Alana Karen is a veteran 17-year leader at Google and is long-recognized leader in the tech industry. She’s committed to growing people-focused leaders at Google and beyond, most recently with her series “Still Learning: 17 Years of Lessons Learned at Google” published on LinkedIn and Women 2.0 to hundreds of thousands of readers. Joining Google in 2001, Alana worked on the original Google AdWords product and eventually founded and grew a global team responsible for creating, implementing and maintaining product policies for AdWords and other products. As part of her responsibilities, she ran Google Grants as well, a program to give free ads to non-profits. Alana then joined Google Fiber, where she built the customer service and installs teams, ultimately earning a “Gold Stevie Award” for Customer Service Department of the Year in Telecommunications. She then designed, proposed and launched an internal job placement program, the first of its kind, for 800+ employees.

In her current role, Alana’s scaling program management for the Google Search infrastructure engineering, tackling growth and culture issues, and developing internal developer relations programs.  Alana also is a mom to 3 children and a dog in Palo Alto with her husband, Mike, a former Googler and start-up leader. Alana’s route into Technology was non-traditional from the beginning of her professional career: she holds a B.A. in History from the University of Virginia.

For over 12 years, Alex has helped coach and train our clients’ managers and internal trainers/facilitators on how to use simple skills and habits combined with our software to increase results, improve engagement and build leadership skills.

Alex has a passion for helping individuals and teams make work easier, reduce stress and increase collaboration while reaching company goals. As an experienced trainer, she demonstrates flexibility to address the group’s top priorities and concerns while using energy and humor to keep them focused and productive. Alex is always excited to work with client trainers and facilitators, enabling them to feel confident and prepared to sustain the desired culture from within. She is skilled at providing managers with proven best practices that work for varied leadership styles, helping them create the environment for a more engaged workforce.

Last, but not least, she is proud of how these same techniques work to support the smart, dedicated team at Reward Gateway.

Amanda Reszkowski serves as Clinical Director of Executive Optimization at R3 Continuum, bringing nearly 15 years’ experience in the field of behavioral health.

As the Clinical Director for Executive Optimization, Amanda oversees both the clinical and non-clinical solution suite designed to discretely support high-level executives both personally and professionally.  She has consulted with Fortune 500 companies on issues related to disruptive event management and behavioral health literacy and awareness in the workplace.

Amanda is known as an adept strategic partner to her clients; understanding their unique cultural needs, and collaborating to implement behavioral health solutions that integrate resilience and optimize executives.

She holds a Masters in Social Work from the University of Pittsburgh, where her focus was direct practice in mental health.  She is a Certified Employee Assistance Professional and an Internationally Certified Gambling Counselor.

Andrew Saidy is a Human Resources executive with more than 15 years of experience with public and private Multinationals and International Organizations. Specialized in leading Digital HR Transformations & Disruptions, Andrew has also held various roles in Talent Acquisition & Management, Executive Coaching, HR Business Partnering and Learning & Development. Andrew currently leads Schneider Electric’s ambitious Talent Digitization agenda, bringing digitization, AI and Machine Learning to Schneider’s HR ecosystem.

Anita Ward is a Cultural Anthropologist whose career has been dedicated to culture, behavior, and the growth and transformation of organizations. Considered a corporate shaman, Anita has led growth, development and technology in organizations that include Chase, American General, Safelite Autoglass, Occidental Petroleum, and the Cleveland Clinic Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health. Most recently as President of Operation HOPE, she transformed the non-profit and generated 553% growth in revenue, locations and partnerships in 3 years. She is now the Chief Development Officer of Salary Finance, a fintech company focused on solving the root cause of financial stress: a lack of employee savings, caused by high levels of high-interest personal debt. Anita was named in the 2019 Top 100 Fintech for Sustainable Development Goals Influencers list that recognizes leaders who are leveraging the power of fintech and blockchain technology to create a positive impact on the future. Anita’s work has been featured in Real Change Leaders, Leading Outside the Lines, Fast Company, and Forbes ASAP.

Ben Eubanks is the Principal Analyst at Lighthouse Research & Advisory and the author of Artificial Intelligence for HR: Use AI to Build a Successful Workforce.

Ben is an expert in the future of work as it relates to talent, technology, and innovation. His book on artificial intelligence debuted at the #1 spot on the New and Noteworthy list on Amazon upon its release and is currently being translated into Chinese.

Previously an HR executive for a global technology startup, he currently heads up research and operations at Lighthouse Research & Advisory, a human capital advisory services firm. He works with HR, talent, and learning leaders across the globe to solve their most pressing business challenges with a research-based perspective tempered by practical, hands-on experience.

He has developed hundreds of reports, case studies, and other resources to support his life’s mission: making HR better, one HR pro at a time. Ben is the founder of upstartHR, a blog that has touched the lives of more than one million business leaders since its inception, and he also hosts “We’re Only Human,” a podcast that examines the intersection of people and technology in the workplace.

