Live 2022: Boston

Marcus Buckingham is a global researcher and New York Times best-selling author focused on unlocking strengths, increasing performance, and pioneering the future of how people work. He is the author of two of the best-selling business books of all time, First, Break All the Rules, and Now, Discover Your Strengths, and he has the #1 New Release on Amazon with his tenth book, Love + Work (April 2022, Harvard Business Review Press) which is being heralded by Forbes as one of the ten must-reads for career and leadership in 2022. Marcus’ 2019 Harvard Business Review cover article, "The Feedback Fallacy," was selected by HBR as one of the most influential articles of the last 100 years, and Marcus’ strengths assessments have been taken by over 10 million people worldwide.

Rana el Kaliouby is an Egyptian-American scientist, entrepreneur, investor, author, and an AI thought leader on a mission to humanize technology before it dehumanizes us. She is the Deputy CEO at Smart Eye and formerly, Co-Founder and CEO of Affectiva, an MIT spin-off and category defining AI company. She is an executive fellow at the Harvard Business School where she teaches about AI and startups. Her bestselling memoir, Girl Decoded: A Scientist’s Quest to Reclaim Our Humanity by Bringing Emotional Intelligence to Technology follows her journey, growing up in the Middle East and moving to the United States to become an entrepreneur and Emotion AI pioneer. Rana has a track record of translating technology innovations into products that address massive market needs including in market research, automotive, health, robotics and education.

Rana serves on the Boston Steering Committee for All Raise, supporting female founders and funders. She is a member of the Young Presidents’ Organization (YPO) where she serves on YPO's New England board and is a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader. Rana is a venture partner of the MIT Media Lab E14 Fund, a Trustee at the Mass Technology Leadership Council and at the American University in Cairo. A TED speaker, and co-host of a PBS NOVA series on AI, Rana has been recognized on Fortune’s 40 Under 40 list and as one of Forbes' Top 50 Women in Tech. She holds a Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge and a Post Doctorate from MIT.

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.

Julie Law is Head of Human Resources for John Hancock, the U.S. segment of Toronto-based Manulife, and Global Head of Talent Management for Manulife. In her John Hancock role, Ms. Law is responsible for cultivating an engaging, inclusive, and collaborative working environment, grounded in the Company’s values.

Ms. Law also oversees talent and performance management, team engagement, leadership development, and Manulife’s employee recognition program. She is passionate about promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion across the organization and is dedicated to fostering a thriving, high-performance culture that supports employees’ wellbeing and promotes their leadership skills, capabilities and mindset.

Ms. Law joined John Hancock from Amazon Web Services (AWS) and previously spent 19 years at PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) in a variety of executive roles in Human Resources where she built and executed HR strategies to drive business results. Additionally, as the global leader of the Talent Management Center of Excellence, she transformed PwC’s global talent strategy and processes across 155 countries impacting over 275,000 people.

Ms. Law began her journey in the Human Resources space after graduating from Ohio’s Wittenberg University with a B.A. in Sociology. She is a member of the Massachusetts Business Coalition for Early Childhood Education and a co-founder of “An Evening for Bridget,” an annual charitable event which raised over $500,000 for the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.

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.

Eileen Cooke is the Vice President, Enterprise Learning, Development & Performance at CVS Health.

An avid learner and systems thinker, KeyAnna Schmiedl loves to create solutions and discussions that center OD and DEI as tools for supporting authenticity and empathy. She believes that highlighting the need to move from “careful” to “thoughtful” conversations in the workplace is key the success of DEI and am evolved workplace culture overall. Bridging the gap between difference is key for any successful endeavor and ensuring leaders and employees have the tools necessary to do just that is the goal of her work.

KeyAnna is currently the Global Head of DEI at Wayfair where she puts to application a breadth of DEI experience, most recently as the US Head of D&I for Santander Bank, N.A where she led the bank’s employee networking groups and other D&I priorities.  Prior to her time at Santander she was a senior consultant at IBIS Consulting Group where she developed innovative and collaborative ways of implementing DEI intervention strategies.

Alban Jacquin is the VP, Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Well-Being Global Human Resources at Schneider Electric SA.

Erin is a Senior Director and HR Business Partner to leaders in the Semiconductor Products Group of Applied Materials, the leader in materials engineering solutions used to produce virtually every new chip and advanced display in the world. She has more than 20 years of experience in HR leadership roles, aligning and creating strategic organizational and talent strategies that drive business results. When she started in her current position, Erin became the first female executive staff member in her business group and a female demographic in the single digits. With a commitment to creating a culture of inclusion, she has led high-impact initiatives related to hiring and talent management and dramatically changed female representation. After creating an Inclusion Awareness Workshop and as the impetus for launching the business group’s first Employee Resource Group, the Women’s Professional Development Network, the engagement scores for women and minorities in her group have increased exponentially.

