Guests

Dennis is responsible for both internal and external communication channels. He started his career at Philips in 2010 and successfully introduced award-winning channels since. His focus on business value helps to increase impact, productivity and to save costs.

Since graduating with a Master’s in Economics, Jesper have been working within primarily two areas: high-level strategy at CXO-level and leadership. This has led him to his current role at the LEGO Group where he heads up “LEGO Workplace Experience”. His aim is to create workplace experiences that enable LEGO employees to be and do their best at work, attract and retain world class talents, and bring them closer to the LEGO values.

Ryan Anderson serves as VP of Digital Innovation at Herman Miller, where his work focuses on creating new innovation strategies to grow Herman Miller’s business. With over twenty-five years of industry experience, much of Ryan’s work has centered on how technology can enable new ways of working and how the future workplace can support positive, productive work experiences. Ryan’s regularly speaks about the future of technology and the workplace, and his work has been featured in Fortune, the Wall Street Journal, Wired, Fast Company, the BBC and beyond.

Tina Arnoldi is a marketing consultant, qualified in both Google Analytics and Google Ads, part of the Google Partners program, and was part of the Google Developer Expert community from 2016 - 2019. She has an MA in psychology, a UX nanodegree and trains others in design thinking principles. As a former IT professional, she co-founded and served as the director of a Google-funded grant initiative to match volunteers in her community with nonprofits in need of technical help. She was recognized in 2007 by the Charleston Business Journal with a "Forty Under 40" award and again in 2011 as an "Influential Woman in Business". Tina resides in Charleston, South Carolina.

Paul is General Manager, Property Technology, Digital, Lendlease, where he leads an industry-first Property Technology (PropTech) & Digital Futures advisory division. Paul draws on his passion and experience working across the property lifecycle to reinvent the relationship between people, place and technology ensuring Lendlease proudly remains at the forefront of place creation in today’s experience-led, data driven and digital first world.

Deepa Balakrishnan is the Business Transformation Manager for La Trobe University's largest flagship digital transformation project for research, PRIME. She has several years experience as a Research Manager partnering with researchers to develop competitive research funding proposals that attract funding from national and international funding agencies. As Product Owner she led the development of the research funding module in the PRIME project, which was the first major agile development at La Trobe University. She is currently leading the adoption and change management strategy for this program of work at La Trobe University. Prior to moving to La Trobe, Deepa has several years experience in Print Media, Consulting and Information services.

Elena is an intranet consultant and managing director of Rivelty.Intranet, speaker at Russian and world conferences in Australia, Denmark, Germany, Sweden. Elena works with some of Russia's top-ranking companies in the retail, banking, telecoms, and metal industries. Her team runs unique benchmark research in Russia for 5 years. Elena has been tireless in fostering the Russian intranet community. She is organizing Russian Intranet Awards (#RIawards) and #RiveltyConf - a conference for internal comms and DW leaders, blogging and running Russian intranet community. Elena is a jury member at the "Intranet and Digital workplace award" and Intranet Italia Champions.

Andrew is at the forefront of introducing positive technology disruption and innovation culture to large organizations in Financial Services, Capital Markets, Healthcare, Entertainment, Insurance, Telecommunications, and Advanced Technology industries. As Senior Director of Innovation Advisory at Avanade, he leads large client engagements in digital and workforce transformation, innovation culture, and start-up thinking. Passionate about bringing the advantages of digital transformation and innovation culture to developing economies, he also leads transformation programs for Avanade’s Tech for Social Good initiative. He’s currently developing a framework and delivery model for radical rethinking of online “virtual” engagements, leading to new product and services offerings for both commercial and nonprofit sectors. Before joining Avanade, Andrew was Global Head of Innovation Programs for Group CTO at Credit Suisse, the Zurich-based global private and investment bank.

A desk inside London Zoo - just yards from a mob of meerkats - means Clare is never short of content or inspiration for the suite of internal Comms channels that keep 1,000 colleagues at ZSL connected, informed and engaged. But meerkats are easy customers compared to a diverse workforce spread around the globe, and Clare has been able to draw on the considerable experience gained in roles at NHS Blood and Transplant and HMV to design new digital channels, encourage user buy-in and create online communities that drive advocacy and engagement with the organisation. Clare taps into people’s passions to get them sharing stories that connect them with their colleagues, as well as improving their relationships with internal and external stakeholders. With colleagues flung far and wide - including a team based in Outer Mongolia - Clare uses creative approaches across a variety of channels to ensure two-way communication that is inclusive for all. Clare’s skill in working with all colleagues to co-create creative and inspiring messages that resonate has resulted in award-winning communication campaigns, a history driving up response rates for employee engagement surveys and generated crucial advocacy for internal comms within multiple senior leadership teams.

