Jon Clifton serves as the CEO of Gallup, the global analytics and advisory firm. His mission is to connect one billion individuals with their unique strengths, assist organizations in fostering thriving workplaces, and help eight billion of the world’s citizens be heard through the Gallup World Poll, a century-long project spanning over 150 countries. After joining Gallup in 2008, Clifton rose to the position of Global Managing Partner in the firm’s consulting division, leveraging behavioral economics to advise leaders.

His 2022 book, “Blind Spot: The Global Rise of Unhappiness,” achieved Wall Street Journal bestseller status. Clifton has also contributed to notable platforms like The Economist, BBC, and the Harvard Business Review. He holds a board position at Gallup and has formerly been a board member for Meridian International, Streetwise Partners, and Young Professionals in Foreign Policy.

Educationally, Clifton earned a bachelor’s degree in political science and history from the University of Michigan and a Juris Doctor specializing in international law from the University of Nebraska. He holds a senior fellowship at Baylor University for the Institute for the Studies of Religion and has been recognized with honorary doctorates from Midland University, the University of North Carolina-Pembroke, and Western New England University.

Johnny C. Taylor, Jr., SHRM-SCP, is President and Chief Executive Officer of SHRM, the Society for Human Resource Management.

With over 300,000 members in 165 countries, SHRM is the largest HR professional association in the world, impacting the lives of 115 million workers every day.

As a global leader on the future of employment, culture and leadership, Mr. Taylor is a sought-after voice on all matters affecting work, workers and the workplace. He is frequently asked to testify before Congress on critical workforce issues and authors a weekly column, “Ask HR,” in USA Today.

Mr. Taylor’s career spans over 20 years as a lawyer, human resources executive and CEO in both the not-for-profit and for-profit space. He has held senior and chief executive roles at IAC/Interactive Corp, Viacom’s Paramount Pictures and Blockbuster Entertainment Group, McGuireWoods LLC, and Compass Group USA. Most recently, Mr. Taylor was President and Chief Executive Officer of the Thurgood Marshall College Fund.

He is a member of the White House American Workforce Policy Advisory Board and was appointed by President Donald Trump as Chairman of the President’s Advisory Board on Historically Black Colleges and Universities. He serves on the boards of the University of Miami, Jobs for America’s Graduates and the American Red Cross and as an adviser to Safe Streets & Second Chances. He is licensed to practice law in Florida, Illinois and Washington, D.C.

Leena Nair is the first female, first Asian, youngest ever CHRO of Unilever and member of the Unilever Leadership Executive (ULE), which is responsible for delivering Unilever’s business & financial performance. Leena bears overall responsibility for the 160,000-strong human capital of Unilever, which operates across multiple regulatory and labour environments spread over 190 countries. She ensures the company has the right people, in the right roles, with the right capabilities and mindset to deliver high business performance. This is a key enabler for Unilever to meet its ambitious business goals with positive environmental and social impact. Throughout her career, Leena has gained a strong reputation for her leadership ability to ignite outstanding business growth. Through always-on learning and constant experimentation, together with an outside-in view of her customer, Leena ensures that her people and business stay ahead of the curve. Leena is also a Non-Executive Director of BT, BEIS (The Department of Business, Energy, and Industrial Strategy for the UK) and a member of the board for the Leverhulme Trust. Her purpose is to “ignite the human spark for a better business and better world”.

Josh Bersin is an analyst, author, educator, and thought leader focusing on the global talent market and the challenges and trends impacting business workforces around the world. He studies the world of work, HR and leadership practices, and the broad talent technology market. He is often cited as one of the leading HR and workplace industry analysts in the world.

He founded Bersin & Associates in 2001 to provide research and advisory services focused on corporate learning. Over the next ten years, he expanded the company’s coverage to encompass HR, talent management, talent acquisition, and leadership and became a recognized expert in the talent market.  He sold the company to Deloitte in 2012, when it became known as Bersin™ by Deloitte.   He currently sits on the board of UC Berkeley Executive Education.

Most recently, Bersin launched the Josh Bersin Academy, the world’s first global development academy for HR and talent professionals at all levels and across all industries.  Serving as the Academy’s dean, Bersin guides its program offerings, interacts with members, and shares relevant research and insights to help HR and talent professionals stay current on the trends and practices needed to drive success in the modern world of work.

Bersin is frequently featured in talent and business publications such as Forbes, Harvard Business Review, HR Executive, FastCompany, The Wall Street Journal, and CLO Magazine.  He is a regular keynote speaker at industry events and a popular blogger with more than 800,000 followers on LinkedIn.

