The Top Influential
Corporate Alumni Voices

As Chief Administrative Officer and a member of Northern Trust's Management Group, Alex is the executive force behind the firm's official Alumni Network. She oversees how one of the world's oldest financial institutions attracts, develops and stays connected to its people, and she has put senior weight behind the belief that those relationships shouldn't end when someone leaves. Backing an alumni network from the C-suite is what turns a good idea into a lasting institution, and Alex has given Northern Trust's the sponsorship to thrive.

A founding member of the team that launched the Wells Fargo Alumni Network, Alexi helped build the program from the ground up alongside the firm's Head of Alumni Relations – an initiative that went on to win the Alumni Branding Campaign Award at TheALUMS 2025. Now a Senior Business Execution Consultant in Public Affairs, she pairs an analytical, data-driven background with a genuine passion for keeping former colleagues connected, turning alumni engagement into a lasting part of the Wells Fargo community.

Passionate about engagement and corporate relationships, Alyssa's success comes from her ability to manage stakeholders and create bridges across a wide ecosystem: working with clients, internal teams, suppliers, candidates, alumni, employees, corporate partners, professors, recruiters, HR and government institutions. With over a decade's experience across professional services, education and hospitality, she now spearheads the strategic initiatives that connect and empower her firm's growing network of alumni worldwide.

Anders leads digital content and brand at Rothschild & Co, shaping how one of the world's oldest financial institutions tells its story online. At a firm with a long-standing alumni community – including its own alumni network and video series – his work helps carry the Rothschild & Co name to the people who have passed through it, keeping the firm's story alive for its alumni as much as its clients.

Andrea is a researcher and thought leader in workplace intelligence, with deep expertise in people analytics and workforce strategy. She has contributed to shaping how organizations use data to understand talent dynamics, including the patterns of employee departure and return that underpin alumni engagement.

Recognized by American Banker for seven consecutive years as one of the 'Most Powerful Women in Banking', Andrea has been a prominent force for change. In her former role of Chief Administration Officer, she drove bold, enterprise-level initiatives. Today, as Chair of the Bank of America Alumni Network, she's building something just as ambitious: a global community that reflects the values she helped champion inside the firm.

Anne stepped into the alumni space in 2024 with a clear mission: to evolve the Forvis Mazars alumni program from great to excellent. She built the business case, won executive buy-in, and architected the launch of the Forvis Mazars Alumni Network from the ground up. A firm believer that staying connected to people long after they leave is one of the most powerful things an organization can do, Anne has quickly become one of the most compelling new voices in corporate alumni world.

Anthony is the researcher who coined "The Great Resignation" – the term for the record wave of employees who voluntarily quit their jobs from 2021 onwards, as the pandemic pushed people to rethink what they wanted from work. That mass departure is the flip side of the boomerang trend: many who left are exactly the people organizations now hope to welcome back through their alumni networks. His work on why employees leave and re-engage makes him one of the most credible voices on what keeps former colleagues connected.

April stands out as a bold force in reimagining alumni engagement, blending creativity with strategic HR leadership to create lasting post-employment connections. As the force behind CP Forever – named the coolest alumni brand of 2023 – she has set a new standard for alumni programs by prioritizing vibrancy, inclusivity, and cultural identity. Speaking at TheALUMS, April underscored the importance of building alumni experiences that are vibrant, inclusive and long lasting: "We wanted to replicate that sense of what it means to be part of Cooper Parry. And when you're part of the alumni, it still feels like the fun, it still feels like the color, it still feels like you're part of that something different."

As Chairman of M&S, Archie Norman was the original visionary behind the launch of the company's alumni network – recognizing that a business with such deep heritage and multi-generational employee relationships needed a way to stay connected. For an organization where families have worked across the decades, the alumni program became a natural extension of its culture. You can discover more about the strategy and impact of the network in the video Alumni Insights: The M&S Alumni Program, as well as read about how M&S is using its alumni to build community, preserve brand legacy, and support recruitment outcomes.

Ashley runs the alumni network at RSM US, where she's grown the online community past 5,000 members and launched the firm's first Alumni Connectivity Week – a firmwide push of events and stories that reconnects former colleagues with each other and with RSM. She came to corporate alumni from university alumni relations, bringing a grounding in long-term engagement to what's fast becoming the more dynamic, business-critical side of the discipline.

Driving the marketing and management of the Bird & Bird alumni program, Bianca is an alumni voice to watch. Constantly implementing innovative alumni success strategies, she built the foundations of a thriving alumni community by fostering long term relationships, not only between the firm and its alumni but among alumni themselves. Bianca was named Newcomer of the Year at TheALUMS 2024, where she also spoke about the importance of culture in building and sustaining connections. She's also spoken about the strategic value of alumni as brand ambassadors and their impact on reputation and business growth.

Brian Chesky's approach to alumni engagement during the pandemic reflected a deep commitment to Airbnb's core values. Faced with difficult layoffs, he led with empathy and transparency – publicly sharing a directory of affected employees and providing meaningful support to help them transition. Chesky has since described alumni engagement as a long-term investment, not a reactive measure – reinforcing Airbnb's identity as a people-first company with a multi-decade-spanning vision for community and connection.

