Chetan Prakash Ratnawat is a seasoned Cybersecurity Architect and AI Strategist with over 25 years of experience driving innovation across the insurance and financial services sectors. Based in Chicago, IL, Chetan has played a pivotal role in shaping the future of cyber insurance through the integration of advanced AI technologies, predictive analytics, and secure digital transformation. His expertise spans the development of AI-driven risk scorecards, underwriting automation systems, DevSecOps platforms, and digital workflows that collectively improve operational efficiency and profitability.
Currently serving as a Senior Manager at Capgemini America Inc., Chetan leads transformative cybersecurity initiatives for clients such as Chubb Insurance and the Depository Trust and Clearing Corporation (DTCC). His most notable contributions include the Chubb Cyber Signals (CCS) platform, an AI-powered cyber risk intelligence system that reduces claim sizes and improves underwriting accuracy by leveraging real-time external risk signals. Chetan also spearheaded the development of the Cyber Multi-Quote (CMQ) engine and the Cyber ProERM scoring models, which revolutionized quote generation and profitability-based underwriting using machine learning and rule-based automation.
Chetan’s strategic vision has also shaped client engagement tools like the Extended Risk Report, which integrates third-party intelligence with internal risk assessments to provide tailored, industry-specific insights. His leadership in DevSecOps transformation at DTCC brought measurable improvements in deployment velocity, compliance governance, and risk monitoring through AI-augmented dashboards and secure CI/CD workflows.
A published author and recognized thought leader, Chetan’s research and innovations have been featured in leading industry publications, internal knowledge platforms, and AI workshops. His book, Driving Digital Empowerment Through Cybersecurity Innovation in Insurance, reflects his commitment to advancing the industry through responsible, explainable AI and data-centric security solutions.
Chetan holds a Master’s in Computer Applications and several high-impact certifications, including PMP, PMI-ACP, SAFe SPC, CSM, and AWS Cloud Practitioner. His core competencies include AI-powered cyber risk modeling, predictive underwriting, DevSecOps governance, and enterprise delivery management under Agile and SAFe frameworks.
With a passion for technology-driven impact and a talent for bridging business needs with advanced cyber capabilities, Chetan continues to guide organizations toward smarter, safer, and more scalable digital futures.

Chetan Prakash Ratnawat is a seasoned Cybersecurity Architect and AI Strategist with over 25 years of experience driving innovation across the insurance and financial services sectors. Based in Chicago, IL, Chetan has played a pivotal role in shaping... Show more

Vanessa Zamy, known as The Business Defibrillator®, is a catalyst for transformative change within organizations. As CEO of LiberationX Contracts, Vanessa leads a nationwide team of trainers and coaches who help leaders build high-performing teams able to navigate the modern workplace.

Vanessa brings a wealth of experience working with diverse organizations, from Fortune 500 companies and public sector agencies to small businesses and startups. She excels as a global dynamic speaker, leadership trainer, and HR strategist, driving meaningful shifts in mindset and performance across all levels and industries.

Vanessa Zamy’s powerful insights have been featured in esteemed publications including Fast Company and NPR Marketplace, affirming her status as a thought leader in corporate wellness and leadership development. Vanessa's personal journey from adversity to triumph serves as a compelling testament to her unwavering determination, unparalleled expertise, and unmatched performance prowess.

On worldwide stages, Vanessa captivates audiences with her commanding presence and insightful sessions, guiding corporate professionals towards heightened levels of success. In 2025, Vanessa delivered over 52 trainings across 16 states in the US, three countries, and two continents. Participants have noted Vanessa’s training to be “energetic, informative, and encouraging” with her “authentic and engaging style” of speaking “a breath of fresh air”.

A lifelong learner and proud graduate of Stanford University, her hobbies include standing in the sunshine, observing butterflies in nature, and traveling the last three years with two suitcases and a purse.
Her talent development firm, LiberationX Contracts, is poised to transform corporate culture and empower professionals at all levels to thrive in today's dynamic workplace.

