Cindy Blikre, Principal – TiER1 Performance

Cindy Blikre is a seasoned business strategist with over 25 years of experience in solving complex challenges for companies across industries and geographies. As a Principal Consultant at TiER1 Performance, she specializes in uncovering innovative solutions through a deep interrogation of business situations and collaborative team-driven approaches to drive impactful results.

Before transitioning into human capital consulting, Cindy spent over 20 years in marketing, leading major Fortune 500 accounts at top advertising agencies, including Leo Burnett and Ogilvy. She holds an M.S. in Learning and Organizational Change and an M.S. in Integrated Marketing Communications, both from Northwestern University.

Cindy is passionate about helping businesses unlock both the individual and collective potential of their workforce. She has worked with an impressive roster of clients, including Google, Anheuser-Busch International, REI, Vanderbilt University, YouTube, P&G, Advocate Aurora, Takeda, Mondelez, Astellas, Hilton, Perfetti Van Melle, SC Johnson, Altria, Cooper’s Hawk, and Meitheal.

Known for her dynamic energy and can-do spirit, Cindy fosters momentum within teams while keeping collaboration engaging and forward focused. Her ability to connect the dots and build on innovative thinking makes her a trusted partner in driving organizational success.

Maxine Carrington, SVP & Chief People Officer – Northwell Health

Maxine Carrington currently serves as Senior Vice President and Chief People Officer for Northwell Health, New York State’s largest health care provider and private employer. In her role, she leads the people strategy for the 89,000+ team member organization with a focus on maximizing organizational effectiveness and performance — in support of its mission and strategic direction. She has been with Northwell since 2008 and has served in progressively responsible leadership roles. Prior to Northwell, Maxine was a manager and attorney with the New York City Mayor’s Office of Labor Relations.

Like her Northwell teammates, Maxine is committed to service beyond her core responsibilities. In addition to thought leadership engagements and mentoring, she is an instructor with the Center for Learning & Innovation, Northwell’s corporate university and serves as a co-sponsor of the organization’s business employee resource groups. She is also a trustee of the 1199 Pension Fund serving employees for the New York Region and serves on the board of the National Center for Healthcare Leadership – a not-for-profit organization dedicated to advancing healthcare leadership and organizational excellence.

Maxine holds a bachelor’s degree in Political Science and Africana Studies and a master’s degree in Educational Administration and Policy Studies from the University at Albany in New York. She obtained her Juris Doctor degree from New York Law School. She is a graduate of Northwell’s High Potential Leadership Development Program, a prestigious succession preparation and leadership development program and the Health Management Academy’s GE Fellows Program. Her recognitions include Crain’s Notables in Healthcare list and Modern Healthcare’s Top 25 Women in Healthcare.

Kitty Chaney-Reed, Chief Leadership, Culture and Inclusion Officer – IBM

Kitty Chaney Reed is the Chief Leadership, Culture and Inclusion Officer for the IBM Corporation. Most recently, she was the Chief Operations Officer for the IBM Marketing organization, leading the Business Alignment team which served as the backbone across Marketing to guide the organization, generating a linkage between business objectives, marketing plans, and a coordinated management system to help focus on measurements and milestones between Marketing and the IBM Business.

Previously, Kitty led the Enterprise Operations responsible for Sales and Business Operations activities for all IBM Business Units, driving the transformation of Operations across the Enterprise by modernizing tools and processes. She also serves as IBM’s Senior State Executive for the State of Georgia (US), where she represents IBM in government and policy forums such as the Atlanta Metro Chamber where she sits on the Board. She was the IBM executive sponsor in support of the passage of Anti-Hate Crime Legislation that was made law in Georgia on June 8, 2020. She joined IBM in 2017, as the Vice President of Quote to Cash for the Americas, supporting IBM’s largest geography with ~40B in annual revenue.

Caralyn Cooley, Chief People Officer – FanDuel

Caralyn Cooley is FanDuel’s Chief People Officer, responsible for the continued acceleration of FanDuel’s people strategy reflecting the company’s extraordinary growth trajectory. Cooley leads FanDuel’s people organization, inclusive of human resources, talent acquisition, diversity, equity and inclusion (DE&I), organizational effectiveness, employee branding, training, learning and development, compensation and employee benefits in service to the company’s Casino, Sports and Operations business units.

