Change Wave

Reema Poddar is a highly successful executive with 26 years of experience in the software Industry. Poddar is a respected thought leader in Technology and authority on Digital and Organizational Transformation. Her successes include accelerating Digital & Organizational transformations enhancing customer experiences, enabling companies to improve automation, developer productivity, and operational excellence. She recently served Teradata Inc, as the Executive Vice President and “Chief Product and Development officer” of the company and was responsible for leading worldwide product, technology, innovation, corporate security, and analytics strategy. Here she was instrumental in helping the company through its ambitious cloud transformation and the transition of multibillion-dollar product line from a perpetual to a subscription-based offering. In 2018 & 2019 under her leadership, Teradata delivered the world’s first Data and Analytics Platform – “Vantage”, and the first SaaS application- “Vantage CX”. These multi-cloud offerings led to acquiring net new enterprise logos & doubling the cloud revenue for the company. Prior to joining Teradata, Poddar held a variety of senior executive positions within General Electric Company, Emerson Electric and Software Start Up - Intellution Inc. She is a passionate leader who empowers teams to take risk, fail fast and learn. She is focused on helping women in all areas of technology to reach their next level of success in life and work and is actively involved in a variety of STEM programs, Women in Technology initiatives and other nonprofits. She holds several business, technology, and CEO leadership awards at GE and the companies she has served. In 2019, Poddar was named one of the Top 50 Most Powerful Women in Technology by the National Diversity. In 2018, Poddar was honored by the San Diego Business Chambers for her business impact and technology leadership, as well as San Diego Magazine recognized her in the top 5 of the city’s powerful female leaders. Poddar is also an honored recipient of the 2015 Edison Awards for New Product Innovation for healthcare industrial internet of things. In 2014, she was honored with the Diagnostic and Interventional Cardiology award for the most innovative new product solution. Poddar holds a Master’s in computer science and a Master’s in Physics.

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Matthew Joyal is the Chief Technology Officer and co-founder of Pillar Technologies, a risk management platform for construction site developers and general contractors to monitor for destructive environmental conditions through the deployment of on-site sensor for real-time notifications. Matt started Pillar back in 2015 shortly after developing sensor technology applications in college. Since then, Matt and his cofounder were listed on Forbes' 30 Under 30 list of 2019.

Monica Caldas is the Chief Information Officer for Liberty’s Global Retail Markets (GRM). In this role, Monica is driving the digital transformation within GRM’s global IT organization by delivering innovative solutions for customers and employees. Monica brings IT industry expertise from both the financial services and industrial sectors to deliver business model innovation through a robust digital strategy.   Monica joined Liberty after a 17-year career at General Electric where she held senior executive CIO roles across several GE businesses covering multiple lines of business including Capital Rail Services, Capital Fleet Services and Transportation. In those roles, she focused on areas such as IT Operations, Software Development, ERP management and global roll outs, systems integrations, and organizational effectiveness.     Monica was recognized by Hispanic Executive magazine as a Top 2016 Leader, was a 2017 Chicago CIO Orbie Awards finalist and was recognized as Digital Leader of the Year 2018 by Information Age Magazine.   Monica holds a Bachelor of Science in business and management information systems from the University of Connecticut, and a Master of Business degree from Pennsylvania State University.   Outside of Liberty Mutual, Monica enjoys working in the community to encourage and inspire more girls to pursue STEM roles, is an active member in Hispanic Affinity networks and is a student of mindfulness and meditation. She recently relocated from Chicago to Boston with her husband, two young children and their very curious rescue dog.

Nicole Neumarker is currently working as Vice President of R&D for Cotiviti, a leading solutions and analytics company that leverages unparalleled clinical and financial datasets to deliver deep insight into the performance of the healthcare system. At Cotiviti she is responsible for delivering value through the software engineering and innovation teams globally. Nicole is the former VP Technology of Helix Education, and originally began her technical career at Cisco Systems’ headquarters in Silicon Valley. Currently at Cotiviti, Nicole’s initiative portfolio under management, includes all development for new product introduction as well as innovation across the existing install base. She does this by driving lean portfolio and agile practices for scale and entrepreneurial teams for research and innovation. As a member of the Operations senior leadership team, her COE serves product, operations, and go to market functions. Nicole began her technical career at Cisco Systems’ headquarters in Silicon Valley where she worked on everything from branding and the corporate website development to enterprise data and security initiatives. In her time at Cisco, she learned the criticality of weighing the business value of a project prior to applying scarce and costly technical resources. Nicole is kept endlessly busy outside of work with her family and kids and is in constant pursuit of the perfect cup of coffee by roasting her own coffee beans in her garage. She has served on the board of a local nonprofit organization focused on high school STEM education, as well as a mentor with the Utah Valley University women’s basketball team.

