Ron Thomas

Human Capital Institute

International Country Manager: Middle East, Africa and Asia Pacific Region

Ron Thomas is the Managing Director of Strategy Focused Group an international consulting firm based in Dubai. He is a visiting executive faculty member at the Global Human Resources Leadership Institute at Howard University School of Business in Washington, DC. He is also a senior faculty member of the Human Capital Institute, covering the MENA/Asia Pacific & Africa Region.
Ron is the former CEO of Great Place to Work-Gulf and CHRO of Al Raha Group, based in Riyadh. He holds certifications from HCI as Global Human Capital Strategist (GHCS), Master Human Capital Strategist (MHCS), and Strategic Workforce Planner (SWP) as well as New York University. Prior to consulting, he worked in senior level roles for IBM, Martha Stewart Living, Xerox HR Services [HR Consulting] in the US.
He has been identified as one of the top 5 HR/Leadership thinkers in the Middle East by CIPD.  He received the Outstanding Leadership Award for Global HR Excellence at the World Human Resources Development Congress in Mumbai, and was named as one of the 50 Most Talented Global HR Leaders in Asia. As a consultant and management educator, he has worked with companies such as Central Bank of Nigeria, Iran MTNCell, King Faisal Hospital-Jeddah Saudi Electric Company, BASHRM, JLT [Saudi Arabia], Dubai Tourism, American Hospital of Dubai, Dar Al Riyadh, Gulf Bank-Kuwait, Boybyan, Kuwait, CIMB Bank and Singapore Government Civil Service.

Ambros Scope

Zurich Insurance

Head of Leadership & Future of Work

Ambros has a strong track record as a passionate leader in implementing and running people development initiatives in an international corporate environment. He is experienced as an HR business partner and management consultant for global corporate clients. His current team “Leadership and Future of Work” builds a direct connection between the strategy of Zurich Switzerland, leadership training and every employee’s individual development plan.

Stefanie Wittenbecher

DHL Freight

Head of Learning & Development (DACH, UK & IE)

Stefanie Wittenbecher is a certified business coach and Head of Learning & Development (People & Culture) at DHL Freight for the region Germany, Austria and Switzerland. In her various roles within DHL since 2016 she has always focused on Learning and Development for different target groups – from IT professional to forklift driver, from entry level to senior leader. Through this work, she has come to understand that getting people to learn and unlearn is anything but easy. She has set her sights on helping people in organizations to thrive. What does it take? A healthy organizational and learning culture, attractive offerings - and most importantly - a sustainable transfer into everyday working life. At DPDHL, she has set up an "Internal Coaching Pool" for this purpose, which enables all employees in the Group to access high-quality coaching from certified and trained colleagues free of charge and in confidence. An offer that is being used more and more. In her presentation, she will explain the pitfalls, experiences and best practices of such an initiative and what other companies need to consider to make it work.

Liz Rider

Volvo Cars

Former Global Head of Leadership and Culture I Inspirational Speaker I Agile HR

Liz Rider is the Former Global Head of Leadership at Volvo Cars headquarters in Gothenburg, Sweden. She worked at Volvo during the height of the pandemic and successfully digitalized leadership development, enabling more leaders and non-leaders access to essential leadership development. Prior to Volvo she consulted to a breadth of companies from the Fortune 500, where she specialized in development in leadership and high potential programmes. Now, in her own business she enables companies to create environments where people thrive, not just survive through human centric leadership.

She is a Chartered Psychologist and Assocaite Fellow of the British Psychological Society, as well as being a Coaching Psychologist. She brings together data from her academic background and combines this with real life experience to provide a pragmatic approach to her clients.

Diana Fayad

GE

Total Rewards Global Executive

As a Global Total Rewards leader for one of General Electric’s Power Portfolio businesses, Diana Fayad oversees all areas of compensation & benefits, among which executive compensation, annual pay reviews, incentive plans, performance recognition & talent retention.

Passionate about driving a strong EVP with a goal to stand out as a top employer company in today’s volatile environment, Diana acts as a strong partner to business leaders and SHRMs to concretize a “People First” culture.

She has started her career in GE 15 years ago in one of GE’s leadership programs, and has tapped into a variety of operational functions working in a fast-paced global multicultural environment, prior to making her way into the HR function based in Paris for the past 8 years. Her engineering backbone and fierce HR acumen, help her drive complex initiatives in a cross-functional organization and build a credible solid roadmap for teams and stakeholders.

Kerry Isherwood

Virgin Atlantic Ltd

Senior Manager – Leadership

Kerry is Senior Manager - Leadership at Virgin Atlantic with responsibility for leadership and management development (supporting current and future managers and leaders), apprenticeships, and professional development.

Kerry started her career in HR in the Third Sector working with UK-wide cancer charities, CLIC Sargent and Macmillan Cancer Support before moving into the private sector, first in Health and now the Aviation industry. The majority of her career has been in generalist and change management roles including significant restructures at Virgin Atlantic in 2020.
Kerry is passionate about the role coaching can play to fuel performance and engagement, and supporting Virgin Atlantic’s leaders to develop their mindset and self-awareness, enabling curiosity and personal growth. 
 
 

Sara Milesson

Trelleborg Industrial Solutions

VP HR

Sara is a business oriented, target driven HR professional with strong skills in Leadership Development, Strategic Organizational Development, Talent Management and Change Management.

Almost 20 years’ experience of various HR roles, operating in an international setting with strong business leaders from a variety of both cultures, functions and organizational backgrounds. Currently working as VP HR for the Business Area Industrial Solutions within the Trelleborg Group.

Charlotte Thomassen-Kinsey

Pandora

Global HR Director Digital & Technology

Charlotte is currently Global HR Director at Pandora, with responsibility for HR across Pandora’s Global Digital & Technology function. In addition, Charlotte leads Pandora’s global FutureWork approach, keeping a constant eye on trends and changes in the external context, to ensure that Pandora is futureproofing ways of working and the approach to work. She has a passion for transformation, and how we – as business leaders - manage and lead through this effectively. Charlotte has worked in commercial roles and HR roles, within both the FMCG and Retail sectors. Currently based in Copenhagen, Denmark, Charlotte has also lived and worked in the UK, Germany, The Netherlands, Bangladesh and the UAE.

Máté Szücs

COLLECTIVE CONCEPTION (on behalf of MICROSOFT)

Managing Consultant

Máté Szücs is a leading expert and consultant of digital workplace technologies, organizational strategy and change management with 20 years of experience. He is the managing consultant of COLLECTIVE CONCEPTION, a globally active enterprise productivity, learning and transformation consultancy, focusing on the Future of Work, Leadership and Organization since 2014. As a key international partner of Microsoft, he advised and helped over 500 organizations in 25 countries on strategies, adoption and change management of new technologies and new management approaches, improving daily work and key business outcomes.

Dr. Daniel Mühlbauer

Siemens

HR IT Solutions Expert

Meet Dr. Daniel Mühlbauer, a data-driven people tech expert with a passion for the meaningful and sensible use of intelligent technology and data in people management. With a focus on providing valuable impulses on the future of work, people analytics, and the sense and nonsense of AI-based people tech solutions, Daniel helps Siemens to stay ahead of the curve in this ever-evolving industry.
As a member of the global Ecosystems & Digitization Team at Siemens AG, Daniel provides crucial support to relevant projects, optimizing product portfolios, tech strategies, and ecosystems from recruitment to employee retention. Prior to his work with Siemens AG, Daniel accumulated over 10 years of experience as an HR Project Manager, HR Consultant, and co-founder of a successful German People Analytics startup.