NextUp Executive Forum and Symposium | Day 1 Speakers
Carolyn Baird
Carolyn Baird
Carolyn Heller Baird is a Strategy Principal and the Global Research Leader for Customer Experience and Design with the IBM Institute for Business Value, IBM’s business strategy think tank.
Carolyn conducts research and produces thought leadership on a variety of topics impacting customer experience, marketing, and digital transformation. She also covers workplace issues, such as employee experience, and she directs the IBV’s Women in Leadership study series. Her work spans more than 25 years with IBM, where—in addition to her executive consulting role—she has held numerous positions, including leading internal communications for IBM Consulting-North America.
Carolyn lives in Atlanta, Georgia and can be reached at linkedin.com/in/carolyn-heller-baird and cbaird@us.ibm.com.
Solve Pipeline Problems for Good
See Agenda12:10 pm - 1:00 pm
Lisa Baird
Lisa Baird
Lisa Baird is a proven leader across private and non-profit sectors where she has been instrumental in building some of the world’s most iconic brands and sports properties. Her diverse marketing, communications and sales expertise spans sports, media, technology, healthcare, consumer and automotive. She has a demonstrated track record of revenue and profit growth. Lisa currently serves on the board of Cantaloupe (NASDAQ: CTLP), a leading provider of technology for self-serve commerce. Her previous board service includes Fox Racing (acquired by Vista Outdoor), GK Elite, the International Hall of Fame of Tennis, and the Women’s Sports Foundation.
Most recently, Lisa was the Commissioner of the National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL), the world’s leading professional women’s soccer league. During her tenure, she signed groundbreaking media and corporate sponsorships, led the industry as the first pro sports league to return to play in North America in 2020 and expanded the league into three new markets. Prior to joining the NWSL, she was the Chief Marketing Officer at New York Public Radio and served in the same capacity for the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee for over a decade. Lisa created and launched the Team USA brand, widely recognized as one of the most valuable brands in sports. Until 2008, she was SVP of marketing and consumer products for the National Football League (NFL). Prior to joining the NFL, Baird gained over twenty years of marketing experience in global organizations managing the world’s most well-known brands. She was the SVP of Worldwide Marketing Communications at IBM. She spent five years at General Motors and six years in the health care industry in positions of increasing responsibility at Johnson & Johnson, Bristol Myers Squibb, and Warner Lambert. She began her career at Procter & Gamble where she spent six years in brand management. In 2021, she was awarded the McElroy Award from the P&G Alumni Association for her achievements in consumer marketing.
Lisa is a graduate of Schreyer Honors College at Pennsylvania State University, holds an MBA from the Smeal Business School and is a recipient of the Distinguished Alumni Award.
Fearless: How to Ask the Hard Questions
See Agenda9:10 am - 10:00 am
Solve Pipeline Problems for Good
See Agenda12:10 pm - 1:00 pm
Pamela Morris-Thornton
Pamela Morris-Thornton
Bold Strategies for Building Next-Gen Leaders
See Agenda1:10 pm - 2:00 pm
Nicole Zube
Nicole Zube
Nicole Zube joined SpartanNash in September 2022 as Senior Vice President and Chief Human Resources Officer. She oversees the HR function, including SpartanNash’s People First approach to attracting, developing and retaining diverse talent.
Prior to SpartanNash, Nicole was Head of HR for Kellogg Company’s U.S. Commercial organization across all product categories. During her 10 years at Kellogg, Nicole served in a steady progression of senior leadership roles across North America and Europe that focused on talent, culture, organizational design and business transformation. Prior to Kellogg, Nicole spent eight years in various talent acquisition and HR generalist roles at Procter & Gamble, where she supported multiple acquisitions and divestitures.
Nicole earned her bachelor’s degree from Northern Kentucky University, where she played collegiate volleyball, and her MBA from Xavier University. She has been recognized as a 2016 Top Women in Grocery by Progressive Grocer, a 2020 and 2021 Top 10 Global Diversity HR Champion by the Global Diversity List, and the 2021 LEAD Ambassador of the Year by LEAD Network Europe.
Bold Strategies for Building Next-Gen Leaders
See Agenda1:10 pm - 2:00 pm
Mike Theilmann
Mike Theilmann
Mike Theilmann was appointed Albertsons Companies EVP and Chief Human Resources Officer in August 2019. A progressive, employee experience-driven leader, Mike has amassed a wealth of experience in human resources over his nearly 30-year career with Diageo, PepsiCo, Yum and JC Penney.
