Obed Louissaint is IBM's Senior Vice President of Transformation and Culture.

In this role, Obed leads the areas of Leadership, Learning, Diversity & Inclusion and Transformation for IBM.  He is responsible for reinventing people systems and culture to enable innovations to the marketplace quickly, ensure IBM clients succeed, and identify new areas for growth.

Obed has experience in multiple HR and operational specialties and business units, as well as geographies from developed to emerging markets.  He has held positions in the areas of leadership development and competency models, global site selection, HR generalist, and talent management and delivery.

Obed holds a bachelor's degree in Industrial and Labor Relations from Cornell University.

New York Times journalist David Gelles is the author of the much-anticipated new book, The Man Who Broke Capitalism: How Jack Welch Gutted the Heartland and Crushed the Soul of Corporate America—and How to Undo His Legacy, to be published May 31 by Simon & Schuster. In his role as the Corner Office columnist at the Times for the past five years, he has chronicled corporate leaders and the culture wars, writing about CEOs as they tangled with President Trump and navigated fraught issues like gun rights, climate change and restrictive voting laws. Gelles, who has written for the Business section of the Times since joining the paper in 2013, was part of the team that covered the Boeing 737 Max crashes with a mix of investigations and breaking news, work that won a Gerald Loeb Award in 2020. In February, the Times announced that he will be joining the publication’s Climate Desk to help cover an important part of that team’s mission: the nexus between government and the private sector. Before joining the Times, David was a reporter for the Financial Times, where he interviewed Bernie Madoff in prison.

Laurie Rebholz is the head of Leadership and Performance Solutions (LEAPS) for Citi, the global banking company. Laurie and her team work closely with global stakeholders to embed leadership skills such as managing in the remote environment, inclusion, influence and credible challenge into Citi’s culture and practices using social, mobile and traditional learning methods.

Laurie has built her career at Citi over 20 years, in learning and development roles that span global, regional and product specific audiences.  Over the past few years, she’s successfully spearheaded various efforts to bring new and innovative approaches to Citi’s leadership development portfolios through social, mobile and traditional learning methods. Prior to this role, Laurie led various teams such as learning design and the manager capability/talent development practice area within the LEAPS organization.

Laurie is an executive coach and serves as faculty for one of Citi’s most senior leadership development programs.  Laurie has served on the Advisory Board for Harvard Manage Mentor and represented Citi on the Advisory Board of the American Bankers Association (ABA) School of Bankcard Management.

Laurie has an MBA in Human Resource Management and a B.A. in Political Science.

Hermon Ghermay is the Global Chief Culture Officer at  IPG Mediabrands.

Sharon Epperson, named one of “12 to Watch in TV News,” can be seen regularly on CNBC television and other media platforms.

As CNBC’s senior personal finance correspondent, Epperson covers the many facets of how people manage, grow and protect their money. Her expertise includes saving and investing for retirement, paying for college, managing mortgage, student loan, credit card and other debt, and building a financial legacy through estate planning.

Preparing your finances for the unexpected is another critical (and personal) aspect of her reporting. In September 2016, Epperson sustained a ruptured brain aneurysm and she nearly lost her life. She has become a staunch advocate for health and wellness issues, raising awareness about brain aneurysms and funding for research. In September 2018, she and her family established “The Sharon Epperson Chair of Research” through the Brain Aneurysm Foundation to provide grants for research on early detection and innovative treatments.

Epperson is a lead contributor to “Invest in You: Ready. Set. Grow.,” a multi-platform financial wellness and education initiative at CNBC in partnership with the micro-investing app Acorns, and developed its companion 8-week learning course and weekly newsletter, “Invest in You: Money 101.” She also contributes to NBC’s TODAY and NBC Nightly News as well as Today.com and NBCNews.com.

Her book, The Big Payoff: 8 Steps Couples Can Take to Make the Most of Their Money-and Live Richly Ever After, was a finalist for the Books for a Better Life Awards, honoring works that have “changed the lives of millions.” She also was a contributing writer for The Experts’ Guide to Doing Things Faster. Her personal finance expertise has been featured in numerous publications, including The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, USA Weekend, Self, Essence, Ebony and TIME, where she had covered business, culture, social issues and health as a correspondent prior to joining CNBC.

