Nina Johal

Nina joined Amazon in May of 2019 as the Talent Acquisition leader for the technology teams in Worldwide Operations. She is directly responsible for strategy, sourcing, and hiring of technical talent for over 10 North American development centers spanning seven distinct business units. She also liaisons with global counterparts to ensure the strategic delivery of regional technical recruitment needs. Nina has deep HR experience both domestically and internationally and has held a variety of roles throughout her 26-year career at . In her most recent role at Microsoft she was responsible for all Executive level recruiting across the company.

Nina is Canadian and lives in Bellevue, Washington with her husband and son. She enjoys family time, traveling, working out, fine wines and reading.

First Name Nina

Last Name Johal

Organization Amazon

Position Talent Acquisition Director, Operations Technology

Farnam Jahanian

Farnam Jahanian was appointed interim president of Carnegie Mellon University by its Board of Trustees, effective July 1, 2017. As provost and chief academic officer beginning in 2015, Jahanian had broad responsibility for leading CMU’s schools, colleges, institutes, and campuses and was instrumental in long- range institutional and academic planning, including efforts to enhance the CMU experience both within and outside the classroom. Before being named provost in May 2015, he previously served as the university’s vice president for research, nurturing excellence in research, scholarship and creative activities.

Prior to coming to CMU, Jahanian led the National Science Foundation Directorate for Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE) from 2011 to 2014. He guided CISE, with a budget of almost $900 million, in its mission to advance scientific discovery and engineering innovation through its support of fundamental research. Previously, Jahanian was the Edward S. Davidson Collegiate Professor at the University of Michigan, where he served as chair for Computer Science and Engineering from 2007 to 2011 and as director of the Software Systems Laboratory from 1997 to 2000.

Jahanian has been an active advocate for how research can be uniquely central to an innovation ecosystem that drives global competitiveness and addresses national priorities. His research on Internet infrastructure security formed the basis for the Internet security company Arbor Networks, which he co- founded in 2001 and where he served as chairman until its acquisition in 2010. His work on Internet routing stability and convergence has been highly influential within the network research and Internet operational communities.

The recipient of numerous awards for his innovative research, commitment to education and technology commercialization activities, Jahanian was most recently presented with the Computing Research Association’s 2015 Distinguished Service Award.

Farnam holds a PhD in computer science from the University of Texas at Austin. He is a fellow of the Association for Computing Machinery, the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

First Name Farnam

Last Name Jahanian

Organization Carnegie Mellon University

Position President

Kathleen Hogan

As Chief People Officer and Executive Vice President of Human Resources at Microsoft, Kathleen Hogan empowers more than 175,000 global employees to achieve Microsoft’s mission. In her role, she focuses on making Microsoft an exceptional place for employees to work, and ensures that the company is creating a culture that attracts and inspires the world’s most passionate talent.

Hogan previously served as Corporate Vice President of Microsoft Services, a team dedicated to helping businesses and consumers maximize the value of their investment in Microsoft technologies. Prior to joining Microsoft in 2003, Hogan was a partner at McKinsey & Co. and a development manager at Oracle Corp.

Hogan earned her bachelor’s degree in applied mathematics and economics, magna cum laude, from Harvard University. In addition, she holds an MBA from the Graduate School of Business. She sits on the of Alaska Air Group and the National Center for Women & Information Technology.

First Name Kathleen

Last Name Hogan

Organization Microsoft

Position Executive Vice President of Human Resources

Debbie Guild

Deborah Guild is Executive Vice President, head of Enterprise Technology and Security, and the Chief Security Officer for The PNC Financial Services Group. In this capacity, she serves as the Chief Information Security Officer responsible for aligning all aspects of PNC’s security program, including cyber and information security, security operations, enterprise fraud, security operations architecture, physical security, and governance. In addition, in November 2020 she assumed responsibility for leading Enterprise Technology, which includes engineering, enterprise hosting, enterprise response, technology risk management, enterprise architecture, enterprise data management and technology transformation and integration.

Guild was named Chief Security Officer in February 2017. Previously, she served as PNC’s Chief Technology Officer responsible for infrastructure, technology operations, information security, cybercrime, and IT service management.

Prior to joining PNC in October 2013, Guild spent 21 years at Bank of America, where she most recently served as Chief Technology Officer of Enterprise Functions and End User Computing. She also served as the Global Integrated Business and Change Management Executive. Guild previously served as senior network engineer at Corporation.

Guild serves on the board for The Financial Services Information Sharing and Analysis Center (FS-ISAC), the National Center for Women and Information Technology (NCWIT), and Pittsburgh Three Rivers Marathon, Inc. (P3R).

She earned a bachelor’s degree in computer science with a minor in mathematics from the University of North Florida.

