Pay Inequity: An Open Conversation on Closing the Gap

Julian Guthrie

"A word geek."

That is how Julian Guthrie describes herself. A love of words, language, and storytelling has taken her from a childhood spent devouring books (and reading the dictionary!) to a 25-year career in daily journalism, where she won numerous awards and had her work nominated multiple times for the Pulitzer Prize. Julian has written five books, two of which are being adapted for television. Julian has interviewed some of the world's most successful and interesting people, from Steve Jobs, Larry Ellison, Richard Branson, Peter Thiel and Elon Musk to Melinda Gates, Marissa Mayer, Christy Turlington, and the late Prof. Stephen Hawking (who wrote the afterword to her third book). Julian has spent years researching how men and women succeed – and it is not the same.

Driven by an understanding of how stories can open minds, change lives, and jumpstart industries, Julian founded a 501c3 national nonprofit, The Alpha Girls Institute, to support and spotlight the lives and stories of women and girls across the globe.

Julian is now the founder and CEO of a venture-backed SaaS (software as a service) company, Mindset Alpha, which uses targeted storytelling and guided community to enable companies to attract, retain, and promote women and allies in entirely new ways. Mindset Alpha is poised to change the game for women across industries, and will soon be rolled out to colleges and universities in the U.S.

Julian's personal story shows how a love of something — whatever it is — can take you far in life. "Going from a little girl who loved to read to journalism to author to the founder of a tech company actually feels like a continuum," Julian says. "I just took my love, my skills, and pivoted into new mediums. At its core, though, I'm still telling stories."

Stacie Baird

Driven by purpose and focused on building foundational trust, Stacie has found her way through multiple successful start-ups, high-growth environments, and large public company environments. Specializing in leading innovative HR teams that are highly aligned to having a measurable business impact, she has a passion for connecting people to their superpower. She is passionate about the movement from HR to the next generation of HX, a focus on Human Experience.

In addition to encouraging HR Teams to supercharge organizational change, she also coaches Executive leadership, leads/speaks to large keynote audiences, and plugs in weekly to co-host her podcast as well as leading keynote/workshop sessions to energize other HR/HX teams to drive greater business results.

Currently leading a role at a Public Company with a national footprint, distributed workforce, and strong purpose to impact the lives of students; she leads a team that focuses on the attraction, retention, and development of talent. Centers of Excellence is the problem-solving, project-oriented team that focuses on the HX of candidates, employees, and partnerships. This team is comprised of leaders and teams in the areas of Total Rewards (Comp/Benefits), Talent Acquisition, DEi&B, Data/Analytics/HR Tech, and Talent Development.

Brian K. Reaves | Chief Belonging, Diversity, and Equity Officer | UKG

As Chief Belonging, Diversity, and Equity Officer at UKG, Brian leads the company’s global belonging, diversity, and equity efforts so all people can thrive in their careers. A software engineer by trade, Brian brings an “engineering mindset” to UKG along with more than 30 years of advancing Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DE&I) within the tech industry.

He most recently served as Senior Vice President and Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer at Dell Technologies. Prior to Dell, Brian spent eight years at SAP, serving as head of Diversity and Inclusion for the Office of the CEO, and as global head of products and innovations for SAP d.Studio next generation technology team. He has held senior executive software development and management roles across industries and in tech sectors such as, cloud computing, supply chain, healthcare, finance, telecommunications, and utilities. He began his career as a software developer at the Xerox Corporation.

Brian is a recognized thought leader on several DE&I topics including strategies to innovatively engage and expand diverse talent pools as well as how to directly correlate DE&I initiatives with positive business outcomes.

Brian’s passions include design thinking, international travel, and professional/amateur sports. Brian holds a B.S. in Mathematics/Computer Science from UCLA and resides with his wife in Austin, TX.