Epperson has numerous industry and civic awards, including the Special Achievement Award from the National Association of Personal Financial Advisors (NAPFA) and the Savvy Inspiration Award from the non-profit, financial empowerment group Savvy Ladies. She won an Alliance for Women in Media’s Gracie Award for Outstanding Online Host for her “Financial Advisor Playbook” video series on CNBC.com. She has received the Vanguard Award for her distinguished career in business and personal finance reporting from the National Urban League Guild, and the All-Star Award from the Association of Women in Communications. She also has won awards from the New York Festivals, the New York Association of Black Journalists and the National Association of Black Journalists.

She currently lives with her husband and two children in Westchester County, N.Y.

Soni K. Basi, Ph.D., is the global chief people officer at Edelman. She joined the firm in May 2022 and leads the firm’s talent development, recruitment, and retention efforts, partnering with leaders across the agency network to meet the evolving and diverse needs of employees and clients.

Soni is a strategic and passionate global Human Resources executive, guiding the creation of cutting-edge talent programs. With a track record of delivering digital-first initiatives, and more than 20 years of experience, Soni has worked with some of the world's most notable companies in luxury and consumer goods, financial services, and pharmaceuticals.

Prior to joining Edelman, Soni was the Global Head of Talent at AIG, a FORTUNE-100 company with nearly 40,000 employees, leading a team of more than 100 talent management, acquisition and learning & development specialists and created the first global Talent Center of Excellence. She led both the “Future of Work” taskforce as well as the Global Wellness Team. Additionally, Soni created the company’s Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging strategy, and served as co-chair of AIG’s Executive Diversity Council. Soni has also held positions at Allegran as head of global talent, The The Estée Lauder Companies as vice president, Global Learning & Talent Development, and Schering-Plough Pharmaceuticals.

Soni serves on numerous advisory boards, including The Shine Collective, a nonprofit she co-founded in 2020; Bullseye Engagement Solutions; and Jobs for America’s Graduates/Jobs for New Jersey Graduates. She has been a speaker at industry conferences and was featured in publications such as American Healthcare Leader Magazine and Chief Learning Officer, which named her one of the Top 50 Learning Officers in 2015. Soni is a graduate of the University of Central Florida and received her PhD and MA in Social Psychology from Bowling Green State University in Ohio.

Emma Mon is the Head of Talent at Jones Lang LaSalle.

Judith Harrison is Chief Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Officer at Weber Shandwick, a leading global communications, public relations and engagement firm. Previously, she was SVP of HR at Ruder Finn, one of the world's largest independent global communications and creative agencies.

Carrington Carter is the Vice President, Talent Acquisition and Workforce Strategy at TIAA.

Courtney is a New York based Managing Director leading Applied Design, Deloitte Consulting’s Innovation practice.

She works closely with senior leadership teams to solve growth related challenges. As an expert in human centered design, she brings the user to the forefront of an organizations’ initiatives, developing solutions that are mutually beneficial to the end user and the business. Her work often encompasses developing solutions that cross over the physical and digital environments, including innovation strategy, customer experience strategy, concept development, and innovation capability building.

Recent engagements include designing the future Patient-Provider Experience at a Fortune 100 company, design the Newco at a regional insurer; standing up the Enterprise-wide Customer Experience Capability for a top BioPharma organization.

John is a Principal of Deloitte Consulting where he leads the Digital Workplace offering.  John is Deloitte’s Digital Workplace offering leader, is the founder and former leader of Deloitte’s Digital HR Strategy and Solutions offering and is the Chief Strategy Officer of the HR Transformation offering. For more than 20 years he has helped some of the world’s most influential brands transform their business at the intersect of people and technology.

John is currently focused on helping his clients reimagine and deliver the Digital Workplace and the Future of HR for a post pandemic world.  He approaches this from a business outcome and workforce experience perspective to determine what capabilities and technology ecosystems will be required to deliver and evolve those experiences and outcomes.

Emma Goldberg covers the future of work for The New York Times. Before joining the Times’ Business section, she worked for the Times editorial board. She is the winner of the Newswomen’s Club of New York’s Best New Journalist Award, the New York Press Club’s Nellie Bly Award, and the Sidney Hillman Foundation’s Sidney Award. She is the author of Life on the Line: Young Doctors Come of Age in a Pandemic, which the Washington Post called “essential reading.”

