Los Angeles Live 2026: People & HR

Sony is the VP, Learning & Organizational Development at Lionsgate.

Greg Isaacs is the Chief Product Officer at Criteria where his main role is to work closely with clients to build solutions that drive success of their talent management initiatives.

Jaylon Jackson is Chief Revenue Officer of Corporate Traditions, a company that helps employers recognize their people through employee and client gifting programs, from holiday turkey and grocery certificates to multi-option gift cards, with no contracts, fees, or minimums. Corporate Traditions’ main mission is to make gifting simple again!

Olga Bobin is a global mobility and immigration executive with over 20 years of experience leading enterprise workforce strategy, cross-border compliance, and scalable operating models. At EPAM Systems, she heads global mobility and immigration programs supporting a large-scale technology workforce across multiple regions, ensuring seamless talent deployment through periods of rapid growth and geopolitical disruption. Her work has earned industry recognition, including the FEM Award for Agility & Crisis Management.

Olga also serves as Executive Sponsor of Women@EPAM, where she champions equitable access to global opportunities and inclusive workplace culture.

She holds a degree in Linguistics with IT Specialization and completed executive education at Harvard Business School. Based in Southern California, Olga is passionate about workplace culture, social impact, professional growth and empowering diverse talent.

Laura Schroeder is COO for LHH Recruitment Solutions North America, where she leads the strategic priorities, commercial sales, and performance execution framework for the business. With more than 20 years of leadership experience across The Adecco Group, she specializes in driving profitable growth, scaling new businesses, and translating strategy into measurable business outcomes.

Throughout her career, Laura has held leadership roles spanning business operations, revenue growth, strategic planning, go-to-market execution, and organizational transformation. She has successfully led recruiting and consulting businesses, including Accounting Principals and Parker + Lynch Consulting, launched and scaled new recruitment service offerings, and built high-performing teams that drive growth across North America.

Prior to her current role, Laura served as Global Chief of Staff at LHH, helping shape the organization's strategic direction and execute critical global priorities. Known for her collaborative leadership style, Laura is passionate about developing talent, fostering innovation, and creating alignment around strategic priorities that empower teams, strengthen culture, and drive business results.

Katelyn Sobel is a Solutions Lead at EZRA, where she partners with leading global organizations to design leadership development strategies that drive meaningful behavior change and measurable business impact. With a background in organizational psychology, behavioral science, and instructional design, Katelyn brings a research-informed, practical approach to helping organizations develop their people.

Her work focuses on translating complex talent and business challenges into scalable coaching and development solutions, with a particular emphasis on leadership effectiveness, organizational transformation, and measuring the impact of development. Katelyn is passionate about bridging the gap between human potential and business performance, helping organizations build the capabilities their leaders need to thrive in an evolving world of work.

Kal Vissa is a seasoned product and technology leader with over two decades of experience building and scaling products across HR Tech, B2B SaaS, fintech, and AI/ML. He has led multiple AI-driven transformations, from launching AI-powered talent and career experiences at Eightfold.ai to driving the transition of G-P’s EOR platform toward an AI-first, automated experience. Today, Kal leads G-P’s EOR product, focused on transforming how businesses hire, onboard, and manage their global workforce.

Faith E. Pinho is a journalist who has reported at the Los Angeles Times. Faith has covered a dynamic range of stories, from California wildfires to weird-looking fish. Her reporting on the 2021 California gubernatorial recall election and the Jan. 6 insurrection earned national attention and awards. Faith is also an active member of her union and a mentor to student journalists. Aside from journalism, Faith is co-founder of the Crimson Community Mentorship Program, an organization to connect high school students with mentors in her hometown of Everett, Mass.

Glizcel Ditto is a business and technology professional on a 25+ year journey providing domain and solution expert leadership in human capital management with a passion for the fine art of total rewards management. Glizcel understands that compensation and rewards are an integral part of a company’s employer brand, and can greatly affect the ability to attract and retain key talent that will help the company obtain its business objectives.