Bryan is the founder and CEO of Happydance, a careers-website platform, and the co-author of the bestselling Give & Get Employer Branding. Before Happydance he built Ph.Creative over two decades into one of the world's most respected employer brand agencies, working with companies like Apple and American Airlines. His core idea reframes the employer–employee relationship as a two-way exchange built on impact, purpose and belonging, not a one-way sales pitch – thinking that sits at the heart of great alumni programs: if belonging is built authentically, it doesn't end on someone's last day.

Charlotte leads the people strategy behind one of the US's most respected litigation firms, overseeing hiring, lawyer development and diversity and inclusion across the full talent lifecycle. That gives her a front-row view of how professional-services firms sustain relationships with their people over long careers, and makes her a valuable voice on alumni engagement in the legal sector, where former associates and partners so often become clients, referrers and lifelong advocates for the firms that invested in them. A featured speaker at TheALUMS alongside prominent C-suite leaders, she has tackled a question with real strategic weight: where alumni belongs within an organization, and how firms should structure the teams that drive it.

Cheryl leads a system-wide alumni strategy at Northwell Health, built on trust, shared purpose, and an understanding of what truly connects people: by leveraging alumni psychographics, she designs programs that can cater to diverse values, attitudes, lifestyles, and communication styles, ensuring every alumni engagement is personalized and impactful. With events ranging from tech talks and painting sessions to beach walks and lab tours, Cheryl ensures alumni engagement means experiences as diverse and human as the people it serves.

Cheryl has helped put Investec on the map in the corporate alumni world. With her co-lead, she launched the firm's global alumni network with full CEO sponsorship behind it. Nearly 900 people signed up in the first 48 hours, and the program went on to win the Alumni Launch of the Year Award at TheALUMS 2025, where Cheryl was also shortlisted for Newcomer of the Year. Based in the UK, she has become a recognized voice in the wider alumni community through her thought leadership.

A definitive voice on the modern workplace, Chip Cutter shines light on the evolving relationship between employers and employees. In "People Are Feeling Stuck in Their Jobs. Bosses Are Starting to Worry," he explores the crisis of career stagnation within large organizations and how companies like McKinsey and Synchrony are rethinking internal mobility – offering alumni opportunities for growth over traditional promotions. As Chip writes, "The very best people want new experiences," reminding us that career fulfillment isn't linear. His reporting – spanning from Spotify's sweeping layoffs to the quiet struggles inside top consulting firms – captures a workforce under pressure. His work is a timely reminder that how someone exits a company can shape their sense of belonging just as much as their time inside it.

Chris is the co-author, with Reid Hoffman and Ben Casnocha, of The Alliance: Managing Talent in the Networked Age – one of the most influential books ever written on the employer–employee relationship, and a foundational text for the corporate-alumni movement. It reframed departing employees not as a loss but as the start of a lasting alumni relationship. First floated in his 2013 Harvard Business Review essay with Hoffman, that idea now underpins how the best organizations think about alumni networks. A featured speaker at TheALUMS, a Stanford instructor and founding partner of Blitzscaling Ventures, Chris continues to shape how the business world thinks about talent, loyalty and the long arc of a career.

An organizational psychologist with a PhD and 25 years leading people at Genentech, Roche, Microsoft and Deloitte, Cori builds on a single conviction: that companies innovate by investing in their people. It's shaped every culture she's helped create – where connection, purpose and growth define the work, and where that investment doesn't stop when someone leaves, but lives on through the alumni who stay part of the story.

Few people shape the workforce agenda like Daniel. As LinkedIn's Editor-in-Chief, he decides which ideas reach the professional world – and he has repeatedly put alumni and boomerang hiring at the center of it. When he named the return of the boomerang employee as a defining idea for 2026, both in his widely followed forecast and on the TODAY show, he did more than spot a trend: he legitimized it, moving alumni strategy from a niche HR concern into a mainstream business conversation heard by millions.

Daria brings a strategic perspective to alumni engagement, embedding Swarovski's interactive alumni community into the heart of the company's talent strategy. Her work goes beyond fostering connection – she's tied alumni engagement directly to measurable outcomes in recruitment, retention, and brand loyalty. By integrating the alumni network into Swarovski's broader people initiatives, including the Talent Acquisition Development Program she designed, Daria demonstrates how alumni can actively support business goals.

Dave belongs on this list because he backed alumni before he became one. Retiring in 2026 as Vice Chairman after nearly 44 years at Northern Trust – across Chicago, New York, London and Hong Kong – he helped sponsor and shape the firm's official Alumni Network, turning a career-long belief in relationships and culture into a lasting community for generations of colleagues to come.

A dedicated alumni-relations leader, Dena heads Bain & Company’s Global Alumni Network – a community of more than 30,000 alumni across the firm’s worldwide offices. She leads the firm's efforts to foster lifelong engagement by creating meaningful opportunities for alumni to stay connected, support one another, and remain active members of the Bain community throughout their careers.