Prior to founding Bersin & Associates, Josh spent 25 years in product development, product management, marketing, and sales of database, e-learning and other enterprise technologies. His education includes a BS in engineering from Cornell University, an MS in engineering from Stanford University, and an MBA from the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley.  He is the author of two books, The Blended Learning Handbook and The Training Measurement Book, along with dozens of studies on corporate HR, learning, and talent technologies. He currently has a third book under contract with Harvard Business Publishing.

Josh’s eminence as an analyst and thought leader has been globally recognized. During his time at Deloitte, Josh was the principal author and architect of the Deloitte Human Capital Trends, the world’s largest global study of HR, talent, and workplace trends.  This report, which covers all major HR issues around the world, became one of Deloitte’s most widely read research studies and formed the basis for Deloitte’s global human capital consulting. His model for employee engagement, “Simply Irresistible,” was the most widely read research in the Deloitte Insights website.

His research on employee engagement, new models of performance management, and the ever-changing nature of HR and workplace technology is widely respected. He is often credited with the concepts of “high-impact corporate training,” “learning in the flow of work,” and hundreds of articles on the evolution of people analytics and the use of AI in the workplace.

Throughout his career in HR and HR technology, Josh has continued to focus on the needs of HR executives, HR teams, and the careers of HR professionals. He believes in the “craft” of human resources and is one of the profession’s most vocal advocates for the importance of HR in the ever-changing world of work.

As the Head of Government Affairs for the world’s largest human resources trade association, Emily M. Dickens leads SHRM’s advocacy and policy initiatives. This includes its Advocacy Team – the “A-Team” – composed of nearly 30,000 HR professionals across the United States positioned front and center in efforts to advance the interests of the HR profession. She oversees government affairs, global policy, legal affairs, and the SHRM Foundation, the 501(c)(3) philanthropic arm of SHRM. Dickens has been a featured expert on workplace issues and business leadership – with commentary appearing in CBS News, NBC News, AP News, Wall Street Journal, CNBC, Bloomberg Law, Crain’s Business, Marketplace, WTOP, Yahoo Finance, HR Brew, and HR Dive among others. In addition, Dickens has testified before Congress and the EEOC on worker and workplace topics like AI, gender bias, and paid leave.

Dickens serves on the boards of the following industry organizations to maximize SHRM’s impact and voice in global, national, and local business and labor policy debates: B20 Brazil Women in Business Action Council (Co-Chair); USCIB-United States Council for International Business (Governance Committee); The Bryce Harlow Foundation; Skill-up, and the National Foundation for Women Legislators.

Before SHRM, Dickens served as a passionate advocate for access to higher education as the general counsel/head of policy for the DC-based Thurgood Marshall College Fund; Vice President of Public Policy for the Association of Governing Boards for Colleges and Universities; and the Assistant Vice President for Federal Affairs at the University of North Carolina System. Dickens leverages her higher education background to promote the importance of leveraging the education-to-employment pipeline to address future workforce needs. She has also worked at Duke University and Fayetteville State University in administrative and external affairs roles.

Actively engaged in board service, Dickens is a member of the North Carolina Central University Board of Trustees and the NCNW Board of Directors (Co-Chair Personnel Committee). She is a life member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated where she has served as Chairman of the International HBCU Task Force, and on the sorority’s Education Advancement Foundation Board (AKAEAF).

Emily is a graduate of North Carolina Central University and North Carolina Central University School of Law.

Abdullah ALZahrani is a passionate and innovative consultant, entrepreneur, and people enthusiast with over 18 years of diverse business experience in the Saudi market. He is the founder and CEO of Tharwah, one of the fastest growing management consulting firms in Saudi Arabia, specializing in human capital advisory services.

Abdullah has a proven track record of delivering comprehensive and customized solutions to clients in various industries, including government, semi-government, and private sector. He has expertise in areas such as talent management, organization development, change management, and psychometric assessments.

He holds a master’s degree in human resources and industrial relations and multiple professional certifications from global bodies. Abdullah’s vision is to make Tharwah the top center of expertise in human capital development services in the region, enabling clients and empowering their human capital to achieve their full potential.

Oshba Mubarak is the Head of Training & Development and People Performance Management at Abu Dhabi Housing Authority., In her capacity, she is responsible for leading Digital learning, Talent Development agenda and succession planning activities across the company.

her background experience 23+ years comes from different industries in UAE from Banking and finance, Real estate and Government sector.