My name is William Feng (or Will). I am a proud father of a four-year-old son Zachary. I’m also an Organizational Psychologist, Coach, and currently the Director of Learning & Organizational Development at FabFitFun. I lead my team to develop amazing people and a culture that best supported our growing business across five pillars: Onboarding, Learning, Leadership Development, Performance Management, and Culture & Engagement. While my team and I had some amazing accomplishments here in the first 8 months…  Onboarded over 300 new hires with an employee satisfaction of 97% and orientation effectiveness of 93%. Fostered a continuous learning culture through the launch of LinkedIn Learning, workshops such as Effective Feedback, Goal Setting, Employee Relations, and Finding your Superpowers. Developed people managers to lead effectively through our first bespoke Manager Essentials Program. Rolled out our first Executive Coaching program to support our Senior Executives Role modeled the importance of setting goals and effective feedback with the implementation of our new performance management approach I’m just as proud of the 1:1 relationships I have built with our executives through coaching conversation– helping them feel less anxious about company changes by exploring their strengths, beliefs, and values to lead organizational and culture change.

Saloni has almost two decades of experience working with early- and mid-stage, high growth startups, building and running key foundational teams from the ground up. As the Vice President of People at Sentry, she is passionate about organizational design & strategy, transformation and change management, while fostering intellectual honesty and empowering others to develop autonomy and unleash their talents. 

As head of GoDaddy’s people and culture, Monica is responsible for talent and performance management, total rewards, learning and development, hiring, inclusion and partnership with our people and leaders worldwide. Since joining GoDaddy in 2013, Monica has implemented several initiatives including an updated performance review process in partnership with Stanford to reduce unconscious bias, while reinforcing great performance and a distinct culture. Additionally, she’s been instrumental in leveling and career structure, pay parity and an employee feedback engine to improve both GoDaddy’s culture and company.   Prior to GoDaddy, Monica worked at Microsoft for 17 years where she worked as a trusted business partner, helped create the HR Mergers and Acquisitions practice and ran the top of the house internal assessment and development program aimed at growing top talent for future challenges, including President and CEO successors for the company. She also ran her own HR coaching and consulting firm.   Monica holds a Bachelors of Science degree in Psychology and Communications, with a focus on Women’s Studies from Washington State University.

Donna is an energetic software executive passionate about making customers successful. She is an executive sponsor of the Coupa Executive Advisory Board and an inventor with multiple software patents. Donna started at Coupa in 2011 and leads product strategy and innovation; identifying innovative solutions that solve global business spend management challenges elegantly. Her leadership has helped propel Coupa from early startup days to a public company. In her time at Coupa, she has worked with cross-functional teams from product to sales, led customer success teams to success in hundreds of customer projects, and was a member of the Coupa pre-IPO team, culminating in the highly successful Coupa IPO. Prior to Coupa, Donna held leadership roles at TriNet, Ketera, and IBM. She began her career with Accenture where she led PeopleSoft projects in the first iterations of “as a service.” Donna earned a Bachelor’s of Science degree in Management Information Systems from the Illinois Institute of Technology.

Kevin Hunter is a pioneering product visionary with 20+ years of entrepreneurial leadership in global strategy, business development and product leadership.   As Catalina’s Chief Product Officer, Kevin leads innovation and is responsible for driving global product strategy from concept to commercialization to solve customer challenges and transform the in-store experience for buyers. Kevin’s team also builds strategic partnerships that add dimension and scale to Catalina’s personalization capabilities and fortify its buyer intelligence data. Kevin also serves on the Board of Directors for Nielsen Catalina Solutions.   Adept at sensing early market and consumer trends, Kevin is part of an experienced team of thought leaders playing a critical role in Catalina’s omni transformation through strategic investments in technology, advanced analytics and data science.   His broad, global experience spans IoT, sensor fusion, mobile, digital, marketing, and advertising products in growth and established markets. Before joining Catalina in 2017 as VP of Digital and Consumer Products, Kevin served as President, Head of Americas, Corporate Development and Product Strategy for retail IOT analytics company, Walkbase; and President of inMarket, an ad network focused on location and mobile-based inventory.   Previously, Kevin held a variety of senior roles with Qualcomm, including head of strategy and product for the Retail Solutions division focused on commercializing products, solutions, and technologies in mobile payments, location, and proximity marketing for retailers, brands and venues. He also led Qualcomm Labs, where he was responsible for global market development and product management governance for contextual awareness, location, proximity, beacons, Bluetooth Low Energy, LTE-Direct and Retail IoT initiatives.   Later, Kevin co-founded and served as Chief Operating Officer of Gimbal, a mobile engagement and location intelligence solution technology firm carved out of Qualcomm. Kevin is the co-inventor of 28 US granted patents with over 15 more pending. He received an Emmy Engineering Award for Sprint TV, a groundbreaking mobile television product which he led.

Ameesh Paleja is the Chief Technology Officer for OfferUp. He oversees the company’s engineering and data science teams and is responsible for all strategic aspects of the technology organization, including infrastructure, security, product engineering, and architecture. Before joining OfferUp, Ameesh was the CTO of Starz and oversaw the modernization of Starz’s technology platform, enabling an international expansion and managing the overhaul of the company’s digital media publishing pipeline. Prior, he spent more than 10 years at Amazon, where he was the founding employee of Amazon’s digital research and development facility in Southern California, managing a team of over 550 employees for products including Amazon Prime Instant Video, Amazon’s Appstore, Cloud Drive, and Kindle. As co-founder of Atom Tickets, Paleja continues to serve on its board as a strategic advisor. He has a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science from the University of California, San Diego, and holds 24 patents in digital video and related fields.

