Betsy McCann

Betsy McCann is the senior vice president of people and culture for the Utah Jazz of the National Basketball Association. Previously, she was an HR leader at such companies as Embroker, Green Thumb Industries, and Valkyrie Trading. She has a bachelor’s degree in political communication from Ohio University, a master’s in communication studies from Ball State University, and a Ph.D. in agricultural leadership, education and communications from Texas A&M University.

Emma E. Houston

Emma E. Houston currently serves in the role of Assistant Vice President for Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) and Chief Diversity Officer at the University of Utah and leads strategies for community outreach, staff and faculty engagement and program development.

A longtime community member and social justice advocate, Emma is the former director of Diversity Affairs for Salt Lake County Government, former chair of the Utah MLK Jr., Human Rights Commission, serves on the Utah COVID-19 Task Force, the Pastor France A. Davis Scholarship Board, PBS Utah and is a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated.

Emma works to shift mindsets, practices, and systems within the social sector to increase awareness around EDI. Her approach is designed to create inclusive spaces that acknowledge, celebrate, embrace, and understands the overachieving and wide lens of EDI. Emma helps organizations to define, implement, and advance EDI principles that create a social impact across the larger community.

Known as a strategic, innovative thought leader, and as a trusted advisor, Emma has conducted EDI training sessions and conversations to strengthen team effectiveness for Utah Highway Patrol, LUCID, Malouf, Alzheimer’s Association, Multiple Sclerosis, Eccles School of Business, BD, Discovery Gateway Children’s Museum, and The Utah Department of Corrections.

Emma was named one of the 30 Women to Watch for her work with diversity and inclusion by Utah Business Magazine/Living Color Utah, Who’s Who of Black Utah by IMPACT Magazine, the Utah Division of Multicultural Affairs Commissioner Leader in Equity Award, the 2022 Women of Impact Award and the Individual Human Rights Awards from the Salt Lake City Human Rights Commission.

Emma is the owner and CEO of Brighter Day Productions, LLC, and holds a BS in Business Management and an MBA in Business Administration.

Stephen M.R. Covey

Stephen M. R. Covey is a renowned authority on leadership and the author of Trust & Inspire: How Truly Great Leaders Unleash Greatness in Others. Previously, he was a New York Times and #1 Wall Street Journal bestselling author of The SPEED of Trust—The One Thing That Changes Everything. He is the former CEO of Covey Leadership Center, which, under his stewardship, became the largest leadership development company in the world. Stephen personally led the strategy that propelled his father’s book, Dr. Stephen R. Covey’s The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, to become one of the two most influential business books of the 20th Century, according to CEO Magazine.

As President and CEO of Covey Leadership Center, Stephen nearly doubled revenues while increasing profits by 12 times. During that period, the company expanded throughout the world into over 40 countries, greatly increasing the value of the brand and enterprise. The company was valued at $2.4 million when Stephen was named CEO, and, within three years, he had grown shareholder value to $160 million in a merger he orchestrated with Franklin Quest to form FranklinCovey.

Stephen co-founded CoveyLink, a consulting practice, which focuses on enabling leaders and organizations to increase and leverage trust to achieve superior performance. Stephen recently merged CoveyLink with FranklinCovey, forming the Global Speed of Trust Practice, where Stephen serves as Global Practice Leader.

Carter Lee

As Chief People Officer, Carter Lee is responsible for attracting, developing, engaging, retaining, and caring for the people driving the business. He leads the company’s talent acquisition, human resources, diversity & inclusion, compensation & benefits, HR systems, and talent development efforts.

With more than two decades at Overstock, Carter brings a wealth of expertise from leading various departments within the company, including People Care, Information Technology, Administration, Marketing, International, and other cross-functional teams. Carter began his career with Overstock in 2001 as a system administrator and was later promoted to Director of Internal Systems before being appointed Vice President of Technology in 2008. In 2015, he was named Overstock’s Senior Vice President of Technology, and later, his role expanded to include People Care and Facilities. In 2018 he was named Chief Administrative Officer, a role that included various responsibilities, including serving as Acting Chief Marketing Officer between August 2020 and March 2021.