With a focus on People and Business Management, Ali explores how modern HR practices drive valuable organizational outcomes, particularly those associated with interpersonal relationships in the workplace – including corporate alumni. Together with Erin Makarius she is co-founder of AcademEx Management Consulting, and a designer of the AlumniAcademy program. Their published research includes papers such as Follow the trails: A path to systematically designing corporate alumni programs.

An expert in Organizational Behavior and HR, Erin's research and focus push the boundaries of what employee-employer relationships could be, across technological, organizational and international contexts. Her work aims to advance our understanding of workplace dynamics. Her collaborations with AcademEx co-founder Ali Dachner have recently included the AlumniAcademy, and the research on the Alumni-Organization Relationship and Post-Separation Value.

With award-winning research on how companies can best utilize their human capital for a competitive advantage, Matt is a leading voice on talent strategy and alumni engagement. His work focuses on showing organizations how best to manage and retain top talent and maintain connections to former employees, including by leveraging corporate alumni networks. His insights have been featured in The Wall Street Journal, the London School of Economics Business Review and many other academic outlets.

ADP's Chief Economist and ESG Officer, Nela leads research on boomerang hiring trends that has produced widely cited data and articles – including the finding that boomerang employees made up 35% of all new hires in March 2025. Her research provides the quantitative backbone for much of the current alumni and boomerang hiring conversation.

Patti's bestselling book Disrupters captures the essence of a career spent challenging conventional leadership and reshaping workplace culture, recognizing that corporate alumni networks are essential for long-term strategic planning. With alumni experience across tech, education and entrepreneurship, she brings a future-focused lens to organizational change. Her insights have been featured in Forbes, The Guardian and Entrepreneur, where she's a vocal advocate for the prioritization of equity, inclusion and bold leadership.

Elizabeth runs one of the most established alumni networks in the legal industry, connecting thousands of former colleagues through Cleary Gottlieb's global program. A champion of best practices across the sector, Elizabeth's collaborative approach leads her to generously share her expertise with peer firms; from 2016 to 2018, she also chaired the Legal Employer Alumni Relations section of NALP, helping shape the legal community's evolving approach to alumni engagement.

Writing for the Financial Times on all things work-related, Emma is dedicated to shaping the future of work by identifying employment trends and championing a better office life. Her keen curiosity in changes in the workplace drives her to explore innovative ideas and highlight shifts that will improve how we work and thrive professionally. Articles such as 'Boomerang employees: returning with new skills and experience' reflect her interest in the alumni experience, exploring how returning talent can bring fresh value to former employers.

Erica is a three-time Wall Street Journal bestselling author and one of the most influential voices on the human side of work. Her 2023 book The Retention Revolution speaks directly to the heart of the alumni movement, urging leaders to stop treating their workforce as a fixed pool of loyal employees and instead see it as a living ecosystem where people leave, stay connected, and often come back. Across her "Human Workplace Trilogy" and her work with companies like Microsoft, L'Oréal and The New York Times, she makes the case that how you treat people – including how they leave – is what keeps them in your orbit for good.

Francis leads the alumni network at Rothschild & Co, and he's made it unmistakably Rothschild & Co. At one of the world's oldest and most storied financial institutions, he brings alumni together for flagship gatherings in prominent historic settings including New Court, the firm's landmark London headquarters, and offers a range of heritage perks few networks could match, from archive tours to private museum passes. More than 200 years of history become something alumni stay part of, and Francis has built the network into a global community, keeping former colleagues across the world connected to the firm and to one another.

Brint has long recognized that a company's strength lies in the collective contributions of its people. As the founder of global tax services firm Ryan, he champions a culture rooted in work-life success and long-term support. He knows growth doesn't end at the exit interview – encouraging his former team members to stay connected through the Ryan Alumni Network. "We want to continue supporting your growth, whether you're exploring new business ventures, seeking educational opportunities, or simply looking to reconnect with former team members."

With 15 years of experience in marketing leadership within financial and professional services sectors, Gemma has been instrumental in shaping the firm's go-to-market strategy and building its brand, including its established alumni program. The network was shortlisted for "Boomerang Campaign of the Year" at TheALUMS awards in recognition of its success in welcoming back returning alumni.

A seasoned editorial voice in the retail industry, George brings sharp insight into the role of alumni in shaping brand reputation. In the Retail Spotlight: Why Maintaining Relationships with Former Colleagues Matters webinar, he highlights alumni as both powerful advocates – "If people have fond memories of working somewhere, they remain advocates" – but also as valuable truth tellers who reflect the company's true values – "Alumni keep you honest." Through his work at Retail Week, George consistently champions themes of community, employee wellbeing, and the long-term value of people-first leadership in retail.

Grace is the driving force behind Northern Trust's official Alumni Network – the person who turned the idea into an institution. Working hand in hand with the firm's executive sponsors, she led the build and launch of a firm-wide community, giving the people who have shaped one of the world's oldest financial institutions a lasting way to stay connected to it.

Greg is one of the most influential voices in executive search – a senior Spencer Stuart partner widely regarded as the world's go-to recruiter for chief marketing and C-suite roles, having led hundreds of searches for iconic global brands. A frequent contributor to Harvard Business Review, Forbes and the WSJ and creator of the firm's CMO Summit, he spends his career thinking about leadership, culture and where great talent goes next – the same forces that make a firm's alumni one of its most valuable long-term assets.

