Agenda

Sara Sutton Fell is the CEO and Founder of FlexJobs, an award-winning career website for telecommuting, flexible, freelance, and part-time jobs. Sara founded FlexJobs in 2007 while she was pregnant with her first son, after she experienced first-hand the frustrating search for professional jobs that also offered flexible work options. Having also co-founded an entry-level employment service in 1995 (JobDirect, later sold to Korn|Ferry International in 2000), she has long been passionate about helping people find jobs that make their lives better, and she is thrilled that her own experience as a working mom is now helping others who want or need work flexibility.

Sara also believes that a modern workplace should address the needs of today’s workforce, and that utilizing workplace technology to support telecommuting and flexible work will achieve societal, environmental, and economic benefits for both employees and employers. In support of that belief, Sara launched the 1 Million for Work Flexibility in 2013 and Remote.co in 2015. For her work in the employment and technology fields, she was named as a Young Global Leader (class of 2014) by the World Economic Forum. Sara is a graduate of the University of California at Berkeley, and currently lives in Boulder, Colorado, USA with her two children.

Vipula Gandhi is a Managing Consultant based in Gallup’s Singapore office with regional responsibilities in South East Asia, Middle East and Africa. Vipula helps organizations create value through organic growth by focusing on human capital management and customer engagement. She works with her clients’ management teams to understand their company’s vision, develop long-term strategic plans that align with organisational objectives, and deliver on plans that drive positive business outcomes.

Mohammed is the Global Human Resources Director at Dell and leads global strategic programs within Dell’s Human Resources Organization including M&A, Transition Services Agreement, and Dell’s work flexibility programs. In his current role Mohammed also leads the function’s innovation and design thinking agenda. As the leader of Dell’s work flexibility programs, Mohammed’s focus is to further Dell’s work flexibility strategy and increase its positive impact on Dell and its Team Members.

Throughout his 14+ years at Dell, Mohammed has held a variety of leadership and program management roles in different HR domains including HR Shared Services, Training, Talent Management, Mergers and Acquisitions and Managed Services Deals. Mohammed’s background in IT and experience in Human Resources makes him continuously explore and research how technology changes how work is defined and the impact it has on the purpose and role of the HR function.

Peter Hirst is the Associate Dean, Executive Education at MIT and leads the team of professionals who partner with clients and faculty at the MIT Sloan School of Management to develop, design, and deliver innovative executive education programs for individuals and companies.

Formerly CEO of the commercialization, consulting, and executive education business of the London School of Economics, he has over twenty years of experience in international strategy, technology consulting and organizational development.  Peter has also served as a director and board adviser to businesses and non-profit organizations on three continents.  He is a past president of the British American Business Council of New England, for which he currently serves as a board director, and a founding member of its Energy and Environment and High Tech Committees.  Peter is a trustee and treasurer of the American Foundation of the University of St Andrews in Scotland and cochair of the Education Working Group of the Internet of Things World Forum and a founding member of the Internet of Things Global Talent Consortium.  He is also a board director and cochair of the Digital Communications Subcommittee of UNICON, the global association of university-based executive education programs.

Peter earned a PhD from the University of St Andrews, Scotland, for research in plasma physics and microwave engineering.  After a period of academic entrepreneurship in a variety of related fields, including optoelectronics, neural network computing, and the interfaces between technology and terrorism, he was appointed Westminster Fellow in the UK Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology, where he advised MPs and Peers of all parties on policy issues in the physical sciences, defense, and IT.

In 2012, Peter was named a Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (MBE) by Queen Elizabeth II in recognition of his service to British and American business and academia interests.

As Vice President of Facilities Management at the National Equity Fund, Gaylene Domer is a master of everything office related, overseeing an annual budget of $3.1 million. Domer is responsible for the successful organization and coordination of all office operational procedures, employee customer service and has been instrumental in maintaining a safe, pleasant and productive Workplace.

Since joining NEF in 1988, Domer has worked to create an effective and efficient environment with innovative and motivational design elements for NEF’s highly professional and diversified workforce with a variety of needs.

Prior to joining NEF, Domer served as vice-president of operations for Best Auto Transport, Inc., vice-president of training for Zirl Smith & Associates, and held several posts at affordable housing organizations including Chicago Housing Authority, Wilmington Housing Authority in Delaware and Stark Metro Housing Authority in Ohio.