Marc is in charge of Ubisoft knowledge management strategy and digital workplace program. Servant leader of a team of 50 knowledge management experts located in 7 locations around the globe. We connect people to the right information & expert while maximizing flow of knowledge through Ubisoft organization. All of this is meant to continuously improve individual & collective efficiency, in order to enable people spend more time innovating.

Martha Brown is the Product Owner on the team that has evolved Duke Energy’s intranet from infancy to a cloud-based, responsive solution. She’s passionate about user-centered design’s power to enable engagement, inspire innovation, and improve the employee experience.

Jesper Bylund is the intranet manager at Scania Region, Sweden’s 3rd largest health care provider. The intranet is used by 35.000 employees, mainly nurses, doctors, and assistant nurses. The intranet vision is to provide workday support and enhance efficiency in the organization. Jesper is also an independent consultant, helping companies and organizations to build and develop their intranets. Jesper has also created The Intranet Governance Game, a planning tool for getting the intranet governance right.

Steve Bynghall is an independent digital workplace consultant and writer based in London. He has worked with DWG as a research analyst, consultant, benchmarker and writer since 2010. Steve also works through a number of other organizations including Step Two in Australia and Spark Trajectory, a consulting company co-founded with Chris Tubb. This is the fifth DWG24 that Steve has been involved in.

Nicole believes that enabling the best possible employee experience through the smart working strands of people, technology and culture leads to greater organisational productivity, improved individual wellbeing and a healthier society. She has a track record of delivering user-focused intranets and digital workplace apps which make it easier for people to do their jobs - from wherever they can get connected. As an independent consultant with a background in project management for change, digital workplace strategy and governance, content strategy, stakeholder engagement and product design, Nicole enjoys the challenge of helping people to actually achieve something rather than just dream about it… She has worked with DWG as a consultant, research analyst, writer and benchmarker since 2017.

Mark leads Herman Millers Insight Group which is responsible for sharing the latest thinking in workplace design and related issues. He has been at Herman Miller for over 20 years and over that time has become a respected contributor to the workplace community He has delivered more than 500 seminars around the world. Mark has also run in-house workshops and seminars for a variety of leading organisations – both large and small.

Kim Clark is a documentary filmmaker, trainer, writer, and speaker focusing on conscious communications. She works with companies on employee and diversity and inclusion communications, she's a partner at the talent journey innovation firm Employera and speaks for Ragan Communications while teaching at San Jose State University. She's working on her first book, The Conscious Communicator.

Hannah started her career in the world of events and entertainment which lead her to study a Bachelor of Commerce in Marketing and PR. Her strong passion for storytelling drew her to more communication oriented roles and she is now working for the Western Australian Ambulance service St John WA as the Internal Communications Advisor. Hannah believes everyone has a story to tell and is a strong advocate for developing strategies that talk directly to audiences and generate original concepts and content.

Morten Dal is empowering enterprises and employees to work remotely while fighting Covid-19. He is helping organisations and people to adopt to New Ways of Working beyond the current crisis. Global award-winning corporate communications and change manager, now senior customer success manager with Microsoft, coming with 15+ years of corporate experience from the customer side.

James Dellow is the founder and director of Chief Technology Solutions. He is a human-centred designer and a workplace technology consultant, specialising in how people connect, communicate and collaborate with each other. He brings nearly two decades of experience working in intranet and knowledge management roles and as a consultant with a wide range of government, professional and blue-chip companies. James has worked with an extensive range of digital workplace solutions advising on strategy, governance, user experience design, information architecture and content management. James is well known for his past work with social business pioneers Headshift / Dachis Group, global IT services and solutions company CSC (now DXC), and in Ernst & Young's global knowledge management division, the award winning Center for Business Knowledge.

Charles Eisenstein is a speaker and writer focusing on themes of human culture and identity. He is the author of several books, most recently Sacred Economics and The More Beautiful World our Hearts Know is Possible, and his newest book, Climate: A New Story. His most recent essays are The Coronation and The Conspiracy Myth.

Patrik has multifaceted expertise encompassing business needs, corporate culture, digitalization and technology as well as people experience. With a versatile experience and human centered leadership, Patrik has brought meaningful change across ever-growing, dynamic organisations from defining cultures to enhancing employee/customer experience. Patrik has been responsible for diverse and challenging transformation projects where employee experience, strategic cornerstones and corporate culture have been the key elements for design. The TietoEvry new head office in Finland, is one of the most visible transformation initiatives Patrik has driven. The head office is a showcase corporate culture and new ways of working meeting a physical work environment and digital experience, achieved through human centered design. Employee experience is based on three main elements; culture, physical space and the digital/technological environment. How do you create an environment where employee experience is at the center and the company culture becomes visible? As the competition for talent becomes more intense, the well-being and experience of employees as well as the company's values and sustainable development are becoming an increasingly important part of the efforts to attract talents. For companies to be at the top of their game, they have to invest in employee experience. The cost for not doing so, is a risk not worth taking!