Vanessa Zamy, known as The Business Defibrillator®, is a catalyst for transformative change within organizations. As CEO of LiberationX Contracts, Vanessa leads a nationwide team of trainers and coaches who help leaders build high-performing teams ab... Show more

Fisnik Doko is a Senior Azure AI & Cloud Architect and Microsoft Certified Trainer with deep expertise in building production-ready AI systems using Azure AI Foundry, Azure OpenAI, Multi-Agent architectures, and secure cloud-native platforms. With 35+ Microsoft certifications and a PhD in Data Science, he has spent more than a decade helping enterprises modernize with AI, distributed systems, and cloud governance.

As a trainer and community contributor, Fisnik has delivered hundreds of sessions across Europe on Azure AI, agentic workflows, Kubernetes, DevOps, and AI governance. His work spans both industry and academia—mentoring students, training professionals, and guiding organizations through responsible AI adoption.

Passionate about sharing real-world best practices, he focuses on practical AI engineering, secure deployments, and helping teams succeed in the new era of agent-driven applications. Fisnik is actively contributing to the Azure and AI community.

Fisnik Doko is a Senior Azure AI & Cloud Architect and Microsoft Certified Trainer with deep expertise in building production-ready AI systems using Azure AI Foundry, Azure OpenAI, Multi-Agent architectures, and secure cloud-native platforms. With 35... Show more

Ramya M is a cybersecurity professional at Okta, Inc., specializing in application security, product security, identity security, and secure SDLC automation. She has led enterprise-scale initiatives across secure coding, DevSecOps hardening, vulnerability triage, and autonomous threat detection for enterprise-scale security products, and has contributed to security capabilities spanning secure identity protocols, SIEM, XDR, and application security platforms.

Her work and research focus on cyber forensics, and AI security, including adversarial manipulation of AI agents, policy-drift attacks in ML-assisted CI/CD pipelines, defensive architectures for AI-augmented development environments. Ramya holds a Master’s degree in Cybersecurity and actively contributes to the community through conference speaking, mentorship, training, and technical writing, helping teams build secure-by-design systems.

Ramya M is a cybersecurity professional at Okta, Inc., specializing in application security, product security, identity security, and secure SDLC automation. She has led enterprise-scale initiatives across secure coding, DevSecOps hardening, vulnerab... Show more

Andrea is a software engineer with a broad experience in several industries ranging from e-commerce to industrial automation, from public administration to Web TV / music. His interests are in algorithms, data and AI.

Andrea is a software engineer with a broad experience in several industries ranging from e-commerce to industrial automation, from public administration to Web TV / music. His interests are in algorithms, data and AI. Show more

I'm an AI engineer focused on building automation-driven systems and experimenting with AI-powered workflows. With hands-on experience designing structured, workflow-oriented applications and exploring LLM-based agent patterns, I'm particularly interested in evaluation frameworks, orchestration strategies, and engineering AI systems that improve through measurable feedback rather than manual prompt tuning.

I'm an AI engineer focused on building automation-driven systems and experimenting with AI-powered workflows. With hands-on experience designing structured, workflow-oriented applications and exploring LLM-based agent patterns, I'm particularly inter... Show more

As a Microsoft BizApps MVP Charlie has worked directly alongside Microsoft with some of their largest enterprise customers on market leading solutions. Charlie is recognised as a Power Apps Super User who is renowned for his expertise in building powerful business applications.

As a Microsoft BizApps MVP Charlie has worked directly alongside Microsoft with some of their largest enterprise customers on market leading solutions. Charlie is recognised as a Power Apps Super User who is renowned for his expertise in building pow... Show more

Nikhil is a seasoned tech professional with extensive experience working at leading organizations like Intuit, Social Finance (SoFi), and InComm Payments. Specializing in building scalable systems and implementing cutting-edge integrations, Nikhil Kassetty has been instrumental in delivering impactful solutions that enhance efficiency, security, and user experiences across financial services.