Congresswoman Suzan DelBene represents Washington’s First Congressional District, which spans from northeast King County to the Canadian border, and includes parts of King, Snohomish, Skagit and Whatcom counties.

First sworn into the House of Representatives on Nov. 13, 2012, Suzan brings a unique voice to the nation’s capital, with more than two decades of experience as a successful technology entrepreneur and business leader. Her experience and focus on achieving concrete results allowed Suzan to break through congressional gridlock and get things done. Suzan takes on a wide range of challenges both in Congress and in the First District and is a leader on issues of technology, health and agriculture.

As President & CEO of The Diversity & Flexibility Alliance, Manar Morales is a national thought leader on women’s leadership, diversity and workplace flexibility. The Diversity & Flexibility Alliance is a think tank dedicated to helping organizations create high performance cultures that advance diversity and flexibility. Manar is a frequent speaker on workplace flexibility, diversity and inclusion, women’s leadership, and individual strategies for success.  Manar began her career as an employment litigator representing clients in all aspects of labor relations and employment law.  She has litigated in federal court, before federal administrative agencies, and in arbitration.  In addition, Manar served as an adjunct faculty member of Georgetown University where she taught classes in Labor and Employment Law and Entrepreneurship.  Manar serves on a number of Boards and Commissions; she is a Washington Advisory Council member for Commonsense Media, a member of the President’s Council of Cornell Women, a liaison to the ABA Commission on Women in the Profession, and a Trustee of the Board of St. Patrick’s Episcopal Day School.

Marcela Escobari is currently a visiting Fellow at Brookings Institution in their Global Economy and Development program, where she is incubating an initiative on the Future of Work. She spent the last year of President Obama’s administration as Assistant Administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development’s (USAID) Bureau for Latin America and the Caribbean. Marcela was confirmed by the US Senate and joined USAID in May 2016, and led the bureau and its initiatives on poverty, inequality, citizen security, and governance. Throughout the region, USAID has 13 bilateral missions, 3 regional missions, and U.S.-based programs focusing on democracy, humanitarian assistance, and the environment.  The bureau manages an annual budget of approximately $1 billion.

Since 2007, Escobari served as Executive Director at the Center for International Development at Harvard University, a research center working to generate breakthrough ideas that bring stable, shared, and sustainable prosperity to developing countries. During her tenure, the Center achieved tremendous impact, tripling in size with projects in 17 countries across 5 continents.

She has also worked as head of the Americas region at the OTF Group (a spin-off of Monitor Group), where she advised governments on how to increase export competitiveness and harness the private sector to eradicate poverty. She began her career as a Mergers & Acquisitions banker at JP Morgan in New York.  The World Economic Forum named her a Young Global Leader in 2013.  She co-authored the book “In the River They Swim: Essays from around the World on Enterprise Solutions to Poverty”, holds a BA in Economics from Swarthmore College and an MA in Public Policy from the Harvard Kennedy School.

Ronit Avni is the founder of Localized, a soon-to-launch platform for university students and young professionals in emerging markets to access career guidance, role models and expertise from top-tier professionals around the world who share language and cultural roots.

A social entrepreneur, human rights advocate and Peabody Award-winning media producer with 17 years of leadership experience, Ronit’s work has been featured in dozens of global news outlets, including The Washington Post, The BBC, NPR, The Economist and The New York Times.

Prior to Localized, she founded and led Just Vision, which creates digital media, award-winning films (Budrus, My Neighborhood, Encounter Point), news analysis and public education campaigns to raise awareness and support for Palestinian and Israeli civilians working for freedom, dignity, equality and human security. As Executive Director of Just Vision, Ms. Avni managed a diverse team based in North America and the Middle East and was a frequent speaker in think tank, community, government, international, educational and media settings.

Previously, Ronit trained human rights defenders worldwide to incorporate film and digital media into their advocacy campaigns while working for the human rights organization, WITNESS. She co-edited the book, “Video for Change – A Guide for Advocacy and Activism” with WITNESS and now sits on the WITNESS Board, chairing the Program Committee.

Ronit has been recognized with a variety of honors, including the King Hussein Leadership Prize, Search for Common Ground’s Common Ground Award, the Circles of Change Award, Auburn Seminary’s Lives of Commitment Award and the Trailblazer Award from the National Council for Research on Women. She was named a Young Global Leader (2009) through the World Economic Forum and a Term Member of the Council on Foreign Relations (2010).

