Chief Strategy Officer Roundtable: Lorem Ipsum Chicago
Lorem Ipsum Title
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Agenda – June 15, 2023
Dinner at Chicago
| Time | Activity |
| 11:00am-11:30am | Check in |
| 11:30am-12:45pm | Lunch and networking |
| 12:45pm-1:00pm | Announcements and welcome |
| 1:00pm-3:00pm | AI & Strategy Workshop with Michael Schrage of MIT’s Initiative on the Digital Economy |
| 3:00pm-3:30pm | Break and networking |
| 3:30-5:00pm | “Reimagination in a Time of Change” Roundtable with Erica Orange, VP & COO of the Future Hunters |
| 5:00pm-5:15pm | Closing Remarks |
| 5:15pm-6:00pm | Reception and networking |
Agenda – June 16, 2023
Roundtable at Chicago
| Time | Activity |
| 8:30am-9:30am | Check-in and Breakfast |
| 9:30am-11:15am | Thought leader shares 15 minutes of content followed by group discussion |
| 11:15am-11:45am | Break |
| 11:45am-1:00pm | Thought leader shares 15 minutes of content followed by group discussion |
| 1:00pm-2:00pm | Lunch and Networking Reception |
*Final agendas are being finalized and subject to change
Lorem Ipsum Day 1 - Dinner Speakers
Michael Schrage
Visiting Fellow in the Imperial College Department of Innovation and Entrepreneurship and Researcher at MIT
Michael Schrage
A research fellow with MIT Sloan School's Initiative on the Digital Economy, Michael Schrage’s research, writing and advisory work focuses on the ‘behavioral economics’ of models, prototypes and metrics as strategic resources for managing ‘innovation risk’ and ‘CLV’ - customer lifetime value -opportunity. He is author of award-winning ’The Innovator’s Hypothesis’ [MIT Press 2014], ‘Who Do You Want Your Customers To Become?’ [Harvard Business Review Press 2012] and ‘Serious Play’ [Harvard Business Review Press 2000]. His most recent MIT Press book, ‘Recommendation Engines,’ was published Fall 2020 as part of its ‘Essential Knowledge’ series. He runs design workshops and executive education programs on innovation, experimentation and ’strategic measurement' for global organizations and start-ups alike.
Currently pioneering work in ‘selvesware’ technologies - he coined the word - Schrage’s design research looks to augment aspects, attributes and talents of productive individuals. Ongoing research efforts also examine the interplay of ’network effects’-driven innovation, such as recommender systems, and human capital creation for the enterprise. His work exploring the future of KPIs, digital ‘performance management’ dashboards and machine learning - in collaboration with Google, McKinsey, Deloitte and the Sloan Management Review – builds on that theme, i.e. what happens when 'essential metrics' become ’software agents.' He is particularly interested in the future co-evolution of ‘expertise,’ ‘advice' and human ‘agency’ as technologies become ‘smarter’ than the people using them.
Patrick Hebron
Vice President of Research & Development Stability AI
Patrick Hebron
As VP of R&D at Stability AI, I will be responsible for leading the development of generative AI technologies including neural architecture advancements, new training mechanisms and dataset creation tools as well as algorithmic aspects of user-facing interaction mechanisms for high-fidelity multimodal communication of user intent. The overall goal of this work is to enable developers and creatives to leverage generative AI in a variety of applied software development, creativity and productivity contexts.
It is a long established fact that a reader will be distracted by the readable content of a page when looking at its layout. The point of using Lorem Ipsum is that it has a more-or-less normal distribution of letters, as opposed to using ‘Content here, content here’, making it look like readable English. Many desktop publishing packages and web page editors now use Lorem Ipsum as their default model text, and a search for ‘lorem ipsum’ will uncover many web sites still in their infancy. Various versions have evolved over the years, sometimes by accident, sometimes on purpose (injected humour and the like).
- Enhance understanding of Generative AI (ChatGPT, Dall-E 2, etc) and its possibilities
- Deepen understanding of Stable Diffusion technology and its possibilities
- Discuss how Generative AI and Stable Diffusion technologies could enhance or challenge the role of the CS
Lorem Ipsum Day 2 Roundtable Speaker
Erica Orange
Executive Vice President & Chief Operating Officer of The Future Hunters
Erica Orange
Erica Orange is Executive Vice President & Chief Operating Officer of The Future Hunters, one of the world’s leading futurist consulting firms. She analyzes emerging sociocultural, technological, economic, geopolitical and environmental trends – and identifies the strategic implications (the “So what?”) of those trends for several of the most influential Fortune 500 companies, trade associations and public sector clients. Erica’s ability to spot patterns, think critically, and translate that into actionable strategies is what has made her an asset to clients for over 15 years.