Prior to joining Overstock, Carter was a system engineer for Hospice of the Valley. He was also a founder and vice president of Motherboard Discount Center, a computer hardware supplier in Chandler, Arizona.

Grace Zuncic

Grace Zuncic is the chief people and impact officer at Cotopaxi. Previously, she was chief people officer for Chobani.

Robin Strup

Robin Strup is the Vice President, Diversity, Equity & Inclusion at Dataminr.

Ivan Iordanov

Ivan Iordanov is the VP Corporate Trainer at Zions Bancorporation.

Whitney Harper

Whitney Harper is the Senior VP, People at Extra Space Storage.

Gia Dowling

Gia Dowling is the Corporate VP, People and Culture at Nicholas & Co.

Benjamin Gross

Benjamin Gross is the Chief People Officer & General Counsel at Backcountry.

Brooke Shreeve

Brooke Shreeve is the Chief People Officer at Weave.

Mekenna Malan

Mekenna is the editor of Utah Business magazine and a graduate of the print journalism program at Utah State University. She has written about business, music and culture for publications like Business Insider, Time Out, SLUG Magazine, Visit Salt Lake and the Standard-Examiner. She loves hiking, thrifting, reading and going on camping trips with her partner in their 1986 Land Cruiser.

Robert Gehrke

Robert started his journalism career at age 8, banging out stories on his parents’ manual typewriter about Little League sports and video games. It stuck. After graduating from Granite High School, he earned bachelors degrees in Communications and Political Science from the University of Utah, where he was editor of The Daily Utah Chronicle. It wasn’t until years later that he went to work for The Associated Press and actually started getting paid for it. He has spent more than 25 years primarily covering government and politics in Utah and the West, including seven years in Washington, D.C. He joined The Salt Lake Tribune in 2004. His work on the Crandall Canyon coal mine collapse in 2007 was praised by a U.S. Senate committee investigating the disaster and he collaborated on an investigation into corruption in the Utah Attorney General’s office in 2012-14 that forced the attorney general to resign. Five years ago, he transitioned into a role as a political columnist. He enjoys hiking with his dogs and two children and rooting for hopeless underdogs in every sport.

Connie Washington

Connie Washington is the VP, People and Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) at Progressive Leasing. Previously, she served as an HR leader at companies including Helix Education, Alliance Health Network, ADP, and Smith Sport Optics. She earned a bachelor’s degree in business, a master’s degree in management and leadership, and an MBA from Western Governors University.

Glen Mills

Glen is an award-winning, veteran journalist who delivers the news of the day every weeknight on ABC4 News. He also serves as Chief Political Correspondent and hosts Inside Utah Politics, which airs every Sunday morning at 8. He has won multiple awards for his reporting on political, military, and other issues.

Before returning home to Utah, he spent more than 11 years developing his journalism skills in other states. He held various on-air and management positions at KPVI in Pocatello, Idaho, WGBA in Green Bay, Wis., and KKCO in Grand Junction, Colorado during that time.

Glen is a proud graduate of Jordan High School and the University of Utah where he majored in Mass Communication and minored in Business. He knew early on in life he wanted to be a journalist. Ask any of his friends and they will tell you as a kid he talked about one-day anchoring and reporting the news in Salt Lake City.

Weslie Porter

Weslie Porter is the Director, Equity, Diversity & Inclusion Accelerator, State of Utah at the Utah Department of Government Operations.

Meica Hatters

Meica, Senior Learning Solutions Strategist, partners closely with L&D and HR professionals to design development programs that grow key behaviors and reinforce organizational goals, culture, and values, while yielding measurable results. In short, Meica helps learning leaders to communicate their organizational impact.

Before joining Hone, Meica was Vice President, Talent Development Partner for EDGE – Where Leadership Begins (a high-touch consulting firm), where she focused on executive and mid-level leadership development and organizational development across industries, including oil and gas, healthcare, finance, and non-profit. Before consulting, she worked as a Human Resource Generalist at Jockey International, Inc, where she supported retail store manager development, designed and executed recruitment strategies for key corporate roles, and partnered with retail leadership to implement performance management strategies.

Meica earned a Master’s in Administrative Leadership and Adult Education from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and a Master’s in Human Resource Management and Organizational Leadership and Change from National University. Meica is certified in Everything DiSC by Wiley, Situational Leadership II by Blanchard Companies, and Human Resources by both SHRM and HRCI. 

