GAI World 2026 Agenda

PE Value Creation

• How Private Equity Is Driving Value with AI
  • Ian Robertson, Director, American Securities
  • Neil Bansal, Managing Director & AI Operating Partner, OMERS Private Equity
• Applying AI Leadership Transformation at the PE Level
  • Darren Herman, Managing Director, Bain Capital
  • Tuck Rickards, Managing Director of AI, Russell Reynolds Associates
• Driving Real ROI from Employee AI Upskilling Programs at Wall Street and PE Firms
  • Anisha Bhasin, SVP and Head of Product Engineering and AI, Oaktree Capital
  • Nick Pariso, AI Associate, General Atlantic
• Case Study: IT Architecture to Support Claude and Vibe Coding by Non-Engineers
  • Naveed Asem, CTO, Oaktree Capital

Blended Human/AI Workforce and Employee Upskilling

• Driving Competitive Advantage with the Human + AI Blended Workforce
  • Shikhar Ghosh, Professor, Harvard Business School
  • Kevin O'Brien, Chief Executive Officer, Invoice Cloud
  • Michael Sullivan, Co-Founder and Chief Growth Officer, OneDigital
  • Melissa Smith, Chief Executive Officer, WEX
• Leading Organizations Through the Biggest Technology Shift in a Generation
  • Ramesh Razdan, Global CIO and CTO, Bain & Company
  • Anjana Harve, Chief Digital Officer, Astellas Pharma
  • Jaap van Riel, CTO, KnitWell Group, parent company of Ann Taylor, LOFT
  • Thor Wallace, Senior Vice President and CIO, NETSCOUT
  • Nathan McBride, SVP and CIO, Xilio Therapeutics
  • Jacqui Nevils, Global CIO and SVP, Fresenius Medical Care
• Emerging Best Practices in Employee AI Adoption
  • Barbara Widholm, Vice President of AI, State Street Bank
  • Karen Stroup, Chief Digital Officer, WEX
• The AI Adoption Playbook: Managing Change and Enabling Your Workforce
  • Heather Staples, EVP and CIO, Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of NJ
  • Nina Grooms Lee, Board Member, Alamo Group (public company)
  • Abbie Lundberg, Editor in Chief, MIT Sloan Management Review
• Best Practices for Engineering Team AI Adoption
  • Nirmal Jingar, Senior Engineering Leader, Enterprise AI, Wayfair
  • Rama Pyarasani, Forward Deployed Engineering Leader, Microsoft
• What Will the Human-AI Enterprise Look Like in 2030?
  • Toby Eduardo Redshaw, former CIO, AMEX, Verizon and FedEx
• How I Manage 25 People with Claude Agents
  • Alden Do Rosario, Chief Executive Officer, CustomGPT

CIO Priorities in Q4 and in 2027

• CIO Priorities for AI in 2027 (Security, Reduce vendor Lock-In, Sovereign AI, Lower AI costs)
  • Mojgan Lefebvre, EVP and Chief Technology and Operations Officer, Travelers
  • Vrinda Menon, CTO, Transformative AI, JP Morgan Chase
  • Justin Fanelli, CTO, U.S. Department of the Navy
• Best Practices in Sourcing AI and Contract Terms with AI Vendors
  • Andrew Davis, Senior Director, Cloud and AI Business Office, Cox Automotive
  • Kevin Liu, Partner, Goodwin
  • Bill Fandrich, former EVP and CIO, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan

Case Studies — Financial Services & Enterprise

• How OneDigital Transformed Their Company Workforce with AI
  • Vinay Gidwaney, Chief Product Officer, OneDigital
  • Michael Sullivan, Co-Founder and Chief Growth Officer, OneDigital
• Modernizing the Federal Workforce with AI
  • Adam Starr, CIO, U.S. Office of Personnel Management
• AI-Powered Product Management: Better Requirements, Faster
  • Ashish Bhatia, Director, Product Management, Amazon Audible

Case Studies — Healthcare & Life Sciences

• How Covista Is Using AI to Expand Access and Opportunity in Healthcare
  • Steve Beard, CEO, Covista
• AI in Medical Affairs: Real-World Applications and Workflows
  • Apeksha Patel, Medical Director, Solid Tumors, Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation
  • Vivek Mukhatyar, Senior Director, Medical AI Team, Pfizer
• How GenAI Brings Clinical Care to Two Billion People
  • Badri Raghavan, former VP and Global Head of AI and Machine Learning, ResMed
• AI in Drug Discovery: Predictions for 2028
  • Shameer Khader, Global Head — Computational Biology & AI Strategy, Sanofi
  • Christopher Boone, Group VP, Research Services, Life Sciences, Oracle

Hands-on Claude Training 

• Claude for lead generation and sales support
• Claude with spreadsheets and for financial modeling
• Claude to create, proofread and critique PowerPoint decks
• Claude triage your email (Outlook or Gmail) and collaboration (Teams or Slack)
• Claude for finance department to reduce days to close from 10 to 5