Ms. Farhan has been working as an Economist at the IMF since 2001. She is currently an Advisor on Digital Transformation in the Strategy Department at the IMF. The focus of her work is on automation of work processes and integration of IT tools with business capabilities, based on better knowledge and content exchange. Ms. Farhan has experience in economic policy making in countries in the Middle East, Africa, and Europe. Previously, she was Chief of Internal Communications at the IMF – working on building internal engagement, consistency of messages internally and externally, and HR-related communications – and Deputy Chief of Public Affairs – where she worked with IMF Management on external communications of the IMF’s policy and country work. Before the IMF, Ms. Farhan taught economics at the University of Durham in the North of England. She holds a BSc in Economics and Statistics and an MSc in Finance and Economics from the University of London, England. She also did her PhD studies in development economics at the University of Durham, England.

As the Founder of Distribute Consulting and the Remote Work Association, Laurel Farrer starts, strengthens, and leverages virtual workforces to solve corporate and socioeconomic concerns. A global thought leader on the topic of remote work, Laurel collaborates with the world's leading businesses and governments to eliminate virtual worker discrimination, prevent policy retraction, increase remote job accessibility, train distributed leaders, and design economic initiatives. Additionally, she also shares her expertise as a Forbes contributor, subject matter expert for business education curriculum, and virtual software product advisor.

Katie Fennell is a communication specialist at UPMC. As a member of the intranet team for the last four years, she discovered and developed a passion for the digital employee experience. Her focus is streamlining user support for the intranet to help UPMC's 90,000 staff get the answers they need efficiently and facilitating two-way communication with Office 365 tools. Her team continuously improves the digital landscape and is transforming the way UPMC staff get information.

Brad Grissom is a Technology Strategist at Microsoft where he advises executives and technology teams at strategic accounts as they progress through their digital transformation journeys. By providing leadership across Microsoft, partner, and customer organizations, his charge is to deliver technology strategies and architectures that support vital customer business outcomes and goals. Brad's 20-year career has spanned both technical and business roles that at their core have focused on setting vision and strategy, building programs, and leading change. He considers himself very lucky to have worked for such iconic brands as Harley-Davidson, Southwest Airlines, and now Microsoft. His passion for technology combined with his formal education in communication and writing, keeps Brad busy blogging, speaking, and sharing ideas on digital transformation, the digital workplace, and the future of work. You can find him on Twitter @grissombrad or reach out to connect on LinkedIn.

James Hallam is a Product Manager & professional coach of more than 15 years’ experience, with a background in digital implementation, cultural transformation, portfolio management and consulting, and new product development. James is currently the Global Digital Academy Manager at R² Data Labs, Rolls Royce. R² Data Labs is the data innovation catalyst inside Rolls-Royce. We create data-based improvements, apps and services that improve the way Rolls-Royce and our customers operate. We harness industry knowledge and engineering expertise to unlock new value from data that others can't. We believe that only collaborative innovation will find the most undiscovered value from data. James is also a Programme Manager and Lecturer at The Open University where he manages several modules across psychology and education.

Duane leads the Digital Workplace and digital employee experience agenda at IAG which is Australia and New Zealand's largest insurance group with 14,000+ employees . He is an experience-centric workplace technology thought leader with a passion for enabling great digital experiences for employees and partners so they can deliver for IAG’s customers. With retail and hospitality leadership roles before his career in IT and a 10 year stint at Commonwealth Bank, Duane brings a unique people and journey centric approach to technology strategy, delivery and operations and his team brokers the cross-functional partnerships required to truly deliver strategic employee experience outcomes. Beyond the typical business and customer outcomes that technology teams strive for, from a more human perspective Duane believes that digital workplace teams have a powerful opportunity and responsibility to improve the working lives of employees and that this is more important than ever as we reimagine where and how work gets done.

Teralyn Iscrupe got her first taste of the digital workplace as part of a team with no dedicated technical resources and a grassroots platform. With 20 years of experience, she continues to evolve in the ever-changing digital world, throughout her career, serving roles as product owner for multiple applications and lead communicator in platform indoctrination. She has provided consultation, managed site overhauls, and conducted user testing on complex subjects for PNC, the University of Pittsburgh, and First Commonwealth Bank. Her work in digital development has won recognition and awards, most notably with the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC), Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) and the American Communication Journal. Card-sorting exercises and improving user experience make her positively giddy. She lives in Pennsylvania, where you can generally find her near a river path with a good book, her family, and an energetic American Brittany.

