REEF Technology, a Miami based technology start up focused on transforming underutilized urban spaces into neighborhood hubs that connect people to locally curated goods, services, and experiences.
Ms. Russell as part of the leadership team, is at the frontier of establishing partnerships with public and private sector organizations to pioneer the transformation of traditional parking infrastructure into dynamic hubs that address the diverse needs of surrounding communities in a sustainable way.
Topics:
- Significance of International Women’s Day (IWD)
- Cultural and Societal Influences on Women Seeking Leadership in the Workplace
- Dissecting Traditional “Female vs. Male” Leadership Qualities
- Empowering Women through Mentorship
Enrique is an HR, Tech and Future of Work expert and keynote speaker and founder of Hacking HR, a global learning community at the intersection of the future of work, technology, business and organizations, with thousands of members from all over the world. Enrique is one of the top 100 HR global influencers. Enrique was the founder and CEO at Management Consultants, a firm specialized in Human Resources in Venezuela. Before Management Consultants, Enrique worked in the telecommunications sector as a Senior Project Engineer for Telefonica and several other companies. He is also the cofounder of Cotopaxi, a recruitment platform focused on Latin America. Enrique is a guest author in several blogs about innovation, management and human resources. Most recently Enrique worked as an advisor to the Chief Human Resources Officer at the Inter-American Development Bank. Enrique is a Fulbright Scholar, has over twenty years of experience and is an Electronic Engineer with an Executive Master’s in Public Administration from Maxwell School at Syracuse University.
Topics:
- Transition from electrical engineering to HR.
- What is Hacking HR and biggest challenge about putting together a global HR conference.
- In your own words, what does the phrase Human Resources mean to you?
- Common myth or misconception that people have about HR
- How has the COVID-19 pandemic impacted your thinking on the future of work.
- What are some of the skills we need to develop to prepare the workforce for the disruption of exponential technologies?
- What kind of technology do you find the most interesting for HR these days? What HR technologies are you curious about and WHY?
- How has a failure, or apparent failure, set you up for later success? Do you have a “favorite failure” of yours?
Dr. Serena Huang is the Global Head of People Analytics at the Kraft Heinz Company. Prior to Kraft Heinz, she was the Global Talent Analytics Leader at Koch Industries. Previously, Serena led People Analytics/Strategic Workforce Planning & HR Operations at General Electric and advised Fortune 100 clients on mergers & acquisitions efforts at Deloitte.
Serena is an invited speaker on people analytics, employee experience, digital transformation, and the future of work. She is passionate about leading change, building high-performing global teams, and helping business leaders see data as an asset in large organizations. She excels at showing executives the “art of the possible” through both 1-on-1 dialogues and facilitated hands-on workshops, and co-creating customizable, scalable solutions in predictive analytics in HR, Workplace Strategy, Supply Chain and Litigation domains. She holds a Ph.D. in Economics with specializations in Labor Economics and Econometric.
Ray’s journey to the C-Suite consists of successful enterprise and start-up experiences at JP Morgan, Time Warner, ConsumerNet, 24/7 Media, ORB, V12 Group, V12 Data, and True Influence.
Ray Estevez is the Chief Data Officer at True Influence. Estevez provides data and technology leadership for the continued development of an innovative, robust, and secure data and information technology environment throughout the organization. The primary responsibilities for this office encompass a wide variety of strategic data and technology issues: governance and policy, information technology protocols, and the True Influence Information Technology organization.
Previously Estevez was the co-founder and Chief Information Officer of V12 Group. Where he helped grow and develop the company until it was acquired by Datamentors in 2016. The combined company was rebranded V12 Data. He has 30 plus years of leadership experience in the fields of data management, information technology, and digital marketing.
As the CTO of ConsumerNet Estevez was instrumental in the development of their Email database technology and revenue growth. This led to the company being acquired by 24/7 Media Inc., for $52 million dollars (http://tinyurl.com/qylqopj). After executing a smooth integration of technologies and personnel, he went on to lead the technology and operations of the 24/7 Mail division. He was appointed an executive member of the 24/7 Media mergers & acquisitions team.
Estevez is a member of Forbes CIO Network, TECHLATINO, and serves on the Board of Advisors of Rebel Visions Corporation and NextVision Sales Institute. Ever an advocate for his team, he encourages education, open communication, and work-life balance. He is a mentor to several college students and prior colleagues that are now CEOs of their own companies.
In the span of just a year, Joel Lalgee has become one of the top voices for recruiters to follow on LinkedIn. Having garnered a massive audience while establishing his own live-time series, Joel has interviewed some of the most renowned figures in the recruiting and staffing space. Join us as he guides us through the characterization of the modern day recruiter and best tips for establishing your own personal brand on LinkedIn.
Lindsay is recognized leader in the healthcare and insurance sectors. Since 2010, Lindsay has been part of the senior leadership team at Wunderman Thompson Health, a health care marketing and advertising agency that combines strategy, creative, data and technology to build health care brands and inspire consumers and professionals. Areas of focus span the payer, provider and technology landscape and include consumer data and insights, competitive intelligence, brand direct marketing, customer experience, and sales optimization.
Lindsay is a Mentor at MATTER, a health technology incubator helping entrepreneurs with early-stage companies go-to-market. And he is on the Board of HMS Federal which provides services for prevention and detection of fraud, waste and abuse in the federal healthcare system.
Previously Lindsay held senior executive roles at Weber Shandwick, Gorman Health Group, Healthmarket, and Celtic Life Insurance. Early career experience included Blue Cross Blue Shield Association, Massachusetts Department of Public Health, and Massachusetts General Hospital.
Lindsay has a Masters in Health Administration from Washington University in St. Louis and a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from Northeastern University in Boston. He is a frequent speaker and author on topics in healthcare, insurance, marketing and sales. Originally from New York, with stops in Boston and St. Louis, Lindsay is now a deep-rooted Chicagoan.
Nadesha Ranasinghe, VP of Offer Engine Development at Accelya, oversees the architecture, development, delivery, and optimization of Accelya Offer Engines (FLX Merchandise, FLX Shop and Price, FLX Availability Calculator, and FLX Schedule Builder), ensuring all engines are highly performant and ready for massive scalability.
Nadesha joined Farelogix in 2009 as a database administrator and was promoted within a year to Director of IT, a role he held until he was appointed VP of Offer Engine Development in 2018. As Director of IT, Nadesha focused on infrastructure operations, ensuring that all critical technology environments – including the systems hosted at the offsite data center, databases, and network infrastructure – were operational 24/7 x 365. He also led change management, orchestrating the release of new code into different environments, including QA, UAT for customer testing, and Production; and ensuring the scalability of key technology platforms. Nadesha was also responsible for the company’s security infrastructure, ensuring compliance with all industry security mandates, and implementing state-of-the-art internal security controls to prevent breaches. Under his guidance, the IT team also managed the development of the Data Tier of Farelogix’ flagship technology, ensuring a seamless interface between applications and databases using its Open Connect. Nadesha led the support team as well as local and offshore help desks; was responsible for maintaining the QA platform used by other stakeholders at Farelogix for testing; and guided the company’s BI and Data Science efforts.
Prior to joining Farelogix, Nadesha was a software specialist at the University of Miami and held several other roles in project management and database engineering. He has a B.Sc. in Computer Science and an MBA in Management Information Systems from the University of Miami.
Michelle Bazargan has a unique and diverse leadership background spanning startups and complex enterprise organizations across numerous industries and sectors including Technology, Wellness, Automotive, Finance and more. She inspires a new way of business thinking to balance putting people first, challenge outdated rules and systems, create resilient and sustainable business models and legacies. Her experience spans executing business innovation, product and marketing strategies in both startups and enterprises by placing focus on the one commonality everyone has – Our customers, employees and partners are all diverse humans. When people feel equal and included, they are empowered to contribute to driving change, creativity and innovation and impact business results and revenue.
Her baseline of struggle and possibilities is different, as she escaped a revolutionary war and came to the U.S. with $500 and unable to speak a word of English. The experience built a foundation of resiliency, reinvention and purpose to help others face fears, adversity and believe in their strengths. Passion fueled her to create a technology business from the ground up with a successful exit.
She is obsessed with inspiring people to keep it real and believe in themselves and speaks at events like TEDx on The Value of Human Connections. What lights her up is contributing to Children’s Shark Tanks Innovation programs, running innovation bootcamps for schools and universities, advocating for diversity and STEM and sharing perspective on Forbes Council, Huff Post, Podcasts and other platforms. She is also an athlete and believes the commitment and discipline to taking care of your health first is foundational to everyone’s success in leadership and life.
Dr. David A. Bray has served in a variety of leadership roles in turbulent environments, including bioterrorism preparedness and response from 2000-2005, time on the ground in Afghanistan in 2009, serving as the non-partisan Executive Director for a bipartisan National Commission on R&D, and providing leadership as a non-partisan federal agency Senior Executive. He accepted a leadership role in December 2019 to incubate a new global Center with the Atlantic Council.
He also provides strategy to both Boards and start-ups espousing human-centric principles to technology-enabled decision making in complex environments. He was also named a Senior Fellow with the Institute for Human-Machine Cognition in starting in 2018. Business Insider named him one of the top “24 Americans Who Are Changing the World” under 40 and he was named a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum for 2016-2021. From 2017 to the start of 2020, David served as Executive Director for the People-Centered Internet coalition Chaired by Internet co-originator Vint Cerf, focused on providing support and expertise for community-focused projects that measurably improve people’s lives using the internet.
He also was named a Marshall Memorial Fellow and traveled to Europe in 2018 to discuss Trans-Atlantic issues of common concern including exponential technologies and the global future ahead. Later in 2018, he was invited to work with the U.S. Navy and Marines on improving organizational adaptability and to work with U.S. Special Operation Command’s J5 Directorate on the challenges of countering misinformation and disinformation online. He has received both the Joint Civilian Service Commendation Award and the National Intelligence Exceptional Achievement Medal.