Mike began his career as a pension actuary and moving into human resources with Diageo. Upon joining PepsiCo he worked in the Taco Bell and Pizza Hut divisions in HR roles. In 1997 Yum became a public company providing Mike the opportunity to be involved with a world-class board of directors through an IPO. At Yum he served in senior human resources positions including VP of People Services, VP of Human Resources for its Europe operations and SVP Chief People Officer for the international business. Mike also served as Chief Human Resources and Administration Officer of J.C. Penney from 2005 to 2009 where he partnered with the executive team to accelerate growth through highly-engaged associates with a customer-centric focus. He was promoted to group executive vice president, where he led store operations, supply chain management, human resources and property development. Prior to joining Albertsons Companies Mike was the Global Managing Partner of Heidrick & Struggles’ Human Resources practice.
From 2013 to 2017 Mike led a venture fund focused on seed stage investments in technology-driven companies. He serves on the boards Fountain and Catapult Health and is an advisor to SemperVirens venture fund. Mike has had successful exits from Bypass Mobile (sold to FiServ) and Leapyear (sold to Snowflake). Mike also serves on the boards of the NextUp and the Retail Advisory Board at Wharton Business School.
Mike holds a bachelor’s degree from Gustavus Adolphus College and a master’s in physics from the University of Nebraska.
Bold Strategies for Building Next-Gen Leaders
See Agenda1:10 pm - 2:00 pm
Karen Jones
Karen Jones
Karen leads the Learning, Development, and DEI&B work at NextUp. Her team manages the design and delivery of the leadership development programs and assessment processes for Partner organizations. Karen has worked within the Organization and Leadership Development disciplines for more than 20 years. She has led at the executive level within the corporate sector for Fortune 50 companies. Her experience provides a keen ability to design and deliver optimal solutions for Members and Corporate Partners alike. Karen has a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from Grambling State University and a Master of Arts in Organization Leadership from Gonzaga University.
Bold Strategies for Building Next-Gen Leaders
See Agenda1:10 pm - 2:00 pm
Strategic Conversations
See Agenda3:05 pm - 3:50 pm
Power Moves: Women On Boards
See Agenda2:45 pm - 3:30 pm
David Glasgow
David Glasgow
David Glasgowis the founding executive director of the Meltzer Center for Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging, an adjunct professor at NYU School of Law, and coauthor of the award-winning book Say the Right Thing: How to Talk About Identity, Diversity, and Justice (Simon & Schuster, 2023). A nationally recognized expert on allyship as well as the law of diversity, equity, and inclusion, David has written for a range of publications including theAmerican Journal of Law and Equality, theLos Angeles Times, the Boston Globe, TIME, and the Harvard Business Review. He was the lead author on Black Theatre United’s “New Deal for Broadway,” a historic agreement to transform the commercial theatre industry. A dual-qualified attorney in New York and Australia, David has a BA in philosophy and an LLB (First Class Honors) from the University of Melbourne, Australia, and a Master of Laws (LLM) from NYU School of Law, where he was awarded the David H. Moses Memorial Prize and the George Colin Award. Prior to his role at the Meltzer Center, he practiced employment, labor relations, and antidiscrimination law at international law firm King & Wood Mallesons.
How to Defend Inclusive Programs
See Agenda2:20 pm - 3:05 pm
Nellie Borrero
Nellie Borrero
Unwavering Commitment
See Agenda3:50 pm - 4:35 pm
Stuart Claxton
Stuart Claxton
Stuart has over 20 years experience in the marketing and communications field. Born in England, he relocated to New York in 2002 to launch the Guinness World Records office in the U.S., re-aligning the business from print to digital and creating revenue streams which generated $13M+ in additional revenue within 3 years. In 2015 he joined the ranks of Time Inc. where he led ideation, planning and execution of client programs across all category verticals for the Fortune and TIME brands working alongside blue chip brands such as Mercedes, Samsung and IBM. A bilingual Spanish-speaker, Stuart then joined TelevisaUnivision in 2019 as Senior Director, Ad Sales Marketing where he was responsible for the B2B marketing and communications strategy supporting TelevisaUnivision’s position as the world’s leading Hispanic media company generating $1B+ in annual revenue. An avid traveler he has lived in England, Spain, Mexico, Hungary and the U.S. He loves to read, eat good food and hopes that one day England will win the World Cup. He has a 17-year-old son who is taller than him and currently lives in Brooklyn, New York with his wife Anne Burrell and their two cats, Nancy and Marcia.
Unwavering Commitment
See Agenda3:50 pm - 4:35 pm
Stephanie Strings
Stephanie Strings
Welcome to Washington D.C.
See Agenda6:00 pm - 8:00 pm
NextUp Executive Forum 2024 | Day 2 Speakers
Dagmar Boggs
Dagmar Boggs
Dagmar Boggs is President of Foodservice and On-Premise for the North America Operating Unit. In this role, she leads the organization’s Sales, Strategic Planning, Marketing, and Commercial teams.
