Live 2023: San Francisco

Pete Suratos is excited to return to NBC Bay Area as a multimedia journalist and reporter covering Contra Costa County. You can currently catch Pete’s stories on our 5 p.m., 6 p.m. and 7 p.m. newscasts.

During his previous stint with the station from 2015-2021, Pete began as a freelancer before becoming a full-time weekday morning reporter for “Today In The Bay.” In this role, Pete covered some of the region’s biggest stories, including historic wildfires, the coronavirus pandemic, social justice demonstrations, and championship parades for his hometown Golden State Warriors.

The Richmond, Calif. native started his career in Las Vegas, working as a regional reporter for the Fox News Channel from 2011-2013. While working in Vegas, his coverage included the 2012 presidential election and GOP primaries, exclusive red carpet events with the biggest names in Hollywood, and ringside coverage for boxing and UFC fights on the Strip. In 2013, Pete moved to Phoenix, Ariz. to work as a general assignment reporter for KNXV-TV (ABC). During his time in Phoenix, Pete survived the sweltering desert heat while covering a wide range of stories, including Super Bowl XLIX, MLB spring training, monsoon weather coverage, and daily breaking news.

Pete holds an undergraduate degree in business from San Francisco State University and a Masters degree in journalism from the University of Southern California. In his free time, Pete enjoys family outings with his wife and two sons, as well as rooting for his hometown Golden State Warriors and San Francisco 49ers!

Dan came to ABC7 in 1995 as the weekday 5:00 p.m. news anchor and investigative reporter. He has received many industry awards, including the prestigious DuPont Columbia Award as well as two Edward R. Murrow Awards for excellence in journalism as well as numerous Emmy Awards for Best Newscast and Individual Reporting.

Dan's distinguished work is also recognized by many other industry organizations, including Associated Press, United Press International, and the Press Club of Atlantic City. He has also received awards from the New Jersey and Atlanta chapters of the Society of Professional Journalists and the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences.

Dan began his television career at WTVD, the ABC owned television station in Durham, North Carolina. He then worked for WCBD-TV, the ABC affiliate in Charleston, South Carolina where he was the 6:00 and 11:00 p.m. anchor and lead investigative reporter.

As an active member of the community, Dan serves on the boards of directors of many worthy organizations including The Commonwealth Club, The Bay Area Red Cross, The Oakland Symphony, CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocates), The Contra Costa County Crisis Center, The First Tee, and is president of the BAM Music Foundation. Additionally, he hosts the annual "Dan Ashley's Friends of Camp Concord Golf Tournament" which raises money to send under-served youngsters to summer camp. To date, Dan's charity golf tournament has sent more than 10,000 kids to camp, all expenses paid.

Dan also created the non-profit "Rock the CASA Foundation" to raise money through an annual concert to benefit the CASA organization among other charities. Over the years, Dan's charity concert has featured major headliners such as Eddie Money, REO Speedwagon, Cheap Trick, Melissa Etheridge, Patti LaBelle, and Rick Springfield.

Dan is a graduate of the University of North Carolina with degrees in English and Speech Communication.

Antoinette Hamilton joined Lam Research as the Global Head of Inclusion & Diversity in February 2020.  Previous to her current role at Lam, Antoinette was the Vice President of Diversity, Inclusion and Community Experience at Xandr, an AT&T company. In her role, Antoinette drove the strategy for global diversity and inclusion initiatives. Prior to that, Antoinette served as the assistant vice president of diversity and inclusion at L’Oréal USA, working on strategic projects and innovation. She spent three years in Osaka, Japan where she taught culture and communication in support of the efforts of the Japanese Ministry of Education and Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Earlier in her career, Antoinette worked for INROADS, a non-profit organization dedicated to career advancement for college students from underserved communities.

Antoinette is a graduate of Hampton University. Additionally, she serves on the board of Tech Fin and Philipse Manor Hall State Historic Site. In her personal time, she enjoys knitting and is an avid skier.