Elaine re-joined RB as Chief Insights & Analytics Officer in November 2019, tolead both the consumer insights and data analytics teams. Passionate about people and consumers, she is leading RB’s efforts to always Put Consumers First, via expansive consumer-centric thinking and ‘humanizing data’ through the digitalization of insights. She is a firm believer in the power of connecting all sources of data and insights about consumers and categories, with analytics playing a key role in building data-driven decisions in-market close to consumers. A key part of her role is to accelerate the digital and data transformation of the group, building insights &analytics as key enablers of digital marketing & eCommerce. This is Elaine’s second stint at RB, the first being in 2001 when she spent 6+years in a variety of roles spanning the Global Category in UK, and Geographies. Prior to re-joining RB, Elaine was Chief Strategy & Insights Officer at Danone for3 years, where she led a company-wide charge towards a more agile & digital approach to insights. Elaine also spent 9 years at Kraft/Mondelez, as RegionalConsumer Insights & Strategy Director for Asia Pacific, and Global CIS Director for the Biscuits category. Elaine started her career at market research agencies including Kantar and Ipsos, and has a PhD in Marketing from Monash University in Australia. She is originally from Singapore, and has lived in Paris and London.
As President & Chief Executive Officer of the Project Management Institute (PMI), SunilPrashara is the lead advocate for PMI’s global organization, serving more than three million professionals working in nearly every country of the world. His primary responsibility is to implement PMI’s global strategic plan with a priority on strategic focus, customer centricity and organizational agility. This includes expanding the PMI footprint globally, as well as digitizing PMI’s offerings and platforms to benefit its members and a variety of other stakeholders. The plan will also continue to enhance and advocate for the profession of project management.
Sunil was named CEO of PMI in March of 2019. He brings more than three decades of valuable global leadership to PMI, with a solid track record of setting and delivering strategy, managing large scale transformation agendas, and meeting growth targets for international organizations.
Prior to joining PMI, he served as CEO of i1too Ltd in the U.K., a sales accelerator for digital start-ups, which he founded in 2016 and grew internationally. He previously served as CEO of Expereo International, and also held numerous executive leadership positions throughout the information and communications technology and telecommunications industries. His extensive multi-functional, multi-cultural, multi-geography experience includes managing sales, operations and digital transformation for companies such as Vodafone, Nokia, Accenture and Perot Systems (NTT). As a business executive, he has developed an appreciation for project management expertise, and understands from an “outside-in” perspective how PMI can expand its reach globally.
Sunil speaks Punjabi and Hindi. He is a graduate of the University of London and resides in the U.K. with his wife Kavita and two sons Kamran and Raghav. He enjoys golf, boxing, martial arts and traveling.
Arun DeSouza is currently Chief Information Security & Privacy Officer at Nexteer Automotive Corporation. He has extensive global IT and security leadership and organizational transformation experience including as CISO and CIO. Arun’s areas of expertise include strategic planning, risk management, identity management, cloud computing and privacy. His current interests include the Internet of Things (IoT), Blockchain, Zero Trust, Software Defined Perimeter & Self-Sovereign Identity.
Arun earned Master’s and PhD degrees from Vanderbilt University. He is a Certified Information Systems Security professional (CISSP) and has earned the Certificate of Cloud Security Knowledge (CCSK) certification. He was honored by the 1st Global Cyber Observatory by induction into the CISO Hall of Fame in September 2019. He has won multiple other industry honors including CISO of the Week, CSO50 Award, Computerworld Premier 100 IT Leaders Award, CIO Ones to Watch Award and the Network World Enterprise All Star Award. He is a member of the Society for Information Management and the International Association of Privacy Professionals.
Doug Leeby is the CEO of Beeline, a global SaaS technology company and solution provider for sourcing and managing the extended workforce. With offices in the US, UK, Australia, and the Philippines, Beeline serves the world’s largest and most respected brands by managing over $40B in contingent workforce spend. Recognized as an industry innovator and customer champion, Doug has led Beeline to become the largest independent provider of solutions for managing all categories of non-fulltime talent, including temporary staff, professional contractors, service workers, consultants, project-based workers, and independent contractors.
Doug is in his 18th year at Beeline and is based at the company’s headquarters in Jacksonville, FL. He has been included on Staffing Industry Analyst’s list of the “100 Most Influential People in Staffing” every year since 2012. Doug believes strongly in culture and through his servant-minded leadership has created a corporate culture built on trust and diversity. Doug attended Vanderbilt University where he earned his BA in History and his M.Ed. in Human Resources. He enjoys learning, interacting with interesting people, the outdoors, and any and all time with his family.
Dr. Taiwo Raphael Alabi is multilingual with an education spanning 3 continents at some of the best engineering schools in the world.He has spent his entire career in electronic and software engineering at Intel and DocuSign. With multiple highly cited publications in the field as well as 3 pending US patents, he currently drives narrow artificial intelligence initiatives at DocuSign. Some of his primary focuses in the field of AI are natural language processing, computer vision, recommender systems, and reinforcement learning. His interest also spans meta-learning and machine learning systems design. He enjoys traveling, hiking, obstacle racing, playing the guitar, and chasing after new challenges in his limited free time.
Clay Davis is a Vice President at Tech Data, a technology distributor based in Clearwater, Florida. His responsibilities include leading Tech Data’s Artificial Intelligence, Analytics, and Internet of Things practice. Clay has a global scope, spanning North America, Europe and Asia.
Clay works across the Data, AI and IoT landscape, partnering with Microsoft, IBM, AWS, Cisco, Cloudera, among many others. He combines his servant leadership style with his embrace failure mentality to lead the organization into the next generation of technology.
Prior to Tech Data, Clay spent 8 years at IBM, where he held numerous leadership and sales positions in their Data & AI practice. His last role held him responsible for helping lead IBM into the hybrid cloud market at the time of IBM’s Red Hat acquisition in 2019.
Clay resides in Raleigh, NC with his family. He has a love of playing sports including, but not limited to golf, basketball, flag football, and most recently, pickleball.
His other hobbies and interests include reading, watching the Tar Heels, personal finance, connecting with friends and spending quality time with family.
Dalia Burack is an inspirational, servant leader focused on guiding others to seek out their full potential. Motivated by optimism, results, and making impactful decisions, a subject matter expert and thought leader on all things talent. A natural project manager, a mover of initiatives and a creative thinker who’s not afraid to disrupt the status-quo. With a proven track record of over 25 years in Talent Management, a robust business acumen, and an earned reputation for integrity, consistent performance and commitment to excellence.
A motivational champion of change and possibilities, recognized for expertise in talent attraction and acquisition, sourcing strategies, assessment & selection, and on-boarding. An active senior leader and HR technology disruptor, laser focused on employer reputation/value proposition, business process improvement, and winning the applicant experience.
Brian Carmenatty is an information technology executive & strategist with over 15 years’ experience in diverse disciplines including system infrastructure, security, compliance vendor management, and Service management. He combines deep technical expertise with a strong service management focus. This allows him to work with technical and customer teams to deliver valuable outcomes.
Brian currently leads the IT department for one of the largest MSO’s in the state of Florida which consists of over 300 practices. He has built the foundation for a robust multi-location decentralized IT environment, led standardization post-M&A activities, coordinated compliance and security projects which included encryption, MFA, EDR, and MSSP rollout for the whole organization.
Raul Vega is the CEO of Auxis and an executive consultant focused on helping organizations develop scalable and flexible operating platforms to support profitable growth. Throughout his 30-year career, he has worked with hundreds of clients across 30+ countries and successfully led business transformation initiatives in multiple industries, including consumer goods, industrial manufacturing, retail, transportation, telecommunications, among many others. His clients have ranged from Fortune 100 multi-nationals to private equity-backed held middle-market organizations. His areas of expertise include Shared Services Strategy, Finance & IT Transformation, and Nearshore Outsourcing. Raul is a frequent public speaker at various professional associations on business performance topics. Recent organizations include National Association of Corporate Directors, Association for Corporate Growth, Turnaround Management Association, CFO Leadership Council, Shared Service & Outsourcing Network and CFO Magazine. Prior to co-founding Auxis, Raul worked with PepsiCo International and Price Waterhouse. He is a graduate of the University of Florida where he earned both a Bachelor and Master of Science degree in Accounting.
Manish Hirapara is the CEO of PeakActivity–a technology and marketing consultancy that helps enterprises achieve long-term, scalable growth through better insights, superior talent, and game-changing technology. Over the past five years, Manish has built and led an organization that has become one of the fastest-growing marketing and technology companies in the United States.
Motivated by his core values of hard work, innovation, and dedication, Manish has shaped a team of dreamers, thinkers, marketers, designers, and technologists who deliver exceptional and transformative services that drive success. Manish, with his strong knowledge of technology and marketing, inspires the strong business results that the blend of marketing and technology can facilitate. Today, PeakActivity employs a team of more than 150 industry experts who embrace the culture of innovation and growth that ensures enterprises are equipped to thrive in a digital economy.
His desire to elevate those around him extends to his community. In 2018, Manish established PeakCares, the community involvement and philanthropic arm of PeakActivity. Every quarter, Manish and PeakActivity get involved with a community charity to assist in fundraising and in-kind efforts. Never one to forget who helped him along the way, he sits on the Alumni Board of Directors at the University of Central Florida to assist the development of future generations of leaders.
Prior to founding and leading PeakActivity, Manish was an executive eCommerce leader for Office Depot, overseeing an eCommerce platform that transacted over $7 billion in revenue worldwide.
Mr. Lipparelli currently serves as the Managing Member and Chief Executive Officer of GVII, LLC, a Nevada gaming licensee that manages the Westgate Resort Las Vegas; Chairman of the Board of Galaxy Gaming, Inc., a table game and technology company; Managing Member and CAMS, LLC, a technology services company to the online gaming industry; Managing Member of SBOpco, LLC, a sportsbook company operating as SuperBook. Additionally, he serves as an advisor to limited number of operating and investment entities through GVIII, LLC where he is the Managing Member. Mr. Lipparelli has served as a member of the Board of Directors of Golden Entertainment, Inc. since 2015.
Mr. Lipparelli also formerly represented State Senate District 6 in the Nevada Legislature, having been appointed to the post in December 2014, and served on a number of Senate committees. Mr. Lipparelli has also been an appointee to the Nevada Gaming Policy Committee. Between 2009 and 2012, he served as a Board Member and Chairman of the Nevada Gaming Control Board. Between 2002 and 2007, Mr. Lipparelli served in various executive management positions at Bally Technologies, Inc., a gaming technology supply company listed on the NYSE, including as Executive Vice President of Operations.