Southwestern Family of Companies is home to one of the most unusual and enduring alumni communities anywhere, and Hans is the keeper of that lifelong bond. For generations, Southwestern's student sales program has sent young people out for a summer that alumni routinely call the most formative experience of their lives. Hans connects those generations, celebrating the "full circle" moments when someone who sold books decades ago comes back to mentor today's students. Their alumni engagement is built on a shared sense of character, and on a belief that the people who pass through never really leave the family.

Hayley helps lead the alumni network at Spencer Stuart, one of the world's largest executive search firms. That makes its alumni unusually powerful: many go on to become the very leaders who influence - and hire at - the top of global business. Hayley is one of the people keeping them close, building a global community around the promise "once Spencer Stuart, always Spencer Stuart", and helping give it stand-out identity through the #foreverblue brand

Heather runs alumni marketing and communications at PwC – one of the largest professional services firms in the world, and one with an alumni base to match. Her job is to make that enormous network feel personal: turning a firm of tens of thousands into a community where former colleagues still feel like they belong. With two decades in campaign and project work behind her, she's the connective tissue that keeps PwC's alumni engaged long after they've moved on.

Heidi brings a wealth of experience across research, analysis and information management to her role leading Brunswick's global alumni program – a network of over 5,000 corporate alumni. A proud boomerang herself, she returned to the firm following senior roles in strategic communications, and now champions alumni engagement as a driver of culture and connection. She leads initiatives spanning events, programming and communications, and is currently working to relaunch Brunswick's alumni ambassador program.

When Henry shared the announcement he made at the time of the Covid layoffs, he also publicly acknowledged a missed opportunity – sharing his regret at not establishing an alumni program sooner at Carta. While the round of layoffs affected 161 employees, he also swiftly responded by creating a dedicated Slack channel to serve as an alumni hub. His goal was clear: to support former employees beyond their time at the company. This initiative underscores his belief that alumni relationships shouldn't end with offboarding but evolve.

Optiver turned 40 this year, and the alumni network it launched to mark that – The Delta Network – opens with a welcome signed by Jan as Chief Executive Officer. That is what senior sponsorship looks like in practice. The CEO's own name goes on the front page, tied directly to the firm's 40-year story. His line to former colleagues is that their time there shaped where the firm is going, and the network exists so they stay part of it.

As CEO of Citi, Jane leads one of the world's most globally connected financial institutions. Her leadership in navigating organizational transformation and talent strategy makes her a significant voice in the evolving conversation around workforce engagement and alumni relations.

Jennifer is a CNBC tech reporter whose coverage of layoffs, rehiring and the churn of the tech workforce keeps her close to the alumni story. As companies cut staff and then look to bring familiar faces back, she reports on exactly the dynamic that makes alumni networks matter – that the people who leave a company are often the ones it wants to rehire. Her work brings that shift to a mainstream business audience, framing former employees not as a closed chapter but as a talent pool worth staying connected to.

Jenny co-leads A&O Shearman's global alumni engagement strategy, shaping a network of over 30,000 former colleagues through community, opportunity and care. She delivers multi-channel campaigns, career services and standout initiatives – from the firm's first alumni yearbook to flagship reunions and the ReStart program for over-50s re-entering the workforce. Jenny's work celebrates every chapter of a career, building lasting, mutually supportive relationships between alumni and the firm.

Jenny spent her career in senior executive recruitment at Vaco, so she knows what makes a senior leader move and how relationships hold up across years and job changes. To her an alumni network is a recruiter's shortlist, one of the better places to look when a senior seat opens up. It's a view she brought to the stage at TheALUMS 2025, where she joined Jillian Kaminski for a fireside chat.

Jessica served as Chief Human Resources Officer at Netflix, where she helped shape one of the most influential and widely discussed workplace cultures in modern business. Her insights into talent strategy, organizational culture, and employee lifecycle make her a compelling voice in the alumni engagement space.

As the Global Head of Alumni Relations at one of the largest Fortune 500 companies in the US, Jillian is a standout leader – having created her own role at BlackRock to bring the alumni vision to life. From the moment she learned about corporate alumni networks, she questioned why the company was not already engaging its alumni and set about building the network from scratch. An internationally sought-after speaker on corporate alumni programming, Jillian is one of the most influential practitioners shaping what a Fortune 500 alumni network can be.

Joe leads gAlumni, Genentech's corporate alumni network, and this year he's turned it into one of the more visible, energetic alumni operations in the industry. Through a running LinkedIn Live series, he coaches people on how to turn former colleagues into genuine career advocates, reframing the alumni network as "your network, hiding in plain sight" rather than a place for awkward cold outreach. A newly Certified Chief of Staff® and an outspoken AI champion, he blends human-centered design, people data and employee-lifecycle thinking to keep alumni engaged long after they leave. His belief that community outlasts employment shows up beyond work too, as a board director for UC Berkeley's Chicanx Latinx Alumni Association.

