Heidrick & Struggles is a premier provider of global leadership advisory and on-demand talent solutions and has worked with more than 70% of Fortune 1000 companies across sectors and industries. Our expertise enables our clients to find the world’s best leaders and transform their teams, achieving the highest levels of profitability and performance.

Engine by Gen serves as the B2B brand of Gen (NASDAQ: GEN).
Engine is the category-leading embedded finance marketplace platform,
matching consumers with real-time, personalized financial product
recommendations from the largest connected network of top providers—
on mobile apps, websites, and other consumer touchpoints.

Michelle Moore is head of Digital, Data & Artificial Intelligence for Wells Fargo Consumer Banking and Lending.

In her role, Michelle leads the strategy, customer experience, and delivery of digital, data, analytics, and artificial intelligence capabilities for Consumer Banking and Lending and Wealth & Investment Management clients. Her team helps drive responsible growth and engagement by bringing together customer-centered digital experiences, advanced analytics, artificial intelligence, data products, and governance to make banking simpler, smarter, and more intuitive for customers.

Michelle is a senior banking executive with more than 25 years of broad experience across major financial institutions and advisory organizations. Her experience spans digital banking, physical channels, contact center and ATM operations, fraud operations, product management, finance, and enterprise strategy, giving her a practical, end-to-end perspective on how banks operate, serve customers, and evolve through change.

Her work has earned industry recognition, including being named the 2017 Digital Banker of the Year by American Banker and one of the 2017 Innovators to Watch by BankInnovation.

A graduate of Cornell University, where she earned a Bachelor of Science in economics, Michelle also holds a Master of Business Administration in finance from the University of Rochester’s Simon School of Business. She serves on the Board of Trustees at Davidson Day School, is an active volunteer with Young Men’s Service League, and is a nine-time marathon finisher.

L. Allison Dukes has served as Senior Managing Director and Chief Financial Officer of Invesco Ltd (NYSE: IVZ) since 2020. In this role, she leads all global corporate finance functions, including strategic and financial planning, investor relations, corporate development, accounting, corporate tax, treasury, procurement, corporate services and global public policy.

Prior to joining Invesco, Ms. Dukes served as Chief Financial Officer of SunTrust Banks (now
Truist Financial Corporation). Prior to becoming Chief Financial Officer, Ms. Dukes served in a series of leadership roles throughout her 20 years of service with SunTrust, including Head of Commercial & Business Banking, which included delivery of SunTrust’s investment banking and capital markets capabilities, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Atlanta Division of SunTrust, Co-Head of Private Wealth Management, and Head of Syndicated Finance Originations for SunTrust Robinson Humphrey.

Ms. Dukes currently serves on the board of Haverty Furniture Companies, Inc. (NYSE: HVT) where she chairs the nominating, compensation and governance committee. Ms. Dukes also serves on the Board of Trustees for Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, where she chairs the finance committee, the Board of Trustees for Emory University, the board of Junior Achievement of Georgia where she previously served as Board Chair from 2019 to 2021, and as a trustee for the John and Mary Franklin Foundation. Prior civic board service includes the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce Executive Board, the Atlanta History Center, the Alliance Theater at the Woodruff Arts Center, trustee of the Camp-Younts Foundation, trustee of the Pitts Foundation, and Chair of the SunTrust Trusteed Foundations.

Ms. Dukes earned a Bachelor of Science degree in mathematics from Vanderbilt University and a Master of Business Administration from the Goizueta Business School at Emory University. Allison and her husband, Billy, are natives of Atlanta and have two sons.

For rising executives, moving into leadership roles with increasing responsibility and influence requires more than executing day-to-day duties. It demands the ability to envision and drive visible, meaningful ideas that lead to business outcomes and/or institutional change. This session outlines the strategic roadmap for turning a strategic business, market or innovation idea into a career-defining promotion. Our panel of prominent executives will deconstruct the mechanics of stress-testing an original idea, how to successfully execute it while also capturing the attention of an executive sponsor who can advocate for your ascension, and steps to leverage your success into a promotion. Our panelists will discuss:

The Genesis of an Idea: How should a rising executive evaluate an idea to ensure it aligns with core corporate KPIs (e.g., efficiency ratios, new revenue streams) rather than just being a “passion project”?

Sponsorship vs. Mentorship: How do you intentionally transition a senior leader from a passive mentor who gives advice into an active sponsor who risks political capital for your advancement?

Securing the Promotion: Once the project succeeds, how do you formally position your leadership of that initiative as the primary business case for your promotion?

Stephanie Richard is the chief risk officer of Ally Financial Inc. Appointed to the role in November 2024, Richard is responsible for overseeing the identification, assessment and management of risks across the organization and ensuring the company’s risk strategy supports business goals and objectives. She works closely with senior leadership to develop policies and frameworks to safeguard the company’s financial stability and reputation. Richard reports to the risk committee of the board of directors and to Ally’s CEO.
Since joining Ally in 1997, Richard has had a long and respected reputation with key stakeholders and helped design the company’s initial risk appetite framework and stress testing process. She has served in numerous roles with increasing levels of responsibility across finance, treasury and risk management. Since Ally became a bank holding company in 2008, she has played an integral part in many of the company’s transformation initiatives. Prior to her current role, Richard served as Ally’s chief audit executive where she led the internal audit function and had administrative oversight for the company’s loan review function. During that time, she established a strategic focus on the transformation of the internal audit function, with efforts on cultivating innovation and expanding the use of technology and data analytics.
Richard serves as a board member and treasurer for Dress for Success’s Charlotte chapter and as treasurer for Project Scientist, a leading STEAM education nonprofit organization. She is also a member of the advisory board for the Wake Forest University School of Professional Studies’ enterprise risk management program. Additionally, she previously served as president of Women Executives for Community Service (WECS), a non-profit organization whose mission is to provide support to women pursuing a degree through the Women Initiating and Nurturing Growth through Scholarships (WINGS) program.
In 2022, Richard was an honoree for Charlotte Business Journal’s Women in Business Achievement Awards. She holds a bachelor’s degree in accounting from Michigan State University and an MBA from Wayne State University.