Oshba started her career in 2001, as a Professional banker through her hard work and dedication in 2006, she became one of the first younger UAE Female Bank Manager leading the team more than 50 employees across the regional branches. In 2012, she has lifted her career concentrating in managing the Human Capital and worked closely with different strategic partners such as McKinsey, Deloitte, Korn ferry and Tower Watson in designing accelerate Talent programs for high potentials. Over her time, she played many key roles in developing and strengthening the company’s position as an employer of choice in the UAE with ENBD, NBAD (FAB), ALDAR properties the real estate sector in general. And continues to push ahead on its transformational growth journey.

Oshba is a graduate of Master degree – Business Administration from Canadian University focusing in Finance. and is a certified professional from the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD). In addition, she has attended a number of other Executive education programs including Harvard, INSEAD and IMD have all welcomed her hungry mind . last of all, close to her heart she advocates for a greener and more conscious world which led her to became one of an active member of sustainability ambassador at Robert swan mission 2041.

Vivek Arora is the Director – Regional Sales & Business Operations for SHRM-MENA and is based out of Dubai office. In his 20 plus years of rich experience Vivek has spearheaded various people & HR related businesses across geographies in Asia Pacific, Middle East, Eastern Europe and South East Asia.  Vivek has been instrumental in building organizations from conceptualization to maturity stages and has a strong business acumen while ensuring employee well-being and their career progression. Vivek has managed organizations with over 35,000 employees across various diversities and cultures. In his previous assignment, Vivek was instrumental in getting his organization awarded as the Best place to work in Singapore. He is a MBA from GMU Italy and PGDBM from Cambridge International Qualifications and has been a recipient of various awards and accolades

Nida is a passionate and entrepreneurial HR Professional with over a decade of experience across diverse areas of the human capital lifecycle. Prior to her current stint with SHRM India, she was working independently and associated with several firms like Great Place to Work Research and Consultancy, School of Inspired Leadership and Institution Builders. She has also been previously employed as a Project Leader with Right Management India. Nida has worked on projects involving both high level strategy and ground level execution. Combination of subject matter expertise with operational understanding and effective stakeholder management has always ensured business impact of HR interventions. Her domain expertise lies in the areas of Competency Management, Talent Assessment, Leader Development, Employee Engagement and Performance Management. In her work in the space of Leader Development, she has worked on content design, development and delivery of more than 200 learning programs across Automotive Manufacturing, FMCG, Construction, IT, BFSI, Telecom, Energy, Government and Pharmaceutical sectors for a host of behavioural and HR functional topics. She holds a degree in Science from Lucknow University and is an MBA from SIBM (Gold Medalist). She is certified to administer and interpret the MBTI psychometric instrument and is also well versed with other psychometric tools like Caliper, Birkman and Learning Style Inventory

Raj brings over two decades of global, cross-cultural HR expertise in geographies like Asia Pacific, the Middle East, Africa, Russia and Europe, working across diverse industries such as IT/ITES, Engineering, Manufacturing, Oil & Gas and Pharmaceuticals to name a few.

At present he is working as Chief Strategy Officer and Head HR for Advantage Club. AC is a global HR Technology (SaaS) platform catering to employee engagement, financial wellness, benefits, perks, rewards, and early wage access on a single platform to enrich the Employee Experience journey at Moment that matters ! Headquartered at Delaware, Advantage Club has an impressive presence in almost 100+ countries across the globe, catering to 500+ corporates and extends offers exclusively across 10,000+ brands.

In his previous role, Raj was responsible for heading the Global Digital Talent strategy for Concentrix across 40 countries. He also lead the line HR function for 70,000 employees across 13 cities in India and ASEAN countries. Raj was instrumental in expanding the company’s footprint in countries like Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam and the UAE. Additionally, he pioneered the automation and transformation of the HR function at Concentrix.

For his varied contributions, he is also the proud recipient of six individual industry awards:
 Great People Manager Award – Great Manager Institute and Forbes India (2020)
 TA Pai Young HR Leader Award – People Business and Economic Times (2020)
 Great Manager Award – People Business and Economic Times (2019)
 Times Ascent Asia Pacific HRM Awards – HR Tech Projects of the Year (2019)
 ACEF Asian Awards for excellence in HR – HR Leader of the Year (2018)
 100 Most Influential Tech HR Leaders – Individual Award (2018)

He is a certified M&A Specialist from Aon Hewitt. His formal qualifications PGDM from Symbiosis and further education in Digital Transformation from Columbia Business School, Managerial & Leadership Effectiveness from IIMA and Design Thinking & Innovation from Emeritus, Singapore Known as “TrueTech Reporter” at YouTube, Raj spends his leisure time in reading, video editing and music mixing.