Tagged: leadership
30 results
Alignment Theatre Is Expensive
Alignment theatre is the term Hanadi Usman, a PMO director with more than 15 years in enterprise transformation, uses for the gap between what teams say in the steering committee and what they admit in the corridor afterward. The dashboards are green, the sponsors nod, the minutes record consensus, and the program bleeds quietly for six more weeks. Her argument: the fix is not a better reporting framework but psychological safety built into governance design, so surfacing the real picture is safer than protecting the performed one.
Jon Hawkins
Jon 'Irish' Hawkins is an Australian Defence Force veteran of 25 years, SAS-trained officer, and the founder of Omni Executive - one of Australia's fastest-growing sovereign defence companies. Starting from an idea at his kitchen table in 2012, he built Omni into a 400+ person operation spanning aerospace, consulting, security, maritime and vetting, with around $100 million in annual turnover. A fierce advocate for truly Australian-owned defence capability, he stepped back from the CEO role in February 2026 to serve as Chair of Omni's Board.
Denny LeCompte
Denny LeCompte is the CEO of Portnox, an Austin-based cybersecurity company that delivers cloud-native network access control and zero trust access for enterprises. A former cognitive psychology professor with a Ph.D. from Rice University, he spent two decades in product strategy at IT and security vendors including SolarWinds and AlienVault before taking the helm at Portnox in 2022. Under his leadership the company grew roughly 8x, and he was named a 2025 Cyber Leader of the Year. He writes the widely read 'Access Granted' LinkedIn column, arguing that cybersecurity is as much a human problem as a technical one.
Jon Plax
Jon Plax is a Vice President of Software Engineering (Customer Centric Engineering) at Salesforce, where he has spent the bulk of a 23+ year career building and leading globally distributed engineering teams. Known internally as a technically deep yet empathy-driven leader, he has tackled some of Salesforce's most complex scaling challenges - JVM tuning, database bottlenecks, and multi-continent team coordination. He spent five years in Salesforce's Dublin office, briefly detoured to Bumble, then returned to Salesforce. A photography hobbyist with a consistent 'spaceman1066' handle across the internet, he is married to Talia Bailey Plax, a product marketing leader at Atlassian.
Emily Mikailli
Emily Mikailli is the CHRO and Chief of Staff to the CEO at Signifyd, the commerce protection platform based in San Jose, California. A former lawyer who traded the bar for the tech industry, she has led People and Culture at Signifyd since 2016, scaling the company's global workforce nearly 5X in headcount and over 25X in annual recurring revenue across offices in San Jose, London, Belfast and New York. Born and raised in Silicon Valley, she is known for a candid, human-centric approach to building teams and serves as Vice Chair of the board at Parisi House on the Hill, a nonprofit supporting mothers and children affected by addiction.
Matt Tresidder
Matt Tresidder is the CEO and co-founder of Leadr, a people development software company based near Dallas that aims to develop one million leaders. A New Zealander who came up through the sales ranks at unicorn startup Pushpay, he now runs a Series A-backed platform that gives managers tools for one-on-ones, feedback, goals, and coaching.
Kelly Kiel Garramone
Kelly Kiel Garramone is the CEO of KRW International and Executive Director of the KRW Research Institute, a Washington, DC-based consulting firm built on the evidence-based Return on Character methodology. With more than three decades of executive experience and assignments in six countries alongside her diplomat husband, she translates behavioral science research into coaching and certification programs used by boards, C-suites, and learning and development teams worldwide.
Lawrence Coburn
Lawrence Coburn is the co-founder and CEO of Ambient, an AI chief of staff for founders, CEOs and leadership teams. A four-time founder, he previously built DoubleDutch (the leading mobile event app, acquired by Cvent in 2019), twine (employee connection software for remote teams) and RateItAll (one of the early consumer review sites). Based in San Francisco's Mission District, he combines a generalist's appetite for new platforms with two decades of operating scars.
Gavin King
Gavin King is VP of Portfolio Marketing at ServiceNow, where he connects the platform's sprawling product launches, AI vision, and strategic narrative into one coherent story. After 25 years at Microsoft - including a stint as Chief of Staff to CEO Satya Nadella - he brings a rare combination of brand-scaling experience, executive proximity, and B2B marketing depth to one of enterprise tech's most ambitious growth stories.
Hanz Panther
Hanz Panther is listed as Co-Founder and CEO of NewCo, a business-event production company built around an 'inside-out' festival format that swaps the convention-hall stage for the open doors of working companies. Operating at the intersection of media, publishing, and live events, NewCo turns cities into temporary campuses where the public walks into real offices instead of watching keynotes. Panther's public footprint is thin, but the role places him inside one of the more distinctive experiments in how modern business gatherings are produced.