Sandy Kaul is the Head of Digital Assets and Innovation at Franklin Templeton. Her team focuses on how disruptive technologies and innovation are reshaping the trajectory of asset and wealth management and how Franklin Templeton, our clients and our partners evolve their offerings to realize the benefits of new capabilities. Efforts span the enhancement of existing products and services, the creation of new offerings, and the deployment of emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence and digital assets.
Sandy and the team draw on a combination of proprietary industry surveys, a network of fintech investors and vendors, leading industry experts and regulators, and world-class technologists to create and deliver their industry views, advice and expertise. Her work covers the breadth of how investment portfolios, products, investment strategies, services, and customer engagement are evolving. Sandy is the co-chair of the Commodities Futures Trading Commission’s Digital Asset Subcommittee and is on the World Economic Forum Digital Assets Advisory Board and the DTCC’s Digital Asset Advisory Board. She is a frequent speaker at industry conferences, events, podcasts, and webinars and is a sought-after source of information and advice for senior industry leaders.
Prior to joining Franklin Templeton, Sandy had created and built out the Business Advisory Services team over a 12-year period with Citi Global Markets and within Citi Wealth Management. Earlier in her career, Sandy worked on the sell-side as a futures research analyst at Shearson Lehman Brothers, on the buy-side as a portfolio manager at Commodities Corporation/Goldman Sachs Asset Management and as a program manager at J.P. Morgan Private Bank. Sandy additionally has a background in consulting, leading the introduction of web-based capabilities into the institutional financial services space via her work with the innovative technology start-up firm Scient during the Dot.Com era and then with capital markets niche specialty consulting firm m.a.partners in the mid-2000s.
Sandy graduated with a major in History and a minor in Political Science from Colgate University. She actively supports the STEM-focused Young Women’s Leadership School in the Bronx, NY that seeks to improve educational opportunities for women in underserved communities.

Ryan is currently the Head of Digital Assets for Citibank’s business. The TTS team helps enable their global clients by simplifying the management of treasuries, payments and commerce on a day-to-day basis. Recently, Ryan and the team announced Citi Token Services, which is a pilot that enables clients to transfer liquidity between Citi branches on a 24/7 basis. The service uses blockchain and smart contract technologies to deliver digital asset solutions for institutional clients. Citi Token Services will integrate tokenized deposits and smart contracts into Citi’s global network, upgrading core cash management and trade finance capabilities.

In Ryan’s last role she was responsible for IBM’s America’s blockchain team, helping to enhance client’s solutions and capabilities for building Digital Ecosystems. She provided strategic guidance for; operational and governance considerations, technology roadmaps, and services infrastructure to help clients focused on TIPS (Tokenization, Identity, Provenance & Sustainability).

In addition, her team helped build New York’s Excelsior Pass (Digital Wallet for Vaccinations & PCR tests), which was groundbreaking with millions of users and will help serve as a framework to aid in the development and implementation of digital health credentials and beyond. The blueprint will help as a guide to assist other states, territories, and entities in the expansion of credential systems to advance economic development efforts nationwide.

Prior to that Ryan was the Global Head of Industry at R3 (Fintech Startup), where she sat at the forefront of blockchain innovation across multiple industries. She was responsible for the strategic direction of R3’s key verticals, helping industry leaders capture the full benefits of blockchain for their businesses. Ryan also launched the Centre of Excellence for distributed ledger technology (DLT) in cooperation with ACORD (Association for Cooperative Operations Research and Development).

Markie Wagner is the founder and CEO of Poetic, an AI system that learns and executes complex processes with over 99% accuracy while using 10x fewer tokens than traditional agents. Poetic runs high-stakes processes for top-10 banks, insurance companies, and pharmaceutical firms.

Prior to Poetic, Markie dropped out of Standford to run Delphi Labs, an applied AI research and consulting firm. Previously, she was a researcher and engineer at Google, Waymo, and Standford. She is a Thiel Fellow and attended Stanford University.

Shellie Creson is Executive Vice President and Chief Risk Officer of Pinnacle Financial Partners, having joined the firm in conjunction with the recent merger of Pinnacle and Synovus Financial Corp, which was completed in early 2026. This merger formed the preeminent, Southeast growth champion bank, with $115 billion in assets.

In this role, Shellie oversees the firm’s enterprise risk management and all corporate risk functions. She leads corporate risk management strategy, continuing to transform, strengthen, and sustain the company’s risk culture. She is the executive sponsor and responsible for the firm’s Large Bank Advancement program, insuring compliance with regulatory capital and liquidity standards of a Category IV bank which are new to the firm. She provides overall leadership, vision, and direction for enterprise risk management, including credit, compliance, market and liquidity, third-party risk, operational, credit review and model risk management.

Shellie is the executive sponsor and dean of Pinnacle’s Connect Leadership Program, the ultimate leadership development tool for next generation c-suite development. A believer that a strong, diverse workforce makes the firm even stronger, she also serves as executives sponsor for Pinnacle’s enterprise resource group, PRISM.

Shellie joined Synovus in 2022. She was previously Executive Vice President and Chief Audit Executive at Fifth Third Bank, which she joined in 2017. Prior to joining Fifth Third, Creson was with Regions Financial for 10 years where she served in leadership positions in strategic and corporate planning, audit, and finance.