Speakers

Daniel Zhao is Chief Economist at Glassdoor, the worldwide leader on career insights about jobs and companies. Daniel leads the Economic Research team, conducting research using Glassdoor’s unique data on a range of topics in labor market trends and employer-employee relations.

Daniel’s work covers drivers of employee engagement and sentiment and has produced new data products like the Glassdoor Employee Confidence Index. Daniel’s research has also touched on other topics like pay transparency, employee retention, layoffs and leadership communication styles.

Having joined PepsiCo in 1994, Jeff recently retired as the Global Senior Vice President of Commercial Capabilities. His teams were responsible for accelerating and converting global demand for PepsiCo’s categories through advantaged insights, analytics, pricing, promotion, merchandising, marketing, and execution capabilities. Throughout his career, Jeff has held leadership roles across Brand Marketing, National Sales, Insights, Analytics, Retail Strategy and Global Service Centers. Jeff has deep CPG and Retail experience in North America, and most recently led Commercial teams across approximately twenty key global markets. Prior to PepsiCo and business school, Jeff spent four years in corporate banking with Hibernia National Bank in New Orleans, Louisiana.

Jeff thrives in helping others achieve their personal and professional aspirations. Drawing on his 35-year career, he recently kicked off a passion project in Executive Coaching. His practice focuses on four areas of transformation: 1) Growth, 2) Influence, 3) Communication and 4) Agility. His motivation to serve and enable the growth and development of others.

Elizabeth Faber is Deloitte’s Global Chief People & Purpose Officer. She is a member of the Deloitte Global Executive Committee and chairs the Global Talent Executive, Global Inclusion Executive, and Global Purpose Executive.

In her current role leading Global People & Purpose, she collaborates with member firm and global business leadership, and the Global Executive Committee to define the People & Purpose agenda globally in service to Deloitte’s partners and people. She leads the development and activation of strategies to deliver a distinctive and inclusive Deloitte talent experience around the globe and embed Deloitte’s Purpose to help drive significant positive environmental and social impact.

Nicholas (Nick) Bloom is the William Eberle Professor of Economics at Stanford University, a Senior Fellow of SIEPR, and the Co-Director of the Productivity, Innovation, and Entrepreneurship Program at the National Bureau of Economic Research. His research focuses on management practices and uncertainty. He previously worked at the UK Treasury and McKinsey & Company.

Anson Dorrance was the legendary women's soccer coach at the University of North Carolina. His program is commonly referred to as "The Dynasty." Under Dorrance's leadership at the University of North Carolina, the Tar Heels women’s soccer teams won 22 National Championships with a .87 winning percentage over 45 seasons (934-88-53). He has led his team to a 101-game unbeaten streak and his players have won 20 National Player of the Year awards. He is not only the most successful coach in the women's game—a six-time National Coach of the Year—but an ambassador of the game, a highly sought-after motivational speaker, a major force in training young players through wildly popular soccer camps, and a successful television broadcaster.

His teams have won 22 National Championships, 22 ACC Tournament Championships, and 25 Regular Season ACC Championships, and many of his former players have gone on to become the most accomplished players in the world, including superstar Mia Hamm. Anson was also the head coach for the United States Women’s National Team, where he led them to a World Champions in 1991. When he was hired, the United States had never won a competitive game before. When he retired from the national team, they were reigning World Champions.

Dr. Allison (Allie) Gabriel is the Thomas J. Howatt Chair in Management in the Department of Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management at Purdue University’s Mitch Daniels School of Business. She also serves as the Director of the Center for Working Well, and is the Senior Editor for micro-research submissions at Journal of Management. Previously, she served as an Associate Editor at Journal of Applied Psychology (2020-2026), and a Guest Editor at Journal of Organizational Behavior (2024-2026) and Work & Occupations (2016-2020). Broadly, Dr. Gabriel aims to understand how employees thrive and promote their well-being at work and home. To tackle this general aim, she studies emotions and emotion regulation in the workplace, recovery, motivation, interpersonal stressors/relationships, and experiences unique to women at work—specifically as they pertain to women’s health and motherhood.

Mark Scullion is the founder and former Chief Executive Officer of Atlas Clinical Research, where he led the growth of the company from launch through its merger with Alliance Clinical Network in 2026.

Over the past two decades, Mark has held leadership roles across the clinical research industry, including Novartis, Syneos Health and IQVIA. Throughout his career, Mark has led large global organisations through periods of growth, transformation and change, with responsibility spanning clinical development, operations and commercial strategy.

Mark's work has centred on improving how clinical research is planned and delivered, with experience spanning sponsors, CROs and research sites. He has a particular interest in organisational transformation, with a focus on how new operating models shape the way people work and how clinical research is delivered.

He earned his Executive MBA from UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School and lives in Chapel Hill, NC.

Christian Lundblad serves as director of research for the Kenan Institute of Private Enterprise. His research spans empirical asset pricing, investment management, hedge and mutual funds, and international finance, with a specialization in emerging markets. He teaches courses on macroeconomics for managers, investment management and global financial markets, including emerging market finance and development.

Karen A. Popp is a partner in the Washington, D.C. office of Sidley Austin LLP, where she is global co-leader of the firm’s White Collar: Government Litigation & Investigations group and has served as member of the firm’s Executive Committee. She has an expansive practice representing companies and individuals in high-profile matters with legal, political and public relations components, such as corporate criminal defense, internal investigations, SEC Enforcement, Congressional investigations, OIG and State Attorney General actions, corporate compliance and litigation.

Sekou Bermiss’ research is in the area of strategic management and organizational theory.

Specifically, he investigates how institutional factors shape the perception of firms by critical stakeholders. His research also explores the antecedents and consequences of human capital mobility and how different forms of employee movement impact a firm’s ability to compete with rivals.

Dr. Bermiss teaches courses in people analytics, managing human capital, leading for impact and organizational theory and design

Gerald provides strategic vision and leadership of the translational economic research and policy initiatives at the Institute.

He has worked in both the public and private sectors focusing on the intersection between financial markets and economic fundamentals. During the Obama Administration Gerald was Deputy Assistant Secretary for Macroeconomic Analysis at the U.S. Department of Treasury where he helped formulate and evaluate the impact of policy proposals on the U.S. economy. Prior to Treasury, he managed a global macro fund at Ziff Brothers Investments.

Paige Ouimet became executive director of the Kenan Institute of Private Enterprise in August 2023 after a year as the institute's research director.

She has several research projects looking at income inequality and the role of firms. She also has researched ESOP (employee share ownership plans) and employee stock options and their impact on labor productivity, wages and turnover.

Mike Christian is an award-winning teacher and researcher. Dr. Christian aspires to help people to be their best at work. Dr. Christian’s teaching interests include human energy optimization, resilience, leadership coaching, leading effective teams and organizational change. His research focuses on understanding the mind-body connection at work. He examines how somatic states such as sleep, pain and sickness affect energy, work engagement and self-control at work. He studies how these factors dynamically relate to unethical behavior as well as desirable work performance.