Live 2023: Boston

Matthew Confer is the Vice President of Strategy at Abilitie, a Leadership Development company based in Austin, Texas that provides immersive business simulations to a global client base that includes over 50 members of the Fortune 500.

In the past three years alone, Abilitie’s leadership programs have been delivered to over 65,000 corporate professionals in more than 30 countries around the world

Matthew has spoken on the topic of decision making at the TEDx Conference with a talk entitled "Before You Decide." Matthew also hosts the Learn To Lead Podcast where he speaks with authors, professors, creatives, and business leaders about their leadership journey and how they are working to develop the leaders of tomorrow.

Amina Lobban is Head of Culture, Engagement & HR Business Excellence, Global Manufacturing, Supply & Quality at Takeda. She joined Takeda through Shire, and in her 16 years at the company her career has steadily progressed from Engineering, Business Operations, Integration, and Program Management roles in Process Development and Global Manufacturing, Supply & Quality. She joined HR in 2021, further expanding her experience across the business. Amina began her professional career in her home country of Trinidad & Tobago as a Petroleum Engineer at the Ministry of Energy, where she worked with multinational energy companies operating in the region. Her transitions across industries and functions have brought her increasing experience leading global teams and working with colleagues internationally.

Amina has demonstrated her passion and commitment to gender parity through her volunteer work internally at Takeda as Global Co-Lead of their Gender Parity Network ERG, and externally with the Healthcare Businesswomen’s Association (HBA) and The Boston Club. She has previously held local and regional roles with HBA New England, now Chairs HBA’s Global Ambassador program, overseeing leadership development programs at over 50 corporate partner locations worldwide, and is co-chair of The Boston Club’s Healthcare and Life Sciences Affinity Group. Amina was honored to be named a 2022 HBA Rising Star at Takeda in recognition of her leadership and impact. Amina lives in Bedford, MA with her husband and two young children.

Shahina Islam is the Vice President Human Resources at Zensar.

Shawna M. Oliver is AVP and head of global benefits & wellness for Manulife Financial Corp. Oliver prides herself in challenging the status quo and has spent 23 years in the health care and benefits industry doing just that. Over this time, she has worked with key stakeholders spanning the ecosystem–as an underwriter, a consultant, within health technology, in operations, and currently at Manulife overseeing global benefits & wellness. Her breadth of experience uniquely positions her to push for evolution with confidence. Dr. Oliver holds her DBA from Drexel, an MBA from the University of Oregon, a BA from the University of Hartford, and a BS from Purdue.

Manulife Financial Corporation is a leading international financial services provider, helping people make their decisions easier and lives better. With global headquarters in Toronto, Canada, the company provides financial advice and insurance, operating as Manulife across Canada, Asia, and Europe, and primarily as John Hancock in the U.S.

Jacqueline Fearer is the Head of Culture and Engagement Communications at Iron Mountain.

Callum Borchers writes a weekly, reported column for the Wall Street Journal about people’s careers and work lives. Previously, he was a correspondent at public radio station WBUR, where he covered business and politics and often hosted NPR’s national midday show, “Here & Now.” Callum also has been a staff writer at the Washington Post and Boston Globe. He is an adjunct professor of journalism at Northeastern University, where he earned a master’s degree. He and his wife have four children and are foster parents. Before kids devoured his non-work time, Callum once qualified for the U.S. national pararowing team for athletes with physical disabilities.

Janelle is a business reporter at the Boston Globe, covering retail, restaurants, and consumer culture. She is also the host of the Bold Types interview series with the city's business leaders. She thrives on diving deep into the ideas, people, and trends that drive Boston’s economy. She has previously worked at Boston Magazine, National Geographic Traveler, and New York Magazine, and she currently teaches a class in magazine writing at Boston College. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, among other publications. She was a Senior Fellow at the Schuster Institute for Investigative Journalism.

Adi Ignatius is Editor in Chief of the Harvard Business Review Group, where he oversees the editorial activities of HBR, hbr.org, and HBR’s book-publishing unit. Prior to joining HBR in 2009, Mr. Ignatius was the No. 2 editor at TIME.

He is the editor of two books: President Obama: The Path to the White House and Prisoner of the State: The Secret Diaries of Premier Zhao Ziyang. Both made the New York Times Bestseller List.

Mr. Ignatius lived and worked for nearly 20 years overseas. He was Editor of Time’s Asian edition and earlier served as Beijing Bureau Chief and Moscow Bureau Chief for the Wall Street Journal.

