Paul Phillips is Global Head of Talent Acquisition and Onboarding at Avanade and leads a team across 26 countries. He brings the Avanade brand to life for its candidates and new hires, and provides an engaging, high-touch and consistent pre-board and onboarding experience. This reaffirms the new hire decision to stay and integrates our people into Avanade’s culture, core values, processes, and policies. 

Over the past 10 years, Paul has held several roles at Avanade including Global Head of Total Rewards and Global Head of HR Strategy and Operations. Prior to joining Avanade, he worked in senior HR strategy and consulting positions at CGI, PwC, and KPMG. Paul is based in New York, U.S.A.

Emily McCrary-Ruiz-Esparza is a freelance journalist and From Day One contributing editor who writes about work, the job market, and women’s experiences in the workplace. Her work has appeared in the BBC, The Washington Post, Quartz at Work, Fast Company, and Digiday’s Worklife.

Tom Brunskill is the co-founder and General Manager of Forage, part of EAB and Seramount. Tom founded Forage in 2017 in Sydney, Australia, before moving the company to the US in 2018. Since then, Forage has seen over 5 million students go through their job simulation product while partnering with some of the most iconic employers around the world (such as BCG, JPMC, Walmart and others). Before founding Forage, Tom was an M&A Attorney at King & Wood Mallesons, having studied a combined Bachelors of Law and International Relations degree at The Australian National University.

Jon Stross is President and Co-founder of Greenhouse. At Greenhouse, Jon drives the product strategy and works closely with customers and partners to build a platform that improves recruiting performance. Before founding Greenhouse, Jon served as the GM, International for BabyCenter.com and was responsible for the global rollout of the business.

Scott is a hiring expert and has spent his career building Talent technology. He was at LinkedIn Talent Solutions for almost seven years running the new product portfolio, Online Jobs and LinkedIn’s Applicant Tracking System (ATS).  He has a Master degree in HR, an MBA from London Business School, and is a certified instructor in Human-Centric Design. Scott founded Hireguide with Joel Young, a PhD in AI and Engineering Director at LinkedIn in 2021. Since then 10 more LinkedIn leaders have joined Hireguide. Hireguide is backed by top VCs, CEOs, customers and experts in hiring.

Glenn Padewski is corporate vice president and head of experience hiring and executive search at New York Life. He leads talent acquisition across the company’s foundational and strategic businesses, including Group Benefits and New York Life Investment Management, as well as corporate functions such as technology, finance, human resources, legal, risk, compliance, and marketing.

He also oversees executive recruiting firmwide and supports business line transformation by building future-state technology and finance teams. A champion of data and analytics, Padewski partners with HR data leaders to create dashboards that track hiring trends, diversity, attrition, and headcount, while providing market insights to guide strategy.

Before joining New York Life, Padewski held senior talent acquisition roles at Bank of America, where he led lateral recruiting for Global Banking and Markets and launched the group’s Veterans Associate Program. He also held recruiting roles at Prudential and AIG. Padewski is a winner of New York Life’s 2018 internal hackathon, an enterprise-wide innovation challenge focused on solving business problems through collaboration and creativity. He holds a bachelor’s degree in business management from East Stroudsburg University.

Steve is the Senior Vice President, Talent Acquisition at Edelman

Yannis Niebelschuetz is the Founder & CEO of LizzyAI and an industry thought leader in people development, assessment, and psychology (SHRM, ATD, Unleash, Josh Bersin). Previously, he was the Founder & CEO of CoachHub, a leading digital coaching platform that raised $300M+ and expanded to seven offices globally. Before that, he was a Senior Manager at LinkedIn. He has collaborated with top universities and researchers, including Harvard, NYU, and UCLA.

Pat is the Chief Revenue Officer at Torc. He is an experienced strategic GTM leader in the future of work space, he was a leader in building the enterprise business at Catalant Technologies. 

Prior to joining the world of early stage technology, Pat worked as a consultant at Bain and Company in the private equity group, working on commercial due diligence in the technology space. He began his career at the Harvard Financial Aid Initiative, as an advocate for increasing education access and socioeconomic diversity in higher education. Pat earned an MBA in Section G at Harvard Business School, and studied History and Literature at Harvard College.

Head of US Enterprise Sales and Solutions for Recruitment Solutions at LHH, a subsidiary of the Adecco Group, the world’s leading recruitment and workforce solutions provider, Linda has over two decades of experience in the staffing and recruiting industry.

Her expertise in talent solutions spans several areas including strategic talent acquisition, managed services (MSP) and recruitment process outsourcing (RPO) specializing  in finance, accounting, and business professional services.

Emily Stewart is a senior correspondent at Business Insider, where she covers a wide range of topics. Before joining Business Insider, Stewart was a correspondent at Vox, where she hosted a short-form podcast and launched The Big Squeeze newsletter. Prior to Vox, she covered politics at TheStreet. Emily currently resides in Brooklyn.

Cassandre Joseph is an accomplished talent acquisition leader with a strong scientific foundation and a passion for connecting leading talent with impactful careers in the pharmaceutical industry. As the Global Head of Talent Acquisition for Research and Development at Novartis, Cassandre leads a global high-performing team dedicated to delivering innovative, data-driven recruitment strategies that attract inclusive and exceptional talent worldwide. With a deep understanding of R&D functions and a collaborative approach to stakeholder engagement, she brings a unique blend of strategic insight, relationship-building, and operational excellence to the evolving world of talent acquisition.

Kelly Bourdet is the founder of Apparata Media, a content studio that works with health and technology brands and publications. She is the former Managing Editor of CNN Business and was the editor-in-chief of the technology and science publication Gizmodo. She was also the Deputy Editor of Refinery29, where she founded the site’s health and technology sections. 

With over 20 years of successful leadership experience in talent acquisition, Jessica Malachowski utilizes a human-centric approach combined with data-driven insights to lead effective programs for her clients. As the Vice President of Strategic Talent Acquisition Resources and Direct Sourcing at Atrium, Jessica seeks to deeply understand her business partners' organizations, values, culture, and objectives. This understanding allows her to deliver highly customized programs that leverage brand reputation and curated insights, ultimately creating deep talent pools filled with exceptional candidates.

Each engagement offers a consultative opportunity to connect thoughtfully while achieving bottom-line results and aligning with strategic business goals. Whether she is launching innovative programs or revitalizing existing pipelines, Jessica brings a passionate and collaborative spirit to optimize programs and maximize efficiency.

Cecil Plummer is the Chief Executive Officer of Fastr.ai, an advanced AI that improves the performance of any applicant tracking recruiting system. Plummer spent 18 years in the staffing industry at Robert Half in various roles and served on the Community Advisory Council for the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco. Plummer is an appointed Commissioner for the California Department of Healthcare Access and Information and serves on the Diversity and Inclusion Taskforce for the State of California’s Insurance Commissioner. Plummer is a nationally recognized expert in helping small businesses grow and scale, which earned him a spot on the San Francisco Business Times’ list of the 100 Most Influential People in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Kim Stevens is a seasoned talent acquisition leader with over 10 years of experience building and scaling recruitment strategies across high-growth organizations. As the Director of Talent Acquisition at Employ, she leads the company’s TA function with a focus on driving operational excellence, improving candidate experience, and aligning talent strategies with business outcomes. 

Known for her thoughtful, collaborative approach, Kim is passionate about creating inclusive hiring processes and helping teams attract top-tier talent that fuels long-term success.

Serena is the Manager of US Talent Acquisition at Publicis Media.