Debra McCowan is SVP and Chief Human Resources Officer (CHRO) for NetApp, responsible for developing the global HR strategy and leading the entirety of the function including talent acquisition, talent development and learning, business partnerships, organizational development and effectiveness, total rewards, diversity, inclusion and belonging and operations. Debra is a change and transformational HR leader with 20+ years of global experience focused on integrating the people strategy with the business strategy to effectively drive performance and growth and promote organizational health. Her success comes from her proven ability to build high performing teams and develop business aligned HR strategies and initiatives while providing strategic and operational leadership, typically in a context of rapid growth, change and maturation. In her last role as CHRO at Equinix, Debra built a robust global HR function in a fast-paced environment. During her five years with the company, the global HR organization was instrumental in evolving Equinix’s culture, building the company brand and designing and implementing leading-edge value driven programs and initiatives in support of business objectives and to ensure the attraction, retention and cultivation of critical talent enabling growth and helping position Equinix as a market leader. Prior to Equinix, Debra co-founded the Accelerance Group where as a partner, she provided organizational and systems design consulting services and helped clients lead strategic change more effectively. Debra has also held global executive leadership roles at Avago Technologies (now Broadcom Inc.), Hitachi Data Systems (now Hitachi Vantara), and Telstra Corporation Debra serves on the Board of Directors for HealthEquity, Inc., the largest health savings account non-bank custodian in the US. She holds a post-graduate diploma in Industrial Relations and HR Management from the University of Melbourne and a B.A. from La Trobe University.

Nolan Church is the Chief People Officer at Carta, a Series E fintech company headquartered in SF. As the CPO, Nolan oversees all employee touchpoints including HR, Recruiting, Total Rewards, Internal Communications and Real Estate. Prior to Carta, Nolan was the Head of Talent at DoorDash as its first hire in HR and scaled the company from 50 to >800 employees in three years. Nolan has also worked at Google in recruiting as the company doubled in size to 60k employees. He studied Political Science and was captain of the baseball team at the University of New Orleans.

As the Head of Global HR, Shawna leads the company’s efforts to attract, develop and retain the best talent. Prior to her current role, she led global People Operations to streamline and scale processes, systems, benefits and immigration at Rubicon Project. Shawna has a unique career path that has contributed to her being a highly respected people leader. She was previously at Concur Technologies leading the Diversity and Inclusion efforts globally across more than 20 offices. Prior to that, she was the Senior Director of International Accounting where she set up European accounting operations in the Netherlands and in addition spent time in Prague as the Country Manager leading the growth of the European service center. Shawna started her career at Microsoft, and has a Masters in Accounting from Notre Dame and a BS in International Business from George Fox University in addition to having her CPA.

As Chief Operating Officer at Rover.com, Brent brings over 20 years of experience building and leading high-performing teams to the nation’s largest network of five-star pet sitters and dog walkers. Prior to joining Rover, Brent was president of Code Fellows, a digital trade school in Seattle. He also worked in various roles at aQuantive, as executive vice president of call products for Marchex, and as general manager of the search and display media network at Microsoft. When Brent isn’t busy making it easier for more people to have pet love in their lives, he can be found volunteering his time and energy as chairman of the board of REST (Real Escape from the Sex Trade), a faith-based organization that seeks to divert at-risk minors from being trafficked into prostitution. Brent earned a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from the University of Memphis, and a master’s of business administration from Vanderbilt University.

Brandon Krieg is the CEO and co-founder of Stash - the financial platform revolutionizing the way millions of Americans save and invest for their future. Brandon has been recognized by Goldman Sachs as one of 2018’s “100 Most Intriguing Entrepreneurs,” and Stash was highlighted by Forbes’ “Fintech 50 2018”  as well as the Wall Street Journal as one of the "Top Tech Companies to Watch in 2018." Prior to Stash, Brandon spent +15 years in financial services, most recently at Macquarie Securities Group.

Matt is a leading thinker and practitioner in the application of new technologies to media. He currently serves as the Chief Technology Officer at theSkimm, a membership company that makes it easier for millennial women to live smarter. He most recently worked as the Chief Technology Officer and part of the founding team for Axios, the news and information start-up. Prior to that he was the Director of the New York Times’ Research and Development Lab, where he had extensive experience in researching and implementing new technologies. Matt has 20 years of experience in the media and entertainment industry, solving problems of content management, distribution, and market positioning.   

Evan Green-Lowe is VP, Engineering Talent Supply at Andela, an organization which believes talent is equally distributed around the world, and leverages that belief to help companies build distributed engineering teams.   Evan believes in investing in communities of talent, and creating value for people as a way to bring the best out of them. During his time at Andela Evan has helped grow the engineering workforce from less than 40 engineers in Nigeria to over 1,200 across Egypt, Ghana, Nigeria, Kenya, Rwanda, and Uganda. Prior to working at Andela, Evan founded LakeHub Technologies, a technology, design, and entrepreneurship hub based out of Kisumu Kenya, and led the data and analytics team at Evidence Action, raising the bar for quality and analytical rigor in researched-backed development economics interventions.

Miriam Warren is the Senior Vice President of Engagement, Diversity and Belonging at Yelp and Board Chair of the Yelp Foundation. Miriam joined Yelp in 2007, serving in a variety of marketing and operational roles, including leading the company’s expansion efforts internationally as Vice President of New Markets. Presently, she heads a team working at the intersection of culture, engagement, corporate philanthropy and diversity, equity and inclusion.   

