Brice Dunwoodie is the founder of Simpler Media Group, the publisher of Reworked and CMSWire, and the creator of the CONNECT and THRIVE conferences. Having started his career in large organizations like Oracle and Macromedia (now Adobe), Brice moved in an entrepreneurial direction following the first dot com bubble, co-founding Cylogy, Inc., a boutique digital experience agency, and founding Simpler Media Group, a B2B media, research and events company.

Marissa Begin is the Program Manager of, Events for Simpler Media Group and is based in Raleigh, North Carolina. With a genuine passion for people and a keen eye for detail, Marissa combines her expertise in event management and her love for creating memorable experiences. In her current role at Simpler Media Group, Marissa assumes responsibility for all aspects of content and speaker management, ensuring that each event organized by the company is executed flawlessly. Prior to joining Simpler Media Group, Marissa honed her skills and garnered extensive experience in the entertainment industry. She worked at Warner Music Nashville, where she led dynamic marketing campaigns and orchestrated captivating events for an array of renowned artists. Marissa played an instrumental role in promoting and organizing events for notable musicians such as Blake Shelton, Kenny Chesney, Dan + Shay, Hunter Hayes, Ashley Monroe, RaeLynn, Emily Ann Roberts from NBC's The Voice, Caroline Kole from Songland, as well as former NFL Titan's player Tim Shaw, among many others.

Sean Lee currently serves as Chief of Customer Experience and senior vice president, The Coca-Cola Company, leading the North American Customer Experience organization. The business unit is comprised of foodservice operations and customer service teams including all North American syrup producing facilities, national foodservice distribution, contact center & sales support, Freestyle/dispensed equipment vending, and customer field operations. Additionally, he currently serves on the board of directors of the Coca-Cola Federal Credit Union, Atlanta Downtown Improvement District, National Business Aviation Association (NBAA), and the Thurgood Marshall College Fund .

Lee began his career as a United States Air Force Officer. He advanced to the rank of major and was honorably discharged after 12 years of active-duty service. During his tenure, he flew multiple combat missions and participated, trained, and led multiple global multinational operations. Post military service, he held multiple leadership positions with Hewlett Packard, MassMutual Financial Group, and The Coca-Cola Company.

Lee is a graduate of the United States Air Force Academy with a bachelor’s in general sciences/physics, as well as the USAF Russian Language Area Studies Immersion Program at the University of St. Petersburg in Russia. He has completed certificate courses in Aviation Safety & Security with the University of Southern California and the DoD/FAA Advanced Instrument School. Finally, he earned an MBA in management from Emory University in Atlanta.

Bala Maddali is a strategist, influencer, innovator, story-teller, insights-driven product leader who is passionate about the convergence of people, products, experience, and technology.

We live in an algorithmic digital world that craves for humanness. He strongly believes human-centered Ai is the secret sauce that blends the digital and the human behavior to humanize the experiences.  

He leads the Conversational Ai Channels, Product & Customer Experience for the Verizon Consumer group. He has a proven track record in leading and driving strategy, transformation and, commercialization of next-generation Digital experiences, Conceptualizing and enabling industry best and first products to delight customers and enable sustainable growth and value.

He is a curious speaker at multiple industry leading customer experience & Ai forums.He has 12 patents in the area of mobile and TV second screen convergence experience, social TV and voice & gesture-based app interactions.

Andrew is a strategic, systems-oriented executive leader focused on designing and deploying innovative solutions for the many unique challenges that arise across the customer/consumer/employee experience. In his current role as head of enterprise design at Kraft Heinz, he is positioning design as a driving agent of organizational transformation.

Sean Albertson is the founder and chief experience officer at CX4ROCKS LLC. He has been a customer experience leader for over 20 years, helping leading companies like Charles Schwab, T-Mobile and others in telco and financial services create great experiences for their customers. As a professional speaker, coach and consultant, he specializes in the intersection of survey programs, operational metrics, text and journey analytics with the use of artificial intelligence to bring out the power of those programs. 