With a good foundation in artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML), Nikhil has designed and implemented intelligent systems that leverage data insights to drive automation, improve decision-making, and personalize user experiences. His expertise extends to creating predictive models, enhancing fraud detection systems, and optimizing operations with AI-driven analytics.

Also, his proficiency in cloud technologies, system architecture, and data-driven applications enables him to tackle complex challenges and pioneer innovations in the ever-evolving tech landscape. Nikhil Kassetty is passionate about harnessing technology to create transformative solutions that shape the future of financial services.

Nikhil is a seasoned tech professional with extensive experience working at leading organizations like Intuit, Social Finance (SoFi), and InComm Payments. Specializing in building scalable systems and implementing cutting-edge integrations, Nikhil Ka... Show more

After working as a developer for 15 years in startups in Paris and New York, Greg founded several companies starting in 2019 to support developers in recruitment and training. He is also the co-founder of Tech Connection, which organizes developer conferences including Swift Connection, the largest conference in Europe focused on Apple technologies. In April 2025, Greg launched the Dev With AI community, which brings together more than 1,500 developers to discuss AI use cases in development and organizes meetups in Paris, Bordeaux, and Lyon.

After working as a developer for 15 years in startups in Paris and New York, Greg founded several companies starting in 2019 to support developers in recruitment and training. He is also the co-founder of Tech Connection, which organizes developer co... Show more

Vijay is a seasoned data and software engineer currently serving as the Staff Software Engineer for TRM Labs Next-Generation Data Platform. In his career, he has previously worked at companies like LinkedIn and Expedia, and he brings deep expertise in Data Lakehouse architectures, real-time streaming, and building secure, high-throughput pipelines for petabyte-scale customer facing analytics.

Vijay is a seasoned data and software engineer currently serving as the Staff Software Engineer for TRM Labs Next-Generation Data Platform. In his career, he has previously worked at companies like LinkedIn and Expedia, and he brings deep expertise i... Show more

He is Google Developer Expert in GCP , working as Sr. DevOps Engineer at Lloyds Banking Group .He has previously worked as a cloud engineer at Searce (GCP Premium Partner) He is Google Cloud Champion Innovator in the category of Modern Architecture with CKA + 3X Certified in GCP and 1X in Azure . He has been helping small and mid sized startups to adopt and implement best practices in cloud and DevOps culture to fasten their software delivery process. He loves to integrate various GCP service like networking, compute, storage , containers, GKE etc, and likes to Implement various use cases. He loves to explore and deep dive into GCP services and also help community by creating content and writing medium blogs.

He is Google Developer Expert in GCP , working as Sr. DevOps Engineer at Lloyds Banking Group .He has previously worked as a cloud engineer at Searce (GCP Premium Partner) He is Google Cloud Champion Innovator in the category of Modern Architectur... Show more

I’m a developer advocate, writer, and builder who enjoys breaking down complex tech into simple steps, working demos, and content that developers can act on. My blogs have crossed a million views across platforms, and I create technical tutorials on YouTube focused on AI, agents, and practical workflows. I contribute to open source, explore new AI tooling, and build small apps and prototypes to show developers what’s possible with today’s models.

I’m a developer advocate, writer, and builder who enjoys breaking down complex tech into simple steps, working demos, and content that developers can act on. My blogs have crossed a million views across platforms, and I create technical tutorials on ... Show more

Daniel is a software engineer specialising in .NET and Azure, with experience spanning DevOps and project teams. A strong advocate for continuous improvement, Daniel is currently focused on agentic development and regularly shares insights through writing and mentoring. Daniel is passionate about software architecture and loves connecting with others who are building the future of intelligent software.