Charles is the Global People and Culture Leader at Zendrive, where he leads the global people organization. Charles has been instrumental in Hacking HR’s SF Chapter, bringing thought leadership to the discussion of emerging technologies. With 25 years of significant experience in key leadership roles at high-growth organizations, Charles has successfully reorganized entire company cultures and visions to adopt a “one team,” collaborative approach time and time again. He is active in the transformation of the human resources role in business, publishing and speaking on the changing landscape of the profession.

Candice Morgan is the Head of Inclusion and Diversity at Pinterest, where she leads strategies to build a more inclusive and diverse global company. Previously, Candice spent nearly 10 years at Catalyst, where she designed strategic talent initiatives for global companies and firms across a range of industries. Candice holds an MS in cross-cultural psychology from Brunel University and a BS in psychology from Carnegie Mellon University. She is a frequent speaker and advisor at global conferences and events, a contributor to Harvard Business Review, and was recently honored on Fast Company's list of Most Creative People in Business & The Root 100 Most Influential African-Americans of 2017.

Margaret Keane is CEO of Synchrony. Prior to that role, she led the Retail Card platform as president and CEO beginning in 2004 and then expanded her responsibilities in 2011 to become president and CEO of their North American Retail Finance business. Through those years, she developed the leadership skills needed to manage a successful organization that has now become a Fortune 200 company five years post-separation. She was able to infuse a mindset of inclusion and innovation into 16,500+ employees which has driven an incredibly diverse culture for all employees to be their authentic selves. Margaret continues to transform Synchrony, positioning the company for long-term growth by focusing on innovation and technology. Margaret led the integration of the company’s strategic imperatives focused on accelerating growth and diversification, directing her management team to oversee areas including business strategy, venture investments and M&A, enterprise data analytics, customer experience, and expansion of the company’s direct to consumer banking and products strategy. Her passion for emerging technology has been a trademark of her 38-year career, as she fully embraces the need to integrate business and technology strategies – understanding that the two must co-exist. Margaret pushes Synchrony to be nimbler and move faster than ever. The company’s deep technology investments are paying off, driving initiatives to make consumer purchases seamless and frictionless.

Serge Saxonov co-founded 10x Genomics in 2012 and has served as the CEO since its inception. He has defined the company's vision and strategy, contributed to core inventions, and led 10x through multiple phases of rapid growth. 10x Genomics is a leading company in the field of genomics. The company was founded on the vision that this century will bring unprecedented advances in biomedicine to transform the way we understand and treat diseases leading to dramatic improvements in human health. In 2016, he was honored as one of Goldman Sachs 100 Most Intriguing Entrepreneurs of the Year. Prior to 10x Genomics, Serge was Vice President of Applications at QuantaLife, where he was responsible for building content, driving new applications, and identifying key diagnostics opportunities for the core ddPCR technology. Before QuantaLife, Serge was the first employee at 23andme. As Founding Architect and Director of R&D, he defined the initial conception of the product, recruited a lot of the earlier team and built many key elements of the technology. Serge received a Ph.D. in biomedical informatics from Stanford University and an A.B. in applied mathematics and biology from Harvard College.

Kara's background is a mix of private and public sector experience, including Chief of Staff for the QuickBooks Online Platform at Intuit and Director of Experience Design in the Obama White House. In the former, she champions small businesses, solopreneurs, and freelancers around the globe. Prior, Kara received an appointment to the first class of Presidential Innovation Fellows, where she served as entrepreneur in residence, reimagining the relationship between the federal government and the people from a technology perspective. She was also Chief of Staff at 18F, TEDxIntuit founder, and worked on TurboTax, Oscars, and Super Bowl.   Kara does pro-bono digital strategy for the likes of Team Rubicon; spent 10 days in rural India teaching micro-entrepreneur women human centered design; and guest lectures at Stanford, George Washington University, and UC San Diego STEM Academy for high school girls. She graduated summa cum laude from Penn State with a masters in instructional design, and was San Diego Woman of the Year finalist. Twitter: https://twitter.com/karadefrias Website: https://www.karadefrias.com/.  

Jackie Berg is the VP of Marketing for Olo, the leading digital food ordering platform for the restaurant industry. Since 2005, Olo has been the interface in between the on-demand world and over 300 restaurant brands such as Applebee's, Chili's, Dairy Queen, Five Guys Burgers & Fries, Jamba Juice, Noodles & Company, Shake Shack, and Wingstop. Since Jackie joined Olo in 2014, the company has grown over 20x and today facilitates orders for millions of customers that use Olo to order ahead and get meals delivered from the restaurants they love. Prior to Olo, Jackie has held both tech marketing and in the agency roles researching consumer insights for companies like Applebee's, Reebok, and Sam Adams. She is passionate about the evolution of the restaurant space and is leading Olo’s in-car ordering R&D work with BMW Labs. Jackie has appeared as a speaker and panelist at restaurant and consumer technology events by BTIG, Cleveland Research, Datassential, Global Culinary Innovators Association, and others.