April Ho-Nishimura is global head of employee and customer experience at onsemi, a NASDAQ100 semiconductor powerhouse where they are using customer experience frameworks to operationalize a “One Experience” approach to driving customer value. She oversees onsemi customer and employee listening strategy, insights and analytics, and process improvement governance. April brings 20+ years of experience leading sales transformation, operational process improvement and go-to-market commercial digital strategies that all aim to deliver on customer wants and needs in both B2C and B2B. April held previous leadership roles in premium brands with the specialty chemicals industry at Ecolab and communications industry at Verizon. She is a lean six sigma black belt and a certified scrum product owner.

Artie serves as a leader on the Service & Hospitality team within the Marketing department at Chick-fil-A, Inc. He leads the Future Experience Team working on Strategy, Research & Development and Ordering & Meal Fulfillment Technology Development. His team shapes the future of Chick-fil-A in terms of service processes and hospitality across all ordering and meal delivery channels (Drive Thru, Inside Dining, Mobile Pick up, Delivery, Curbside, Licensing, and International) for Chick-fil-A’s 2800+ locations.

Since 2012 Artie has served in several roles in the Marketing Department at Chick-fil-A. As a Marketing Education Consultant, he developed hospitality and marketing eLearning for Chick-fil-A Operators and Team Members. Afterward, he served as an Education Consultant for a large team of Marketing & Hospitality Consultants. Over the past eight years he's led or provided oversight for many innovation projects enhancing ordering and meal delivery experiences for Chick-fil-A guests.

Artie is a native of McDonough, GA. He and his wife Elizabeth reside in Peachtree City with their four children.

Aidoo Osei (AO) is the Senior Vice President of Corporate Strategy at Global Payments. In this role, he has focused on incubating new lines of business and developing new partner ecosystems for our integrated payments and commerce enablement initiatives in North America. 

In his six years at GP, he has worked in Global Product, Vertical Market & Software Solutions and now Corporate Strategy spearheading strategic programs and cross-BU initiatives. AO most notably helped establish GP as the Official Commerce Partner at Mercedes Benz Stadium (home of the Atlanta Falcons and Atlanta United sports teams) in 2021.  He is a champion of innovation initiatives in autonomous retail, biometric payments, and IOT payments. AO is an advocate for corporate innovation and sits on the board of the Barcelona Payment Innovation Hub in Spain.

Prior to joining Global, AO has held leadership roles in product strategy and business development at Intel Corporation, Qualcomm Inc.,Truist Bank and Bank of America where he has specialized in rapid-prototyping, R&D commercialization.   AO completed his studies at Eastern Michigan University, The University of Michigan (Go Blue) and New York University. He currently resides in metro Atlanta, GA where he enjoys raising three wonderful children and volunteering on the Board of local non-profit organization - Caring for Others, Inc.

As the Chief Experience Officer, Gautam's work includes building a personalized customer journey at each Bobby Jones Links’ property, developing a high-performing leadership team, and training the front-line staff to understand their true value in moving the bottom line through exemplary customer service. He leads the Jones University training program and is passionate about building employee and service-centric club cultures.

Gautam is the standard bearer for instilling Bobby Jones Links’ 17 service standards at all properties and educating team members on the company core purpose: to make a difference. Gautam also works with properties outside of his organization to create a cultural foundation driven by a core purpose, core values, and detailed service standards. His journey into the golf industry started as a caddy as a junior golfer. After graduating from Rutgers University, where he played on the golf team, he managed country clubs of all types before focusing on developing golf industry leaders and staff to be as passionate as he is about serving others.

Mary Slaughter is a global human capital executive, consultant, executive coach and published author. She has held enterprise roles including CHRO, Chief Talent Officer, Chief Learning Officer, Chief Diversity & Inclusion Officer, Head of Employee Experience & Communications, as well as Managing Director in large consulting firms. Her career includes notable brands such as AT&T, Lucent Technologies, Deloitte, EY, Wachovia, SunTrust, The NeuroLeadership Institute and Morningstar. Based in Atlanta, she specializes in driving behavior change at scale including culture alignment, leadership and succession planning, workplace learning, and equity and inclusion. Mary brings in-depth practitioner experience to her work as well as the broad perspectives of management consulting. She serves as a Distinguished Principal Research Fellow with The Conference Board's Human Capital Center, focusing on Strategic HR. Mary holds an undergraduate degree in Psychology and Chemistry, a Masters in Communications and certification as an executive coach. She’s a private pilot, an avid international traveler, a choral singer and the mom of two amazing daughters.

