Explore our full lineup of keynotes
See all abstracts
Shelia Anderson joined Aflac in July 2022 as senior vice president, chief information officer where she is responsible for overseeing Aflac’s digital services division and driving the technology strategy in support of the company’s US business. Anderson has a rich history as an executive leading the IT functions of major U.S. insurance companies.
Prior to joining Aflac, Anderson was Executive Vice President and Chief Information Officer (CIO) for Liberty Mutual’s Corporate Functions, responsible for applications and technologies that drive the global company’s Financial, Human Resources, Legal, Shared Services, and Data and Analytics Operations. Her team was responsible for building, implementing, and maintaining innovative technology solutions that scale to meet Liberty’s growing global business needs across the more than 45,000 employee base operating in more than 29 countries.
Anderson also served as Vice President and CIO of Property and Casualty Insurance at USAA. She previously held executive roles with several Fortune 500 Global Technology organizations, including HP and Electric Data Systems.
Shelia received the 2021 Boston CIO of the Year Super Global ORBIE Award and was recognized as a 2022 National CIO of the Year Super Global Finalist for her outstanding leadership, management effectiveness, and business value created through technology innovation while at Liberty Mutual. She was recognized by Insurance Business America as a “2018 Elite Woman.”
Originally from Louisiana, Anderson received her Bachelor of Science in Computer Science from Louisiana Tech University and her Master of Science in Engineering Management from Southern Methodist University.
See abstract
Dorkas Koenen (52) is Chief Marketing Officer & Executive Vice President at Rabobank since 2017. He has been working in the marketing profession for more than a quarter of a century now, the last fifteen years in roles as CMO at an executive level, for companies at home and abroad, in sectors like telecommunications, energy and asset management. Dorkas has a sincere passion for marketing; in particular for making things better for customers as well as for society, for creating authentic stories about brands, for leading organizations into the digital marketing future and for developing talented marketing professionals. In 2022 he was voted as the best marketeer of the Netherlands (‘Adformatie CMO of the year’), mainly due to his achievements transforming Rabobank into a more marketing-driven organization, a.o. focusing on creating more relevant (digital) interactions with its customers.
Dorkas holds a Master-degree in Political Sciences (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam) and in Marketing (University of Tilburg). He has a special interest for sports (cycling, skiing and tennis) and is a proud father of three children.
See abstract
Promiti joined Citi almost 4 years ago and is presently the Head of Analytics Technology and Innovation for the U.S. Personal Banking Analytics Organization. Based in NYC, she acts as driver for capabilities with our analytic data, technology infrastructure, and omnichannel journey analytics and orchestration. She has over 15 years of experience in both academic and corporate settings. Before Citi, Promiti was at Aetna, a CVS Health Company, where her efforts focused on the Apple Watch program partnership to create meaningful member engagement as well as payment integrity anomaly detection. She is an innovative and entrepreneurial leader passionate about building and growing great concepts from ideation to realization. Promiti has significant strategic and operational experience in financial services with prior experience in research and development. Promiti completed her BS, MS, MPH, and doctoral studies from Columbia University and enjoys trying to complete her home renovation in her spare time alongside her husband and kids.
See abstract
John is a technology software director with extensive experience leading large global software delivery teams. John has over 20 years experience in the telecommunications and media sector with the last eight years working in roles for Virgin Media Ireland and Liberty Global.
Over his career John has delivered numerous technology transformation programs. Pega has been a key enabler to many of John’s successful deliveries. He also founded the Liberty Global Pega Centre of Excellence supporting Pega deliveries across numerous Liberty Global markets.
Recently John has been technically leading the multi-year “Digital First” and “Full Fibre” transformation programs for Virgin Media Ireland which have been transforming the Virgin Media Ireland to a full fibre, fully digital business.
See abstract
Alan Trefler is the Founder and CEO of Pegasystems Inc., (NASDAQ: PEGA) a Cambridge-based company that empowers the world’s leading enterprises to Build for Change®. He is a visionary leader, technology change-agent, innovative philanthropist, and a trusted advisor to business executives around the world.
