Paul J. Gennaro is senior vice president and chief communications officer for New York Life, where he leads the Corporate Communications team for the largest mutual life insurance company in the United States and one of the largest life insurers in the world.  New York Life, a Fortune 100 company with $63 billion in annual revenue, provides insurance and investment solutions to individuals and businesses – and operates one of the world’s largest global asset managers through New York Life Investments, with $808 billion in assets under management.

Prior to joining New York Life in Sept. 2023, Paul spent nine years as senior vice president, and chief brand and communications officer, for Voya Financial, a leading health, wealth and investment company with $790 billion in total assets under management and administration.  Previously, he was senior vice president and chief communications officer for AECOM, a $20-billion global infrastructure firm with nearly 100,000 employees serving clients in more than 150 countries, since 2006.  Paul’s corporate career also includes leadership roles for Johns Manville, a subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway, where he led all global corporate and marketing communications; Ingersoll-Rand; Dell; and American Express.  He began his career as a journalist and public affairs officer for the U.S. Navy.

Twenty-two of Paul’s 31-year corporate career has been in the top communications role. He has overseen multiple global rebrands as well as communications in support of more than 50 M&A-related transactions, an award-winning initial public offering on the New York Stock Exchange, multiple seamless CEO transitions and new business launches, and numerous business integrations.

Paul has been honored with PRWeek magazine’s PR Professional of the Year award; the John W. Hill Award, the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) New York chapter’s most prestigious honor; and the International Business Award for Communications Executive of the Year.

He is a member of four prominent organizations for the most-senior global brand, corporate communications and public relations executives: the Institute for Public Relations (trustee), the Arthur W. Page Society, The Seminar, and The Wisemen.  Paul was also a member of the Wall Street Journal Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) Network. 

Externally, Paul serves as treasurer on the board of directors for Disability:IN, a national nonprofit that advances disability inclusion in the workplace, supply chain and marketplace.

Mariah currently serves as the Vice President of People Transformation and Operations at Zendesk, overseeing HR Portfolio and Planning, People Analytics, Talent Acquisition, and Shared Services. She is passionate about creating manager, employee, and internal experiences and capabilities that scale, and thrives on connecting the dots between strategy to execution.

Danielle Abril covers technology and its impact on workers across industries for The Washington Post. Before joining The Post, she covered Big Tech companies at Fortune including Google and Facebook. She previously was a reporter and editor for more than 10 years in Dallas.

Lyn Jeffery leads IFTF’s Foresight Essentials program, supporting people, organizations, and communities to develop their own foresight capacities. A cultural anthropologist and an IFTF Distinguished Fellow, Lyn explores how people make sense of the rapidly changing world around them, whether a “left-behind” child in a Sichuan village, a leader in a multinational organization developing their own futures thinking skills, or an amateur musician experimenting with new VR instruments. Before joining IFTF, Lyn worked in China as a tour guide, nonprofit researcher, Fulbright scholar and television producer. Lyn has enduring interests in learning experience design, mobility, social media, collaborative technologies. She holds a BA in Chinese Studies and a Ph.D. in Anthropology from the University of California, Santa Cruz.