She plays an important leadership role within the company’s corporate HR function as well. She has led high profile projects tied to Applied’s corporate HR strategy, most recently as the HR lead for the company’s annual Strategic Review process and is serving on the team leading a transformational HR organizational redesign.

Prior to joining Applied Materials, Erin held HR leadership roles for other Fortune 200 companies such as Medtronic and Express Scripts. She holds a BS from Purdue University, has earned multiple professional certifications in her field and has been recognized with myriad leadership awards throughout her career.

Erin grew up in Indiana but, over the course of her career, she has lived in five different states. She now lives in Ipswich, MA with her husband, daughter, dog, cat and the many wild turkeys who hang out in her backyard.

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.

Jon Greenawalt is the SVP of Customer Transformation at 15Five, and is accountable for the growth, expansion and delivery of the Transform education and coaching practice for leadership and management development, a key component of the company’s holistic, continuous performance management solution.

Jon is a people and culture expert, executive and strategic advisor with over 25 years of global, cross-industry experience working with management teams to build culture, values, leaders, and teams through progressive people strategies that accelerate and support business performance and organizational growth.

He is also the former Chief People Officer at SharkNinja, innovators of the popular Shark and Ninja household appliance brands, where he redesigned the global HR team to deliver the human capital strategy for IPO readiness. He modernized the function, helped re-positioned the global workforce for scale, created the Talent Development team, and was the chief architect and facilitator of the company’s core leadership development and team performance programs.

Jon received his MBA from the Duke University Fuqua School of Business, and his BA from the University of Pennsylvania.

Awardco’s founder and CEO, Steve Sonnenberg, learned a great deal watching his father’s career in employee recognition with companies like McDonald’s—but something was missing. In 2011, Steve began working on plans to use new, innovative technology to solve the pitfalls of traditional employee recognition programs: burdensome processes, exorbitant markups, and limited redemption options. Awardco was born shortly after, and Steve’s vision has resonated deeply within an industry in desperate need of change. Awardco is the fastest-growing rewards and recognition platform in the world as ranked by Inc. Magazine for the last 3 consecutive years, and more clients than ever are experiencing a better way to recognize.

Rachel Lipson is the Director and co-founder of the Project on Workforce at Harvard, a cross-school, interdisciplinary Harvard initiative that brings together the Malcolm Wiener Center at the Harvard Kennedy School, the Managing the Future of Work Project at Harvard Business School and the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Most recently, prior to Harvard, Rachel was Director of Special Projects at Year Up, a workforce development training provider that create pipelines for 18-24 year olds without BAs into high-demand roles at some of America’s leading companies. She has previously worked on economic development at the World Bank, on workforce training investments at JPMorgan Chase, and in training and organizing on President Obama’s re-election campaign. Rachel is an alum of Harvard College and the joint MBA/MPP program with Harvard Business School and the Kennedy School where she was a Rubenstein Fellow at the Center for Public Leadership. Rachel’s graduate thesis on community colleges for the State of California was awarded the Kennedy School’s Fischer Prize for outstanding research on social policy and she also has been awarded a Harvard Certification of Distinction and Excellence in Teaching. Her writing has been published in the Boston Globe, Washington Post’s Wonkblog, Forbes, New America, Newsweek, and RealClearPolicy and she and her work have been featured by C-SPAN, the Economist, CNBC, Reuters, and Bloomberg. Rachel previously served as a volunteer contributor to the Biden-Harris campaign’s workforce policy committee and as a member of a National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine Committee on the STEM Workforce.

Sam is passionate about recognition, marketing, and the connection between business needs and human behavior. Over the past 15+ years he has worked in a variety of settings solving a plethora of problems, and has learned a ton of tools to better aid companies and individuals reach their potential. His work spans many disciplines: branding, advertising, Flash games (remember those?), conversion-optimization, email campaign design/dev/mgmt, award-winning microsites, site re-platforms, and leadership in both functional roles and people-leadership capacities.

