Emergence CXO Summit US 2026

Paula Shepherd is executive vice president, Health Plan Operations & Technology, of Louisiana Blue and a member of the company’s senior leadership team.  

Shepherd has been with the company for 23 years, starting as a hospital, dental and Medicare claims manager. She worked her way up through membership and billing and was selected by senior leadership to start and lead Louisiana Blue’s Medicare Part D enrollment team.  

 Shepherd earned her J.D. at Southern University Law Center and her MBA from the University of Phoenix. She has a Bachelor of Liberal Arts degree from Southern University and a Diversity and Inclusion certificate from Cornell University. She is also a co-pastor of Philadelphia Christian Ministries and a passionate community advocate, having served as a board member of Louisiana Center for Children’s Rights and currently serving on the board of the United Way.  

Sergey Dyakin is the CIO at Celink, a mortgage servicer, where he oversees the company’s transformation into a technology and data-driven enterprise. Prior to Celink, he was advising financial services companies on adoption of cloud technology. Mr. Dyakin also worked at Fortress Investment Group, where he helped Nationstar Mortgage Holdings Inc. create a leading reverse mortgage servicing business and helped Springleaf (now part of One Main) issue multiple RMBS securitizations.

Mr. Dyakin has deep expertise in mortgage loans – modeling, acquisition, servicing, and securitization, and extensive experience in managing technology development for mortgage and investment analysis products.

Aniket Maindarkar is the Chief Marketing Officer at Firstsource, responsible for building the brand strategy and executing it to drive visibility and pipeline. His key focus is amplifying the Firstsource brand through better data, content, and storytelling, along with his real-life experiences of helping several Fortune 1000 companies with their digital transformation journeys. Based in Atlanta, Aniket enjoys adventure sports such as sailing and windsurfing and has completed treks across many parts of the world, including Norway, Iceland, Patagonia, Peru, Bhutan, and Nepal.

Imtiaz Patel is the Chief Consumer Officer of Gannett Media. Most recently he served as CEO and Publisher of The Baltimore Banner, a digital news organization and was previously an executive with Dow Jones and The Wall Street Journal where he led circulation strategy and was the General Manager of key business verticals. Imtiaz has advised several news organizations, including The Philadelphia Inquirer, Gannett, and led the efforts to acquire The Baltimore Sun and Tribune Publishing. He holds a B.S. in Economics, Accounting & Finance from The London School of Economics and an MBA from Columbia Business School.

Dave Lawlor brings a wealth of senior-level higher education experience to Samuel Merritt University, having held vice chancellor, COO, treasurer, and CFO roles at the University of California, Davis; Marquette University; and The George Washington University. He’s known for his leadership in the areas of strategy, operations, finance, business development, and administration. Dave’s accomplishments include strategic planning, ideation to new product development, generation of operating margins through deliberate financial turnaround strategies, management of a $4.3 billion budget with an endowment of more than $1 billion, and procurement of bonds in excess of $1 billion. He has experience supervising 1,800 people, constructing an average of $200 million of new facilities per year, overseeing over 5,000 acres of campus physical plant, and negotiating over $100 million with corporate partners.

Ashish Chawla heads the CX and Consulting capabilities, globally for Firstsource, leading the team responsible for designing and deploying next-generation customer experience offerings for new engagements and transforming existing relationships.

Before joining Firstsource Ashish was at Cognizant for more than a decade in multiple leadership positions across Consulting and Digital Operations. He also incubated and ran Cognizant’s Digital Content offering where he conceptualized and ran large global transformation initiatives. Before Cognizant, Ashish held multiple roles at CSS, Wipro, Sify, and UTV across the US, Europe, and various parts of Asia.

A prolific writer and thought leader, Ashish has published papers in leading journals on subjects ranging from Content Democratization to AI-driven Customer Experience. Ashish lives in Princeton, New Jersey, and is an avid golfer and keen poet.

