The Omnis Awards' Speakers & Judges

As the Founder and CEO of Distribute, a virtual organizational development think tank and consulting firm, Laurel Farrer is an internationally-renowned thought leader on the topic of remote work. For the past 15 years, she has been unlocking the power of distributed workforces to create impact in corporate and socioeconomic infrastructures.

Matthew Wilson studied Theoretical Physics in Oxford. He then worked as a software engineer and product manager. At 23, Matt turned down a full MBA scholarship to co-found a seed-funded SaaS company where he led Product, Tech and Ops. Frustrated by his experience of dealing with international bureaucracy, Matthew decided to join Entrepreneur First, a deep tech accelerator, to co-found Omnipresent with Guenther Eisinger.

For over 25 years, Wayne Turmel has been obsessed with how people communicate—or don’t—at work. For the last 15 years he’s researched, written, and taught on how we work together in virtual and remote environments. He’s the author of 14 books, including The Long-Distance Leader, Rules for Remarkable Remote Leadership, and The Long-Distance Teammate- Stay Engaged and Connected While Working Anywhere. His writing has appeared internationally in Management Issues, India Management and Harvard Business Review. He’s spoken at learning events around the world and Marshall Goldsmith calls him, “One of the unique voices in Leadership.”

Cyndy began her career in HR Marketing and Communications on Madison Avenue in New York City over 20 years ago. Cyndy has multiple years of media planning, employer branding, and human resource communications strategy experience at a management level from both the media and agency sides. She has been recognized as one of the most influential people in the HR space by the Huffington Post, PeopleHum, FitSmallBusiness, Leadtail, HRExaminer and many other notable media. Cyndy is the Managing Partner at TalentCulture, a thriving community of professionals interested in all facets of the world of work, where technology plays a role, and how culture drives the workplace.

Driven and innovative Talent Acquisition Leader with over 25 years’ experience and a proven track record of successful recruiting. In addition, strategic sourcing, social media and networking as well as scaling, implementing and advancing a corporate hiring process. Definitive results and vast experience developing attraction techniques for top talent at all levels and industries to place into critical positions in various Fortune 500/1000 companies. Specialties: Strategic Recruiting • Sales Effectiveness • Business Development • Top Grading Interview Process • Behavioral Interview Process • Strategy/Creative Sourcing • Advanced Cold Calling • Market Research • Salary Negotiations • Job Description Development • Organizational Change Management • Passive Candidate Networking Techniques • Hiring Manager Business Partnering/Coaching • Resume Analysis/Revamping • People Management • HR Process Improvement • Workforce Planning/Talent Development

I currently lead the Options team here at SeedLegals, where we've helped design and construct over 1200 schemes this year alone for early-stage startups/companies to ensure they help retain, reward, and attract the best talent! I also have an MSc in Finance and Leadership, with 4 years of experience of working with some of the best companies in the start-up sphere helping them raise commercial finance agreements - most notably at Funding Circle.

Rob joined Bryq to lead our Global Sales efforts and support the fast-growing North American Interest. Following major studies in Hospitality from the Rosen School of Hospitality at the University of Central Florida, Rob spent time with Fortune-25 institutions Verizon and Bank of America. More recently he joined technology start-ups Bronto Software (Now part of Oracle Marketing Cloud), QOMPLX, a leading cybersecurity firm and, Persado, applying mathematical certainty to words. Across his career, Rob has conducted hundreds of interviews, understands the unique challenges faced in high-volume hiring, and is passionate about helping others discover the uncommon simplicity of Bryq’s value to an organization.

Danielle has over 20 years of experience working in both the start up space through to Fortune 100, with experience in leadership positions spanning product development, marketing, customer insights, learning and development. She has over 15 years of experience in international, multilingual and multicultural work. The majority of her career has been spent working overseas, helping organizations develop and launch products and services, and drive digital innovation in more than 51 countries. Today Danielle champions that experience in her role at Mercer, bringing conversations to life on social media through an integrated brand, employee advocacy and influencer marketing strategy, and working with entrepreneurs and leaders to build their personal brands and social media presence.

Harold Sinnott is a technology influencer, speaker, author and digital consultant specializing in emerging technologies, digital transformation, and the future of work. He has extensive leadership experience across industries including telecommunications, healthcare and financial services. He works for B2B tech brands to help them to achieve massive visibility and scale, leveraging the power of social media in a variety of market segments. He is continually ranked in the top 10 for digital disruption and across frontier technology subjects.

Kaleem is a husband, father, remote work advocate, people operations professional, and speaker. He is the Chief Operating Officer of Blend Me, Inc a remote employee experience consultancy that helps startups and small businesses onboard, engage and retain their remote teams. With nearly 20 years of strategic operations and event planning experience, he helps leadership implement people operations solutions that increase productivity and engagement for both internal and external stakeholders. He is passionate about work-life integration and maximizing The Remote Employee Experience (TREE). Kaleem was born and raised in Bangor, Maine, the home of Stephen King. He is a graduate of Worcester State University, has been featured in Harvard Business Review, and named one of the top 15 Remote Work Advocates and Leaders by the All American Speakers Bureau. Kaleem has presented alongside leadership from companies such as Google, United Airlines, Visa, Facebook, Netflix, AirBnB, Association of Legal Administrators, and Meeting Professionals International. Kaleem currently resides in Atlanta, Georgia with his family. When he is not working, you can find him mountain biking on the trails of Georgia with his headphones, blasting a little hard rock music.