Wendy M. Richard is currently CSR Director at Sanofi Specialty Care where she heads the corporate citizenship efforts in the Greater Boston area focusing primarily on issues of health and STEM equity. She joined Sanofi in 2012 as a Thought Leader Liaison in our Neurology Business Unit, where she supported the successful global launches of Aubagio and Lemtrada. From 2017-2020, she led Public Affairs & Patient Advocacy for both the Neurology and Immunology Franchises in the US.  Wendy is currently a Board member of Kendall Square Association (KSA) in Cambridge, MA and is also a certified DEI facilitator on Unconscious Bias at Sanofi.

Before joining Sanofi, Wendy spent 8 years at EMD Serono, with the US medical and commercial organizations based in Rockland, MA, where she was a Senior Medical Science Liaison and Key Account Manager. Wendy spent the first part of her career working in policy research, government affairs and ADA consulting, on behalf of individuals and families who are living with chronic disease and illness, for MD Anderson Cancer Center and the National Multiple Sclerosis Society.

Wendy received her BA from Dartmouth College, JD from the University of Houston Law Center, and her MSSW from the University of Texas at Austin.

In her spare time, Wendy enjoys running, hiking, listening to music, playing with her kids and dogs, reading books and traveling with the family. And being from New Orleans, she also loves good food and live music!

Today’s business world is increasingly complex. To succeed and grow, organizations must navigate a range of challenges, both in and out of the company’s control. Leaders are expected to optimize diverse teams to effectively react, adapt, and innovate – all while continuing to meet business objectives in the short-term. The last thing anyone has time to do is overhaul their performance management or leadership training programs.

Coaching Works NYC gets it. Founded by Ben Colvin after a 25+-year career as an executive corporate leader, Coaching Works NYC builds real-life, scalable solutions to enhance an organization’s existing programs with individualized coaching that ties directly to business goals and reaches deeper into the organization.  The outcome is accelerating the diversity of an organization’s leadership bench and ensuring the readiness of its leaders to step-in.

Ben applies a business leadership perspective to his consulting and coaching practice, which supports discovery and growth of innate talents to increase impact personally, professionally and the business for leaders and their teams.  This truth supported his own accomplishments as a senior leader in product, marketing, and business development roles across financial services, insurance and payments technology industries.

Susan Hunt Stevens is the Founder & CEO of WeSpire, an award-winning employee experience technology platform focused on engaging people in environmental, social and governance (ESG) initiatives. She founded WeSpire to use her digital behavior change expertise to help people embrace healthier and more sustainable lifestyles after her son was diagnosed with serious food allergies. She was named an EY Entrepreneur of the Year for New England, a Boston Business Journal Woman of Influence, and to the Environmental Leader 100 list. Prior to WeSpire, she spent 9 years at The New York Times Company, most recently as SVP/General Manager for Boston.com, a $60M digital media division. She has an MBA from The Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth, where she was named a Tuck Scholar, and graduated with high honors from Wesleyan University.

Shahina Islam is the Vice President Human Resources at Zensar.

Katie Johnston writes about work and income inequality for the Boston Globe. She also edits the Globe's annual Top Places to Work magazine. Katie has been at the Globe since 2002, where she has also worked as a copy editor, entertainment editor, music editor, and travel/workplace reporter. She previously worked at The Gazette in Colorado Springs and the Itemizer-Observer in Dallas, Ore., and has a bachelor's degree from the University of Colorado at Boulder.

Robert Livada is the Senior Vice President of Solution Architecture at CyberGrants.

Amy Sokolow is a reporter at the Boston Herald, whose coverage includes state politics and policy, business and health. She's fascinated by the way the pandemic has upended every facet of working life, from the increased demands placed on health care workers, to work-life balance to workers' changing wants and needs. Amy's work has also appeared in The Boston Globe, STAT News, USA Today, MarketWatch, Tribal Business News, Fierce Biotech and other publications. She holds a bachelor's degree from Tufts University and a master's degree from Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism. She is a Massachusetts native.

Rebecca Liebman is the CEO and co-founder of LearnLux, the leading provider of workplace financial wellbeing that blends digital planning with one-on-one guidance from Certified Financial Planner™️ professionals. Founded in 2015, Rebecca has grown LearnLux from startup to established company serving clients across a variety of industries, Fortune 500 businesses, and global enterprises. Rebecca is on a mission to make financial wellbeing accessible in the workplace and create a better world through the power of technology. Rebecca has recently been honored with Forbes “30 Under 30,” Boston Business Journal “40 Under 40,” and Fast Company’s “World Changing Ideas” awards.

Amy Wendel is Director and Global Head of Corporate Responsibility at GoTo, where she oversees the billion-dollar SaaS company’s ESG, sustainability, social impact, and robust volunteer programs. Amy holds a Master of Liberal Arts in Museum Studies form Harvard University, a Bachelor of Arts in Art History from Northeastern University, a Certificate in Corporate Citizenship from Boston College, a Certificate in Marketing Strategy from Cornell University and a Certificate in Sustainability Leadership from Harvard University.