Lori Prichard

Lori Prichard is an Emmy award winning journalist voted Best TV News Reporter of 2011 by the Utah Society of Professional Journalists. Originally from Joplin, Missouri, Lori moved to Salt Lake City more than four years ago after working in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Lori has worked as an investigative reporter as well as a general assignment reporter. She won the 2010 Don Barker Investigative Reporting Award. In 2011, her stories led to four separate changes in Utah law.

Lori holds an undergraduate degree in economics from Baylor University. She also received a master’s degree in both journalism and public affairs from the University of Missouri. Lori spent a year studying abroad at the Sorbonne in Paris, France.

Logan Mallory

Logan Mallory is the Vice President of Marketing at Motivosity and a public speaker on culture and leadership topics. He has held marketing leadership roles at LogMeIn, Jive Communications and Workfront. Logan has an MBA from Brigham Young University, is an adjunct professor at the Marriott School of Business and has ties to Michigan, Texas, Washington and Utah.

Jon Alarcon

Jon Alarcon is Cofounder at Worklyfe, an inspiration platform that helps companies drive performance and improve retention by aligning business objectives with their employee’s most meaningful personal aspirations. Jon leads GTM strategy, customer experience, and strategic initiatives, scaling Worklyfe towards their next 1000 customers. Jon is a passionate advocate for building healthy relationships between employees and their employers, creating environments where employees can do their best work and live their best lives. Prior to joining the founding team at Worklyfe, Jon was the Head of Customer Success and a member of the founding team at Blueboard, an experiential rewards and recognition platform where he launched various employee programs across 400 companies. Jon lives in San Diego and is a proud dad of three amazing kiddos.

Amelia Wilcox

Amelia Wilcox is the Founder and CEO of Nivati, a company providing employee stress management and mental health services that employees can access – anytime, anywhere. Recently listed as a Forty Under 40, Fast 50, Twice on the Inc 500 and twice awarded National Woman-Owned Small Business of the Year, Amelia has exponentially grown her company from a solo living-room service business to an international technology brand. She operates Nivati with a virtual team and provides flexible work for over 1200 practitioners across North America while balancing the demands of motherhood with her three daughters.

David Bator

David Bator thinks and writes about how work could work. David leads Achievers Workforce Institute, a strategic practice whose focus on Research, Community and Advisory empowers global executives with tactical, practical approaches to changing how the world works.

David is passionate about people, and has spent the last 20 years working closely and consultatively with HR, IT and Communications leaders to build programs that position individuals, teams and companies to grow.

Haeli Harris

Haeli Harris is the Lead Mental Health Clinician at Nivati, a licensed mental health therapist, yoga instructor, health and wellness coach, and mindfulness practitioner dedicated to helping others through holistic health and healing. She takes a client-based, solution-focused approach helping the client to find their own solutions that are within them and building on their own strengths. Haeli has specialized training in combining yoga and mental health including using a trauma-informed lens when working with her clients. She is also a mother to teenagers and a lover of chocolate and dancing!

Tessa White

Tessa White is the CEO and Founder of The Job Doctor.

Jeff Weber

Jeff Weber is the Chief People and Operations Officer for Xevant, a rapidly growing pharmacy data analytics company.

Jeff was previously the EVP People and Places at Instructure , a provider of the Canvas and Bridge learning management platforms focused on transforming online learning and employee development. Instructure is publicly traded with over 1400 employees in multiple locations.

Prior to Instructure, Jeff led the growth of the people function for Ancestry.com, an online subscription-based business where he helped build the talent function. Jeff brings significant background in implementing a comprehensive talent strategy in multiple companies including talent acquisition, engagement, development, merger integrations, diversity, and rewards and recognition programs.

Jeff has served in multiple voluntary positions including a Board member with the Women’s Leadership Institute, Co-chair of the HR Executive committee for the Utah Technology Council, a board member of the U of U HR Executive Roundtable and several leadership positions in the Utah SHRM organization.

Jeff holds an MBA with an emphasis in Organizational Behavior from Brigham Young University.