Shimrit Janes is Director of Knowledge at Digital Workplace Group. She manages the AskDWG knowledge service for DWG's members, bringing them research, insights and case studies in answer to their digital workplace queries. She also oversees the "Digital Nations" Research Centre within DWG, authors research reports, and is currently co-authoring DWG's next book, "Nature of Work" She was previously a Knowledge Project Leader at a global law firm.

Mel Kettle is an expert at communication that builds trust. She understands how to create strategies that have immediate, meaningful impact. Mel has more than two decades of experience in strategic communication and leadership, gained by working with commercial, government and non-profit organisations. She also brings the unique educational combination of a Master of Business (Marketing) and a Master of Public Health, making her a valuable asset to leaders and teams that want achieve real connection and sustained engagement. Today Mel works with CEOs, leaders and teams to help them become more connected in an increasingly disconnected world. She is a sought after thought leader, speaker, mentor and facilitator who helps her clients create stronger relationships with their workforce, customers and investors. Clients rave about Mel’s sharp insight, her ability to simplify the complex and her capacity to mobilise people and ideas so they can increase their visibility and influence. Mel is the author of The Social Association: 5 key skills not-for-profits need to increase member engagement, generate ROI and create thriving online communities. Her second book Connected Leadership – Starts with You is due out in mid-2020. She is the host of podcast This Connected Life. Mel’s clients have included Toll, Microsoft, Arup, Queensland Country Bank, numerous universities and research facilities, Queensland Government, NSW Government, Pharmacy Guild of Australia, Hepatitis Australia and IHC New Zealand. She lives in Brisbane, Australia.

With more than 20 years in the Financial Services industry, Linda leads the Future Of Work (FoW) practice in DBS. As the FoW program director, her mission is to evolve DBS into the best workplace for all employees – continuously transforming DBS’ functional capabilities, policies, and mindsets to enrich working lives. “Produce More Work Less” is the motto behind her team’s passion to make DBS a better workplace. Linda’s journey with DBS began with the Consumer Banking Group, where she managed and transformed customer experiences in branch banking and specific products like mortgages and insurance. Through her visionary leadership, DBS’ branch operating model was digitalized and redesigned to enhance both customer and employee experiences. Employee engagement score achieved 98 percentile under her leadership. As DBS emerges as the Best Bank In the World (source: Global Finance) during the Covid 19 crisis, Linda is charting the way forward for DBS to continue leading in the “new normal.”

Tracey Long is an IT Professional from Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) with a diverse background ranging from customer service to program management. After being tasked with helping a person who is blind in her latest role, Tracey has made it her mission to learn as much as possible about digital accessibility and educate all she comes in contact with to make the digital world a more inclusive forum for all people regardless of their abilities. She leads the global accessibility compliance program for a top technology firm.

Elizabeth Marsh leads DWG’s Research Programme with its library of 80+ best practice reports. She also regularly gets involved in consulting and benchmarking projects. Elizabeth is co-author, with Paul Miller, of The Digital Renaissance of Work: Delivering digital workplaces fit for the future. She is studying part-time a Digital Society PhD at the University of Nottingham.

Karissa is the Lead SharePoint Architect for Duke Energy’s intranet. With over 8 years of experience in enterprise Microsoft products she has built 10+ portals for various industries from healthcare to banking. As a certified change management professional, Karissa knows what truly drives product adoption - identifying and solving the right problems for users.

Katelyn Mayak is manager of Internal Communications at UPMC. She began her career by assisting with an intranet upgrade to SharePoint 2013. At the time, she had little knowledge of what an intranet was, but quickly gravitated towards the concepts surrounding the upgrade: putting users first and implementing a robust governance strategy to ensure content accuracy. Today, her team manages the organization's intranet for 90,000+ employees that features personalized content and news and a topic-based information architecture. Her passion for helping staff find what they need when they seek it has led to a vision that will transform the information-based intranet to a transactional digital tool in SharePoint Online. Her team is currently working towards hyper targeting and a de-centralized content ownership strategy.

Gabrielle is the founding CEO of Equiem, leading the business from its 2011 inception to become the world’s leading tenant experience platform, used by 165,000+ people across 60 million sq ft of prime commercial real estate worldwide. Named in Business Insider’s Coolest People in Australian Tech (2016) and honoured in Bisnow’s 2019 NYC Power Women list, Gabrielle is an exceptional leader, with a commercial acumen honed across 15+ years of leading and growing organisations. In the space of just 8 years, she has developed the Equiem team from just two to over 230 employees. Today, Gabrielle's Equiem manages a client portfolio of 145+ buildings across Australia, the United Kingdom, Ireland, and the USA, leading the firm to be named in Deloitte's Tech Fast 500 (APAC 2016). In 2017, she moved to New York with her family to spearhead the company’s expansion in the USA. Gabrielle was previously Director of Sales & Marketing and Group General Manager of Advance Marketing, a leading marketing organisation operating in Australia, New Zealand and the UK. She is also a published writer and an accomplished global presenter having studied Business and Communications at Monash University in Melbourne.

