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.

Cody Martin

Johnson & Johnson

Director of Talent Acquisition – Global Head of Talent Access Intelligence

Global HR Leader with 20 years of experience partnering with business leaders, designing talent solutions and leading people analytics and compensation initiatives. I approach my work through collaborative problem solving; seeking the optimal solution for the individual and the organization. I am driven to learn and improve how people work and build conditions to unlock talent.

Kat Zacharia

JP Morgan Chase & Co.

Head of Organizational Effectiveness, Consumer and Community Bank

Kat Zacharia is the Global HRBP head for Legal supporting the General Counsel and the department of attorneys across all lines of business. Previously, she was the Head of Senior Team Effectiveness leading a global team to support senior leadership teams across the firm in their development into high performing and value creating teams. In her role, she also delivered executive development programs serving the top 1000 leaders at the firm. 

Prior to joining JP Morgan in 2018, Kat worked at Korn Ferry Hay Group, where she was a Client Partner, helping global clients in Healthcare, Media and Entertainment, Technology and Non-Profit with executive and organizational development.  A social cultural anthropologist, she brings with her deep experience in culture transformation, organizational assessment, high-performing teams and diversity, equity and inclusion. She embeds storytelling in everything she designs and delivers. 

Kat holds an M.B.A from Tulane University and Master of Arts, in Social Anthropology from York University in Toronto. She did her doctoral studies in Education, Culture and Society at the University of Pennsylvania before she made a career pivot and moved into media and entertainment to lead an industry-wide diversity and inclusion initiative focused on leadership acceleration and workforce development. 

She lives in Montclair, New Jersey with her husband and two children.  She has been an advocate and volunteer for youth and microenterprise development throughout her career. She is a hot yoga instructor and is feeding an emerging love for gardening and improv.

Claude Silver

VaynerMedia

Global Chief Heart Officer

Claude Silver is VaynerMedia’s (and the world's) first-ever Global Chief Heart Officer, tasked with fusing empathy with agency to unlock employee potential and foster a culture of belonging across the 1200+ person organization. Between her deep education in psychology and spirituality and the two decades she has spent as an advertising strategist, Claude has been studying and influencing human behavior for over three decades. 

Outside of her role at VaynerMedia, Claude speaks globally about the need for heart-led leadership in today’s workplace and the importance of treating “employees” like people, not numbers. Her success in guiding client relationships, global brand strategies, operations, management, and culture is driven by her abiding passion for creating spaces in which people can show up as their true selves and thrive as a result.
 

Angela Cheng-Cimini

Harvard Business Publishing

Senior Vice President, Talent and Chief Human Resources Officer

Angela joined Harvard Business Publishing as Senior Vice President, Talent & Chief Human Resources Officer in 2021. In this role, Cheng-Cimini leads the Human Resources and Facilities & Administration units, spearheading efforts to develop a talent roadmap that supports the business strategy and creates a deeply engaged and diverse workforce.

Angela brings 30 years of both generalist and specialist Human Resources experience, having worked across consumer product goods, professional services, and high-tech as well as nonprofits. She has shepherded businesses through start-up, growth, and maturity with key responsibility for helping organizations identify and build the necessary organizational capabilities. Prior to joining Harvard Business Publishing, Angela was at ClearMotion, Inc. an automotive technology startup where she accelerated the evolution of the HR function from administrative to strategic. She also served as the Global Head of Human Resources for Crabtree & Evelyn, where she led an international team spanning four continents and prepared the brick-and-mortar business to go completely digital. Angela sits on the Alumni Board of Directors for Cornell University; serves as an HR Venture Adviser for SemperVirens, an early-stage venture fund that invests in technology transforming healthcare, work, and financial wellness; and is Board Director for the T. Howard Foundation, a mission-driven organization dedicated to increasing diversity in the media industry.

Lily Benjamin, Ph.D.