As the Senior Vice President of Global Operations, Dennis is responsible for the overall Production & Delivery, Psychometric Analytics and Assessment Development as well as Customer Care. ​
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Before joining ETS, Dennis served as the Vice President of Shared Services Delivery Excellence at Pearson Education and previous to that spent 16 years at IBM as a Global Project Delivery and Transformation Executive. Dennis was responsible for delivering challenging transformation programs at some of IBM’s largest global clients to include Lucent Technologies, American Express, The Walt Disney Company, CenturyLink, CEMEX, and WPP.​

An executive business leader with over 35 years of experience working with Blues Health plans, she started in the mail room. She held many operational leadership roles, from call center associate to Chief Service Officer. She is passionate and committed to improving the overall efficiencies of health plan operations while delighting members and providers.

In her current role at Firstsource, Stacey manages the relationship between Firstsource and its client by meeting the client’s demand for increased digitization, improved efficiency, and cost reduction.

Prior to joining Firstsource, Stacey was the Chief Service Officer at Blue Cross Blue Shield of Arizona. She also held numerous roles with Anthem, and her career began at Blue Shield of California in 1988.

Rajpal Singh is a seasoned business transformation leader with over two decades of experience driving marquee transformations, industry-leading solutions, and innovative CX practices across industries. At Firstsource, Rajpal leads the Business Enablement & Transformation practice, with a mandate to spearhead digital transformation, robust business assurance, and agile learning initiatives.

Previously, Rajpal held leadership roles at Cognizant, IBM, American Express, and GE Capital, specializing in transformation, CRM solutions, and service delivery. He has deep expertise in business transformation, regulatory compliance, AI, and data science solutions and a strong passion for CX transformation. Rajpal is widely recognized for his customer-centric approach and visionary leadership, consistently guiding businesses and teams toward industry-leading standards.

Beyond his professional accomplishments, Rajpal is deeply committed to personal wellness. An avid runner, he advocates for the importance of fitness and well-being, incorporating a holistic approach to leadership.

Zac Davidi is responsible for CareSource’s core operations functions focused on delivering industry leading operational processes supporting our mission of making a lasting difference in members’ lives.  Some of the key functions overseen include Member Enrollment, Provider Onboarding, Claims Lifecycle Management, Encounters, Claims Configurations and Guiding Care Configuration supporting the Clinical and Operational teams for Utilization Management/Case Management/Grievance & Appeals. 

A seasoned professional with more than 30 years of experience across Telecom and Health Plan Payer Industries, Zac has focused on transformations of organizations to deliver optimized efficiency in operational performance supporting stability and growth strategies

Previously, Zac worked in various roles within the Health Plan Payer industry at UnitedHealth Group and Horizon BCBS of NJ.  Prior to working in the Health Plan Payer industry, Zac worked at AT&T where he held roles across Operations, IT, Product Management, and Business Strategy. 

Zac holds an MBA from Rutgers University and a Bachelors in  EE from Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI). 

Martha is a seasoned operations and client services leader with over 20 years of experience spanning cryptocurrency, fintech, high-frequency trading, and biotech sectors. Currently serving as Head of Operations at Gemini, she has a proven track record of managing global technology, support, operations teams, and external support agents (over 200+ personnel)  Her expertise lies in streamlining processes, implementing automated solutions, and leveraging data for strategic decision-making. She joined Gemini through the acquisition of Omniex. Her career spans from Harvard Medical School affiliates, The Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT, RGM Advisors, Broadway Technology, and Omniex.

Chandra Ganduri is the Head of Applied AI for Operations at Wayfair, where he leads teams developing advanced science and AI solutions. With over 14 years of experience, he has established himself as a leader in retail technology and e-commerce optimization. Prior to Wayfair, he spent 7 years at Staples, where he managed teams that transformed their digital experience through innovative data science solutions, including a patented behavioral personalization model that improved performance by 3-7x.

His expertise spans machine learning, artificial intelligence, supply chain optimization, and e-commerce analytics. Throughout his career, Chandra has successfully led projects in sales and service personalization, recommendation systems, marketing optimization, and network logistics strategy. He began his career in academia at Ohio University, where his research was on NP-hard optimization problems. Based in Grafton, Massachusetts, he remains active in community service, including recent work with Habitat for Humanity.