Tamar Cohen is the Vice President of Employee Experience in Human Resources for Travelers. Employee Experience focuses on advancing business outcomes by improving internal programs and processes to enhance productivity and engagement. With deep experience in Experience Strategy, Tamar has worked as Head of Customer Experience across multiple global industries including Financial Services, FinTech, and most recently, Animal Healthcare. Across these different backdrops, she has designed and led programs focusing on experience strategy and design, brand, and culture. Over her career, across multiple industries, she has been leading teams to create best-in-class human journeys that have led to improved experiences and cultural evolutions for customers and employees alike while creating significant business value. Tamar holds a bachelor’s degree in Arts Administration from New York University

Rita McGrath is a best-selling author, a sought-after advisor and speaker, and a longtime professor at Columbia Business School. She is one of the world’s top experts on strategy and innovation and is consistently ranked among the top 10 management thinkers in the world, including the #1 award for strategy by Thinkers50. 

McGrath’s recent book on strategic inflection points is Seeing Around Corners: How to Spot Inflection Points in Business Before They Happen (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2019). She is the author of four other books, including the best-selling The End of Competitive Advantage (Harvard Business Review Press, 2013). McGrath has also founded https://www.valize.com/Valize, a companion company, dedicated to turning those insights into actionable capability.

She received her Ph.D. from the Wharton School (University of Pennsylvania) and has degrees with honors from Barnard College and the Columbia School of International and Public Affairs. For more information, visit RitaMcGrath.com. 

Dion Hinchcliffe is an internationally recognized digital thought leader, best-selling author, business strategist, enterprise architect, transformation consultant, analyst and keynote speaker. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential figures in digital workplace, customer experience, and enterprise IT. Dion has led large IT, CX, and strategy projects around the world for the Fortune 500 and Global 2000 in six continents. Industry analytics firm Onalytica ranks Dion as the #2 influencer globally on the subject of digital transformation. He has keynoted or spoken at hundreds of leading industry conferences including CeBIT, KMWorld, IT Roadmap, Dreamforce, CIO Perspectives, AIIM Conference, and other industry events.

As the Air Force Enterprise Change Manger, Ms. Knuffke leads the Air Force efforts to build change capacity and change competency in Airmen and Guardians. In 2018 she established the Air Force’s first enterprise change management program with resources nested in each major human resource organization in the Air Force. She’s trained over 100 Air Force Organizational Change Management (OCM) Practitioners, and regularly leads training and coaching programs for senior leaders, supervisors, and program management teams. She institutionalized change capacity in budgeting, contracting, leadership training, and professional development, and established a cadre of master trainers who instruct role-based OCM in their respective organizations.

In addition to building capacity and competency, Ms. Knuffke leads the Air Force portfolio change management program for the Human Resource and Talent Management Digital Transformation. The Air Force is modernizing 118 + legacy systems and applications as it streamlines business processes and service delivery across the Active Duty, Reservist, Guardsman, Civilians, Non-Appropriated Funded Civilians, Retirees, and Families. Each of these global stakeholder communities are supported by separate organizations, systems, and processes. While the total population of Air Force employees numbers 650,000, the Air Force supports their families and dependents, and integrates deeply into their social and medical communities. Portfolio change management seeks to standardize the change support across these programs, promote a human centered design mentality, and project a unified voice through strategic communications.