Jeremy Schiff earned an undergraduate in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science in 2005 and a PhD in Applied Machine Learning in 2009 from The University of California, Berkeley. In 2006, Jeremy co-founded FotoFlexer.com, an online photo editing company that powered companies including MySpace and Photobucket. In 2009, Jeremy joined Ness Computing as VP of Product and Machine Learning, which was sold to OpenTable in 2014. While working at OpenTable, Jeremy saw first-hand the opportunity to transform the way that recruiting works through machine learning and automation, and founded RecruitBot in 2017 to spearhead the mission to automate recruiting

Chad Nico Hiu is the SVP, Strategy, Equity & Impact at the YMCA of San Francisco 

Claire Zhang is the head of HR and VP of the People Team at Samsung Research America. As a recognized leader for her achievements in HR and strategic planning, Claire grew together with Samsung Electronics in North America. She joined the Samsung HR team in 2014 as director of talent acquisition and was later promoted to senior director of talent management and DEI initiatives. In 2018, she expanded her role and enhanced the organization’s tranformation. With these numerous achievements, she made her way to VP of HR in 2019 and is currently a team leader in the Samsung North America People Team. Previously, she was senior business engagement leader at Intel and a senior HR leader at Yahoo. 

Samanntha DuBridge serves as Vice President of Global Benefits, Culture, and People Experience at Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE). In her role, she is responsible for driving strategy and execution in a variety of areas that directly support innovation, engagement and the HPE Human Resources strategy, including building the HPE culture, creating an engaging team member experience and enabling the workplace of the future. Through ongoing culture initiatives, team member campaigns, wellbeing programs and service delivery, Samanntha’s team plays a critical role in making HPE a great place to work and a destination for top talent.  

Additionally, Samanntha leads the design, development and compliance of global benefit and mobility programs that support the needs of the business, team members and their families, navigating an ever-changing global political and regulatory landscape. She also manages people operations that include a range of important HR support services such as Labor and Employee Relations, Privacy and Compliance, HR service centers, along with Agile HR project and change management processes that are accelerating the pace of change throughout HPE. 

Samanntha is passionate about creating programs and services that deliver a world-class experience for HPE team members and their families through effective integration and alignment to maximize the  impact and value of all people experiences.Prior to joining HPE, Samanntha held positions at HP, National Semiconductor, and various healthcare organizations. She holds a Master’s Degree from San Jose State University in Health Care Administration.

Erin Griffith is a New York Times journalist based in the San Francisco bureau, where she reports on technology start-ups and venture capital.

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. 

Shai Poulard is the Head of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging at NerdWallet.

Meghna brings over 20 years of experience as a strategist, facilitator, and executive coach across diverse industries. Using her training in business, anthropology, and Neuro-Linguistic Programming, she has developed a unique leadership development methodology called Power Fluency that helps clients navigate the internal and external, visible and invisible in power dynamics. Meghna has a BA magna cum laude from Harvard University, an MPH from the University of Cape Town, and an MBA from UC Berkeley's Haas School of Business.

Justin Holland is the CEO and co-founder of HealthJoy, a healthcare navigation platform on a mission to simplify the benefits experience and guide members to affordable, high-quality care. HealthJoy leverages data to provide a personalized healthcare journey for every member. HR teams across the country and nearly half a million employees and dependents turn to HealthJoy to achieve better health outcomes and uncover endless opportunities for cost savings. In 2022, HealthJoy raised $60 million in Series D funding, led by Valspring Capital with participation from Endeavour Vision and CIBC Innovation Banking.

As HealthJoy’s fearless leader and an MIT entrepreneur, Justin is a frequent public speaker on digital health, employee benefits, AI, and technology. Justin was named to Crain’s Chicago’s “40 Under 40,” an annual list of the city’s brightest business minds. His commentary has been featured in TechCrunch, Entrepreneur, Business Insider, Quartz, BenefitsPRO, and more. Prior to HealthJoy, Justin led successful exits at OpenInstall (now AVG) and FreeCause (now Rakuten). 

