Speakers

Nicky Garcea is a Co-founder and Chief Customer Officer at Cappfinity. She is an accredited industrial psychologist. Nicky works with Cappfinity clients globally and heads up the Americas. Nicky has over 20 years’ experience working with global clients. She is a pioneer in recruiting and developing for strengths and the recruitment and promotion of underrepresented talent. Nicky is a regular keynote speaker on candidate experience and immersive recruitment technology.

Shelagh is Director for Career & Employabity at the University of Edinburgh, leading on careers and employability across the University. Her team work with three key stakeholder groups – students, employers and university colleagues – to ensure the diverse student body achieve successful transitions to life beyond the University. An economics graduate from the University of Aberdeen, Shelagh also completed postgraduate studies in Careers Education, Information and Guidance at Edinburgh Napier.

Shelagh has over 20 years’ experience in Higher Education careers and employability, building on previous experience in professional out-placement and redundancy support. From 2016-18 Shelagh was President of the Association of Graduate Careers Advisory Services (ACGAS). She represented Higher Education on the Scottish Government Careers Strategy Steering Group, is a member of the Young Persons Guarantee implementation group leading on support for recent graduates, and is overseeing a £3.5m SFC funded project GCAS (Graduate Careers Advantage Scotland).

Michael Harbaugh is currently the Global Director of Education Partnerships at Handshake, leading their efforts to expand the network of higher education partners in North America and Europe. As an early team member at Handshake, he has helped the company innovate and grow their broad network to where it is today, and he helps lead the strategy and vision for Handshake’s future in higher education.

Michael has had a varied career in social justice education, beginning his work in the classroom as a mathematics teacher in the Teach For America program. He subsequently worked in the public policy and non-profit sectors with organizations like Urban Leaders Fellowship and College Track. His approach to his current role remains centered on ensuring that Handshake can leverage their network scale to have the greatest positive impact on equity of access to positive outcomes for all students. That work is core to our mission as a company.

Simon Kho is the Director of Emerging Talent Acquisition and Development Programs at Discover Financial Services. He oversees the team responsible for student attraction and recruitment, as well as the two-year rotational development programs for early career professionals globally. 

Simon is a career human capital leader with experience leading change across multiple industries. He has led the creation, expansion and turnaround of the university relations and emerging talent functions at a number of large, global employers including KPMG, BP, and JPMorgan. Outside of university relations, Simon has served as the Chief Talent Officer of a start-up financial advisory firm and Vice President of Global Talent Acquisition at one of the world’s leading executive search and leadership consulting firms. He is passionate about establishing university and emerging talent as a strategic imperative for long-term organizational success.

Prior to corporate recruiting, Simon worked as a university administrator, working in Student Affairs at Michigan State University and Fordham University. Simon holds an undergraduate degree from Boston College. His masters degree, from Fordham University (NY), is in Counseling and Personnel Service.

Lindsey Pollak is a New York Times bestselling author and a leading career and workplace expert. She is the author of four career advice books including her latest, Recalculating: Navigate Your Career Through the Changing World of Work, and her speaking audiences and consulting clients have included more than 250 corporations, law firms, conferences and universities. For six years she served as an official ambassador for LinkedIn, and her advice and opinions have appeared in such media outlets as The TODAY Show, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, CNN and NPR. Lindsey is a graduate of Yale University.

Bryan is the head of University Relations at Abbott responsible for a global team accountable for the design and delivery of the enterprise strategy attracting and recruiting next generation talent.

Bryan started his career with Abbott leading operations recruitment and has taken on several projects in this space with a global impact including the design and implementation of Abbott’s Campus Ambassador Program and redesign of the operations pipeline strategy for campus recruitment. Most recently, Bryan assumed the leadership role managing programs supporting the entire globe. This included the management and oversight of all recruitment strategies, building and strengthening internship recruiting partnerships with the business, managing intern engagement, and leading a best in class University Relations team.

Prior to Abbott, he was Director of Learning and Development at Lincoln Park Zoo where he reimagined the training and onboarding programs for the entire zoo. Bryan also worked for Disney for 16 years where he managed education operations at Disney’s Animal Kingdom. He also provided leadership for recruitment efforts for Disney’s college intern program which is one of the largest corporate internship programs in the world.

Bryan holds a bachelor’s degree in biology and chemistry from Francis Marion University and has a 20+ year track record of leadership in the Talent Acquisition space. Bryan has also held several positions for the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE). He has chaired the Leadership Advancement Program for NACE and sits on an Employer Advisory Committee.

Mario Vela is a double alumnus of The University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA), one of the largest Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSI) in the United States and one of 20 tier one HSIs (Carnegie R1). During his time at UTSA, Mario earned his Bachelor of Arts in Sociology & Philosophy and his Master of Science in Sociology. After earning his bachelor’s degree, Mario started his professional career in social services at the non-profit Family Service Association in San Antonio. Before joining the UTSA University Career Center (UCC), Mario held the role of Director of Partnerships at the Hispanic Alliance for Career Enhancement (HACE) in Chicago, a leading organization dedicated to the employment, development, and advancement of current and aspiring Latino professionals. After HACE, Mario served as the Director of Employer Relations at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University in Chicago. In this role, Mario created, monitored, and evaluated the sustainable development and maintenance of over one thousand recruiting relationships. In 2019, Mario returned to his alma mater to serve as the Executive Director of the University Career Center after nearly a decade in Chicago. As of 2021, Mario is the Assistant Vice-Provost of Career Engaged Learning to advance UTSA’s Classroom to Careers initiatives.