Live 2025: Silicon Valley

Jyoti Mehra, Gilead's Executive Vice President of Human Resources, is responsible for leading people strategy and, together with the Gilead Leadership Team, building an inclusive and collaborative culture. In her role, she has responsibility for elevating team performance and developing a cohesive approach to attracting, developing and retaining employees.

Jyoti brings extensive experience in business partnership and organizational design to her current position. Prior to joining Gilead in 2017, Jyoti held senior leadership positions with Novartis Corp. in the United States, Europe and China, bringing a broad international perspective to her work.

Jyoti received her bachelor’s degree in political science from Delhi University and her master’s degree in international studies from Jawaharlal Nehru University.

She currently serves on the board of directors of Lam Research and California Conference for Women.

JoAnne is the Global Vice President of Human Resources at Rakuten International, leading a diverse team of HR professionals across six countries to support multiple brands and thousands of employees. With 25 years of experience in HR across the high-tech and medical device industries, JoAnne has a proven track record of building and transforming HR functions to drive business success.

Passionate about inclusion, innovation and the future of work, JoAnne is focused on leveraging AI to address macro challenges with practical, people-centered solutions. She is particularly proud of developing an award-winning women in leadership program at NetSuite and recently designing AI-driven tools that are reshaping how HR supports business needs.

JoAnne holds an MBA from UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business and a BA in Sociology from San Jose State University. Outside of work, she enjoys mentoring future graduates at San Jose State University, hiking, and backyard gardening.

Heather Tinsley-Fix is a Senior Advisor at AARP, where she leads the organization’s work on employer engagement and helps drive AARP’s focus on providing workers 50+ with the tools they need to thrive in today’s work environment.  With a background in marketing, innovation, and program management, Heather works with employers and job seekers, external partners, and academics to provide thought leadership on 50+ labor market issues and create practical resources that enable employers to build age-inclusive organizations that capitalize on the value of experience.  She holds a B.A. in English Literature and an M.A. in Literary Theory, both from the University of Exeter.

Seema is a passionate advocate for creating thriving work environments where employees feel valued, empowered, and supported. She has a proven track record of building high-performing teams and fostering a culture of trust and collaboration. Her journey is driven by a deep commitment to empowering individuals and creating safe spaces, inspired by personal experiences with societal limitations and marginalized voices.

Outside of work, Seema collaborates with anti-human trafficking organizations, gaining invaluable insights into human resilience and the fight for justice. In her previous tech industry roles, she saw a disconnect between companies' aspirations for healthy organizations and their ability to retain talent. This led her to help organizations prioritize employees and build cultures that truly value and support their people.

Seema believes a culture that promotes belonging  is essential for driving innovation, fostering creativity, and ensuring long-term organizational success.

Carol serves as Chief Human Resources Officer at Velocity Global. As the company expands its global footprint, Carol will be responsible for providing strategic leadership for hiring, developing and retaining our global workforce.

Carol is an experienced people leader, board member and advisor with more than three decades of experience across all aspects of HR. She has created, scaled and led diverse teams at companies across different stages of growth from early seed rounds through IPO and as post-public companies. Most recently, Carol was the Chief People Officer at Binance.US, a technology and brand licensee of Binance.com, where she built the people team, grew in over 15 countries, and oversaw an eight-fold increase in headcount growth to a workforce of over 800.

Now an empty-nester, Carol lives with her husband in the Bay Area. In her free time, she enjoys remodeling old houses, investing, gardening, and running.

Subadhra Sriram is an award-winning media executive and thought leader in the workforce solutions ecosystem. She was most recently Publisher & Editor at Staffing Industry Analysts (SIA) the staffing industry's leading research and advisory firm. A member of SIA's executive team since 2014, Subadhra is the founder of The Staffing 100, The Staffing Stream and other leading industry channels. She was responsible for the company’s global media and digital strategy, supervising all editorial functions. Her role allowed her to oversee SIA’s content channels while creating and managing brands that strengthened SIA’s cutting edge-research.