Nelson Sivalingam is the CEO and Co-Founder of HowNow, the all-in-one workplace learning platform that’s transforming the way organisations approach people development. Supporting scale-up companies including Depop, Gymshark and Checkout.com and global enterprises like Mercer, Telefonica and Investec.

He’s also the author of ‘The Fastest Learner Wins’ which brings together the best lean and agile methodologies and shows how they can be applied to learning and development (L&D) to improve individual and organisational performance. Nelson hosts the ‘99 Problems But Work Ain't One’ podcast, speaking to the disruptors, leaders and industry game-changers and asking them burning questions about building fast-learning organisations that are prepared for the future of work.

Rajeeb Dey MBE is Founder & CEO of Learnerbly - the workplace learning marketplace. Over the last 16 years he has launched three initiatives which help people advance in their working life. Today, he is founder and CEO of Learnerbly, an award winning curated marketplace of the best learning content from over 250 providers including coaching, courses, conferences, books and much more.

Prior to this he founded Enternships, a portal connecting students and graduates to roles in over 7000 startups and fast growing businesses for which he was named the “02 X Young Entrepreneur of the Year” and the youngest recipient of the Queen’s Award for Enterprise Promotion in 2013.

Rajeeb is also the Co-Founder of StartUp Britain, a national entrepreneurship campaign launched by Prime Minister David Cameron in 2011 and served as Trustee of UnLtd, the Foundation for Social Entrepreneurs for over 10 years. He was appointed as the world's youngest Young Global Leader (at 26) by the World Economic Forum in 2012 and appointed Member of the British Empire (MBE) for Services to Entrepreneurship in 2016.

Freddie is a notable entrepreneur who has pioneered various internet-related ventures. Throughout, he’s had an obsessive focus on building incredible cultures. In 2015 he founded a 100% remote organization with a disruptive business model and a unique culture that he believes is the future of work.

Harry Lee is Head Of Marketing at Perchpeek, the digital relocation app that helps anyone live anywhere, making international remote teams a reality for all companies from startups to the world's largest technology firms.

Sami is CEO and Co-founder of Hofy. Prior to founding Hofy, Sami led growth management and territory expansion at Samsara (a16Z unicorn), working on the logistics and operational issues associated with scaling teams across geographies. Sami also worked at Bain in management consulting and has a PhD from University College London in Computer Science.

Chase is responsible for developing and executing Doist’s remote work strategy, co-located events, and advocating for the future of work on behalf of the company. He has worked remotely for over 12 years, as one of Doist’s 100 employees in 35 countries. He is a regular contributor, instructor, and consultant to many of the leading remote work organizations and publications, as well as the host of his own podcast, About Abroad. Chase is currently based in Spain and is fluent in English and conversational in Spanish. When not nerding out about remote work, he loves traveling in his campervan, spending time in the mountains, and taking his husky pup on a jog from time to time.

A consultant specialising in remote work and project management. Gren is an original thinker, writer and key opinion leader in all aspects Remote Work. He was involved in, writing about and promoting remote work long before the pandemic made it a necessity rather than a choice. On behalf of a major UK company, he led one of the first organised remote work trials in 2005. For the talk: For many companies hybrid work is a step in the dark Gren has written extensively about hybrid work and how it should be organised and managed as well as researching many of the tools available to facilitate it He has a clear view of both the direction of travel and the likely end point for hybrid work and practical experience in ways of making it work

Maya Middlemiss is a British writer and consultant, writing and speaking about working from home, leading virtual teams, and collaboration technology. After 21 years in remote work she has experience spanning employment, management, start-up growth, and scaling -but is now cheerfully freelancing. She is passionate about all social aspects of technology, and fascinated by the impact of change on the ways we live and work – from money to communications to education. Through her Healthy Happy Homeworking books and training she helps teams and individuals unlock the potential you only achieve, when you disconnect the work you do from a fixed location. Maya lives with her family in Valencia, Spain, and trades as an Estonian e-Resident, blending client work ranging from tech journalism to podcasting to content marketing to career coaching. In addition to her business books she has written a feminist novel about bitcoin, and when she’s not bashing a keyboard she can usually be found up a mountain or on a beach, enjoying all the scenery, culture and gastronomy her chosen home has to offer.

Peter Jackson is the CEO of Bluescape, a secure visual platform for high-value collaboration used by Fortune 100 companies, government educations, higher education and media and entertainment. He is well known in the industry as a visionary with a deep knowledge of technology, business, and financial markets and for taking start-up companies to acquisition and IPO exits. Prior to joining Bluescape, Peter was CEO, co-founder and Board Member of Ziploop Inc. which was acquired by SNIPP in Oct. 2017. He also served as Board Member and Advisor to Eventbrite, DocuSign and Kanjoya. He founded and led several emerging companies to successful exits – taking Intraware to IPO and becoming President/COO of Dataflex (NASDAQ. DFLX) after Granite Systems was acquired. Peter received his BA in History from the University of California at Berkeley and his MBA from Stanford University.