Previously, Ms. Knuffke led the Digital Transformation program at the United States Air Force Academy, modernizing their data, information technology, and business processes for recruitment, onboarding, medical clearance, scheduling, and cadet services. This included digitizing their warehousing, inventory, and point of sales efforts, and building their strategic communications, community, and fundraising engagement platforms. Before this, Ms. Knuffke served the Department of State, Office of the Secretary of Defense, the Marine Corps Warfighting Lab, and deployed twice to Baghdad, Iraq in service of the Multinational Forces during Operational Iraqi Freedom. When not supporting the Federal government, she’s conducted research in support of University of Michigan, University of Colorado, Colorado Springs at their Center for Homeland Security, the University of Colorado Denver, and the Buechner Institute for Governance. She holds graduate degrees in economics and public policy, and is a doctoral student in organizational leadership, performance and change.

Tom Daly turns big ships in small spaces and towards a digital future.  

He does that using his proprietary "Four Currents" mythology which helps executives leading transformation initiatives identify gaps in confidence and alignment. 

He's held positions as a senior digital marketing leader across a variety of industry sectors (UPS, ING, and The Coca-Cola Company).  This work has influenced dozens of enterprises and millions of consumers through his work at UPS, ING, and The Coca-Cola Company and earned him global recognition:

• 2 appearances on AdWeek’s Top 10 List of “Most Influential People”
• OMMA “Interactive Marketing All-Star”
• Mobile Marketing Association “Mobile Marketer of the Year”
• Business Insider “Top 30 Most Creative People in Mobile Advertising”

With great pride and enthusiasm, he serves as advisor to The Ann Johnson Institute for Science, Technology, and Society at The University of South Carolina and to the faculty of the Digital Marketing program at the University of North Georgia.

Dr. Shawnté Cox Holland is a human resources executive specializing in talent management, organizational effectiveness, diversity and inclusion, and employee experience. With over 20 years of experience, Shawnté uses innovative and research-based approaches to manage the talent lifecycle in a way that yields better business performance. As the head of HR for the finance division of the Vanguard Group, she oversees all aspects of HR for over 1,500 employees across a global footprint (e.g., organization and job design, talent attraction and management, leadership development, and employee experience and retention). Prior to joining Vanguard, Shawnté worked for Gartner Consulting leading engagements and conducting research for private and public sector clients related to defining the people strategies needed to enable IT operations. Shawnté holds a B.S. in Commerce from the University of Virginia, a M.S. in Technology Management from George Mason University and a Doctorate in Business Administration from Wilmington University. Her research centers on the intersection between organizational culture and business outcomes. She is certified in project management from PMI and change management from ProSci, and she holds a Federal CIO certificate for technology leadership from the Federal CIO Council.

Shaelyn is a seasoned corporate professional accustomed to ushering teams through some of the most complex business transitions. She understands that successfully implementing a change management strategy is an art that involves balancing policies, client demands, stakeholder engagement, workforce dynamics, perceptions, and motivating factors. Shaelyn has honed this art over 27 years while leading organizational and digital transformations from origination, through execution, to post-implementation in response to internal and external environmental factors. In addition, she is a well-respected senior leader responsible for motivating staff to resolve client servicing challenges, increase productivity, and reduce costs. Peers recognize Shaelyn for her ability to efficiently communicate with executives and influence cross-functional stakeholders through respect, collaboration, and follow-through.

Shaelyn is a Senior Vice President and Head of Global Digital Workplace Strategy at Northern Trust in the Asset Servicing business unit, which contains 15K of the company’s 24K employees across 20 countries. She assesses the client-employee servicing constructs to design and deliver an innovative digital model aligned to evolving fintech trends. In addition, she provides thought leadership to the business unit President and executive leadership team by leveraging data analytics, industry research, project management methodologies, and empirical insights to transform the business and retain clients. Before this role, she was Head of Global Workforce Strategy and was responsible for people-focused strategies that created a renewed end-to-end employee experience to source, develop, and advance talent. During her career, Shaelyn has held dozens of roles across North America and Europe, delivering company-wide programs that have refined her ability to lead by persuasion and manage indirectly. She has subject matter expertise in multiple domains, including client servicing, operations and technology, product development, PMP certification, regulatory risk and compliance, HR, DE&I, and ESG. Shaelyn received her BA from DePaul University, Chicago, and her MBA from The University of Chicago Booth School of Business. She also holds a DE&I certification from Cornell University.