An award-winning communications professional, Subadhra has spent the last 17 years covering the world of work.  Her editorial and writing skills coupled with her management ability has led to a quick progression from a business journalist to her current role, managing and supervising a team of people, publications and budgets worldwide. She has ridden the paper to digital transition and has produced multiple successful web properties.

Prior to SIA, Subadhra has had over 15 years of journalism experience at premier Fortune 500 publishing houses including Time Warner publications i.e. Money magazine, Business 2.0 and Fortune Small Business.  She began her career in India working for a national newsmagazine. She holds a Masters from Northwestern’s Medill School of Journalism and a BA in English Literature and Economics from St Xavier’s College, Calcutta University.

Michal Lev-Ram covers the technology and entertainment sectors for Fortune, writing profiles and in-depth features about the biggest personalities and trends within both industries. She also serves as the editorial director of Fortune Live Media, helping to steer the company’s growing portfolio of global conferences. In addition to her broader role as the editorial lead for Fortune Live Media, Michal co-chairs Fortune’s Most Powerful Women Summit and Brainstorm TECH, an annual technology gathering.

Outside of Fortune, Michal is the co-creator, writer, and host of Operation Firewall, an Audible Original podcast series about a groundbreaking cybercrime investigation that took place in the early 2000s. Previously, she was a staff writer at Business 2.0. and contributed to CNNMoney, Fast Company, and Popular Science. Michal has appeared on CNBC, CNN, NBC, and other TV and radio outlets. Born in Israel, she holds a degree in journalism from San Francisco State University and lives in the Bay Area with her husband, three kids, and miniature poodle.

Fleur Tang is the WW Vice President of HR at BD Biosciences, where she leads all aspects of Talent, Culture and Organization for the business of over 3,000 associates globally. Fleur has worked in the HR function for over 15 years in multiple industries and disciplines. She is passionate about enabling the business success through a relentless focus of cultivating high performing teams. Fleur holds an MBA from Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern. Outside of work, she enjoys hiking, reading and spending quality time with her family.

As Vice President North America, Enterprise, Zac leads the effort to help corporations of all sizes upskill and reskill their employees in North and Latin America. He is responsible for go to market strategies, sales execution and adoption of the Coursera platform within the Enterprise.

Prior to joining Coursera, Zac spent many years helping global corporations drive digital transformation in their business via cloud and data infrastructure. He was most recently Vice President of World-Wide Field Operations at MemSQL where he oversaw significant growth and customer adoption. Prior to MemSQL, Zac was Area Vice President at DataStax, an open source based big data platform where he oversaw sales and customer success. Zac also spent 10 years at Oracle leading sales teams where he worked with IT and Finance organizations to deliver improved operational capabilities.

Tigran Sloyan is the Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of CodeSignal, the leading skills platform empowering teams and individuals to discover and develop the skills that will shape the future. Tigran is a recognized voice in the industry—a TED speaker, active Forbes Technology Council member, frequent keynote, and contributor to major publications. He is passionate about the intersections of technology, education, and talent acquisition, and his innovative insights are regularly featured in Forbes, Fast Company, Morning Brew, and more.

Before co-founding CodeSignal, Tigran was part of the technology management team at Google, where he spearheaded initiatives like Google Hangouts for Education and Google Login for sectors like Travel and Publishing. A graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), he holds degrees in Mathematics, Computer Science, and Economics

Weston is the Director of Inclusion & Diversity and Corporate Social Responsibility at Juniper Networks, where he leads efforts to drive enterprise systems change with a focus on integrating inclusion and mitigating bias across the organization. With deep expertise in Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging (DEIB), Weston works closely with executive leadership to embed DEI into the fabric of Juniper's culture, impacting every stage of the employee experience from recruitment to retention. His recent initiatives include crafting an enterprise-wide DEI strategy for Juniper’s 11,000+ workforce, leading systems change projects with HR executives to improve equity, and setting ambitious representation goals. A data-driven DEI leader, Weston is committed to driving meaningful progress through both strategic action and actively listening to employee voices to foster lasting change in the industry.