Michael Meade, D.H.L., is a renowned storyteller, author, and scholar of mythology, anthropology, and psychology. He combines hypnotic storytelling, street-savvy perceptiveness, and spellbinding interpretations of ancient myths with a deep knowledge of cross-cultural rituals. He is the author of Awakening the Soul: A Deep Response to a Troubled World, The Genius Myth, Fate and Destiny: The Two Agreements of The Soul, Why the World Doesn't End, and The Water of Life: Initiation and the Tempering of the Soul and editor, with James Hillman and Robert Bly, of Rag and Bone Shop of the Heart. He is also the creator of the Living Myth podcast. Meade is founder and Director of Mosaic Multicultural Foundation, a nonprofit network of artists, activists, and community builders that encourages greater understanding between diverse peoples.

I started my IT career back when Commodore Amiga was "a thing" ever since then the digital world is pretty much my world. I continue to be inspired by the evolution it has provided to society and it inspires me to contribute back to it.

Luke has over 20 years’ experience working in IT. Working in a variety of people focused IT led roles, Luke has over a decade of experience of Microsoft technologies, including Office 365 in large multinational regulated industries. He has worked on one of the first implementations of BPOS-d (the forerunner to Office 365) through to managing the fast-evolving service Microsoft offer today. He specialises in supporting Communications, HR and technical teams in the introduction, strategy and management of collaboration, messaging and identity products.

Once described as “human caffeine” on Twitter, Dr Nicola Millard injects a positive, people-centred expresso shot to innovation and future strategy. Half social scientist, half technologist, all academic, she uses techniques from disciplines such as design thinking, psychology, anthropology, computing, and business consulting to generate data, provocations and stories which can engage and create conversations from the board room, to the front line. No frothy coffee; just solid research.

Business and social entrepreneur Paul Miller is CEO and Founder of Digital Workplace Group (DWG). His latest book, The Digital Renaissance of Work: Delivering digital workplaces fit for the future (co-authored with Elizabeth Marsh), was shortlisted for the Management Book of the Year 2016 Award, and his previous book, The Digital Workplace: How technology is liberating work, helped to popularize and explain the term “digital workplace”. Paul hosts the Digital Workplace Impact podcast, is Executive Producer of the 24-hour global digital experience Digital Workplace 24, and hosted the pioneering internet radio show Digital Workplace Live for five years. He has given many inspirational talks on the digital future of work, for audiences at Microsoft, IKEA, Google, Accenture, Harvard Business Review, Cisco, European Commission, IMF, Adobe and Oxford University. Paul was ranked one of the world’s Top 50 Social Employee Advocacy Leaders in 2015. Prior to founding DWG, he was Founder and CEO of communications company The Empowerment Group; Publisher and Editor of social and digital innovation magazine ‘Wave’; and, in pre-internet days, Co-founder of the Ideas Café salon. He lives in the Cotswolds in the UK.

Pae is the founder of Trik, a drone mapping and 3D reporting software for structural inspection. She is known for her unique approach in using a user-centred design for technology innovation and her drone software innovation. She was one of the Forbes 30 Under 30, Europe, in 2018 and have many awards in Innovation, Design, Business and Engineering throughout her career.

For nearly three decades, Amy has dedicated her career to marketing organizations by revamping all modes of communication and increasing the impact these institutions have on the internal/external communities. She has extensive management experience and proven success in the areas of communications strategy, message development, executive positioning, employee communications, public relations, government relations and speech writing. In 2015, after more than 20 years in higher education, Amy joined Allegheny Health Network and assumed responsibilities vastly different from the senior-level roles she held in higher ed. As AHN’s director of internal and physician communications, she united 20,000+ employees, eight hospitals, and more than 200 practices under one internal communications strategy. In her first year, Amy and her small team not only launched an email delivery system to enable them to communicate seamlessly to all employees at all locations, they spearheaded the development of AHN’s first intranet. Under her direction, the internal strategy has expanded to include a multitude of measurable tactics to reach AHN’s unique audiences. Amy’s role at Highmark Health (AHN’s parent company) has evolved, and she was recently promoted to vice president, enterprise internal communications, intelligence & digital hub. She’s currently implementing a measurable, multi-channel approach to internal communications across the enterprise, which includes a portfolio of six companies. In addition, she’s leading a cross-matrixed team to develop Highmark Health’s “Digital Hub”. More than an intranet portal, the Digital Hub will be the first all-employee digital workplace ecosystem to enable seamless enterprise collaboration and engagement for all 41,000+ employees.