Odessa Jenkins is the Founder of the Women’s National Football Conference (WNFC), and sought after executive leader. She most recently served as the Head of Business Develop for Parity, and VP of Support/Ops at YourCause. An in demand national speaker, Jenkins is also the founder of multiple nonprofits. She is a recognized market leader in CSR, DE&I, Team Dynamics, and SAAS technology with multiple years of leadership experience in private funded start-ups, joint ventures and fortune 100 public companies. Jenkins served for several years as an executive leader at YourCause, a start-up which helped to revolutionize the CSR industry.

As a disrupter in sports, Jenkins is paving the way to create inclusion and equity in sports for women and girls. She was an inaugural participant in the NFL’s first Women’s Career in Football Forum and is one of the first women to obtain the coveted NFL Bill Walsh Diversity Internship in an on-field position (Running Backs Coach – Atlanta Falcons). Featured on Fox, Sport Illustrated, CBS, ESPN, Yahoo Sports, The Undefeated and more, Jenkins was recently recognized as one of the most influential and powerful women in sports by Sports Illustrated (Unrelenting).

Jenkins has 22 years of coaching and leadership experience, is a Hall of Fame, a 5X National Champion, 2X USA National Team captain, 2X Gold Medalist, and heralded as one of the top leadership experts in the country.

Bryan Walsh is the editor of Vox’s Future Perfect section, overseeing coverage on policies and technologies that will make the future a better place. Previously he worked at Axios as the Future Correspondent, wrote the 2019 book End Times: A Brief Guide to the End of the World, and worked at TIME magazine for 15 years as a foreign correspondent in Asia, a climate change writer and as the international editor.

Katasha Harley (she/her) is the Chief People Officer at Bravely. Prior to Bravely, she has held the positions of SVP and Head of People and Culture at Food52 and Head of Talent Development at The New York Times. With over 20 years of experience in human resources at companies such as Elizabeth Arden, KIPP NYC Charter Schools, L’Oreal USA, and Time Warner, she is often called upon to offer guidance on organizational design, employee experience and engagement, compensation, talent acquisition, and career development. Prior to her work in human resources, she was a caseworker for foster care and social work agencies. Ms. Harley is also a member of the Society for Human Resource Management and Top Ladies of Distinction, Inc. and has volunteered for Habitat for Humanity as well as various non-profit organizations geared towards education and the arts. Ms. Harley earned B.A. in Psychology from Hampton University, an  M.A. in Industrial and Organizational Psychology from New York University.

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.

Lydia Dishman is Fast Company’s senior editor for growth and engagement. She has also written for CBS Moneywatch, Fortune, The Guardian, Popular Science, and the New York Times, among others.

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.

Siobhan O'Connor is the chief content officer at Atria Institute.

Judith Heller holds an MBA in Healthcare Administration and an MPA in Public Policy. She is an experienced program developer and change leader with a demonstrated history in health care management. Currently, she oversees Physician Recruitment for the Northwell Health System, which includes 23 hospitals, 700+ locations and over 4,500 employed physicians throughout Long Island, New York City and Westchester. Northwell Health continues to grow and the Office of Physician Recruitment employs over 350 physicians per year. As an adjunct professor at the Zicklin School of Business, she shares her healthcare experience with executive MBA candidates. Judith is passionate about promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion in healthcare and providing mechanisms for career advancement.

R. Carmel Boyle-Lewis is the Director of Human Resources at the NYU Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service. In this role Carmel serves as the Human Resources Officer as well as Global Inclusion Officer supporting faculty, staff and student needs locally at the school. She also represents the school’s interests within the larger University context.

Carmel has over 17 years’ experience as a Human Resources professional and has worked in various industries including Finance, Accounting, Media/Entertainment and Higher Education. During her career, Carmel has navigated the intersection of business operations, human resources, diversity, talent management and how these all align to meet organizational goals and priorities.

Carmel is a HR Subject Matter Expert with experience in a number of HR disciplines but her expertise is in providing solution-orientated advice and counsel to senior leadership and staff. She is passionate about serving as a thought partner to leadership as well as an advocate for staff. Her advocacy for salary equity, promotions for women, career development for staff and people of color, respect for women in the workplace and sharing best practices for DEI to leadership is what led to her being tapped for the Global Inclusion role at NYU Wagner. Carmel’s commitment and advocacy for HR & Diversity has also led to her being invited to serve on NYU Committees for Staff Diversity Excellence, Inclusive Onboarding, Promotion & Retention as well as serving in leadership positions for NYU Affinity Groups.