A trusted voice in HR innovation, Josh places corporate alumni networks at the heart of modern talent ecosystems. In Fueling Talent Ecosystems with Corporate Alumni Networks, he highlights that alumni and their referrals now account for nearly 30% of external hires, while companies with engaged alumni see significant boosts in revenue per employee and innovation. "The employee experience doesn't end at the exit interview," he explains. "Alumni are still employees, as long as they want to remain part of the family."

Josh is the executive sponsor of Houlihan Lokey's One HL alumni network, and he made the internal case for it before there was anything to show. That groundwork shows in the backing it now has: the network opens with a welcome from CEO Scott Adelson, tracing the firm's success back to the people and partnerships behind it since the founding. Josh's reasoning is straightforward: careers run for decades and rarely in a straight line, and the firm should stay useful to its people long after they've left.

Kerri builds strategies that strengthen connections across PwC's US and Mexico alumni network, combining marketing insight with a data-driven approach. With a track record of aligning marketing and relationship-building, her focus is on building long-term engagement through meaningful initiatives that keep alumni informed, connected and supported throughout their career journeys.

Most recruiting teams write people off the day they hand in their notice. Kimmie's work at FactSet starts there. She runs strategic recruitment programs that pull alumni back into boomerang hiring and into the firm's read on the talent it will need next, and that only works somewhere the value of a former employee is already understood. FactSet leaves its alumni in no doubt: "To us, you are a FactSetter Forever."

Kyle stood up Barnes & Thornburg's alumni program from the ground up, and has become a sought-after voice on how to do it well. He co-presented at the Legal Marketing Association's 2026 conference on starting a firm alumni program from scratch, and took the same argument to EnterpriseAlumni's webinar "From Vision to Impact: Building Alumni Network ROI in Professional Services", making the case for alumni engagement before the financial numbers arrive to prove it.

Lauren is one of the people powering BlackRock's global alumni network. Working alongside Global Head of Alumni Relations Jillian Kaminski, she helps keep tens of thousands of former colleagues connected to one of the world's largest asset managers.

Leslie led the development of ORISE Connections, a virtual platform designed to facilitate networking and resource sharing among alumni and current participants. The platform garnered over 1,250 members within a few months of its launch. She has been a key figure in organizing virtual career fairs, which has connected more than 3,000 students and alumni since 2020.

Linda has truly mastered the core principles of alumni networking, generously and consistently sharing her insights with her growing LinkedIn following. Her career path has taken her from academic alumni relations into the corporate world, leading a thriving alumni program that Addleshaw Goddard can proudly boast about. Her strengths lie in building global communities, bringing people together and creating opportunities for connection, collaboration, partnerships, growth and social impact.

In her IDC research, The Business Impact of Corporate Alumni Networks, Lisa states that "companies need to support employees during their entire working life cycle versus only during their period of employment. A sophisticated platform offering deep analytics and intelligence provides alumni with the highest-quality experience and provides the business with competitive advantage and information." Lisa has extensively explored the potential of alumni networks as a strategic asset and the power of digital tools in enhancing the corporate alumni experience.

As Coordinator of the EBRD Alumni Association, Lori leads the Bank's engagement with former colleagues through a program of events, communications and networking opportunities. This has included the EBRD Alumni Networking Lunch with President Odile Renaud-Basso, held on the fringes of the EBRD Annual Meeting in Riga, which brought together alumni and senior Bank leadership for an exchange on the Bank's mission, current challenges and future direction. The discussion highlighted the value of sustained engagement with former colleagues and demonstrated how the alumni network can support the Bank's mission. When alumni engagement earns a place on the President's agenda at a major international bank, that's influence worth recognizing.

With nearly two decades of experience across financial services and retail, Louise is driving transformational change in how M&S attracts, hires and nurtures talent. Known for strategic leadership and an ability to drive results through strong relationships, Louise has a proven track record of navigating complex change across global organizations. From executive hiring to emerging talent, she leads the full talent lifecycle with a future-focused mindset.

As head of Broadleaf, a women-owned workforce-solutions firm, and a member of the Forbes HR Council, she uses her platform to argue that companies should treat departures as "relationship transitions". In a December 2025 Forbes piece, she tied strong alumni programs to real financial returns, showing how former staff drive rehires, referrals and new business.

Madison is one of the journalists putting boomerang employees on the mainstream business agenda. As an economy reporter at Business Insider, she covers the labor market up close and has repeatedly turned that lens on why returning to a former employer is now one of the smartest moves a worker can make. For a field often stuck in HR language, Madison translates the boomerang trend into the economic story driving it, while reaching millions of readers in the process.

Setting a new standard for how organizations connect and support alumni, Melinda has made an extraordinary impact on alumni engagement. As a proud Ryan alumna herself, she has played a pivotal role in bringing the Ryan Alumni Network to life. By her own figures, $31M of revenue is currently driven by principal-level alumni and boomerangs. Her approach centers on recognition and connection: from alumni spotlights to global events across the U.S. and India, she's amplified alumni voices and created meaningful opportunities for connection. She took that story to the stage at TheALUMS 2025 in "Ryan: Charting a People-First Alumni Journey".