Prior to joining Bally, Mr. Lipparelli served as Executive Vice President and then President of Shuffle Master, Inc., a publicly traded gaming supply company, from 2001 to 2003; as Chief Financial Officer of Camco, Inc., a retail chain holding company, from 2000 to 2001; as Senior Vice President of Entertainment Systems for Bally Gaming, Inc. (a subsidiary of publicly traded Alliance Gaming Corporation), from 1998 to 2000; and various management positions including Vice President of Finance for publicly traded Casino Data Systems from 1993 to 1998.
Mr. Lipparelli is a Board Trustee Emeritus of the University of Nevada Foundation, Board Member of the International Center for Responsible Gaming, member of the International Association of Gaming Advisors and a member of the International Masters of Gaming Law. He holds a bachelor’s degree in finance and a master’s degree in economics from the University of Nevada, Reno. Among other qualifications, Mr. Lipparelli brings over 25 years of experience in the gaming industry, including his service as Chief Executive Officer of a strategic advisory and product development firm, various executive management positions at companies serving the gaming industry, his legislative experience with the State Senate and past roles with the Nevada Gaming Control Board.
Karl Mosgofian leads the IT & Security team for Gainsight, the leader in Customer Success software. With over 30 years of experience Karl brings a breadth and depth of business and technology understanding. From consulting, to startup adventures, through senior leadership roles at companies like Alta Group, Cadence Design Systems, and Harmonic he has always been passionate about making his customers wildly successful. In addition to his internal role, he loves connecting with our customers and serves as an advocate for IT inside Gainsight. He also volunteers and serves on the Trail Center board, building and maintaining hiking trails in the Bay Area.
From the hours of 5am-8am, Frankie Iturbe is an Education Entrepreneur. Around 8am, he clocks in and works at Accenture as a Technology Consulting Manager.
At Accenture, he is part of the Customer, Sales & Service practice. He supports his clients in designing capabilities that accelerate revenue growth, leading the work with a human-centered design mindset. In other words, he leads engaging workshops, and makes pretty slides to communicate software and processes.
As an Entrepreneur, he is building WeElevate, a K-12 Education service provider that supports at-promise students in bringing out the best in themselves with a basketball and post-its. WeElevate has supported over 100 students in developing social and emotional skills.
While early in his career, Frankie has experimented with multiple work arrangements — remote, part-time, sabbatical. This experimentation has enabled him to freelance, start a nonprofit and raise thousands of dollars. He’s passionate about sharing what he has learned on his journey, in hopes of getting people fired up about the work they do. You can follow Frankie on his blog and newsletter at: https://www.fit.la/.
Beth Elletson serves as the Chief People Officer for the Miami Marlins. She joined the organization in 2020 and is responsible for leading the overall people strategy to drive a championship-level culture and inclusive environment across the entire workforce. She strives to create continuous learning opportunities for personal and professional growth.
A native of South Florida, Mrs. Elletson is SHRM-SCP certified with more than a decade of HR leadership with both corporate and start-up environments. She graduated from the University of Florida and was recognized as a 2019 40 Under 40 recipient by the South Florida Business Journal. An avid athlete and member of the Cardinal Gibbons High School Athletic Hall of Fame, Mrs. Elletson is the mother to two boys and passionate about giving back to those in need through sports.
From a very young age, Elon was taught the importance of hard work and applying oneself whole heartedly to the task at hand. Elon tried to replicate this mantra in every facet of my life and abide by these principles with his work ethic which has established my resolve and dedication to succeed.
In retrospect, each of Elon’s early endeavours online taught him invaluable lessons about the digital world and people’s expectations when paying for a service. These experiences compelled him to start Tapt By Hatch – a groundbreaking take on the business card in your pocket.
Tapt by Hatch is motivated by emerging technological innovations as proven by Tapt’s integrated and evolving capacity to not only save your contact details directly into someones phone but also to edit and update one’s card details on the fly. And of course at no further expense to the card holder! The card is an environmentally sustainable stainless steel slate finish that feels robust and smooth in the hand. Tapt by Hatch introduces a user friendly product which ensures seamless contact transferrals.
Maria Perrin is Chief Growth Officer for HMS, a healthcare technology company, where she is responsible for the company’s corporate strategy, marketing, government relations, business development, and oversight of the company’s more than 500 contracts with government and commercial clients. She has transformed HMS’ brand and furthered its industry impact through numerous thought leadership and innovation initiatives. Maria rejoined HMS in 2019, after co-founding a successful consulting practice that launched dozens of health tech startups and tech companies in emerging sectors. During her first tenure at HMS, as Chief Marketing Officer and EVP over government and commercial markets from 2007 – 2014, HMS revenue grew fivefold and the company successfully entered the federal government market, doubled their volume of state government contracts, and expanded services to commercial health plans.
Prior to HMS, Maria was Senior Vice President, Sales, Marketing, and Business Development for Performant Financial Corp. where she led Performant’s entry into the healthcare market and other business sectors. Maria has held financial and operational leadership roles for BestFoods, Nissan and other Fortune 100 companies.
Maria actively mentors start-up companies and entrepreneurs, working with programs such as the Venture Mentor Group, Springboard Enterprises, Florida Atlanta University’s Tech Runway and others. She also serves as Board Chairman for IntegirGuard, and is co-executive sponsor for HMS’ Diversity & Inclusion Council and Women’s Opportunity Network. Maria has a BA in Economics from UCLA and an MBA from the University of Miami.
Anu Bharadwaj is VP of Product at Atlassian. She is an accomplished executive with a track record of growing $500M+ businesses, building great teams and shipping blockbuster products.
Anu joined Atlassian in 2014 as the Head of Product for Jira. Prior to Atlassian, she built several products for developers in Visual Studio at Microsoft for over 10 years. She is passionate about making the world a better place through technology and effective philanthropy, and currently serves as the Chairperson of the Atlassian Foundation, a non-profit organization focused on global education.
Martha Heller is one of the most widely followed voices on the role of the CIO. She has been a CIO.com contributor since 1999 and was founder of the CIO Executive Council, IDG’s professional organization for CIOs. Martha has written two books on IT leadership: The CIO Paradox: Battling the Contradictions of IT Leadership and Be the Business: CIOs in the New Era of IT. Martha is CEO of Heller Search Associates, an executive recruiting firm that specializes in technology leadership positions nationwide across all industries. Through all of these platforms, Martha has built a large, intellectually engaged network of technology executives, many of whom contribute to her widely read e newsletter, “The Heller Report.” Target Research recently named Martha as a top influencer of U.S.-based CIOs.
As Chief Operating Officer, Mark is responsible for the continued growth and evolution of the Westgate brand as the industry leader in experience-based, destination resorts. Mark is responsible for all acquisition, design, development, construction, resort operations, restaurants, retail and marketing for Westgate Resort properties. Mark has a very diverse background, including the development of over 50 restaurants ranging from fast casual to fine dining, and a variety of retail shops, entertainment venues, and destination health spas under the brand, Serenity Spa by Westgate.
Ablorde is the Co-Founder and CEO of 4Degrees, a Chicago-based technology company applying machine intelligence to help teams in relationship-driven industries manage their most important source of opportunity – their professional networks. Prior to 4Degrees, Ablorde has held various investor and consultancy positions at companies including Pritzker Group Venture Capital, Bain & Company and G2 Crowd. When he’s not doing that, you can usually find him lifting weights, reading books or eating BBQ.
GoGig is Chris’s second successful HR Tech company, and still holds a seat on the Board of Directors for the other venture: Timesly (mytimesly.com). In his 13+ years of experience, Mr. Hodges has accomplished the following before the age of 30: Co-Founded two and worked on three successful technology ventures with one successful exit, advised & invested in other startups, worked in B2B sales, built brands from the ground up, developed brands to the next level, increased customer retention and loyalty, promoted on all social media platforms and launched multimillion dollar products, both online and in retail. He likes to say that he “generally executes on his best big ideas instead of throwing tons of ideas out there with no execution.” Mr. Hodges is a graduate of Purdue University’s Krannert School of Management with a BS in Management, and holds an MBA from University of Florida’s Hough Graduate School of Business.
Arpana is a digital marketer with deep experience in organic search and user acquisition. She had led organic search growth programs for various large brands and small businesses.
She enjoys being in the trenches solving problems relating to growth marketing, search optimization, content strategy, site architecture, search tools, and dashboards.
Gagan is the Chief Product Officer at Behavox where he leads Product Management, Engineering and Design teams across all products to constantly innovate and enhance the solutions and technology to identify bad actors in customer’s environments quickly and accurately before they jeopardize their businesses and brands. Prior to Behavox, Gagan spent 15 years at Microsoft. As Partner Director of Product Management, he oversaw a large team of product managers and engineers across diverse geographies, focusing largely on security and governance solutions. He launched Azure Information Protection, an identity-based security cloud service that became the de-facto name in the data protection and governance space, and led product management and engineering teams for Microsoft Windows. Before Microsoft, Gulati managed product teams at Oracle for its e-Business suite and at BEA Systems for its WebLogic Server.
Gagan has a B.Tech degree in computer science from the National Institute Of Technology, Kurukshetra.
Alexander Sjögren is the Chief Technology Officer at YellowPepper. In his role, Alexander oversees the company’s technology & product strategy. Prior to joining YellowPepper, Alexander worked with payment and eID product design with implementations in several regions around the world.
Maurice Fuller is the Founder of StaffingTec, which helps staffing firms accelerate their digital transformation journey through our monthly interactive digital event platform, StaffingTec365, and annual in person conference, StaffingTec Connect.
StaffingTec365 is the staffing industry’s only always-on global digital platform where the staffing technology community gathers to connect, learn and grow. Get inspired through 10 digital events per year and always-on access the staffing industry’s largest library of in-depth technical presentations, thought leadership and peer advice.
Dan is chairman and chief executive officer of Deloitte Consulting LLP. As its CEO, he leads more than 50,000 professionals who help clients solve their most complex business issues and move forward with confidence across areas of technology modernization and innovation, human capital, strategy and analytics, customer experience, and enterprise operations. Dan is also a member of the US Executive Committee and the US Management Committee.
