As CEO of Delta Air Lines, Ed Bastian leads a team of 75,000 global professionals that is building the world’s premier international airline, powered by a people-driven, customer-focused culture and spirit of innovation.
Under Ed’s leadership, Delta is transforming the air travel experience with generational investments in technology, aircraft, airport facilities and, most importantly, Delta’s employees worldwide. A 23-year Delta veteran, Ed has been a critical leader in Delta’s long-term strategy and champion of putting Delta’s shared values of honesty, integrity, respect, perseverance and servant leadership at the core of every decision.
Since being named Delta’s CEO in May 2016, Ed has expanded Delta’s leading position as the world’s most reliable airline while growing its global footprint and enhancing the customer experience in the air and on the ground. During his tenure as CEO, Delta has become the world’s most awarded airline, having been named the No. 1 airline by J.D. Power; Wall Street Journal’s top U.S. airline; the top-ranking airline in Fortune’s World’s Most Admired Companies; the most on-time global airline by FlightGlobal; the Platinum Award recipient for operational excellence by Cirium; among TIME100’s Most Influential Companies; a Glassdoor Best Place to Work; and more.
In 2018, Fortune magazine named Ed among “The World’s 50 Greatest Leaders,” and in 2019, he was elected to the membership of the Council on Foreign Relations. Most recently, Ed was awarded for his Executive Leadership in FlightGlobal’s 2021 Airline Strategy Awards and named among the Top 10 CEOs of 2021 in Glassdoor’s Employees’ Choice Awards as a leader who excelled at supporting their people throughout a global pandemic.
Ed’s values-based leadership propelled the airline to become the industry leader and a trusted global brand, guided by empathy, humanity and devotion to service, which has served Delta well in good times and bad. He has served as a Delta leader and steered the company through the most challenging periods of the company’s history, including 9/11, bankruptcy and COVID-19.
As the world emerges from the pandemic, Delta is leading the industry in the recovery, harnessing the power of innovation and Delta’s people-focused culture to set the course for the future of travel. This post-COVID transformation will reshape the customer experience using the latest technology and be powered by our people.
When asked to sum up his job in five words, Ed’s response is: “Taking care of our people.” The answer reflects his leadership philosophy, which is based on the “virtuous circle” – if you take care of your people, they take care of your customers, whose business and loyalty allow you to reward your investors.
Ed joined Delta in 1998 as V.P. – Finance and Controller and was promoted to S.V.P. in 2000. He left Delta in 2005 and became Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Acuity Brands. He returned to Delta six months later to become Chief Financial Officer, and in 2007 he was appointed to serve as Delta’s President.
Before joining Delta, Ed held senior finance positions at Frito-Lay International and Pepsi-Cola International. Ed started his career with Price Waterhouse, where he became an audit partner in its New York practice.
Ed grew up in Poughkeepsie, New York, and graduated from St. Bonaventure University with a bachelor’s degree in business administration. He lives in Atlanta and is deeply involved in his faith, family and community.
Lia is the author of UNSTUCK: Reframe Your Thinking to Free Yourself From the Patterns and People that Hold You Back, leaning into nearly 10 years of experience working in some of the largest and most influential companies in tech including Microsoft, Apple and Google to explore the power of reframing to overcome common challenges found in the modern workplace. She is a TEDx and SXSW speaker and has been a featured guest on WGN Chicago and WJLA Washington DC news. She was recognized by the National Diversity Council as a 2021 DEI Champion.
As an operations leader, speaker and coach, Lia is on a mission to humanize the workplace, one conversation at a time. Through her writing, leadership coaching and savvy program management skills, she brings an authentic and irreverent sense of humor to teams to help them examine the challenges holding them back and focus on what matters. She has built robust diversity & inclusion programs, launched the world’s first holographic computer, driven programs and initiatives around team inclusion and organizational effectiveness, and coaches people on how to drive impactful work and thrive working in tech. She is a thought leader in the future of work domain, and has been a contributor to FastCompany and Harvard Business Review.
Lia has a Bachelor of Arts from UCLA in sociology, a Masters of Arts in media studies from the New College of California and is a Co-Active and ICF certified professional coach.
Richard P. Rumelt is one of the world’s most influential thinkers on strategy and management. McKinsey Quarterly described him as “strategy’s strategist” and “a giant in the field of strategy.” He is the author of Good Strategy/Bad Strategy: The Difference and Why It Matters, reviewed by the Financial Times as “the most interesting business book of 2011” and by Strategy + Business as “the year’s best and most original addition to the strategy bookshelf.” Dr. Rumelt received his doctoral degree from Harvard Business School and is the Harry and Elise Kunin Chair Emeritus at the UCLA Anderson School of Management. His new book, The Crux: How Leaders Become Strategists, is available from PublicAffairs on May 3, 2022.
