Sid Nayar is the Vice President of People Strategy, Operations, Insights, and Talent Development at Freshworks, where he leads transformative initiatives at the intersection of technology and human potential. With a wealth of experience in driving operational success within billion-dollar global companies, Sid specializes in organizational leadership, change management, and talent development. He is dedicated to empowering teams, fostering collaboration, and delivering results that drive business growth. Outside of his work at Freshworks, Sid is a committed advocate for children’s welfare, serving as a National Board member of Gift of Adoption. An avid traveler and hiker, he draws inspiration from his global adventures to fuel both his personal and professional journey.

Anita I. Jivani is the Head of Innovation at Avanade Northeast and Director of the NYC Innovation Center, where she is focused on advising organizations on the Future of Work, Innovation, and Organizational Strategy and Design. She has spent time dissecting how shifts in our ecosystem are impacting how we live and reframing the way we work. She has counseled organizations on how these megatrends impact their strategy and how investing intentionally can prepare leaders for the future. Her interest in innovation and cross-sector collaboration stems from her work as a Fulbright Scholar, in which she examined the role of business in improving sociopolitical relations between the United States and Mexico.

Michelle is a strategic learning and development leader with deep experience building enterprise-wide learning ecosystems that strengthen capability, accelerate growth, and enhance performance. As Vice President, she oversees enterprise learning and talent strategies, including technical training, professional and personal development, career mobility initiatives, performance and talent review processes, and engagement strategies that support a high-performance, high-retention culture.

She partners closely with business executives and HR leaders to align learning, talent, and organizational priorities, creating scalable frameworks that elevate skills readiness, improve internal mobility, and strengthen leadership pipelines. Known for connecting people development directly to business outcomes, Michelle focuses on building environments where employees can grow, contribute, and thrive.

Laura Bartus is the Chief Learning Officer for the Human Health Project and the head of learning and development for CenterWell Pharmacy, a division of Humana. At the Human Health Project, Laura helps the organization set near-term and future strategy, scale up its patient education programs, and increase its reach to new groups of patients and caregivers. At Humana, Laura’s teams create, deliver, and track learning and development programs for the pharmacy organization’s 12,000 associates. This includes dispensing sites, call centers, professional tracks, and Pharmacists and Pharmacy Techs. Laura’s organization effectiveness team tracks operational results and develops learning metrics strategy to improve their business impact. Laura leads development sessions for leaders and associates across the enterprise, and also externally at many industry events. Laura is passionate about coaching, providing employees with equitable advancement opportunities, building up a robust talent pipeline, and helping her team to be a valued partner to the business.

Laura started out as a high school English teacher, teaching and learning a ton from some amazing teens. In the corporate world, Laura has done nearly every job in learning, moving through design, facilitation, and many leadership roles. She has been involved with several volunteer organizations. She has four crazy children – two of which are twins and three of which are boys. So she also has a crippling coffee addiction, and she really loves work trips. She finds sanity through taking hikes and reading new books. Don’t get her started on dad jokes, because it will delay your meeting for at least five minutes.

Heather Sepulveda is the Head of Executive Search & Talent Intelligence at Takeda.

Alvaro Soto is VP of Product at TeamSense, leading product strategy and applied AI for the platform that connects hourly workers across manufacturing and logistics via SMS. Before TeamSense, Alvaro spent years building enterprise AI products at IBM Watson and led product at Procore Technologies, one of construction tech's largest platforms. He brings a rare cross-discipline background spanning product management, UX design, and AI — and a sharp focus on applying that experience where it's needed most: the 80% of the workforce most tech ignores.

Emily McCrary-Ruiz-Esparza is a freelance journalist and From Day One contributing editor who writes about work, the job market, and women’s experiences in the workplace. Her work has appeared in the BBC, The Washington Post, Quartz at Work, Fast Company, and Digiday’s Worklife.

Jordan Lewis is Senior Director of Product at Deputy, a global workforce management, HR, payroll, and communications platform that has been used to schedule over one billion shifts. He has spent his career building products for the desk-less workers who keep businesses running — with earlier stints leading product teams at Xero and Vend POS (now Lightspeed), where he developed a deep passion for solving the real, daily challenges faced by frontline teams. He brings a builder's instinct and a decade of experience in workforce tech to the conversation about what it takes to connect, support, and empower the workers most software leaves behind.

Corinne is a writer, editor and lifelong New Yorker with one ear always trained to a good story. She started her career as a "runner" for the New York Daily News, where she chased crime, covered education and City Hall, and turned copy around for three deadlines on the rewrite desk. 

During this time she dueled with an Olympic fencer, nabbed her first fake ID at 26 and penned an eyewitness account of an NYPD stop-and-frisk. Her extensive reporting on juvenile justice in the Bronx and Harlem won her two fellowships from John Jay College of Criminal Justice and a Newswomen's Club of New York Award for Beat Reporting.

She went on to earn an MFA from Columbia University, where she was awarded a Creative Writing teaching fellowship (she has also taught at Borough of Manhattan Community College and The School of the New York Times). Her journalism, essays and fiction have been published in outlets as varied as Forbes, The London Reader and Lakeshore Review. She has written op-eds about jury duty and teaching in nontraditional settings, reported on the murky, unregulated world of life coaches and plumbed her own experience of reporting an incident to the Manhattan Special Victims Unit. She believes stories can be found in unexpected corners, and she's interested in how even the simplest questions can help us challenge and reframe common perceptions.

Most recently, she worked with entrepreneurs, experts and thought leaders as a deputy editor to help shape their content on Forbes. During her two years there, she also developed and led seminars on journalism skills for staff and contributors.

In November 2024, she launched The Off-Site Writing Workshop, which offers customized writing services for entrepreneurs and companies looking to learn the craft of commentary. She has moderated panels at Future of Work conferences, including at From Day One, Running Remote and Worktech. 

Angie Parsons is Director of Product Marketing at Beekeeper by LumApps, where she is at the forefront of transforming the workplace for frontline workers. With a mission-driven focus, Angie champions the development and execution of strategic initiatives that enhance the lives of those who are the backbone of business — the deskless workers on the frontlines delivering products and services for customers, clients, and patients all around the world. Her expertise and thought leadership on the subject is coupled with an enthusiasm for leveraging technology to foster cross-functional collaboration, breaking down silos between Communications, IT, HR, and Operations teams to create a seamless and empowering digital experience for frontline employees.

Angie’s passion and work is centered in helping businesses thrive by ensuring their teams - from frontline to desk - are engaged, productive, and aligned with the company’s mission and culture. A graduate of the University of Texas at Austin, Angie is committed to making a meaningful impact on the future of work through innovative, people-centered technology solutions.