Michelle plays a central coordinating role in Brunswick's global alumni program, helping to build and sustain a network of over 5,000 corporate alumni. A hands-on force behind the team's events and engagement initiatives, she's an active voice in the wider corporate alumni community, championing Brunswick's people and celebrating the connections that keep former colleagues part of the firm's story.

Michelle directs the Morgan Stanley Alumni Network, building it into a genuine driver of loyalty and business growth for the firm. She keeps a global community of former employees connected to Morgan Stanley – supporting talent, strengthening the brand, and making sure people who leave still feel like they belong. It's a commercially minded, inclusive approach to alumni engagement, and a distinctive one.

Mike Ettling has championed the value of corporate alumni networks since recognizing their potential a decade ago as President of SAP SuccessFactors. With a passion for improving the people experience through technology, he sees alumni as essential to long-term organizational value. His contributions to human capital management continue to influence how organizations think beyond traditional tenure, and his role as a judge for TheALUMS highlights his ongoing commitment to shaping the future of alumni engagement.

Natasha helps run Grant Thornton's alumni program – the private online community where thousands of the firm's former and current people stay in each other's orbit, trade ideas and keep the door open. She turns what could be a dormant contact list into a genuinely active network, which is exactly the difference between an alumni program that exists and one that works.

Nikki's expertise in alumni engagement is honed across the professional services and higher education sectors. She's led programs that blend relationship-building with brand strategy, earning her a reputation for building communities that are personal, meaningful and connected to business goals. She continues to celebrate alumni at BCG through initiatives like the Shapers Award and Alumni Spotlight series, showcasing standout contributions and the diverse impact of former employees across industries.

Niteesha is helping redefine what alumni relations looks like in Big Law. She pairs alumni engagement with hands-on career coaching, staying invested in people's paths whether they're inside the firm or long gone from it. Having sat in the lawyer's chair herself, and with training in both law and public health, Niteesha understands the transitions her alumni are living through and brings credibility to the role that few in the field can match.

For years, Norma was the person Cleary Gottlieb's lawyers turned to as they navigated their careers and well-being. As the firm's Director of Career Services and Well-Being, now retired, she helped shape a culture where leaving isn't the end of the relationship but a transition the firm actively supports. That work sits at the root of what makes Cleary Gottlieb's alumni network one of the most established in the legal industry. Norma remains a well-respected voice on why long-term relationships and alumni communities matter.

Pablo works behind the scenes on LinkedIn's own alumni initiative, at the company that effectively defined how professionals stay connected across their careers. As a strategic-initiatives and project-management lead, he's an internal champion for the program, helping build the operational groundwork and win the cross-team buy-in that turns an alumni network from an idea into a working reality.

Paige is one of the journalists who helped turn "boomerang hiring" into a story the whole industry is now watching. As an HR Brew reporter covering recruitment and retention, she wrote the May 2025 piece that brought wide attention to ADP's finding, reported by ADP chief economist Nela Richardson, that boomerang employees made up 35% of all new hires in March, the highest since 2018. Her reporting carried that data far beyond ADP's own channels, and she's kept the beat going since: covering the cooling job market and why, in it, a company's former employees have become some of its most valuable recruits.

Building on the legacy of his grandfather, who was the first to launch an official alumni network in the Middle East, Patrick has embedded family values into the heart of Chalhoub's alumni culture. Under his leadership, the alumni program has expanded across 10 countries, creating a sense of continuity and belonging. "Our network is built to create meaningful interactions... and to keep us connected as a family across the world," he shares.

Paul runs the Wells Fargo Alumni Network, and he's given it a real purpose beyond networking. This year he built the program around the Special Olympics USA Games, bringing alumni and current employees together: volunteer days, reunions timed to the Games, and Paul presenting medals himself. The network stretches from the US to India, where a former Wells Fargo colleague now runs Special Olympics programs, and Paul evangelizes that story wherever he can. The Wells Fargo Alumni Network won the Alumni Branding Campaign Award at TheALUMS 2025, and Paul has become one of the clearest voices in corporate alumni anywhere.

Paul is the engine behind Proskauer's global alumni community. He puts the network to work, personally matching alumni to roles like in-house counsel openings and running a "Proskauer Alumni Reflections" series that turns their career stories into the network's calling card. The #AlwaysProskauer tag he works under carries the firm's own promise: once Proskauer, always Proskauer.

Pella has redefined alumni engagement at BCG, transforming it into not only a strategic asset but an integral part of the firm's community – connecting former consultants, current teams and clients. Under her leadership, BCG has continued its longstanding tradition of Worldwide Alumni Day, celebrated annually since 1988 across 80 cities. More than just an event, it reflects the firm's enduring and genuine commitment to their people.

With over 15 years of alumni management experience, Peter recently joined Apollo to lead the firm’s global alumni engagement strategy. Prior to joining Apollo, Peter led a standout global alumni network for Mastercard, characterized by creativity and brand advocacy, including the 'Coming Full Circle' series celebrating boomerang hires. In addition to his work with corporate institutions, Peter advises non-profit organizations on designing and optimizing their alumni engagement programs – ensuring all alumni not only stay connected but are proud to belong.