At HRSoft, Glizcel consults with clients and colleagues through intersecting roles in product management, solution consulting, marketing, client implementations, and customer success with a focus in compensation, performance management, pay equity, and total rewards. She expertly aligns rewards philosophies and strategies with technology solutions through extensive industry expertise and deft product knowledge.
 

Kase Konkright learned what work means from his grandparents. She was a school cook. He was a janitor. Their work was essential, mostly unseen, and woven into their community, and they raised him to believe that work is contribution, that integrity beats recognition, and that success carries a responsibility beyond yourself. He carried that into a 25+ year career inside some of the world’s most demanding companies, sitting in the seats where hiring decisions couldn’t be undone. Global giants and family-run businesses, different scale, different complexity, the same human stakes. And across all of it, one pattern held: the hires that changed everything were never won by volume, process, or optics. They were won by judgment. Listening carefully. Asking better questions. Understanding the work beneath the title. He also watched what the recruiting industry did with those stakes: extractive fees, rushed searches, systems built to bill rather than to help. So he built the firm he kept wishing existed. Signal & Strand is that conviction with a business model around it: founder-led, relationship-first, priced honestly, and built to give a large portion of its profits back to the community, because his grandparents would have expected nothing less. The work lights him up as much as ever. Lately that's meant building and rebuilding C-suite teams for companies shifting to people-driven leadership models, then watching that shift show up where it counts, in revenue and margins. It's meant guiding clients through the AI and RPA struggles, where the hard question isn't which tools to buy, it's which leaders can carry people through the change. And it's meant pro-bono searches for non-profits that can't afford to get a hire wrong, the work he'd happily do all day. Outside of work, he’s kept honest by two dogs, Braxton and Tootsie, who enforce the daily disciplines of loyalty, presence, and care.

Ashwarya Poddar is the Founder and CEO of ConverzAI, the Voice AI and Agentic AI platform for recruiting. Passionate about creating technologies that enhance human productivity, he founded ConverzAI in 2019 to transform high-volume recruiting through autonomous AI recruiters. Before starting ConverzAI, he spent over a decade at Microsoft as a Principal Product Manager, taking conversational intelligence products from ideation to commercialization and building them into a $100M+ businesses. He holds multiple patents in conversational AI and natural language processing. Ashwarya earned a Computer Science degree from NIT Rourkela and an MBA from INSEAD. Based in San Jose, he enjoys playing music and cooking with his family.

Karen Ancira is Executive Vice President and Chief People Officer for Mattel. She joined Mattel in 2024. In her role, Ms. Ancira is responsible for driving cultural transformation at Mattel, working with the leadership team to champion Mattel's mission and values and to ensure optimal collaboration across the global organization. As Chief People Officer, Ms. Ancira oversees all global People & Culture functions, including organization design and development, inclusion, talent acquisition, compensation and benefits, employee culture and engagement, leadership development, talent management, workforce planning and people analytics.

Ms. Ancira is a purpose-driven leader with strong expertise in building progressive workplace cultures, cultivating purpose-driven, values-based Human Resources organizations and programs for major consumer brands globally. Prior to joining Mattel, Ms. Ancira spent over a decade with Yum! Brands, most recently serving as Chief People and Culture Officer for their US BU and previously CPO for Australia, Latin America, and the Caribbean. She also held senior Human Resources roles for the brand in UK and Ireland. During her tenure, Ms. Ancira developed a global leadership and character-building program that was implemented across the entire Yum! Brands portfolio. She also led the end-to-end HR agenda for the employee base, led the US organization through a leadership transformation, achieved 100% pay parity for the US, and was instrumental in crafting and launching the business's transformation strategy.

Previously, Ms. Ancira served in HR leadership positions at PepsiCo, creating and overseeing major HR programs across the Latin America region. During this time, Ms. Ancira was a vital strategic partner focused on culture, learning and leadership development, as well as playing a key role in the merger of two brands that created PepsiCo Mexico Foods where she led their organization design initiative. 