Jennifer Newton is Chief Communications Officer of HAVI, a global, privately held company focused on innovating, optimizing and managing the supply chains of leading brands. In this role, she oversees all aspects of communication (internal, external and customer) and is focused on building the HAVI brand and helping drive customer satisfaction and business results through compelling messages and stakeholder engagement. Prior to joining HAVI, Jennifer operated her own consulting business, Jenerate Communication, for eight years serving such clients as McDonald’s, ITW, Jenner & Block, Hyatt, Toys R Us and Caterpillar, in addition to HAVI. She helped leaders and organizations use communication to connect with key stakeholders, influence behavior and drive business results. Before starting Jenerate Communication, Jennifer spent seven years working in Corporate Communications at McDonald’s Corporation. During that time, she provided communication counsel and support to the Chief Restaurant Operations Officer and the Presidents of the following divisions: McDonald’s Europe, McDonald’s Asia-Pacific, Middle East and Africa, and McDonald’s Partner Brands. Prior to McDonald’s, Jennifer worked as a communication and change management consultant for Towers Perrin, a global human resources and management consulting firm. There she worked with Fortune 500 companies to develop and implement communication/change management strategies and tactics related to reengineering, culture change, mergers, business literacy, compensation, performance management, benefits, diversity and other human resource issues. Jennifer holds a B.A. in English, Phi Beta Kappa, from Wellesley College and a Master’s of Journalism from Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism.

Geert Nijs is learning architect. During working hours, he is engaged in modern learning techniques like team learning and social learning. During his "free" time he is passionated about social technology and the new possibilities this technology offers, in this area he advices companies and organisations. The combination of modern learning techniques and knowledge about social technology makes it possible to introduce new digital tools in the workplace with a very different approach. In addition, he is keynote speaker about smarter collaboration with social technology and about communities. He contributed to several books and is author of the book "De Netwerkexpeditie" (in Dutch), "collaborating smarter with social collaborating".

Kevin Olp is a DWG research associate, freelance consultant and business owner in the financial services industry. He has specialty in digital adoption, sustainability and change leadership. Kevin worked previously as a Digital Workplace executive at Northwestern Mutual, where he sponsored the development and implementation of their current intranet. Kevin is passionate about the integration of diverse digital tools into a single, seamless experience for users, without constraints of time or location.

John is currently the undertaking the role of Director, Research and Academic Services at La Trobe University. In this role John oversights the operational department responsible for service support and engagement activities associated with the core University activities of Teaching and Learning and Research. John has had a long career in ICT spanning over 3 decades, with much of this time in higher education. During this time he has held various roles across the full spectrum of technical and management positions. He also has a strong ERP background working with platforms such as Salesforce, SAP, Oracle, and TechnologyOne. John has also participated in numerous national initiatives and programs relating ICT and Higher Education, including CAUDIT, AARNet; the Australian Access Federation Management Committee; and the National Research Network Steering Committee. John maintains a strong professional interest in ICT strategy, business transformation, business analytics, and research support.

Tori is the Director, of IT Client Services at Pegasystems. In this role, Tori is responsible for ensuring that end users are provided the most current, enhanced, enjoyable, and stable environment in which to perform their work. In 2018, Tori began to structure a narrative of Human Centered IT to draw our attention away from providing tools and instead drive the conversation back to the people who are the most valuable asset to your Digital Workplace program. By building a diverse community of executive stakeholders, business champions, and viral influencers, Tori’s has consistently increased the most crucial measurement of success: adoption. Tori has directed end user technologies in entertainment, non-profit, education, financial services, and software development. Tori serves on the Board of Directors for Pride In Our Workplace a Massachusetts, a nonprofit corporation founded to improve equity, diversity, and inclusion in the workplace for LGBTQ professionals in the Greater Boston area.

Project and product management in retail, IT, marketing. Ex firefighter. Looking for opportunities in product development, digital and transformation - Intranet of the Year: First Intranet Expert Award in Russia by Rivelty 2020. - Defended the initiative to renovate the Intranet and created a product team from scratch to develop a new product - Lean and Change Initiatives providing (120 FTE were optimized in 80+ stores without performance degradation) - Store director mentor. Successful completion of the project with the subsequent appointment of a mentee to a new position - the head of the region - Successfully finished retail performance project with external staff (0,7% revenue growth) - Implemented Impact Mapping approach in HR department (M.Video-Eldorado) - Recognized as a key employee of the company (M.Video-Eldorado).