Throughout her 27-year Coca-Cola career, Boggs has held leadership positions across key business functions in North America. As Chief Customer Officer, she led value-based partnerships with National Retail, Foodservice and On-Premise customers. As President of South Operations, she had Profit and Loss responsibility for a $4.2 billion business encompassing all beverage categories delivered via all routes to markets in an expanded Southeast region. As Chief Retail Sales & Bottler Operations Officer, she led growth strategy for 67 independent U.S. bottlers, as well as national and global retail customers. Prior roles included President of the Global 7-Eleven Account Team, Vice President of the Global Burger King Account Team, and Vice President of Global Customer Strategic Capabilities.
Boggs serves on the Boards of the National Restaurant Association and NextUp. She is a member of the Women’s Foodservice Forum (WFF) and The Coca-Cola Company’s Global Women’s Leadership Council. Dagmar earned a Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA) degree from Rollins College and an Executive MBA from the Goizueta Business School at Emory University.
Welcome
See Agenda9:00 am - 9:10 am
Sri Rajagopalan
Sri Rajagopalan
The Risk-Ready Leader
See Agenda11:00 am - 11:45 am
Veronica Fernandez
Veronica Fernandez
Veronica Fernandez is Visa’s Senior Vice President and Regional Head of North America Commercial Solutions. Visa Commercial Solutions (VCS) enables businesses to thrive through products that provide better cash flow, administrative efficiency, control, and acceptance. From small business to large corporate and governments, VBS products cover all forms of business spending, including Small Business, Commercial, and Virtual Cards. Veronica is responsible for the business, strategy and go to market for the U.S. and Canada.
Veronica joined Visa in February of 2007, and has led numerous teams across Visa Commercial Solutions, North America Merchant and Prepaid. Prior to joining Visa, Veronica held product management and business development roles at U.S. Bank Corporate Payment Systems in Minneapolis, MN.
Veronica earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Minnesota. She is passionate about the advancement of underrepresented at Visa and in Silicon Valley. Veronica sits on the Board of NextUp – Network of Executive Women as a Director-at-Large and is also on the Advisory Board for Latinas in Tech Bay Area.
Ms. Fernandez is a native of Buenos Aires, Argentina and lives with her husband and ten-year-old daughter in the Bay Area.
The Art of Authentic Leadership
See Agenda3:50 pm - 4:35 pm
Jennifer Mann
Jennifer Mann
Jennifer Mann is EVP and President, North America Operating Unit for The CocaCola Company. Mann began leading the company’s largest operating unit on January 1, 2023, with a focus on accelerating growth as a purpose-driven total beverage company.
Mann is a proven operator with more than 25 years of experience at The CocaCola Company. Her growth mindset and people-first style has fueled her success leading high-performing teams across many areas of the CocaCola business.
Most recently, Mann served as president of Global Ventures and was responsible for globally scaling acquisitions and brands, including Costa Coffee and CocaCola’s investment in Monster Beverage Corp. Prior to Global Ventures, Mann was chief people officer and chief of staff for CocaCola Chairman and CEO James Quincey, driving culture evolution and engagement.
From 2012 to 2015 as vice president and general manager of CocaCola Freestyle, Mann accelerated its global expansion across the CocaCola system. Additional roles of increased responsibility spanned operations and customer leadership: vice president, Foodservice & On-Premise Strategy and Marketing for CocaCola Refreshments; director, McDonald’s Customer & Consumer Operations and director, Good Answer. Mann joined CocaCola in 1997 as a manager in the National Customer Support division of North America.
Mann holds a degree in accounting from Georgia State University and serves on the board of directors for Boys & Girls Clubs of America, Morehouse College, American Beverage, fairlife LLC and CocaCola Consolidated. She resides in her hometown of Atlanta with her family.
The Art of Authentic Leadership
See Agenda3:50 pm - 4:35 pm
Karen Jones
Karen Jones
Karen leads the Learning, Development, and DEI&B work at NextUp. Her team manages the design and delivery of the leadership development programs and assessment processes for Partner organizations. Karen has worked within the Organization and Leadership Development disciplines for more than 20 years. She has led at the executive level within the corporate sector for Fortune 50 companies. Her experience provides a keen ability to design and deliver optimal solutions for Members and Corporate Partners alike. Karen has a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from Grambling State University and a Master of Arts in Organization Leadership from Gonzaga University.
Bold Strategies for Building Next-Gen Leaders
See Agenda1:10 pm - 2:00 pm
Strategic Conversations
See Agenda3:05 pm - 3:50 pm
Power Moves: Women On Boards
See Agenda2:45 pm - 3:30 pm
Julie Daum
Julie Daum
Julie Daum leads the North American Board Practice of Spencer Stuart and was a long-standing board member. She consults with corporate boards, working with companies of all sizes from the Fortune 10 to pre-IPO companies. She has conducted more than 1,500 board director assignments.