Cooley joined FanDuel as a seasoned multi-time CPO, with deep experience scaling global operations, shaping unique cultures and guiding teams through periods of intense growth. Prior to FanDuel, she most recently served as Executive Vice President, Chief People Officer for Bowery Farming, a U.S. vertical farming company that designs and builds smart indoor environments to reimagine the future of food, and prior to Bowery, Cooley held the role of Chief People Officer for Nordeus from 2017-2019.

Cooley earned her Master’s in Industrial & Labor Relations from Cornell University. She also holds a Bachelor’s of Science in Human Resource Management from State University of New York-Oswego.

Brian Glaser, Vice President & Chief Talent and Learning Officer – Google

Brian is Google’s Chief Talent and Learning Officer. Responsible for building a vibrant, inclusive culture that accelerates the growth of Google’s business and talent, he oversees onboarding, training, leadership development, and talent management for 180,000 “Googlers” in more than 70 countries. In 2017, Brian founded The Google School for Leaders, the company’s first-ever
enterprise leadership development center of excellence, which has reached 40,000 leaders to date.

Prior to joining Google, Brian founded and led gothamCulture, a New York City-based organizational development firm specializing in leadership and culture transformation. Brian advised C-level leaders at American Red Cross, British Airways, JetBlue Airways, Lockheed Martin, Marriott International, Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, New York City Metropolitan Transportation Authority, Oppenheimer Funds, South African Airways, The U.S. Department of Defense and Virgin America. In 2014, Inc. Magazine named gothamCulture as one of America’s fastest growing companies.

Previously, Brian led organizational development for JetBlue Airways. Brian helped shape the company’s distinctive culture from the ground up and contributed to the company’s massive growth as a member of the original start up team. Prior to that, Brian held positions at Continental Airlines and Virgin Atlantic Airways.

Brian serves on several Boards including the University of Southern California Marshall School of Business and Bideawee Animal Rescue in New York City. Brian holds a B.A. in Business Administration and Communications, an M.S. in Organizational Change Management, and a Ph.D. in Organizational Psychology.

Anna Grome, Principal – TiER1 Performance

Anna Grome is an organizational design strategist with an M.S. in Industrial-Organizational Psychology and 25 years of experience in building healthy and high-performing organizations, teams, and leaders. As a Principal at TiER1 Performance, she plays a pivotal role in designing strategies and solutions that drive culture transformation, leadership development, and innovative ways of working.

Anna is passionate about integrating multidisciplinary skills and perspectives to develop the most effective strategies for helping clients bridge the gap between their current state and their desired future. Her expertise lies in deeply understanding organizational challenges and crafting customized approaches that foster both cultural health and business performance.

Throughout her career, Anna has partnered with clients across the public and private sectors, including healthcare, higher education, the Department of Defense, financial services, manufacturing, and professional services organizations. Her work focuses on identifying core needs and implementing tailored solutions that enable teams and leaders to thrive in dynamic environments.

Erika Irish Brown, Global Head of Talent Management & Engagement – Citi

Erika is Citi’s Global Head of Talent Management & Engagement, responsible for driving Citi’s agenda on talent planning, succession planning and leadership development.

Prior to joining Citi, Erika was Chief Diversity Officer at Goldman Sachs from 2018 to 2021 and Global Head of Diversity and Inclusion at Bloomberg from 2015 to 2018. Prior to this, she led executive and diversity hiring efforts at Bank of America and Lehman Brothers.

Erika’s background includes a range of banking and finance roles, including Head of Business Development for Black Entertainment Television, Senior Associate in High Yield Capital Markets at Morgan Stanley and Senior Policy Analyst for Domestic Finance for the United States Department of the Treasury. She began her career as an Analyst in Public Finance at Lehman Brothers.

Erika is Vice Chair of the Bedford Stuyvesant Restoration Corporation and serves on the Boards of Columbia Business School and the Riverside Hawks.

Erika earned a BS in Economics from the State University of New York at Albany and an MBA from Columbia Business School.

Michelle Katz, Executive Director, Head of Talent – Wildlife Conservation Society

Michelle V. Katz serves as the Executive Director, Head of the Talent Center of Excellence (CoE) at the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), where her work focuses on building a robust Talent ecosystem that drives a human-centered culture and an engaged workforce, in support of advancing the organization.

Throughout Michelle’s career, spanning more than 20 years, she has specialized in the Talent Acquisition, Management and Development disciples. She cultivated her expertise while working in a diverse range of industries including Financial Services, Technology, Consumer Packaged Goods, Fashion and hypergrowth FinTech, in organizations with various levels of complexity and maturity. Michelle is recognized for creating meaningful people-focused talent solutions embedded with key principles of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion to attract, engage, develop and retain.