After acquiring a degree in Computer Science, Giovanni launched his career in Italy with Andersen Consulting’s Milan Office and later at the World Headquarters in Chicago. Giovanni then served in Ernst & Young’s Center for Business Knowledge, as the Global Director for the KWeb program, responsible for all aspects of EY’s knowledge sharing environment. Under his leadership, EY won the MAKE (Most Admired Knowledge Enterprise) Award for 12 years in a row. In 2011 Giovanni joined Johnson & Johnson as the Global Head of Information and Knowledge. In the fall of 2016, Giovanni returned to his professional services roots and joined KPMG as the Global Director of Collaboration and Knowledge, from which he transitioned to the role of Global Head of Knowledge Management and Digital Workplace services with Incedo Inc. Giovanni joined Takeda in May 2020.

Susan is a strategic digital professional with 20 years experience managing complex websites and intranets; leading high performing teams in the private and public sectors. She's passionate about how digital technology can be used to as a driver for making people's lives easier, now more important than ever.

With over 25 years in technology leadership Tony began his recent engagement with HAVI in 2013 as CIO for The Marketing Store (TMS), a global HAVI business. He has since served as CTO at TMS and now as CIO Technology Global Services for all HAVI entities. Tony's experience includes 15+ years in the Advertising sector as well as other, varied industries. Tony is now and has previously been directly accountable for Digital Workplace solutions.

Robert is an experienced architect, strategist and leader with 30 years of experience working within IT and also a passionate digital experience advocate. Robert is active as Digital Workplace consultant, working in the area between IT and the business, supporting large companies and organisations, Like Saab Group, Volvo Cars and Telia Company, on their journey to provide digital tools and services that promotes collaboration and increase employee engagement. By combining holistic view and deep technical skills in platforms like Microsoft 365, mobility solution and digital experience platforms Robert contributes with everything from creating vision and strategies to manage implementations and change management.

James Robertson is the founder and managing director of Step Two, headquartered in Sydney, Australia. James is the originator of the current global movement towards digital employee experience (DEX), as well as a 20-year reputation as an intranet expert. He's the author of two books, "Essential intranets" and "Designing intranets". He's keynoted events around the globe.

Ricky is a Business Analyst at Stagecoach and was the Project Manager responsible for the Blink Project. With over 17 years’ experience working with Stagecoach, he has held various roles around the business such as Pay Clerk, Special Projects Manager, Recruitment Manager, Communications Manager, and is now part of the Group Change Team. Usually based out of the London office, Ricky spends his time with his Son, watching sports entertainment, playing FIFA (which he’s very bad at!), and keeping up to date with the latest technology… especially if it’s Apple related!

19-year-old youth activist, social entrepreneur, public speaker and 2019’s Global Teen Leader, Amonge Sinxoto, is an authentically African creative with a burning desire to represent what she feels it means to be an African youth in the 21st century. As the founder of Blackboard Africa, a youth Non-Profit Company, Amonge is at the forefront of driving the narrative of the continent into a new direction. As a leader and young ambassador of national reformation, Amonge has been invited by global platforms such as Tedx, Google and Facebook amongst others, to lend her voice to key discussions around youth and she has already fulfilled speaking engagements on three continents. Amonge is currently studying for a BA Social Sciences, Majors: International Relations and Political Studies at the University of Witwatersrand (WITS) and with her envious achievements and accolades, the teenager disruptor is a future leader that we all should keep our eyes on.

I have a passion for Digital Communications and have worked within this area for about 25 years. Complex or knowledge intensive companies have been of interest since I wrote my Masters thesis on CBS and I have had the great honor of working within some fantastic companies: IBM, Chr. Hansen and now VELUX. I have a deep and wide international experience within the intranet/portals area (especially Microsoft SharePoint / Office 365) and have worked with strategies, processes, tools, technical solutions, conducting training, driving user adoption and establishing governance. I also have an interest in social media (also for internal use like Yammer), community enablement, Knowledge Management and search optimization and I have done a variety of projects in these areas. It is important to me that solutions have a great Digital Employee Experience (DEX) and that we start with business needs and the end-users expected outcomes (also by using personas). We fight for our employee’s attention - our digital channels need to be modern, user-friendly and work well on any device (also mobile).

Deshard Stevens serves as the Chief Information Officer (CIO) for the New York City Commission on Human Rights, an agency charged with enforcing some of most progressive civil rights laws in the nation. As CIO, he supports the agency mission by providing information and technology solutions that foster innovative and operational excellence while ensuring agency compliance with industry best practices and guidelines. Deshard is a transformational leader with over 10 years of experience managing, developing, and implementing business strategies and technical solutions. He was a recipient of the 2018 Rising Star Award from the New York City Public Sector CIO Academy. He is certified as a Project Management Professional (PMP), Certified in Risk and Information System Control (CRISC), and holds a Master of Business Administration.