Liz is a Sr. Business Psychologist at Workday, where she marries her expertise in organizational
psychology, employee experience, and organizational development to help companies build a brighter
work day for their people. Liz has 15 years of experience as a consultant and internal practitioner
working with world-class organizations across industries to design and implement scalable talent
solutions. As a leader in HRTech for the past 5 years, she built global advisory teams to deliver on
customer employee experience and development programs and provide expertise in the design of new
product features and solutions. Liz earned her Ph.D. in Industrial-Organizational Psychology from Seattle
Pacific University and is an ICF Certified Professional Coach. Liz is an active member of the Society of
Industrial-Organizational Psychology and the International Coaching Federation.

Tim Davisson is the Director, Business Development at Stewart Leadership.

Elan is the Chief Product Officer and a founding team member of Claira. He joined Claira after more than a decade as a founder, director, and consultant at major nonprofits. Across multiple multi-million dollar program portfolios, he founded initiatives, built digital experiences, and developed growth strategies that impacted hundreds of thousands of beneficiaries.

Krystal Hindle is a passionate people-first leader focused on delivering best-in-class experiences for the
customers she supports and the teams she leads. As Achievers Director of Customer Success, Krystal
relies on 15+ years in tier 1 industries to lead a team of customer success professionals dedicated to
changing the way the world works through a focus on workplace science, smart technology and trusted
advice. As an AWI Advisor, Krystal consults with and supports customers in fostering a culture of belonging by
building employee experiences where employees feel Welcomed, Known, Included, Supported and
Connected.

Dr. Mundi Attinasi is the Chief Operating Officer and Medical Director for Lookout Health. She has nearly 20 years of experience as a clinical health provider in various disciplines of Pediatric Medicine, Aesthetics Medicine, and Health and Wellness. She is a key developer in the Compass Wellness program for Lookout Health.

Dr. Attinasi’s focus and perspective on healthcare utilization and delivery shifted after the COVID pandemic, as she saw the need for disease prevention and whole wellness services. She continues to enrich her knowledge through ongoing training and education in the field of Functional Health, Nutritional Wellness, and Anti-aging.

Dr. Attinasi is a Board-Certified Pediatrician and is Dual-Boarded in Pediatric Hospital Medicine. She holds a bachelor’s degree from Stanford University, a Medical Degree from Pritzker Medical School at the University of Chicago, and completed her residency training at Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles. Dr. Attinasi continues to educate residents and medical students as a volunteer faculty member for UCLA and UCI/CHOC training programs.

Chelsie Rae’s life purpose is to help people feel seen and loved so they have the courage to become the fullest version of themselves. She’s the founder of two different employee recognition companies, Knowwn and Caroo, and has worked to revamp employee recognition for some of the most recognizable and innovative workplaces around the world. She lives in San Francisco with her silly golden retriever Freddie Furcury.

Jessica has a proven track record helping companies define and amplify their people and culture strategy (including diversity, talent development, employee experience, workforce planning, people analytics, and internal communications). She has been with Box since December 2018, and currently leads all People (HR), Belonging, Community (including Box.org), Places (workplace services and real estate), and Internal Communications. Prior to Box she led the People team at Blue Bottle Coffee, a high-growth global coffee company. Previously, Jessica led HR for Aruba, a fast-growing subsidiary of HPE, and spent ten years at HP/HPE in a variety of global HR roles. Her early career included executive search and recruiting for CEO's, CFO's and other key leadership positions. 

Jessica is passionate about creating compelling cultures that enable employees and organizations to thrive, and where employees feel welcomed and celebrated for who they are. Jessica is an advocate of sustainable growth that gives back; for helping the communities where we live and work better in all that we do. 

Heidi Schisel is Vice President, People & Culture, for Genentech’s Commercial, Medical, and Government Affairs organization. She assumed that position in 2021 after six years with the organization, during which time she successfully took on roles of increasing responsibility across Research & Development, Business Development, and Manufacturing & Quality. Prior to Genentech, Heidi was a Director at Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E), where she spent 11 years in Human Resources. Heidi earned a Master of Science in Human Resources Development from Villanova University after completing her Bachelor of Science in Business Administration at California Polytechnic State University. Heidi is passionate about employee wellness and building a workplace culture that is inclusive and inspiring, where people are empowered to be their full selves, do their best work, continuously learn, and be recognized and rewarded for creating impact. She loves to travel to new places and enjoys playing tennis, running, gardening, and swimming.

