TheALUMS Conference

Emma is Chief Executive Officer of EnterpriseAlumni.

Emma spent nine years in M&A at Rothschild & Co, has served as UNICEF's first Business Ambassador for a decade, and sat on the G7's Gender Equality Advisory Committee under the UK's presidency. 

No bio of hers is complete without mentioning the five stars she earned at her first job, at 16, at McDonald's.

Owen is Chief Strategy Officer at EnterpriseAlumni as well as Co-Founder of NativeFoundation, where he works with leadership teams on AI-driven business transformation. He helps organizations redesign their systems, data, and operating models for the post-LLM world, alongside building NativeFoundation's own AI product portfolio.

Brigitte is a Non-Executive Director of EnterpriseAlumni and a former FTSE 100 Corporate Affairs and Marketing Director with extensive C-suite experience across media, financial services, tech, and telecoms, having led global teams from both the UK and US. Most recently Chief Corporate Affairs Officer at Howden, the international insurance broker, she has advised companies of many sizes and sectors on reputation management, brand strategy, employee engagement, regulatory affairs, public policy, ESG, and crisis communications.

Established in Nashville in 1855, Southwestern Family of Companies is one of the largest and oldest private corporations in Tennessee comprised of family member companies across a range of industries, all with the shared goals of building people and positively impacting communities worldwide.

Hans came up through Southwestern Advantage as a salesman and sales manager before becoming the program's Career Counselor, working with Southwestern alumni for more than 20 years to help them find new careers, hire talent, start businesses, or simply reconnect.

Alongside that work, Hans spent 13 years as an executive recruiter with ThinkingAhead Executive Search, rising to Practice Lead and Partner, sharpening the same career and talent expertise he now brings to Southwestern's alumni community full time.

Dr. Alison M. Dachner is an Associate Professor of Management at the Boler College of Business at John Carroll University and co-founder of AcademEx Management Consulting. With over a decade of experience in research, teaching, and consulting, she specializes in topics related to management and leadership.

Prior to her academic career, Dr. Dachner served as Director of Education for an international call center, received her M.B.A. from Cleveland State University, and earned her Ph.D. from The Fisher College of Business at The Ohio State University.

Dr. Dachner’s scholarly research explores how evolving workplace dynamics as well as characteristics of distinct employee populations influence careers, career transitions, and the effectiveness of organizational strategies aimed at engaging, retaining, and developing both current and former employees and students. In addition to her academic publications, her work has been featured in various media outlets, reflecting her ongoing commitment to bridging the gap between research and practice.

Dr. Erin E. Makarius is a Professor and Chair of the Management Department in the College of Business at the University of Akron and co-founder of AcademEx Management Consulting. She earned her M.B.A. from John Carroll University and her Ph.D. from the Fisher College of Business at The Ohio State University.

Dr. Makarius has several years of experience in human resources and management, including working at and consulting with a variety of companies in the financial, insurance, and consumer products industries. Her research interests include understanding and facilitating boundaries such as organizational, work-life, technological, and international boundaries, with emphasis on the role of relationships, reputation, and remote work. Her academic research has been widely published in journals such as the Journal of Management, Organization Science, and Harvard Business Review, among others, and has received international media coverage, including the Wall Street Journal, Forbes magazine, and Financial Times.

Maya is a seasoned technology executive and board director with deep experience in digital transformation and innovation. Over her career, she's held leadership roles in product management, consumer strategy, and digital services, guiding teams that develop customer-centric platforms and drive growth. Maya also advises organizations on leveraging technology to scale operations, improve user engagement, and stay competitive in evolving markets.

Her work reflects a passion for bridging strategy and execution - helping companies harness digital capabilities while aligning with long-term vision and stakeholder value.

Rochelle is a successful entrepreneur and business leader with extensive public company experience, known for helping global organizations transform, expand into new markets, and drive sustainable growth. She has partnered with some of the world’s largest companies to deliver breakthrough results, combining strategic insight with operational excellence to achieve record revenue performance.

With an ability to turn underperforming divisions into thriving, high-growth enterprises, Rochelle brings a rare blend of vision, determination, and leadership. Her work is defined by a commitment to driving meaningful transformation - building stronger businesses, more engaged teams, and lasting impact.

After graduating with a B.S. in Finance from the Marriott School of Management at Brigham Young University in 2003, Matt spent several years in both the banking and pharmaceutical industries before pursuing his Ph.D in Management from the Moore School of Business at the University of South Carolina (2016). His research seeks to understand the link between individual and organizational performance, and how organizations can appropriate value from an increasingly mobile workforce, with particular interest in star employees. His work has been published in the Academy of Management Review, Academy of Management Journal, Journal of Applied Psychology, and Personnel Psychology. He is also a regular contributor to the Wall Street Journal.

David recently retired from Northern Trust after almost 44 years of service, most recently as Vice Chairman. Over a career that took him from Chicago to New York, London, and Hong Kong, he led the firm's Wealth Management business across multiple regions, most recently as President of National Services for Wealth Management and, before that, as CEO of the East and Central regions.

