Samantha Walravens is an award-winning journalist and author of two books, "Geek Girl Rising: Inside the Sisterhood Shaking Up Tech" and "TORN: True Stories of Kids, Career & the Conflict of Modern Motherhood." She writes about women, career and work-life issues for Forbes, The Huffington Post, Disney Interactive and Modern Mom and speaks to audiences nationwide on the topic of work-life success. Walravens has been a guest on the Today Show, Good Morning America, Yahoo! Finance and NPR. She started her career as a technology reporter for PC World magazine and led marketing communications for Tumbleweed Software in Silicon Valley. She is a member of Pipeline Angels, an angel network that invests in female-led companies, and serves on the Alumni Schools Committee for her alma mater, Princeton University.

Shannon Huffman Polson is the author of "The Grit Project," is one of the first U.S. Army Women Apache helicopter captains and pilots. From the cockpit to the boardroom, Huffman Polson shares stories of grit and leadership to help others overcome fear, break through uncertainty, and reach their full potential. Huffman Polson is a woman of many firsts. Among those high points: She is one of the first women to fly Apache combat helicopters in the U.S. Armed Forces, where she served on three continents and led two flight platoons and a line company. 

After nearly a decade as an Army officer and attack aviation leader, and later, as a leader and manager in the corporate sector at Guidant and Microsoft, she turned her attention to storytelling, sharing the stories of remarkable female leaders and trailblazers through her “Grit Project” and other writing endeavors. 

Drawing on a distinguished military and corporate career, she reveals her lessons learned and leadership strategies to help individuals harness their inner strength, move beyond resistance, and attain their goals. With an emphasis on grit – which she describes as a dogged determination in the face of difficult circumstances – she demonstrates how to tap into that passion and resolve so anyone can face their limitations, sense of purpose, and become a leader of greatness.

Brooke Cunningham is Area Vice President, Global Partner Programs, Marketing and Operations for Splunk. Organizations use market-leading Splunk solutions with machine learning to solve their toughest IT, IoT and security challenges. In this role, she designs and implements Splunk’s global Partner-Plus program, delivers partner marketing, communication and loyalty programs. She is also responsible for all day-to-day partner operations. Prior to joining Splunk, Cunningham spent more than four years with BI vendor Qlik, where she was VP, global partner marketing, driving partner communications and loyalty programs, the partner portal, as well as programs to support the Qlik partner program. Cunningham has 20 years of experience building alliances and channel programs that drive business growth with global SI’s, technology alliances, MSPs, OEMs, distribution and resellers.

Before joining Qlik, Cunningham held several partner-focused positions such as VP, worldwide marketing for the data management business of CA Technologies, a 100 percent channel business unit, senior director, global partner marketing for SAP and partner program and field channel marketing roles at Business Objects and Crystal Decisions. Cunningham’s entire career has been focused on enabling partner businesses.

Ginger Clay is the spunk and drive behind IgniteRM’s data-driven marketing strategy designed to help technology professionals, with little-to-no marketing achieve greater visibility, generate qualified leads and turn their marketing investment into measurable results. Clay is the co-founder behind IgniteRM (results marketing) and Winc Analytics which focus on combining prospective and current client data, digital marketing best practices and nurture campaign strategies. Her goal is to help MSPs transition from organic, unpredictable growth to a planned growth path. Clay’s role as the Marketing Architect is to create relevant, compelling and effective marketing strategy that drives desired results. Before founding IgniteRM, Clay played key marketing and consulting roles with 4 Profit, ShoreTel, Netelligent and Xtelesis Corp. She earned a Bachelor of Science degree in marketing and Asian studies from the University of Maryland

With inspiring lessons on cultivating the mindset of a champion and a winning formula for life and career success, Siri Lindley empowers audiences to be the absolute best they can be. As a former triathlon world champion and coach to many of the sports world’s top stars, Lindley has made it her business to help others change their lives and make their dreams come true. She positively influences and empowers people by connecting them to their greatest strengths and passions, while giving them the courage to live their best life from a place of fearless love and authenticity.