Jodi is a technology executive with over 20 years of experience leading operational, process and digital transformation for multi-national, complex organizations. Today, Jodi serves as the Head of Technology for C&W Services, a 15k employee, $1.5b real estate services organization.

C&W Services goal is to build clear, attainable career paths and provide opportunities for growth so that our employees develop up through the organization to take on leadership positions.  85% of C&W Services employees are front line workers in the building maintenance and janitorial spaces, therefore much of our work is focused on how to leverage technology to engage and empower these colleagues, who can often feel disenfranchised and left behind. 

Jodi is a sister, wife & mom to three boys.  She is passionate about DE&I and mental health awareness.  She is a proud Ally-in-Training and is determined to help create a safe and healthy world for her transgender niece to thrive.

Jess Brown is the Vice President of Marketing at Cariloop, a comprehensive caregiving solution for employees. With a decade of experience in employer-sponsored caregiving benefits, Jess, has served on the front lines of advocating for working parents and senior caregivers during the most critical waves of change in this industry. Previously at LearnLux, and Care. Com, Jess has demonstrated experience in supporting employers and employees with solutions that both support working families and corporate strategies. 

Zeynep Ton is a Professor of the Practice at the MIT Sloan School of Management and author of the new book, “The Case for Good Jobs: How Great Companies Bring Dignity, Pay, and Meaning to Everyone's Work,” from Harvard Business Review Press. 

Zeynep's research focuses on how organizations can design and manage their operations in a way that satisfies employees, customers, and investors simultaneously. Her work has been published in a variety of journals, including Organization Science, Production and Operations Management, and the Harvard Business Review.

In 2014, Zeynep published her findings in a book, The Good Jobs Strategy: How the Smartest Companies Invest in Employees to Lower Costs and Boost Profits. The book draws on 15 years of research to show that the key to offering good jobs to employees, great service to customers, and superior returns to investors is combining investment in employees with specific operational choices that increase employees’ productivity, contribution, and motivation.

After her book was released, company exeutives started reaching out to Zeynep to understand how to implement the Good Jobs Strategy in their organizations, or to describe how they were already adopting the strategy. Zeynep cofounded the nonprofit Good Jobs Institute to help them transform through assessments, workshops, and longer term partnerships.

Prior to MIT Sloan, Zeynep spent seven years at Harvard Business School. She has received several awards for teaching excellence both at HBS and MIT Sloan.

Zeynep lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts with her husband and four children. A native of Turkey, she first came to the US on a volleyball scholarship from the Pennsylvania State University. She received her BS in industrial and manufacturing engineering there and her DBA from the Harvard Business School.

Marissa Vargas is VP, Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DEI) Global Strategy, Planning, Operations and Messaging at Liberty Mutual Insurance, a Fortune 500 company. Marissa and her team are responsible for supporting and developing the DEI enterprise strategy, plans as well as leading DEI messaging and team operations. Through DEI practices and principles, she helps leaders connect more in-depth with their teams so they can achieve their business outcomes. Her dedication to the DEI mission in the workplace stems from her early commitment to promoting business leadership in the Hispanic/Latinx community. 

Paul is the Chief Diversity, Inclusion and Equity Officer at State Street Corporation. In this role, Paul leads the global implementation of State Street’s inclusion, diversity, and equity strategies. He also oversees State Street’s Affirmative Action program.

Prior to joining State Street, Paul was a Managing Director and co-founder of Foster & Francisco LLC, an executive search and diversity consulting firm based in Boston. Prior to Foster & Francisco, Paul led recruitment & consulting and relationship management functions at Bank of America, as well as Fidelity Investments, respectively. Early in his career he led recruitment efforts at Amica Mutual Insurance, and The Gillette Company.

Paul currently sits on the boards of The Base Inc., The Posse Foundation’s Boston Leadership Council, and Morgan Memorial Goodwill. Paul also serves on Boston University’s Black Alumni Leadership Council, The Partnership Inc’s., Executive Leadership Council, and the 30% Club’s Steering Committee. Additionally, he serves the Simmons University Institute for Inclusive Leadership Board of Advisors, and the Boston Museum of Fine Arts Advisory Board. He is an active member of the Patriots Alumni Association, and the New England Patriots Charitable Foundation. In March of 2017 Paul was appointed by Massachusetts Governor, Charlie Baker, to serve on the Black Advisory Board Commission. Paul is also one of the cofounders of the New Commonwealth Racial Equity and Social Justice Fund.