Ms. Ancira holds a BA in Economics from the University of Monterrey in Mexico and received an MBA from EAE Business School in Madrid, Spain. She is a member of the Board of Directors of the Latino Leadership Institute.

Juliette Monser is an accomplished Total Rewards and People Operations executive with more than 20 years of experience in compensation, rewards strategy, HR operations, and organizational transformation. Throughout her career, she has advised and led organizations through periods of significant growth and change, building scalable programs that connect people strategy to business and financial outcomes. Her experience includes executive leadership at AppLovin, where she served as Vice President of Total Rewards and expanded her leadership responsibilities into HR Operations, as well as decades of compensation consulting and advisory work.

Today, Juliette leads the Total Rewards and People Operations teams at Playlist, the parent brand behind ClassPass, with responsibility across compensation, sales compensation, benefits, people technology/HRIS, operations, and the advancement of AI, data, and analytics within the people function. She is known for combining deep technical expertise with a practical, business-focused approach—developing high-performing teams, strengthening operational discipline, and creating people programs designed to support growth, organizational effectiveness, and long-term business performance.

Andrew Dufresne leads HR Operations across the United States, Canada, and Mexico at UST, the digital transformation and technology company, with 38,000 employees worldwide. Andrew drives strategic initiatives that enhance workforce engagement, compliance, and operational efficiency. With a strong focus on employee engagement and M&A, Andrew plays a key role in shaping scalable solutions that support diverse employee populations and evolving business needs. His recent work includes leading efforts around compliance in a rapidly-changing US market, audit readiness, M&A process development, and global HR initiatives around employee relations and strategic planning. Andrew is passionate about building resilient HR frameworks that empower teams, develop leaders to meet today’s technology landscape, and foster inclusive workplace cultures.

Samrat Krishna is Head of Marketing at Darwinbox, an AI-native HCM platform. He previously led Global Product Marketing there, shaping how the platform goes to market. Before Darwinbox, he founded a tech startup and held leadership roles at fast growing techology companies. An IIT Madras alum, Samrat is driven by one question: why? Lately that means asking how AI will change the way organizations hire, grow, and lead people, and what HR leaders should do about it.

Elyse Ruiz is Senior Director of Global Benefits & Wellbeing at Mattel, where she leads the company's global benefits strategy and wellbeing programs. She oversees health and welfare, retirement, executive benefits, global wellbeing, and leave and accommodation programs, partnering with regional teams to deliver impactful programs that support Mattel's workforce in the moments that matter most.

With extensive experience in benefits strategy, design and administration, Elyse has led initiatives focused on improving healthcare costs and outcomes, supporting multiple facets of wellbeing and optimizing benefits investments. She is passionate about using data and market insights to shape benefit strategies that enhance the employee experience while supporting business objectives.

Silvia is a global People & Culture executive with more than two decades of experience transforming HR organizations and enabling business growth across manufacturing, healthcare, and technology.

As Vice President of People & Culture at Watkins Wellness, a Masco company, Silvia leads a global HR organization supporting more than 3,000 employees. She has reimagined the company’s HR operating model, established high-impact Centers of Excellence, and led strategic initiatives spanning talent strategy, inclusion and belonging, M&A integration, and total rewards.

A trusted partner to executive leadership, Silvia brings a business-minded and people-first approach to aligning organizational structure, culture, and capability with growth. Her leadership philosophy is grounded in a simple belief: business outcomes are strongest when people feel seen, empowered, and valued.

From helping shape an award-winning Top Workplace culture and Wellness360 program to mentoring emerging HR leaders and guiding organizations through complex transformation, Silvia leads with heart, courage, and an unwavering commitment to meaningful impact.

Jerrold has served as the senior vice president and chief human resources officer for several large-scale, billion-dollar companies, such as Stater Bros. Markets, Hostess Brands and Daymon Worldwide.  He has led all aspects of human resources and has built a reputation as an innovative problem-solver with strategic business acumen.  Jerrold also spent almost a decade in various human resources leadership positions across marketing, sales, and supply chain for the Kellogg Company.