Daniel is a software engineer specialising in .NET and Azure, with experience spanning DevOps and project teams. A strong advocate for continuous improvement, Daniel is currently focused on agentic development and regularly shares insights through wr... Show more

Manikandan Kaliyaperumal is a seasoned software engineering leader with over 23 years of experience in architecting, designing, and deploying scalable, highly available, distributed systems. He specializes in cloud-native architectures across single, hybrid, and multi-cloud environments, with extensive expertise in Kubernetes, containers, API-first microservices, and enterprise platform engineering.
Currently serving as a Staff Cloud Platform Engineer at Fiserv Inc (Clover Network), Manikandan leads platform engineering and control-plane services powering a Kubernetes-based unified cloud platform. He enables more than 100 microservices to deploy and scale reliably through standardized platform APIs and a self-service internal developer platform, while driving cloud optimization initiatives that achieved approximately 20% cost reduction.
Previously, he served as a Technical Architect at Hexaware Technologies (supporting Fidelity Investments), where he worked on unified authorization architecture, OPA policy engine design on AWS EKS, and secure cloud infrastructure for institutional platforms. At Roche, he held the role of Enterprise Architect, defining enterprise standards and reference architectures for cloud and edge computing, designing managed Kubernetes platforms, and contributing to the AI/ML infrastructure strategy, including the development of a GenAI code-assist copilot on Azure.
Earlier in his career, Manikandan led large-scale API platform and microservices modernization initiatives at organizations including Broadcom/CA Technologies, Equinix (US and APAC), IBM, PayPal, Yahoo, MasterCard, Citibank, and others. His experience spans API gateways (Apigee, Kong, WSO2), IAM and security protocols (OAuth2, OIDC, SAML, PingFederate), DevOps and SRE practices, real-time data platforms (Kafka, Spark), and multi-cloud platforms including AWS, Azure, and GCP.
He holds a Bachelor of Engineering in Mechanical & Production Engineering from Annamalai University, Tamil Nadu, India.
Manikandan brings deep expertise in cloud-first, API-first, and AI-first architecture, with hands-on proficiency in Java, Python, Go, and modern distributed systems technologies.

Manikandan Kaliyaperumal is a seasoned software engineering leader with over 23 years of experience in architecting, designing, and deploying scalable, highly available, distributed systems. He specializes in cloud-native architectures across single,... Show more

Rajesh Shanam is an accomplished Senior Software Engineer with over nine years of experience specializing in Salesforce development and DevOps strategy, particularly within the healthcare technology sector. He is a certified Salesforce professional recognized for driving enterprise-level Salesforce DevOps transformations and designing robust, automated CI/CD pipelines.
At Optum Services, Rajesh currently leads high-impact DevOps initiatives that enhance deployment efficiency, reduce downtime, and ensure regulatory compliance. His technical toolkit includes Salesforce DX, GitHub Actions, Jenkins, and CLI scripting. Rajesh has successfully implemented Git-based version control strategies, pre-deployment validation systems, and automated testing frameworks that consistently achieve over 90% code coverage and a 70% reduction in deployment failures.
Throughout his career, Rajesh has built and deployed scalable Salesforce applications using Apex, Lightning Web Components (LWC), and Visualforce, and led integrations with REST/SOAP APIs and middleware solutions. He has championed enterprise-wide migrations from Salesforce Classic to Lightning Experience and led data modeling efforts that support thousands of users globally.
His earlier roles at IT Resources Inc and Indus Group Inc involved major CRM migration projects, automation of business workflows, and performance tuning of Salesforce platforms, reflecting his end-to-end expertise in Salesforce SDLC and Agile project delivery.
Rajesh holds a Master’s degree in Computer Science from Northwestern Polytechnic University and a Bachelor’s degree from Holy Mary Institute of Technology and Science in India. He is certified in Salesforce Administration, Advanced Administration, Platform Development, and App Building.
A regular Dreamforce attendee and active contributor to the Trailblazer and Stack Exchange communities, Rajesh also leads internal training on Salesforce LWC and CI/CD best practices. His work has been recognized through multiple Bravo awards and accolades for timely project delivery and innovation in DevOps automation.