Before joining WCS, Michelle was the Head of Talent & Diversity, Equity and Inclusion at DailyPay, an industry-leading fintech start-up and inventor of earned wage access. Prior to DailyPay, Michelle was the Development Lead for the Global Talent Assessment & Development CoE at PepsiCo. While at PepsiCo, she also led the Culture & Engagement team for the PepsiCo Beverages, N.A. division. Michelle’s work at PepsiCo built upon her previous experience in Global Talent Management at Mastercard, and as the first Head of Talent Management at Kenneth Cole Productions. Michelle began her career at Citi Cards, where she worked in various disciplines after earning her MA in Organizational Psychology from Columbia University. Her most recent academic achievement is the completion of two Diversity & Inclusion certification programs from Cornell University.

Maral Kazanjian, Chief People Officer – Moody's

Maral Kazanjian is the Chief People Officer of Moody’s. In this role, she is responsible for setting and overseeing the company’s strategy to unite the brightest minds by attracting extraordinary talent and making Moody’s a place that people want to come and stay.

Maral previously served as Chief People Officer for WeWork, where she held various leadership roles. Prior to that, she worked at Moody’s for 11 years in the Human Resources and Legal departments, overseeing the Employment Law and Employee Relations teams.

Maral holds a bachelor’s degree in government and psychology from Georgetown University, and a law degree from the Rutgers School of Law-Newark.

Kaleen Love, Chief People & Culture Officer – Philip Morris International

Dr. Kaleen Love brings business acumen and discerning judgment to her professional roles—she connects seemingly disparate pieces of information to drive strategic and creative solutions to complex problems. As an Oxford PhD and social scientist, she combines curiosity and a learner’s mentality with a researcher’s pursuit of data-driven outcomes.

After launching her career with more than a decade of work in the social and public sector, Kaleen pivoted to the private sector, where she has focused on using data and strategy to drive transformation—never losing sight of the fact that people are at the heart of change.

In 2021, Kaleen chose to help PMI achieve its vision of a smoke-free world by 2030, aiming to positively impact the health of the ~1 billion smokers in the world. PMI’s commitment to a smoke-free future by 2030 includes massive investments in innovative reduced risk products and more recently healthcare and wellness—one of the largest transformations in corporate history.

As PMI’s global head of strategy and planning from 2021 to 2023, she reported to PMI’s CHRO and helped lead the company’s organization worldwide; within this role, she also acted as chief of staff to the CHRO and led people analytics and employee listening for PMI’s ~75,000 employees. As Chief People & Culture Officer for the U.S. since July 2023, Kaleen is helping to build an entirely smoke-free business that seeks to deliver science-backed, better alternatives for America’s ~47 million legal-age nicotine users who would otherwise continue to smoke.

Kaleen’s early career included nearly a decade in social and public sectors working with NGOs and government institutions, largely focusing on gender equality, women’s empowerment, and reproductive health. In 2008, she transitioned to the private sector, becoming a consultant with McKinsey & Company. There, she served financial services clients, focusing on commercial and personal P&C insurance, retail banking, and public finance.

Then, in 2014 she joined Capital One, where she held a variety of roles. She was Chief of Staff to the President of Capital One’s retail and direct bank, led the bank’s communications team, and founded and led the bank’s first centralized customer insights, research, and analytics function. Within Capital One’s Audit department, Kaleen founded a team of data analysts, data scientists, and product managers supported by data engineers and led the function’s operations and transformation teams.

Kaleen earned her master’s at the University of Oxford—winning the prize for best student—and then her PhD in International Development.

Donovan Mitchell, Senior Director DEI & Player Relations – New York Mets

Donovan Mitchell is a seasoned leader with over two decades of experience in baseball and organizational development. Currently serving as the Senior Director of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion (DEI), and Player Relations for the New York Mets, Donovan is committed to fostering an inclusive culture that empowers players, staff, and the broader community.

Before stepping into his DEI leadership role, Donovan held key positions within the Mets organization, including Director of Player Relations and Community Engagement, Manager of Player Relations and Community Outreach, and Minor League Manager and Coach. His deep knowledge of the game, combined with his dedication to player development and community impact, underscores his commitment to excellence both on and off the field.

Donovan’s leadership extends beyond the ballpark. He is an advocate for financial literacy and career development, often sharing insights with young professionals. A graduate of the University of North Carolina at Charlotte and Drexel University, Donovan brings a well-rounded educational background to his work.