David Thigpen, academic coordinator of the undergraduate journalism program at the University of California, Berkeley, is a former Time magazine reporter who covered Wall Street, popular music, and Chicago politics. His work has also been published in Rolling Stone and the New York Times. At  Berkeley, David designed and directed the new undergraduate journalism curriculum. He has also done public-policy research as a fellow at Institute for the Future in Palo Alto.

Sid Prashar is a founding member of Google's executive recruiting function. Sid has worked on
business-critical senior leadership roles across the Alphabet portfolio (Google, Waymo, Verily et
all) and helped to grow and scale businesses through executive level talent acquisition and
advisory. A computer engineer by training and a former management consultant, Sid has helped
to build out and grow the executive recruiting capabilities at Google and contributed to evolving
and improving many of the tools, processes, and practices along the way. In his current role, Sid
leads a high performing team focused on executive leadership recruitment, and spends his time on further developing the function, leadership onboarding and advisory, succession and team’s growth and culture-related matters.

Prior to Google, Sid was a member of Spencer Stuart's 'Business/Professional Services' and 'Technology/Media/Telecommunications' practices and focused on CEO / CFO / Board, and other senior leadership searches. He has advised Fortune 500 and high-growth companies as well as Private Equity firms and their portfolio companies on senior management recruitment, succession and leadership transition issues. Prior to Spencer Stuart, Sid was a Strategy Manager at Deloitte Consulting. He is a results-driven professional with significant experience advising senior executives and leading cross-functional teams to solve complex business issues and deliver results.

While at Deloitte, Sid demonstrated expertise and deep understanding of functions across the value chain in the Technology, Professional Services, Financial Services, Healthcare and Life Sciences industries (across pharma, biotech, and med device). Sid’s functional experience includes corporate/BU growth strategy, customer and market strategy, and M&A. He has advised clients on new product development and product launch readiness, process improvements, operational effectiveness, enterprise cost reduction and supply chain transformations. Sid earned his B.S in Computer Engineering from Purdue University and his M.B.A from University of Minnesota’s Carlson School of Management. He is an avid traveler, an active soccer dad to his two sons, and enjoys hiking and spending his free time with family.

As a Regional Vice President of Mid-Market Sales, Katie leads new sales efforts for groups with 500-1,000 employees. Katie cultivates relationships with executive leadership teams, human resources administrators, consultants, and other decision-makers and guides them through the discovery and decision process in partnering with Quantum Health. 

Katie began her career at Quantum Health in 2012 and has held various roles, ascending from Care Coordinator, Sales and Marketing Coordinator and, most recently, Sales Associate. As a Sales Associate, she partnered with multiple Vice Presidents of Sales to support new sales efforts spanning all market sizes. Katie graduated from Ohio University with a Health Administration and Marketing degree. 

Katie said, "My experience as a Care Coordinator and leading implementations at Quantum Health have prepared me to work through operational questions with prospects and their consultants during the sales process." 

Outside the office, Katie enjoys spending time with her husband and their three dogs. She also enjoys playing gold year round and enjoys all of the perks of being a Las Vegas resident.

Cynthia Owyoung is the author of "All Are Welcome: How to Build a Real Workplace Culture of Inclusion that Delivers Results," a playbook for driving progress in Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging (DEIB) inside organizations. She has established and led DEIB initiatives for 20 years as an executive at organizations across tech, media and financial services, including Robinhood, Charles Schwab and Yahoo!. In addition, Cynthia founded Breaking Glass Forums, a boutique agency developing strategies to accelerate diverse leadership and inclusive organizations. Entrepreneur Magazine recognized Cynthia as a 100 Women of Impact in 2021. 

Dan is a proven digital health business leader with 20+ years scaling venture stage and public companies in healthtech and benefits. He previously served in leadership roles at Doctor on Demand, Health Net, and UnitedHealth/Optum.

Marie is a part of the Burnalong Enterprise sales team, with over 12 years of experience working in the HR tech industry and at former companies such as LinkedIn and Qualtrics. With a passion for health and wellness, she partners with HR leaders and executive teams to build out and manage employee experience initiatives with a key focus on DEIB, engagement, and wellbeing. Outside of work, she enjoys cooking, meditation, hiking, and traveling with her family and Australian terrier, Finn.