In his more than 20 years with Deloitte, Dan has led large customer-centric transformations for both public and private sector clients. Previously, Dan led the Government & Public Services practice helping to solve our nation’s biggest challenges across all levels of government, including all 15 US cabinet-level agencies, 44 states, and more than 60 of the top 100 universities. He also served as Deloitte’s chief strategy officer for Human Capital and led the Civilian Government sector. In addition, he writes and speaks regularly on topics such as purpose-driven leadership, elevating citizen and customer experience, and the future of work.
Dan holds a Bachelor of Science in international economics and a Master of Business Administration from Georgetown University.
Richard currently serves as CFO for Cinch Home Services Inc. a fast growth home services company and is leading them through a significant transformation phase. His significant accomplishments over a 35-year career have been in successfully leading public and private enterprises through strategic phases of growth cycles and in turnaround situations. He was awarded the 2020 South Florida Business Journal special honoree recipient for Turnaround Achievement.
Richard currently serves as a board member of Financial Executives International (South Florida Chapter), Step up for Students and special advisor to Women Executive Leadership (WEL).
Richard is an author in corporate and personal financial literacy. His new podcast series “Prepare4 Growth” is focused on building a tribe of conscious leaders and interconnected learners.
Regional Talent Solutions Manager at Experis IT – part of the $22 Billion Manpower Group of companies. Danish is responsible for permanent placement across the state of Texas. His efforts include growing the Experts IT brand by strategic company partnerships, advising organizations on talent acquisition strategy, and leveraging the technical recruitment teams that ensure client deliverables. Prior to entering the Technology sector, Danish’s talent acquisition spanned the entire oil & gas value chain.
Vinod is Chief of Technology for Talent Development consulting practice in Talent and Transformation innovation unit at IBM, Vinod is responsible for bringing innovative talent development software and services to IBM clients to help close the skills gap and transform HR and business. He is passionate about helping clients transform by leveraging IBM’s learning transformation journey combined with AI technology. Vinod is a voracious reader, podcast listener and morning walker, he lives in Raleigh with his wife and two kids.
Andrew Koenig graduated with degrees in Finance and Accounting from Elon University in 2005 and received his MBA in Entrepreneurship from Nova Southeastern University – Huizenga College of Business and Entrepreneurship. Andrew began his full-time career with City Furniture in January 2006 in the Receiving Department unloading furniture on containers, and has worked his way up through the company and in almost all divisions of the company. He spent a significant time streamlining the Operations Department in the first 8 years of his career to become one of the industry’s best. Currently, Andrew is serving as President of City Furniture, overseeing all departments of the business.
Manish has more than 25 years of experience in IT and related Services industry. He is currently the Corporate CTO in L’Oréal France. Before Loreal, Manish has worked as the Global CIO at ANSYS, Managing Director in UBS, VP of Customer Advocacy in Yahoo!, and Managing Director for Microsoft Corporation.
Manish has long ranging experience in improving Customer Experience in companies like Microsoft, Yahoo and now in Loreal.
Manish won the 2016 CIO of the Year award by Pittsburgh Technology Council. He was nominated for the Wall Street Journal CIO forum. PwC has recognized Manish for his work in information security. He also won the Worldwide Leadership Award for Privacy by Microsoft Corporation. Silicon India Magazine profiled him as the Executive of the Month.
Manish has published many publications and has been on the Board of a few companies. Manish is currently on the board of directors for Adrich Inc. (www.adrich.io) and for BOLD.
Manish has worked with government agencies in Asia and EMEA and organizations such as SSPA, NASSCOM, CII, ITIDA (Egypt) and IDA/WDA (Singapore) to create new Customer Experience, Technical Support and Customer Advocacy forums.
Carlos Armando Garcia is the CEO and Founder of Finhabits, the leading money app for the U.S. Latinos. He has 18 years of financial and technology experience and was named by Goldman Sachs as one of the 100 Most Intriguing Entrepreneurs of 2020. He has a B.Sc. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from MIT.
Dr. Sarah Haynes has worked in multiple sectors that cover international e-micro mobility/transportation tech startups, research, education, business development, venture capital, behavioral health, and risk management.
She has served as a member of the full-time clinical research faculty at Georgetown School of Medicine and as a health educator and a team leader/project manager for NIH research grant to improve health outcomes for minority women in five leading hospitals in Washington, D.C. She is a tech entrepreneur, philanthropist, educator/professor, activist, community builder, volunteer, and mother. She combines all of these varied disciplines, mindsets, and strategies to collaborate with her Community towards maximizing happiness and balance.
Paula Santamaria has experience working in the public, private, and nonprofit sectors. She currently serves as the Chief of Staff to the Global Head for Displays & Accessories at HP, Inc.
Prior to working at HP, Paula served as a Political Appointee during the Obama Administration where she worked at the National Endowment for the Arts and the Inter-American Development Bank.
Paula, a former Colombian asylee, is very passionate about serving the community and helping young people find their paths through high school and beyond. Throughout her career, Paula has been actively involved with various political campaigns and nonprofits. She currently serves on the Houston Mayor’s Hispanic Advisory Board, the Ivy Fellows Advisory Board, and as a mentor and school speaker for Project Grad. In addition, she is an Aspiring Latino Leaders Fellow through Latinos for Education. At HP, she co-founded the first Latino Business Impact Network (ERG) and co-curated the HP H-Town Tech Camp, an immersive STEM-focused event for low-SES high school women.
Paula has a BA in Political Science and Marketing from the University of Houston, and will be attending MIT Sloan’s School of Management in Fall 2021.
Vidette Pires leads organizations through successful technology initiatives and transformations. With a 15-year track record of building teams, products and technology programs from the ground up, Vidette is consistently sought to solve long standing challenges and drive results. Vidette Peris is seeking an opportunity which leverages her technology and people management skills to positively impact the lives of people.
Joshua Hecht is originally from New Jersey and moved to Fort Lauderdale 10 years ago. He has been involved in recruitment, human resources, and business development since 2006, and in a leadership role for the past 10 years.
He has led global teams in very matrixed and KPI driven environments. Some success stories of Joshua’s achievements include winning a global CEO prize for the highest number of sales/deals within recruitment two years in a row, and was rewarded with trips to Dubai for both wins. Another major milestone Joshua has met was implementing a global recruitment function/team with opening offices in the UK, Barcelona, and Singapore, along with managing offices in Florida and Houston, TX.
Joshua has been with Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines for about two years now as a Lead Recruiter for the New-build and Fleet Modernization departments. He is married and has a baby girl on the way. His passions include fitness, football, and mentoring and leading a successful team.
Khalid is Senior Vice President, Chief Digital Officer at TBC Corporation. He is a technologist at heart who loves to brainstorm tech architecture & design and rapid build out of technology solutions for his stakeholders. Khalid is a servant technology leader who believes in building bridges and venues to mentor & nurture future digital & tech leaders. Prior to joining TBC, Khalid led the e-Commerce team as Vice President of e-Commerce & Digital platforms. His tenure with Office Depot spanned 11 years in roles of increasing responsibility advancing through roles spanning application development, global systems, e-Commerce and digital business platforms. Before joining Office Depot, Khalid held software engineer roles and network support roles at Florida International University and The Answer Group supporting Bell South.
Khalid received his Master of Science degree in computer science with a focus on distributed multimedia systems and 3D animation systems from Florida International University and his Bachelor of Science in computer science with a minor in economics from North Carolina State University.
Chris is a growth-oriented, visionary executive with a proven track record of exceptional performance in both public and private businesses. Expertise in business transformation, turnarounds, P&L management, strategy development, cost restructuring, operations, mergers & acquisitions, carve-outs, IPO leadership and global partnership development/management.
An expert on authentic leadership, Kimberly Davis shares her inspirational message of personal power, responsibility and impact with organizations across the country and teaches leadership programs world-wide; most notably, her program “OnStage Leadership” which runs in NYC and Dallas, TX.
Additionally, Kimberly teaches for Southern Methodist University’s Cox School of Business' Executive Education Program and their Latino Leadership Initiative; as well as for the Bush Institute's WE Lead program (empowering female leaders from the middle east). Kimberly is a TEDx speaker and her award-winning book, Brave Leadership: Unleash Your Most Confident, Authentic, and Powerful Self to Get the Results You Need was named the #1 book to read on Inc. Magazine’s “The most impactful books to read in 2018” and has a cover endorsement by Dan Pink.
Helen Young Hayes is the founder and CEO of Activate Workforce Solutions PBC. Activate's mission is to help under-served individuals achieve their fullest potential through the dignity of work. Activate is the culmination of Helen's past for-profit and nonprofit experience--harnessing the power of the marketplace to achieve profound social impact. By moving individuals to self-sufficiency, Activate creates triple wins for employers, placements, and the community. Helen delights in spotting the hidden potential in the unsung talents of the individuals she serves at Activate.
The daughter of Chinese immigrants, Helen is a believer in and the embodiment of the American Dream. But the American Dream--a life of flourishing--is elusive, as generational poverty becomes the default for too many men and women from underrepresented populations. Activate bridges the gap between individual potential and realized success through matching and placing individuals into self-sustaining careers and through intensive coaching of personal, professional and financial skills. Activate seeks not only to advance economic and professional success but to transform lives through the learning and mastery of new habits, mindsets and disciplines.
Ashleigh Wilson is the Founder and CEO of AuditMate, a vertical transportation software and management company.
AuditMate is on a mission to empower building owners and managers with data-driven maintenance auditing products that radically simplify vendor management and selection.
Ashleigh believes that in order to do well, we must start by doing right, and is proving this by making vertical transportation management accessible and simple.
