Lattice CPO Council

Cara has deep experience scaling HR operations, recruiting, and learning & development at fast-moving, global companies. Prior to joining Lattice as Chief People Officer, she was SVP of People at both Udemy (UDMY) and Planet Labs (PL) and previously served in HR leadership roles at Pinterest (PIN), Efficient Frontier – now Adobe, Young and Rubicam, and Knight Ridder, among others. Cara is also co-founder of PeopleTech Partners, a group of HR leaders working to bring new HR/recruiting technologies to market. She graduated Phi Beta Kappa from the University of Kentucky, holds a master’s degree from the University of San Francisco, completed graduate studies at Stanford University and is finishing her Master’s degree in Leadership and Ethics at the University of Chicago.

Melanie Naranjo is the VP of People at Ethena, a modern compliance training provider focused on building more inclusive and ethical workplaces. With 9+ years of experience in the HR and People space, she’s been interviewed by HR Brew, FastCompany, NBC, and more for her unique insights. When she’s not scaling teams, leading trainings, or coaching managers, she’s recharging by either baking something sweet or taking one of her dogs (or cats) for a walk.

Donald Knight is Chief People Officer at Greenhouse Software. He leads with a people-first mentality hoping to unlock the potential of Greenhouse talent globally. With a laser focus on the connection between people and the processes that serve them, Donald and his team create proximity by building bridges focusing on enhanced experiences that nurture culture and develop people.

In his role leading the People team, Donald works to help Greenhouse create an environment for people to do the best work of their lives. He is responsible for providing global strategy and leadership in developing, overseeing, and administering people programs. With expansion top of mind, the team delivers a scalable people strategy that enables the organization to expand globally. Before Greenhouse, Donald served as Senior Vice President of Global Talent for Edelman. He helped shape the HR brand as a proactive, insightful, and collaborative solution provider in this role. Donald has held numerous senior leadership roles for Southern Company Gas, a subsidiary of Southern Company (NYSE: SO), and the Defense Commissary Agency. A native of Virginia, Donald holds a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice from Virginia Commonwealth University and a master’s degree in human resource management from the University of Richmond. Donald is also a graduate of the project leadership program at the engineering school of Cornell University for business executives. He and his family reside in the Greater Atlanta area.

Q is a business minded people and operations leader, advisor and executive coach. He is currently the Chief People Office at Paper where he oversees all aspects of the people team, including talent acquisition, people ops, total rewards, and internal communications for 3000+ employees. Prior to Paper, he joined Airbnb in 2018 as its first global people ops leader, and was responsible for the strategic vision, build-out and execution of Airbnb’s people & talent operations function from the ground up. Additionally, he was responsible for leading Airbnb through numerous pivotal milestones including hyper growth, pandemic responses, workforce restructuring, IPO and the future of work. Q is a trusted advisor to founders, C-Suites, people executives and several accelerator programs globally.

Outside of work, Q has a strong passion for personal growth and constantly seeks to acquire new skills. He has always been a passionate traveler who is constantly seeking out new destinations and cultural experiences. In addition to this, his love for music and film has inspired him to support upcoming artists and filmmakers by founding his own record label and taking on executive production roles for independent films.

Natalie Breece is the Chief People + Diversity Officer for thredUP Inc. (NASDAQ: TDUP) where she has dedicated the last 7 years building, innovating and executing the Talent Acquisition, People Operations, Total Rewards, DEIB and L&D strategies for the company. Natalie and her team is in relentless pursuit of cultivating an environment that enables thredUP 2000+ employees to do the best work of their lives while inspiring a new generation to think secondhand first.

Courtney Cherry Ellis is the Senior Vice President of People at AuditBoard, a B2B SaaS company focused on the audit, risk, and compliance space. As an HR leader, she has a passion for building high-performing teams, creating programs that reinforce culture, and celebrate business outcomes. She loves partnering with business leaders to find new and creative ways to hire, inspire, reward, and engage employees.

Gianna Driver is Chief Human Resources Officer (CHRO) at Exabeam. As CHRO, Driver manages the strategy and processes related to building, investing in, and retaining top talent at Exabeam, enabling employees to do their best work. She is responsible for architecting the company’s talent strategy, driving corporate culture and diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives, and leading the global human resources function. Driver brings nearly 20 years of executive human resources management experience in small, large, private, and public global companies to Exabeam. Prior to Exabeam, Driver was the Chief People Officer at BlueVine, a private fin-tech company based in Redwood City, CA. Before BlueVine, Driver led HR and People functions in high-growth technology, gaming, consumer, and SaaS organizations including Playstudios, Aristocrat, Actian Corporation, Talend, and Balsam Brands. She is passionate about building high-performance cultures, establishing operational excellence, and creating joy at work. Driver is a graduate of The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

Alan is a highly accomplished, commercial “T shaped” CPO who has successfully transitioned from CPO to COO & back to CPO, bringing the best of both and learning along the way. A compelling storyteller, Alan brings positivity, vulnerability, fun, and energy to everything he does. He has overseen significant spikes in finding, attracting, and recruiting top talent, and advises Founders on commercial growth, bringing into play his knowledge, experience, and playbook to help solve scaling challenges. Alan has worked for and with some of the UK’s most celebrated entrepreneurs at companies including Moneymarket, MOO, Octopus Ventures and iTech Media Group and now serves as CPO of GoCardless.

Outside of work, Alan enjoys spending time with his 9 (yes, nine) amazing children and loves fitness, food, the outdoors, socializing and walking.

Valentina Gissin is Chief People Officer of Garner Health Technology, a venture-backed company on a mission to transform the U.S. healthcare economy. She has been a thought leader in the People space for over a decade, spanning industry and stage. Valentina pivoted from a career as a technology lawyer to manage talent for Bridgewater Associates, and since then has always taken a first principles, non-traditional approach to People. Valentina went on to lead talent management, employee experience, talent development and several aspects of human resources for Chewy, building the foundations that enabled Chewy to grow by almost 50% during her tenure. Prior to joining Garner, she was the Chief People Officer of Citizen.

In addition to her full-time ‘day job’ as Chief People Officer at Khan Academy, Regina L. Ross serves others as a transformational strategist, coach, pastor, consultant, speaker & author with a passion for empowering people to discover and authentically express their potential in a way that creates purpose, value and fulfillment.  Prior to joining Khan Academy, Regina held senior leadership roles in Operations, Human Resources, and Change Management at Target, Amazon, and Pitney Bowes. Regina earned her BS in Industrial Engineering from Auburn University, and she holds professional certifications in Human Resources, Change Management, Coaching, and Continuous Process Improvement. Regina, who currently lives in Northern CA, loves to travel and has RVing cross-country on her bucket list.