Tamla Oates-Forney is an innovative thought leader and speaker, women’s advocate, wellness champion, philanthropist and investor. She serves as CEO of Linkage, a SHRM company, a global leadership development firm committed to advancing women and accelerating inclusion in leaders and organizations.

Tamla previously served as EVP, Chief Human Resources Officer (CHRO) for USAA, where as a member of the Executive Council she led USAA’s team of more than 500 HR professionals spanning talent development, talent acquisition, pay and benefits, culture and employee services for 37,000 teammates.

Prior to joining USAA, Tamla served as Senior Vice President and Chief People Officer at WM (previously Waste Management). She spent the majority of her career (20 years) at General Electric, where she held multiple leadership roles, including HR Leader for GE Africa, Chief Diversity Officer for GE Appliances and Lighting, and Vice President of HR for GE Energy Connections.

Tamla is also an independent director and member of the Human Capital and Compensation committee for Summit Materials. She serves as a member of the Board of Advisors for her alma mater, UNC Chapel Hill’s Kenan-Flagler Business School, and is a sought-after speaker, advisor and thought leader for several HR-related technology startups.

She is a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she earned her Bachelor of Science in business administration. A renowned expert in her field, she has received multiple honors, including being featured in The New York Times, Fast Company, The Network Journal’s 25 Influential Black Women in Business and Savoy’s 2020 Most Influential Black Executives in Corporate America. She is also a member of the Executive Leadership Council (ELC), a network of black CEOs and business leaders who support the development of diverse talent and the promotion of social justice.

Tamla enjoys spending time with her husband, Warren, and their two children, Annia (25) and Camden (15). She also enjoys traveling to Africa, discovering new vegan restaurants, working out, and watching interior design shows on HGTV. She is a member of the 1% club having completed a marathon in 2018.

Jim Link is the CHRO for SHRM.  With more than 340,000 members worldwide, SHRM is the largest HR professional association in the world and the leading voice for matters related to workers and the workplace.

Jim’s career includes roles of increasing responsibility across various industries and companies, including General Electric, the Pillsbury Company, Porsche Cars, and Randstad.  In his most recent role as CHRO for Randstad North America, he led a global team of 150 HR professionals who were instrumental in transforming the company into an award-winning, inclusive, and sustainable global leader.

Jim has served as a volunteer leader in several organizations including the SHRM Foundation Board, the Atlanta Federal Reserve Bank Human Capital Advisory Board, and the Human Resources Leadership Forum.

Jim holds undergraduate and master’s degree from Murray State University.  Born and raised on a working family farm in western Kentucky, he currently resides in Atlanta and Alexandria, VA. 

Jim is an adjunct instructor in the Executive MBA program at the University of Poznan (Poland) School of Economics and Business and the University of Liège (Belgium) Asia-Pacific campus in Taipei, Taiwan.

Gloria Chan Packer is an international mental wellness educator, keynote speaker, and experienced corporate leader. Her TED Talk was one of the most viewed talks of 2022, garnering over 2 million views. She is the founder of Recalibrate, a workplace mental wellness provider that takes a uniquely modern, science-backed, and realistic approach to mental wellness learning for client organizations all over the world.

Gloria founded Recalibrate after an unexpected medical battle led her to re-examine her relationship with stress, inspiring her to improve mental health education for fellow busy professionals by promoting science over stigma. Gloria has been featured as a guest expert at SXSW, Business Insider, the TED Business podcast, the How to Be a Better Human podcast, and more.

Prior to Recalibrate, Gloria led an established career in management consulting as a senior leader specializing in technology strategy and implementation for various Fortune 500 clients in cable, healthcare, financial services, energy, and nonprofit industries.

Nichol Bradford stands at the forefront of human potential and AI, accelerating human transformation through technology investments, research, and global thought leadership.   

Currently, Nichol serves as Executive-in-Residence for AI + HI at The Society for Human Resource Management, shaping global thinking on human-AI collaboration. She is also Co-Founder and Partner of Niremia Collective, an early stage venture fund focused on human potential technologies, and she co-founded Transformative Tech.org, the largest global ecosystem of founders, investors and innovators building tech for human flourishing. 

 Previously, as a senior interactive entertainment executive, Nichol held strategy, operations, marketing and production roles at major brands including Epic Games, Activision-Blizzard, Vivendi Games and Disney. She led operations for World of Warcraft China and Blizzard properties in China, played a key role on the Vivendi team responsible for the landmark $18B Activision-Blizzard merger deal, and helped produce record-breaking events in the metaverse at Epic Games. 

Nichol has an MBA from The Wharton School, is Faculty at Singularity University, a Trustee at CIIS, and has been a Lecturer and Adjunct Professor at Stanford University.  

Moving forward, Nichol is focused on advancing human potential through ethical and empowering AI -- catalyzing a global ecosystem of innovators to create technology for human thriving. 

 QUOTE: 

 "My life mission is to empower human potential. SHRM as the leading source of insight for HR professionals will play a critical role in driving human readiness for an AI world. Together, we are creating an AI+HI enablement path that will help transform work, workers and workplace at scale."