Amy is a member of the Corporate Advisory Council of Cradles to Crayons, a non-profit that provides homeless and low-income children with essentials to thrive. Amy also serves as an Advisor for Project Alianza, a women-led initiative to end education inequality in Latin America. In her free time, Amy also runs a small non-profit, Project MEMA, that she founded in 2010, supporting over 200 students in the Kilimanjaro region of Tanzania, East Africa.

Paul Lesser is the former head of Talent Acquisition, Talent Development & Learning at Fidelity Investments, a leading provider of investment management, retirement planning, portfolio guidance, brokerage, benefits outsourcing and other financial products and services to more than 26 million individuals, institutions, and financial intermediaries.

Mr Lesser retired from Fidelity in July of 2021, and is now leading a consulting practice specializing in Talent Strategies and Executive HR Support to Emerging businesses.

In his prior role at Fidelity, Mr. Lesser oversaw recruiting efforts both for Fidelity associates and for the company’s contingent workforce through Fidelity TalentSource, (formerly Veritude). He reported  directly to Bill Ackerman, the CHRO of Fidelity Investments.

Prior to this role Mr. Lesser served as the head of Human Resources, Enterprise Technology and Global Services. In this role, which he assumed in June of 2013, he oversaw Human Resources support for Corporate Technology, Enterprise Infrastructure, and Enterprise Cyber Security along with the Global Sites including India, Ireland and China. He also had responsibility for IT Learning and Development, Management and Leadership Development, and managed the Global LEAP program, Fidelity’s entry level IT college hiring program for the US, Asia and Europe.

Mr. Lesser joined Fidelity in May 1995 as recruiting manager for Fidelity’s retail organization. He spent the next six years in a variety of staffing management roles, including vice president of Corporate Recruiting. In 2003, he joined Fidelity Investments Systems Company, heading up human resources for Enterprise Operations and Enterprise Development. In 2006, Mr. Lesser joined Fidelity Management Research (FMR), with his last role being senior vice president of Human Resources and Staffing for the Equity Division for Fidelity Management & Research Company (FMRCo). He served in this capacity until 2013.

Before joining Fidelity, Mr. Lesser was a branch manager for an employment firm, New Boston Professionals, from 1988 to 1995.

Mr. Lesser received his Bachelor of Arts degree in communications from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

John oversees all SkillSurvey’s sales activities including inside sales and field sales across all lines of business. John has over 15 years’ experience as a sales executive with a record of rapidly growing sales through the implementation of strategic processes, development of corporate strategy and business alliances.

In his prior role, John held several long-term engagements serving as VP of sales for numerous clients and provided strategic planning and sales productivity execution to SaaS and healthcare companies. Prior to Derby Management, John also served as VP of Sales for Crowe Paradis (acquired by Verisk Analytics), a Fortune 500 company, Harmony Healthcare, and Acronis Software. He is a Tufts University Graduate where he was the captain of the football team and has his MIT Sloan Executive Certificate in Strategy and Innovation.

Valeria Tivnan is the Director of Population Health Strategy & Wellbeing at EBS, Employee Benefits Solutions. She advises EBS clients on how to develop and execute tactics that bring worksite wellness into their organizations and helps leaders transform employees into knowledgeable healthcare consumers. With over 25 years of experience, her passions lie principally in wellness, lifestyle medicine, disease prevention, mindfulness and population health management.

Valeria holds a Master’s in education from Boston University and a Master’s in Public Health from UCLA. During her career, she has provided certification courses for personal trainers through the American College of Sports Medicine and has spoken for the American Diabetes Association, the American Journal of Health Promotion and the World Research Group. She is an active member of HERO (Health Enhancement Research Organization) where she has contributed on several committees including Health, Productivity & Performance, and Culture of Health and Engagement Committees. She is also the Chair of the American College of Lifestyle Medicine’s Lifestyle Medicine in the Workplace Member Interest Group. She has also published research papers and articles on well-known Journals such as the Am J Health Promotion.

Valeria is a passionate educator – Besides her work at EBS, she is also an adjunct professor at Merrimack College teaching “Chronic Disease Prevention & Health Promotion” in the Health Science department, as well as the “Population Health Analytics” course in the Data Science & Analytics department. Valeria won EBA’s prestigious ‘Wellness Director of the Year’ award in 2017.