Dom Nicastro is an award-winning journalist and radio personality based in Manchester, NH. He currently serves as managing editor for Simpler Media Group's CMSWire covering customer experience and marketing. He manages the site’s day-to-day operations and Contributor program, including producing video interviews and planning and editing articles. Nicastro also serves as one of the main hosts on CMSWire’s CX Decoded podcast and often serves as emcee and moderator for the company’s digital and in-person conferences.

Shri Nandan is a digital transformation champion specializing in delivering groundbreaking digital solutions, meaningful customer experiences and millions in revenue using data insights, relevant technology, effective product roadmaps and global teams. Across diverse industries ranging from Insurance to Healthcare, she has championed digital initiatives and products that transform the customer experience and delivered solutions that elevate the organization's digital footprint across multiple channels. 

As a self-proclaimed digital evangelist, Shri's goal is to Create a digital culture that thrives at the intersection of relevant technology and customer centric content. She has influenced enterprise-wide digital thinking and engendered relationships that align business goals with digital aspirations. Deeply rooted in the philosophy of "meet the customer where they want to be met", she has worked to create processes that empower organizations to deliver rapid and effective results using relevant relevant technology and platforms to support the product roadmap and business goals.

Sam currently serves as GM, Human Resources for engineering teams within the Cloud + AI business at Microsoft. He leads a team of extremely talented HR professionals that enable these brilliant/passionate engineering teams to  provide end-to-end customer experiences across the Microsoft cloud and deliver critical services that power Microsoft to deliver our products, connect with its customers and partners, sell our solutions, and support customer success.

Prior to Microsoft, Sam spent 6 years at Visa, the world's leader in digital payments technology. Visa’s mission is to connect the world through the most creative, reliable and secure payment network - enabling individuals, businesses, and economies to thrive. As the world continues to become more digital, Visa applies its iconic brand, products, people, network and scale to reshape the future of commerce.

Sam was based in Singapore during his last assignment at Visa where he served as VP - Head of HR Business Partners (HRBPs) for the Asia Pacific region. In that role, he led a team of HRBPs to consult with executive leaders and drive the talent agenda across Asia Pacific. Sam joined Visa in late-2016 as the Head of HR for the Global Merchant Sales and Acquiring organization and a few years later assumed a role of increased responsibility leading HR for the Global Product Organization at Visa. 

Originally from Ghana, Sam spent his childhood years in Athens, Greece. He came to the US to pursue his undergraduate degree which he earned from the College of Wooster with a BA in International Relations & Economics. Immediately after his undergraduate degree Sam moved to New York City and Boston where he worked, respectively, in Finance for JP Morgan and Sales at EF Education.  

Upon completing his MBA from Thunderbird, Global School of Management, Sam spent several years with Whirlpool Corporation, based in Michigan, where he held various roles of increasing responsibility. During his tenure at Whirlpool, he was also stationed in Italy for 2+ years where he led the Whirlpool EMEA HR team for the Procurement, Engineering and Industrial Design groups. 

After Whirlpool, Sam relocated to San Francisco to explore the world of Silicon Valley and technology. He spent 3 years with Electronic Arts (EA) in a global HR capacity where he partnered with some of the most creative studio leadership teams to launch stunning products. The last year at EA Sam spent time building out the Mobile Gaming organization as EA embarked on a digital transformation journey. His experience at EA then led him to Visa and ultimately Microsoft. 

His hobbies include traveling, eating and more traveling. Discovering new cultures, exploring the unknown and being adventurous and spontaneous is what keeps him ticking. His passion for food is balanced with a love for being active and outdoors (running, biking and soccer more specifically).

Jehan is the Head of Design for Enterprise Consumer Product & Platforms where she oversees the foundational design work across all of Capital One’s digital customer experiences, along with the associate-facing platforms/tools and enterprise design system needed to build those digital experiences. In addition, she is the Accountable Executive for the MENA (Middle East North Africa) Business Resource Group to help create community and belonging for associates from the MENA region. 