Rajesh Shanam is an accomplished Senior Software Engineer with over nine years of experience specializing in Salesforce development and DevOps strategy, particularly within the healthcare technology sector. He is a certified Salesforce professional r... Show more

https://www.linkedin.com/in/vishalkumarc/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/vishalkumarc/ Show more

Mukesh Reddy Dhanagari is a technology leader known for driving innovation in large-scale, low-latency data systems. At Charles Schwab, he has led mission-critical initiatives transforming the firm’s trading and data infrastructure — including the MongoDB to Aerospike Migration Project, which scaled operations to handle 75 billion daily transactions with sub-millisecond reads and near-zero downtime.

He also played a pivotal role in the TD Ameritrade integration, where his leadership helped transition 1.8 million accounts and $350 billion in assets, achieving seamless client experience and system resilience at scale.

With deep expertise in distributed databases, real-time data pipelines, and high availability architectures, Mukesh is passionate about designing systems that combine speed, reliability, and business impact. He regularly shares insights on building next-generation data platforms that empower enterprises to innovate with confidence.

Mukesh Reddy Dhanagari is a technology leader known for driving innovation in large-scale, low-latency data systems. At Charles Schwab, he has led mission-critical initiatives transforming the firm’s trading and data infrastructure — including the Mo... Show more

Matt wrote his first program in Fortran on a card punch machine in the early 80s. He survived the experience and moved on to use Toolbook, Delphi, VB, and finally the .Net framework for the last 15 years. He still gets twitchy when someone mentions DCOM or CORBA and doesn't want to get into a discussion about where curly braces should go.

He is currently a Software Development Manager at Bally Sports focusing on Azure; previously he was a Senior Developer at Pandora Jewelry and a Lead Developer at Constellation/Exelon.

Matt wrote his first program in Fortran on a card punch machine in the early 80s. He survived the experience and moved on to use Toolbook, Delphi, VB, and finally the .Net framework for the last 15 years. He still gets twitchy when someone mentions D... Show more

Luke has been professionally building software and leading development teams since 2012. He finds writing code and working with people just as fascinating and rewarding as each other. Luke lives in Sheffield and works for Tide as Head of Engineering, Experience Foundations. When not at work, he plays guitar, solves Rubik’s cubes, runs the Leeds Mobile monthly meetup, and enjoys spending time with his partner and son.

Luke has been professionally building software and leading development teams since 2012. He finds writing code and working with people just as fascinating and rewarding as each other. Luke lives in Sheffield and works for Tide as Head of Engineering,... Show more

Ryan Djurovich has been speaking at engineering & infrastructure conferences, events, and podcasts for over 10 years, and has been programming for more than 27 years. He started an Open Source CMS in 2003 and began automating infrastructure in 2008. An avid Go and TypeScript programmer, Ryan has worked as an engineer and leader at companies such as Cloudflare, Xero, and Flippa. In 2024, Ryan founded Nadrama, with a mission to make infrastructure easy.

Ryan Djurovich has been speaking at engineering & infrastructure conferences, events, and podcasts for over 10 years, and has been programming for more than 27 years. He started an Open Source CMS in 2003 and began automating infrastructure in 2008. ... Show more

Santosh Durgam is a data engineering & analytics leader with 20+ years building governed, high-scale data platforms across retirement/401(k), broader financial services, and healthcare. He leads cross-functional teams that deliver production-grade data lakes, lineage-aware pipelines, and ML-enabled analytics on cloud—translating governance into measurable business outcomes.

Recent speaking includes SQL Saturday Minnesota 2025, where he presented “From Ingestion to Insights: Building Robust Data Pipelines in AWS” to an in-person community audience. He has also contributed to international research forums and science conferences, and is invited to speak at ICDPN-2025 (International Conference on Data Processing & Networking), engaging practitioners and scholars on data engineering, governance, and analytics at scale. Santosh actively publishes/curates work via Google Scholar and shares practical playbooks for data quality, metadata/lineage, and operating models that connect data platforms to financial decisioning.