During her professional career, Lindley dominated the International Triathlon Union World Rankings, winning 13 World Cup races, and was the 2001 ITU World Champion. She won the World Cup Series in 2001 and 2002 by being the No. 1 ranked triathlete in the world. Later, she became a coach to numerous athletes helping them win Olympic medals and World Championship crowns at both the Ironman and half ironman distances.

In her book, “Surfacing: From the Depths of Self-Doubt to Winning Big and Living Fearlessly,” Lindley offers a candid account of her journey to personal growth, self-belief, and self-discovery. On stage, she illustrates why it's never too late to live the life you always dreamed, and shares emboldening strategies for realizing your ultimate potential, conquering self-doubt, and changing the thoughts, habits, and behaviors that keep you from taking your life and career to the next level.

A 20-year tech industry veteran, Margaret is a builder, a change agent, and a coach. She is a frequent speaker and author on technology trends, women in tech, digital marketing, and living intentionally. During her many startup gigs, Margaret’s creative leadership built bigger than reality brands that resulted in several successful acquisitions and some fantastic implosions. In leadership roles at Fortune 500 companies, she used her intrapreneurship and collaborative management to drive new global initiatives, including cloud at HP, security at Microsoft, international ecommerce at Amazon, and now, integrated solutions at Red Hat. She has a passion for mentoring women and men in tech, and is unapologetic in her drive for increased equality and diversity, as well as her unique talents of snorting while laughing and swearing like a sailor.

Lisa Fain serves as the Center for Mentoring Excellence's Leadership Development Services’ CEO and lead in diversity strategy, cross-cultural competency, and conflict resolution. Her passion for diversity and inclusion work is fueled by her strong conviction that leveraging differences creates a better workplace and drives better business results. 

Fain has conducted mentoring training programs for corporate, government and educational institutions. She coaches mentors, mentees and program administrators on how to achieve mentoring excellence and create the right environment for achievement of career and personal goals.  She is highly regarded for her special combination of knowledge, expertise, humor and a no-nonsense practical approach. As senior director of the diversity and inclusion function at Outerwall Inc. (parent company to automated retail giants Redbox and Coinstar), Fain spearheaded the development, establishment and implementation of its diversity initiative, including launching the company’s first mentoring program for its Women’s Business Resource Group. Prior to that position, she worked as Outerwall’s in-house counsel, where she coached leaders and partnered with human resources to establish fair and effective policies and practices that would sustain the organization as it grew in size, revenue and renown. 

Fain practiced law with the Chicago office of a major multinational law firm and counseled employers on creating inclusive policies and practices. In addition, she served as a master trainer, training thousands of employees at a variety of companies, large and small, on how to create a better workplace.  Certified as a mediator through Chicago’s Center for Conflict Resolution, Fain applied her counseling skills to help clients understand and proactively prevent conflict. She holds a B.S. in Social Policy from Northwestern University and a J.D. degree from Northwestern University School of Law. Fain is a Life Coach and has completed her certification from the International Coach Academy.

Christine “Wolffie” Wolff joined Dell Technologies Global OEM and IOT business, helping Future Makers' dreams become reality. Previously at Dimension Data for 15+ years, Wolff was responsible for alliance activity with Cisco at a global corporate level. Her team worked in service to the executive teams at Cisco and Dimension Data facilitating the connections that enable profitable growth and smooth operational engagement. Wolff also held VP-level roles in sales development, solutions marketing, and talent engagement for the Americas team. She likes to spend her free time cycling, golfing, mentoring women in STEM and cheering on the Duke Blue Devils.

Lisa MacKenzie is a seasoned executive with expertise in marketing, sales, product management and operations. Lisa was instrumental in The Channel Company's evolution from providing traditional media to offering a full portfolio of solutions and services. She brings her proven expertise to The Channel Company's extensive events portfolio - helping ensure that our events meet the evolving needs of our customers. Thanks to Lisa's leadership, The Channel Company attracts record audiences and receives high customer satisfaction scores. Lisa also repositioned our consulting, research and education offerings, resulting in increased profitability and new product launches.

