Egwu Nwankpah

Egwu Nwankpah is the Head of Supplier Diversity at Cushman & Wakefield. Egwu is responsible for establishing and maintaining the Global Supplier Diversity Strategy. Egwu is a key part of both the Procurement function as well as the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion team. In this role he is an advocate for diverse suppliers, provides critical information related to current and potential diverse suppliers, leads engagement with external organizations aligned to supplier diversity, and promotes utilization of diverse suppliers globally to both internal and external stakeholders.

Before coming to Cushman & Wakefield, Egwu was a Vice President at Bank of America as he served as part of the Supplier Diversity and Responsible Sourcing team. Egwu is noted by several supplier diversity councils and organizations for his work in the field of Supplier Diversity. Prior to his work at Bank of America, Egwu was a Manager in the Financial Services group of Deloitte & Touché LLP. In that role, he provided auditing, accounting and advisory services to both public and private clients, inclusive of banks, broker dealers and mortgage banks. Egwu has more than 21 years of combined relevant experience in the realms of internal audit and advisory services, vendor management, supplier diversity/development, diversity, equity and inclusion. 

Egwu earned his Bachelor of Business Administration degree with an emphasis in Accounting from Andrews University where he graduated as a member of the prestigious J. N. Andrews Honors Program. He holds an MBA from the R.H. Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland, where his focus area was Global Strategy. He is a Certified Public Accountant (NY, MD, and CA), Certified Auditor (IIA), a Chartered Global Management Accountant (AICPA).

In his spare time Egwu is very involved in local and national civic activities, church activities, cheering for various sports teams, and most importantly spending quality time with his beautiful wife and three daughters.

Dr. Diana Artis

Dr. Diana Artis is the CEO and founder of Olive Branch Educators®, a diversity consulting firm whose mission is to facilitate cultural change with a collaborative, deliberate, and strategic approach. Dr. Artisʼ passion for diversity, equity, and inclusion was nurtured during her studies at Columbia University. Her doctoral thesis focused on racial and ego identity development theory. She brings over twenty-five years of experience implementing theories of diversity, equity, and inclusion dating back to her work in post-apartheid South Africa.

Dr. Artis has created a diversity education program based on well-established identity development models. She and the OBE team use evidenced-based principles to help transform institutions and assist individuals in their journey towards increased self-awareness regarding diversity, equity, and inclusion.

In addition to her training as a diversity practitioner, Dr. Artis has a background in organizational development and group processes, all of which play a critical role when organizational change is the goal. She has first-hand leadership experience and is skilled in designing and implementing training. 

Dr. Artis received her doctoral degree in Counseling Psychology with a specialization in cross-cultural competency from Columbia University, Teachers College.

Amie Kromis

Amie Kromis is the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Director for Essity North America, a global health and hygiene company. In her role, she supports business leaders in the US and Canada in reaching Essity’s global DEI ambitions.

Prior to Essity, Kromis served as the first National Director of Vendor Diversity for Skanska USA Building where she lead a team of ten and over $1.5bn in commitments to small and diverse businesses. During her time at Skanska she worked with both the construction and development business units in multiple geographies. Kromis began her formal DEI career at Southwest Airlines where she supported leadership in the newly created Diversity & Inclusion department.

As an active member of her community, Kromis served on the Black Alumni of Southern Methodist University (SMU) board, as a consultant for a Washington D.C. non-profit through Compass Pro Bono and currently sits on the inaugural Forte Alumni Leadership Council to advance women in business. 

Kromis received her bachelor’s degree in corporate communications and public affairs from SMU and holds an MBA from Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business where she was a Forte Foundation Fellow. Kromis hails from Nashville, TN and now calls Washington, DC home.

Christine Smitz

Christine Smitz [her / she] is the Senior Program Manager of Brand Transformation, and head of its’ _Center of Excellence at Sustainable Brands (SB), where she actively steers global brands towards more sustainable, collaborative ESG solutions. Through thought leadership, dynamic programming, exclusive member-led insights and deep inquiry, Christine supports the SB network of over 80 organizations and their executives looking to improve environmental and social practices, impacts and purpose-driven performance.

Christine is also the Principle of Sustain 365, a boutique sustainability consulting body that supports stakeholders who are increasingly committed to more mindful, and sustainable procedures for responsible corporate and community relations.

Christine brings nearly a decade of agency, communications and social impact experience, and an excitement around the convergence of sustainability and behavioral change. She believes in the power of scaled efforts to change the future, and the significance of diverse, innovative voices driving that transformation. A Southern California native, Christine is a twice HBCU alumna, with a Masters in Urban Sustainability, who currently lives in Washington D.C.

Dave Leong

Dave Leong tells stories through live experiences, food, fitness, business transformation and books. Born in Sydney, Australia, he constantly pushed the limits by riding mattresses down stairs, breaking guitar strings and accidentally starting oil fires in the kitchen. After graduating from the University of Technology, Sydney, he continued to push limits around the world by leading the creative, strategy and production divisions of global agencies and live event production companies in Sydney, New York, Toronto and Austin. During that time, he built adventurous worlds and explosive stories for his clients to tell through their experiences. 

Driven by a phenomenon he noticed in film and TV that he coined “casual representation”, Dave aims to include characters in his worlds whose diversity is introduced to the audience nonchalantly: their race, sexuality, gender or ability aren’t the most interesting things about them, they just are. He wants to inspire other storytellers in all modalities to consider their own worlds full of diversity, if only because the real world is too.

Dave resides in Orange County, CA with his family and is currently working on his next children’s book and young adult series.