Day One
Tuesday, May 18, 2021

11:00 – 11:05 am

Opening Remarks

Audrey McGuckin, Conference Program Director, The Conference Board

11:05 – 11:45 am

Enabling Success in the Future Skills Economy

Although leading-edge technology is a game-changer for every business model, let’s confirm that the robots are not coming to take all our jobs. Still, every leader in the industry needs to be prepared to enable organizational growth and success embracing curiosity, open collaboration, and a life-long learning mindset for user-centricity, agile ways of working, and digital platforms.

In this session, we will explore principles around user-centricity, agility, and the power of the digital platform. Additionally, we will share some practical advice for consideration as you develop your learning and leadership strategies.

Guillermo Miranda, Chief Learning Officer, Boeing

11:55 am  – 1:00 pm

Using the Five Core Energies to Build Connection and Inspiration

As we live and work through a perfect storm - with the range of technological, social, geo-political, mental health, and public health challenges - leaders are being called upon to strengthen work cultures from the inside-out, by nurturing connection and inspiration among their people. In this session, we will describe to you a new model for how to cultivate high performance and human thriving in the workplace by helping people tap into their five core energies, and we will do 4 interactive exercises to help you experience the power of these energies in building connection and inspiration. Come prepared to interact and to build meaningful ties with others in our audience.

Dr. Hitendra Wadhwa, Professor, Columbia Business School

Wagner Denuzzo, Head of Capabilities for Future of Work, Prudential Financial 

1:00 – 1:15 pm  Break

1:15 – 1:55 pm  

How to Create LD Programs that Actually Get Results

In a world of compounding change and complexity, talent professionals can’t afford for their Leadership Development programs to fall flat. And yet, many do. In this segment, AIIR’s Head of Executive Assessment Dr. Derek Lusk will moderate an all-star panel of talent leaders talking about how to get it right.

• How forward-looking organizations are approaching LD programs differently
• The essential ingredients for success
• The critical role data should play in planning, learning, and measurement

Melissa Perrotto, Global Talent Strategy Lead, Commercial and R&D, Bristol Myers Squibb

Robin Renschen, Director of Learning and Development, McCarthy Building Companies

Michelle Braden, Vice President, Global Talent Development, WEX Inc.

Moderator: Dr. Derek Lusk, Head of Leadership Development, AIIR Consulting

1:55 – 2:00 pm 

Cognitive Energizer Part 1 ­- Leading in the Perennial Generation

How to be more Perennial

Are you looking to create a more vibrant and diverse culture? It starts with you! Before you can see positive shifts in organizational culture, leaders must take on the responsibility of supporting cultural impacts through their actions. Aside from what generation you might identify with, Perennials strip the stereotypes of generations and have traits that, as leaders, enable us to look beyond group differences and gather insights on individuals to understand our workforce and develop our talent strategies. During this Cognitive Energizer, you will identify 3 main qualities of Perennials and walk away with an action to be a more curious, growth-minded, and compassionate leader.

Alycia Angle, Worldwide Talent Development Partner, Texas Instruments

2:00 – 2:05 pm  Break

2:05 – 2:40 pm   

Being an Effective Leader During Turbulent Times 

Like creating a career, there is no playbook to what makes an effective leader. Great leaders will evolve with their learnings, but what are those tried-and-true best practices for leading through change? Join this session to hear about the five keys to effective leadership.

Lynne Doherty, EVP Global Sales and Marketing, McAfee

2:40 - 2:45 pm  Break

2:45 – 3:15 pm  

A Personal Leadership Story on Intel’s Black Leadership Council

As co-chair of Intel’s Black Leadership Council, Cory Hooks, Senior Director of Corporate Strategic Procurement, Intel will share how their program ‘A3IS – African Americans advancing Intel’s Supply Chain’ has changed the face of diversity within Intel.

Within A3IS, there is a Progression Committee – a watch list of candidates of top performers to ensure they are progressing via quarterly check-ins with managers and active 1:1 mentoring and sponsorship. This whole A3IS program is part of Intel’s Global Diversity, Inclusion, and Social Impact teamwork to lean in on the community to help drive recruit, retain progress.  

Cory Hooks, Senior Director of Corporate Strategic Procurement, Intel

3:15 – 3:20 pm

Closing Remarks

Audrey McGuckin, Conference Program Director, The Conference Board

11:00 – 11:05 am

Opening Remarks

Audrey McGuckin, Conference Program Director, The Conference Board

11:05 – 11:50 am

Re-employing America’s Mothers is an Urgent Business Priority

2.5 million women have left the workforce since February 2020. Women’s workforce participation rate has fallen to its lowest level since the 80s. Many left because of childcare challenges stemming from the pandemic. As schools finally start to fully re-open, how can we as leaders actively work to re-employ these women and give them opportunities to accelerate their careers within our companies? Part of the answer, ironically, may predate the pandemic by nearly a decade. Back in 2008 Goldman Sachs and a few other Wall Street banks created the first “returnships” -- a program specifically designed to create employment opportunities for people, mostly women, who’d exited the paid workforce for caregiving. Since then roughly 150 companies have launched similar programs. But in the wake of the massive impact of caregiving during COVID much more is needed. What can executives do to lead in the mission to re-employ America’s mothers?

Join Tami Forman, CEO of nonprofit Path Forward, and a panel of executives from small, medium, and large companies for a discussion on how launching a ‘returnship’ program has impacted their organization and what they learned along the way.