Before joining Capital One, Jehan held design & innovation roles at Havas, Medidata, R/GA and IBM. She brings over 21+ years of experience spanning both physical and digital experience design across a variety of industries and companies, including Nike, PWc, MasterCard, eBay, USPS, and Neiman Marcus. Her work has been recognized globally, including receiving a Cannes Lyons Silver and a Silver Midas award. Jehan currently holds five IBM patent filings and has published articles for CHI, Mobile HCI, and Forbes. She holds a Bachelors in Computer Science and a Masters in Human Computer Interaction from Georgia Tech and an MBA from Georgetown University.

A NYC-based writer and editor, Siobhan is the Editor-in-Chief for Reworked. Prior to joining Reworked she worked as a research consultant at the design consultancy, Helsinki Group, as a librarian for the Wildlife Conservation Society and worked on the International Information and Library Review. She has an MLIS, Library and Information Science, from The University of Pittsburgh.

Spencer Mains brings more than two decades of experience leading information technology and knowledge management for major consulting, branding, and merchandise firms, including 16 years with Landor, a global branding firm. Spencer currently leads the technology and digital workplace mobilization for a leading utility, Pacific Gas and Electric, headquartered in Oakland, CA. Spencer is obsessed with driving digital transformation within large, complex organizations, and has evangelized the need for highly intuitive workplace solutions that are not only beautiful, but also functional. Spencer is passionate about identifying customer needs and requirements building robust collaboration, knowledge and customer support solutions aligned with culture, efficiency and continuous improvement for some of the world's most recognizable brands, including Gap Inc, Landor Associates and Stanford University. He is also committed to providing exceptional customer service and championing innovative ways to transform how people work together with a strong focus on coworker productivity, customer happiness and overall delightfulness with technology. His success building an award-winning intranet that was recognized by Nielsen Norman Media Group as a “top ten intranet in the world” is one of his proudest achievements.

Prudence Pitter is an experienced business executive with over two decades of broad Human Resource management experience across several industries. Currently, she is Global Head of HR for Auto & Manufacturing and Healthcare & Life Sciences at AWS. Both businesses combined
operate in 20+ countries and provide cloud services to some of the most well-known brands in the world.

For more than nine years, Prudence served as an Adjunct Professor of Human Resource Management and Organizational Behavior & Leadership for the City University of New York. Also, in the past she has founded her own Human Resources Consulting practice, in California and New York/Connecticut, focusing on the needs of small to mid-sized organizations.

Volunteerism is very important to Prudence and she is deliberate about setting and achieving personal goals to help the less fortunate. She is currently a Board Member of the Women Mentoring Network in Stamford, CT. Women's Mentoring Network empowers low-income women and their families by providing the support services and programs needed to help them find better employment and educational opportunities. She also volunteers her time to help new in career HR professional women learn skills needed to succeed in their careers.

In addition, Prudence assists multiple single mothers prepare for back-to-school each school year. Prudence's expertise includes assessing and addressing the people needs of the business, aligning human resources to organizational goals, and owning the full cycle employee experience. She holds a bachelor's degree in Business Administration and Human Resources Management, an MBA, and the two highest certifications in the HR profession; Senior Professional in Human Resources and Global Professional in Human Resources.

Dynamic business leader & results driven change agent, Phil is Director, Head of Digital Sales & Experience for Verizon’s mobility e-commerce channel. In this role, his organization is responsible for over $25B in annual revenue impact, driving nearly a third of all of Verizon’s consumer sales while transforming the digital ecosystem, experiences & commerce capabilities.

Prior to this role, Phil was Director, Head of Digital Sales & Marketing for Verizon’s home internet suite of consumer products & services (FWA & Fios) where his channel had a $12B annual revenue impact. In his 10+ years at Verizon, Phil has had a successful track record at the executive level leading & delivering on high visibility & impact initiatives as well as developing high performing teams across a diverse set of functions including digital, omni-channel customer experience, product development, marketing, operations as well as corporate communications.

Phil holds a Master’s in Business Administration (MBA) in Management from Centenary University & received his certificate in Executive Leadership from Cornell University. He has his Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree in communications: Public relations & psychology from Seton Hall University. 