Carmel has spent the last 10 years in higher education sharpening her skills and insight into talent development, inclusive leadership practices, and the effect on employees.

She obtained her MBA from Pace University and her Bachelor’s in Business Management from Long Island University.

Rapti Khurana is the Vice President - Head of Talent Engagement and Development at the National Football League.

Matti Niebelschütz is the founder & managing director of CoachHub, a digital turnkey solution in L&D to democratize coaching for employees of all career levels. He is a serial entrepreneur, managing director and former top management consultant (McKinsey Digital) with 15 years of experience in New Work, startups and digital business building. Previously, he founded ExpertLead (by Rocket Internet) and MyParfum, an e-commerce startup for custom fragrances and co-founded Exolos, Vjsual, Personology, Flaschen Label and founded Elite Startups, a digital company builder. Before joining the startup industry, Matti graduated with honors in law, with stop-overs at the German parliament and Berlin city parliament.

Amanda Conway MS RDN is the SVP of Employer Strategy at Talkspace, the leading Mental Health brand for employers. She oversees the strategy, sales and relationship management of Talkspace's Direct to Employer business. Amanda has worked with digital health companies for the last 10 years in a variety of roles including B2B sales, marketing and clinical product development, with a focus on expanding access to quality care through telehealth. Amanda is a registered dietitian who specializes in behavior change therapy for chronic disease prevention and health lifestyle maintenance.

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.

Vijay Swaminathan is the Co-Founder & CEO of Draup, an AI-Driven Reskilling and Talent Intelligence Platform. Vijay has extensive experience in the areas of Product Ideation, Concept to Productization, and Platform enablement. He brings a wealth of expertise in the areas of Data Analytics, Operations Research, and Strategic Management. He has developed numerous quantitative models and heuristics related to global talent, business analytics, and strategic business initiatives.

Vijay is also the co-founder of Zinnov (a leading research & advisory firm) and TalentNeuron (acquired by CEB a Gartner Company (NYSE:IT)). Prior to co-founding Zinnov and TalentNeuron, Vijay held senior positions at Hewitt Associates and KPMG Consulting. He is passionate about translating business ideas into tangible Intellectual Property.

Maria Mejia is an award-winning Learning Experience Designer at Hone, the all-in-one talent development platform for modern teams delivering live learning at scale to enable behavior change, human connection, and continuous development.

Before joining Hone, Maria developed learning solutions for finance, health care, higher ed, and tech industries. They have also led workplace affinity groups. Maria’s rich background allows them to tackle complex problems creatively while maintaining a user-centered approach. They are committed to creating and designing conversations that spark self-awareness and help foster community in the workplace.

When they are not training people, Maria enjoys hiking, running, and spending time with her family in Wilmington, Del.

Debi Yadegari is the Founder and CEO of Villyge. Once a Wall Street lawyer, Debi created Villyge to address the problems she faced as a working parent in corporate America. Today, Villyge is a comprehensive platform that drives empathy in the workplace by providing managers with the understanding and “just in time” guidance they need to better support their employees, increase DE&I and guard against attrition. Villyge is a total population solution, with specialized support for working parents, caregivers, and the leaders who support them. Through her work with Villyge, Debi is committed to improving the corporate landscape for caregivers and helping to shape the future of work. Debi is a frequent contributor to Fox Business, Cheddar TV, ABC News, Fox News, Forbes, Working Mother, World at Work, Strategic CHRO 360, Business Insider, Leader’s Edge, Employee Benefits News and Crunchbase. She received her BA in economics and political science from Barnard College of Columbia University and her JD from George Washington Law School. Previously, Debi served as in-house counsel to the investment banking division of Lehman Brothers and was a corporate associate at Fried Frank. In 2005, however, she traded her brief case for a diaper bag and has been supporting caregivers ever since. Most importantly, she is a working mother of five – ages 5, 11, 13, 15 and 16.

Debbie Groves is the VP of North America at CoachHub.

Kristen Carlisle is General Manager of Betterment and Work's 401(k) business, where she and her team work to bring retirement planning and financial wellness benefits to small and mid-sized businesses across the US. Kristen has over 10 years of experience within the B2B technology industry, and most recently served as the company’s Director of B2B Operations. Prior to joining Betterment, Kristen served as Director of Finance for Meetup, where she helped lead a company-wide enterprise business strategy pivot. Other previous experiences include roles at Yieldbot, AOL and Google. Kristen graduated from Ithaca College and is based out of New York City.