Amazon

Head of Talent Management & Organization Optimization

Dr. Lily Benjamin is a business psychologist with experience optimizing organizational health to increase engagement, productivity, and safety through high -impact large-scale change management strategies. She integrates DEI in all people and processes, specializing in organization diagnosis, organizational design, cost-effectiveness, disputes mediation, negotiation, leadership development, talent management, succession planning, performance management, and executive coaching. Dr. Benjamin is recognized as a strategic, decisive, and visionary leader who motivates multicultural teams to perform at their peak. She attributes her success in navigating through change-intensive business environments to being a keen assessor of risk and opportunity with tested business judgment. 

Kristy Singletary

Pfizer

Director, L&D Strategy Lead, Enabling Functions

Kristy Singletary (she/her) is the Global Head of Learning and Development for Enabling Functions at Pfizer. Her focus is understanding and aligning with Business Priorities and strategic goals that will enable L&D to advance the Pfizer Learning Pipeline. Her core principles of DEI stems from her background of leading DEI enterprise education and awareness as well as targeted developmental programs. She has over 15 years of experience as a leader, trainer, and strategist in many industries ranging from pharma, tech, government, and military.  Her background includes spearheading innovative learnings that focus on fostering safe spaces to welcome difficult conversations, addressing systemic and implicit bias, building cultural awareness, and driving inclusion strategies to help facilitate effective integration across differences. She is passionate about cultivating inclusive workplaces, creating impactful experiences, and the overall health and wellness betterment of employees. Her notable achievement is designing an interactive diversity and inclusion learner’s journey that is implemented across Fortune 20 companies.
Kristy currently holds a master's degree in Public Administration and a bachelor's degree in Accounting and Marketing. She spends her time between New York City, Philadelphia, and Washington, DC. Kristy also serves as a Public Affairs Officer in the District of Columbia Army National Guard.
 

Jane Datta

NASA

Former Chief Human Capital Officer

Jane Datta is a human resources leader with over thirty years of experience. She recently retired from NASA, where she was the chief human capital officer, responsible for building the talent for supporting the agency’s mission, delivering out-of-this-world human resources services, and shaping NASA’s culture to maintain high employee engagement. Jane embraced that “we are people leaders in the people business,” which guided her oversight of NASA’s human capital policies, practices, and operations. One of her most rewarding achievements at NASA was overseeing the transformation of decentralized human capital services across ten centers to a centralized line of business. Prior to NASA, Jane was a human resources consultant at Booz Allen Hamilton, and held multiple human resources roles at United Technologies Corporation. Jane currently provides consulting services through JCD Advisory, LLC, and is a senior fellow for human capital with The Conference Board, serving on their steering committee for the Federal Government Council. 

Jane holds an MBA from Northwestern University’s Kellogg Graduate School of Management and a BA in music from Yale University. She was a 2022 Presidential Rank Award recipient – Meritorious Executive, the highest award for federal government employees, bestowed on a select group of the Senior Executive Service for exceptional performance.

Jeff Waldman

ScaleHR

Founder & Principal

Jeff Waldman is the Founder and Principal at ScaleHR, a growing company that is hyper-focused on building the skills and careers of business leaders and HR professionals, in the technology sector. They have launched a variety of products including training programs and workshops, learning communities, coaching and mentorship programs, and more. 

With more than 23 years of experience in leadership, HR, HR tech and entrepreneurship, Jeff has worked with organizations and people in dozens of countries around the world. He is a relentless community builder and has founded and participated in many industry initiatives including SocialHRCamp, HR Leaders Collective, Rethinking Disabilities, DisruptHR Toronto, DisruptHR Vancouver, and many more. Jeff is an avid blogger and speaker and has facilitated hundreds of talks on a variety of topics across the HR, Talent, and HR Technology spectrums. He has advised many startups and currently sits as a member of Venture for Canada’s Employer Advisory Council.

Originally from Vancouver, Jeff is currently living in the north part of the Greater Toronto Area with his amazing wife and three awesome young boys with whom he spends his personal time. He also coaches his kids’ sports teams and is an avid hockey player and snowboarder.