Tim Ramsay joined World Fuel Services in 2016 as the Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) and Vice President of Information Security. He is responsible for leading the global information security, risk, and governance program including compliance with SOX, PCI-DSS and NIST 800-171 across all operating units for a Fortune 100 company (currently #83). Tim recently led the company in achieving ISO 27001 certification, joining the FBI's Domestic Security Alliance Council, adopting the NIST Cybersecurity Framework, and modernizing the infosec technical controls portfolio with cloud-enabled defenses to protect both on-premise and multi-cloud workloads. Tim's current focus is building a "culture of security" through a layered defense model, engaging third-parties in defending the energy supply chain for downstream customers, mitigating operational security risks associated with the "Internet of Things" (IoT), transforming crown jewel data protection into a revenue-enhancing competitive advantage, supporting the corporate data center migration to the cloud, segmenting the network and modernizing the identity infrastructure to align with the cloud first strategy, improving threat detection and response capabilities by implementing an external 7x24 Security Operations Center (SOC), and embedding automated DevSecOps security testing tools into development pipeline. Tim reports to the Chief Operating Officer and works alongside his executive-level peers on strategy, culture, metrics, talent recruitment and the adoption of Agile practices throughout the organization.
Dr. Glenn Kaplan is a Healthcare Administration Executive and Board-Certified Physician with 20+ years progressive leadership experience in healthcare practice systems and clinical advisory boards, possessing a unique combination of business, clinical and technology expertise. Adept seasoned leader in Clinical Operations Excellence, Strategy, Innovation, M&A, Practice Integration, Process Improvement, Contract Negotiation and Care Transformation. Proven ability to develop and manage integrated clinical programs that ensure sound medical practices, achieve quality outcomes, and exceed financial metrics.
Justin Libak, MBA is a Senior Recruitment Strategy Executive in charge of developing recruitment strategies for organizations ranging from Fortune 5 companies to local independent organizations. Justin’s specialty is the development of storytelling and differentiation for organizations.
Sommer Sherrod is a highly regarded Healthcare Strategist, Human Resources thought leader, and former Adjunct Professor. Sommer brings a unique perspective having spent her career solving a myriad of Human Resources challenges in a variety of industries and Fortune 100 companies.
Sommer has worked for leading organizations including JP Morgan Chase, Deloitte, NYU Medical Center, Starwood Hotels and Resorts (now Marriott), The Hartford Insurance Group, and United Healthcare. Various leaders and clients have shared poignant and heartfelt recommendations that speak to Sommer’s many contributions Colleagues view Sommer as an authentic leader with a high sense of ethics, accountability, and urgency.
Phil Reese currently serves as the Director of Talent Acquisition, Technology for Chewy.com. With over 10+ years supporting technologies companies, Phil has spent the past four years at Chewy.com building out a Talent Acquisition strategy and processes to scale the technology organization to support millions of active customers utilizing the E-Commerce platform. During this time he has launched multiple offices throughout the United States with an emphasis on attracting and retaining top technical talent.”
Andrew is a proven technology leader complete with a solid understanding of product life cycle development. He has been involved in design, development, and management across all key stages of Software and I.T including Software Engineering; Build/Release Engineering; Quality Assurance; Product and Project Management; Application Support, and I.T & Infrastructure.
His experience includes almost 2 decades of managing within the financial, marketing automation, and airline industries. Andrew regards himself as an expert in agile/waterfall methodologies including both hybrid and mature models.
As Senior Vice-President of Competitive Solutions, Inc., Seth has over 25 years of experience assisting a diverse group of public and private companies as well as local governments in the development and deployment of strategic business processes throughout their organizations. He is an expert in the areas of business metrics and dashboards, organizational communication strategy, and employee accountability and engagement.
Lauren Jones (LJ) has been a leader, influencer, and innovator in the staffing industry for just over 22 years. Lauren's love and obsession for technology has helped shaped her career and provided a stellar reputation as a tech stack expert, industry trail blazer and business operations guru. Her focus on mindful and responsible usage of technology in our industry is helping businesses align their future desires with the technologies of today all with a singular focus in mind - keep the job process human. She is a vocal advocate for elevating women and the creative voice behind the Top 25 Life Leaderships Blogs: Goat Leadership. She has been featured on almost every industry podcast from You Own the Experience Podcast, The Edge, Staffing Hub, HR Lift Off and many more to share her passion for technology. Her LinkedIn vlog has grown her following by over 150% in 2020 with hashtag days like #technologytuesday, #asklauren, and #womencrushwednesday as her most popular segments. She gives generously to her community in time and resources to causes like NCL, St. John’s Program for Real Change, Mustard Seed and more. She has been the recipient of multiple staffing awards with the Staffing World ASA Care Award for service and participation in putting the brave men and women who have served our country back to work as a major highlight of her career. Lauren is a recent empty nester and proud mom to two powerhouse young lady leaders Emily & Allison. She lives on a farm in Elk Grove, CA with her husband Peter.
Mike is Duck Creek’s chief executive officer and also serves on the Board of Directors. He brings more than 25 years of technology, operations and insurance-industry expertise to this global leadership role, in which he’s responsible for the company’s strategic direction and overall performance.
Prior to Duck Creek, Mike held several leadership roles at Allstate. He was senior vice president for the agency technology and sales business units, where he was responsible for strategic management and operations.
Deepak is a Digital Transformation leader at Mars Inc. As part of the Demand Analytics Capability building, he led initiatives focusing on Strategic Revenue Management, Route to Market optimization, SKU Rationalization, Marketing Transformation which includes (Shopper, Consumer Promotion and Media), and D-COM (eCommerce). He led an SRM advanced analytics transformation program globally for Pet Nutrition, Mars Wrigley, Food, and Multi sales segments in the top 15 markets, while managing a team of data scientists and business translators.
He has previously worked as a Strategic Pricing Director at Asurion, and as a Senior Manager for Business Planning and Performance Management at Coca-Cola.
He holds an MBA from George Washington, and is also a mechanical engineer from NIT, Calicut.
Steve started recruiting in 1989 and for a while was the only recruiter he knew who had a fax machine. Later, Steve became the first recruiter he knew of to send a resume by email as a Word document (he actually have a letter from a client who was blown away by this). Later, Steve became the first he knew of to start recruiting by email, using the bcc feature. Steve was the first recruiter he knew of to make a placement without speaking with either the client or the candidate. Now Steve is the only recruiter he knows of who maximized coopetition and created his own software and ‘machine’ to streamline the recruiting process to such a point that he fills every search Steve takes, and fills a huge amount of searches for other recruiters. To give you an idea of the scale of this, Steve made 84 placements last year (83 of which were on other recruiters searches) and he had 52 this year so far, 51 of which were other recruiters searches. In 2016, 17 and 18 Steve hit 80, 80, and 83 respectively. Speak to other recruiters you know. Nobody has production like this. Most recruiters aim for 12.
For each of the 4 years that Forbes has had the designation, Steve has been on their two short lists of America’s Best Recruiting Firms and America’s Best Executive Search Firms. Steve has been ranked #2 globally by the Top Echelon Network of Executive Recruiters (in gross production) for 7 consecutive years (#1 quit the business earlier this year and used different approaches than I do), and #1 by the NPA Worldwide Network for the last 2 years. Earlier this year Steve made NPA’s “Hall of Fame” by being a “Double Platinum Recruiter” ($10MM in combined salaries) faster than anyone else in their history. Steve is the only recruiter to ever be at the top of both NPA and Top Echelon simultaneously.
Andrew Bennink is an SEO Manager at Chewy, with 4 years working in Fortune 500 enterprise Ecommerce, Marketing, Product & SEO, plus 4 years at Internet startups & 11 years as a freelance Content, eCom & SEO consultant. He's spent 12 years aligning business priorities with digital channels to increase browse & organic traffic, revenue, search rankings, conversion rate & click-thru-rate. He consistently drives growth with a holistic focus on building a scalable, optimized, and performance metric-backed, customer-focused UX. He has also won numerous awards of different varieties.
On this episode I host Ryan Shea - President of Right Management. Ryan began his career with Right Management in 2009 with the accounting team and he oversaw the implementation of an updated accounting system. He quickly moved into sales and continually exceeded his goals, grew into sales management and inspired the team to surpass their sales quotas and then he became an EVP of Right Management in 2015. In October of 2019, he was promoted to President of Right Management Florida/Caribbean. He is responsible for the growth and development of the Florida Caribbean region. Under his leadership, there has been tremendous growth in outplacement business, thus overseeing additional team members and creating new consulting solutions to capitalize on the demand.
Jeremy Fain is the CEO and co-founder of Cognitiv, the first self-learning, fully automated neural network technology available for marketers.
With over 20 years of interactive experience across agency, publisher, and ad tech management, Jeremy led North American Accounts for Rubicon Project before founding Cognitiv.
Prior to Rubicon Project, Jeremy served as Director of Network Solutions for CBS Interactive. He also formerly served as Vice President of Industry Services for the IAB, where he shaped interactive industry policy, standards, and best practices.
Matt Gallo is a Partner and the CRO of Accelirate Inc., the largest niche RPA services firm in the United States. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Miami and is a seasoned expert in the IT Industry with experience ranging from enterprise infrastructure to the implementation of cloud strategies and automated solutions. As Accelirate's Chief Revenue Officer, he is responsible for overseeing and managing all sales and marketing activities of the company. His duties include, but are not limited to sales strategy, revenue generation, prospecting, and business development. Accelirate is widely known for their innovative RPA90X program, a 90-Day Automation Accelerator Service that helps large organizations jump-start their automation program. Accolades for the structure of this service go to Mr. Gallo’s entrepreneurial spirit and creativity. Mr. Gallo’s energy and devotion to success are unparalleled as he brings both immense passion and strong leadership to Accelirate. He has been guiding the company’s growth and success since its inception and is a key asset to the executive team.
Jessica Hope Elias is the VP of Launch for REEF Technology, the largest operator of mobility, logistics hubs, and neighborhood kitchens in North America, with a network of 4500 locations and over 15,000 employees.
Prior to joining REEF, Jessica served as the Director of Enterprise Project Management for City National Bank of Florida (CNB), one of the largest financial institutions based in the state.
She is dedicated to supporting her community and women’s leadership and currently serves on the United Way of Miami-Dade’s Young Leaders Executive Committee. She recently founded a startup non-profit called Hopetopia to encourage and support women empowerment.
Steve is a Talent Acquisition and People Leader with over 15 years in the recruiting industry, recruiting at the highest level on a global scale. Steve has been lucky enough to experience 2 IPO’s and worked on the largest digital transformation programme on the planet. During his free time he is humbled to say that he is an Advisor to a number of startups and scaleups across Europe including some well known incubators as well as a Community Leader for DBR a Resourcing Leaders 100 recognised UK Group and other active live communities.