Danielle Brown empowers the People Team at Gusto. From creating a productive and inclusive work environment, to finding and inviting great talent to join us, to ensuring Gusties have the training, development and support they need to do their best work, to running our People programs (Benefits, Compensation, GustoFIED, rewards + recognition), the People Team is focused on how to make Gusto a place where work can empower a better life for all Gusties. Prior to joining Gusto, Danielle served as the VP, Employee Engagement, as well as Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer at Google. And before Google, she was VP and Group Chief Human Resources Officer of Intel Corporation.

Akshay Bhargava serves as the Chief Product Officer at Malwarebytes. Bhargava brings nearly 20 years of experience in product, go-to-market and engineering leadership to the company. In this role, he is responsible for driving the company’s technology vision, product roadmap and execution. Before joining Malwarebytes, Bhargava was the Vice President of the Oracle Cloud Business Group. At Oracle, he led various aspects of Oracle Cloud across IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS. He also led the launch of Oracle Cloud Services for Security and Management. Prior to Oracle, Bhargava was a management consultant from McKinsey & Company, where he worked with numerous C-suite and boards on topics related to product, strategy, cybersecurity, and GTM. He has held a variety of product, marketing, and engineering leadership roles at FireEye, NetApp, and Rainfinity (acquired by EMC). Bhargava holds a B.S. in Computer Science from Carnegie Mellon University and an MBA from MIT Sloan, with a specialization in entrepreneurship and innovation.  

Brad is a recognized global leader in technology and innovation within the design and construction space. Prior to his current role as Global Chief Technology Officer for Black & Veatch, one of the world’s largest engineering and construction firms; Brad was a successful entrepreneur, architect, and technology executive. He is the author of  the book “BIM and Construction Management,” has lectured at a number of Universities and conferences and has received a number of awards including Ingram’s 40 under 40, ENR’s 20 under 40, the Manual and Lauren Rosen Service Award and the American Institute of Architects BIM Excellence Award. Currently, Brad is the President of Diode Ventures, the private infrastructure development arm of Black & Veatch; a recent intrapreneurial success within the enterprise where he leads a team that develops ground up renewable energy and data center infrastructure projects to better serve clients all over the world. Brad is an alumni of Kansas State University, an Advisory Board Member for the New School of Architecture and American Cancer Society volunteer. He lives in Overland Park, KS with his wife and three children Lucia, Wesley and Hugo.  

As Chief Executive Officer of Flywire, Mike has grown the business from a concept into the global and growing company it is today. He has overseen Flywire’s expansion in North America, Europe, and the Asia-Pacific regions while aligning Flywire’s international team with the company’s strategic direction and increasing the visibility of Flywire globally. Mike began his career as part of the technical risk services practice at PWC, LLP. His background spans global payments, mobile software and hardware, and e-billing at high growth technology companies, including Carrier IQ and edocs, Inc. He earned his Bachelor of Science degree in Management Information Systems from Babson College. Mike is also a 2019 recipient of the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award in Financial Services, which recognizes unstoppable entrepreneurs who redefine the way we live, work and play.

Tim leads the engineering organization at Convoy. Prior to coming to Convoy, he founded and rapidly grew Uber's Seattle Engineering office. Before that, he was at Isilon Systems holding a variety of engineering leadership roles from individual contributor to Director of Engineering. Tim earned his BS in Computer Engineering from the University of Washington.

With experience in Talent Management, Sales, Marketing and Coaching experience, Farah Bernier leads Human Resources for Google’s Global Affairs Legal Organization. In this role, she is responsible for leading talent initiatives to further attract, retain, develop and advance historically underrepresented professionals in the technology industry. Ms. Bernier consults with senior leaders in the organization to assess both business and individual progression along the diversity and inclusion engagement continuum and partners across leadership teams to define and execute on agreed upon team strategies to increase diversity and foster more inclusive working environments. Additionally, as a certified professional coach, Ms. Bernier frequently delivers workshops on cultural dexterity, personal branding, and other various professional development focus areas. Her motto around operating with confidence and authenticity is “living fabulously fierce through intentional self-discovery, self-definition and self-distinction”. In her spare time, Farah enjoys traveling, reading, writing, photography, reflecting and releasing stress through running. Ms. Bernier is a graduate of Boston College’s Carroll School of Management, earned her MBA in Global Studies and Entrepreneurship from Babson College, and her CPC and ELI-MP through the Institute for Professional Excellence in Coaching.

Jennifer Ives is the Senior Vice President of Technology at 3Pillar Global, an 8-time Inc. 500/5000 company. Jennifer leads high performing teams to devise and implement innovative digital products for companies like PBS, Equinox, and Capital One. Jennifer has decades of experience crafting growth and market strategies for private companies, high growth start-ups, and government entities.  Before joining 3Pillar Global, Jennifer was SVP at the Top Employers Institute, where she leveraged HR data and built products to guide Fortune 500 C-suite executives to create world class employee conditions. An advocate for women in technology and diversity in the workforce, Jennifer is a frequent speaker and panelist and has been featured on numerous podcasts including ​What’s Working in Washington, Sales Game Changers, and ​The Business Blast. In addition to speaking engagements, Jennifer is a sought after mentor and advisor for tech founders throughout the United States. 