Beyond delivery, Santosh serves the community as a peer reviewer of scholarly work on data/ML methodologies and as a judge/mentor for select industry and academic competitions, reinforcing peer validation and public recognition. He champions modern data culture—mentoring engineers and product leaders, and advocating automation (incl. AI agents) to elevate reliability, speed, and auditability in regulated environments. Santosh recently completed his Executive MBA, sharpening strategy and value-creation at the intersection of data, risk, and growth

Santosh Durgam is a data engineering & analytics leader with 20+ years building governed, high-scale data platforms across retirement/401(k), broader financial services, and healthcare. He leads cross-functional teams that deliver production-grade da... Show more

John Mead is a youth development speaker and entrepreneur dedicated to helping young people recognize their potential and change the trajectory of their lives. For 15 years, John worked inside a juvenile detention center, where he witnessed firsthand how environment, mindset, and opportunity shape the choices young people make.

Those experiences transformed his perspective and inspired him to build a mission focused on empowering youth through empathy, accountability, and growth mindset. Today, John is the founder of MVA Wellness, where he delivers workshops and talks that help students develop self-awareness, resilience, and self-efficacy.

Through powerful storytelling and real-life lessons from working with justice-involved youth, John helps students challenge limiting beliefs and recognize the power they have to rewrite their future. His work focuses on leadership, personal responsibility, and helping young people believe in what is truly possible for their lives.

John Mead is a youth development speaker and entrepreneur dedicated to helping young people recognize their potential and change the trajectory of their lives. For 15 years, John worked inside a juvenile detention center, where he witnessed firsthand... Show more

I am a Senior Platform Engineer working on the Storage Platforms at DigitalOcean. I have been involved with Kubernetes SIG-Release since v1.29, lead the Release Docs Team for the v1.33 release cycle and currently leading the Enhancements Team fir the v1.35 release cycle. Beyond my professional work, I have a passion for traveling and capturing landscapes through my lens.

I am a Senior Platform Engineer working on the Storage Platforms at DigitalOcean. I have been involved with Kubernetes SIG-Release since v1.29, lead the Release Docs Team for the v1.33 release cycle and currently leading the Enhancements Team fir the... Show more

Brandon Carter is an entrepreneur, ecosystem builder, and community leader dedicated to helping entrepreneurs and communities unlock economic opportunity through collaboration and strategic partnerships. He is the founder of The Community Coalition, an organization focused on building stronger communities through collaborative initiatives, strategic partnerships, and innovative wealth-building strategies.

Brandon is also the CEO of Generational Wealth Consulting, where he advises organizations and entrepreneurs on government contracting, partnership development, and strategic growth. In addition, he serves as the Atlanta City Leader for Founders Live, helping connect founders, investors, and innovators through global startup pitch competitions and community events.

Through initiatives like the Lecture on Tap series and various entrepreneurial programs, Brandon works to build ecosystems that bring together entrepreneurs, institutions, and community leaders to create lasting economic impact. His work centers on a simple idea: when communities collaborate intentionally, they create opportunities that no individual organization can build alone.

Brandon speaks on topics including entrepreneurship ecosystems, strategic partnerships, government contracting opportunities, and community-driven economic development.

Brandon Carter is an entrepreneur, ecosystem builder, and community leader dedicated to helping entrepreneurs and communities unlock economic opportunity through collaboration and strategic partnerships. He is the founder of The Community Coalition, ... Show more

Steven started his career in finance and ventured into analytics around 2018. He is currently Co-owner and CTO of DATA KINGDOM, a scale-up in Data Analytics consultancy. Steven focuses mainly on building the Power BI architecture, Data Modeling and Governance. Trough this, he helps clients get more value out of their data.

Steven started his career in finance and ventured into analytics around 2018. He is currently Co-owner and CTO of DATA KINGDOM, a scale-up in Data Analytics consultancy. Steven focuses mainly on building the Power BI architecture, Data Modeling and G... Show more

Changing the world, one solution at a time!

Passionate about automation and building a business to support clients on their digitisation/optimisation journeys while working with the youth in preparation for their entry into industry.

Enjoys dabbling in software development, automation, IOT, advanced analytics, data engineering and business intelligence while currently working towards completing a PhD that focuses on automation. Currently focusing on learning how businesses are formed and how the longevity of business functions are maintained.