He first gained visibility on the international stage when he earned a chess Master rating at age 19 and, against all odds, tied for first place in the 1975 World Open Chess Championship. This facilitated his early AI work at Dartmouth College, including working to teach computers to play chess. After graduation, Alan began a career as a software engineer and architect.
As a lead developer of financial and insurance industry software, Alan shared his clients’ frustration with how disconnected the use of technology was from their business processes and goals. Inspired, he founded Pega in 1983 with the vision of creating software that is easy to use and accessible to everyone – businesspeople and IT alike. The model-driven software he pioneered is today known as low-code.
Alan has earned multiple patents and overseen the expansion of Pega from start-up to a $1.3+ billion, global, public company with about 6,000 employees. Today, Pega software is used by some of the most successful and recognized brands as well as government agencies around the world.
Alan has been recognized with numerous awards and accolades for his lifetime of effort both inside and outside of work, including Public Company CEO of the Year by the Massachusetts Technology Leadership Council, Software CEO of the Year by the American Business Awards, and the Babson College Academy of Distinguished Entrepreneurs. His book, Build for Change, is a best-seller.
Alan takes nothing for granted. As the son of a Holocaust survivor, he makes the most of every opportunity. He and his wife Pam are champions of education and community support, founding the Trefler Foundation in 1999 to support and improve education and workforce development, health care, and healthy lifestyles. They are dedicated to creating progress and change, especially in communities that experience significant disadvantages.
See abstract
Kerim Akgonul Pega’s Chief Product Officer, is responsible for delivering Pega’s full suite of products built on the Pega Infinity™ Platform. Through his leadership of over 1,000 engineers, product managers, designers, and architects at Pega, Kerim’s focus is to build a suite of best-in-class products that transform businesses around the world.
Kerim’s customer-centric development approach brings together low-code, AI, and robotics to applications that help businesses innovate customer interactions – while helping employees get more done.
As an executive sponsor for [email protected] employee resource group, Kerim is an advocate for the valuable perspectives diversity delivers to our organization.
See abstract
Don is passionate about connecting client needs to Pega’s powerful technology platform. He has over 25 years of experience delivering enterprise software solutions for Fortune 500 organizations, with a focus on digital transformation, customer experience, AI, automation, and cloud. As a longtime improv comedian, Don believes that “Build for Change®” is more than a tagline – it’s a mindset, and that great teams bring adaptability, diverse voices, and a sense of fun to all they do.
See abstract
Dr. Rob F. Walker is the GM, 1:1 Customer Engagement for Pegasystems. Rob is responsible for driving Pega’s 1:1 Customer Engagement offering across sales, delivery, marketing and product development, as well as its strategic direction. Rob’s vision for Next-Best-Action and 1-to-1 customer engagement has gained broad market acceptance and adoption among some of the world’s leading brands. He is frequently called upon to speak with global audiences, the media, and Fortune 1000 executives about using data to optimize the customer experience and customer value through real-time personalization. As one of the world’s foremost experts in the area of enterprise decisioning, Rob is also at the forefront of advocating Responsible AI in business. Prior to the acquisition of Chordiant by Pegasystems in April 2010, Rob was responsible for managing the strategic direction and development of Chordiant’s industry-leading predictive decisioning technologies. As a member of the office of the CTO Rob also provided support to Chordiant’s global sales activities and partnership initiatives. He joined Chordiant when the company he co-founded in 2000, KiQ Ltd., was acquired by Chordiant in December of 2004. KiQ was a specialist provider of decision management and predictive analytics software. Prior to KiQ, Rob spent eight years in positions of increasing responsibility with leading global information technology consulting firm Capgemini. From 1999-2000, he served as Program Director for Capgemini during which time he was responsible for the creation, development and evangelization of technological innovations in the areas of business intelligence and predictive analytics. Rob holds a Ph.D. in AI from the Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
See abstract