Yaron Ben-Zvi loves building things that make a difference. That’s how he came to be the co-founder and CEO of Haven Life, a digital life insurance agency that's backed and wholly owned by MassMutual. Yaron worked with several other startups before launching Haven Life in industries as varied as asset management and media, yet the complexity and opportunity in life insurance kept calling him to the cause. Part entrepreneur, part executive, and part family man, Yaron sometimes struggles to make all these parts work together. A graduate of Wesleyan University and the Wharton School of Business, he believes strongly in the value of a liberal arts education.

Lee Zukor is Senior Vice President of Product and Engineering at SportsEngine and is responsible for creating products customers love. Before joining SportsEngine, Lee held executive positions at both large companies and startups, including VP of Product and UX at Bluestem Brands, Founder/CEO at Simplegoodandtasty.com, and Chief Experience Officer at Wize.com. Lee earned his undergraduate degree from Boston University. When he’s not working, Lee spends his time writing music, traveling, and exploring the Twin Cities with his wife and two teenagers.

Louise Pentland is the Chief Business Affairs and Legal Officer at PayPal. With a strong commitment to impact and purpose, Louise helps scale innovation in partnership with policymakers, regulators, and public officials around the world. In her role as the leader of PayPal’s People function, Louise has focused her attention on building a diverse and empathetic workforce. She was integral in shaping the company’s four core values: collaboration, innovation, wellness and inclusion and helped launch PayPal’s conscious inclusion program. Under her leadership, PayPal has expanded employee resource group offerings and employee engagement opportunities, like the legal team’s international pro-bono initiative.   Louise has been widely recognized for her leadership and legal expertise. The California Diversity Council named her one of the Top 50 Most Powerful Women in Technology in 2017 and she was one of America’s 50 Outstanding General Counsels by the National Law Journal in 2016. Louise was also named General Counsel of the Year of a Public Company over $1 Billion category at the 2016 Bay Area Corporate Counsel Awards, presented by the Silicon Valley Business Journal and the San Francisco Business Times.

Stacy Pourfallah joined Visa in 2000 as a member of the product development team leading several new product initiatives including healthcare and employee benefit products, as well as corporate, government and payroll prepaid products.  Her passion for new ideas has led her to be an inventor on 20 patents. She joined Visa’s Global Financial Inclusion team in 2015 to work on solutions and approaches for governments, underserved consumers and small businesses. In 2017, Visa created the Social Impact team and Stacy now leads a team developing global programs aimed at enabling micro and small businesses to growth, thrive and become more resilient.     She has a bachelor’s degree in marketing and an MBA in international marketing and finance and is the proud mother of two amazing teenage daughters.  

As Executive Vice President and Chief Associate Success Officer, Nathalie Carruthers is passionate about attracting, retaining and engaging the best and brightest associates for JDA.   Nathalie’s extensive human resources experience spans more than 20 years with leadership positions at Benchmark Electronics, Lumileds, Flex and Solectron (acquired by Flex). In her most recent role leading HR at Benchmark, she developed an organizational framework for standardized processes, fostered an environment for growing the company’s next-generation leaders and focused on enhancing the customer centric culture.   Throughout her career Nathalie has championed programs focused on global talent management, talent acquisition and total rewards, as well as identifying and deploying world-class human resources systems and programs. She began her career with The Conference Board of Canada, Canada’s foremost independent, not-for-profit applied research organization in Canada. She owns a Bachelor of Commerce Degree from the University of Ottawa.   When she’s not focused on building powerful teams at JDA, you might find this self-described sports mom cheering for one! An avid fan of hockey, soccer and football, she is a supporter of both her son’s and daughter’s collegiate soccer teams as well as her favorite professional team, the Liverpool Football Club.

As the Chief People Officer, Mary leads Squarespace’s People team, overseeing human resources, people operations, talent acquisition & development, facilities & workplace services, employee experience, and diversity & inclusion. Prior to joining Squarespace, Mary focused on HR roles with early stage pre-IPO software companies. Mary has 20+ years of experience leading People functions at high-growth SaaS companies, and was most recently Chief People Officer of Fuze, a global, cloud-based unified communications platform that empowers productivity. Prior to that, she held leadership roles at tech companies including hCentive, Blackboard, CACI, SRA International, and AMS, Inc. Mary earned her Master’s in Business Administration with a concentration in Human Resources Management from Syracuse University and received her undergraduate degree in Human Development and Family Studies from The Pennsylvania State University. Squarespace is the leading all-in-one platform for websites, domains, online stores, and marketing tools that empowers anyone with a creative idea to succeed. With millions of customers on the platform including Chance the Rapper, Gloria Steinem, John Malkovich, Leon Bridges and Keanu Reeves (Arch Motorcycle), Squarespace makes aspirational branding attainable by democratizing access to world-class design. Founded in 2003, Squarespace’s team of more than 1,000 is headquartered in downtown New York, with offices in Dublin, Ireland and Portland, Oregon. For more information, visit www.squarespace.com.

Kate Gulliver oversees the Talent team at Wayfair where she is responsible for global human capital management including recruiting, organizational design, talent management, talent analytics, compensation and learning and development. Prior to her role in Talent at Wayfair, Kate managed the company's Investor Relations function where she drove all communication and relationship development with outside investors, and led the company in their efforts to become publicly traded. Previously, Kate worked as an investor for nearly five years at Bain Capital, the Boston based private equity firm. She started her career in consulting at McKinsey & Company. Kate holds an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School, and a B.A. from Yale University. Kate lives in Boston's South End with her husband and two daughters.