A recognized expert on governance topics, Julie is regularly quoted in The New York Times, Financial Times, BusinessWeek, Time magazine, and The Wall Street Journal. Julie has been selected as one of the 50 Most Influential People in Governance by NACD/Directorship Magazine every year since the award’s inception.
Prior to joining Spencer Stuart, Julie was the executive director of the corporate board resource at Catalyst, where she managed all board of directors’ activities and worked with companies to identify qualified women for their boards. Julie began her career as a consultant with McKinsey & Company.
Julie is a graduate of the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania with an M.B.A. in corporate finance. She serves on the board of directors of The Jackson Laboratory, CityMeals, and as a commissioner for the Women’s Refugee Commission.
Power Moves: Women On Boards
See Agenda2:45 pm - 3:30 pm
Christina Bieniek
Christina Bieniek
Christina is a principal in Deloitte Consulting LLP and deputy chief executive officer. She is responsible for bringing together the practice’s collective teams and capabilities to find new points of collaboration, drive growth, and deliver outsized value to clients. She works across Consulting’s offerings and industries as well as its transformation, innovation, commercial, and alliance teams with a focus on integration, simplification, and clock speed. She serves as a strategic advisor to many of the practice’s largest clients.
She has deep experience leading teams to deliver large-scale business transformation and operational change initiatives. She helps clients achieve meaningful and sustainable impact through top-line growth, improved margins, and overall operational efficiencies. Formerly, she served as the first chief commercial officer for Deloitte Consulting LLP where she led the creation of a profitable go-to-market strategy and oversaw the practice’s Sales, Marketing, and Ecosystems & Alliances functions. She also previously led the Retail and Consumer Products sector within Deloitte Consulting LLP and drove business transformation based on more than 20 years of deep retail industry knowledge, innovation, and practical implementation.
She has been recognized by Consulting Magazine as one of its Top 25 Consultants for her excellence in driving value, setting the agenda for business transformation, and reengineering end-to-end value chains.
Harnessing the Pace of Change
See Agenda2:00 pm - 2:45 pm
Jacquelyn Fletcher Johnson
Jacquelyn Fletcher Johnson
Leadership Legends
See Agenda11:45 am - 12:30 pm
Heather Hoytink
Heather Hoytink
Heather Hoytink is the President of PepsiCo Beverages North America (PBNA) South Division, leading a nearly beverage portfolio which has grown more than 30% to nearly $5.5B since she stepped into the role in early 2022. The company’s first woman division president, Heather is responsible for end-to-end P&L ownership and manages all cross-functional activity inclusive of all commercial, go-to-market, manufacturing and operations, and marketing activity. She was recently named one of Orlando Magazine’s 2023 Women of the Year, Profiles in Diversity Journal’s 2023 Women Worth Watching in Leadership, and an “Industry Titan” in Orlando Business Journal’s 2022 Power Players.
During her 17-year career at PepsiCo, Heather has served in sales and operating leadership roles of increasing responsibility across all four beverage divisions. Prior to this role, she was Senior Vice President, Commercial for PBNA’s South Division, overseeing all food service and retail sales, category management, commercial planning, franchise bottler development, and revenue strategy within the footprint. Between 2017 – 2019, Heather served as Senior Vice President of Foodservice Sales, during which time she delivered a record 10-year revenue growth and scaled the first e-commerce online ordering platform, PepsiCo Partners, to 30,000 customers.
Heather is an active (NACP), a $2.8BN joint venture owned by PepsiCo and Starbucks that manufactures, markets, sells, and distributes ready-to-drink Starbucks products within the U.S. and Canada. She oversees the strategic and operating plans, capital investments, and annual financial results to ensure maximized growth for the joint venture. In 2023, Heather also joined the board of directors of the American Beverage Association and Florida Citrus Sports, a not-for-profit event management organization dedicated to positively impacting the Orlando region and Central Florida through world-class events.
As a champion of diversity, inclusion, and employee engagement initiatives, Heather has continued to tap into her personal values through her team’s “Returnship” program with the non-profit Path Forward, aiming to help women professionals return to the workforce after taking time off for caregiving. She led the rollout of PepsiCo’s internal program, “One Smile at a Time,” which encourages and recruits employees for volunteer events in their communities. Heather is also an Executive Sponsor of the Pinnacle Leadership Development program for women sales leaders, the Division’s Executive Sponsor of the Women’s Inclusion Network (WIN), and previously served as an Executive Sponsor for the Network of Executive Women.
Before joining PepsiCo, Heather began her career at Philip Morris. She holds a degree in Marketing and Communications from the University of Wisconsin Eau Claire, an ASCENT Mastering Management Certificate from Dartmouth Tuck School of Business, and is a graduate of the Leading Global Business program from Harvard Business School Executive Education.
