Building Inclusive Leadership Pipelines: Data-Driven Succession Pathways for Diverse Talent

Alicia ‘Cia’ Kouparitsas is an award-winning executive manager who has spent 15+ years leading teams in the IT sector across the Asia Pacific, UK, USA and Canada. Now, as Chief Customer Officer at WithYouWithMe, Cia dedicates her efforts to building highly skilled, innovative and thriving workforces while also creating opportunities for people from underserved communities.

Across global markets, Cia is a passionate advocate for building skills-based workforces that allow all individuals to realise their full potential, regardless of their cultural, social or employment backgrounds. She also works alongside leading organisations to support the strategic upskilling of diverse individuals.

Storm Vance brings a wealth of experience and expertise to mentorship and leadership development as a program designer and workshop leader using Art of Mentoring's methodologies. Storm is dedicated to providing exceptional experiences for a diverse international client portfolio, including corporate, government, and association clients across North America.

With extensive experience in curriculum development and instruction, Storm ensures that content is tailored to each group's specific needs and learning goals. She is experienced in many educational settings, leading academic programing, coaching instructional teams, and serving extensively across departments. Storm holds a master's degree in educational administration from Concordia University and is a trusted leader in creating impactful and sustainable mentoring programs.

Tara has extensive HR experience from major organisations such as Comcast, P&G, The Hershey Company, and Pearson where she has held roles as an HR business partner and in Talent Management.

Tara is passionate about driving wellness, building high-performing teams, supporting people development, and contributing to business success. As a values-driven leader, her goal is to optimise energy within organisations, which she accomplishes through coaching, wellness programs, talent planning, culture-building, and leadership development.

She has led large-scale projects with significant impact on both people and businesses and also works 1:1 with individuals, helping them achieve breakthroughs and advance their careers and life purpose.

Currently, Tara leads a global HR team for Pearson, a company committed to helping people realise the life they imagine through learning.