Deneen Defiore

Deneen is an accomplished technology and risk management executive with experience across multiple critical infrastructure sectors. She has developed expertise in advising global companies and their most senior executives on technology, cybersecurity, compliance, and digital risk decisions related to products, services, significant initiatives, and ongoing operations.

Deneen currently serves as Vice President and Chief Information Security Officer at United Airlines. She is responsible for leading the cybersecurity organization to ensure the company is prepared to prevent, detect, and respond to evolving cyber threats; as well as initiatives on commercial aviation cyber safety risk, improving cyber resilience, and representing United in working with international partners to reduce cyber safety risk world-wide across the aviation ecosystem.

Prior to joining United, Deneen held roles of increasing responsibility across multiple GE business units, including: Aviation, Corporate, Digital and Power. Most recently, she held the position of Senior Vice President and Global Chief Information and Product Security Officer at GE Aviation.

Deneen serves as the Chair of the board of the Aviation Information Sharing Analysis Center and the Chair of the Airlines for America (A4A) Cybersecurity Committee. She is a board member of the Internet Security Alliance and also serves on the advisory board of CyLon, a venture capital firm.

She has received many industry awards & honors, including being recognized as one of the Top 100 Global CISOs of 2017 and 2020. She is an inductee of 2021 CSO Hall of Fame for her work advancing the CSO/CISO role, securing businesses, and inspiring others in the industry. She is frequently featured at industry and trade conferences as well as in media for her expertise and thought leadership in cybersecurity, digital, technology risk and building & leading high performing diverse organizations. She is passionate about diversity in the tech industry and promoting STEM education.

Follow her on Twitter @deneendefiore

Nneka Chiazor

Born in Newfoundland, growing up between Montreal and Lagos, Nneka’s international upbringing revealed the criticality of bridging divides. It inspired her migration to the United States to pursue the American Dream. 

She joined Cox Communications in 2017 as Vice President of Public and Government Affairs for Virginia and North Carolina region and leads a team entrusted with enhancing company revenues through public-private partnerships, robust employee engagement, digital equity programs, and community goodwill. Before joining Cox, she worked in several technical and corporate roles in the telecommunications industry, including at Verizon, where she worked on several innovations such as FiOS and smart cities. 

As a community builder, Nneka engages many nonprofits and professional organizations across the globe. She serves on several boards and as an appointed commissioner on the Virginia Beach Development Authority. She received the 2022 Humanitarian Award from the Virginia Center for Inclusive Communities for her commitment to building bridges of understanding across the commonwealth.

Nneka was recognized as a 2022 Top 50 under 50 Shaping tomorrow by her alma matter Concordia University. She has a strong passion to empower people and see them win. She enjoys volunteering to support female entrepreneurs achieve their dreams and spending time with her family, especially on the beach.

Ask her about surviving a wild goose attack!

Christy Morton

Christy Morton serves as VEDP’s Senior Vice President, Policy and Strategic Partnerships, responsible for managing four divisions at VEDP, including Economic Competitiveness, External Affairs, Real Estate Solutions, and Regional Talent Solutions and Business Outreach. In this role, Christy oversees the functions of these divisions and works closely with division leaders to develop policy and set strategy. Prior to this role, Christy served as VEDP’s Vice President of External Affairs, responsible for VEDP’s relationships with the General Assembly, the Administration, and Virginia’s congressional delegation. She also led VEDP’s external relationships with local and regional economic development organizations, trade associations, and other key stakeholders and partners to increase VEDP’s collaboration across the Commonwealth. Experience

Diane Leopold

Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer at Dominion Energy

Diane Leopold is executive vice president and chief operating officer of Dominion Energy. She is the senior executive responsible for all of the company’s operating segments and related construction and innovation functions. 

Leopold oversees: Dominion Energy Virginia, a vertically integrated electric utility with generation, transmission and distribution assets providing electric service to about 2.7 million customer accounts in Virginia and northeastern North Carolina; Dominion Energy South Carolina, a natural gas and electric utility serving 1.1 million customer accounts; Gas Distribution, which has four gas local distribution companies serving nearly 3 million customer accounts in Idaho, North Carolina, Ohio, Utah, West Virginia and Wyoming; and Contracted Assets, consisting of Millstone Power Station, dozens of solar generating facilities with long-term power purchase agreements in nine states and Dominion Energy’s ownership in the Cove Point LNG facility. 

Leopold joined Dominion Energy in 1995 and became an officer in 2004. She held a wide range of executive roles in operational, financial and commercial areas throughout the company. She became Dominion Energy’s executive vice president and co-chief operating officer in December 2019 and assumed her current role in October 2020. 

