Kristian is the CEO and Founder of Meru Health, an online healthcare provider setting the new standard in mental healthcare. With Meru Health, Kristian is on a mission to empower 10 million people living with mental health challenges by 2027. This mission is more than business, it’s personal: Kristian lost his brother Peter to depression, and since then he has been committed to building better solutions to help people with depression, anxiety, burnout, and stress. Prior to founding Meru Health, Kristian co-founded and ran a diabetes technology company, Mendor, which developed glucose monitors and glucose data analytics for improving diabetes care. The glucose monitoring business was acquired by a Korean public company in 2015. Even earlier, Kristian was a Universal Music artist as the lead guitarist & song writer of an internationally known heavy metal band called Norther.

Sarah Sheehan, Co-Founder & President, Bravely Sarah began her career in HR at companies like SiriusXM, Coach, and the Gilt Groupe. At Gilt, she pivoted into a sales executive role at Gilt City, the company’s luxury experiences platform, where she led a 65-person team and was responsible for $60M in revenue. It was there that she identified the direct correlation between culture and the bottom line—when employees failed to have a pathway to address issues or work on their individual development colleagues and managers, performance suffered. Sarah’s experience in HR, team management, and tech—combined with an ongoing obsession with helping people, especially women and underrepresented minorities, gain the confidence they need to find meaning in their work—inspired her to co-found Bravely in 2017.

Steffen Schebesta is the CEO of North America and VP of Corporate Development at Sendinblue. He has over 15 years of experience as a business and digital marketing leader. Prior to joining Sendinblue, Steffen was the founder and co-CEO of Newsletter2Go, the leading email marketing provider in the German market. Under Steffen’s leadership, Newsletter2Go became one of the fastest-growing tech companies in Europe. In 2019, Newsletter2Go was acquired by Sendinblue and Steffen earned the title of co-CEO in Germany. Steffen holds a master’s degree in business and electrical engineering from The Technical University of Berlin.

Stacey McKibbin is the CEO of Consilio, a peak performance executioncompany that believes having a strong Middle Management Suite is the secret sauce of success. From their world class coaching, training and state of the art AI sales practice portal, Consilio has a proven system that works. Stacey leads her team of zealots by her example of passion and enthusiasm that guides leaders to accelerated success. As a Master Practitioner of NLP and student of The Art of Negotiation, Stacey can help blend your corporate objectives with the vision, strategy, and the execution you need for both short- and long-term success. Stacey is also a DISC certified assessment administrator. She believes that this particular assessment when utilized within an organization will open up the lines of communication across every level and will ultimately lead to a more productive and all around better performing team. She is even so bold to claim “communication changes lives. ” That’s how important this work is! Stacey lives in San Diego with her husband Chris and their two children Max and Jack and dog Roxy.

Looking at the varied and vibrant career of Ericka Riggs, diversity executive, Board member, thought leader, pocstock’s Top 50 Black Leader of 2022, and 2020 Nancy Hill Award winner, a pattern quickly emerges. This creative, strategic Chief DE&I Officer of Omnicom Specialty Marketing Group has been about not just advancement, but also enhancement. Working in video promotions at Uptown Records and legendary MOTOWN, Ericka strengthened the people skills she developed as the daughter of a corporate executive whose career moved the family from Texas and Missouri to Maryland, New York and the D.C. area. Parlaying creative experience, exposure to myriad communities and cultures and natural empathy, Ericka segued to multicultural ad agency UniWorld Group, (UWG), rising from Creative Coordinator to producer before leaving to augment her portfolio with a marketing degree from George Mason University and a position in development at Northern Virginia University. In 2016, Ericka Riggs made an impressive return to New York as Foundation and Inclusion Director of The Advertising Club of New York. Under her guidance, the game-changing I’mPART Women’s Fellowship elevated the careers of BIPOC women managers into leadership roles. Her engagement initiatives, “Icons, Rockstars & Innovators,” “Women NOW: Master Class,” and “Culture Club” have been integral in helping to create a more inclusive advertising, marketing and media community. Ericka proudly serves as a Board member & Mentor, OmniWomen NY; 100 Roses from Concrete; 4A’s DEI Steering Committee; #WeAllRise; Circle of Change; 2020 MOBE Symposium Advisory Committee. Ericka has become a regular guest of industry podcasts, contributor to trade publications and panelist at notable events, (ie. AD Monster, The Female Quotient, Digiday, Mixed Company, ADWEEKNY, SXSW). Riggs attended Howard University and is a graduate of George Mason University’s School of Management.

Gillian French is a veteran Chief People Officer and an expert at scaling teams and building strong company culture. She is currently employee communications platform Workvivo’s people expert-in-residence. Prior to this, Gillian served as Chief People Officer at Cubic Telecom, where she oversaw all aspects of people development, culture, employee engagement, policies and practices. Gillian was previously Chief People Officer at CarTrawler, where she was an integral member of the leadership team for 12 years and scaled the business from 25 to 600 people. Before turning her skills to the technology sector, Gillian spent eight years at a leading Irish hotel group – Jurys Doyle Hotel Group – where she held several senior leadership roles across a range of departments and properties. Workvivo is the employee communication platform designed to foster natural, meaningful connection in teams, allowing companies to reach and engage their employees in ways that traditional tools simply can’t.

Allyson is an experienced People leader with a passion for helping people feel seen and truly cared for so that they can reach their fullest potential. Over the past 12 years, Allyson has helped organizations of all sizes and industries design and implement scalable people strategies and infrastructures that support the evolving needs of their high-growth teams. She’s gained experience managing all areas of people ops across the full employee lifecycle. She especially enjoys building cultures that are intentional about amplifying diverse voices, fostering open communication, and building meaningful relationships.

Natasha Wahid is the Head of Content at Blueboard. She’s a natural storyteller who found her niche helping companies connect to their audiences through thoughtful communication. She believes in building spaces—both personal and professional—where people can be their full selves without fear or shame. She’s a seasoned speaker who’s presented at marketing conferences across the U.S. and is an alum of the incredible Shine Bootcamp (google it!)