Meg Crofton is a 35-year veteran of The Walt Disney Co. She retired in 2015 as the president of Walt Disney Parks and Resorts, United States and France. She was responsible for the operations of the company’s theme parks and resorts in Florida, California and Paris.  Throughout her Disney career, Crofton held a wide range of executive positions in both operating and functional areas, as well as key leadership roles in the openings of many domestic and international properties. Prior to her last role, Crofton served as the fourth president of the Walt Disney World Resort, overseeing a workforce of more than 66,000 cast members at the world’s premiere vacation destination. During her tenure as president, Crofton led the largest expansion in the history of the Magic Kingdom park, launched the expansion and rebranding of the property’s retail, dining and entertainment complex, and was at the forefront of the award-winning MyMagic+ technology initiative aimed at transforming the guest experience.

Crofton is widely known and respected for her outstanding leadership and passion for a world-class customer and employee experience. She believes that when great brand, culture and leadership are present, employees in any organization can make magic happen. Upon retirement, Crofton received the highest honor Disney bestows--a dedicated window on Main Street, U.S.A. in the Magic Kingdom park. It celebrates her legacy of mentoring and leadership development.

 In addition to her company responsibilities, Crofton was also committed to giving back to her community through volunteer service at many non-profit organizations. She served as an executive leader on the following boards:  Rollins College, University of Central Florida, the Central Florida Economic Development Commission, the Mayor’s Commission to End Homelessness, the executive committee to build the Dr. Phillips Center for Performing Arts, as well as the Board of Orlando Health. Crofton is currently engaged in board service and serves on the board of Tupperware Brands.

Crofton has coached leaders in areas regarding their personal brand, team leadership and interpersonal communications. She encourages them to see that their authentic combination of all of these drives business performance. Crofton earned both her bachelor’s degree in marketing and her MBA from Florida State University. She was inducted into the FSU College of Business Hall of Fame in 2008, and recognized with the University’s Distinguished Alumni Award in 2013.

Cheryl Cook is Senior Vice President of Global Channel Marketing for Dell EMC, responsible branding, partner marketing programs, channel events and communication, MDF program execution as well as collaborating with regional commercial and infrastructure solution business teams on partner planning and experience. Prior to this role, Cook served as vice president of global channels and alliances, leading channel strategy for the company worldwide. Her responsibilities included setting the partner strategy company-wide, as well as developing and executing channel programs, training, certification and global marketing programs that enabled partners to grow their business with Dell. Cook and her team contributed to growing Dell’s global channel business from about one third to over 40 percent of Dell’s total global revenue since 2013.

Prior to running Dell’s channel business, Cook served as vice president of Dell’s Enterprise Solutions, where she was responsible for the go-to-market strategy and execution for Dell storage, server, networking and related software businesses. She has more than 25 years of IT and high tech experience serving in leadership positions at Nuance Communications and Sun Microsystems. Cook earned a bachelor of science degree in computer science from the University of Florida. She has been recognized as a leader in the channel including CRN's 2016 Most Influential Channel Chief; 2016 Channel Chiefs; Top Women of the Channel Power 100; Top 100, and Top 25 Innovator in the channel.

Cook is a contributor to Fortune’s Women’s Most Powerful community and is active in the Dell Women’s Entrepreneur Network which recognizes female influence in business and technology globally. She is also active in Dell’s WoMen in Action group whose interest aligns with women’s issues, rooted in accelerating the role of women in the workforce.

Sam Mattioli, founder and CEO of Graystone Corp., a consulting services provider, is a master trainer for Dale Carnegie. Mattioli helps individuals and corporations identify performance issues and through training course design, development and delivery resolves them. As a leader, Mattioli has an international history of success with Tyco Fire and Security/ADT. He has trained candidates from many Fortune 500 companies such as Northrop Grumman, Kimberly-Clark, PG& E Corp., CBRE Group, Reliance Steel & Aluminum, Boston Scientific. As a salesperson, manager and national training manager Mattioli is known as a performance-management architect. He has created sales and leadership initiatives that have led to record numbers in growth and has managed projects such as creating corporate universities both in the U.S. and U.K, generating over $2 million in sales in one quarter and increasing company stock value by over 200 percent in one year. Over his career, Mattioli has designed and delivered more than 100 widely-recognized training programs internationally, including Performance Based Instruction, Emotional Intelligence and Stress Management, D.I.S.C assessment, Myers Briggs, Resilience Testing, SPIN Selling and Situational Leadership, to name a few.