In addition to being on the board of directors of Markel Corporation, she currently serves on various industry, non-profit and community boards. She is a trustee for Virginia Union University and has been appointed by the Governor of Virginia to the Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation board of trustees, an educational agency of the Commonwealth. She also serves on boards of directors for the Nuclear Electric Insurance Limited, GROW Capital Jobs Foundation, the Hampton Roads Alliance and the Northern Virginia Technology Council. Leopold serves on the executive committee, board and is past-chair of the American Gas Association and is past-chair of the Interstate Natural Gas Association of America.

Leopold graduated from the University of Sussex in the United Kingdom in 1989 with a bachelor’s degree in mechanical and electrical engineering. She received a master’s degree in electrical engineering (energy conversion, power and transmission) in 1993 from George Washington University and an MBA in 1998 from Virginia Commonwealth University.

Heather Hildebrand

Heather Hildebrand is an Accenture Song Managing Director responsible for driving growth across all consumer accounts in the South Market Unit – across retail, travel, auto, industrial and CPG clients. Heather leads a team to identify, architect, and create value for clients to transform their customer experiences leading their growth and relevance.

Heather helps clients design digital and experience transformation and achieve high performance through business process transformation, customer experience strategy, personalized omnichannel experiences, analytics, operating model design, operational and marketing efficiencies, monetization, change enablement, and design thinking strategies. Heather is committed to innovation and currently spearheading how Accenture Song clients engage in the Metaverse.

Heather is a seasoned professional speaker, leading presentations at Fortune 100 clients, universities, marketing organizations, and tier one marketing events. Heather teaches marketing for top universities, has been a featured at SXSW mainstage speaker, presented at Adobe Summit and ran innovation events with start-up accelerators like Capital Factory and Austin Start Up Week.

Heather’s marketing and customer experience initiatives have been covered by Facebook, LinkedIn and won awards by FastCompany.

Shannon Morales

Shannon Morales is a proud Afro Latina, mother of 3 daughters, and social entrepreneur. She started her first company, Tribaja, after experiencing bias in the workplace and set out to create a better way to connect professionals with inclusive brands.

By combining “tribe” and trabaja, the Spanish word for “work,” Tribaja is a name that reflects the business’ shift into a “community” of people with an interest in tech & startup careers, including an active Slack group. Shannon realized that other recruiting platforms are built exclusively upon acquiring clients. Instead, she focused on Tribaja’s ability to develop & upskill the community before all else.

Emily Mercer

Christy Morton serves as VEDP’s Senior Vice President, Policy and Strategic Partnerships, responsible for managing four divisions at VEDP, including Economic Competitiveness, External Affairs, Real Estate Solutions, and Regional Talent Solutions and Business Outreach. In this role, Christy oversees the functions of these divisions and works closely with division leaders to develop policy and set strategy. Prior to this role, Christy served as VEDP’s Vice President of External Affairs, responsible for VEDP’s relationships with the General Assembly, the Administration, and Virginia’s congressional delegation. She also led VEDP’s external relationships with local and regional economic development organizations, trade associations, and other key stakeholders and partners to increase VEDP’s collaboration across the Commonwealth. Experience

Lori Jennings

Lori’s tech career started at tech giants EMC and Cisco before moving to a regional data consulting company and leading their sales team. At CRT she found a passion for recruitment, and transitioned from tech sales to permanent placement of tech executives and leadership by founding, what is now Jennings ProSearch, in 2008. Lori has advised mid-market, consulting firm, private equity and start-ups, filling a niche recruiting need for in-demand and critical executive level tech talent. Her passion for tech, combined with her unique business acumen and extensive network provide her clients unparalleled access to some of the best tech talent, many of whom are not active on traditional online search platforms.

Dr. Katherine Herrick

Dr. Katherine J. Herrick is Principal Engineering Fellow and Senior Technical Advisor at Raytheon Intelligence and Space.

Raytheon Intelligence and Space (RI&S) is a $15.2B business within Raytheon Technologies, a $64B aerospace and defense company that provides advanced systems and services for commercial, military, and government customers worldwide.

Raytheon Technologies, formed in 2020 through the combination of Raytheon Company and the United Technologies Corporation aerospace businesses, is headquartered in Arlington, Virginia.

As a high-performing executive and proven technical leader with 20+ years of experience, Dr. Herrick has successfully demonstrated and integrated a wide array of advanced technologies on critical programs across multiple platforms and domains.

She joined Raytheon in 2001 with a focus on the development, capture, and execution of advanced 3D heterogeneous integration microelectronics technology programs. Before joining Raytheon, Dr. Herrick earned her Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.