For over a decade, Ben Greenberg served as the Vice President of Mobile Products & User Experience for WebMD, where he built software to promote patient wellness and provide decision support to physicians at the point of care. Some of Ben’s most popular products include Medscape Mobile, Medscape Consult, and WebMD for Google Home and Amazon Alexa.  Today Ben serves as Dr. Eric Topol’s Chief Product Officer at the Scripps Research Translational Institute in La Jolla, California. At Scripps, Ben leads Product efforts for The Participant Center of the National Institutes of Health’s All of Us Research Program, a historic  initiative aimed at accelerating health research breakthroughs and enabling new modes of individualized health care.

Lindsey Barrows has been employed at Datrium, Inc. as their CHRO for the past 1.5 years. Having worked over 20 years mostly in the area/s of Human Resources and Talent Acquisition for Technology companies, she is very familiar with the aggressive hiring and operational HR framework needed to build and ramp a start-up company. She is particularly experienced in the areas of talent acquisition and management, executive coaching and strategy. Lindsey is from Texas where she lives with her 17 year old daughter who has never met a rule she didn’t follow and her 15 year old son who ever met a rule he would follow and their Labrador Retriever, Tuck. Lindsey is passionate about changing how we hire and retain top talent as well as creating an open culture of honest communication. 

Ushashi Chakraborty is a Director of Engineering for Backend Engineering at Mode Analytics in San Francisco. She moved to California in October 2018 from Chicago where she worked in Groupon for 5 years as an Engineering Manager for Consumer Applications and before that as a Software Development Engineer in Test. She has also worked in Microsoft and Thomson Reuters. She holds a Masters degree in Computer Science from North Dakota State University.   Ushashi has been involved with theater since high school and, especially, with improv since 2015. She is a Second City Training Center, Chicago alumni and has performed improv, sketch and stand up across several small theaters in Chicago.   Ushashi has spoken at major conferences including Grace Hopper Conference (SOL, 2014), expo:QA, Madrid, multiple chapters of CTO Summit in Nasdaq NYC, Austin, Chicago, and SF as well as in Leadership Summits by Code Climate, VerveCon, and General Assembly Breakfast Talk in 2018-19. She has recorded podcasts for the startupcto and frontier by gun.io. She, most recently, spoke at the Grace Hopper Conference, Orlando, 2019.  

Deanna Bass is the Executive Director of Global Diversity & Inclusion at Procter & Gamble. She is a speaker, writer, advocate and diversity champion with more than 25 years of experience as a human resources executive. She is a chief architect of P&G’s Global Gender Equality strategy and co-creator of the “Women at Work: Myth vs Reality” campaign which launched in Davos in 2018. As part of her work in gender equality, Deanna sponsored a multi-year partnership with Catalyst, Inc bringing their Men Advocating Real Change initiative into the portfolio of P&G’s leadership development curriculum. She also authored P&G’s Equality Based Policy initiative which focused on global paid parental leave, pay equality, expanded flexibility, and disability inclusion.    Deanna has extensive experience in Organization Design, Organization Transition & Transformation, Strategic HR Partnerships, Talent Management, Executive Coaching, and Change Management & Divestitures on behalf of multi-billion dollar brands.   Deanna was the past Vice President of Hope Springs Institute Board of Directors and currently sits on the Board of All In Together, a collaboration-driven campaign to empower and inspire American Women to drive meaningful change in their communities. She also serves on Working Mother’s Multicultural Women and Work Beyond Summit Advisory Board. She is the recipient of the 2018 Ted Childs Life Work Excellence Award for her work in advancing culture, dependent care, flexible work, and parental leave policies.    A Midwest native, Deanna has lived and worked across the U.S. and the globe. She currently resides in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Sheila Jordan is the former senior vice president and chief information officer at NortonLifeLock Inc. (formerly Symantec Corp.), the global leader in cybersecurity. She was responsible for driving information technology strategy and operations, ensuring that the company had the right talent, staying ahead of technology trends, and maximizing the value of technology investments. Her mission has been to transform the company while driving increased productivity, revenue optimization, and more simple and intuitive experiences overall for NortonLifeLock Inc.'s global workforce, customers and partners. 

Michael Gronager is Co-founder and CEO of Chainalysis, the blockchain analysis company. As CEO, Michael is responsible for running all facets of the business in order to provide leading anti-money laundering solutions for cryptocurrency businesses, financial institutions, and government agencies. Prior to founding Chainalysis, Michael was the Co-founder and COO of Kraken, one of the world's largest cryptocurrency exchanges. Michael was bitten by the cryptocurrency bug in 2011, which prompted him to leave an impressive career managing international science projects. He holds a PhD in Quantum Mechanics, is on the Board of a Top500 Supercomputer Center, and is a founding member of the Working Group preparing the 5th European AML Directive.