Mario Passalacqua is a Managing Director at Altran, a division of Capgemini. He is responsible for the full 360 degree relationship of Altran’s top technology clients. Prior to joining Altran, he was the VP of Global Business Intelligence & Predictive Analytics sales at IBM. Mario holds a MBA in Finance from NYU’s Stern School of Business and a BS in Chemical Engineering from Tufts University.
Tom Eck is the Global CTO of Financial Services at IBM. In this role he is responsible for establishing the technology modernization approach for IBM's largest financial services clients globally. This includes rethinking how a financial services firm interacts with its clients while leveraging exponential technologies to accelerate time-to-value. Tom specializes in the transformation from legacy technologies and mindsets to a growth mindset which encourages innovation via agility -- namely via adoption of hybrid cloud, AI, machine learning, deep learning and automation at large scale while applying Agile methodologies to deliver radical ROI while managing risk appropriately throughout. Tom's approach is inspired by the Agile objective of continually delivering demonstrable value to both business and IT.
Mr. Eck is also an entrepreneurial technology innovator and product developer with a track record of bringing $100M+ products to market in multiple industries. His true passion is in software development: he's been coding for 25 years- and and am currently hands-on and proficient in 10+ programming languages. However he is equally gifted with the ability to lead elite software and product development teams. Tom has worked at numerous startup’s (including those that he founded incl. SimpleNet) as well in leadership roles within Fortune 200 companies (incl. IBM and First Data). Tom has a unique ability to combine my communication skills with my technical and business backgrounds to effectively liaise between software development, product development and the C-suite.
Tom has a comprehensive education that spans Chemistry, Physics, Advanced Mathematics, Biotechnology, Computer Science, Genetics. He has experience across industries incl. financial services, biotech and pharma, telecom, military/defense, media and publishing.
Satish Kumar is the Co-founder and CEO of GLIDER.ai, a competency-based hiring platform. Through a Total Talent Quality approach, he is committed to bringing Quality and Transparency in the talent market for enterprise, staffing agencies, and candidates. He is passionate about HRTech and EdTech. Satish is an ex-Oracle, a U.C. Berkeley alumni, and an IIT-K graduate.
Wade Thomas is the founder and principal of Aim to Win, a practice focused on bringing out the best in high performing individuals, teams, and organizations. Wade has over 20 years of experience in leadership and talent management areas, most recently as the Chief Human Resources Officer for Meritage Homes Corporation. A graduate of Stetson University, he also has an MBA from Indiana University and further executive education from the University of Michigan. He believes that championship level organizations thrive as a result of incorporating compassion and empathy into everything that they do, strategically leveraging their strengths, and aligning people, business, and customer.
Doug Sauder is in charge of digital product management & analytics for the John Deere Intelligent Solutions Group, where he leads product management and data science teams focused on enabling smarter equipment and better decisions via digital tools and data services. Prior to joining John Deere, Doug led product development teams at Precision Planting that built agricultural equipment solutions, and at The Climate Corporation, where he built digital tools for farmers.
Eric E. Burton is the Director of IT Procurement and Vendor Management at Envision Healthcare based in Nashville, TN. Eric has extensive experience in technology and vendor management working across multiple industries. He has built from the ground up global Vendor Management organizations at multiple industry leading companies. Eric has a passion for consolidation, delivering millions of dollars in savings and providing best in breed IT services.
Irina Shamkova, EVP of Product at Intermedia, a cloud communications company that helps over 125,000 businesses connect better – through voice, video conferencing, chat, contact center, business email and productivity, file sharing and backup, security, archiving, and more – from anywhere, at any time. Irina holds a Masters in Applied Mathematics from Saint Petersburg State University in Russia and has completed the General Management Program at Harvard Business School. She is a CRN Power 100 of “The Most Powerful Women Of The Channel” for the last four years. Please welcome Irina.
Leon is an innovative and strategic Corporate Director at VITAS Healthcare with over 20 years of project management experience in multiple industries that include (Healthcare, Transportation/Logistics, Consulting and Software Development).
He currently oversees the development of telehealth applications that support clinicians to deliver care in today’s challenging COVID-19 pandemic, and also works with the VITAS Executive Leadership team to ensure the adoption of telehealth applications, and the sustainability of digital transformation.
Nick Sacco is OBHG’s Chief Operating Officer, primarily responsible for client account management strategy. Through his strategic guidance and leadership to field operations team members, Nick focuses on hospital partners and the organization's changing business demands. He also oversees the enterprise’s process improvement efforts and lean management strategy. As a proven healthcare executive, Nick has extensive experience in physician practice management, metrics-based operations, talent development, and client relationship management.
Nick joined OBHG in 2019, bringing nearly 20 years of experience working in healthcare, primarily with Envision Physician Services and Sheridan Healthcare.
Mary Beth Taylor is Senior Vice President, Enterprise Controller at Steward Health Care based in Dallas, TX. Mary Beth has extensive experience in the healthcare industry and expertise in corporate accounting and systems integration. She holds an MBA from Owen Graduate School of Management at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, TN.
In high tech or any role, Jennifer Byrne is an advocate for applying original thinking and personal conviction in order to create positive impact across work, personal and public arenas. Utilizing wisdom gained from twenty years in the tech industry, Jennifer teaches others through her role as an advisor to startups, personal mentorship to young leaders, and a forthcoming book on how to apply an innovator’s mindset in order to survive and thrive in today’s fast-changing, tech-infused world.
In her most recent role as Chief Technology Officer of Microsoft US, Jennifer worked with companies and organizations across all industries and market segments to re-frame their business opportunities in digital terms. Jennifer infused innovation practices into Microsoft’s technical field teams which led to high-value and well-publicized digital transformation strategies with top global companies.
Under Jennifer’s leadership, her teams at Microsoft undertook innovation projects designed to foster inclusive growth in a cross-sector and community-oriented manner. She led the fifteen Microsoft Technology Centers across the US, hosting thousands of customers and community events each year.
In previous roles at Microsoft, Jennifer was responsible for market expansion initiatives leveraging business model and technology innovation for government, healthcare, and education providers around the globe. She joined Microsoft as the Chief Security Officer for the Worldwide Public Sector Division in 2014.
Prior to Microsoft, Jennifer was a leader in Cybersecurity, having held technical, sales and executive positions at companies such as Intel, McAfee and Symantec. She began her career in technology as an Information Security Analyst and Engineer serving US Government clients. Her first career, which remains her passion today, was in the non-profit world working with under-served populations.
Raj Sethuraman has over 24 years of experience in technology space working across multiple industries delivering large scale technology platforms, launching customer centric innovative solutions and building high performing global teams. He is a Harvard Business School Alum and earned his MBA from University of Southern California. Currently he is serving as CTO for Wolters Kluwer ELM Business.
Don Cox has over 30 years of experience in technology. Currently serving as the Chief Information Security Officer at MEDNAX, the physician-led healthcare organization headquartered in Sunrise, FL, Cox is responsible for cyber operations and engineering, identity access management, disaster recovery, business continuity planning, and risk and compliance for the company. Selected as a Peerlyst Community: 29 Highly Influential CISOs of 2020.
Lakrisha Davis is a Career Coach, Published Author, and the owner of NextUp Resume, with an MBA in HR Management and a formal background in Compliance and Talent Her company has assisted over 1,300 job seekers in landing their ideal careers. Some of her brand collaborations have included The Field Museum, AT&T, Sprint, Capital One, as well as various schools and community organizations throughout the Midwest. Her work has been featured in/on Forbes, Rolling Out Magazine, 102.3 Chicago radio, and more.
Magnus McDermid -Senior Vice President, Mobility Group, Panasonic System Solutions of North America (PSSNA). After joining Panasonic Canada in 1996 in a sales management role, Magnus has grown within Panasonic and has held various positions within the Retail Systems group, and Computer and Communications before taking on the role of General Manager of the Computer and AV solutions group in 2010. In his current position, Magnus oversees sales and operations for the U.S. TOUGHBOOK Mobility business where he focuses on delivering high-performance technology to help businesses work smarter and more efficiently. Originally from Scotland, Magnus completed his education at Dundee University and moved to Canada with his family in 1989.
On this episode I welcome Shivanku Misra who leads the global marketing and digital analytics function at Hilton Worldwide.
Shivanku is a global leader with 12+ years of management experience in creating as well as implementing analytical solutions with quantifiable business impact.
He has started and grown analytics departments from ground up, at multiple Fortune 500 companies, and has delivered a business impact of more than $2 Billion over the last decade.
David brings to Atmosic over 30 years of engineering expertise with an extensive wireless background, as his past teams’ radio designs have brought billions of successful devices to market. He was on the early engineering team at Atheros and then vice president of Analog/RF Engineering and vice president of Engineering with Qualcomm following its 2011 acquisition of Atheros. David earned a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University and has been a Consulting Professor of Electrical Engineering at Stanford.
A veteran technology marketing executive, Scott joined Impact in November 2017 and brings 18 years of business development and marketing leadership for enterprise SaaS companies in the product development and MarTech space.
Charles Onstott - Chief Technology Officer of SAIC. Charles is responsible for driving SAIC’s long-term technology strategy which emphasizes fostering a culture of innovation across SAIC, developing and enhancing innovation capabilities, partnerships with startup accelerators and universities, and research and development. His efforts span a broad portfolio of technology capabilities, including information technology, training and simulation, advanced analytics, hardware and platform integration, and logistics and supply chain.
Danish Yousuf - CEO and Founder of Zensurance. A Toronto based company that is bringing the latest technology innovations to the insurance industry. Zensurance works with leading Canadian companies to change the way small businesses manage all their insurance needs. We hope you enjoy this episode. Welcome to the Ivy Podcast Danish.
Hernan Tabah - Global CTO & Digital Transformation Lead of Mondelez International - one of the world's largest snack companies with iconic global and local brands such as Oreo, Sour Patch Kids candy, Trident gum, Halls and many others. Hernan is Responsible for the overall technology strategy for the company, providing leadership to groups that include executive members, and expert technology specialists in shared services. As a CTO, Hernan is also responsible for creating the company’s digital strategies enabling Mondelez to redefine its value creation model through forward looking technology strategies.