Originally from Wisconsin, Heather has lived in 6 different states throughout her celebrated career with PepsiCo. She currently lives near the South Division’s corporate office in Orlando, FL with her husband, Ryan, and teen twins, Alexandra and Graham. She loves traveling, exercising, and cheering on her kids’ teams just as hard as she cheers for the Green Bay Packers and Wisconsin Badgers.
The Risk-Ready Leader
See Agenda11:00 am - 11:45 am
Kara Swisher
Kara Swisher
Kara Swisher is good at what she does. And she knows it.
Kara Swisher is the host of On with Kara Swisher and co-host of the Pivot podcast. She’s editor-at-large at New York Magazine and a CNN contributor. Swisher is the co- founder of the technology website, Recode , and tech conference, Code, which is the country’s premier conference on tech and media.
Considered the top reporter in the tech game, Swisher has been reporting on the industry since the early 1990s. She was there when Amazon was looking for its first headquarters in Seattle, when Google was in its garage and when Netflix was just a small startup. Once called “Silicon Valley’s most feared but revered journalist” by New York Magazine , Swisher has established herself as the oracle of the tech world with unrivaled access to the industry’s most significant leaders.
In 2024, Swisher will publish Burn Book: A Tech Love Story — part memoir, part history, and ultimately a witty, scathing, but fair accounting of the tech industry and its founders who wanted to change the world but broke it instead. Burn Book includes soaring tales of innovation and brilliant entrepreneurs, as well as Silicon Valley’s much more complex history of striving, success, and failure. The book details how the commercial internet came into being and how, for all it has given the world, it now sits at the center of global power, creating a clear and present danger to humanity. Yet despite the damage she chronicles, Swisher remains optimistic about tech’s potential to help solve problems and not just create them. She calls upon the industry to make better, more thoughtful choices, even as a new set of powerful AI tools are poised to change the world yet again. At its heart, this book is a love story to, for, and about tech from someone who knows it better than anyone. She is also the author of aol.com: How Steve Case Beat Bill Gates, Nailed the Netheads and Made Millions in the War for the Web, published by Times Business Books in July 1998. The sequel, There Must Be a Pony in Here Somewhere: The AOL Time Warner Debacle and the Quest for a Digital Future, was published in the fall of 2003 by Crown Business Books.
Swisher was named to The Hollywood Reporter’s list of “Podcast Power Players” in 2022 and 2023, and to the 2023 Out 100. She also received the “Pioneer Icon” award at the 2023 iHeart Podcast Awards. Additionally, Pivot was named one of the “Best Podcasts of 2022” by the New York Times and “Best Thought Leadership Podcast” at the 2022 Adweek Audio Awards. She was previously a contributing New York Times opinion writer and former host of the podcasts, Sway and Recode Decode. She co- founded the technology website, Recode, and, before that, co-produced and co-hosted The Wall Street Journal’s D: All Things Digital conference series (now called the Code Conference) with Walt Mossberg starting in 2003. It was, and still is, the country’s premier conference on tech and media, with interviewees such as Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, Tesla Technoking Elon Musk, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Google and Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai, Netflix co- CEO Ted Sarandos, and many other leading players. Swisher worked in the Wall Street Journal’s San Francisco bureau and as a reporter at the Washington Post.
She was also a contributor to NBC, CNBC, and MSNBC. Swisher played herself on HBO’s Silicon Valley and Fox’s The Simpsons, and is a regular guest on national broadcast programs. She also hosted HBO’s Succession podcast, which was named Adweek’s 2023 “Podcast of the Year.” For many years, she wrote the column BoomTown, which appeared on the front page of the Marketplace section and online at WSJ.com. Previously, Swisher covered breaking news about the web’s major players and internet policy issues, and she also wrote feature articles on technology for the paper. Earlier in her career, Swisher worked as a reporter at The Washington Post and as an editor at the City Paper of Washington, D.C. She received her undergraduate degree from Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service and her graduate degree at Columbia University’s School of Journalism.
Fearless: How to Ask the Hard Questions
See Agenda9:10 am - 10:00 am
Jamey Martin
Jamey Martin
Jamey Martin is Chief Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Officer of Beam Suntory, a world leader in premium spirits with 6,000 employees worldwide. She is responsible for overseeing the company’s global DEI strategy, working across the business to build and accelerate its long-term DEI vision to foster a culture that turns diversity of thought, experience and culture into insights and capabilities that drive growth and differentiation. Jamey leads a global team, providing thought leadership, connectivity and impact, as well as external strategic partnerships that drive Beam Suntory’s employer brand with diverse consumers and prospective employees, and serves as a key advisor to our Executive and Senior Leadership Teams.
