KPMG

Today, the pursuit of the greater good is just as important as the pursuit of profit. Stakeholders now expect companies to do their part to make society a better place. Corporate citizenship is good business, too. If communities and economies don't grow, businesses can't either. Preparing employees to succeed in a changing job market is one area where companies can create tremendous value—for themselves and for the world around them. A commitment to lifelong learning helps organizations sustain their own success while empowering people with the skills to take control of their professional futures and tackle the challenges of tomorrow: a truly winning formula.

Rob Arning serves KPMG LLP as Vice Chair-Market Development and Chairman of the KPMG Foundation. Rob is responsible for driving cross-functional client care and quality growth in KPMG's largest markets, with an emphasis on Fortune 1000, strategic mid-market and private equity firms. In this position, Rob also oversees KPMG's industry sectors, Private Equity, Private Markets, International Corridors, as well as Marketing and Communications. He is a member of KPMG LLP's US Management Committee and the firm's Global Clients & Markets Team. Rob has significant client service experience with global accounts and has held a series of leadership positions of increasing responsibility within the firm. He has served as the Lead Area Managing Partner for the Northeast Area and had direct responsibility for the results of the Audit practice as Northeast Area Managing Partner for Audit. He joined the firm in 1983 and was elected to the partnership in 1995. Rob is an active supporter of a number of community and charitable organizations including: American Cancer Society, PENCIL, New York Says Thank You, CONCERN, and City Harvest.

Kelly Watson is the National Service Group Leader of KPMG's U.S. and Americas Risk Consulting Practice, leading a team of more than 4,500 partners and professionals. Kelly has 31 years of global auditing and advisory services experience.. She previously served on KPMG's Legal, Risk and Compliance committee, and in October 2013 was elected by her fellow partners for a five-year term on the KPMG LLP Board of Directors, where she is the Board's Lead Director, chairs the Board Process Committee and sits on the Partnership & Employer of Choice Committee. She is also active in philanthropic activities. She initiated KPMG's relationship with the United Nations Millennium Village Program, a global development initiative designed to alleviate poverty and promote gender equality in Africa, and is actively involved in KPMG's Family for Literacy/First Book program. In 2010, Diversity Inc. named her among their “Women Worth Watching,” and she received the Helen Keller “Women Who Make a Difference” and the Boy Scouts' “Woman of the Year” awards. She was honored by the Executive Women of New Jersey as an influential policy maker for 2014, and in 2016 was named Consulting Magazine Top 25 winner for Excellence in Leadership.

Anant Agarwal is the CEO of edX, an online learning destination founded by Harvard and MIT. He has served as the director of CSAIL, MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, and is a professor of electrical engineering and computer science at MIT. He is the 2016 recipient of the Harold W. McGraw, Jr. Prize for Higher Education, which recognized his work in advancing the MOOC movement. Mr. Agarwal was named in Forbes' list of top 15 education innovators in 2012. He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering, a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and a fellow of the ACM. Anant holds a Ph.D. from Stanford.

Jeff Noel was appointed corporate vice president, Communications and Public Affairs, in 2004. He also serves as the president of Whirlpool Foundation. Mr. Noel is responsible for the company's global external and internal communications, government relations, corporate affairs, and business travel departments. Mr. Noel has served as vice-chairman and chairman of the Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers, and past chairman and current managing director of the Harbor Shores Development. He also serves as vice chairman of the Michigan Economic Development Corporation and chairman of the Michigan Economic Development Foundation.

Joie Chen is an award-winning journalist who has been at the forefront of the biggest innovations in media and communications. She brings a wealth of experience in legacy media (CNN, CNN International, CBS News, and Al Jazeera America) to her more recent work in branded communications and is a pioneer in the integration of client-driven content with traditional media.

Chen is an active board member at her alma mater, Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism, and has served on the boards of several diversity and journalism education organizations.

US tax and trade reform are disrupting global trade norms. There is a lot of uncertainty as the rules change. This key inflection point should be a catalyst to all business leaders to review their strategic opportunities. These reforms bring the potential to take big and bold steps to secure or protect a leading market position. Most businesses benefited from US tax reform, while at the same time, they now face greater global trade risk. Organizations that receive cashflow benefits from tax reform can consider transformative investments to turn these risks into competitive advantage. Thinking from the inside out, opportunities can be considered in supply chain and in M&A activity.

Brett Weaver is a partner at KPMG. He currently serves as Partner-in-Charge of KPMG's National Value Management Finance Leader and Tax Transparency Services. Mr. Weaver has written and spoken extensively on various U.S. international tax issues, and is a frequent speaker at regional and national TEI conferences, NYU/KPMG Lecture Series, Pacific Rim Tax Institute, various business forums, and KPMG sponsored events. Mr. Weaver also serves as Adjunct Professor at University of Washington's School of Law LLM Program.

Bill Lovallo is an Advisory Partner based in New York specializing in Deal Advisory Service and Private Equity. He was elected to KPMG's Board of Directors in 2009 and has served as the National Managing Partner of Risk Management. Bill has assisted clients in hundreds of transactions in the U.S. and throughout the world with enterprise values in excess of $6 billion. Bill has over 25 years experience, including extensive experience in acquisition, divestiture, leverage buyout, rollup and bankruptcy transactions. His experience also includes private placement and public debt offerings as well as public stock offerings, and including initial public offerings.