Sovan Shatphathy is responsible for end to end technology services across Customer, Partner, Train Operations and Corporate ecosystem. He also leads the Architecture, Strategy, Platforms, Data, Analytics and Information management groups focused on making Amtrak a Data Driven and Connected Transportation provider of choice. Prior to Amtrak Sovan spent a decade at Cisco where he played different executive leadership roles spanning across Cisco IT, Cisco Services and mergers and acquisitions
Nurasyl Serik is the Co-founder and CEO of Remoteam, global payroll and HR compliance for Remote teams. They provide Employer of […]
Brian Oblinger is a strategic consultant and keynote speaker with over 20 years of experience helping enterprise brands leverage the power of […]
Billy Green started full time at Sunlight Foods Inc after graduating in June, 1994. In 2006, Sunlight Foods changed its […]
Shelley Murdock was always a person to give something that piqued her interest a chance. Born to Caribbean parents, she […]
Michael Phillips MD, MBA, Managing Partner and Director Intermountain Ventures, directs business development and venture investment for the Intermountain Venture […]
Steven McCarty is a human resources executive who is currently the Chief People Officer for Apex Service Partners, a private […]
Chris Venditti is a skilled influencer with proven thought leadership experience in multiple industries & companies. Chris has held leadership roles within the […]
An Executive Producer and creative force, Sergio is committed to making culturally impactful content for leading networks. Responsible for the development and […]
Bryan is a globally recognized thought leader in the world of extended work and open talent. With a unique perspective […]
With close to 20 years’ experience working with brands to maximize their partnership investments, Chris brings a wealth of knowledge […]
Ken Patel has been in the Hospitality Business for over 20 years. Previously held senior level positions nationally, and built […]
Vincent “Vinnie” Devoe serves as Senior Business Applications Manager at Signature Consultants. With 17+ years at Signature, Vinnie has supported […]
As president of the industry’s leading provider of preventive care, Brian’s top priority is creating a high-performing, inclusive culture for […]
Ashish Nangla, the CTO of OpenBots, comes from an extensive IT and automation background and is a renowned subject matter […]
Jomayra Herrera is a principal at Cowboy Ventures, a seed-stage focused venture firm where she focuses on investing in the […]
Robert has established himself as a thought leader on immigration. He has implemented multiple programs surrounding work authorization, third party […]
Jason Field is the Founder and CEO of BrainStation, the global leader in digital skills training. Since 2012, BrainStation has […]
Marcus Session is the Vice President of Information Technology Services for Tampa International Airport (TPA). He is responsible for leading […]
Joel Patterson is the founder of The Vested Group, a business and technology consulting firm in the Dallas, Texas area. […]
Gerald is the Chief Information Security Officer/Vice President for Sprinklr’s products andcorporate assets.In his prior role as Chief Information Security […]
Ericka Witkowski founded Witko Group to fill a void in today’s market. With a focus on the ability to be […]
Galina Russell is the Chief Operating Officer of REEF Energy at REEF Technology, a Miami based technology start up focused […]
Enrique is an HR, Tech and Future of Work expert and keynote speaker and founder of Hacking HR, a global […]
Dr. Serena Huang is the Global Head of People Analytics at the Kraft Heinz Company. Prior to Kraft Heinz, she […]
Ray’s journey to the C-Suite consists of successful enterprise and start-up experiences at JP Morgan, Time Warner, ConsumerNet, 24/7 Media, […]
In the span of just a year, Joel Lalgee has become one of the top voices for recruiters to follow […]
Lindsay is recognized leader in the healthcare and insurance sectors. Since 2010, Lindsay has been part of the senior leadership […]
Nadesha Ranasinghe, VP of Offer Engine Development at Accelya, oversees the architecture, development, delivery, and optimization of Accelya Offer Engines […]
Michelle Bazargan has a unique and diverse leadership background spanning startups and complex enterprise organizations across numerous industries and sectors including […]
Dr. David A. Bray has served in a variety of leadership roles in turbulent environments, including bioterrorism preparedness and response from 2000-2005, time on […]
Elaine re-joined RB as Chief Insights & Analytics Officer in November 2019, tolead both the consumer insights and data analytics […]
As President & Chief Executive Officer of the Project Management Institute (PMI), SunilPrashara is the lead advocate for PMI’s global organization, […]
Arun DeSouza is currently Chief Information Security & Privacy Officer at Nexteer Automotive Corporation. He has extensive global IT and […]
Doug Leeby is the CEO of Beeline, a global SaaS technology company and solution provider for sourcing and managing the […]
Dr. Taiwo Raphael Alabi is multilingual with an education spanning 3 continents at some of the best engineering schools in […]
Clay Davis is a Vice President at Tech Data, a technology distributor based in Clearwater, Florida. His responsibilities include leading Tech Data’s […]
Dalia Burack is an inspirational, servant leader focused on guiding others to seek out their full potential. Motivated by optimism, results, and […]
Brian Carmenatty is an information technology executive & strategist with over 15 years’ experience in diverse disciplines including system infrastructure, […]
Raul Vega is the CEO of Auxis and an executive consultant focused on helping organizations develop scalable and flexible operating platforms to […]
Manish Hirapara is the CEO of PeakActivity–a technology and marketing consultancy that helps enterprises achieve long-term, scalable growth through better […]
Mr. Lipparelli currently serves as the Managing Member and Chief Executive Officer of GVII, LLC, a Nevada gaming licensee that […]
Karl Mosgofian leads the IT & Security team for Gainsight, the leader in Customer Success software. With over 30 years […]
From the hours of 5am-8am, Frankie Iturbe is an Education Entrepreneur. Around 8am, he clocks in and works at Accenture […]
Beth Elletson serves as the Chief People Officer for the Miami Marlins. She joined the organization in 2020 and is […]
From a very young age, Elon was taught the importance of hard work and applying oneself whole heartedly to the […]
Maria Perrin is Chief Growth Officer for HMS, a healthcare technology company, where she is responsible for the company’s corporate […]
Anu Bharadwaj is VP of Product at Atlassian. She is an accomplished executive with a track record of growing $500M+ […]
Martha Heller is one of the most widely followed voices on the role of the CIO. She has been a […]
As Chief Operating Officer, Mark is responsible for the continued growth and evolution of the Westgate brand as the industry […]
Ablorde is the Co-Founder and CEO of 4Degrees, a Chicago-based technology company applying machine intelligence to help teams in relationship-driven […]
GoGig is Chris’s second successful HR Tech company, and still holds a seat on the Board of Directors for the […]
Arpana is a digital marketer with deep experience in organic search and user acquisition. She had led organic search growth […]
Gagan is the Chief Product Officer at Behavox where he leads Product Management, Engineering and Design teams across all products […]
Alexander Sjögren is the Chief Technology Officer at YellowPepper. In his role, Alexander oversees the company’s technology & product strategy. […]
Maurice Fuller is the Founder of StaffingTec, which helps staffing firms accelerate their digital transformation journey through our monthly interactive […]
Dan is chairman and chief executive officer of Deloitte Consulting LLP. As its CEO, he leads more than 50,000 professionals […]
Richard currently serves as CFO for Cinch Home Services Inc. a fast growth home services company and is leading them […]
Regional Talent Solutions Manager at Experis IT – part of the $22 Billion Manpower Group of companies. Danish is responsible […]
Vinod is Chief of Technology for Talent Development consulting practice in Talent and Transformation innovation unit at IBM, Vinod is […]
Andrew Koenig graduated with degrees in Finance and Accounting from Elon University in 2005 and received his MBA in Entrepreneurship […]
Manish has more than 25 years of experience in IT and related Services industry. He is currently the Corporate CTO […]
Carlos Armando Garcia is the CEO and Founder of Finhabits, the leading money app for the U.S. Latinos. He has […]
Dr. Sarah Haynes has worked in multiple sectors that cover international e-micro mobility/transportation tech startups, research, education, business development, venture […]
Paula Santamaria has experience working in the public, private, and nonprofit sectors. She currently serves as the Chief of Staff […]
Vidette Pires leads organizations through successful technology initiatives and transformations. With a 15-year track record of building teams, products and […]
Joshua Hecht is originally from New Jersey and moved to Fort Lauderdale 10 years ago. He has been involved in […]
Khalid is Senior Vice President, Chief Digital Officer at TBC Corporation. He is a technologist at heart who loves to […]
Chris is a growth-oriented, visionary executive with a proven track record of exceptional performance in both public and private businesses. […]
An expert on authentic leadership, Kimberly Davis shares her inspirational message of personal power, responsibility and impact with organizations across […]
Helen Young Hayes is the founder and CEO of Activate Workforce Solutions PBC. Activate’s mission is to help under-served individuals […]
Ashleigh Wilson is the Founder and CEO of AuditMate, a vertical transportation software and management company. AuditMate is on a mission […]
Tim Ramsay joined World Fuel Services in 2016 as the Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) and Vice President of Information […]
Dr. Glenn Kaplan is a Healthcare Administration Executive and Board-Certified Physician with 20+ years progressive leadership experience in healthcare practice […]
Justin Libak, MBA is a Senior Recruitment Strategy Executive in charge of developing recruitment strategies for organizations ranging from Fortune […]
Sommer Sherrod is a highly regarded Healthcare Strategist, Human Resources thought leader, and former Adjunct Professor. Sommer brings a unique […]
Phil Reese currently serves as the Director of Talent Acquisition, Technology for Chewy.com. With over 10+ years supporting technologies […]
Andrew is a proven technology leader complete with a solid understanding of product life cycle development. He has been involved […]
As Senior Vice-President of Competitive Solutions, Inc., Seth has over 25 years of experience assisting a diverse group of public […]
Lauren Jones (LJ) has been a leader, influencer, and innovator in the staffing industry for just over 22 years. Lauren’s […]
Mike is Duck Creek’s chief executive officer and also serves on the Board of Directors. He brings more than 25 […]
Deepak is a Digital Transformation leader at Mars Inc. As part of the Demand Analytics Capability building, he led initiatives […]
Steve started recruiting in 1989 and for a while was the only recruiter he knew who had a fax machine.Later, […]
Andrew Bennink is an SEO Manager at Chewy, with 4 years working in Fortune 500 enterprise Ecommerce, Marketing, Product & […]
On this episode I host Ryan Shea – President of Right Management. Ryan began his career with Right Management in […]
Jeremy Fain is the CEO and co-founder of Cognitiv, the first self-learning, fully automated neural network technology available for marketers. […]
