@Work Livestream Series

Cynthia Marshall

Cynt Marshall has been a dynamic force for inclusion and diversity within the Mavericks organization and over a 36-year career at AT&T. When Cynt was hired as new the CEO of the Mavs in March 2018, she set her sights on a culture transformation. Her vision was for the Mavericks organization to become the NBA standard for inclusion and diversity, and brought transparency, trust and her values-based leadership style that evolved the company culture in her first 100 days.

Prior to her joining the Mavs, Cynt founded Marshalling Resources, a consulting firm specializing in Leadership, Diversity & Inclusion, Culture Transformation and overall optimization of people resources. Upon the company naming its first Chief Inclusion Officer in June 2017, Cynt worked with The Dow Chemical Company to develop and implement a strategy for institutionalizing an inclusive culture.

Cynt’s notoriety began many years ago as a young Officer at AT&T and grew exponentially when she served as Senior Vice President – Human Resources & Chief Diversity Officer at AT&T. There she was responsible for identifying and developing leaders, aligning employees with the company’s vision and priorities, overseeing major business unit HR support, performance development, employee engagement, skills transformation initiatives, EEO and Affirmative Action. Cynt also led the team that created a world class Diversity and Inclusion culture, landing AT&T in the top 3 on Diversity Inc’s 2017 Top 50 list of companies. She also spearheaded the work that for the first time placed AT&T on Fortune’s 100 Best Companies to Work For list in 2017, one of only two Fortune 50 companies.

Before her SVP-Human Resources and Chief Diversity Office roles, Cynt served as President-AT&T North Carolina where she became the first African-American chair of the North Carolina State Chamber of Commerce. Prior to her North Carolina appointment, Cynt held a variety of executive line and staff, technical and non-technical positions at AT&T and its predecessor companies.

Widely recognized for her visionary leadership and ability to get things done Cynt is the recipient of several honors and awards. Most recently, Cynt was touted as one of Adweek’s 30 Most Powerful Women in Sports and was selected as one of the 2019 Women of Power Legacy Award honorees by Black Enterprise. In 2017, she was honored by The Network Journal as one of the 25 Most Influential Women in Business. In 2017, Cynt was awarded the ATHENA® Leadership Program Award by the Dallas Regional Chamber, which recognizes exceptional women who excel in their careers, contribute to their communities and develop women leaders. This annual award is presented by chambers of commerce, women’s organizations and universities worldwide. In 2019 and three times prior, she was selected as one of the “50 Most Powerful Women in Corporate America” by Black Enterprise magazine and named to Ebony magazine’s 2016 “Power 100” list. In 2014, industry analysts and members of the press conferred on Cynt the HR Executive of the Year - Best in Biz Award. For her efforts on behalf of the people of North Carolina, in 2013 Cynt received the prestigious Leadership North Carolina Governor’s Award, which honors just one citizen each year for lifetime achievements.

Cynt graduated from the University of California-Berkeley with degrees in Business Administration and Human Resources Management and holds four honorary Doctorate degrees. She has chaired a variety of non-profit boards and is currently on the board of Dallas CASA, Dallas Regional Chamber, Texas Women’s Foundation and a member of the Executive Leadership Council (ELC).

The fourth of six children, Cynt grew up in Richmond, California, and lives in the Dallas area. She and her husband, Kenneth Marshall, have four adult children.

Bill McDermott

Bill McDermott is President and CEO of ServiceNow. He was previously CEO of SAP. He also served as EVP, Worldwide Sales and Operations at Siebel Systems, President of Gartner, and Division President and Corporate Officer at Xerox.

Julie Sweet

Julie Sweet is chief executive officer of Accenture and serves on the company’s board of directors.

Prior to becoming CEO in September 2019, Julie served as chief executive officer of Accenture’s business in North America, the company’s largest geographic market. Previously, she was Accenture’s general counsel, secretary and chief compliance officer for five years. Prior to joining Accenture in 2010, Julie was a partner for 10 years in the law firm Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP.

Outside of Accenture, Julie is a leader on topics including innovation, technology’s impact on business, and inclusion and diversity. She is a member of the World Economic Forum's International Business Council, the Business Roundtable and the TechNet Executive Council. Julie also serves on the board of directors for Catalyst, the board of trustees for the Center for Strategic & International Studies and the board of trustees for the Marriott Foundation for People with Disabilities - Bridges from School to Work. In 2019, she was named to FORTUNE’s list of “Most Powerful Women” for the fourth consecutive year.

Julie holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Claremont McKenna College and a Juris Doctor from Columbia Law School.

