Karen Bennett is the executive vice president and chief people officer for Cox Enterprises, a private, family-owned company based in Atlanta, Georgia, with more than $20 billion in annual revenues. In her role, she leads the people solutions, corporate affairs, inclusion & diversity, HR technology services, benefits, compensation, talent acquisition, and the brand, marketing, and creative departments.

Bennett brings more than 30 years of experience in leading teams that focus on maximizing talent potential and the total employee experience while addressing the needs of the business.

Before joining Cox Enterprises, Karen was EVP and chief people officer for Cox Communications. There she developed and executed talent strategies to align with Cox's operating principles and worked through the challenges of driving continual growth in the business.

Prior to that role, Karen was chief human resources officer for Cox Media Group. Before her time with Cox, Bennett was chief human resources officer for YP (formerly AT&T Ad Solutions). She is a cable veteran as well, having served as senior vice president of human resources for Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. for nearly 14 years.

Bennett currently serves on the board of directors of the Society of Human Resources Management (SHRM) Foundation, the board of directors for the Human Resources Leadership Forum of Atlanta, and the Georgia State University's HR Roundtable consortium.

Bennett is a graduate of Terry College of Business at the University of Georgia where she earned both her bachelor's and executive MBA degrees. Terry College recognized Bennett as a Distinguished Alumni in April 2023. She is also an ICF-certified executive coach.

Christina McCarthy is VP for Member Engagement & Operations at One Mind at Work, a global nonprofit that brings together leading global employers committed to the mental health and wellbeing of their workforce. Christina partners directly with One Mind at Work’s member organizations to assess current workplace mental health efforts and identify opportunities to improve existing programs and increase access and utilization.

Christina holds a master’s degree from Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs and a BA from Johns Hopkins University. She lives in Bay Head, New Jersey with her husband and two children.

Rob Shriver serves as the Deputy Director of the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM). His portfolio includes recruiting and hiring, pay and leave, labor relations, performance management, the Senior Executive Service, work-life, telework, and supporting governmentwide diversity, equity, and inclusion.

Rob previously served at OPM during President Obama’s Administration. From 2009-2012, Rob was OPM’s Deputy General Counsel for Policy, leading development and implementation of a number of government-wide initiatives, including expanding equality for LGBTQ+ Federal employees, improving Federal sector labor relations, and reforming the hiring process. From 2012-2014, Rob served as OPM’s Assistant Director for National Healthcare Operations, where he led the creation of a new program under the ACA called the Multi-State Plan program.

In the years between his OPM stints, Rob continued to work on the ACA, first in state government, serving from 2014-2018 as the Director of Marketplace Innovation, Policy, and Operations at the District of Columbia Health Benefit Exchange Authority. He then worked for a private sector IT company—IdeaCrew, Inc.—as the Vice President for Business Development, working with states to improve their health benefit exchange IT platforms.

Rob began his career as an Assistant Counsel for the National Treasury Employees Union, litigating cases on behalf of federal employees at all levels of the Federal judiciary from 1996-2009.

Rob earned his B.A. in International Studies from Virginia Tech and his J.D. from George Washington University Law School. He lives in Alexandria, VA, with his wife JoAnn and three children Robby, Mitch, and Justine.

Heather Bussing is a California employment attorney with over 30 years’ experience providing sensible and strategic advice to employers. Her deep experience with business, humans, technology, and work gives her a unique perspective focused on preventing and solving problems rather than fighting about them. 

 Heather has been interviewed and quoted in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, CNN, Business Insider, and NPR. She writes a daily column on the latest in employment laws, covering pay equity and transparency, AI in HR Tech, and why compliance, diversity, and fairness are good business. 

Kent is as passionate about compensation and pay equity as he was in 1999 when he co-founded Salary.com with a goal of reinventing how employers and employees access compensation data. Kent has always believed pay equity is a two-sided coin and designed the business to support that belief. The company’s groundbreaking Salary Wizard was the first tool employees could access to understand their worth, effectively lifting the veil on salary information for millions of employees annually. On the B2B side, Salary.com has become the preeminent provider of compensation market data, software, and analytics, serving over 30,000 survey participant organizations, 8,000 business-to-business software subscribers, and 45+ million employees globally. 

Kent holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and A.B. in Economics and Government from Georgetown University. He is a three-time Inc. 500 CEO, a six-time Deloitte Fast 50 awardee and recipient of the 2007 Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of Year Award for business services. Kent is accredited by WorldatWork as a Certified Compensation Professional (CCP®) 

Shelle Randall is a certified economic developer with 20+ years in workforce development, staffing, project management and HR. She is VP, Jonesboro Regional Chamber of Commerce, and Director of Workforce Development, Jonesboro Unlimited.

Shelle’s career also includes working for an investment banker in Texas, and a defense contractor in Washington, D.C.

Shelle has a B.S. in Journalism/Science, serves on the Board of Arkansas Capital Corporation and formerly for AEDCE. She’s a graduate of U.S. Chamber’s BLFP, and Junior Auxiliary Life Member.

Shelle and her husband, Jeff, enjoy traveling, destination marathons, and lake life. They have seven delightful grandchildren.

Papia Debroy serves as the Senior Vice President and Chief Analytics & Research Officer at Opportunity@Work, a nonprofit social enterprise that is dedicated to improving economic mobility opportunities for workers who are Skilled Through Alternative Routes (STARs) instead of a bachelor’s degree. In her capacity, she oversees the research work that empower leaders across private, public and social sectors to drive positive change in the labor market, by harnessing the untapped potential of STARs, who collectively represent half of the American workforce.

Papia brings a wealth of experience to this role, having previously served as a Research Director at CEB, now Gartner, where she provided strategic guidance to major Fortune 1000 corporations on their workforce  practices.

Papia’s published work focuses on labor markets, employer behavior, and worker economic mobility opportunities in regional contexts. This body of work forms the foundation for Opportunity@Work’s collaborations with Fortune 500 executive teams, workforce development organizations, talent and education developers and policymakers.

Papia is currently a Non-Resident Senior Fellow with the Metropolitan Program at the Brookings Institution. She earned her Ph.D. and masters degree from the University of Michigan, and holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of California, Berkeley.