His recognitions include the Boston Business Journal’s 2007 “Top 40 under 40”, 2009 “20 on the Move” recognizing Hispanic Executives making a difference in Boston, and in 2020 the “Power 50”. Additionally, El Planeta Newspaper’s Powermeter; “100 Most Influential Latinos in Massachusetts”, and Color Magazine’s 2009 “All Inclusive Award for Leadership”.
Paul has also been recognized by the Boston National Black MBA Association with the “Corporate Leadership Award”, the
Profiles in Diversity Journal “Diversity Leader” Award, and Black Enterprise 2018 “Top Executives in Corporate” Diversity,
as well as by the National Diversity Council as one of the “Top 100 Chief Diversity Officers”.

Paul graduated from Boston University with a BA in Political Science. In 2018 he received a Doctor in Humane Letters
Degree (Hon) from Fisher College, and also a graduate of the Advanced Management Program at the Harvard Business
School.

Paris Alston is co-host of Morning Edition and The Wake Up podcast at GBH News. She previously was a host of the NPR podcast “Consider This,” produced in conjunction with GBH and WBUR.

Paris also served as the host of GBH’s digital series Keep it Social about social media trends targeted at millennial and Gen Z audiences. Prior to that, she broke into the industry as an intern at UNC-TV in North Carolina and NBC10-Philadelphia. She has also told stories from Southeast Asia, Morocco, Panama and Brazil.

A North Carolina native, Paris is a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she studied media and journalism and global studies. She is currently pursuing a social impact MBA at Boston University. She is a member of the Boston and National Associations of Black Journalists and has worked extensively with print, digital, video, audio and social media.

Jeff Maggioncalda joined Coursera as CEO in June 2017 and since then helped the company grow to over 100 million learners and 7,000+ institutions, served by high-quality learning content from 300+ of the world’s top universities and industry educators. He previously served for 18 years as the founding CEO at Financial Engines Inc, a company co-founded by economist and Nobel Prize winner William Sharpe. Financial Engines grew rapidly under Jeff's leadership, providing high-quality online investment advice that has helped millions of people save and prepare for retirement. Jeff has also worked as a consultant at McKinsey & Company and Cornerstone Research, and serves as a director of SVB Financial Group. He holds an M.B.A. from the Stanford Graduate School of Business and a Bachelor's degree in Economics and English from Stanford University. In his free time, Jeff is a lifelong learner and proud dad, and enjoys studying music theory and spending time with his wife and three daughters.

Deborah Merkin, CEO and Founder of GiftCard Partners™, Inc. and Engage2Reward™, LLC, has led the expansion of GiftCard Partners for almost 20 years. GiftCard Partners empowers businesses to drive employee engagement, reward, and incentive programs seamlessly through the Engage2Reward™
gift card ordering platform.

Throughout the last decade, GiftCard Partners has been recognized on both the local (Boston - 5x award winner) and national (9x award winner) level as a Best and Brightest Company to Work For, and is a certified women-owned business (WBENC, WOSB). Deborah and her team specialize in customizing gift card programs to meet each client's unique needs by providing comprehensive gift card program management services to retailers and merchants. Her expertise in building and managing profitable gift card programs by integrating with the merchants and operations allows clients to focus on their core business while maximizing the benefits of a thriving gift card program.

Prior to founding GiftCard Partners, Deborah was an established marketing leader in the tech, finance, and retail industries. Throughout her career she focused on identifying revenue-generating B2B channel strategies, forging strategic partnerships, and driving marketing innovation. With over 20 years of C-Level experience in the payments industry, Deborah is a passionate leader committed to delivering proven results for employees, partners, and customers. Deborah holds a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and a Masters of Business Administration from Babson College.

Christine Kinahan is the Chief People Officer at Welch's. 

Alexis is Head of Global Talent Development & Performance at Wayfair, where she oversees orientation & onboarding, continuous learning, leadership development, performance management, and talent planning for Wayfair's corporate employee base across North America, Europe, and Asia. Prior to Wayfair, Alexis worked as an executive search consultant for Witt/Kieffer, specializing in higher education leadership searches. Earlier, Alexis worked as a human capital consultant at Deloitte where she supported clients in change management, org design, and strategic planning efforts. Alexis earned her EdM from the Harvard Graduate School of Education and her BA from Johns Hopkins University. She lives with her husband and their dog in Boston's South End. 

