In-person Pass

Tina Strandell, Vice President of Product Management, has been with Fidelity Investments for 5 years, establishing strong data integration and partnerships between HR/Payroll providers and Fidelity’s employer benefits offerings. Over the past decade, she has successfully led teams in both service and product, supporting HR/Payroll systems. 

With a diverse professional background spanning over 20 years, here her career journey began as a 4th grade teacher before transitioning to work for the United States Air Force. Today, Tina’s passion is to simplify processes, and specialize in finding innovative solutions to reduce client administrative burden when managing data between HR/Payroll systems and Fidelity products. Tina’s vision is to enhance employer and employee experiences by enabling real-time data sharing. 

Chaitanya Peddi is the co-founder of Darwinbox. Rated highest globally on Gartner Peer Insights, Darwinbox is used by 900+ growing businesses and enterprises to manage their end-to-end HR needs.

As a subject matter expert in both HR and technology, Chaitanya's experience as an HR consultant has equipped him to understand the specific needs of the HR tech market. This has enabled him to build a world-class product that not only automates and simplifies HR processes but also empowers HR to be a strategic, game-changing function.

Chaitanya strongly believes the HR function can be a source of great competitive advantage for an organization. And also, that this underlying potential can be optimally harnessed through technology.

Kahina is a firm believer in collective intelligence, and in the power of the whole being greater than the sum of its parts.

After graduating from law school, Kahina first immersed herself in the world of international law and dedicated herself to tackling global issues. For many years, she led initiatives focused on international law, working in four languages across many different continents.

Driven by the desire to ignite collective action, she progressively – and then passionately – focused her work on organizations and the people behind them.

Through her role as Chief People Officer, Kahina continues to be driven by her ambition to make the world a better place, one organization at a time. She genuinely believes that great things can only be achieved through the development and strengthening of diverse, inclusive, passionate and high-performing teams. Much like Workleap, the company where she has worked for over 7 years, she is also convinced that people are the driving force behind organizations, and that great leaders know how to maintain elevated standards when it comes to both humanity and high performance.

Kahina is a lawyer by training and was a member of the Québec Bar from 2008 to 2022, having obtained both her law degree (LL.B.) and a Masters in International Law (LL.M.). She also studied international relations at the Universidad de Cádiz in Spain. Before joining Workleap, Kahina held strategic consulting and international law management leadership positions at organizations including the Canadian Red Cross, Lawyers Without Borders and PwC.

With over 16 years of experience in the tech industry, Somen is a seasoned leader, innovator, and entrepreneur who is passionate about building and scaling AI-powered solutions that enhance talent management and decision making. As the General Manager at Dayforce, Somen is responsible for driving the vision, strategy, and execution of the company's talent product offerings, including all current and future next generation talent products.

Prior to joining Ceridian, Somen successfully founded and exited two companies. Most recently, Somen served as the CEO and Co-Founder of Ideal, which was acquired by Ceridian (NYSE:CDAY) in 2021. Somen also served as Co-Founder and CEO at his prior company, Field ID, which was acquired in 2012 by Fortune Brands (NYSE:FBHS). Somen's professional accolades include spots on both the Profit Hot 50 and Deloitte Fast 50 lists, as well as the EY Entrepreneur of the Year award in 2012.

Darla Shaw, CEO of Talent Masters, has a distinguished 25-year HR career spanning small startups to Fortune 500 companies. With a Ph.D. in Organizational Psychology, an MBA, and a Masters in Employment Law, she holds advanced certifications in HR, Executive Coaching & Project Management. Darla's unique blend of humor, strategy, psychology, and legal knowledge has made her a pivotal figure in creating inclusive, effective work environments across diverse organizational landscapes.

Throughout his 30-year career, Matt has been singularly focused on helping investors retire with confidence. As President of Income America—an in-plan retirement income solution that provides retirees with guaranteed income for life—he provides innovative, fiduciary-oriented solutions that enhance participants' retirement security. 

A prolific speaker and panelist, Matt has spoken at dozens of industry events, including the NAPA 401k Summit, the Alliance for Lifetime Income Summit, the Investment News Retirement Income Conference, the CFA Society PORTFOLIO Conference, AFS 401(k) Retirement Services Employee Benefits Symposium, SS&C Deliver, and the Advisor2X Wealth@Wor(k) conference. With more than 30,000 followers on LinkedIn and Twitter combined, Matt shares his thought leadership on everything from guaranteed income to proposed legislation to fintech trends that impact how Americans plan and save for retirement. 

A board advisor for Prime Capital Investment Advisors, Matt previously served as president of Fi360 until its acquisition by Broadridge in 2020. He also served as the executive business leader of Morningstar's Global Advisor and Wealth Solutions unit, the company's largest operating segment, where he was responsible for executing strategy and driving top-line revenue.

Passionate about fiduciary standards of excellence, Matt is an Accredited Investment Fiduciary (AIF) and Accredited Investment Fiduciary Analyst (AIFA). 

To learn more about Income America, please visit www.incomeamerica.com. 

To learn more about Matt, please visit https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthewwolniewicz or https://twitter.com/mwalno 

Lindsay is a human resources (HR) professional who is passionate about all things data, people, and culture. She holds the Certified Human Resources Professional (CHRP) designation and currently works as the Director of People and Culture at Cardata where she has helped to build out the HR function from the ground up, working with executive leaders across the organization to shape compensation, recruitment, performance, and development programming. Throughout her experiences, she has helped leverage the vast amount of data available to inform and shape people programs and practices. She loves helping others learn, and currently holds teaching roles at both George Brown and York University in their continuing education department. 

Pankaj, also known as Romy, brings more than 25 years of experience in enterprise software design and development to Pulpstream. As a serial entrepreneur, his business-critical solutions are used by some of the world’s largest enterprises, including Cisco, Hewlett-Packard, Randstad, Software AG, and AT&T.

Before Pulpstream, Pankaj was the founder and CEO of LongJump, one of the first Platform as a Service offering. Under his guidance, LongJump was acquired by Software AG for $35 million. Subsequently, he led Software AG’s cloud initiatives as general manager of Agile Apps.

Pankaj holds 2 patents in object modeling for network policy management and policy-based network architecture. He earned his degree in computer science and engineering from the G.S. Institute of Technology and Science.

His business philosophy centers on empathizing with customers to build powerful solutions that relieve their pains. He is committed to delighting his customers and making them successful, which is a value he shares with his team.
 

Dan Irvin is a high-energy, fun-loving leader, consultant, motivator, and public speaker whose valuable insights and relatable stories of success and passion consistently set up entrepreneurs and employees across the nation for personal and professional growth.

As a former CEO and COO, Dan helps leaders remove distractions so that they can lead intentional, fulfilled, and meaningful lives. His popular presentations and trainings offer structure, fun, and best practices that are both thought-provoking and buck the age-old mentality of “this is how it’s always been done.” Too often, we become uber-focused on “being busy” and ultimately lose sight of our goals. Dan’s thoughts and ideas get you back on track.

Dan’s message will have you laugh and cheer, and his personality will convince you to stop taking life so seriously. His fanbase is growing, but his biggest fans continue to be his wife and three children.

For more information, visit danirvin.com.