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HR RECHARGED, NEW YORK: LEADING WHEN AI KNOWS MORE

Wednesday 14th OCTOBER, 2026

Wednesday 14th OCTOBER, 2026

Wednesday 14th OCTOBER, 2026

Location: Well& by Durst

151 W 42nd St, New York, NY 10036 


Duration: 9:00am to 5:00pm

Dress Code: At your Comfort-Level

Areas of Focus

Wednesday 14th OCTOBER, 2026

Wednesday 14th OCTOBER, 2026

The Skills & Capabilities Questions:

1. Architect the System: Owning the AI Stack Across HR, IT, and the Business 

2. Compressed and Stretched: Employee Experience in the AI-Reduced Workforce

3. Build the Role: Talent Development, Self-Driven Job Design, and Talent Market Dynamics 

4. Culture as and Operating System:  Designing Organizations That Scale Trust, Belonging, and Bold Action 

5. New AI Technologies Radically Changing Organizational Structure  


Format

Wednesday 14th OCTOBER, 2026

Format

From Breakfast to Drinks: 

Panels

Case-Studies

Ideas Xchanges

Signature Leadership Think-Tanks

New Research Findings 

New Solutions

Panel Debriefs

Networking & Drinks 

Event Outline:

Command Without Illusion: Leading When AI Knows More is a productively unsettling gathering for HR leaders confronting a hard shift: AI is scaling capability faster than organizations can maintain control, judgment, and trust. This is not about adoption - it’s about authority. Across talent, learning, and technology, the event challenges leaders to rethink workforce design, rebuild cognitive capability, and take ownership of the AI stack. The intended outcome is clarity: what must be protected, what must change, and how to lead decisively in systems where humans are no longer the most informed actors - but are still fully accountable for the results.  The entire day is an intentional journey, designed as a structured progression with peers, through panels, case studies, workshops, and think-tanks - ending not with more ideas, but with firmer judgment, clearer control, and decisions you’re ready to act on.  
 

your emcee of the day:

Emily Frieze-Kemeny

CEO at Arose Group

Expertise: 

C-Level Advisor

Leadership and Talent Development

Employee Experience

Counselling

Vinyasa Yoga Instructor

Reiki Healing

Tennis

The Talks and People:

PANEL 1 | Architect the System: Owning the AI Stack Across HR, IT, and the Business

PANEL 3 | Build the Role: Talent Development, Self-Driven Job Design, and Talent Market Dynamics

PANEL 1 | Architect the System: Owning the AI Stack Across HR, IT, and the Business

AI adoption is accelerating faster than governance, integration, and control. Disconnected tools, unclear ownership, and fragmented data are limiting real impact.
This panel focuses on how HR, IT, and business leaders align to architect a cohesive AI ecosystem.
Defining ownership, integrating systems, and ensuring technology drives measurable outcomes, not scattered experimentation. 


Moderator:  TBA


Yelena Mammadova,

AI Workforce Transformation Strategy 

Microsoft

Wanda Shoer, Chief Learning Officer 

Sanofi

Martin Falkenberg, SVP HR

American Water

Keili Glynn, Chief People Officer

Authentic Brands

PANEL 2 | Compressed and Stretched: Employee Experience in the AI-Reduced Workforce

PANEL 3 | Build the Role: Talent Development, Self-Driven Job Design, and Talent Market Dynamics

PANEL 1 | Architect the System: Owning the AI Stack Across HR, IT, and the Business

Technology is quietly compressing the workforce. Fewer people, broader scopes, higher expectations. While productivity rises, experience often degrades: burnout risk, blurred roles, and pressure to perform at machine speed.
This panel explores how leaders redesign employee experience to sustain performance without eroding wellbeing, trust, and long-term capability. 


Moderator:  TBA


Darek Lenart, EVP People and Capability

Mastercard

Michelle Goldman, SVP EX & Development

Verizon

Megan Roberts, VP Total Rewards & People Solutions

Pernod Ricard

Katerina Zacharia, Chief People Officer, OD and Growth

WPP

Nisha Verma, Chief People Officer

Avanade

Amy Lupinski, SVP HR

IBM 

PANEL 3 | Build the Role: Talent Development, Self-Driven Job Design, and Talent Market Dynamics

PANEL 3 | Build the Role: Talent Development, Self-Driven Job Design, and Talent Market Dynamics

PANEL 3 | Build the Role: Talent Development, Self-Driven Job Design, and Talent Market Dynamics

This panel examines how leaders enable self-driven role design, develop organizational design for fluid talent development, and position their organization to win in a shifting talent market.
Static job descriptions are breaking down as roles evolve faster than organizations can define them.
Talent is increasingly expected to shape its own scope, while companies compete to attract and retain adaptable, high-agency individuals. 


Moderator: TBA


Manish Verma, Chief Talent & Leadership Officer

Randstad

Michaela Schoberova, SVP HR

Colgate-Palmolive

Julia Johnson, VP HR

IBM 

SIGNATURE LEADERSHIP THINK-TANKS

CASE-STUDY: The Underdog Advantage: Mission Over Money, and People First in a 1% World

PANEL 3 | Build the Role: Talent Development, Self-Driven Job Design, and Talent Market Dynamics

A) Delivering Workforce AI to Connect People With Work  with Carla Garcia Williams at Visier  


B) Talent Value Propositions Alive in Daily Leadership: Smart Work vs. Productivity  with Rumbi Petrozzello at Seramount 


C) 2027 Augmented Workforce Idea-Jam: Sharing what’s supercharging us at work for good now with Senior Executive at TBA 


D) Cognitive Surrender as a Result of Tech at Work with Michael Zambon at American Water 

CASE-STUDY: The Underdog Advantage: Mission Over Money, and People First in a 1% World

CASE-STUDY: The Underdog Advantage: Mission Over Money, and People First in a 1% World

CASE-STUDY: The Underdog Advantage: Mission Over Money, and People First in a 1% World

with Dorinda Capole, Chief Learning Officer

Montefiore Health System 

Better-Ways: Three Smarter Inputs Driving STRONGER HR Outputs

CASE-STUDY: The Underdog Advantage: Mission Over Money, and People First in a 1% World

CASE-STUDY: The Underdog Advantage: Mission Over Money, and People First in a 1% World

1. Building Workforce Resilience & Talent Pipelines in the Age of Skill Disruption,

with Matthew Daniel, Senior Talent Strategy & Mobility Principal  

Guild Education, Inc


2. AI-Enabled Decision Making: Scaling Workforce Intelligence Beyond HR

with Carla Garcia Williams, Managing Director - Workforce Intelligence at Visier


3. Talent Acquisition in Transition: Hiring With Speed, Fairness, and Strategic Insight

with Andy Nelesen, Head of Market Insight and Solutions at SHL

leaders lounge accelerator: whole audience workshop part 1

Led by Paul Gimenez, CHRO Advisor, Applied Neuroscience

Think Clearly, Adapt Wisely, and Lead with Humanity Under Pressure


AI is increasing organizational leverage. It is also changing the human systems performance still depends on: attention, judgment, authorship, learning, resilience, and cognitive load.


The central risk is not that people use AI. It is that they use it passively, constantly, and without norms that protect the capacities high performance requires. 

Download Agenda

HR Recharged Oct 2026 SPIN Flatiron (pdf)Download

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