Alejandro is a Madrid-born engineer, psychologist, and entrepreneur currently residing locally in San Francisco. He was named one of the top social entrepreneurs in 2019 for his ed-tech startup seeking to detect students’ strengths and learning styles to improve learning and future opportunities. Today, he’s the proud co-founder and CEO of Erudit, an AI SaaS empowering people leaders with real-time employee experience insights.

Corey is a seasoned people leader and software professional in the practice of enhancing employee experiences. Corey has a unique ability to connect with audiences and deliver practical insights on improving employee experience in the workforce, including interactive meetings and trivia with Erudit’s global team. With a deep commitment to the human side of HR, Corey brings out the best in those around him and facilitates a warm environment wherever he goes.

Emtrain founder and CEO Janine Yancey is a passionate advocate for healthy workplace cultures. Janine’s unique approach blends technology, behavioral science, data analytics, and social media-inspired interactions to help inform and improve workplace behavior. Janine presides over a team of experts and an extensive library of content including courses, video, resource guides, checklists and analytic reports that define the modern workplace.

Janine is a proponent of neutral, third-party guidance and problem-solving. By orchestrating a publicly-accessible community interface for employee questions and concerns, Janine stays at the forefront of real-world, real-time harassment, bias, discrimination, and ethics issues.

A tireless visionary, Janine writes extensively, has provided expert testimony and advice to state legislatures, and helps leading companies implement harassment prevention, diversity, ethics, and compliance programs. Janine is a sought-after speaker and has been published and interviewed in the mainstream media including The Washington Post, Fast Company, USA Today, Bloomberg Business, TechCrunch, and Startup Grind. She’s presented at Society of Ethics and Compliance; Techstars FounderCon; Founders Network, and The Club.

Prior to founding Emtrain, Janine was a partner at Employment Law Partners where she specialized in solving labor and employment problems for high tech firms including Google, Intuit and a variety of start-ups. Janine also worked as counsel at Liebert Cassidy Whitmore, served as Board Member of the Northern California Human Resources Association, and authored The HR Handbook, designed to help young tech companies navigate workplace laws.

Janine earned her JD at the University of California Hastings School of Law and a BA in English and Political Science at the University of California Berkeley.

Leesa Askew is an Enterprise Account Executive at Emtrain.

Nia Darville is the Senior Manager of Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Allyship (IDEA) Activations at Greenhouse.

Joji Gill is the Vice President, Human Resources at Applied Materials.

Sumit is an MBA from TAPMI and has 15 years of experience in business strategy, consumer sales, brand management, investor relations, and finance. After Tapmi, he had stints at Wipro (2007-2009) and Metro Cash and Carry (2011-2012). Sandwiched between these two stints, was his first entrepreneurial venture called "Recycletrade", a waste management company. He left Metro to start Giftxoxo+Frogo in 2012, the first avatar of Xoxoday. Frogo was a marketplace for discovering and booking exciting activities and experiences and finding offbeat things to do- both in the place of residence and during vacations. Giftxoxo was a marketplace for gifting unique experiences and gift vouchers, enabling one to gift memories, not just things. 

In 2018, Goftxoxo pivoted to become Xoxoday. Xoxoday provides technology infrastructure to enable businesses to automate rewards, incentives & payouts processes across the value chain. Xoxoday's products, Plum, Compass, and Empuls, help build brand loyalty and customer retention, improve channel and sales performance, and increase employee engagement. After bootstrapping their way to almost $10 mill ARR, we recently raised our first round of institutional funding from Giift backed by Apis Partners Growth Fund II. Sumit has worked with companies such as Wipro Consumer Care, Hexaware, and Metro. He has a rich experience in FMCG & Retail. In the past he has been on the board of MBA colleges like IFIM and Welingkar. Sumit loves to spend time with young professionals and entrepreneurs, exploring ideas and working with them. He is always up for sports, likes to ride bikes, and often travels for business or spends personal time with family. He is also a Half Marathon runner.