Erica frequently speaks to a wide range of global audiences about the macro trends that are shaping and impacting today’s landscape. She has spoken at TEDx and keynoted over 150 conferences around the world, including across Europe, Latin America and Asia. She has authored numerous industry white papers on a variety of future-focused topics, and has been featured in news outlets including Forbes, NPR, Time, Inc, Yahoo Singapore, WWD, Bloomberg, and CBS This Morning. In 2020, she was named by Forbes as one of the world’s 50 Top Female Futurists.
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The standard chunk of Lorem Ipsum used since the 1500s is reproduced below for those interested. Sections 1.10.32 and 1.10.33 from “de Finibus Bonorum et Malorum” by Cicero are also reproduced in their exact original form, accompanied by English versions from the 1914 translation by H. Rackham.
- Key trends and drivers of the new time, trust, and truth business economy in which we operate
- How AI and automation technologies will disintermediate work and change the unique value propositions offered broadly by human workers as specifically as chief strategy officers
- Generational cohort temporal shrinkage: pace of technological change requires us to group new generational cohorts into 2-3 year spans and how it impacts strategy
- A brief look at disruptive technologies defining the future
- The New Leadership Toolkit, the “trust staircase”, and new organizational culture ways of working.
- The Competency Tree visual framework for yourself and the organization
Outthinker Strategy Network Attendees
Adam Zalisk
Adam Zalisk leads Amplify’s corporate strategy team. Before taking on his current role, Adam led non-profit partnerships, operations, implementation, and product teams at Amplify, including serving as chief operating officer for Amplify’s K–5 literacy portfolio. Before joining Amplify, Adam served as senior advisor and led innovation at the Harlem Children’s Zone, and was a founding member of Booz & Company’s North American education practice.
Alok Agrawal
Alok K. Agrawal is an executive with over fifteen years of finance experience in industrial and technology companies. He is proficient in developing and executing organic and inorganic strategies, grounded by experience running a P&L and performing operations turnarounds. He has substantial international exposure, including long-term assignments in Europe and Asia.
Alok is currently the Chief Strategy Officer at Celestica, a $6 billion services company focused on the industrial and technology markets. He is a member of a seven-person Executive Leadership Team (ELT) and reports directly to the CEO.
He recently held leadership positions with global responsibility for strategy and corporate development at Federal-Mogul and Meritor, both multi-billion dollar automotive suppliers. Previously, Alok worked in Johnson Controls' automotive businesses (now Adient) leading strategy development and executing transformation projects, including the turnaround of the interiors business. His assignments included 18 months in China with the Yanfeng Automotive Interiors joint venture and ownership of a $100 million product line P&L.
Earlier, he worked at Kearney as a consultant, primarily on growth strategy and product management engagements. Alok began his career as a powertrain engineer at Ford Motor Company. He received his M.S. and B.S. in mechanical engineering from the University of Michigan and his M.B.A. in strategy and finance from the Ross School of Business.
Alpa Sutaria
Andrew Cone
Andrew Cone currently serves as the Chief Strategy Officer of the Whitney Museum of American Art. In this role, he leads short- and long‐term institutional planning, priority‐setting, and change management. He also oversees the Whitney’s Research & Analysis department, the museum's centralized resource for data analysis and audience insights.
Over the past five years, working closely with senior management and the Board of Directors, Andrew has developed and executed plans to operationalize and finance the core recommendations of the Whitney’s 2017 Strategic Plan. Select projects include overseeing the drafting the Whitney’s first Equity & Inclusion Plan and first Values Statement; architecting the Whitney’s first holistic digital strategy; building out audience growth and diversification plans, including structuring the Whitney’s Spanish-English bilingual initiative and launching the Whitney’s market research program; advising earned revenue lines of business on growth opportunities; researching and writing the Whitney’s artist compensation philosophy and fee schedule; fielding and analyzing the Whitney’s first all staff surveys; providing quantitative analysis for the Whitney’s Collection Strategic Plan; and supporting COVID-recovery financial planning. Collaborating with colleagues across the entire Museum, he is responsible for continually assessing and calibrating these and other strategic priorities.
Outside of the Whitney, Andrew regularly speaks on a broad range of topics, addressing both opportunities and challenges facing the arts and culture sector today, including at the Center for Curatorial Leadership. He has partnered with external organizations on research and thought leadership, most recently with the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence, and has served on grants and awards juries, most recently for the Joyce Foundation. He has also undertaken pro bono consulting for other nonprofits, including The Latin American Film Center and CUE Art Foundation. Andrew is currently participating in the 2022-2024 cohort of FutureMuseum, an international research project bringing together arts leaders, public officials, and digital innovators to reimagine the future of cultural institutions.