A strategic DEI and HR leader with more than 20 years of experience, Jamey has served in multiple senior roles across human resources, change management, team development and talent management. Prior to Beam Suntory, Jamey held roles of increasing responsibility at Mondelēz International, where she served as Senior Director, Global Diversity, Equity & Inclusion, developing and implementing DEI-focused sponsorship, leadership development and employee training programs for the global organization. Prior to Mondelēz International, Jamey held HR leadership roles at Anheuser Busch and Wyeth Pharmaceuticals.
Jamey holds a bachelor’s degree in psychology at State University of New York and a master’s degree in human resource management at Rutgers University.
The Risk-Ready Leader
See Agenda11:00 am - 11:45 am
Heather Green
Heather Green
Heather Green is currently the 3M President responsible for portfolio management and development of all 3M consumer brands, including category defining brands of Post-it® Notes, Scotch™ Tapes, Command™ Damage-Free Hanging, Filtrete™ Air Quality, and Scotch-Brite® Sponges that serve retail and pro channels.
Heather has over 27 years in sales and marketing experience of increasing responsibility driving growth and expanding categories. She is a graduate of Carlson School of Management, U of MN, with an MBA in marketing and strategy. She believes clear strategy sets the stage for strong execution but culture trumps all. In her free time, Heather serves as Vice Chair of the Kids In Need Foundation, enjoys cooking with a focus on nutrition, reading, traveling, and the # 1 favorite activity is cheering on her two sons in their academics and sports with her husband Dave.
The Risk-Ready Leader
See Agenda11:00 am - 11:45 am
Kristi Allen
Kristi Allen
As Vice President of Finance and Administration, Kristi Allen is responsible for the organization’s financial functions, including accounting, regulatory compliance, budgeting and forecasting, and investments. She also oversees all human resource activities. Her career spans more than 25 years of varied experience in financial accounting and management, team building, and professional development activities.
Prior to NextUp, Kristi was a Senior Finance Manager at Microsoft on the mergers and acquisitions team within corporate accounting located in Redmond, WA. She served as deal lead and legal entity controller of various domestic and international acquisitions and supported the integration activities of LinkedIn, GitHub, and Minecraft. Kristi had the opportunity to travel and support acquisitions located in the San Francisco Bay Area as well as Oxford and London, England. Prior to Microsoft, from 2012 to 2017, she served as Senior Accounting Manager of McKesson Corporation in their shared services accounting department, building, and leading a large domestic and international team which supported over thirty pharmaceutical business units. Kristi has also held senior accounting positions in the technology, healthcare, and real estate industries.
Early in her career, Kristi had the opportunity to work as the Controller of an education- based nonprofit organization founded by 7-11. Supporting non-profit organizations has always been a passion and she continues to volunteer for various non-profit organizations. As an advocate and supporter of equitable work environments, Kristi is excited about NextUp and supporting the mission of advancing all women in the workplace.
Kristi holds a Master of Business Administration and Bachelor of Professional Accountancy degree both from Texas A&M University-Commerce. She is also licensed Certified Public Accountant in Texas, and a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA). Kristi is also a graduate of the Executive Leadership Council (ELC) Bright Futures Fellows Program, cohort of 2015, and an avid supporter and member of the National Association of Black Accountants (NABA) for over 25 years.
Kristi now resides in her home state of Texas and enjoys spending time with close family and friends, having fun with her three godchildren, participating in mentoring programs for young girls, traveling, and reading.
Power Skills for Transformational Leaders
See Agenda10:00 am - 10:45 am
Dawn Zier
Dawn Zier
Dawn Zier is an independent board director and accomplished CEO best known for engineering a remarkable turnaround of the iconic brand, Nutrisystem (Nasdaq: NTRI). During her six years as CEO, she created a multi-brand strategy, focused on digital transformation and innovation, resulting in a doubling of revenues, a 7-fold surge in operating income, and a 6-times increase in stock price. This performance earned Nutrisystem recognition as a Fortune Top 100 Fastest Growing Company.
Dawn has served on multiple public and private company boards and enjoys connecting the dots across industries. She currently is Chair of the Board for The Hain Celestial Group and serves on the Board of Directors of Spirit Airlines, Acorns, and Prestige Consumer Healthcare. Dawn also enjoys being a key advisor and mentor to Fortune 500 senior executives through her relationship with the ExCo Group, a global firm of experienced CEOs, board directors, and global business leaders who bring real-world experience to leadership development.
Throughout her career, Dawn has led enterprise-wide transformations that capitalized on high impact opportunities to drive turnaround and growth. A marketer at heart with a passion for data and analytics, she has architected product innovation and marketing breakthroughs that created noteworthy industry firsts and enviable shareholder value. She believes in the importance of data, company culture and the power of team to inspire high performance.
Dawn’s accomplishments have been chronicled in the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Forbes, and The Philadelphia Inquirer. She holds an MBA and MS degree in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). She also received her Corporate Director Certification from Harvard and was honored as a NACD Director 100 in 2022.