Paulette Alviti

Paulette is Executive Vice President and Chief People Officer for Mondelēz International, a global company leading the future of snacking with 2019 net revenues of approximately $26 billion. She joined the company in June 2018 and is responsible for the company’s human resources function worldwide, including talent management, leadership and capability development, compensation and benefits, change management, employee relations as well as diversity and inclusion.

Paulette has been a leader in Human Resources for more than twenty-five years, partnering to drive business results through a focus on culture and talent to achieve long term business goals. Her areas of expertise include talent and organization development, change and transformation leadership that closely aligns an organization’s people assets to accelerate its business strategy.

Prior to joining the company, Paulette served as Senior Vice President & Chief Human Resources Officer at Foot Locker, Inc., a global retailer of athletically inspired shoes and apparel. Before Foot Locker, Paulette held various senior leadership positions at PepsiCo and The Pepsi Bottling Group in both developed and emerging markets, including serving as Senior Vice President & Chief Human Resources Officer at PepsiCo Asia, Middle East and Africa.

Paulette received her bachelor’s degree from the University of Connecticut School of Business and holds an MBA with a focus in Business Management from PACE University.

Paulette received her bachelor’s degree from the University of Connecticut School of Business and holds an MBA with a focus in Business Management from PACE University.

Diane Gherson

Diane is a Senior Vice President of IBM and serves as Special Advisor to the CEO. She stepped down from the role of Chief Human Resources Officer on September 1 2020 to transition her successor and will retire from IBM in December. As CHRO of IBM from 2013 - 2020, Diane led the people strategy, leadership, skills, careers, engagement, employee services, labor cost, diversity and inclusion of the more than 350,000 person workforce covering 170 countries.

During her tenure as CHRO, as IBM dramatically shifted its business portfolio, Diane redesigned all aspects of the company’s people agenda and management systems to shape a culture of continuous learning, innovation and agility. At the same time, she digitally transformed the HR function, incorporating AI and automation across all offerings, resulting in more than $100 million in net benefits in 2017. Diane has championed the company’s global adoption of design thinking and agile methods at scale, as an example, driving a company-wide, co-created overhaul of performance management.

Diane is an external advocate for social issues affecting employees, such as DACA, transgender inclusion, addressing bias in AI, and ensuring data transparency in health care. Under Diane’s leadership in stewarding diversity and inclusion, IBM received the prestigious 2018 Catalyst Award for advancing women in business.

With a U.S. patent in the field of predictive analytics, Diane is a leading voice on the topic of reinventing the profession of HR to create consumer-grade experiences for employees, predictive advice for business leaders, and improved productivity for the business. Diane’s thought leadership on the future of work has been highlighted in media outlets such as CNBC, CNN, Forbes, Fortune, and Harvard Business Review.

In 2018, Diane was named HR Executive of the Year by HR Executive, and was elected as Fellow of the National Academy of Human Resources (NAHR), the highest honor granted in the human resource profession. She serves on the board of directors of the HR Policy Association and the Health Transformation Alliance.

Diane joined IBM in 2002 from consulting firm Willis Towers Watson where she led the global pay and performance management practice. Diane earned a Bachelor of Arts with honors from Trinity College, University of Toronto, and a master’s degree in Industrial and Labor Relations from Cornell University. She is all but dissertated in the PhD program at the Sloan School of Management.

Jon Fortt

Jon Fortt is co-anchor of CNBC's "Squawk Alley" (M-F, 11AM-12PM ET) broadcast live from the New York Stock Exchange. Previously, he was an on-air editor based at CNBC's global headquarters in Englewood Cliffs, N.J. Fortt joined CNBC as technology correspondent in July 2010, working from CNBC's Silicon Valley bureau where he covered the companies, start-ups and trends that are driving innovation in the industry. He also contributes to CNBC.com.

He came to CNBC from Fortune magazine, where as a senior writer he covered both large technology companies— such as Cisco, Hewlett-Packard, and Microsoft—and trends, including cloud computing and the smartphone revolution.

Before joining Fortune in 2007, Fortt was a senior editor at Business 2.0magazine where he produced the "What Works" section.

From 1999 to 2006, Fortt wrote and edited at the San Jose Mercury News, Silicon Valley's hometown newspaper. There he contributed to several efforts that won awards from the Society of American Business Editors and Writers.

As a personal technology writer, his coverage duties included Apple, Palm and Adobe. He also served in roles outside the business department, covering education, editing local news and developing technology strategy. As the newspaper's senior Web editor, he helped develop a blog and podcast network, managed the creation of multimedia projects and served on the board of the Associated Press Managing Editors.

Fortt graduated from DePauw University as a Media Fellow, with a B.A. in English.

Follow Jon Fortt on Twitter @jonfortt. Listen to his podcast, Fortt Knox.