First Name Debbie

Last Name Guild

Organization The PNC Financial Services Group

Position Executive Vice President, Head of Enterprise Technology and Security, and Chief Security Officer

Daron Green

As Chief Scientist, Dr. Daron Green is responsible for Autodesk’s scientific research teams including AI, Robotics, HCI, Visualization, Simulation, Optimization, and Systems. Their fundamental research helps innovate across Autodesk’s tools, platforms, and services bringing radical changes to the way design, manufacturing, construction, and entertainment industries work.

Before joining Autodesk, Daron spent more than four years at Facebook and was responsible for strategic oversight and operational delivery across all external research engagements and collaborations. He worked with Facebook research leadership to ensure that their strategic goals can be realized and that Facebook actively partners with the academic research community in open, collaborative and mutually beneficial research engagements.

Prior to this, for nine years, Daron led ’s Outreach activities and was responsible for their global collaborative research investments. He was also General Manager of Microsoft’s Technology Policy Group, responsible for identifying business opportunities and innovations likely from potential disruptive technologies. In that role, he provided oversight for key mechanisms for Microsoft’s internal processes of innovation and ideation, such as ThinkWeek, and external efforts, such as Microsoft’s Cloud Research Engagements and Microsoft’s Environmental Sustainability program. Prior to this, he was general manager for Microsoft Research’s external engagement and investment strategy, with a global portfolio which included diverse topics such as Health and Wellbeing, Education and Scholarly Communications, Computer Science, and the Environment.

Daron’s initial research background was in molecular modeling and equations of state for fluid mixtures—his BSc is in Chemical Physics (1989, Sheffield) and PhD in molecular simulation of fluid mixtures (1992, Sheffield). He went on to do post-doctoral research in simulation of polymer and protein folding (1993–4, UCD). He then moved to Southampton University to work on application porting and optimization for large-scale parallel and distributed computing in a range of application domains including computational chemistry (molecular dynamics and quantum mechanical codes), Radiography, Computational Fluid Dynamics, and Finite Element analysis. Daron then moved more fully into HPC and was responsible for some of Europe’s largest HPC Framework V programs for the European Commission, major HPC procurements in the UK for the UK Research Councils and UK Defense clients; he also led detailed investigations into the maturity and adoption for European HPC Software tools. From there, he went to work for the SGI/Cray—helping to set up the European Professional Services organization from which he spun out a small team to establish the European Professional Services for Selectica Inc. Selectica specialized in online configuration/logic-engine technologies offered via web services. Given an HPC/distributed computing background and familiarity with the then embryonic area of web services, IBM invited Daron to help establish its Grid Computing Strategy and emerging business opportunity (Grid EBO) team. He subsequently moved to British Telecom to head up its Global Services business incubation and, as part of this, in 2007 he established and launched BT’s Sustainability practice, responsible for BT’s business offerings to commercial customers, which help reduce their carbon footprints and establish business practices that are sustainable in terms of their social and economic impact.

First Name Daron

Last Name Green

Organization Autodesk

Position Chief Scientist Mary Gendron

Mary Gendron is Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer for Qualcomm Incorporated. As the leader of Qualcomm’s global IT organization, Gendron provides strategic direction within the IT organization and drives operational excellence across the enterprise. Gendron collaborates with the executive and business unit leadership to incorporate forward-looking technology solutions to enable an efficient employee and customer experience and achieve company goals.

Gendron joined Qualcomm in 2016, bringing more than 25 years of IT experience to the role, with expertise in developing and executing IT and talent-focused strategies, services and plans.

At Qualcomm, Gendron has expanded and increased the diversity of the IT leadership team and rebranded the organization as “OneIT,” with a focus on creating a unified team that delivers effective and efficient IT solutions and services. In support of this mission, the leadership team publishes a high-level strategy to guide the team’s continued evolution and further improve strategic partnerships with the business.

In 2019, Gendron was honored with HMG Strategy’s Top 100 Technology Executives to Watch Award, which recognizes top- performing technology executives for their achievements in innovation, business transformation, courageous leadership, and digital disruption.

Gendron is also a champion for the company’s efforts to create and sustain a diverse and inclusive workplace that empowers employees of all backgrounds. She was recognized in 2019 for her work to empower women working and leading in STEM with Athena’s 21st Annual Pinnacle Award in the “Individual in Technology” category.

Prior to joining Qualcomm, Gendron served as senior vice president and chief information officer at Hospira, a leading global pharmaceutical and medical device company. Prior to that, she served as CIO at Celestica International, Inc., and has served in other senior IT leadership positions at companies like The Nielsen Company, Motorola, and Bell Canada. She holds a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from McGill University in Canada.

Gendron resides in San Diego with her husband Craig and has three adult children, Ryan, Amanda, and Benjamin.

First Name Mary

Last Name Gendron

Organization Qualcomm, Incorporated

Position Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer

Dwana Franklin-Davis

Dwana Franklin-Davis is the Chief Executive Officer of Reboot Representation. She is a visionary, collaborative and compelling executive leading the Tech Coalition in closing the gender gap in tech by doubling the number of Black, Latinx, and Native American women earning bachelor’s degrees in computing by 2025.