Dr. Loretta Daniels is an expert in organizational leadership, DEI, conflict management, communication, and leadership coaching. In addition, she specializes in organizational leadership and cultural competency. As an executive leader in the corporate arena, Dr. Daniels has served in executive leadership roles such as Chief Operations Officer, Vice President of Sales and Marketing, Executive Director of Sales Operations, and General Manager. In addition, she has written corporate training manuals such as Leading by Example and Fast Track to Excellence. As the former Executive Director of Corporate Relations of Kennesaw State University (KSU), she worked with medium and large organizations to define and deliver leadership growth certificate programs designed to align with the company's vision and objectives.

Dr. Daniels partners with C-level Leadership and HR to determine leadership development goals, identify training gaps, enable cultural workplace initiatives, and implement gender pay equality and equitable hiring practices. Additionally, she served as the University Office of Diversity and Inclusion Co-Chair, and Presidential Commission on Gender & Work-Life Issues. She has advised executive teams, including the President and Chief Diversity Officer, consulted as a subject matter expert on DEI challenges and solutions, and supported DEI's continuous improvement efforts.

Dr. Daniels currently serves as the Director of the Technology Association of Georgia's Bridge Builders program where she partners with corporations and investors to create programs designed to remove the walls responsible for impeding progress and diversity in Georgia. Bridge Builders is a Social Justice & Equity initiative designed to bring the technology and business community together to drive change.

Since 2019, Cici has led the Human Resources function at Ducks Unlimited in her role as Chief Talent Officer, and is a key member of DU's Senior Leadership Team. Prior to joining DU, she held senior HR leadership roles in top organizations including Smith & Nephew, Express Scripts (now part of Cigna) and Jackson Hewitt.

Cici began her career in Human Resources as an employment law attorney and has since had an extensive and successful history of working in nonprofit, supply chain, medical device, healthcare, financial services, and retail. She is skilled in proactive employee relations and engagement, culture building, organizational planning, recruiting, and leadership development.

She is a member of the Society of Human Resources (SHRM) Executive Network, and the SHRM Voice of Work panel, as well as an Advisory Board Member of the Women in Leadership Program at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. She is a sought-after speaker and has been recognized for her insights into DEI, culture building, and organizational health. She was recently named as one of the the Top 50 Women Leaders in Non-Profit of 2023 by Women We Admire . Cici and her HR team were instrumental in Ducks Unlimited’s recognition as one of the Best and Brightest Companies to Work For in the Nation® in 2023.

Cici holds an MBA from the University of Central Arkansas as well as a JD and a Bachelor's degree in Economics from the University of the Philippines. Cici has a passion for helping leaders in their professional development journey and finding strengths in their organizations. With over 20 years of experience in employment law and human resources, Cici brings credibility to the human resources function as a true organizational partner. In her spare time, she enjoys yoga, reading, and traveling and enjoying the outdoors with her family. She manages a busy household made up of two young children, two huge dogs and a cat, with her husband of 18 years.

Lisa Lee is the co-owner and Managing Partner of Agnes and Sherman, a modern Chinese American diner based in the heart of Houston, Texas, and she is committed to investing in and supporting companies owned by women and people of color.

Lisa was formerly a seasoned tech executive, serving as the Vice President of Global Culture and Belonging at DoorDash, the nation's largest and fastest-growing on-demand logistics platform. Lisa oversaw Employee Engagement, Employer Brand and Recruitment Marketing and Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. Lisa weaved together an interconnected employee engagement strategy for the DoorDash team to grow more than they thought possible in the midst of unprecedented growth from 1,000 to 10,000 employees. 

Prior to joining DoorDash, Lisa held leadership roles at Squarespace, Pandora Radio, and Meta (formerly Facebook). She has been featured in the Harvard Business Review, on NPR, and at SXSW, and has been invited to be the keynote speaker at multiple tech conferences.
Lisa also served as the publisher of Hyphen magazine, an award-winning print and digital publication about Asian American arts, culture, and politics and co-founded Thick Dumpling Skin, a positive body image website for the Asian American community. Lisa sits on the board of Asian Americans for Civil Rights and Equality (AACRE) and the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD).