David is now taking on a leadership role in the new Northern Trust Alumni Network, continuing as a strong ambassador for the company he spent his career with. He brings the perspective of a career-long executive now helping build his own company's alumni community from the ground up.

David holds an MBA from Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management and a BA in Government from Lawrence University, where he serves on the Board of Trustees. He is also Chairman of the Board of WTTW/Chicago PBS and WFMT Chicago.

Paul is Head of Alumni Relations at Wells Fargo, where he leads the Wells Fargo Alumni Network connecting current and former teammates across the company. With more than 30 years in financial services concentrated in corporate social responsibility, philanthropic strategy, and strategic program management, Paul has launched two corporate alumni networks at global financial services firms, first at Bank of America and now at Wells Fargo.

Before moving into alumni relations, Paul spent four years as Bank of America's Director of Community Relations, managing charitable grant programs including the Bank of America Student Leaders and Neighborhood Builders programs.

Ginny is Global President and Chief Operating Officer at Ryan, a global leader in tax services, software, and technology. She joined the firm in 1992 as its first intern and seventh employee, and went on to become Ryan's first female Principal, then the first to serve as President of U.S. Operations, and later the first woman appointed to Ryan's Board of Managers.

As Global President and COO, Ginny now leads Ryan's Global Shared Services and its three Global Capability Centers, while staying closely involved with key clients. She recently completed two years as Board Chair of the North Texas Food Bank and continues to serve the organization as a volunteer and advocate, and she sits on the board of Dallas Capital Bank.

Pablo is Global Strategic Initiatives and Senior Project Manager at LinkedIn, where he manages LinkedIn's own Alumni program alongside broader employee lifecycle initiatives, from candidate experience through onboarding, spanning more than 10,000 employees across four-plus global regions.

Before moving into this role, Pablo spent several years in recruiting operations and inclusion programs, first at Facebook and then at LinkedIn, leading diversity recruiting strategy, program design, and change management for university and intern recruiting.

Kate was a Change Management Partner at Pentland Brands, working to ensure business change is applied in a way that supports teams to reach their potential and transition through change well. She built her career over 18 years at Clarks, rising from Retail Manager through Regional Training Specialist, Change Lead, and Global Brand Manager to Senior CX Marketing Content & Planning Manager, before leading client success and curriculum development at KultraLab.

Kate is an accredited Insights Discovery Practitioner who works with executive teams and senior leaders to connect people, leadership, and operational performance, helping leaders create clarity and build the ownership needed to deliver sustainable results.

Anders is Digital Content Manager, Senior Associate, at Rothschild & Co, where he leads content across the firm's website and social media from a Group perspective. He sits within Rothschild & Co's Digital Communications team, whose remit spans marketing, financial, sustainability, alumni, and internal communications, as well as employer branding.

Anders previously led content and SEO strategy for GTR (Govia Thameslink Railway), the UK's largest rail operator, and built digital campaigns for global brands including Nike and Electrolux while working in Stockholm. He has also spoken publicly on multilingual digital communication, presenting in Oslo and Stockholm.

Samantha is Alumni Relations and Career Services Manager at Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP, home to one of the industry's longest-running alumni networks, where she helps keep thousands of former lawyers around the world connected to the firm. Before Cleary, she spent five years building Georgetown University's own alumni engagement program, rising from Assistant Director to Associate Director, and worked in brand strategy at Volkswagen of America.

Samantha's work includes Cleary's Global Alumni Reunions, held everywhere from Tallinn to Busan to Genoa, and the firm's annual Alumni Year in Review

Ian is Chief Customer Officer at EnterpriseAlumni, with strategic responsibility for customer retention and expansion strategy and operations. He brings more than 20 years of experience building executive relationships across regulated industries and national government advocacy, most recently as founding go-to-market hire at the AI cybersecurity startup ziggiz, and before that as Co-Founder and CEO of thisspace, a real estate marketplace he scaled to 50 partners across three states.

Earlier in his career, Ian led Box's enterprise executive programs for the company's top 200-plus accounts, driving roughly half of its ARR, and spent eight years at Gartner's Research Board scaling global executive programs for CXOs at more than 250 Global 1000 companies. He has founded two companies in the tech space.

Anne is Strategic Communications Senior Manager at Forvis Mazars US, where she develops the firm's Alumni Network strategy and communications plan to connect, engage, and inform its Ambassadors (retired partners) and alumni.

She brings more than a decade of strategic communications experience through the firm's recent history of mergers, from Dixon Hughes Goodman through FORVIS to Forvis Mazars, carrying the alumni program through each transition.

 

Helen is Alumni Manager for Summit, the alumni network of the Defence Academy of the United Kingdom and the Royal College of Defence Studies, part of the UK Ministry of Defence. In the role since October 2023, she is responsible for day-to-day platform management, supplier liaison, content curation, alumni recruitment and verification, and UK and international student engagement, working with the Defence Academy and RCDS community to raise awareness of the network and generate return on investment.

Emma is Principal Engagement Lead and Chief of Staff to the CEO. She works across commercial strategy, data advisory, client success and internal operations.