Dr. LuAna Boykins is an innovative leader with more than 20 years’ experience driving positive organizational change in a variety of roles. She currently serves as the Transformation Officer for Triple- S — a company offering health plans for people and businesses throughout Puerto Rico, with services including nursing consultations, virtual visits, disease management, and more. In her role, LuAna works to improve operations and guide large-scale transformation initiatives designed to elevate the employee, member and provider experience. Prior to joining Triple-S, Dr. LuAna worked as the Chief Operating Officer for NASCO and GuideWell Connect and as the Veterans Network Community Executive Sponsor. In her earlier career, she held senior leadership positions at Ciox Health (Release of Information), Change Healthcare (Medical Record retrieval & coding), and Express Scripts (PBM), where she successfully transformed and led operational strategies to directly impact consumers, providers, and customers. Additionally, her background in communications management for the US Army has given her the unique ability to successfully engage all levels of stakeholders to effectively drive change readiness and adoption.

Dr. LuAna holds a diverse educational background in business administration and healthcare administration/management. She obtained her Doctor of Business Administration degree with a focus on Health/Health Care Administration/Management from Northcentral University and holds a Master of Business Administration (MBA) in Organizational Development from Upper Iowa University.

Beyond her academic achievements, Dr. LuAna has obtained critical, industry-leading certifications and serves as a member in multiple prestigious organizations. She holds a Six Sigma Green Belt certification from Villanova and has been awarded the CIAC-Certified Strategic Leader (CCSL) designation by the ICMI- CIAC Certification Advisory Council. She is a member of the American College of Healthcare Executives (ACHE), American College of Healthcare Executives Georgia Chapter, and the American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA). She also serves on the cabinet for the Atlanta United Way Tocqueville Society, a local organization committed to making a measurable and sustainable impact on child well-being in Greater Atlanta.

Proud to be a military veteran, Dr. LuAna, believes strongly in social responsibility, playing an active role in professional and community organizations. In addition to leading a veterans affinity group, Dr. LuAna has served several organizations in their mission to help veterans transition from active duty to a civilian profession by offering resume support, interview coaching, and employer networking. In recognition of her efforts to support veteran awareness and employment, Dr. LuAna received a Torch Award for Political Awareness and Involvement.

Rishi Mehta is the Chief Information Officer at Liberty Dental Plan and member of the Executive Leadership Team. He oversees the company’s Information Technology and Cybersecurity divisions.
Rishi is a performance-driven, business savvy technology executive, with over 20 years of experience in Government Services including Healthcare, CMS Certification, MMIS, Eligibility and Enrollment, Child Support, Payment Services, EDI implementations, etc. He has worked as senior executive at Fortune 500 companies. He has MS in Computer Science and then MBA from Stern Business School, New York University.
 

Chrystie Leonard combines strong commercial, strategic, operational, and financial leadership with expertise in creating, accelerating, optimizing, and growing businesses.  As Chief Customer Experience Officer, Leonard builds and delivers a seamless, best-in-class customer experience. In support of this, Leonard manages onshore and offshore Operations teams, including Customer Care, Support, Delivery, Automation, Utilization, Research, Education and Content. Leonard also provides leadership for GHX’s Count Inventory Management business.   

Since joining GHX, Leonard has led several business units, including Vendormate, Managed Services, and Explorer Surgical.  Before joining GHX in 2019, Chrystie Leonard founded and operated a multi-location urgent care provider organization, BestCare Now, and owned Nascent Medical, a medical communications company. Chrystie Leonard has held senior leadership roles within Siemens Diagnostics, Covidien, and Bard Medical, leading teams responsible for closing billion-dollar acquisitions, creating companywide strategic plans, forming new divisions, developing innovative products, and turning around ailing businesses. 

She holds a Bachelor of Science in Biology from Boston College, a Master of Business Administration (MBA) in Finance from Babson College, and a Master of Science in Pharmacology & Experimental Therapeutics from Boston University.