Mattioli has an international degree, MSc. in Performance Management and is an adjunct teacher at the University of Leicester U.K. and Cambridge College, Boston. He is an avid California state champion surfer.

Bonnie Hagemann is the CEO of Executive Development Associates. EDA is a boutique consulting firm known around the world for its C-Suite capabilities in executive education, coaching, assessment and high-potential development. In addition to leading the firm, Hagemann is an executive coach to Fortune 500 senior leaders as well as a speaker and a published author. To date, Hagemann has provided coaching for more than over 225 leaders in primarily large organizations including 8 organizational presidents. The majority of her coaching clients receive a promotion, better position or an increase in salary during or upon completion of the coaching process. Hagemann has 32 published works including "Decades Of Differences," a book on the shifting workforce demographics and their impact on leadership and "Leading with Vision: The Leader’s Blueprint for Creating a Compelling Vision and Engaging the Workforce." She leads research initiatives and publishes results in the areas of trends in executive development, executive coaching and high--potential development. Hagemann earned her Bachelor of Arts in English Education and Masters of Education in Counseling. She is a certified qualification instructor for the MBTI, FIRO-B and CPI 260 assessments. In 2016, Hagemann earned the Harvard Business School Executive Education Program’s “Women on Boards: Succeeding as a Corporate Director” certification.

Wendy Hoey is the Director of Distribution and Vendor Alliances at Optiv. Wendy is a dynamic and technically-savvy channel executive leader with demonstrated experience in channel account management, strategic channel marketing, and channel partner development within the IT Security Industry. Exemplary record of delivering and sustaining revenue and profit gains within highly competitive B2B and B2C vertical markets.

Carrie Pobre brings over 24 years of sales experience in having founded and operated multiple companies in digital marketing and streaming media. As SVP of Product and Marketing at Cloud Cover Music, she designed their enterprise streaming platform and established sales and customer support for nationwide clients including Burger King, JP Morgan Chase, Walmart and CVS. Back in the 90’s, Carrie founded a digital marketing company in the travel industry which was acquired and is still active today at the Sabre Corporation.

Now as Vice President of Sandler Training Los Angeles, Carrie and her team deliver customized selling solutions for both traditional and online sales funnels. They work with all levels of the company including management, sales staff and customer success teams. Training centers are located at Van Nuys and El Segundo and on-site training is also available for larger companies. They consult for a large range of industries including engineering, software, insurance, real estate, law firms, aerospace, accounting firms, and healthcare.

Carrie is originally from Seattle, graduated from the University of Washington, and then spent years working and travelling all over the world. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband, a software architect, and their two kids who enjoy the beach and travelling almost as much as she does.

Eva Helén has over 20 years of experience in the tech space. Helén co-founded, built and exited two software companies – most recently as President and COO of Sanbolic, acquired by Citrix in 2015. Founder of EQ Inspiration and CEO of Epiquette, the Diversity Platform, consulting c-suite and leadership teams on how to build corporate culture that supports financial goals.

Stacey brings more than two decades of enterprise, networking, and security marketing expertise to Fortinet, with a strong track record in global demand generation, customer-centric digital marketing, and strategic sales enablement programs. Stacey is responsible for creating brand preference, generating demand, and accelerating customer acquisition and sales productivity for Fortinet's global market opportunity. Prior to Fortinet, Stacey was vice president, marketing and demand generation at Avaya, and prior to that, she held a variety of marketing leadership roles at Symantec, most recently VP of strategic marketing and planning. Prior to Symantec, she led various product marketing teams at Check Point Software, NEC, and HP. Stacey holds an MBA from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and a B.S. in Computer Science from San Francisco State University.