Sponsor speaker

William Coombes serves as an advocate for the end-users of Visa’s systems, both internal and consumer-facing. As the Vice President of User Experience for Visa, Coombes is responsible for visual design, usability, design innovation and design engineering for many platforms, including Visa’s newest initiative, Visa Developer. With teams in Austin, San Francisco, Miami and New York City, his teams specialize in expanding financial inclusion for all. Coombes also serves as executive sponsor of Diversity and Inclusion initiatives and serves as a community liaison and outreach partner for GirlStart, Austin Pets Alive, Keep Austin Beautiful, and Capitol Area Food Bank.

Featured speakers

Alan Goss contributes to the strategic communications needs of numerous clients for H+K Strategies’ Austin. As the Vice President of Corporate Advisory Practice, Goss focuses on corporate communications (internal and external), reputation management activities as well as CSR-related program development and communications campaigns. Prior to joining the firm, Alan worked as a Digital Media Strategist at KLRU-TV PBS in Austin where he assisted in strategic planning and business development efforts and also coordinated community outreach initiatives.

J.R. Ruiz has almost 15 years of experience partnering with and advising government CXOs on operational and strategic people issues. As the Senior Manager of Deloitte Consulting Human Capital, Ruiz works across federal, state and local government sectors with clients in areas ranging from health and human services to higher education and transportation, her portfolio of work focuses on delivering services including organizational and talent strategies, strategic communications and organizational assessment and design.

Annette Alexander is responsible for the strategic vision for human resources as well as company culture at WP Engine. As the Chief People Officer, Alexander has over 15 years of experience in finding and cultivating talent for companies in the e-commerce, financial services, industrial engineering, and technology industries. During her career, she has lived in 5 countries cultivating an impressive track record of successfully building and leading global HR teams.

Bill Blackstone is known to be a creative problem solver and approaches business through the lens of the arts. As the General Manager of Galvanize Austin, the company has expanded to seven campuses in Colorado, San Francisco, Seattle, and Austin with 2000 members and over 1000 graduates. Each campus offers industry-focused educational programs and a wealth of community resources for startups and enterprise tech companies. Prior to Galvanize, Bill spent 11 years at Rackspace holding a variety of leadership positions at the company including leading global IT operations, customer support, and the Rackspace Austin office.

Dr. Bruce Porter has published extensively in the areas of knowledge systems and automated questionanswering, research areas at the core of intelligent tutoring systems for education. After completing his Ph.D. from the University of California at Irvine in 1984, Dr. Porter joined the faculty of the Department of Computer Science at The University of Texas at Austin.

Merrill Davis is a trusted advisor to corporate clients on public affairs, corporate communications and internal communications for energy and healthcare clients. As the Executive Vice President of Public Affairs for H+K Strategies, Davis manages message development, targeted communications, and stakeholder engagement for numerous clients. Her expertise also lies in government relations and public affairs campaigns, working with clients to identify priorities and build winning coalitions to achieve legislative and regulatory goals.

Robert Loughran is Board Certified in Immigration and Nationality Law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization. As Managing Partner of Foster LLP’s Austin office, the company is one of the leading Global Immigration practices in the country, In addition to industry leading U.S. immigration expertise, Loughran is admitted to practice before the U.S. District Court Southern District of Texas and the U.S. Court of Appeals (5th Circuit) and is regularly invited to speak and publish on immigration issues.

Caroline Joiner oversees TechNet’s expanding state advocacy and political activities in Texas, Florida, North Carolina, Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia, and manages issue advocacy, government affairs, events, policy analysis, political fundraising, membership relations, coalition building, and media relations. As the Executive Director, Joiner has nearly two decades of experience in government affairs, political consulting, grassroots organizing and strategic communications. Prior to TechNet, she served as Vice President of the Global Intellectual Property Center at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in Washington, D.C.

Matt McClung conducts in-depth quantitative and qualitative analysis to deliver data-driven insights that inform client strategic communications plans, increasing the impact and performance success of client business goals. As the Vice President for Research+Data Insights, McClung measures programs for clients across a variety of industries, including automotive, financial services, hospitality, technology and health care. Before joining Hill+Knowlton Strategies, Matt worked as a media consultant and producer at the Houston political consulting firm Campaign Strategies, Inc.

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