Philip leads alumni relations for Freshfields in the US, helping to connect a global network of over 12,000 members. Beyond his own firm, he's an active voice in the wider legal alumni community, serving as Well-Being Champion on the leadership team of NALP's Legal Employer Alumni Relations Section and appearing as a panelist at the 2026 NALP Annual Education Conference.

An employer branding expert, Raj is dedicated to shaping Harrods' story and vision through its alumni network. With a strong background in marketing and content creation, she excels at crafting strategies that foster a positive workplace culture and align teams with organizational goals. In a standout presentation from TheALUMS, Raj takes us behind the scenes to showcase how the team harnessed the power of video storytelling to elevate their employer brand and the Forever Green and Gold alumni program.

With over 14 years in business development and a background in law, Raya brings both strategic and relational depth to Bird & Bird's alumni network. She played a key role in centralizing alumni efforts across 32 offices worldwide, embedding alumni engagement into the firm's broader marketing and business development strategy. "In professional services – especially in law – relationships are everything," she notes. "Alumni are a natural place to start; they already have a strong connection to the firm."

Few have shaped the landscape of professional connection and talent strategy like Reid. As the co-founder and former CEO of LinkedIn, he revolutionized how people network – laying the foundation for alumni engagement in the digital age. In his New York Times bestseller The Alliance: Managing Talent in the Networked Age, he reframes the employer-employee relationship as a mutually beneficial alliance – where individuals are seen as "allies on a tour of duty" rather than resources in a transactional exchange.

Richard brings a rare double perspective to alumni relations, having built networks on both the corporate and university sides. As a Managing Director in Citi's Corporate and Investment Bank – where he spent 27 years – he founded and ran the bank's EMEA Alumni Network, one of the early examples of a major financial institution formalizing its alumni community. Today he channels that experience into higher education, serving on the University of Cambridge's Alumni Advisory Board, where he helps broaden the university's alumni engagement for advocacy, outreach and fundraising. Few people can speak to what makes alumni networks work across such different worlds.

Vice Chairman of BlackRock and a member of its Global Executive Committee, Rob has spent more than three decades at the world’s largest asset manager, holding senior roles from Head of the Global Client Group to Chairman of its international businesses. Beyond client leadership, he has been a driving force on BlackRock’s people agenda – co-chairing the firm’s Human Capital Committee and, in 2022, overseeing the launch of the BlackRock Alumni Program to keep former employees connected to the firm. His work reflects a conviction that talent relationships, like client ones, are built to last well beyond any single tenure.

Rob brings a long-term, human-first mindset to talent strategy, leading initiatives that re-engage dormant candidates, silver medalists and alumni through Avanade's global Talent Pool framework, and turning one-time applicants into long-term advocates. A champion of alumni networks as a core part of the talent ecosystem, Rob believes meaningful hiring starts with sustained connection, mutual value, and trust.

Powerhouse founder of Alexander Mann Solutions, Rosaleen pioneered the concept of Recruitment Process Outsourcing – a solution for employers seeking to improve hiring performance and align the process with business strategy. She knows that nurturing talent communities over time matters and that boomerangs are a crucial source of hiring for their many large blue-chip clients.

Ruth is quietly redefining how a global bank stays close to its alumni. At Morgan Stanley she leads the alumni network, turning events into the moments that keep former colleagues part of the firm for life — and insisting they reach everyone, not just the well-connected few. In a field still finding its feet, she's a benchmark for what great alumni engagement looks like.

With over a decade of experience building and expanding corporate and academic alumni programs, Sabriena is a seasoned alumni decision-maker with a track record of partnering with key stakeholders to develop and implement strategic initiatives. Her expertise with alumni has enabled the firms fortunate enough to work with her to benefit from improved organizational performance through her meticulous research and analysis. Follow Sabriena for a masterclass in setting and achieving strategic alumni goals.

A leading figure in alumni strategy, Sadhana has decades of experience including heading the Barclays Global Alumni Program and Career Transition Services for Barclays Bank. She champions the idea that alumni networks are not a corporate add-on, but a strategic asset. Sadhana makes a compelling case for viewing alumni as lifelong advocates and partners: "instead of investing in employee relationships for the few short years they stay at your company, you are investing in lifetime relationships that can benefit your organization in any number of surprising ways."

Sallie has spent over a decade shaping PwC's alumni engagement strategy, blending digital campaigns with data-driven outreach to foster a vibrant alumni community. Under her leadership, opt-in rates for PwC's national alumni program increased by 32%, and a targeted social media campaign reached nearly one million people. In the A Decade of Alumni webinar, Sallie highlighted the consistent feedback she hears from alumni: "They want to feel connected through networking events with like-minded people. They want their career trajectory celebrated, they want to be inspired, and they want to be up levelled."

Samantha is helping shape what modern alumni relations looks like in the legal world. At Cleary Gottlieb – home to one of the industry's longest-running alumni networks – she keeps thousands of former lawyers connected to the firm, working alongside Global Director Elizabeth Claps to prove that a departure can be the start of a relationship, not the end of one. By pairing alumni relations with career services, she helps the firm stay invested in people's whole careers, wherever they go next – an approach the rest of the sector is still catching up to.