As a 20-year Diversity and Inclusion, and Human Resources veteran, Angela Roseboro was recruited by Riot Games as it's first Chief Diversity Officer to evolve and transform the culture of the company. Driven by the philosophy, be the change you want to see in the world, Angela has spent her career building and executing strategies that increase representation for women and people of color in leadership, ensure fairness and equity in process and programs, and that foster a culture that empowers employees to do their best work. Named as 25 Most Influential Black Women in Business by the Network Journal and 50 Out Front for Women in Leadership, Diversity and Inclusion, and 2019 Moves Power Woman, she has worked at such Fortune 500 companies as T. Rowe Price, Jones Lang LaSalle, and the Whirlpool Corporation. Angela received her bachelor’s degree from Roosevelt University in Illinois. A Chicago native, Angela is a wife, and mother of two daughters. 

Tracy Malingo is Senior VP of Product Strategy of Verint Intelligent Self-Service where she provides strategic and operational vision on the company’s extensive and innovative conversational AI-suite. Tracy believes in delivering intelligent solutions to customers and employees so they can build trusted relationships and unlock value together. Previously, Tracy was president of Next IT, the provider of conversational AI for the enterprise, where she guided conversational AI into the mainstream. Tracy’s compelling blend of business acumen and technical expertise enables her to relate to all elements of the industry and articulate the need for machine intelligence throughout an organization. Tracy is the proud owner of the world’s most awesome dog and is never afraid to go “all in” with a jack/ten pocket hand at the table.

Spencer is the CEO and co-founder of Cockroach Labs, a company formed to accelerate the development of CockroachDB. Previously, Spencer worked for 15 years at various and sundry companies including Square, Google, and a couple of his own startups. His experience at each stop along the way convinced him of the need for a better open source database. Before his professional career, Spencer co-authored the open source GIMP photo editing software while an undergraduate at UC Berkeley.

Marcelo Cortes is the co-founder and CTO of Faire, a curated wholesale marketplace connecting local retailers with emerging and established brands. More than 50,000 retailers and 7,000 makers use Faire and since launching in 2017, more than 15 million products have been sold on the marketplace. Earlier this year, Faire expanded to include international makers from 39 countries and brought Canadian retailers onto the platform last month. Most recently, Faire announced a $150 million Series D funding round (at a $1 billion post-money valuation), and will use the capital to continue to scale the marketplace to empower more entrepreneurs in wholesale/retail.

Michele C. Meyer-Shipp joined KPMG LLP as Principal and Chief Diversity & Inclusion Officer in August 2018.  In this role, she leads the National Inclusion and Diversity (I&D) team and oversees its strategy and objectives, including supporting the recruitment, retention, and development of a diverse workforce; inspiring broad perspectives and innovative client solutions; and fostering an inclusive and accessible culture.  Michele works closely with KPMG’s leadership teams to advance its inclusive and diverse culture, which has earned the firm recognition as a top workplace by FORTUNE magazine, DiversityInc, Working Mother, and The Human Rights Campaign.   Michele most recently served as Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer at the law firm of Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP.  In this role, she was responsible for developing and promoting all diversity management practices across the firm, Prior to that, Michele was employed by Prudential Financial Inc., where she served as Employment Counsel from 2010 to 2012, and then as Vice President and Chief Diversity Officer from 2012 through 2017. In the latter role, Michele was responsible for leading and supporting all diversity and inclusion efforts for the company, and for ensuring ongoing compliance with equal employment opportunity laws. During her tenure, the organization was consistently recognized by DiversityInc as among the “Top 50 Companies for Diversity,” including multiple appearances in the top 10.    Prior to her employment at Prudential, Michele worked in the public sector as General Counsel of the Waterfront Commission of New York Harbor, and as Director of the New Jersey Division of Equal Employment Opportunity and Affirmative Action. Michele also worked at Merrill Lynch as Employment Counsel and then as Northeast Regional Diversity Lead in the global wealth management business. She started her career in private practice as an employment litigator after serving as a law clerk for the New Jersey Supreme Court.    Michele currently serves as a member of Twitter’s Diversity Advisory Council and Working Mother Media’s Multicultural Women’s Advisory Board.  She is also an active Board member of the National Organization on Disability. She has previously served on the boards of GLSEN, Inc. (the Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network), the Women Presidents’ Organization, and the American Conference on Diversity.   She is an active member of several professional associations and recently completed her tenure as co-chair of the Asia Society Global Talent and Diversity Council.    

Mohamed “Mo” ElShenawy is a Vice President of Engineering at Cruise–the San Francisco-based self-driving tech company. With more than 20 years of software engineering and leadership experience, Mo leads the largest department at Cruise. Mo’s teams, comprised of over 750 engineers, are responsible for our AV Development, Product and Mapping Engineering, Data and Machine Learning Platforms, On-Premise and Cloud Infrastructure, Engineering Productivity, PaaS, and other functions, working in harmony to massively accelerate our rate of progress.   Prior to Cruise, Mo led global technologies for Amazon ReCommerce Platform, Warehouse Deals, and Liquidations: a massive scale global business that enables Amazon to evaluate, price, sell, liquidate, and donate millions of used products daily. Prior to that, Mo led all engineering for SCH Business Solutions to deliver enterprise, customer-centric solutions to many Fortune 100 companies. In addition, over the past decade, Mo was a technical co-founder and CTO for three tech startups, the latest of which is a cloud-based financial services development platform used by top financial institutions.