As a side passion, Ronit has trained hundreds of business leaders, MBA students, nonprofit leaders and civil servants to speak persuasively to the media, on stage and in executive settings with KNP Communications.

Sara Sutton Fell is the CEO and Founder of FlexJobs, an award-winning career website for telecommuting, flexible, freelance, and part-time jobs. Sara founded FlexJobs in 2007 while she was pregnant with her first son, after she experienced first-hand the frustrating search for professional jobs that also offered flexible work options. Having also co-founded an entry-level employment service in 1995 (JobDirect, later sold to Korn|Ferry International in 2000), she has long been passionate about helping people find jobs that make their lives better, and she is thrilled that her own experience as a working mom is now helping others who want or need work flexibility.

Sara also believes that a modern workplace should address the needs of today’s workforce, and that utilizing workplace technology to support telecommuting and flexible work will achieve societal, environmental, and economic benefits for both employees and employers. In support of that belief, Sara launched the 1 Million for Work Flexibility in 2013 and Remote.co in 2015. For her work in the employment and technology fields, she was named as a Young Global Leader (class of 2014) by the World Economic Forum. Sara is a graduate of the University of California at Berkeley, and currently lives in Boulder, Colorado, USA with her two children.

Tolu Olubunmi is an entrepreneur and global advocate for migrants, refugees, and displaced people. An innovative thinker and determined change-maker, she has established and led numerous NGOs and campaigns focused on immigrant integration, employment, access to technology, and education.

Tolu is the founder and CEO of Lions Write, a social venture that builds and manages initiatives committed to giving voice and value to the voiceless and strengthening collaborations between corporations, governments and civil society organizations. She co-founded Immigrant Heritage Month and has helped draft and implement U.S. immigration policies.

Tolu serves on the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Council on Migration and co-chairs Mobile Minds – a high-skilled migration project advancing cross-border remote working as a 21st century alternative to physical migration. She also sits on the Board of Directors of USAIM for IOM (the UN Migration Agency), and was recently named to the Board of Advisors of the social impact investment platform, BRAVA Investments.  

In 2015, the World Economic Forum named her One of 15 Women Changing the World and an Outstanding Woman Entrepreneur. Tolu is often called upon to share her expertise and inspiring personal story with a variety of entities, including the United Nations, Gates Foundation, World Bank, TIME, and the White House.

Tolu holds a Chemistry-Engineering degree from Washington and Lee University.

As Vice President of Cisco’s Workplace Resources, David Wagner leads a global organization with responsibility for provisioning  all corporate real estate and facilities services for a portfolio of 23 million square feet, spanning 94 countries.

Wagner and his team respond to business demands with actionable strategies, which are delivered through an integrated outsourced platform of more than 11,000 professionals worldwide.  With an operating budget in excess of $1.2 billion, and annual capital commitments of $500 million, Workplace Resources is the architect of the corporation’s Global Site Strategy and Cisco Connected Workplace programs.

Prior to joining Cisco, Wagner was Senior Managing Director at CB Richard Ellis, Principal and Senior Vice President at Trammell Crow Company, Project Executive and Program Manager at Parsons Corporation, and Senior Engineer at General Dynamics Corporation.

Wagner received a master’s degree in business administration from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, as well as a master’s degree and bachelor’s degree of science in engineering from Lehigh University.  He has also received Six Sigma certification and is a licensed professional engineer.

Jason Phillips is Vice President of HR Operations and Chief of Staff at Cisco. He currently plays a major role in the company’s overall human resources performance, leading human resources digital strategies, promoting operational efficiency, and managing team performance through effective governance and financial stewardship.

He leads Cisco’s human resources digital roadmap which support and align to Cisco’s overall business strategy and are essential to driving the Company’s transformational journey. He also is responsible for managing human resources leadership governance, budget and investment portfolios which currently are designed to drive key transformational capability to support the business. Jason is actively involved in driving integrated veterans support solutions across Cisco.

Prior to Cisco, Jason served as the Vice President of HR Shared Services for Kaiser Permanente where he had oversight of all human resources delivery for talent acquisition, contingent workforce, learning, total rewards, integrated disability management and HR technology. He also led Kaiser Permanente’s human resources service center where he was responsible for all core human resources employee transactions in support of over 180,000 employees, 430,000 retirees which processed over 1.1 million cases per year.