Jonathan Malan

Jonathan spent most of the last 15+ years building HR teams within growth-stage companies.  He loves to find chaos and bring order through defined processes and scalable solutions.  He has led HR teams through M&A, funding rounds, and exits and loves to experience the learning opportunities of any organization.

When not at work, he loves to spend time learning and teaching.  He loves to spend time with his beloved wife and five kids and see them each grow in their lives.  Jonathan loves a good hike, coaching his sons’ basketball teams, or watching a show that will get a belly laugh out of his little ones.

Steve Arntz

Steve has spent the last ten years of his career building technology that helps people to learn, grow, and connect. Before starting Campfire, he spent 5 years at Instructure building a talent management platform focused on career development and human performance. He worked with product, marketing, sales, and strategy teams to grow the business from the ground up to $27 million in annual revenue. While with Instructure, he worked with teams at Disney, Tesla, Lululemon, Johnson and Johnson, and other global brands to strengthen their talent management practices.

Now, Steve is focused primarily on finding ways for people to learn and grow through connected learning experiences called Campfires. The business has strong investment and is responsible for training hundreds of managers in the key skills needed to effectively lead teams. Steve’s experience in technology, content, facilitation, and talent management provide a rich mix of skills for solving these challenges.

Campfire was founded in 2020 at the very beginning of the pandemic and has benefitted from the changes and shifts that allow for us to consider new ways of connecting and working with each other. Steve has three co-founders – Todd, Taylor, and Marinne – who are all passionate about the mission of providing universal access to connected learning experiences.

Michael Watson

Michael Watson is a talent acquisition expert and artificial intelligence enthusiast who is dedicated to using cutting-edge technologies to revolutionize the world of work. Michael’s passion for work began in his early life, as he grew up with military parents who instilled in him the values of hard work, dedication, and service to others. His father dropped out of high school at 16 to join the Navy, and his mother served in both the Air Force and Marines, so Michael knows firsthand the importance of having a strong work ethic and a sense of purpose.  After years of experience in corporate HR and talent acquisition for companies such as Aerotek, Robert Half, Polycom, Western Digital, Workday, Rambus, and Gigamon, Michael joined the artificial intelligence startup Eightfold.ai. As a former customer of Eightfold.ai, he has unique first-hand knowledge of how AI is being used to hire and retain talent.

At Eightfold, Michael is part of a team that is using AI for good, mapping skills to opportunities and enabling the right career for everyone in the world. As the Head of Global Customer Evangelism for Eightfold’s products and solutions, Michael frequently interacts with business leaders, customer executives and government officials to amplify the power of Eightfold’s artificial intelligence (AI) and their vision to use artificial intelligence for good and enable the right career for everyone in the world. Michael believes that AI has the potential to help individuals find fulfilling and meaningful work, and he is dedicated to ensuring that everyone has access to the right career opportunities. He is passionate about helping individuals find work that aligns with their unique skills and interests, and he believes that AI can be a powerful tool to help people achieve their career goals.

Michael is a thought leader in the field of talent acquisition and artificial intelligence, and he is committed to using his expertise to help organizations and individuals navigate the rapidly changing world of work. He is the author of 2 books; Career AI: Navigating the Job Market in the Age of Artificial Intelligence and The AI-Powered HR Professional. He is a frequent speaker and writer on topics related to AI, talent acquisition, and career development, and he is always looking for new and innovative ways to use technology to improve people’s lives. Michael attended Fresno State University where he studied Criminology.

When he is not working, Michael is busy working on his family’s farm and dedicates a lot of time to coaching youth baseball and softball in his community. He is married and has two children.

Steve Sonnenberg

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.

Daniel Blaser

Daniel Blaser has more than a decade of experience collecting and telling stories for globally recognized brands. At Workstream, he spends his time producing the On the Clock podcast and other content geared to those who care about hiring and retaining the hourly workforce.

Scott Dettman

Avenica CEO Scott Dettman is a dynamic leader with a strong track record of driving growth through transformation and innovation in the human capital arena.

Scott joined Avenica in 2019 following a six-year stint with ManpowerGroup that included progressive leadership roles spanning analytics and transformation to general management and business development.

Scott has a master’s degree and Ph.D. (ABD) from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and most recently completed an Executive Leadership program at Harvard Business School.