Dwana joined Reboot Representation after 13 years at Mastercard, where she contributed to innovative, leading-edge efforts as a senior software engineer and as a project lead before ascending to senior leadership roles. She spent five and a half years in Vice President positions and has brought immense value as a leader, mentor, decision maker, and team member.

During that time, Dwana was a founding member of MasterCard’s Leveraging Employees of African Decent (LEAD) Business Resource Group, serving on its steering committee from 2008 – 2011. She also acted as the St. Louis Chapter President for the Black Data Processing Associates, which is focused on enabling the upward mobility of African Americans and other underrepresented groups in technology fields, for nearly two years. Dwana has a true passion for creating diverse environments and efforts because they lead to greater innovation.

Dwana holds a Bachelor of Science in Management from Purdue University, a Master’s of Information Management from Washington University in St. Louis, and a Certificate in Project Management from Washington University.

First Name Dwana

Last Name Franklin-Davis

Organization Reboot Representation

Position CEO

Brad Feld

Brad has been an early stage investor and entrepreneur since 1987. Prior to co-founding Foundry Group, he co-founded Mobius Venture Capital and, prior to that, founded Intensity Ventures. Brad is also a co-founder of Techstars.

In addition to his investing efforts, Brad is active with several non-profit organizations. He currently is chair of the National Center for Women & Information Technology and the Global EIR Coalition and is on the boards of Path Forward, the Kauffman Fellows, and Defy Ventures.

Brad is a writer and speaker on the topics of venture capital investing and entrepreneurship. He’s written a number of books as part of the Startup Revolution series and writes the blogs Feld Thoughts and Venture Deals.

Brad holds Bachelor of Science and Master of Science degrees in Management Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Brad is also an art collector and long-distance runner. He has completed 24 marathons as part of his mission to finish a marathon in each of the 50 states.

First Name Brad

Last Name Feld

Organization Foundry Group Co-founder and Managing Director

Position NCWIT Board of Directors Chair Emeritus

Carol Cohen

Carol Cohen is SVP and Global Head of Talent Management, Leadership Development, and People Analytics at Cognizant. In this role, Carol helps to shape the organization’s talent strategy and HR transformation on global recruitment, talent management, diversity and inclusion, leadership development, and engagement to be industry-leading. Her team’s mission is to accelerate future-ready talent and grow game-changing, world- class leaders faster than the company grows. Leveraging people analytics, her team applies technology to talent data, enabling stronger management and business decisions.

Carol is also a founding member of the Board of Directors for the Cognizant U.S. Foundation, a $100 million non-profit dedicated to enhancing STEM education and career pathing to address the U.S. shortage of digital talent. She is also a passionate advocate for diversity and inclusion as the Board Sponsor for two grants totaling nearly $9 million with an emphasis on diverse, under-represented groups.

Carol has more than two decades of experience in strategizing and implementing Human Resources and global talent initiatives that drive positive business outcomes and dramatically improve employee performance. Her expertise has significantly elevated results for senior executives, cross-functional teams, and global businesses. She has worked across a broad spectrum of organizations, including Fortune 500 corporations, small businesses, and non-profits.

Prior to joining Cognizant, Carol was Vice President of Talent and Engagement for Thomson Reuters and Vice President of Global Talent at American Express, leading large-scale global talent management, succession planning, data and analytics, leadership development, and strategic planning and measurement initiatives.

Before moving into Human Resources, Carol spent several years working as a management consultant for Perform Consulting. In that role, she led organizational effectiveness, transformation, and business process improvement efforts across technologies, retail, energy, and financial services.

Carol earned her MBA from the University of Colorado and her undergraduate degree in psychology and sociology from Rutgers. She is a strong proponent of social responsibility and global diversity initiatives. Carol is also a frequent speaker on HR, Talent Management, and Diversity at industry conferences and business schools such as MIT, London Business School, and People Analytics World.

First Name Carol

Last Name Cohen

Organization Cognizant U.S. Foundation

Position Senior Vice President, Human Resources

Veronica Caropreso Blackham

Ronnie Caropreso is COO and CIO at Sitehands Inc. Formerly, she was the Executive Vice President and Head of Shared Services at TD Bank where she was responsible for technology, operations, corporate real estate, strategic sourcing, transitions, and program management. Prior to that role, she was Technology Group Executive and Chief Operating Officer of Merchant Services at Bank of America. As the technology group executive, Ronnie supervised the nationwide network of computing platforms for Bank of America. Before joining the Bank in 2002, she was Senior Vice President of Technology Solutions for First Data Corporation. She began her career with IBM and led the development effort of the U.S. Treasury’s electronic federal tax payment system. She holds a BBA in business administration from the University of Denver’s Daniels School of Business.

First Name Veronica

Last Name Caropreso Blackham

Organization Sitehands, Inc

Position CIO and COO