David Morgenbesser, Partner – DHR Global

David is a Partner on DHR’s Leadership Consulting team based in Miami. With over a decade of experience in sales and business development in leadership consulting and executive advisory services.

Smita Pillai, SVP Talent Development, Inclusion & Innovation Culture – Regeneron

Smita Pillai is a globally acclaimed and multiple award winning leader in the space of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion with an accomplished career spanning LifeSciences, Technology, Financial Services and Media. She is the Chief Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Officer for Regeneron, one the world’s most innovative biotechnology companies, based out of New York. In her role Smita is responsible for a comprehensive DEI strategy and implementation at the company, ensuring that equity is at the heart of the company’s mission: Science to Medicine.

Prior to joining Regeneron, Smita held Global Head and CDO roles for a variety of multinational Fortune 50 and fast-growing companies like Zendesk, Dow Jones, including The Wall Street Journal, Prudential Financial and Johnson & Johnson. In her career, Smita has led groundbreaking global diversity efforts and established clear metrics for DE&I measurement that have advanced this import work across multiple organizations. She has also been a founding board member for several global employee groups and has always approached this work with a trifecta impact on talent, business and community. Her holistic approach to DEI seeks to create a climate of inclusion and belonging where innovation can thrive. Smita has received several awards and recognitions like the Top 100 DEI Leaders of Influence, Leadership Excellence Award Tri-State Diversity and Leadership, NY Moves Mentor, Diversity MBA Top 100 Under 50, Economic Times, Leaders executive profile, COLOR profile, for her outstanding achievements in community, leadership and education.

An accomplished public speaker, Smita has led various global forums like the Women’s Economic Summit, SOCAP, Sundance Film Festival, WSJ Women In conference, WSJ CEO Council, Latina Style, HACR, Diversity Council, Color magazine, W.I.N Forum NY, The Conference Board, Working Mother Media, Diversity Best Practices, among others.

Originally from India, Smita has a Masters in International Business from India, and a Wharton Executive Education on Strategic Management. She is a Certified Diversity Professional and considers herself a true
global citizen, having worked across the globe, based out of Mumbai, Dubai, Tokyo, Singapore, Florida, San Francisco and New York.

Paige Ross, Global Head of Human Resources – Blackstone

Paige Ross is the Global Head of Human Resources at Blackstone. In this role she oversees human resource management globally for the firm. Ms. Ross brings more than 30 years of experience in talent development and strategic planning across a multitude of industries and geographies.

Prior to joining Blackstone, Ms. Ross served as the Managing Director of Talent Management at Centerbridge Partners, with a focus on leading Talent Management across the portfolio companies. She has also held senior human resources leadership positions at Pfizer, Avon and PepsiCo.

Ms. Ross earned her BA at Stony Brook University and PhD in Applied Organizational Psychology at Hofstra University.

Sydney Savion, Vice Chancellor for People, Culture & Belonging – Vanderbilt University

Sydney Savion is a globally acclaimed learning futurist and workforce strategist, currently serving as the Vice Chancellor for People, Culture, and Belonging at Vanderbilt University. She joined Vanderbilt in January 2024, bringing a wealth of experience in shaping organizational culture, workforce transformation, and innovation.

Before joining Vanderbilt, Sydney held key leadership roles at some of the world’s most recognized organizations. Most recently, she was with Google and Google Ventures from 2021 to 2023, focusing on pioneering people strategies and cultural transformation initiatives. Prior to that, she served at Air New Zealand (2018-2021), driving workforce engagement and development. Earlier in her career, she played a pivotal role in talent and organizational strategy at Dell Technologies (2012-2018).

With a career dedicated to advancing the future of work and fostering inclusive, high-performing cultures, Sydney continues to be at the forefront of innovation in people and culture leadership.

Deb Taft, CEO – Lindauer

Deb Taft is CEO of Lindauer, a global search and talent partner for mission-driven organizations across the nonprofit sector. An innovative leader in the nonprofit and professional services arenas, Deb’s considerable expertise includes governance, strategic and growth planning, organizational management, talent, fundraising, marketing, and communications.

Prior to leading Lindauer, she was Senior Executive Vice President and Managing Director of Grenzebach Glier and Associates, where she oversaw all global consulting practices for one of the world’s leading philanthropic consultancies. Deb has also served as Chief Development Officer and Interim Chief Strategy Officer for Girl Scouts of the USA and held executive roles at Simmons University, Tufts Medical Center, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and the Jimmy Fund, and Concord Academy.