Over the course of his almost twenty years of human resources experience, he has developed and led global human resources teams, while working directly with C-suite and board leaders.  In addition to his practical and hands-on human resources experience, Jerrold has been a licensed attorney for over fifteen years. 

Jerrold is a sought-after speaker, creatively illustrating how he has brought strategic and actionable insights to complex, real-world business challenges.  He now lends his experience and expertise to business leaders by leading them to building and maintaining the optimal cultural to deliver their desired business results.

Jerrold earned a Juris Doctor Degree from Michigan State University College of Law, Cum Laude, and holds a Master of Business Administration degree from Western Michigan University, along with a Bachelor of Science degree in business administration, with a concentration in finance, from Liberty University.

Cecilia Gorman is a leadership development consultant and former HR executive with more than 20 years of experience spanning advertising, creative operations, recruiting, and human resources.

Before founding Creative Talent Partners, Cecilia held executive leadership roles including Vice President of Creative Services at Y&R Advertising, Head of Global Creative Operations at Oakley, and Vice President of Organizational Leadership at Innocean USA, where she led HR and leadership development initiatives.

Today, she partners with organizations to help managers become more confident, effective leaders—particularly in fast-paced, high-growth environments where technical expertise alone isn't enough. She is the creator of Manager Boot Camp, a leadership development program designed to build practical management skills that translate directly to the workplace.

A DISC-certified Executive Director with the John Maxwell Team, Cecilia is a sought-after speaker for HR and leadership audiences, known for making complex leadership challenges practical, actionable, and immediately applicable.

Her clients include Texas Christian University, Restaurant365, Sempra Energy, SDG&E, Los Angeles Tourism, Airgas, Easterseals, Hyundai Capital, CBS, Oakley, and ASICS.

Emily is an account executive in the Health Solutions practice at Aon, based in both the Los Angeles, CA, and Irvine, CA, offices. In this role, her responsibilities include overseeing the health and welfare benefit programs built on behalf of her Aon U.S. clients, creating customized solutions around their benefit programs, and aligning them with each client’s total rewards strategies. As an account executive, she is also charged with ensuring that each team member, including the Aon network or specialty area in which they work, delivers for our clients.

Prior to joining Aon in 2024, Emily worked at another large consulting firm for over thirteen years. She first began working in the industry in 2011. Since joining the consulting industry, she has served as project manager, strategic consultant, and account manager, executing benefit plan management for large global firms ranging from 2,000 employees to over 100,000 employees. She has extensive experience consulting with employers in many major industries, including, but not limited to, professional services, financial services, construction and engineering, health systems, and aerospace and technology.
Expertise
Emily has consulted with and managed major accounts in several different industries with a focus on evaluating, negotiating, placing, and managing US-centric and global insurance programs. As such, she has demonstrable success in creative problem-solving, risk management, and building strong relationships with clients, health vendors, and cross-functional team members.

Nancy Antoniou is the Senior Vice President of Strategic Operations and Chief Human Resources Officer (CHRO) at California Times, which includes The Los Angeles Times and San Diego Union-Tribune and their community and lifestyle publications in Southern California.

Antoniou joined the California Times in 2019. At The Times, she is responsible for human capital; organization and employee development programs; recruiting, retention and total rewards programs.

At the California Times, Antoniou focuses on strategy, human resources and corporate operations in the biotech, pharmaceutical, health care and technology sectors. She has also successfully overseen the integration of employee and organizational goals, including enterprise solutions and maximizing the engagement and effectiveness of leadership and the workforce. Prior to joining the California Times, Antoniou was Senior Manager of Operations at Abraxis BioScience, a biotechnology company.

Kes Thygesen is co-founder and Chief Product & AI Officer at ChangeEngine, the AI platform that helps People teams build and run employee experiences. He has spent over 20 years building companies in workplace tech, including co-founding WePow (Harver) and RolePoint (Employ).