Dawn is a frequent speaker at national conferences and major universities on future-focused leadership, corporate governance, shareholder activism, board readiness, culture, and talent. She is a member of Fortune’s Most Powerful Women and believes in using her voice to help advance other strong female leaders
Power Skills for Transformational Leaders
See Agenda10:00 am - 10:45 am
Wendy Davidson
Wendy Davidson
Wendy Davidson is a global executive with over 25 years of experience in the branded CPG, retail, and foodservice industries, with a record of accomplishment in innovation, turnaround and profitable growth of mature businesses. As the CEO & Board Director of The Hain Celestial Group, Wendy is responsible for leading the $1.8B global health and wellness company whose purpose is to inspire healthier living for people, communities, and the planet through better-for-you (BFY) brands. Hain’s five core focus categories- BFY snacks, baby/kids, beverages, meal prep and personal care, include beloved brands such as Garden Veggie™ Snacks, Terra® chips, Garden of Eatin’® snacks, Earth’s Best® and Ella’s Kitchen® baby food, Celestial Seasonings® teas, Joya® and Natumi® plant-based beverages, Greek Gods® yogurt, Cully & Sully® soups, Yves® and Linda McCartney’s® (under license) meat-free, and Alba Botanica® natural sun care, among others. Headquartered in Hoboken, N.J., Hain Celestial’s products are marketed and sold in over 75 countries around the world.
Prior to Hain, Ms. Davidson spent two years leading the Americas for Glanbia Performance Nutrition, the $1.2B performance nutrition business across North America and Latin America for leading brands in sports nutrition, healthy lifestyle and weight management including Optimum Nutrition®, Slimfast®, think!®, Isopure®, Amazing Grass® and BSN®. Previously, Ms. Davidson spent 7 years as President of the $1.5B Away From Home business for the Kellogg Company leading small format retail, foodservice, vending, ecommerce, unique business models and strategic ventures. Prior to Kellogg, she led the U.S. & Latin American business for McCormick & Company and spent over 15 years on the executive team at Tyson Foods, Inc.
A graduate of Luther College, Wendy is the immediate past chair on the Board of Regents. She is a non- Executive Director on the Board of First Horizon National Corporation (NYSE: FHN), a leading financial services company and serves on the Boards of Directors for NextUp (formerly The Network of Executive Women) and Consumer Brands Association (CBA). She is a Trustee of the Ronald McDonald House Charities (RMHC) Global Board and past Board Chair of Women’s Foodservice Forum (WFF). Wendy is a member of the International Women’s Forum, The Chicago Network, Commercial Club of Chicago and the Economic Club of Chicago.
A frequent keynote speaker, Ms. Davidson was recently named to the 2023 Most Influential Women of the Mid-Market list by CEO Connection. She was recognized as a 2021 Women of Influence Honoree by Chicago Business Journal, was among Crain’s 2020 list of Notable Women Executives over 50 and made the 2019 list of Most Influential Corporate Board Directors by WomenInc. Magazine. In 2017, she was awarded the National Diversity Council’s Top 15 Business Women in Illinois and received the Luminary Award in 2016 from Girl Scouts of Chicago & Northwest Indiana. Davidson was previously named to the Northwest Arkansas Business Journal’s “40 under 40” and “Diamond Decade”
Power Skills for Transformational Leaders
See Agenda10:00 am - 10:45 am
Lisa Baird
Lisa Baird
Lisa Baird is a proven leader across private and non-profit sectors where she has been instrumental in building some of the world’s most iconic brands and sports properties. Her diverse marketing, communications and sales expertise spans sports, media, technology, healthcare, consumer and automotive. She has a demonstrated track record of revenue and profit growth. Lisa currently serves on the board of Cantaloupe (NASDAQ: CTLP), a leading provider of technology for self-serve commerce. Her previous board service includes Fox Racing (acquired by Vista Outdoor), GK Elite, the International Hall of Fame of Tennis, and the Women’s Sports Foundation.
Most recently, Lisa was the Commissioner of the National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL), the world’s leading professional women’s soccer league. During her tenure, she signed groundbreaking media and corporate sponsorships, led the industry as the first pro sports league to return to play in North America in 2020 and expanded the league into three new markets. Prior to joining the NWSL, she was the Chief Marketing Officer at New York Public Radio and served in the same capacity for the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee for over a decade. Lisa created and launched the Team USA brand, widely recognized as one of the most valuable brands in sports. Until 2008, she was SVP of marketing and consumer products for the National Football League (NFL). Prior to joining the NFL, Baird gained over twenty years of marketing experience in global organizations managing the world’s most well-known brands. She was the SVP of Worldwide Marketing Communications at IBM. She spent five years at General Motors and six years in the health care industry in positions of increasing responsibility at Johnson & Johnson, Bristol Myers Squibb, and Warner Lambert. She began her career at Procter & Gamble where she spent six years in brand management. In 2021, she was awarded the McElroy Award from the P&G Alumni Association for her achievements in consumer marketing.