Caitlin started her career in journalism and is still passionate about bringing the right information to the
right people at the right time. As content manager and data analyst, Caitlin oversees Achievers
Workforce Institute’s primary research program, investigating the latest workforce trends to bring
actionable best practices to HR and business leaders. Caitlin has a BA in Psychology and a post-graduate diploma in journalism and has spent the last decade of her career specializing in HR content and data. She grew up in New Zealand but has lived in Toronto since 2011.

Matt Stone is business leader and irrepressible optimist who believes that in business and life, we all either win together or we all lose together. As Senior Solutions Consultant for Attuned, Matt enjoys helping businesses make work more meaningful for their most important asset – their people. His passion for supporting human-centered leaders was ignited from the privilege of a ten-year mentorship by a renowned MIT organizational psychologist. Through that relationship, Matt deepened his understanding of both the art and science of human behavior – the drivers that motivate people to accelerate toward their potential and create the conditions for high trust, exceptional performance, and personal fulfillment.

Matt also draws on broad experience over twenty-five years as a business development professional, entrepreneur, and former practicing attorney. He brings a global perspective to all of his engagements, having spent over fifteen years of his life living in Europe and Asia. Matt has been a speaker and facilitator on leadership and communication at various events and conferences including the Organization Development Network Conference in the U.S. He has also provided executive facilitation and consulting services in Europe and Asia. Matt earned his B.A. in History from the Clark Honors College at the University of Oregon, and his Juris Doctor degree from the William S. Richardson School of Law, University of Hawaii. He is also a Results Trained Coach (NeuroLeadership Institute), trained in learning design, and is a certified mediator. Matt and his wife currently live in the New York City area.

Jason Cerrato is the Vice President of Talent-centered Transformation for Eightfold, focused on the capabilities of our comprehensive Talent Intelligence Platform and the future of work. Prior to Eightfold, he was with Gartner as a Senior Research Director, focusing on HR technology and transformation.

With extensive experience in talent acquisition, Jason spent more than a decade with United Technologies Corporation (now RTX), where he was the Senior Director of Talent Acquisition, serving as the workstream owner for recruiting and onboarding for an enterprise-wide global HR transformation initiative. Jason has a master’s degree in human resource development and received the Global Fellow in Talent Management certification from the Talent Management
Institute and the Wharton School of Business.

Jason has been recognized by HR Executive as a Top 100 HR Tech influencer and also co-hosts The New Talent Code podcast, which provides insights and open discussion with industry leaders on all things talent and HR tech.

Kathy has a Master of Arts in Teaching and has spent most of her career designing and delivering professional development for educators, building and leading teams charged with organizational change initiatives, and coaching leadership skills. She has expertise in instructional design and facilitation, and has also worked as a journalist and librarian.

Jamie Adasi (pronouns: she, her, hers) is Greenhouse Software’s Head of Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Allyship (IDEA). Jamie’s focused on advancing an international multi-year IDEA strategy as well as building a people-first IDEA program that positively influences people across various industries worldwide. 

As a first-generation Queer Nigerian-American, Jamie began her self-reflective DE&IB/social justice journey as a high school and college student educating peers, staff, and faculty about diversity and social justice issues affecting the world.

With over 14 years of experience, Jamie helps leaders and teams reach their highest potential by bringing people together across multiple and intersecting experiences. Jamie is also an advocate for using well-being practices, data, and technology to create a systems-thinking and human-centered approach to everyday IDEA/DE&I issues.

Prior to Greenhouse, Jamie held various diversity and recruiting leadership positions across higher education, nonprofits, SaaS, and behavioral health. Jamie holds an M.A. in Spiritual Psychology from the University of Santa Monica, an M.Ed. in Counseling and Personnel Services from the University of Maryland, College Park, and a B.A. in Psychology and a Minor in Spanish Language & Cultures from the University of Maryland, College Park. 

Mita Mallick is the Head of Inclusion, Equity and Impact at Carta.

Dan brings 20 years of experience in sales, marketing, and business management to his role at KinderCare Learning Companies. In his time with KinderCare, his leadership has accelerated the growth of Champions, our Before and After School brand, allowing our best-in-class programming to serve more children and families with our brand of authentic engagement.

Most recently, his role has extended to include KinderCare at Work, where he is looking forward to continuing to extend the same leadership mindset.

Prior to joining KinderCare, Dan worked in the K-12 educational software segment, where he helped create and lead the acceptance and growth of digital subscriptions for both schools and publishers. As a father of four, Dan is passionate about helping children learn.