Dr. Herrick’s recent recognitions include the 2020 SWE Engineering Patent Recognition Award and the 2019 Advocating Women in Engineering Award. Her awards also include the Outstanding Young Engineer Award of the IEEE MTT-S, National Academy of Engineering Frontiers of Engineering, and the Raytheon Integrated Defense Systems President’s Award.

Dr. Herrick is a Senior Member of IEEE, has published over 50 technical papers, and holds patents in the areas of antennas, RF MEMS packaging, and microwave/millimeter wave circuits.

Josh Levi

Josh Levi is president of the Data Center Coalition (DCC), the trade association that serves as the
voice of the data center industry.

DCC represents and advances the interests of the data center community and advocates for a
business climate, policies and investments that support the growth and success of this essential
technology business sector.

DCC is headquartered in Virginia, home to the world’s largest data center market, and its members
maintain data center infrastructure and investment across the globe. As President, Josh leads the
organization and executes all aspects of the DCC’s strategy, operations and growth.
Josh is widely recognized for his technology business policy leadership and expertise in key areas
across the technology ecosystem. Prior to assuming his current role in July 2019, Josh was vice
president for policy at the Northern Virginia Technology Council (NVTC), a nationally-recognized
regional trade association, where he spent nearly 20 years supporting Northern Virginia’s vibrant
technology community. As the policy voice of the organization, he led state, federal and local
government relations, policy development and advocacy initiatives. As a member of NVTC’s senior
leadership team, he provided strategic guidance and counsel related to all facets of the
organization’s mission, goals and strategy.

Josh has served on numerous policy-related committees and commissions. In 2018, he was
appointed by Virginia Governor Ralph Northam to serve as a member of the Virginia Data Sharing
and Analytics Advisory Committee, a position to which he was reappointed in 2019.

Josh was awarded a bachelor’s degree in political science from Virginia Tech, graduated cum laude
from the University of Richmond School of Law, and is a member of the Virginia State Bar.

Haley Spalding

Haley is a military wife, mom of 2 boys, and VCU alumna who currently works with Apex Systems, Consulting Services headquartered in Richmond. She has led a successful career supporting full lifecycle IT recruitment and staffing processes within multiple industries. Recently she has expanded her career into a new position as Project Coordinator for a large-scale financial client.

During her time as a technical recruiter, she specialized in opportunities within software development and application support. Her passion within staffing has helped her understand the importance to maintain candidate relationships and upholding best practices for optimal results for client needs. She has been an active mentor on her team and enjoys helping others advance their career. Haley understands the importance of continuous education and skill growth, she strives to keep up with the changing staffing market to have real and honest conversations.

Haley enjoys staying active in local community organizations and is passionate about inclusion awareness in the workplace.

Kelsey Robertson

Kelsey Robertson is a Senior Recruiting Manager at Koalafi, a fintech company, based in Richmond, Virginia. She has over 10 years of experience in inhouse, agency recruitment and strategic leadership roles. Kelsey leads high volume recruiting of all levels for highly technical roles across engineering, product, data science, and analytics. Kelsey is passionate about employer branding and providing an excellent candidate experience in order to attract, engage and hire top talent. A leader in cultural engagement, Kelsey has been recognized as a positive & energetic teammate who is passionate about enhancing communication across teams, coaching & mentoring others, and building a positive, inclusive, uplifting environment. Outside of work, Kelsey enjoys home improvement or gardening projects, spending time with her lab/shepherd mix Dexter, and her kitten, Gus. She also enjoys spending time outside hiking or at the river, cooking, finding the best new mocktail, devouring a good book, or digging into Richmond’s food scene.

Michelle Kelo

Shalini Goyal

Shelagh Montgomery

Lisa Lingerfelt

Paige Schiavone

Wendi Pannell

As founder of Pannell Consulting, LLC, Wendi is leveraging her 20+ years of experience in the IT industry to enable clients to take their organizations to the next level through technical and performance transformations, leadership consulting and fractional C suite roles. She is a highly accomplished business, technology, and change management leader with a history of transforming operations through a combination of people, processes, and systems. Her superpower lies in communicating insightful, data-driven recommendations that serve as the foundation for progressive change. She demonstrates her passion through coaching, growing, and influencing others in a fast-paced, executional culture, and maintaining high velocity.

Wendi also serves as the chairwoman for RBTC’s Women in Technology (WoTech) committee and is passionate about creating a supportive, empowering space for women in tech. She makes time for building the village for women in technology within the New River Valley as well as her three boys, three dogs, and husband in Blacksburg, VA.