Competencies include a high level of computer literacy, programming in various languages with newly acquired sales and business acumen.

Changing the world, one solution at a time! Passionate about automation and building a business to support clients on their digitisation/optimisation journeys while working with the youth in preparation for their entry into industry. Enjoys da... Show more

Curtis Charles serves as the Director of Campus Residences Information Technology at Stony Brook University, where he leverages over 20 years of experience from both higher education and private industry. His work focuses on technical leadership, infrastructure development, and operational strategy, with an emphasis on translating institutional goals into actionable and scalable initiatives.

In his role at Stony Brook, Curtis oversees student-centered infrastructure projects within Campus Residences, including solar-powered micro-mobility charging stations and sustainable residential technologies. He partners with housing, facilities, and sustainability teams to advance projects that enhance student safety, promote equity, and improve residential living.

Curtis approaches campus challenges through a systems-oriented, results-focused lens shaped by his diverse professional background. He is particularly engaged in exploring the intersection of technology and sustainability within student life, working to ensure that campus residences are adaptable, effective, and positioned for long-term success.

Curtis Charles serves as the Director of Campus Residences Information Technology at Stony Brook University, where he leverages over 20 years of experience from both higher education and private industry. His work focuses on technical leadership, inf... Show more

Amber Vanderburg is a multi-award winning businessperson, keynote speaker, author, and founder of the international learning development company, The Pathwayz Group, which has led 800,000+ learners in more than 75 countries in action-focused learning journeys. Amber's history in talent development includes authoring top-reviewed online learning courses for platforms such as LinkedIn Learning, Lecturio, and PluralSight, acting as Director of a national education leadership company, and coaching with professional sports team academies in Asia. In 2022, she published her first business adventure book "Uniquely Better" about building higher team performance.

Speaking engagements:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLMNcx7Jwk9Sp6WxuvrfOOBqdP9440SKl0

Amber Vanderburg is a multi-award winning businessperson, keynote speaker, author, and founder of the international learning development company, The Pathwayz Group, which has led 800,000+ learners in more than 75 countries in action-focused learning... Show more

Sam Jenkins is a community strategist, facilitator, and inclusive event design expert with over a decade of experience leading large-scale public programs, workforce initiatives, and cultural events. She currently serves as a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Coordinator in local government while also running Empowering Communities, a consulting practice focused on helping organizations move beyond performative efforts and into practical, people-centered action.

Sam’s work sits at the intersection of leadership, culture, and lived experience. She specializes in supporting front-line staff, building psychologically safe teams, and designing events and initiatives that actually reflect the communities they serve. Her background in parks and recreation, combined with her systems-level DEI work, gives her a rare perspective that resonates with both leadership and on-the-ground staff.

Known for her engaging, honest, and highly interactive style, Sam blends real-world scenarios, storytelling, and actionable tools participants can use immediately. She does not shy away from hard conversations, but she always grounds them in compassion, clarity, and practicality.

Sam has facilitated workshops, panels, and trainings for government agencies, nonprofits, and professional associations, and she consistently receives feedback for creating spaces that feel both challenging and supportive. Her sessions are especially impactful for audiences navigating burnout, change fatigue, and the pressure to “get it right” without enough guidance or support.

Sam Jenkins is a community strategist, facilitator, and inclusive event design expert with over a decade of experience leading large-scale public programs, workforce initiatives, and cultural events. She currently serves as a Diversity, Equity, and I... Show more

Steven David is a Principal Solutions Architect at Amazon Web Services (AWS). He has over 20 years of experience designing solutions for large enterprises. Through these engagements he has developed deep expertise in application development technologies and methodologies. In addition, As the focus on creating sustainable solutions has taken hold in organizations around the world, Steven has taken a leadership role in leading those initiatives in AWS.

Steven David is a Principal Solutions Architect at Amazon Web Services (AWS). He has over 20 years of experience designing solutions for large enterprises. Through these engagements he has developed deep expertise in application development technolog... Show more