Brit Bartolini is a Senior Enterprise Account Executive at Blueboard with a passion for cultural transformation. Her background in HR and Operations has informed her leadership of culture trainings on employee experience and how it impacts company performance for 10+ years. Blueboard has been an  environment for her to foster passions, grow natural skill sets, and get comfortable with expanding her knowledge on the ever-changing landscape of humans in the workplace. 

When she is not transferring her enthusiasm for experiential rewards to clients, you can find Brit living out Blueboard’s mission of "challenging your comfort zone" through scuba diving, backpacking through new countries, or perfecting her woodworking on various pieces of furniture.

Amy Van Aarle has over 20 years of experience as a brand strategy leader, working within agencies, start-ups, and established companies like EF Education First, where she is currently the Executive Vice President of Marketing & Communications. For over ten years, Amy has held several brand strategy, culture building, and marketing leadership roles within the EF family of companies and Hult International Business School. She now serves on the central executive leadership team at EF's North American Headquarters. 

As an advisor to EF's CEO, Amy is responsible for growing awareness of EF's purpose-driven employment brand and guiding strategy across communications and marketing. Amy is also the executive sponsor responsible for EF's diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging (DEIB) initiatives and helped establish the company's global sustainability and community impact programs. Before EF, Amy worked in leadership roles in start-ups and agencies, building brands from the bottom up and guiding established brands in reaching new markets. 

Amy is a Sarah Lawrence College graduate and lives with her family in Cambridge, MA.

Delores Edwards is the Executive Producer of Basic Black at GBH.

Barbara Booras is a Customer Community Manager at Workvivo, the #1 G2 Rated Employee App Globally. Specializing in Expert Services within Customer Experience, Barbara collaborates with key strategic customers with a global audience on optimizing their Workvivo experience. She spent 6+ years in New York City leading internal communications and transforming company culture at DIVINA in her role as the first Culture & Community Manager. Barbara is a self-described workplace culture nerd, obsessed with elevating the employee experience.

Now based in Boston, Barbara enjoys freelance food writing, boxing, distance running, and world travel. Barbara is a 4x marathoner currently working on completing the Abbott World Marathon Majors. Barbara has an educational background in hospitality and tourism and approaches EX with a high-touch, hospitality mindset.

Ross O’Neill is Head of Customer Experience in the US at Workvivo, the employee experience platform designed to keep people informed, engaged and connected no matter where they work. Based in Boston, Ross works with enterprise customers across industries to help them boost employee engagement and experience. Before Workvivo, Ross was a project manager, leading IT projects at Fidelity Investments, American Tower and athenahealth.

Alex is a highly experienced employee engagement consultant, trainer and speaker. For over 15 years she has helped HR and business leaders implement strategies that drive true culture change.  Her wealth of knowledge comes from coaching and training thousands of managers from a wide range of industries across the globe. Alex focuses on providing organizations with proven practices that drive results for varied leadership styles and the multiple generations in the modern workforce. Her presentation will leave you motivated and better equipped to lead your organization on a path to a more engaged workforce, making the world a better place to work.

Dave is the Global Leader of People Analytics and Workforce Planning at PTC, Inc. Dave uses Planning, Analytics and Future of Work concepts to improve the workforce experience and influence talent programs across all stages of the employee lifecycle. He couples his talent expertise with strategic planning, business transformation, technology implementation and change management to achieve results and enhance shareholder value.

Dave joined the Columbia School of Professional Studies Human Capital Management program
as an Adjunct Lecturer in the Winter of 2022. His current focus is teaching Master’s level
students about Strategic Workforce Planning.  Prior to joining PTC, Dave led Deloitte Consulting’s Workforce Transformation People Analytics and Workforce Planning Program. At Deloitte, he designed, developed and implemented solutions that built capability, deployed technologies and advanced data-driven Workforce Planning, People Analytics and Future of Work programs within client organizations. Prior to joining Deloitte, Dave led the development and implementation of programs in support of global strategic, human capital and transformation objectives at State Street Corporation and directed cross-functional teams through large scale organizational and HR change at Fidelity Investments. In addition, Dave led the development of digital revenue and operating models at Mothernature.com and led clients through large-scale business process reengineering programs at CSC Index.

Throughout his career, he has focused on implementing effective and efficient operating models while leveraging innovative technologies and approaches to achieve strategic, talent and financial objectives. Dave received a Master of Business Administration from the Amos Tuck School at Dartmouth College and a Bachelor of Arts in Economics and Sociology from Clark University.