Lisa holds a B.A. in Mass Communications and a B.A. in Theatre and Performance Studies from the University of California, Berkeley.

Travis has been with the PGA TOUR for 12 years serving in various leadership roles across the sponsorship, marketing, and data & decision sciences areas.  He currently leads the Fan Strategy & Experience team overseeing research & insights, customer experience, fan analytics, and database marketing. He began his career with Target Corporation in the merchandising area before working in brand management on industry-leading brands at General Mills.  Originally from Minnesota, he was an economics and mathematics major as an undergraduate at Gustavus Adolphus College and later received an MBA from the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan.

Anil Talla is Director of Digital Employee Experience at Autodesk. In this role, he leads both Product and Engineering DEX organization, championing the delivery of intuitive, consumer-like digital experiences tailored for every Autodesk employee. Under his leadership, the team harnesses data-driven insights and rich content, working with key internal departments like IT, HR, and Procurement and others.

This collaborative approach empowers the commitment to universal frictionless on-demand experiences, ensuring that every Autodesk employee is both productive and deeply engaged. Before joining Autodesk, Anil held roles as a Principal Consultant & Engineer at organizations, including Domino's Pizza and General Motors. His is passionate for product leadership, engineering management, and the transformative power of AI and data analytics.

As vice president of research, Sarah holds overall responsibility for CMSWire INSIGHTS and Reworked INSIGHTS research design and implementation. She leads the internal and client-driven research practice in the areas of customer experience, marketing leadership, customer data management, employee experience, digital workplace, learning and development and modern HR leadership. Sarah has 20+ years of experience designing and communicating original research across a broad range of technology, HR and L&D topics. Prior to her current role, Sarah led the research division at Human Capital Media for 8 years, overseeing the LearningElite benchmarking program and all in-house and custom research for Chief Learning Officer and Workforce brands.

Joe Makston is a leadership & culture consultant, speaker, coach, and best-selling author.  He served at Early Warning Services, the parent company of Zelle, where he held key roles as head of learning & development and employee experience. He initiated the company's first leadership development program, established a DEIB council and employee resource groups. He also designed and hosted annual leadership conferences, introduced employee recognition, performance management, and community impact programs. Prior to that, he served as director of contact center management, where, of his many accolades, he launched the Zelle Operations contact center.

Earlier in his career, Joe led teams at Bank of America, PNC Bank (Formerly BBVA), and served as a pastor.  With a bachelor's degree in leadership, Joe focuses on equipping leaders and organizations with practical skills to make an impact in people's lives. He resides in Phoenix, AZ with his two kids.

Katrina Taylor is the Principal UX Designer at lululemon. A digital innovator for over 16 years, Katrina is a passionate practitioner of customer empathy, epic storytelling and taking smart risks. She believes agility, active listening and a laser-focus on customer needs are the key ingredients to exceptional digital teams and experiences. Katrina is a graduate of Dana College and holds a Master of Science in New Media from Syracuse University’s Newhouse School. She lives in Seattle with her husband and two dogs.

Matthew is the senior manager of the Data and Content Operations team at REI and spends his days creating and optimizing tools, systems, and processes that help our internal teams work more efficiently and effectively. His team is building next-generation data distribution platforms to deliver integrated, relevant experiences that will provide REI customers with the content, products, and information they need when and where they need it. As part of his work, he advocates employing a holistic, systems-thinking approach to problem solving and building solutions through continual, iterative improvement.

Matthew started his career journey over 20 years ago as a writer and editor for the largest English language publisher in Bucharest, Romania. He was an editor at Forbes.com the day revenue from the website surpassed that from print, and he helped Microsoft launch MSN News. He was managing editor for a startup that created webby-nominated online magazine FLYP and had the pleasure of talking to some of the world’s brightest minds as a researcher and managing editor for a futurist think tank in New York City.

When not pondering structured content, metadata, content modeling, and how to architect the platforms of the future, Matthew spends his time snowboarding, surfing, and paddle boarding with his wife and generally getting outdoors as much as he can in the beautiful Pacific Northwest.