Principal, Future of Work, Global Enterprise Solutions, ADP
Giselle Mota is a Principal Consultant on the Future of Work. Named a Top 100 Future of Work Thought Leader, she brings simplicity, humanity and innovative perspective to the sometimes abstract and complex world of the future of work. These areas range from Web 3.0 technologies including artificial intelligence, data analytics, spatial computing, to topics such as diversity equity and inclusion and many other relevant trends of the ever-evolving world of work. As an industry leader, she assists executives and HR practitioners with innovative human capital management strategies amidst digital disruption. Giselle is a global speaker and has been featured on TED Talks, Forbes, Cheddar News, Chief Learning Officer Magazine to name a few. She serves across boards and leadership councils related to Web3 and the metaverse, artificial intelligence, people analytics, the future of work, disability inclusion, and is active among startup and entrepreneurial spaces all in hopes of creating an inclusive future of work and opportunities for all.
Senior Consultant, Impact International
Manuel (Manny) is a progressive consultant, devoted to applying theory, practical application and innovation to the development of others. He approaches his work with contagious enthusiasm and commitment.
Manuel has been working in the learning and development industry since 2002 and joined Impact in 2011. As a Lead designer and facilitator, delivering client solutions globally, from graduate level to organizational leaders for private, public and non- profit firms.
As an adventure educator Manny brings an experiential learning focus to leadership development and high performance in teams and organizations. Combining his tenure as an Associate Professor at Palm Beach State College, his facilitation experience and his expertise as a senior design consultant to deliver powerful learning programs with a focus on personal development.
Manny’s clients benefit from his experience in working with a wide range of teams facing rapidly changing work environments allowing them to develop specific skills such as interpersonal aptitudes, and change ready leadership. Clients find Manny’s authentic, inclusive and engaging style intellectually stimulating and valuable.
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Senior Consultant, Impact International
Sarah has over 25 years of collective experience in leadership development, executive and leadership coaching, facilitation, and program design. She is adept at leveraging leadership goals to enable leaders in discovering the impacts of their actions and maximizing their influence. She has worked with global clients in a range of sectors and at a variety of leadership levels. A dynamic and energic facilitator, Sarah partners with clients to deliver high-impact learning solutions for both individuals and teams.
Before joining Impact, Sarah ran Spark Strategy LLC, a leadership consulting practice focused on executive coaching and leadership program design and delivery. She was also a member of the consulting team at the University of Washington Foster School of Business Center for Leadership and Strategic Thinking where she provided executive coaching, leadership program facilitation, and taught a course on negotiations.
Sarah spent 10 years as Senior Solutions Manager in Corporate Learning at Harvard Business Publishing. In her role she worked closely with the Harvard Business Publishing sales team to design and implement powerful leadership development solutions.
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Chief Executive Officer, RadiusPoint
Sharon Watkins is the CEO of RadiusPoint a thirty-year-old telecom, IT and utility expense management firm. Sharon Watkins founded the company in January 1992 and is the key driver in the software technology, ExpenseLogic. Sharon Watkins has earned a Bachelors of Science in Business Administration from Kennedy Western University and has achieved many other certifications in the field of telecommunications audit and project management. In May 2008, Sharon graduated from the MBA program through the Mid-South Minority Business Council and University of Memphis. Most recently Sharon has completed the outsourcing certification program offered though the International Association of Outsourcing Professionals.
Sharon has been instrumental in working with the software development team to create ExpenseLogic, the telecom and utility expense management software that has less than ten competitors worldwide. From Sharon’s experience with clients, the software developed into the tool that can satisfy the needs of any organization that has multiple sites and numerous employees to manage.
Sharon has successfully signed and retained Clients ranging from Medium sized companies to Fortune 50 to small local County governments.
RadiusPoint and the employees stand apart from competitors by achieving ISO 9001 standards in September of 2002. RadiusPoint is SSAE 18 (formerly SAS 70) certified as of October of 2006 and continues this certification with an annual audit. RadiusPoint also was awarded a GSA contract vehicle in 2018 for Schedule 70 IT services.
Other prestigious awards won include, Top 50 Minority/Women Owned businesses in Tennessee in 2005 named by Fast Company Magazine and Top 100 Fastest Growing Companies in 2007. Ms. Watkins won the 2006 Enterprising Women of the Year award. RadiusPoint was named one of Inc 5000 fastest growing companies in 2015 and Sharon won Business Owner of the Year in 2015 from the Orlando Business Journal and CEO of the year in 2019 from the Orlando Business Journal.
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