Prior to moving into arts administration, Andrew advised for‐profit multinationals on growth, marketing, and brand strategy as a consultant at McKinsey in London, WPP in Hong Kong, and Ogilvy & Mather in New York. He holds an A.B. in the History of Art & Architecture from Harvard College and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School, where he was selected by his peers as the student commencement speaker. Andrew is originally from Cincinnati, Ohio, where his first museum job was as a Youth Docent at the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center.
Ayman Hamid
An experienced executive with a demonstrated history, Ayman is known as a thought leader on strategic delivery, culture, & team building. Coupled with his expansive experience in the staffing and workforce management industry, as college All-America & former pro athlete, he leverages the discipline and competitive spirit he learned, to build and lead high-performance teams that deliver great results through operational excellence and innovative solutions to their clients and the business. He is a published author, holds a bachelor’s degree in mathematics from California State University-Bakersfield and is certified as a Senior Professional in Human Resources (SPHR).
Claudio Garcia
Claudio is President of Outthinker Strategy Networks, a global network of strategy executives from large organizations the are committed to staying ahead of the pace of change.
Before joining Outthinker, Claudio was Executive Vice Presidency for Strategy and Corporate Development at Lee Hecht Harrison, where he was responsible for the expansion and innovation of the company with operations in more than 60 countries. Prior to this role, he was LHH’s President of Latin America where he helped solve critical business challenges and personally supported dozens of complex transformation projects for large client organizations. During his tenure leading strategy LHH, Claudio was a member of the Outthinker Strategy Network.
Claudio has experience across a variety of industries, including food and beverage, entertainment, and media and communications. In addition to his role at Outthinker, Claudio is a board member and teaches Global Management and International Human Resources Management at New York University’s School of Professional Studies.
Devang Parikh
Devang Parikh is the Head of Strategy and Operations responsible for establishing and leading a strategy and operations group across global Precision Medicine and Clinical Research. Overseeing day-to-day department operations, strategic planning, alliance management, project management, business development and finance, Devang is also a core member of the Precision Medicine and Global Clinical Leadership Teams and numerous alliance steering committees.
A dynamic and entrepreneurial senior executive with over 17 years of achievement in the life science industry. Devang excels at strategic planning, operations management, business development, process improvement, organizational design, and leading people.
Prior to joining Pfizer he was a consultant for PA Consulting Group.
He has a BSc in Biomedical Engineering from Boston University, a MSE in Bioengineering from the University of Pennsylvania, and an MBA in Healthcare from the Yale School of Management.
Ed Knapp
Ed Knapp is Chief Technology Officer for American Tower. Prior to joining American Tower in 2017, Mr. Knapp served as Senior Vice President of Engineering at Qualcomm, where was responsible for their New Jersey Corporate Research Center. Mr. Knapp has more than 40 years of communications technology experience and has spent more than 30 years invested in the development of the global wireless industry. He joined Qualcomm after its acquisition of Flarion Technologies. Prior to that he served as the Chief Technology Officer of PacketVideo Corporation, co-founded NextWave Telecom, Inc. and served as its Chief Technology Officer, and was Executive Director of Technical Services for Bell Atlantic/NYNEX Mobile (Verizon Wireless).
Mr. Knapp serves on the Board of Directors of AST SpaceMobile and the Center for Automotive Research, as well as the Rutgers University Industry Advisory Board. He is also a member of the Outthinker Strategy Network. Mr. Knapp currently has five granted U.S. patents and one pending application. He earned an M.B.A. from Columbia University, a Master of Science in Electrical Engineering from Polytechnic University (NYU) in New York and a Bachelor of Science in Engineering from Stony Brook University.
Elisabeth Moore
Elisabeth is responsible for developing strategies others become passionate about and for working for executive leadership to guide the organization through times of hyper growth and profitability - balancing challenging the status quo while staying true to the company's core values and entrepreneurial roots.
Elisabeth is a member of our Growth Mid-Market cohort. She brings more than 10 years of experience understanding business needs through the lens of market insights and internal #businessintelligence and translating that into tangible results. Her background in M&A and finance coupled with engaging the organization to think critically about the future blends into a unique, CX/EX data-driven and emotionally intelligent approach to strategy development.
She also leads the organization's Emerging Business group that helps support #innovation and launching up-and-coming businesses within the firm.
Eric Chesin
Chesin earned his bachelor’s degree from Harvard University in 2002 and holds both an MBA from Columbia Business School and a JD from Columbia Law School.