Jason also has worked in various leadership roles across multiple consulting firms and started his professional journey as an officer in the United States Marine Corps.

Jason is recognized as a HR operations and systems subject matter expert within numerous human resource consortiums.  He has his Bachelors degree in Government, his Masters degree in Management and completed his doctoral studies in Adult Learning & Human Resources Development.

Amy Gallo is a Contributing Editor at Harvard Business Review. She is an author and speaker who transforms complex ideas into practical advice. Her latest book, HBR Guide to Dealing with Conflict, is a how-to guidebook for navigating uncomfortable situations at work. As a contributing editor at Harvard Business Review, she writes about a range of topics with a focus on interpersonal dynamics, remote work, communicating ideas, leading and influencing people, and building your career. She is the co-author of the HBR Guide to Building Your Business Case.

Before working with Harvard Business Review, she was a management consultant at Katzenbach Partners, a strategy and organization firm based in New York (later acquired by Booz & Company, which is now Strategy&). She contributed to the firm’s research on the “informal organization” — the unofficial networks and communities in organizations that govern how people work together in practice.

Claire Lew is the CEO of Know Your Company, a software tool that helps business owners overcome company growing pains. Her company, Know Your Company, has helped over 15,000 people in 25 countries at companies like Airbnb and Kickstarter. Claire’s mission in life is to help people become happier at work. She speaks internationally on how to create more open, honest workplace environments, and has been published in Harvard Business Review, Fortune, Inc, CNBC, among others. Read what Claire writes here, and watch her speak here.

Trina Hoefling has been transforming the workplace virtually since developing remote management training in 1984 for a F50 corporation. She believes that “Technology is the enabler, but People are the key” and that “The Network is the Workplace.”

Author of Working Virtually: Transforming the Mobile Workplace, 2nd Ed, released this March 2017, Trina is an accomplished thought leader with passion for helping people and organizations thrive. In addition to her 30-year consultancy, GroupONE Solutions LLC, she is co-founder of The Smart Workplace and Virtual Workplace University, a learning portal for workplace competence in today’s mobile, flexible work world. VWU just released Trina’s first on-demand course in her Virtual Leadership Essentials series based on Working Virtually.

Her commitment is to transform the organization’s ability to thrive while unleashing the talent and well-being of its people. She continuously expands her own knowledge and methods to bring the precise tools and timely expertise that helps business leaders navigate the challenges associated with leading strategically.

An organization development and transformational change consultant, strategic facilitator, leadership coach and virtual team engagement expert, Trina is often the consultant behind the scenes, helping support flexwork and virtual team leaders who want to develop and support competent, confident and engaged teams.

Trina also authored Working Virtually: Managing People for Successful Virtual Teams and Organizations 1st Edition, 2000. She is chapter author of 2008 Jossey-Bass treatise, The Handbook of High-Performance Virtual Teams: A Toolkit for Collaborating Across Boundaries. Her chapter discusses expanded emotional bandwidth and developing team trust virtually.

For well over 20 years Trina has published articles, keynote speeches, webinars and training on TRaD. She has been working with educators and learning professionals by providing workshops, sessions, and conference speeches. Customers such as Department of Education Vocational Technical Training sector, Victoria, Australia look to Trina for her experience and thought leadership. She recently presented on virtual conflict management at ATD 2017, as well as engaging virtual teams at the World@Work Total Rewards Conference.

Her 2017 Keynote topics include:

• Authentically engaged, flexible organization cultures in a dispersed work world
• Upskilling for workforce digital literacy and lifelong learning
• Strategic collaboration among L&D, HR, Facilities, IT, and Leadership
• Mindset shifts when the network is the workplace, technology as the enabler, and people are key
• Lessons learned from an early adopter of online learning and extreme Slacker
• Engaging and connecting online learners and learning communities of practice
• Bringing pedagogy to online and blended learning – what really works and what’s myth

Trina Hoefling is a graduate school Master Teacher and online course developer for the University of Denver in two Masters programs – Organization Leadership M.A. and Organization Development Masters Certificate.

Brigid Schulte is the author of the New York Times bestselling book on time pressure, Overwhelmed: Work, Love & Play when No One has the Time, which named one of the notable books of the year by the Washington Post and NPR, and won the Virginia Library Association’s literary nonfiction award.