Shani leads RAF Galaxy, the Royal Air Force's award-winning alumni program and the first official military alumni network of its kind in the world. Her work is setting a new standard for supporting former service personnel, helping them transition into civilian life or return to duty when the time is right. She has shaped Galaxy to mirror the community structure familiar to serving members, with dedicated groups for squadrons, wings, stations, sports, faith, and more – ensuring that support networks don't end when service does.

Inspired by his time in the P&G Alumni Network, Richard launched the HomeServe Alumni Club. In his Sunday Times article, "Don't be sniffy about networking – it can reap dividends," he shares how a chance alumni reconnection led to a €6 million personal investment in a former employee's fitness startup – now operating 95 gyms. Memorably describing alumni networks as "sleeper cells in a carefully constructed satellite network," Richard underscores their hidden potential.

Stela is one of the sharpest quantitative minds on the future of work. Founder of the workforce-strategy consultancy Reframe.Work and co-author of two influential books – Humans at Work and Humanizing Human Capital – she has spent more than 25 years turning people data into better decisions, having led the people-analytics functions at Fidelity and TIAA and shaped research agendas at the Conference Board. She treats the workforce as a lifelong relationship rather than a headcount, arguing that how people leave matters as much as how they arrive. She writes and speaks about exit experience, attrition and boomerang hiring as measurable signals of organizational health – making the data-driven case that alumni are not a cost of turnover but a continuing source of value.

Stella co-leads one of the legal sector's most dynamic alumni strategies, engaging more than 30,000 former colleagues across the full employee lifecycle. She brings together cross-functional teams – spanning communications, business development, HR and legal consulting – to ensure the network reflects the firm's values and long-term goals. From strategic events to the A&O Shearman mentoring program, Stella's leadership fosters a sense of connection and purpose, in a program that sets a confident benchmark in corporate alumni.

A prolific careers and workplace journalist, Stephanie has written for Fast Company since 2014 with close to 1,000 articles to her name. Her work regularly examines the themes at the heart of the alumni movement: why people leave, how they stay connected, and what pulls them back.

As LinkedIn's founding Chief HR Officer, Steve built the culture behind its hyper-growth and today advises leaders and organizations worldwide through Cadigan Talent Ventures – from Airbnb and Salesforce to Manchester United, the BBC and the City of Lisbon. A widely recognized voice on talent and the future of work, he is determined to change traditional HR. In his book Workquake he makes a provocative case: that companies should build cultures which actively prepare people to leave, treating former employees as a lasting network rather than a loss.

Tash co-leads Investec's global alumni network from South Africa, where she builds the events and development programs that keep thousands of former colleagues connected to the firm and to each other. That work is quickly making Tash an influential voice in the corporate alumni world. Starting from a background in financial services herself, she locked in CEO sponsorship for the program within twelve months, had almost 900 sign-ups within two days of going live, and won the Alumni Launch of the Year Award at TheALUMS 2025, where Tash had also been shortlisted for Newcomer of the Year.

Tom has shaped decades of business thinking with his emphasis on people-centric leadership and organizational culture. His seminal work In Search of Excellence challenged traditional management by highlighting the power of values, morale, and dynamic leadership in driving success. Today, through his concept of "Extreme Humanism," Tom continues to advocate the importance of human connection in a digital world – an ethos that deeply aligns with the value of maintaining strong alumni relationships.

Veronica manages strategic alumni engagement and client relations at Goodwin Procter, connecting the firm's alumni community with meaningful opportunities for collaboration and reconnection. Her dual focus on alumni and client relationships positions her at the intersection of community building and business development. Pairing those two remits in one role shows a firm that reads corporate alumni value well past rehiring, into brand advocacy and client referrals.

Vishruta is a senior HR leader who treats alumni as a key strategic talent pillar – a direct pipeline for bringing immediately productive boomerang hires back to the business. Focusing on VP level and above, she and her team run an ever-evolving corporate alumni program that's delivering real results for Genpact. An ET HR Emerging Leader and a National HRD Network icon, she's helping put alumni engagement on the agenda in one of the world's largest professional-services workforces.

With 17 years of experience building alumni communities, Wendy has led successful programs at London South Bank University and Grant Thornton. Now at Mayer Brown, she champions the idea that alumni networks thrive when alumni are genuinely prioritized and when internal resources are leveraged effectively. Wendy advocates for delivering real value to alumni, ensuring they have compelling reasons to stay connected.

William has podcasted more about HR and talent acquisition than anyone else. Twenty-plus years studying the field, its practitioners and the technology behind them, have made him a go-to source for the press: NYT, WSJ, HBR, Fortune, Bloomberg, CNN, WIRED, TechCrunch. He sits on the boards of advisors of more than 25 HR and TA tech companies and is a venture partner at Evergreen Mountain Equity Partners and Future Wrk Ventures. William explores the business case for alumni networks on the Use Case Podcast, which he co-hosts, and as co-founder of the WRKdefined podcast network, he leads discussions on the evolving world of work.