Audrey Van Belleghem, Business Lead, Facebook

Janet Van Huysse, SVP, Chief People Officer, Cloudflare

Ulysses J. Smith, Head of Diversity, Inclusion & Belonging, Blend

Moderator: Tami Forman, CEO, Path Forward

11:50 am - 12:00 pm

Cognitive Energizer Part 2 - Leading in the Perennial Generation

Grow where you’re planted

A perennial is only as healthy as its environment. Today, there are many factors and unknowns that can knock us off our game – a pandemic, competitors, negative behaviors in the workplace, or our own failures and missteps. The key to surviving and thriving when circumstances that are out of your control are surrounding you is to learn ways to stay emotionally agile and resilient.

In part two of this Cognitive Energizer “Leading in the Perennial Generation,” participants will identify potential harmful threats to their environment – anything from a lack of engagement in their role, to leading in a virtual environment. They will walk away from this activity with identified threats to their success and ways to demonstrate resilience, embrace failure, and be emotionally agile despite the ever-changing environment.

Alycia Angle, Worldwide Talent Development Partner, Texas Instruments

12:00– 12:10 pm    Break

12:10 – 12:35 pm

Building Leadership Capabilities at Chevron Corporation

During this fireside chat, we will engage in a robust conversation and learn how Chevron is developing leaders of the future by focusing on capabilities such as resilience, creating psychological safety and building trust. We will also explore how Chevron is growing coaching capabilities in their leaders to allow them to be even more successful.

Amy Lui Abel, PhD, Vice President, Human Capital, The Conference Board

Stacy Eng, Chief Learning & Talent Officer, Chevron Corporation

12:35 – 12:45 pm  Break

12:45 – 12:50 pm  

Cognitive Energizer Part 3 - Leading in the Perennial Generation

Consider the Forest for the Trees

Now it’s time to zoom out and see the forest for the trees. As leaders, you’re not only responsible for understanding your core identity and growing these perennial qualities for yourself, but also creating an environment for other perennials to flourish. Supporting individuals and teams through their career journey is when we can see positive cultural shifts in organizations. In the third portion of this Cognitive Energizer, you will walk away with actions to start a discussion with your team about creating structure around failure, mentoring and recognizing others, and contributing to a virtual and in-person, positive culture. 

Alycia Angle, Worldwide Talent Development Partner, Texas Instruments

12:50 -1:20 pm  

Getting Personal: Inclusion, Culture, and Leadership

President of Banfield Pet Hospital Brian Garish will share from rich experience some keys for leaders to personalize their engagement with employees. First, emphasize equity and inclusion in order to foster a positive culture in which people can bring their best, most authentic selves to work. Next, create a two-way dialogue that allows you to listen at scale, learning from and supporting change for your workforce. Then, act on what you learn — even if it means investing in non-traditional benefits like mental-health training and student-loan payoffs as Banfield has done. This is not a one-time process, rather an ongoing cycle that allows you to continuously identify how you and your organization can make a better world. Brian believes that when leaders focus on the intersection of their business with societal wellbeing, they will never go back.

Brian Garish, President, Banfield Pet Hospital

1:20 – 1:30 pm Break

1:30 – 2:10 pm

Better Culture Starts with Better Conversations

Description: Better culture starts with Better Conversations. Conversations permeate every aspect of the modern workforce and the quality of these interactions either enable or inhibit organizational performance.  In this session, you will learn how taking a systemic approach to better conversations can build a strong organizational culture and drive performance.

Shelley Thompkins, Leadership Solutions Partner, Center for Creative Leadership

2:10 – 2:20 pm  Break

2:20 – 2:50 pm

What’s Keeping you up at Night? Learning how to Fail Forward Together

What’s keeping you up at night? In our world today, we have all been affected by what’s going on around us – a pandemic, racial injustice, changing political climate, and navigating new ways to work and play.

You are not alone in this. As we continue to navigate our new normal, we can lean on one another, as professionals and leaders, to learn from our setbacks, offer words of encouragement, or collaborate with others to solve our most pressing challenges. Even though we can’t always see one another, we can find creative ways to connect and support each other.

In this session, you will have the opportunity to share what’s keeping you up at night – a challenge you’re trying to solve for at work, a failure you are recovering from, or an issue that is affecting you personally or professionally – in a safe place with others that might be going through the same challenges. You’ll walk away with ideas, encouragement, and support from other leaders and a method to release, reframe, and replace what’s keeping you stuck.

Alycia Angle, Worldwide Talent Development Partner, Texas Instruments

2:50 – 3:00 pm  Break

3:00 – 3:45 pm

Panel Discussion: Leadership for the Future 

The pandemic has been a catalyst for accelerating change in the world of learning and leadership development. We are experiencing fully virtual learning, the democratization of learning, and creative ways of bringing people together to instill culture and build relationships. Organizations are revisiting their leadership models to determine if certain skills and behaviors should be emphasized and further developed for the post-pandemic world. Talent and learning leaders are seeking the best ways to build culture, community, and collaboration to benefit the business and employees.  

This session will be a panel discussion where our panelists will share the journey in their organizations, their learnings, and plans for the future. We will follow the panel discussion with an interactive member exchange.  

We will explore questions such as:  

• What are organizations doing to prepare leaders to lead in the post-pandemic, hybrid environment?  
• How is the leadership development strategy shifting and what is staying the same? How much will remain virtual? 
• What are some of the successes in designing for interactivity, networking, and building organizational culture? How is impact being measured?

Molly Nagler, Chief Learning Officer, PepsiCo 

Hannah Foldes, Talent Director, Global Operations, General Mills 

Manu Juneja, Global Talent, Inclusion & Diversity, HR, GSK

Moderator: Denise Broz, Program Director, The Conference Board

3:45 – 3:50 pm  

Closing Remarks

Audrey McGuckin, Conference Program Director, The Conference Board