Pilar set up Virtual not Distant in 2016, in order to facilitate the journey for managers, teams and organisations towards “office optional”. She has worked with small teams helping them set up their online ecosystems, delivered training both online and off, and piloted new ways of working. She's gathered the principles of "Visible Teamwork", to guide team members in implementing asynchronus practices. Now she’s setting up “Podcasting for Connection”, to help organisations set up internal podcasts to keep their people connected through audio. virtualnotdistant.com Pilar is the host of the podcast “21st Century Work Life”, co-host of “My Pocket Psych”and co-host of the IAFEW’s Facilitation Stories.

Experienced conference speaker on digital disruption, remote working, digital wellbeing, and employee experience. As a remote work and digital specialist, Gary has helped organisations transform their ways of working by embedding digital and remote working practices, and increasing the adoption of digital tools. Thereby improving communication, productivity, wellbeing and work flexibility. Gary’s subject matter expertise has been featured by brands like Zoom, VMware, Gallup, NPR, Logitech, BBC, New York Times, Office Depot, Abbott, Fast Company, and Upwork.

Lona spent the last 10 years between Silicon Valley & New York creating, running and advising startups in the consumer space at the intersection of technology/direct to consumer and social impact.

She has been part of 3 accelerators/incubators including Y combinator, Women Startup Labs and Fashion for Good where she worked with big brands such as Gucci, Saint Laurent, Adidas, Balenciaga, Stella McCartney and more to help with sustainable innovation.

She has raised $2M for her startup and helped other founders raise millions through angels, VCs, crowdfunding platforms and syndicates.

Her curious nature has taken me to 80 countries, and led her to learn 7 languages.

Rowena is a renowned expert and influencer in Remote Work; she is based in Zaragoza, Spain, with her location-independent family. A lecturer at Technological University in Dublin, her passion for the socioeconomic, organisational and personal benefits afforded by Remote Work led her, in 2018, to found RoRemote: a consultancy focused on training and advisory services needed to transition effectively and seamlessly to any type of remote work operations model. She is also a published audiobook author, having recently released an audiobook on Better Breaks for Remote Workers.

Tayyaba Jordan is an International Health Coach and speaker who works with professional men, women and organisations struggling with anxiety, stress, health and mental health issues.

Tayyaba uses practical, simple, realistic approaches for both mind and body to break the cycle of stress from leading modern, busy lives. She believes in MicroWellnessTM, which include MicroChangesTM rather than massive overwhelming strategies. “When working with management these smaller changes are more effective and can have a significant impact.”

My approach towards health and wellness is a three-tier process: Education, implementation and sustainability. This is realised through regular talks or workshops, 121 coaching and the online portal and app support. I work with the teams and individuals to educate in realistic and easily digestible bite sized chunks.

Chris Dyer is the founder and CEO of PeopleG2, a fully remote organization. PeopleG2 is routinely ranked one of the best places to work and has been listed as one of Inc.'s 5000 Fastest Growing Companies 5 times. As a Leadership speaker his goal is to inspire audiences with a straightforward delivery, insightful candor, and engaging humor. His talks leave audiences permanently transformed, offering innovative perspectives on leadership to improve company culture and empower organizations to discover new success. Countless companies have unlocked productivity, performance and profits by implementing the strategies from Chris' talks, webinars, and books. Speaking of books, his first The Power of Company Culture (forward by Mark Goulston) was a best seller, and his second book (also a best seller) Remote Work includes a forward by Marshall Goldsmith. Chris enjoys contributing to the leadership conversation and have been featured by leading media outlets such as the BBC, NBC, Telegraph, The Sun, INC, and Forbes.

Nirit is currently the Chief People Officer at Hibob. She is an experienced human resources leader with a proven record of HR success, with international experience in multi-national and culture-dynamic environments. Nirit has a strong background in initiating and implementing HR strategies and programs, supporting business growth, and achieving success. Her skills include aligning organizational and HR strategies, transformation and change management, executive leadership coaching, and organizational development. Nirit strongly believes that employee engagement, talent management, and hiring the right talent are the basis for a healthy company culture.

Rob is the Chief Engagement Officer at WorkTango, and has spent the last 18 years consulting companies on employee engagement while building HR technology and advisory companies. He is the Canadian Chairperson for The Enterprise Engagement Alliance, with a mandate to lead and help educate corporate, government and not-for-profit management on a formal process for implementing engagement across the enterprise community. He is active in the Engage for Success movement, focused on raising the profile of the impact of employee engagement on employee and business success, and he was named one of the 100 Top Global Employee Engagement Influencers in 2020. He is an avid hockey and volleyball player, traveler, used to play guitar in a metal band, and in his own terms a ‘pointaholic’ – he collects loyalty points for everything and anything!