Lisa Tallman is Sr. Director, Knowledge Management at YMCA of the USA. Lisa leads diverse strategic initiatives including digital and technology strategy, change management, and culture and engagement. She is experienced in influencing, getting buy-in and educating executive leadership as well as aligning digital tools with business strategy. She has a unique background that bridges both hard and soft skills that allow her to be strategic and forward looking while diving into the details and bring people along with her on the digital journey. Lisa earned an MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and a Master’s Degree in English focused on Technical Communication from Eastern Michigan University. She is also an Instructor in the Master's in Learning and Organizational Change program at Northwestern University.

Edward has worked in the digital sector for over ten years, in consulting and client management roles. His experience spans numerous sectors, from global corporates to non-profits, covering clients based in North America, Europe and the Far East. As part of DWG’s leadership team his main focus is to work closely with our member organisations to enable them to establish effective digital workplaces. His previous clients have included: Southwest Airlines, PNC Bank, Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Estee Lauder, 3M, Charles Schwab and KPMG. Key Experience: Business and market analysis, requirements gathering, workshops and focus groups; Technical appraisals, business case creation and feasibility studies; Content evaluation and analytics reviews; Advanced technical knowledge of Microsoft 365; Expert in change management, governance, adoption and analytics; Advisory to project boards and leadership teams; Published research papers for DWG.

David Dylan Thomas, author of the book Design for Cognitive Bias from A Book Apart, serves as Content Strategy Advocate at Think Company and is the creator and host of the Cognitive Bias Podcast. He has developed digital strategies for major clients in entertainment, healthcare, publishing, finance, and retail. He has presented at TEDNYC, SXSW Interactive, Confab, LavaCon, UX Copenhagen, Artifact, IA Conference, Design and Content Conference, and the Wharton Web Conference on topics at the intersection of bias, design, and social justice.

A decade of international experience in building and managing delivery of end-to-end global digital products, platforms and channels, driving the vision and strategy in line with clients' needs in banking, asset management, insurance and IT sector. Currently Product Owner for the new Fidelity's Intranet platform.

Oxfam's Digital Workplace comprises a set of collaboration and productivity tools for Oxfam's global staff worldwide. This ecosystem of tools helps power Oxfam's vision of a just world without poverty, and supports Humanitarian, Campaigning, Advocacy and Long-Term Development Programming. Alongside running a set of well-established collaboration tools – Box (file sharing and storage), Microsoft Teams (project communications), Workplace by Facebook (internal communications and collaborative conversations), Drupal intranet (for knowledge management), Moodle (learning and development) – we’re introducing a set of new services including DocuSign (electronic signature), PowerBI (data visualization) and Microsoft Power Automate (workflow automation). We strive to offer a great digital employee experience that empowers staff and to create porous collaboration boundaries that support our work with partners.

Chris Tubb is an independent intranet and digital workplace consultant specialising in digital strategy, governance, measurement, digital employee experience and intranet and digital workplace management. He has worked with dozens of large organizations all over the world. Formerly responsible for intranet strategy and architecture at Orange and the France Telecom group he has worked with DWG for over ten years as lead strategy consultant, benchmarker and research associate and has recently renewed DWG's benchmarking capabilities. He also co-founded Spark Trajectory with Steve Bynghall, a consulting company focused on improving the performance of intranet and digital workplace teams using innovative models and techniques. He is based in Brighton, UK.

Passionate about digital communication and working in this field for more than 15 years. Involved in strategy, processes, tools, solutions, training, user adoption and collaboration & social.

Will has worked at Fidelity International for 5 years in the digital workplace domain, and now work on improving the effectiveness of Fidelity's digital tools in making Fidelity a great place to work. Recent projects have included our global Office 365 implementation, the rollout of Microsoft Teams and Zoom, and supporting the business through the transition to home working in 2020.

Mark is a professional communicator and Procsi trained change expert, specialising in Enterprise Social (Yammer) and high performing teamwork (Teams). He is a Board member of the International Association of Business Communicators (APAC) and a regular speaker and facilitator on digital transformation and the future of work.

Frederik is team lead for the adoption and change activities within the digital workplace at VELUX. Being an experienced teacher, certified change manger and having 10+ years of experience within the user adoption area, Frederik has been central in increasing personal efficiency and organizational productivity from top floor to shop floor in VELUX. Based on his experience from several global companies and 15+ years of training in Microsoft products, Frederik has developed the award wining user adoption concept “GET IT” which provides training, coaching and consultancy across all of VELUX.