Pankaj Bansal is the Co-founder and CEO of PeopleStrong. He is responsible for building strategic partnerships and managing the overall growth of the company globally. Under his leadership, PeopleStrong has established itself as the largest HR SaaS player from Asia and one of the first HR tech brands from India to have a global presence. Prior to establishing PeopleStrong in 2005, Pankaj worked as a part of the founding team of Aricent Group’s (formerly Hughes Software) BPO division. He is an active member of CII’s National Committee on Skills & Jobs, a non-Executive Director at Wheebox, the fastest growing talent assessment company from India and Board member for Sheroes, the largest women’s community online.

Leah Owens, Senior Director of Human Resource Operations for Gaylord Opryland Resort & Attractions. In her role, Leah is instrumental in recruitment, total compensation and wage planning, STAR relations and the execution of key objectives as outlined in the Resort’s HR Goals and total property business plan. Additionally, Leah also oversees analytical reporting for the HR team in order to identify key market trends for hiring and recruiting throughout middle Tennessee. 

With more than 11 years’ experience in Human Resources, Leah began her career as a Human Resource Assistant at the Hilton St. Louis at the Ballpark, and within a year, she was promoted to Human Resource Manager at the Doubletree Collinsville/St. Louis. In this role, Leah was responsible for overseeing all human resource functions for the property, including training, interviewing, implementing community events, managing benefits enrollment and more. From there, she moved to the Crowne Plaza St. Louis-Downtown where she was Director of Human Resources. In 2012, Leah returned to the Hilton St. Louis at the Ballpark as Director of Human Resources and spent two and a half years in this position. Following this role, Leah relocated to Savannah, Georgia, where she became the Director of Human Resources at the Bohemian Hotel Savannah Riverfront.

Since 2016, Leah has been a part of the Gaylord Opryland family, joining the HR team as a Human Resource Business Partner. In this role, she assisted our Rooms and Engineering Divisions with all aspects of human resources, including employee relations, training, recruiting and retention initiatives, as well as employee engagement in both strategy and execution. In September 2017, Leah was promoted to Director of HR Operations and has been thrilled to grow her career with Gaylord Opryland and Marriott International.

Leah holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Management with an emphasis in Human Resources from Webster University in St. Louis, Missouri. Additionally, she is a 2018 graduate of the Marriott International ‘Emerging Leader Program’. When not in the office, she likes to travel, attend concerts and practice yoga. She also enjoys being creative, and in her spare time, she restores furniture, crafts and takes on a variety of home improvement projects.

Sara Orton is the head of Revenue Operations at Atipica, an inclusive AI platform for HR professionals who want to build more diverse and inclusive teams. Sara has worked in the civic technology and advocacy spaces prior to working with Atipica. She led efforts in California and Washington DC to reform immigration policy through time at FWD.us, focusing on empowering the technology and business communities to engage in advocacy. Sara’s teams engaged thousands of business leaders, including Coca Cola, Facebook, Apple, IBM, and General Motors, to participate in advocacy campaigns.  Sara served as Deputy Director of Operations for the statewide Democratic coordinated campaign in Nevada in 2018, leading human resources and cybersecurity protocol for the campaign. Sara graduated from Stanford University, where she completed a research fellowship through the Center for the Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity.