The Fall Edition of the North American HR Executive Summit

Claire MacIntyre serves as the Senior Vice President and Chief People Officer at Sam’s Club, a leading membership warehouse club. In her role, Claire oversees all people-related matters for more than 100,000 associates across the U.S. and Puerto Rico. She and her team are focused on accelerating career growth and opportunity, prioritizing associate well-being, driving a culture of belonging, and enabling associates with digital tools to further evolve ways of working.

Prior to joining Sam’s Club, Claire was at Estee Lauder for five years, where she was head of human resources (HR) for the global corporate functions and value chain and was responsible for developing global HR strategic needs and priorities across these areas of the business. She also spent nearly 20 years at Diageo, a British multinational beverage company, where she held various HR leadership roles including vice president of human resources for the North America supply chain, global vice president of talent engagement, and head of resourcing for the Americas.

Claire is an inclusive, agile, dynamic HR business leader with nearly 25 years of global experience, bringing with her a proven track record in people strategy creation and execution. She holds a master’s degree in management science from the University of Glasgow and lives with her husband in Northwest Arkansas.

Blair Bennett is the Senior Vice President, Global Talent Acquisition at PepsiCo. She leads the Global Talent Acquisition Centers of Expertise, along with Talent Foresight and Career Transitions—advancing how PepsiCo attracts and hires talent worldwide, plans for future capability needs, and delivers a more connected experience for associates across the moments that matter.

Since joining PepsiCo in 2019, Blair has focused on strengthening PepsiCo as an employer of choice and elevating experiences aligned to the company’s Create More Smiles mission.

Blair’s background includes an early career in political consulting and subsequently talent leadership roles at Korn Ferry and Walmart, giving her a distinctive perspective on leadership, influence, and talent strategy.

Alim Dhanji is a globally recognized HR thought leader and the Chief Human Resources Officer of TD SYNNEX (NYSE: SNX), a Fortune 100 technology company with over $80B in annual billings and operations in over 55 countries powered by 24,000 talented co-workers. With over 25 years of leadership experience across public, private, and founder-led companies, Alim brings a combination of deep human capital expertise, commercial acumen, and operational leadership.

At TD SYNNEX, Alim is driving a transformation to drive high performance, elevate leadership accountability, and prepare the workforce for the demands of AI, digital transformation, and rapid market shifts. He partners closely with the CEO and Board to embed a culture of clarity, ownership, and innovation at scale.

Prior to TD SYNNEX, Alim held senior executive roles including President of Adidas Canada, where he led a growth acceleration and expansion, and CHRO roles across multiple industries including technology, consumer goods, financial services, and retail. He is widely respected for his ability to connect business strategy with leadership development and talent acceleration.

Alim is a trusted advisor on CEO succession, leadership, and organizational culture. He is also an active member of the Harvard Business Review Advisory Council and a mental health advocate as CEO advisor with Project Healthy Minds.

With a truly global perspective shaped by experiences across North America, Europe, Asia, and Africa, Alim is passionate about building inclusive, resilient organizations. He has been recognized as a Top 10 Global LGBT+ Executive by Yahoo Finance and the Financial Times for his leadership in diversity and inclusion.

Alim is a graduate of Harvard Business School’s Advanced Management Program and currently resides in New York.

​Anna-Maria (Ria) Rossini-Nicholls is a seasoned management, learning and inclusion executive with over 30+ years of experience. She is known for fostering a culture of high expectations and empowering individuals to succeed and learn from failures.​

In her current role as Head of Global Talent Management and Learning at Wells Fargo, Ria oversees talent and performance management, workforce management, and enterprise learning. She is responsible for designing the future state of talent management practices, executive and manager development practices and programs, inclusion practices, skills requirements for Wells Fargo and the strategy behind learning and talent development across the business and enterprise.​

Ria’s career includes 17 years at Bank of America, where she held roles of increasing accountability and scope all in human resources roles with an emphasis in Learning & Leadership Development. She has also worked with several large organizations, including Microsoft and First Data Corporation. She holds a Master of Arts in Organizational Development from the Fielding Graduate Institute and a Bachelor of Arts in Communication from the University of Colorado, Boulder.​

Melissa Huntley is a seasoned talent and leadership executive with a strong track record of strengthening organizational capability and performance in large, high‑growth companies. She currently serves as Visa’s Global Head of Talent Management & Development, where she is responsible for ensuring the company has the leadership, talent, and capabilities needed to succeed now and in the future.

Prior to joining Visa, Melissa served as Global Head of Talent Management at Salesforce, where she also led the Talent and Leadership integration following Salesforce’s acquisition of Tableau. Earlier in her career, she led global talent practices and served as an HR Business Partner at Nike and worked in various talent and business partner roles at MetLife, Viacom, and Johnson & Johnson.

Melissa has built deep credibility as a talent management expert while also taking on broader employee experience and enterprise leadership challenges. She currently serves on the Talent Management Advisory Board for Red Thread Research and lives in Atlanta, Georgia, with her family.

Rachel Chiappetta is a consumer-packaged goods executive with a dynamic career that has seen her rise to her current position as Chief Human Resources Officer. With a strong foundation in sales, marketing, and business development, she brings a unique and commercially focused perspective to her leadership in the human resources field.

Rachel’s career began at Black & Decker, where she spent over five years building a robust skill set in marketing and sales. She progressed through several key roles, including Category Manager, National Business Manager, and ultimately Product Marketing Manager, where she directed product development and strategy for a $100M+ line of industrial power tools.

Transitioning to the pet care industry, Rachel took on progressively senior roles in sales and marketing. As National Grocery Sales Director, she led a team of associates and was responsible for the growth of a $300M business. Her journey continued through roles as Sales Planning Director and Marketing Director, where she honed her expertise in category strategy, cross-functional leadership, and innovation.

In 2019, Rachel pivoted her career toward Human Resources, leveraging her deep business acumen to drive talent strategy. She quickly advanced from North America Senior Director of Human Resources to Global Senior Director, taking on responsibilities for acquisition integration and change management. Her success in these roles culminated in her current appointment as the head of the global human resources function for the Champion Petfoods division within Mars Petcare in September 2024.