General Session Speakers

Ginny Clarke

Dedicated to helping leaders create the conscious workplace for tomorrow, Ginny Clarke has advised at the highest levels of corporate America for decades. A proven expert in driving diverse leadership, she is the former director of executive recruiting at Google, where she led the company’s diversity, non-tech recruiting, and leadership internal mobility teams – finding and hiring senior leaders across the company. She also built a scaled internal mobility program for Google’s senior leaders to advance within the organization and designed much of the infrastructure that supports their executive recruiting function today.

Clarke draws on her unparalleled experience inside corporate C-Suites and boardrooms helping thousands of executives up their game and elevate their careers to bring a unique, holistic five-dimensional approach to true leadership that is essential now more than ever. A systems thinker who deconstructs processes and behaviors to carefully assess organizational and individual capability, she inspires and uplifts groups by helping them scale mobility opportunities for all, bring conscious awareness to both the workplace and life, and navigate the future of work. Clarke delivers “no-holds-barred” discussions on the root causes that lead to a lack of diversity in organizations, and provides the thoughtful, integrated solutions that anyone can use to affect change as we transition into a new era in the workplace.

Prior to Google, Clarke was a partner at Spencer Stuart, the global executive search firm based in Chicago. For 12 years, she worked in the firm’s financial services and financial officer practices, and she co-founded and led their global diversity practice. Drawing upon her breadth and depth of experience, Clarke wrote the book titled Career Mapping: Charting Your Course in the New World of Work, providing a framework that empowers individuals to plot and assess their professional competencies and strategically navigate their careers.

She is now the CEO of Ginny Clarke, LLC, her own talent and leadership consulting business, as well as the host of Fifth Dimensional Leadership, a podcast for leaders, thinkers, and future-makers covering topics like power, personal branding, self-awareness, networking, fear, and career management.

Clarke earned her BA in French and Linguistics from the University of California at Davis and her MBA from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School. She is the single mother of an adult son, Julian, who works in the entertainment industry.

Shayla Rivera

Shayla Rivera is an Aerospace Engineer and former Rocket Scientist with NASA turned corporate trainer, Int’l Speaker, TEDx Speaker, TV & Radio Host, Emcee/Host, Comedian, Actor, Writer, Seminar Facilitator, Panel Moderator, and Awareness Expert. As of 2017, Rivera is also Director of the ENGR[x] (pron. Engineering X) program and Professor of Practice for the College of Engineering at Texas A&M University.

Rivera was born and raised in Puerto Rico. After obtaining a degree in Aerospace Engineering with a minor in Psychology at Texas A&M University, she spent 5 years working with NASA. From there she moved on to stress management corporate training and motivational speaking, where Rivera discovered her comedic talents.

A self-proclaimed Awareness Expert, Rivera has come to know one basic truth, “The best way to learn, grow and change, in other words be enlightened, is to lighten up.” Approaching very serious subjects with a very light heart, Rivera helps young and old alike become clear about the personal beliefs that might be getting in the way of their real desires.

With numerous awards and accolades throughout her engineering, speaking, and comedy careers, Rivera is not easily placed in just one category or class, she defines her own. As of 2020, Rivera has a half-hour stand-up comedy special streaming on HBO Max. She has appeared on numerous television programs and networks, including Comedy Central & HBO Latino, was named "Funniest Latina Comedian" by the organization "Latin 2015," and serves as host/emcee for award shows, gala’s, fundraisers and festivals. Rivera is most proud of her tours to entertain U.S. troops in Iraq and around the world.

Rivera says, “My number one goal is to inspire through laughter.”