Kelly McMahon is an accomplished executive with a proven track record of driving impactful organizational transformations and aligning talent strategies with business goals. As the Vice President of Organizational Effectiveness at Equinix (NASDAQ: EQIX), Kelly leads enterprise-wide initiatives focused on optimizing the organization for efficient and effective strategy execution and growing talent and capabilities critical to enabling success. Her strategic oversight spans global and cross-functional teams, all in service to Equinix’s mission of building the future of digital infrastructure to enable innovation for the digital world.

With over 15 years of experience across Fortune 500 companies such as Google, Symantec, Intuit, and Liberty Mutual, Kelly has partnered with senior executives to implement transformative strategies in Sales, Product Management, Marketing, and Customer Success. She has also led high-profile change management and business realignment initiatives, delivering measurable results in dynamic, high-stakes environments.

Kelly is recognized for her ability to foster collaboration across teams, navigate complex organizational dynamics, and deliver innovative solutions. Her expertise in organizational effectiveness, executive coaching, and change management makes her a trusted advisor to executives and leadership teams. 

Kelly holds undergraduate degrees in both Sociology and Psychology and an MBA in Strategy and Organizational Behavior from The University of California, Davis. Outside of her professional commitments, Kelly is passionate about mentoring emerging leaders and enabling entrepreneurship.

Nick Lockareff is a Food & Beverage Growth Expert with over 4 years of experience working with corporations and startups in the industry. Nick's experience working with restaurants, wineries, and corporate food service has given him insight into all sides of the food industry. Over the last year, Nick has led WeBox's expansion to San Francisco.

Zach Smith is the Chief Activation Officer + Co-Founder of Activate 180. He has been a trusted voice in mindset, career optimization, and leadership coaching for over 10 years. Zach has coached thousands of employees across mid-market and enterprise-level organizations, aligning their careers with true calling and passion to create total life fulfillment.

Before becoming an award-winning coach, Zach spent more than 10 years in senior marketing and client relationship management roles for well-known, international consumer beverage brands. Zach trained with the Erikson International Coaching, graduating from their highest-level course. He is a sought-after keynote speaker who regularly appears before audiences at industry conferences and events.

Zach currently resides in San Diego, California with his partner Rachel. He has a passion for an active lifestyle, photography, art, travel, and sports like rock climbing, snowboarding, and yoga. Zach received a bachelor’s degree in business marketing from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

Mike is a 20+year veteran in HR technologies and maintains deep appreciation for cultures and people which blossomed while traveling the global and living overseas. Relationships are everything!

Mike is committed to pursuing excellence that supports building culture, engagement, and inclusivity and has helped many organizations do the same. Prior to joining Hibob, Mike served in a similar role for Workday where he focused on HR and Finance. Before that, he led organizations through Ceridian implementations before eventually entering the world of solution consulting.

Mike is also a small business owner and an advocate for small business where often consults with other small business owners and entrepreneurs. Favorite quote: "Pursue significance and Success will Follow” Dad's lessons: 1) Be Sincere, Be Brief, Be Seated 2) Find comfort in not being the smartest person in the room 3) Disagree humbly, Forgive Quickly 4) Laugh Often

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.

Dr. Leann Pereira is a Doctor of Education, focusing on Learning and Instruction, and Organization and Leadership. She brings to Emtrain an entire career of developing or delivering enterprise products and services. Leann has worked with product management teams on applications that leverage automation and AI for people applications and is one of the founding directors of the Bay Area Learning Analytics Network.

Sid is the Vice President, Human Resources at Oracle.

Neela is a Bay Area native with a deep passion for all things Human Resources. With a strong foundation in the world of startups she has gotten to watch Hims & Hers go from an idea to a public company .Throughout their career, Neela has honed expertise in talent acquisition, employee relations, and organizational development. Their work is driven by a commitment to creating inclusive, empowering, and sustainable workplace cultures.

As someone who thrives on the intersection of people and business, Neela remains excited by the ever-evolving nature of both HR and the startup ecosystem, always seeking new ways to contribute to organizational success and growth.

Vivian is the Head of Total Rewards & HRIS at Enphase Energy.