Eric Bensley
Eric Bensley is VP of Product Marketing - CRM at ServiceNow, bringing over 25 years of experience in CRM solutions and enterprise software marketing. A self-described 'recovering perfectionist' and introvert who built product marketing functions at Citrix, Salesforce, and Asana before joining ServiceNow, he is known for translating complex enterprise platforms into crisp, sticky messaging - and for believing that great leaders grow people, not just products.
Dane Holewinski
Dane Holewinski is a San Francisco-based executive coach and former venture-backed founder who runs Decode Coaching, where he works one-on-one with startup CEOs and founders at companies like Tonal, Zendrive and RealBlocks. Before coaching, he spent more than a decade building and operating technology companies, including co-founding the mobile deep-linking startup Yozio. He now also serves as CEO & Founding Team Coach at Seen Health, a culturally focused senior-care company. His coaching blends Silicon Valley operating experience with formal training from Harvard's Bob Kegan and Lisa Lahey, and a practice grounded in meditation, exercise and breathwork.
Women In Product
Women In Product is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit and global community of more than 30,000 women and non-binary product professionals. Founded in 2016 out of a casual networking event in Silicon Valley, it equips members to thrive as builders, leaders, and changemakers through an annual conference, local chapters, leadership programs, peer mentorship, and online resources - with a particular focus on closing the gender gap at the mid-career, senior, and executive levels where it is widest.
Joel Podolny
Joel Podolny is an economic sociologist turned operator who has spent his career on a single question: how do people actually learn to lead? Handpicked by Steve Jobs in 2008 to build Apple University from scratch, he spent over a decade teaching Apple's executives to think like the company. Before that he was the youngest dean of the Yale School of Management and a tenured professor at Stanford and Harvard. Today he is co-founder and CEO of Honor Education, a San Francisco startup putting human connection at the center of online learning.
John Gerzema
John Gerzema is the CEO of The Harris Poll, one of the most recognized names in American public opinion and market research. A four-time author and New York Times bestseller, he built a career turning consumer data into early warnings about cultural change, from the post-2008 values shift to the case for traditionally feminine leadership traits. He spent decades inside ad agencies like Fallon and Young & Rubicam before taking the helm of Harris in 2017, where he now turns weekly polling into a running read on the American mood.
Dawn Klinghoffer
Dawn Klinghoffer is Vice President of HR Business Insights at Microsoft, where she leads people analytics for one of the world's largest technology companies. A mathematics major from Bucknell University who started as an actuary in Hartford, Connecticut, she joined Microsoft's fledgling people analytics team in 2003 and spent over 25 years turning HR data into strategic decisions. Her most recognized contribution: replacing the industry's standard 'employee engagement' metric with 'employee thriving' - a framework adopted by Microsoft in 2022 that has influenced HR practices globally and was published in Harvard Business Review.
Anand Tharanathan
Anand Tharanathan is Group Vice President and Global Head of Product Research and Insights at ServiceNow, where he leads end-to-end user research and AI trust initiatives for one of enterprise software's fastest-growing platforms. With a Ph.D. in Experimental Psychology, an MBA from Northwestern's Kellogg School, and a career that runs from Honeywell's aerospace labs through Facebook to the frontier of enterprise AI, he bridges rigorous science and product craft at scale. His current focus on building trust in generative AI systems puts him at the intersection of human factors research and the most pressing question in enterprise technology.
Allison Romano
Allison Romano is Vice President of Xbox Digital Marketing and Media at Microsoft, based in New York. With over 15 years leading high-impact marketing and product teams across Microsoft, Google, American Express, and CLEAR, she has shaped how some of the world's biggest brands reach digital audiences. At Xbox, she oversees digital marketing and media strategy for one of the most recognized gaming brands on the planet, blending B2B and B2C expertise to drive growth at scale.
Ed Mylett
Ed Mylett is a self-made entrepreneur, bestselling author, peak performance coach, and one of the most followed personal development voices on the internet. Starting from a home shaped by his father's addiction and a college baseball career cut short by injury, he rose to become one of the youngest CEO Marketing Directors at World Financial Group, built a multi-hundred-million-dollar business career, and then reinvented himself as a globally recognized speaker and podcast host. His show, The Ed Mylett Show, draws millions of listeners with unfiltered conversations on success, mindset, and building an extraordinary life.
Amanda Richman
Amanda Richman is VP of Global Media Sales at Microsoft Advertising, leading a 700+ person omnichannel sales team from New York. A 30-year veteran of media and advertising, she has run agencies including Wavemaker US and Mindshare North America, winning Adweek's U.S. Media Agency of the Year at Wavemaker in 2020. She joined Microsoft in March 2024 to help brands navigate the convergence of generative AI, search, and connected TV advertising.
Courtney Mattson
Courtney Mattson is the AVP of Client Growth and Success at Adobe Commerce, leading a team of customer success professionals focused on driving growth outcomes for enterprise ecommerce clients. With a 15-year foundation at FranklinCovey in sales enablement, product marketing, and client success, she brings a distinctive blend of behavioral-change methodology and SaaS business acumen to one of the world's most powerful commerce platforms. Based in Draper, Utah, she operates at the intersection of enterprise technology and human performance.
