Ed Giansante

Head of Community, Persona

Ed Giansante is the Head of Community at Persona. Previously the Global Head of Community at Dropbox, Wix, Zynga, VMware and founder of Edublin. His ability to share useful information in video storytelling has brought him to over 400K YouTube subscribers and over 50 million views. His work to scale communities resulted in millions of USD in savings, and he was awarded the most efficient employee of the year, in 2013. In 2020 Edu was elected the Online Community Professional of the Year 2020 by CMX. Edu is now based in San Francisco, leading the community for the startup Persona.

Lais de Oliveira

Founder and Author, Hacking Communities

With over a decade of experience in community building, entrepreneurship, and innovation, Laís de Oliveira is the Author and Founder of Hacking Communities, a consulting and educational platform that helps organizations and individuals create and grow vibrant communities. She is also the author of the book Hacking Communities: Cracking the Code to Vibrant Communities, published in December 2020.

Heather Foeh

Sr Director, Customer Marketing and Communities, 6sense

Heather’s background includes twenty years in customer-facing roles such as customer success, customer marketing, advocacy and community building at such companies at Eloqua, Pathfactory, Workfront, Adobe and now 6sense.

Alan Aisbitt

Director of Community, Splunk

Driven by a desire to help others, Alan has spent the past decade creating and scaling online communities, programs, and in-person events in both Europe and North America. Alan has cemented his position as a leading force in the community building industry. Alan began his career by leading the community of the global marketplace giant,eBay. He later joined Robinhood as their inaugural community marketing strategist,navigating the company through the “memestock saga” and its subsequent IPO. Alan is currently the Director of Community at Splunk.

Corina Gheonea

Director, Global Community, UiPath

I work as a global community leader for UiPath, a leading software automation company, supporting the growth of AI automation professionals. For more than 5 years in the role, I had the privilege of developing the entire community strategy and expanding while the organisation was growing from unicorn to successful IPO – all with the support of an amazing team and incredible community leaders.

Chris Detzel

Director of Customer Community and Engagement, Reltio

With over 15 years of experience in B2B community management, Chris Detzel is the Director of Customer Engagement and Community at Reltio, a leading cloud data management platform. He is a Certified Community Professional and an expert in creating and enhancing customer advisory boards (CABs) and executive engagement programs (EEPs) for enterprise clients.

Brian Oblinger

Strategic Community Consultant, Bria Oblinger Strategic Consulting

Brian is a community consultant with over 25 years of experience in the industry. He’s worked with hundreds of companies like Acer, Autodesk, Comcast, eBay, The Home Depot, HP, and PlayStation. He helps brands engage their customers to increase satisfaction, lower costs, and generate more revenue through the power of community. He’s the Founder & Lead Instructor of Community Strategy Academy and a Co-host of the In Before The Lock podcast.

Todd Nilson

Community Strategist, Clocktower Advisors

Todd Nilson, with over 25 years in the consulting arena, specializes in
the intricate art of community-building and digital transformations. His portfolio boasts collaborations with entities like Activision, Greenpeace, and Medtronic, showcasing his versatility in the digital realm.

• His expertise lies in shaping thriving online spaces, assisting a spectrum from startups to Fortune 100 enterprises.
• Outside of work, Todd finds solace in tabletop games, notably Dungeons & Dragons.
• His academic journey includes Penn State, Duquesne, and research at the University of Kentucky.
• A proud resident of Two Rivers, Wisconsin, Todd also values the ethics of the Rotarian 4-Way Test.

Yurii Lazaruk

Community Ambassador, Communiverse

My name is Yuri, and I am 200% sure that community is where people take other peoples’ problems as their own. So I use this knowledge by applying my expertise in real life and helping people foster their communities! Also, as Ilker Akansel says, I’m a Community Psychologist, and having our sessions with folks during The Community Life conversations.

Fida Zourob

Head of Community, Show

Fida, the Head of Community at Show, is driven by a deep passion for cultivating gaming communities from their very foundations. Her ultimate goal is to empower women within the gaming industry, and she actively contributes to this mission by serving on the WIGA Leadership Team during her free hours. Remarkably, Fida has nurtured a robust online presence, amassing over 18,000 followers on LinkedIn and garnering 5,000+ subscribers to her “Diversity in Games” newsletter.

Cassie Perez

Community Programs Manager, LinkedIn

With nearly 10 years of experience in community management at Yelp, NewsBreak and now LinkedIn, Cassie is passionate about creating engaging and inclusive spaces for people to connect, learn, and grow. As Community Programs Manager at LinkedIn, she supports the platform’s news and content ecosystem by leading scaled education initiatives that support members in growing their voices on the platform and connecting to opportunity. She brings diverse perspectives and experiences from her previous roles in tech, media, hospitality and education sectors that inform every part of her work. Based in Denver, Colorado, she enjoys taking in the fresh mountain air on a run, chasing around her 2 young kids, trying new restaurants, and seeing live concerts and theatre.

Katelyn Gillum

Director of Community, Crisis Text Line

Katelyn Gillum is an experienced community leader and educator who has worked to build global communities at scale across a variety of B2B and B2C industries. She’s built global community programs at companies and organizations like Crisis Text Line, Commsor, Toptal, Meetup, and more.

Chris Dishman

Senior Vice President of Customer Success, Totango

Chris Dishman is the SVP of Customer Success at Totango, where he leads a post-sales organization that covers onboarding, implementation, customer success, support, and customer training and enablement. Previously, Chris was VP of Global Customer Success at ON24, where he served in various leadership roles over his 18-year tenure. Chris built the global customer success organization at ON24, scaling it 12X to support the company’s rapid growth and IPO in 2021. Prior to ON24, Chris worked as a Product Consultant at Yahoo! helping drive enablement and utilization of enterprise tools and systems.
He is a proud graduate of University of North Texas.

David Gunn

Vice President of Customer Success, LinearB

David Gunn is a CS Veteran, managing CS teams across the US, as well as in London, Malta, and Tel Aviv, Israel with a focus on “Digital First” Customer Success. David served most recently as Vice President of Customer Success at LinearB, a Software Delivery Management Platform for Engineering Leaders. Before that, he served in Customer Success Leadership at companies including Khoros, Invicti Security, and Salsa Labs. He’s based in Austin, with his wife and son, and a few too many pets.

Stephen (Don) Mallik

Chief AI Officer, Arivu IQ, Corp

Stephen is a Chief AI Officer with a passion for helping businesses succeed in the AI market. He is currently building a next-gen LLM Applied AI platform, and he is always looking for new ways to help businesses develop and implement their own AI roadmaps. Stephen is a highly sought-after speaker and advisor on AI, and he is committed to helping businesses of all sizes take advantage of the power of AI.

Jay Nathan

CCO, HigherLogic

I am a business executive best known as co-founder of the popular Gain Grow Retain customer success leadership community. I’m EVP and Chief Customer Officer at Higher Logic. We are an engagement company. Our customer community software platform helps our customers engage, retain, and grow their customers. I have over 20 years of experience in the software industry and have held leadership roles at prominent technology companies such as Blackbaud and PeopleMatter. I have spoken and written extensively on customer success and B2B SaaS topics.