Mike Aitken has worked at SHRM since 2003 and currently serves as the Senior Vice President of Government Affairs. Prior to joining SHRM, he served for 14 years as associate director for Governmental and External Relations at the College and University Professional Association for Human Resources (CUPA-HR). Previously, Aitken worked on state public policy issues at Bonner & Associates, a public affairs firm in Washington, DC. Currently, he is based in Alexandria, VA.

Pat Wadors currently serves as Chief Talent Officer for Procore, the digital workflow company focused on improving the lives of everyone in construction. That purpose, as well as Pat’s longtime focus on building healthy companies that scale, drives her vision to create amazing employee experiences for Procore’s people around the world. 

Prior to joining Procore in November 2020, Pat was the Chief Talent Officer of ServiceNow and prior to that, she was the Senior Vice President, Global Talent Organization at LinkedIn, where her focus was on recruiting and developing top talent, driving organizational transformation, supporting a highly engaged workforce, and growing LinkedIn’s global footprint.

Pat has also held human resources leadership positions at Plantronics, Yahoo!, Align Technology and Applied Materials. Pat earned her B.S. in business management with a concentration in human resources management and a minor in psychology from Ramapo College of New Jersey.

 at currently serves on the boards of directors for Accolade and Ultimate Kronos Group. 

Jessica Miller-Merrell is the Founder of Workology, a workplace resource for HR, recruiting professionals and business leaders, and host of the Workology Podcast. The site has been listed twice as a top 75 career resource by Forbes. Jessica is the president and CEO of Xceptional HR, a human capital strategy and consulting agency. Because of her industry expertise and knowledge, Jessica’s expertise is sought after and sourced by publications and media including: The Economist, Forbes, CIO Magazine, CBS, Entrepreneur Magazine, and SHRM’s HR Magazine. Her new book, Digitizing Talent: Creative Strategies for the Digital Recruiting Age was published in 2023 by SHRM.

Matt is the Director of Talent Acquisition at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta – one of the nation’s leading pediatric healthcare systems and consistently ranked as one of the “100 Best Companies to Work For” by Fortune magazine. With the support of a strong team, Matt is working to evolve and optimize the recruitment platform at Children’s.

Prior to working at Children's, Matt helped reshape talent acquisition at Ericsson, the world's leading provider of communications technology and services, operating in 180 countries and employing more than 100,000 people. In his five years with Ericsson, Matt lived in both Australia and Singapore. He drove innovation in the employer branding, sourcing and recruitment strategy for Ericsson regionally and globally.

He has past experience as a senior strategy consultant with a U.S. recruitment communications firm, helping leading organizations implement innovative employer branding and digital strategies to attract top talent. Matt is a graduate of The Florida State University in the USA. He is an author and featured industry speaker on best practices in Talent Management at international HR events.

Nestor Ares conceptualized and currently manages the People Analytics and Processes Unit at the Inter-American Development Bank. In this capacity, he oversees complex data collection, dashboard production, and analytical output. The Unit is accountable for producing human resources business intelligence, providing insight for operational leaders and evaluations of business and/or system process, supporting workforce planning and strategy development. Since its creation, four years ago, the Analytics Unit has gone from organizing data and producing reports, to being at the forefront of the business intelligence at the Bank, by developing the most advanced data visualization dashboards, and producing high impact analytics that effectively combine operational and personnel data.

Prior to leading the People analytics Unit, Mr. Ares held various positions at the IADB, including Advisor to the Vice-President of countries, where he supervised resources management and budget execution.

Mr. Ares holds a M.S. in Information Systems Technology from the George Washington University.