She has spoken all over the world about the causes and consequences of our unsustainable, always-on culture, and how to make time for The Good Life by redesigning how we work, by re-imagining gender roles for a fairer division of labor and opportunity at work and home and, instead of seeking status in busyness, by recapturing the value of leisure. She was an award-winning journalist for The Washington Post and The Washington Post Magazine and part of the team that won the 2008 Pulitzer Prize. Her work has appeared in numerous publications, including Slate, The Boston Globe, New York Magazine’s Science of Us, Fast Company, Time, the Guardian and others. She has also been quoted as an expert or featured in numerous publications, including Fortune, the Atlantic, Financial Times and others, and has appeared on a number of TV and radio programs, including CNN, The BBC, Fresh Air with Terry Gross and NPR’s Morning Edition.

She now serves as the director of the nonpartisan think tank New America’s Better Life Lab, which uses data, storytelling and aspirational policy solutions to elevate the conversation, explore transformative solutions and highlight how work-life, gender equity and well designed social policies are keys to excellence, productivity and innovation, as well as full, authentic and meaningful lives for everyone. She lives in Alexandria, Virginia, with her husband, Tom Bowman, a reporter for National Public Radio, and their two children. She grew up in Portland, Oregon and spent her summers with family in Wyoming, where she did not feel overwhelmed.  

Visit her website for resources and sign up for her occasional newsletter, Toward Time Serenity, on the art and science of The Good Life.Join the ongoing discussion about making time for work, love and play on her Facebook page. And follow her on twitter @BrigidSchulte

Check out the Better Life Lab on the web and our channel on Slate. Follow us on twitter @BetterLifeLab for our curated newsletter on the best of our work and articles, essays, data and research from around the web on what you need to know to live a Better Life at work and at home.

Dan Connolly is a Senior Associate at ideas42. His current work focuses on designing and testing behavioral interventions in work-life conflict, postsecondary education, and civic engagement. Dan is the lead author on the recent ideas42 report Work and Life: A Behavioral Approach to Solving Work-Life Conflict.

Prior to joining the ideas42 team, Dan worked as a research assistant at Cornell University’s Laboratory for Experimental Economics and Decision Research, as well as Cornell’s Self and Social Insight Lab, where his research examined the incentization of objective reasoning in political judgment. Dan holds a BA in Economics and Psychology from Cornell University.

Kristin Sharp directs New America’s Initiative on Work, Workers, and Technology. In 2016, she co-founded and ran Shift: The Commission on Work, Workers, and Technology, a joint project of New America and Bloomberg.

Prior to launching SHIFT, she had an extensive career in technology, innovation, and national security policy in the U.S. Senate, most recently serving as deputy chief of staff to Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.), and the architect of his initiative examining the impact of the on-demand economy and contingent workforce on capitalism.

In the Senate, Sharp also held positions as legislative director for Sens. Mark Pryor (D-Ark.) and Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.). In addition, she held a variety of senior staff roles on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee and was an advisor to Sen. Richard Lugar (R-Ind.) on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

In addition to her work at New America, she is a frequent speaker on the future of work and advises a variety of private start-ups and venture capital firms. Sharp is a member of the board of the Herbert Scoville Peace Fellowship. She has an M.A. from Duke University in Political Science, and a B.A. from the University of Michigan. Go Blue!

Sara Sutton Fell is the CEO and Founder of FlexJobs, an award-winning career website for telecommuting, flexible, freelance, and part-time jobs. Sara founded FlexJobs in 2007 while she was pregnant with her first son, after she experienced first-hand the frustrating search for professional jobs that also offered flexible work options. Having also co-founded an entry-level employment service in 1995 (JobDirect, later sold to Korn|Ferry International in 2000), she has long been passionate about helping people find jobs that make their lives better, and she is thrilled that her own experience as a working mom is now helping others who want or need work flexibility.

Sara also believes that a modern workplace should address the needs of today’s workforce, and that utilizing workplace technology to support telecommuting and flexible work will achieve societal, environmental, and economic benefits for both employees and employers. In support of that belief, Sara launched the 1 Million for Work Flexibility in 2013 and Remote.co in 2015. For her work in the employment and technology fields, she was named as a Young Global Leader (class of 2014) by the World Economic Forum. Sara is a graduate of the University of California at Berkeley, and currently lives in Boulder, Colorado, USA with her two children.