Speakers

Chief Information Officer
Senior Vice President, Information Technology
UCSF 

Joe R. Bengfort is enterprise chief information officer for UCSF and senior vice president of information technology (IT) for UCSF Health. He is also an associate vice chancellor for UCSF. His responsibilities include IT strategy and operations for UCSF Health; and IT research, education and administrative systems; data and analytics; and infrastructure, customer support services and security for UCSF. He represents UCSF on IT initiatives at the University of California.

Before joining UCSF in 2011, Bengfort worked for 22 years at Perot Systems, where he held a broad range of senior leadership positions; his duties included managing client relationships and service delivery at Parkland Memorial Hospital, Lucile Packard Children's Hospital Stanford, Triad Hospitals and Stanford Health Care. He has a bachelor's degree in electronic engineering technology from Texas A&M University.

Carine Kanimba is a Rwandan activist who advocated for the release of her father, Paul Rusesabagina, a dissident who was detained by the Rwandan government. Carine Kanimba is the adopted daughters of Paul Rusesabagina, the hotel manager who inspired the film Hotel Rwanda.

Together, Carine Kanimba and ReadySet founder Y-Vonne Hutchinson will explore the interconnectedness of global issues and their impact on individual lives.

The discussion brings together Kanimba's personal experience with international human rights and Hutchinson's expertise as a international human rights lawyer and consultant on diversity, equity, and inclusion.

Carine and Y-Vonne argue that events happening across the world are relevant to everyone’s own lives, even when there doesn’t seem to be a direct link. They disagree with the temptation to ignore international issues, and instead propose new ways to engage with global challenges without becoming overwhelmed.

Carine and Y-Vonne will talk about the intersection of DEI, human rights, and global belonging, and how these concepts are intrinsically linked in our increasingly interconnected world.

With the upcoming consequential US election in mind, the talk also goes into the significance of being a global citizen on the world stage. Carine and Y-Vonne will discuss how individual actions and awareness can contribute to broader international dynamics and policy decisions.

By the end of the, talk hopes to answer the question: what does it mean to be a global citizen?

She is known for her role as a longtime professor at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, where she co-taught the popular “Interpersonal Dynamics” course, commonly referred to as “Touchy Feely.”

This course focuses on helping students develop their emotional intelligence and improve their interpersonal relationships.

Robin is the co-author of the book “Connect: Building Exceptional Relationships with Family, Friends, and Colleagues,” which she wrote with her colleague David Bradford. The book draws on their experiences teaching the “Touchy Feely” course and offers practical advice on how to build deeper, more meaningful relationships in both personal and professional contexts.

VP of People, Pixar

At Responsive Conference 2024, Reema Batnagar, VP of People at Pixar, Rebecca Port, PhD, CHRO at 10x Genomics, and Samara Jaffe, Co-founder and GM at Transform, will discuss how to foster connection in a distributed world.

This session will explore how various organizations are addressing the challenges of building connection in a distributed work environment. Reema will share insights from Pixar, where creative collaboration is key, while Rebecca will discuss creating connections among scientists working together in labs.

As a group, they will provide strategies for enhancing team cohesion and connection in the modern, distributed workplace.

Ellen Huet is an award-winning journalist who writes about startups and Silicon Valley culture for Bloomberg News and Bloomberg Businessweek.

She is writing a book about OneTaste, a sexual wellness company that’s alleged to be a sex cult. She is also the host of a seven-episode Bloomberg podcast series about the rise and fall of WeWork.

Gayle Karen Young is a culture-builder and a catalyst for human and organizational development. She comes from a rich organizational consulting background with both corporate and nonprofit clients. She was in process of becoming a monk when she became an executive instead, taking on the role of Chief Culture and Talent Officer at the Wikimedia Foundation (Wikipedia and its sister free-knowledge projects) until early 2015, when she decided to return to private practice as a rogue provocateur. Born in the Philippines to Chinese parents and raised in the United States, she has a multicultural perspective, an adventurous spirit, and a deep commitment to expanding human freedom.

She has worked as a facilitator for the Stanford Graduate School of Business Interpersonal Dynamics course and their Women in Management program, and mentors for programs such as the Unreasonable Institute and Singularity University. She is keenly interested in the intersection of technology and human rights, and supports democracy movements at home and abroad.

Roy Bahat is the OG investor in the future of work. He’s a venture capitalist, educator, and activist. Roy is the head of Bloomberg Beta, the venture capital arm of Bloomberg, and teaches at UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business.

#ThisIsNotAdvice is Roy Bahat’s series about work. Started as a daily series during the pandemic, it has evolved into a community-edited, comprehensive reference guide on how to work.

Y-Vonne Hutchinson is a former international human rights lawyer and the founder of Ready Set, a diversity solutions firm based in Oakland, CA.

Y-Vonne believes that big problems require big toolkits. She loves using interdisciplinary approaches to solve complex problems, and is most happy when she is building a bridge between research and practice. Prior to launching ReadySet, she worked as an international labor and human rights lawyer for nearly a decade. She has worked with foreign national governments, the US Department of State, and the UN.

She is a member of Harvard Law’s Institute for Global Law and Policy network and an expert on labor relations and diversity in the workplace.