Most importantly, he has four children, a wonderful wife of ten-plus years, and a preference for running in a variety of outlandish races for fun.

Charlie Knuth leads strategic research initiatives at Scoop, the largest carpooling solution in the United States. As Head of Market Research, Charlie investigates the short- and long-term impact the commute is having on us as individuals, the organizations we work for, and the communities we live in.

Prior to joining Scoop in 2018, Charles spent over a decade in a progression of roles within CEB/The Corporate Executive Board’s Human Resources Practice, which was subsequently acquired by Gartner in 2017. While there, he consulted F100 CHROs and their teams on designing and measuring employee programs to support key business initiatives such as revenue growth, performance improvement, cost optimization. Notable projects include the redesign of partner-level succession management for a large consulting firm, evaluating the effectiveness of global talent acquisition processes and teams for an e-commerce company, and change management for HR M&A of multinational manufacturers.

He received his Bachelor of Science in Business Administration (Accounting & Finance) from the University of New Hampshire.

Daniel Guetta is Senior Lecturer in Discipline at the Columbia Business School, and the Director of the Business Analytics Initiative at the Columbia Business School and Columbia Engineering. His research focuses on the ways companies can harness the power of data and analytics to drive value. He teaches classes in business analytics, including data science, pricing, supply chain management, and technical tools such as python and cloud computing. He has authored award-winning case studies in the area with a number of companies, and co-authored “Python for MBAs”, due Fall 2020. Prior to joining the faculty at Columbia, he was a data scientist and engagement manager at Palantir Technologies, where he worked with clients around the world in fields ranging from finance to pharmaceuticals to help them solve their hardest problems using data. He completed his undergraduate studies in physics and mathematics at Cambridge and MIT, and holds a PhD in Operations Research from the Columbia Business School.

Darren is president of Engage2Excel’s Recruitment Solutions division. He is responsible for the recruitment business strategy and in his three year tenure, grown the division from a mid-market provider to an Enterprise RPO driving force. During his 30+ years in recruitment he has led global high volume RPO programs with Fortune 100 companies and helped organizations grow from 100’s of employees to hundreds of thousands. He is a believer in and passionate about helping organizations find and keep talent. He works with CHRO’s and senior talent acquisition leaders to move them toward a transformational recruitment maturity model that positions them to compete for the best talent in their markets, utilize technology and adopt best practices to become more efficient on their journey to support their organizational goals.

Dr. Jeff Smith is the Director of the Best-Self Academy at 15Five, as well as a cognitive psychologist and foster dog enthusiast. Jeff’s mission is using science to help people, teams, and organizations thrive. Jeff has an eclectic background, including leadership roles in learning and development, performance, strengths-based assessments, product, design, UX, CX, and innovation. Jeff loves to translate qualitative research into what’s next – he has been named a Master Inventor (twice), co-invented the Aspirational Workplace Transformation Process, co-authored over 125 IP publications, and is a co-inventor on 15 issued US patents. Jeff received his PhD in Psychology with a minor in Design from North Carolina State University.

Daniel Guetta is Senior Lecturer in Discipline at the Columbia Business School, and the Director of the Business Analytics Initiative at the Columbia Business School and Columbia Engineering. His research focuses on the ways companies can harness the power of data and analytics to drive value. He teaches classes in business analytics, including data science, pricing, supply chain management, and technical tools such as python and cloud computing. He has authored award-winning case studies in the area with a number of companies, and co-authored “Python for MBAs”, due Fall 2020. Prior to joining the faculty at Columbia, he was a data scientist and engagement manager at Palantir Technologies, where he worked with clients around the world in fields ranging from finance to pharmaceuticals to help them solve their hardest problems using data. He completed his undergraduate studies in physics and mathematics at Cambridge and MIT, and holds a PhD in Operations Research from the Columbia Business School.

Emma Maurer is the Vice President of Enterprise Health for Peerfit, the market leader in connecting employers and carriers with personalized fitness experiences. With nearly 15 years in corporate health promotion and population health management, Emma has authored a results-oriented implementation strategy that can be applied to all organizations regardless of size, industry or geographical location. Throughout her career, she has maintained that health promotion is not “cookie-cutter”, but rather needs to be tailored to the uniqueness of each organization. Her strategic approach is the holy grail for employers motivated to control costs related to employee health and productivity. At Peerfit, Emma leads the enterprise health team by developing goals and strategies to grow Peerfit’s enterprise health division. Prior to joining the Peerfit team, Emma was Director of St. Vincent’s HealthWorks, which provides corporate health and wellness programs to employers in Northeast Florida. She was also director of wellness services at GBS Benefits and wellness director for The Leavitt Group. Emma received her Bachelor’s degree in recreation from RMIT University in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.