Lisa is a graduate of Schreyer Honors College at Pennsylvania State University, holds an MBA from the Smeal Business School and is a recipient of the Distinguished Alumni Award.
Fearless: How to Ask the Hard Questions
See Agenda9:10 am - 10:00 am
Solve Pipeline Problems for Good
See Agenda12:10 pm - 1:00 pm
Oluwafemi
Oluwafemi
Oluwafemi is a rhythmist based in Philadelphia, originally from Lagos, Nigeria. He explores how our lives embody and reflect the universal phenomenon of pattern and repetition. For 15 years, his visual and musical work has spanned deejaying, music production, pen illustration, painting, digital still and video art. He produces experiences with various combinations of sights and sounds. His music influences are deeply rooted in the cultures of the African diaspora utilizing jazz, funk, reggae, hip-hop, house and afrobeat, among other similar genres. Visually, his drawings, murals and digital art reveal a deep inspiration by Geometry, African, and Hip-Hop cultures. He explores expression through patterns as a form of intelligence.
Artful Connections + Cocktails
See Agenda6:00 pm - 7:30 pm
NextUp Executive Forum 2024 | Day 3 Speakers
Dolly Chugh
Dolly Chugh
Dolly Chugh (she/her, hear my name) is a social psychologist and management professor at the New York University Stern School of Business where she teaches MBA courses in leadership and management. Because of Dolly’s teaching skills, she was one of six professors chosen from thousands at New York University to receive the Distinguished Teaching Award in 2020 and one of five to receive the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Faculty Award in 2013.
Dolly is best known for her two books The Person You Mean to Be: How Good People Fight Bias (HarperCollins, 2018) and A More Just Future: Psychological Tools for Reckoning with our Past and Driving Social Change (Simon & Schuster, 2022).
Dolly’s TED Talk was named one of the 25 Most Popular TED Talks of 2018 and currently has almost 5 million views.
How to Be a Lifelong Un-learner
See Agenda9:00 am - 9:30 am
Nicole Balkenbusch
Nicole Balkenbusch
Nicole Balkenbusch, CFO of Amazon Customer Service Tech, Capacity Planning, Outsourcing and Founder of COLES LTD, is an experienced leadership development consultant and strategic executive who coaches teams and individuals to Leverage Talent to Deliver Results. Having served in finance and leadership executive roles at Amazon and Procter & Gamble, Nicole’s background includes finance strategy and partnership with technology, retail, workforce planning, manufacturing and customer service operations, supply chain, brand marketing and sales teams, and financial planning. Nicole is a certified executive coach from the International Coaching Federation and holds a Master Instructional Designer certificate. She has an MBA from Xavier University and a BSBA in Accounting from The Ohio State University. Nicole has served on non-profit boards for 10+ years, helping fulfill her personal legacy statement to be a “strong business woman who helps others break down barriers.” Nicole is married, has two daughters and lives in Kirkland, Washington.
Women and Power: A New Model for Leadership
See Agenda9:30 am - 10:15 am
Amy Huang
Amy Huang
Women and Power: A New Model for Leadership
See Agenda9:30 am - 10:15 am
Kalissa Hendrickson, PhD
Kalissa Hendrickson, PhD
Kalissa Hendrickson serves as Managing Director of Executive Leadership Seminars at the Aspen Institute, a nonpartisan organization that drives change through dialogue, leadership, and action. She regularly works with CEOs, senior teams, executive boards, government officials, military personnel, and educators to help them become more self-aware and more self-correcting leaders by identifying and amplifying their core values.
In her current role at the Institute, Kalissa works at the crossroads of leadership development and executive education via Socratic dialogue and humanities-based inquiry. Each year her team delivers a diverse portfolio of virtual and in-person leadership seminars both domestically and abroad. Her entrepreneurial approach to expand the scope of Aspen Seminars has resulted in leadership seminars with organizations such as Microsoft, Meta, Centers for Disease Control, and the University of Chicago, among others. In addition to overseeing the department, developing external partnerships, program design, and serving as a spokesperson the Institute’s values-based leadership work, Kalissa is also a seminar moderator, regularly moderating Aspen Leadership Seminars including the flagship Aspen Executive Seminar on Leadership, Values, and the Good Society.
Prior to joining the Institute, Kalissa taught literature and composition at Arizona State University (ASU) where she earned her Ph.D. in English literature. A former aspiring symphony musician, she earned her bachelor’s degree in music performance from Northwestern University. She currently resides in Washington D.C. with her husband and dog.
Clarify Values. Catalyze Action.
See Agenda10:30 am - 12:00 pm