Douglas Pearce
Douglas Pearce is Corporate Vice President of Product Management for M365 Copilot Growth at Microsoft, where he leads the strategy to bring AI-powered productivity tools to hundreds of millions of users worldwide. Based in the Seattle area, he has spent over two decades at Microsoft, previously heading product management for Office Growth and Fundamentals before pivoting to spearhead the company's flagship AI copilot initiative across Microsoft 365.
Hassan Al Shouli
Hassan Al Shouli is a senior communications and strategic business executive at Microsoft's CEMA (Central Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa) President Office, based in the UAE. With nearly two decades of career experience, he has shaped Microsoft's presence across the Gulf, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and broader MEA region through executive communications, multi-channel campaigns, and leadership engagement. Before Microsoft, he spent years in the fast-moving MENA digital market at dubizzle and analytics consultancies. He holds an MBA from Cass Business School (now Bayes) and a BSc in Electronics, Engineering, and Communications from the Arab Academy for Science, Technology and Maritime Transport.
Kya Sainsbury-Carter
Kya Sainsbury-Carter spent over 20 years at Microsoft, most recently as Corporate Vice President of Microsoft Advertising, where she led a global ads business generating more than $18 billion in annual gross revenue. She oversaw the division's transformation through AI-powered and agentic advertising, expanded retail media, and enterprise partnerships before departing in May 2026 - with LinkedIn's Matt Derella named to succeed her.
Lydia Smyers
Lydia Smyers is Vice President of Customer and Partner Solutions for U.S. Telco, Media, and Gaming at Microsoft, leading a team of more than 400 professionals serving the top 200 enterprises in those sectors. Based in Massachusetts, she has spent over a decade at Microsoft in roles spanning U.S. Education, Americas Northeast, and now the converging industries of telco, media, and gaming. Before Microsoft she held senior executive roles at Oracle, Red Hat, and Ernst & Young, building a career defined by large-scale partnerships, channel strategy, and technology-driven transformation. She was named to CRN's Top 100 Women of the Channel five consecutive years and spoke at MWC Barcelona 2026 on AI and its societal implications.
Mala Anand
Mala Anand is Executive Vice President and Chief Customer Experience Officer at Microsoft, leading the Customer Experience & Success division. A 25-year technology veteran who immigrated from Mumbai at 17 on a Rotary Youth Exchange Scholarship, she has shaped enterprise software at Cisco, SAP, and Microsoft, driving AI-powered transformations that measurably improve how customers get support. She is also executive sponsor of Women at Microsoft and an independent board director at Agilent Technologies.
Marissa Dacay
Marissa Dacay is the Global Vice President of Enterprise Marketing at Adobe, where she leads demand generation, account-based marketing, and AI-driven marketing innovation across Adobe's enterprise portfolio. With 17+ years of experience spanning digital marketing, events, content, operations, and analytics - plus a distinctive three-year detour into HR leadership - she brings an unusually broad perspective to building high-performing marketing organizations. Based in San Francisco, she is known for bold decision-making, trust-first leadership, and a data-meets-creativity approach that has delivered double-digit annual growth.
Matt Lombardi
Matt Lombardi is the Global Vice President of Customer Experience at ServiceNow, where he leads the company's CX strategy for one of enterprise software's fastest-growing platforms. With over 17 years in business management and 9+ years specializing in customer experience, he has built and scaled CX programs across Fortune 500 companies including ADP and SAP Concur. In 2025, he was named to the Forbes World's Most Influential CMOs list, recognized for his work connecting customer satisfaction metrics directly to retention and revenue growth.
Michael Keister
Michael Keister is a technology sales executive and AVP of Media & Entertainment at Adobe, based in Portland, Oregon. With over 15 years of experience in digital marketing and B2B SaaS sales, he has built and led high-performing revenue teams at companies including Zapproved (as CRO), Provana, Airship, Lytics, and Jive Software. Keister brings a track record of designing and executing revenue strategies in media, entertainment, retail, financial services, and technology sectors, and holds a BS in Finance from Oregon State University.
Sarah Armstrong
Sarah Madden Armstrong is Vice President of Global Marketing Operations at Google, where she leads global marketing infrastructure across one of the world's most complex and far-reaching advertising ecosystems. With over 25 years in global marketing - including two decades at The Coca-Cola Company overseeing agency operations across 200 countries and a stint as a McKinsey partner - she brings rare operational depth to a role that touches every corner of Google's marketing machine. Named one of Advertising Age's 'Women to Watch' in 2009, Armstrong is also a published author of two books: 'The Mom's Guide to a Good Divorce' and 'The Art of the Juggling Act: Bite-Sized Guide for Working Parents' (2024). A former Georgetown University volleyball player turned global executive, she mentors across industries and volunteers with multiple nonprofits while raising her daughter Grace.