8:30 - Coffee, Pastries and Networking

9:00 - Panel Discussion, Breakout Conversations, and Insights

12:00 - Optional Lunch and Networking (Doordash orders taken on the morning of)

1:00 - End

The last 5 years have brought tremendous change to the business world and the employee experience. First there was COVID, supply chain and associated business challenges, remote and hybrid work upheaval, and now the AI explosion, coupled with inflation, and layoffs and restructuring. Today’s multi-factor turbulent world requires a new kind of leadership—one that is both adaptive and values-driven.

This forum will explore how HR can lead with strategic foresight, agility, and empathy, and turn disruption – especially the AI disruption – into a catalyst for transformation while future-proofing your company – and your employees – to deliver shareholder value. We'll look at the role HR Leaders can play to help business leaders respond to these multi-factor changes and ensure both healthy, productive work environments and successful business results.

Our panel discussion and peer-to-peer conversations will investigate:

Join us to discuss strategies to utilize a combined “workforce plus AI” strategy to enable organizational resilience and agility, business performance, and shareholder value.

Our Panelists

Dave Ancel

Founder and Chief Consultant

Leaders Toolkit Corporation

Dave Ancel, Ed.D., has co-founded three consulting practices, Interplay Learning Corporation, Emergent Solutions, Inc., and Leaders Toolkit Corporation – focused on executive development, strategy & organization development, and change management. Most recently, he served as the worldwide head of change management and organization effectiveness for Becton-Dickenson, a global medical devices company. His current practice – Leaders Toolkit – continues Dave’s focus on strategy-into-action and associated organization design. He is an experienced executive leadership coach with over 20 years providing guidance and support to the C-suite across the Life Sciences and Technology industries. 

Dave’s professional interests lay at the intersection of strategy and leadership. He has led the development of a robust strategic narrative process to keep leaders on track in forming, communicating and promoting their business strategies, has scoped, organized and led large scale strategy and business transformation initiatives, and has effectively coached numerous executives to align their strategic intent with clear and measurable actions. Dave brings a strong international flavor to his engagements having lived and worked in Indonesia, Chile and the Netherlands.

Sue Bethanis

Founder and President

Mariposa Leadership

Susan J. Bethanis is CEO/Founder of Mariposa Leadership, Inc., a San Francisco-based firm that provides executive coaching and design thinking to leaders in high-tech and other demanding industries. She is author of Leadership Chronicles of a Corporate Sage, hosts the popular show WiseTalk, a monthly leadership forum, and hosts WiseSpace, a Zoom coaching community. With Ethan Evans, she co-teaches “Cracking the C-Suite,” a highly sought after class on the Maven platform. Over 28 years, Sue and Mariposa have supported executives through a myriad of upturns and downturns, combining solid results-orientation with creativity and care. 

Sue regularly facilitates strategy offsites and delivers keynotes on influence, coaching, and innovation. Recently Sue has focused on supporting executives to pivot strategies and enhance culture within the hybrid work environment. Sue acts as Mariposa’s “Chief Creative Officer” and is known for designing experiences, services, and products that move people and “raise their game.” She regularly applies insights from design thinking, linguistics, anthropology, and athletics to her roles as manager of the Mariposa team and as a sounding board to her clients. Sue lives in San Francisco and Kihei, Maui.

Reema Batnagar

VP People

Pixar Animation Studios 

Reema Batnagar joined Pixar Animation Studios in February 2019 as Vice President, Human Resources. Reema’s expertise is helping high tech organizations dissolve barriers to growth and success, unleash their true market potential, and reach new heights. Reema brings over 20 years of HR experience to the job, and has been instrumental in supporting the efforts of leadership in companies such as Sony PlayStation, Intuit, Adobe Systems, and VMware to develop highly effective organizational strategies, attract and retain top-level talent, and grow to the next level of success.

Over her career, Reema has been particularly successful at delivering results in periods of fast growth and change, including startup and turnaround environments. She has led successful integrations of acquired companies, spearheaded new transformational organizational designs, and piloted company-wide strategies for career development and performance management. She is always willing to step up to new challenges and consistently deliver results that exceed expectations. Reema holds a bachelor’s degree in communications and psychology from St. Olaf College and a master’s degree in human resources and organizational development from University of Minnesota.

In today's economic landscape, organizational success hinges not just on financial strategy, but on a resilient employee population that drives innovation and results. In this session our panelists will set the stage for a participant discussion that will emphasize practical, tangible practices to help you navigate economic uncertainty while maintaining a robust, engaged, and psychologically supported workforce. 

Questions we hope to answer include: 

• What does a "healthy workplace" look like in 2025?

• How do you turn business constraints into opportunities for organizational strength, employee well-being, and sustainable growth.

• How do you maintain employee trust during uncertain times?

• How can organizations be both financially prudent and employee-centric?

Our goal is to give you a strategic roadmap to help you not only survive economic volatility, but emerge stronger, more adaptive, and fundamentally human-centric.