Terry Howerton is the founder and CEO of TechNexus, a Chicago-based venture development firm building a new, collaborative model for leading corporations to engage and extract value from the global entrepreneurial ecosystem. TechNexus also operates a start-up incubator from its headquarters in Chicago, where more than 500 ventures have grown. Terry founded his first company in high school and has spent a career starting and leading ventures, mentoring other entrepreneurs and building organizations.

Laura Behrens Wu is a co-founder and the CEO of Shippo, a shipping platform for marketplaces, warehouses, and e-commerce businesses. Laura co-founded Shippo after personally experiencing the obstacles businesses face when setting up shipping operations for her own e-commerce business. She has also made Forbes and Inc. 30 under 30 list in 2017.

Joie Chen is an award-winning journalist who has been at the forefront of the biggest innovations in media and communications. She brings a wealth of experience in legacy media (CNN, CNN International, CBS News, and Al Jazeera America) to her more recent work in branded communications and is a pioneer in the integration of client-driven content with traditional media.

Chen is an active board member at her alma mater, Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism, and has served on the boards of several diversity and journalism education organizations.

High quality products, services and solutions — even those that are highly regulated — need to constantly innovate to improve their quality. In this episode, we explore how companies now need to be far more innovative when seeking to advance the quality of their products and services. Simply enhancing a specific product feature no longer suffices — companies need to think in a far more holistic manner and apply innovation to every aspect of their business practices to navigate the threat of disruption.

Roger O'Donnell leads the Global Audit D&A initiative and is a senior US Audit partner. He currently serves as the lead engagement partner for several multinational companies, and he previously served as the industry leader for the New York Consumer and Industrial Markets practice for KPMG in the US. In addition he formerly served as the Lead Northeast Audit and Training Methodology Partner in the US and on the US firm's Audit Quality Council.

Rick Wright is KPMG's US Digital Transformation leader and also leads the firm's Experience Design and Engineering organization. He is responsible for managing the firms over-arching strategic growth investments in digital solutions. With over 25 years of Innovation, Technology and Operations advisory experience spanning a wide range of industries including Life Sciences, Financial Services, High Tech and Government, Rick advises leading organizations on how to effectively leverage disruptive and innovative technologies, as well as new sources of data, to deliver business value and long-term competitive advantage.

Ralph Erenzo, founder of Hudson Whiskey and Tuthilltown Spirits, brings more than 30 years of production and development experience to the distillery, based in Gardiner, NY. Following the acquisition of Hudson Whiskey and its parent entity, Tuthilltown Spirits, by William Grant & Sons, Ralph serves as a proud advocate for the brand he created, continuing to focus on day to day operations and consumer brand education.

Over the years Ralph has expanded his reach through writing and commentary, being an instrumental leader in the state-level passing of the Farm Distillery Act, allowing farms to sell their spirits direct to consumer, and providing insight through varying national media outlets, including The New York Times. A born and raised New Yorker, Ralph finally realized his lifelong dream of settling in the Hudson Valley.

Netherland native Pim Koeslag is the CEO and Co-Founder of Ateliers deMonaco - a horological manufacture born in 2008 in the Principality of Monaco. The watch assortment offers a design inspired by Monaco mixing together modernity, luxury and nobility. Koeslag began his watchmaking career at the Watchmaking School of Amsterdam. During his studies, Koeslag visited the manufacture of Frederique Constant, an accessible luxury Swiss Watchmaker, where he was approached by the brand's founder and CEO Peter Stas, whom Koeslag would later work with as a master watchmaker. During his time at Frederique Constant, Koeslag discovered a common dream with Peter Stas, to create a minute repeater movement, which would then lead to the development of Ateliers deMonaco. In 2016, Ateliers deMonaco was acquired by Citizen Watch America.

Joie Chen is an award-winning journalist who has been at the forefront of the biggest innovations in media and communications. She brings a wealth of experience in legacy media (CNN, CNN International, CBS News, and Al Jazeera America) to her more recent work in branded communications and is a pioneer in the integration of client-driven content with traditional media.

Chen is an active board member at her alma mater, Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism, and has served on the boards of several diversity and journalism education organizations.

The human adoption of a constant stream of technology innovation is challenging existing business models, enabling new operating models, facilitating new competitors and driving change in customer behavior and expectations. Consequently, the way organizations have innovated in the past won't work in the future. In this episode, we explore how innovation needs to be considered central to the strategy and how organizations need to build capabilities to help anticipate disruption, make the right decisions, and determine how to best invest for growth and relevance.

John Farrell is the National Managing Partner, Innovation & Enterprise Solutions at KPMG LLP, responsible for cultural, strategic, and financial advancement of the Firm's innovation program. A senior partner on KPMG's executive leadership team with twenty-eight years of management and risk consulting experience, John assists Fortune 1000 businesses with strategic transformational efforts, focusing on improving and sustaining performance through leadership and cultural alignment, innovation capabilities development, target operating model enhancement, process and technology improvement, and predictive performance/risk data analytics.