Valerie Radford
I am an experienced executive leader who operates at the intersection of the future of work, financial security and retirement. I do things that "can't be done" and have a successful track record of translating novel concepts into growth opportunities for some of the largest financial services institutions.
I see both the vision and the details and innovate through creation (not destruction). No breaking glass here. Design thinking and agile development are my tools. I also thoroughly enjoy building new teams and creating new business models.
My interests are: Future of Work, Financial Security, Retirement Solutions, Lifetime Income, Role of Employer, Strengthening 401k, IRA, Portability, Digital Transformation, Agile Leadership
Vidur Bhandari
Vidur Bhandari is the Senior Vice President, Strategy and Value Creation at Shiseido Americas. He is responsible for all strategic initiatives in the region, including growth strategies, transformation programs, and commercialization of digital innovation. He is a member of the Americas Executive Leadership Team and the group’s Global M&A Committee. In his role, he also leads select strategic initiatives for the Shiseido Group globally working directly with Global HQ in Tokyo.
In addition, Vidur heads Global M&A integration for the Shiseido Group, overseeing pre-close and post-acquisition activities globally to deliver revenue and cost synergies from acquisitions.
Prior to joining Shiseido, Vidur was a Partner at Kearney, a global management consulting firm where he led and supported strategy and transformation programs for Consumer Products and Retail companies, particularly in Beauty, Wine & Spirits, and Specialty Retail. For over 10 years, his work covered areas of corporate strategy, sales and marketing effectiveness, go-to-market , and organizational agility.
In 2013, Diversity MBA magazine recognized Vidur as a Top 40 under 40 Emerging Leader. From 2013 to 2015, he served on the Young Leaders Board of the Executives Club of Chicago.
Vidur has an MBA with high honors from The University of Chicago Booth School of Business and a B.E. with highest honors from the University of Mumbai.
Ying McPherson
Ying has over 15 years of experience in financial analysis and commercial analytics and oversees the strategy development and execution activities for the company. Ying also leads our analytics, resource planning, and corporate marketing functions. Previously Ying was Vice President of Operational Finance and responsible for strategic pricing and planning. Prior to Unifi, Ying held several leadership positions at WestRock, including mergers and acquisitions, corporate finance, supply chain optimization and commercial analytics. Ying started her career at Price Waterhouse Coopers in audit and spent the next 7 years in investment banking with SunTrust Robinson Humphrey (now Truist) and a boutique M&A shop (now Citizens M&A Advisory).
Ying was elected winner of Atlanta Business Chronicle’s 40 Under 40 Class of 2021 and earned a bachelor’s degree in Accounting and Finance from Goizueta Business School at Emory University.
Outthinker Intrapreneurial Network Attendees
Adam Field
Adam is currently SVP, Technology Strategy and Experience at Kofax where he is responsible for leading product strategy which drives innovation, vision, market analysis, forecasting, and overall success of four different go-to-market areas, focusing on artificial intelligence, cloud, and customer experience. He has previously held roles in engineering, sales, marketing, product development, and client experience at organizations such as Pegasystems, Staples, Sapient, and Fidelity Investments. He holds a BS in Computer Engineering from Syracuse University.
Darcy Dement
Darcy Dement is Senior Director of Technologies Platform Management at NI. She has held several positions in general management, business leadership, and product management and has experience in starting up, scaling up, and turning around organizations. She applies her passion for resolving our global challenges through science and technology as an advisor to B2B startups. She is multilingual with experience working and living in the US and Europe.
Leshia Hoot
Global business leader with 20+ years experience leading business and marketing strategy for technology and STEM education programs.
• Demonstrated ability to create data-driven business strategy
• Strong track record of driving go-to-market strategy and global product launches for technology and education solutions
• Experience working with diverse global teams in established and emerging markets
• Adept at working cross-functionally with sales, product development, marketing communications and operations to ensure a strong consumer experience
• Skilled, experienced presenter and spokesperson
Passions: Driving technology and education projects that improve the world around us; defining ecosystem and product marketing strategy; building innovative marketing teams; developing customer-centric product messaging and positioning; fostering high-impact partnerships; crafting marketing and products that resonate with the customer.
Naghmeh Heil
Naghmeh Heil works as a Group Strategy Mergers & Acquisitions Analyst at Macmillan, which is a Publishing company with an estimated 655 employees; They are part of the Mergers & Acquisitions team within the Finance Department
Travis White
Travis White is the Sr. Director of Corporate Strategy and Corporate Development at NI. Prior to corporate strategy, he’s held key leadership positions in NI’s semiconductor business unit and product management organization as well as management positions in engineering, applications, and technical marketing. He holds a Bachelors of Science in Electrical Engineering from Rice University.