Matt Gallo is a Partner and the CRO of Accelirate Inc., the largest niche RPA services firm in the United […]
Jessica Hope Elias is the VP of Launch for REEF Technology, the largest operator of mobility, logistics hubs, and neighborhood […]
Steve is a Talent Acquisition and People Leader with over 15 years in the recruiting industry, recruiting at the highest level on […]
Mario Passalacqua is a Managing Director at Altran, a division of Capgemini. He is responsible for the full 360 degree […]
Tom Eck is the Global CTO of Financial Services at IBM. In this role he is responsible for establishing the technology […]
Satish Kumar is the Co-founder and CEO of GLIDER.ai, a competency-based hiring platform. Through a Total Talent Quality approach, he […]
Wade Thomas is the founder and principal of Aim to Win, a practice focused on bringing out the best in […]
Doug Sauder is in charge of digital product management & analytics for the John Deere Intelligent Solutions Group, where he […]
Eric E. Burton is the Director of IT Procurement and Vendor Management at Envision Healthcare based in Nashville, TN. Eric […]
Irina Shamkova, EVP of Product at Intermedia, a cloud communications company that helps over 125,000 businesses connect better – through […]
Leon is an innovative and strategic Corporate Director at VITAS Healthcare with over 20 years of project management experience in […]
Nick Sacco is OBHG’s Chief Operating Officer, primarily responsible for client account management strategy. Through his strategic guidance and leadership […]
Mary Beth Taylor is Senior Vice President, Enterprise Controller at Steward Health Care based in Dallas, TX. Mary Beth has […]
In high tech or any role, Jennifer Byrne is an advocate for applying original thinking and personal conviction in order […]
Raj Sethuraman has over 24 years of experience in technology space working across multiple industries delivering large scale technology platforms, launching customer centric […]
Don Cox has over 30 years of experience in technology. Currently serving as the Chief Information Security Officer at MEDNAX, […]
Lakrisha Davis is a Career Coach, Published Author, and the owner of NextUp Resume, with an MBA in HR Management […]
Magnus McDermid -Senior Vice President, Mobility Group, Panasonic System Solutions of North America (PSSNA). After joining Panasonic Canada in 1996 […]
On this episode I welcome Shivanku Misra who leads the global marketing and digital analytics function at Hilton Worldwide. Shivanku […]
David brings to Atmosic over 30 years of engineering expertise with an extensive wireless background, as his past teams’ radio […]
A veteran technology marketing executive, Scott joined Impact in November 2017 and brings 18 years of business development and marketing […]
Danish Yousuf – CEO and Founder of Zensurance. A Toronto based company that is bringing the latest technology innovations to […]
Charles Onstott – Chief Technology Officer of SAIC. Charles is responsible for driving SAIC’s long-term technology strategy which emphasizes fostering […]
Hernan Tabah – Global CTO & Digital Transformation Lead of Mondelez International – one of the world’s largest snack companies […]
On this episode of the Ivy Podcast, we welcome Sovan Shatpathy – Chief Technology Officer of Amtrak. Sovan is responsible […]
Jay Smith - Chief Information Officer at Tracfone Wireless. Jay is the head of technology and innovation for TracFone Wireless with revenues of $8B and 22M subscribers. He is responsible for establishing technology as a differentiator while creating new revenue streams as business and technology continue to converge. Prior to Tracfone, Jay was a Global CIO at World Fuel Services.
Camila Casale - Chief Marketing Officer of Claro Enterprise Solutions: a global technology services company that provides proven, tailored solutions and a seamless customer experience to help businesses evolve and adapt to constant change. Camila and I discuss various topics from digital transformation, relationships between CMO and CIOs and much more. Take a listen and let us know your feedback.
Books Camila recommended:
Influence Without Authority by Allan R. Cohen
Mr. Fulton is the Vice President and General Manager of Semtech's Wireless and Sensing Products Group. He joined Semtech in 2018 with over 25 years of experience in the Internet of Things (IoT), connected devices, machine to machine (M2M), and analytics spaces.
Priscilla Torres - a dynamic HR Professional with solid experience mostly working in the healthcare, nonprofit and automotive industries. Priscilla currently serves as the Human Resources Executive for Health Choice Network, Inc. a non-profit healthcare organization that provides professional services to Community Health Centers and Federally Qualified Health Centers across the United States. Priscilla maintains a part-time appointment as an Adjunct Professor & also serves as an active board of directors for HOPE South Florida.
Diane Strohfus is a Chief Human Resources Officer at Betterworks: a leading enterprise HR solution for continuous performance management in Silicon Valley. We covered a range of topics from the role of CHROs on executive Boards to leverage of AI and RPA in HR.
Lorri Rowlandson is a Senior Vice President of Innovation and Strategy at BGIS - a global leader in the provision of Facility Management, Project Delivery, Energy & Sustainability, Asset Management, Workplace Advisory, and Real Estate Services.
Albert Santalo is the founder, President and CEO of 8base, an application development platform and ecosystem. Previous, he was the founder, Chairman and CEO of a CareCloud, a company that provides Clinical, Financial and Administrative software and back-office services to healthcare providers.
Mr. Walls serves as the senior executive overseeing governance, risk management, compliance, and enterprise architecture at VisionWorks. He leads the Information Security Office and Enterprise Architecture division. He is responsible for developing security strategies, setting policy, implementing security programs, managing risk, and ensuring architectural alignment with standards and current/future reference architectures.
Ameesh Paleja is the Chief Technology Officer of OfferUp - mobile marketplace in the U.S. for local buyers and sellers. Ameesh, former CTO of Starz and co-founder and CEO of Atom Tickets, is overseeing OfferUp's engineering and data science teams and responsible for all strategic aspects of the technology organization, including infrastructure, security, product engineering, and architecture.
Prashanth Chandrasekar is Chief Executive Officer of Stack Overflow and is responsible for driving Stack Overflow’s overall strategic direction and results.
As Vice President of Global Sales Engineering at Farelogix, Manish Nagpal helps airlines deliver on their distribution and retailing strategies by aligning customer objectives with next-generation technology from Farelogix. Through his 20-year career, Manish has planned, directed, developed, and delivered technology products and solutions.
Steven May is the Vice President of Cloud Services at Ultimate Software and he has been with the company for almost 10 years. Ultimate Software is a leading Human Capital Management and Employee Experience Solutions cloud provider, this company has been consistently ranked as one of the top places to work in US. Steve is an alumnus of Florida State University.
On this episode of the Ivy podcast, we welcome the Chair of the Harvard Business School Executive Education and William Barclay Harding Professor of Business Administration - Stefan Thomke. His new book "Experimentation Works" is now available for pre-order via Amazon.
Dr. Gordon Chen is the Chief Medical Officer of ChenMed, a physician-led primary care practice whose goal is to deliver affordable care and superior experience to seniors across the United States. Dr. Chen, who leads the ChenMed clinical model, is directly responsible for the management of all clinicians and clinical leaders, clinical training, quality, outcomes, physician culture, and medical costs
Bob Vosburgh has a rare mix of management and leadership talent having spent half of his professional life in the military and the other half in the corporate world. Bob founded SurveyVitals, Inc. to follow his passion of teaching, speaking, coaching and helping organizations implement scientific method for continuous improvement.
Dr Gerald Maccioli, M.D., MBA, FCCM, FASA, is a Chief Quality Officer at Envision Healthcare. As the leader of Envision’s quality care and reporting initiatives, he is advancing the organization’s mission to provide high-quality care and improve the health of communities across the U.S. Prior to joining the company in 2015, Dr. Maccioli was the director of the North Carolina Society of Anesthesiologists to the American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA).
My guest for this episode is Adil Nurgozhin: Chairman Of The Board Of Directors in "QazTech Ventures" JSC, Managing Director for Digitalization and Innovations in Baiterek National Managing Holding and Chairman Of The Board Of Directors in National Agency for Technological Development with the focus in corporate governance, technological development, investment and financial activities.
Heather Monahan is a best-selling author, keynote speaker, entrepreneur and founder of Boss In Heels. Having successfully climbed the corporate ladder for nearly 20 years, Heather is one of the few women to break the glass ceiling and claim her spot in the C-suite.
My guest for this episode is Lulu Curiel:the Founder and President of Ivy Advisors, a Silicon Valley admissions consulting firm that helps ambitious professionals land in the most competitive MBA programs in the world such as the Harvard Business School, Stanford GSB, MIT Sloan, Wharton, Booth, Kellogg and others.
The two books recommended by Lulu are:
- How Will You Measure Your Life? By Clay Christensen
- The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck By Mark Manson
My guest for this episode is Nicki Anders. She is the Vice President of Client Engagement and responsible for post implementation customer experience, creating delight and optimizing execution for all medical specialties served by Modernizing Medicine. Nicki brings extensive knowledge and leadership from her 20+ years of experience driving scale and operational excellence in fast growing companies in Healthcare, Mortgage Finance, Human Capital Management and Hospitality. Nicki has held various leadership roles in product management, product development, professional services and customer experience solution delivery.
Today's guest for this episode is Nargiza Mashuri. Nargiza and her brother Nazym Paltachev have an extensive background working with global companies in the area of business development, new market acquisition, as well as due diligence, and economic barriers assessments. Nargiza has a bachelor in Industrial Technology Management and Master of Science in Global Technology Development from Arizona State University.
My guest for this episode is Pavel Mischenko: a top-notch business consultant and coach who has successfully trained over 4,000 mid and C-level professionals in the US, Europe, Middle East, Central & South America. Pavel’s top career highlights include increasing revenue by 35% and profit by 300% within 2 years of service as Executive Director for training & development company in Upstate New York and pioneering highly successful Result-Oriented Leadership Development program for Bankers.
My guest for this episode is Jason Lim, the founder & CEO at GiG Consulting Group Limited. With years of experience managing finance operations and coordinating process enhancements, Jason Lim has maximized workforce productivity and mitigated risk across multiple channels. He actively enhances contract negotiation and improves build out of business framework. He directs ERP system implementation and executes due diligence evaluations.