Liza Amlani
Principal and Co-Founder, Retail Strategy Group
Liza Amlani is the Principal and Co-Founder of Retail Strategy Group. The firm works with retailers and brands, helping them improve profitability and organizational effectiveness.
Clients span across apparel, footwear, luxury, retail tech and more. Liza is a respected voice and is cited in Forbes, Bloomberg, Chain Store Age, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Sourcing Journal and Footwear News.
Amlani has been recognized by Rethink Retail as a “Top Retail Expert of 2024.” This honor is given to a select group of experts chosen from a group of 400 nominees.
Before founding Retail Strategy Group, Amlani was the merchandising expert in Accenture's retail strategy practice. Before that, she spent 20+ years in retail with companies including Ralph Lauren, Club Monaco, Sporting Life and more.
She brings a wealth of global insight to her clients given the number of countries in which she has resided—Amlani has moved 29 times in her life from Canada to the UK to Africa. Today, New York City is home as she teaches at the renowned Fashion Institute of Technology.
Bill Fera, MD
Principal, Deloitte Consulting LLP
Dr. Bill Fera is a principal at Deloitte Consulting LLP. He advises his clients with technology enablement of strategy and analytics strategies to create insight-driven enterprises and value-based contracting models that put patients at the center of the health care ecosystem.
He is experienced in working at the convergence of payers and providers, implementing technologies to drive efficiency and creating practical analytic strategies that allow speed to value. Prior to joining Deloitte, Dr. Fera served as vice president of clinical technologies at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) where he served as the clinical lead in creating a commercial interoperability solution and an enterprise telehealth strategy. With over 20 years as a practicing family physician, physician executive and health care consultant, Dr. Fera brings a multi-faceted view to health care issues and potential solutions.
Samantha Jordan
Futurist and Consultant, the Future Today Institute
Samantha Jordan is a futurist on a mission to spread “plausible optimism” about the possibilities of emerging technologies. As a consultant with the Future Today Institute (FTI), a leading foresight and strategy firm founded by world-renowned futurist Amy Webb, Jordan helps organizations dissect the complexities of upcoming opportunities, while also factoring the inherent risks.
Her analysis of the data and trends in the ever-changing tech landscape gets organizations unstuck and ready to develop and implement their own customized, future-focused strategies for evolving their businesses.
Exclusively represented by Leading Authorities speakers bureau, Jordan infuses her talks with a compelling blend of passion and conviction as she leads a fascinating exploration into artificial intelligence, computing, meta-science and the advancements in technology that will make the biggest impact on business and society.
With her unique approach, Jordan helps organizations identify which emerging technologies they can integrate into their operations and strategies to power their businesses to the next level, while talking them through the ethical aspects. She is immensely skilled at making otherwise abstract concepts in future trends and technological ethics accessible to any audience. Groups come away from Jordan’s talks with tools for productive action toward progress in overcoming current and future challenges.
At FTI, Jordan maintains a database of thousands of different trends, leveraging her expertise with the firm's unique foresight methodology to advise her clients, some of whom rank in the Fortune Top 20. Together, she works with these organizations to adapt their strategies based on future scenarios that she helps craft.
Jordan was also the founder and CEO of TrovBase, a secure data discovery and analysis sharing platform. Previously, she was an IBM client leader helping enterprise clients modernize their IT environments.
In addition to serving as a mentor for NYU Stern MBA students in strategic foresight, Jordan headed the Carnegie New Leaders program at the Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs, during which time, she created programming for the next generation of leaders across sectors to engage deeply with ethics. She was also a national finalist in persuasive speaking and international champion in rhetorical critical analysis as a student, bringing a high level of passion and polish to every engagement.
Jordan believes emerging technologies have the potential to enable a better future for all if we make good choices. Stressing progress over pessimism, she shares her purpose-driven and framework for using today’s capabilities to build a better tomorrow.
Paul M. Karpecki, OD, FAAO
Medical Editor, Kentucky Eye Institute, Review of Optometry
Dr. Paul Karpecki received his doctor of optometry degree from Indiana University and completed a Fellowship in Medical Cornea in Kansas City in affiliation with the Pennsylvania College of Optometry and the University of Kansas. He currently serves as Director of Cornea and External Disease for the Kentucky Eye Institute in Lexington Ky., running the largest, advanced, referral only, ocular surface disease clinic in the U.S.
Dr. Karpecki is a full Associate Professor at the Kentucky College of Optometry at the University of Pikeville. He has served on the International Task Force for Dry Eye Disease that included the top 25 dry eye experts in the world, the TFOS DEWS II Diagnostic Methodology Sub-Committee and co-chaired the previous 2 and upcoming TFOS Symposia.
In 2017-2019, he completed a two-year preceptorship in advanced retinal disease at Retina Associates of Kentucky, one of the top 20 retina practices in the country and has a special interest in uveitis and retina management. He is the Chief Medical Editor for Review of Optometry, Chairs their New Technology and Treatment Conferences and serves on the board of the charitable organization Optometry Giving Sight.
Pearse Keane, MD
Consultant ophthalmologist, Moorfields Eye Hospital, London
Pearse Keane is Professor of Artificial Medical Intelligence at UCL Institute of Ophthalmology,and a Consultant Ophthalmologist at Moorfields Eye Hospital, London. Since 2020, he has been funded by UK Research & Innovation (UKRI) as a Future Leaders Fellow, and in 2023 he became a National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Senior Investigator. He is originally from Ireland and received his medical degree from University College Dublin (UCD), graduating in 2002.
In 2016, he initiated a collaboration between Moorfields Eye Hospital and Google DeepMind, with the aim of developing artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms for the earlier detection and treatment of retinal disease. In August 2018, the first results of this collaboration were published in the journal, Nature Medicine.
In May 2020, he jointly led work, again published in Nature Medicine, to develop an early warning system for age-related macular degeneration (AMD), by far the most common cause of blindness in many countries. In 2023, he led the development of RETFound, the first foundation model in ophthalmology, published in Nature and made available open source.
In October 2019, he was included on the Evening Standard Progress 1000 list of most influential Londoners and in June 2020, he was profiled in The Economist.
In 2022, he was listed in the “Top 10” of the “The Power List” by The Ophthalmologist magazine, a ranking of the Top 100 most influential people in the world of ophthalmology.
Alexander Martin, OD
Medical Director, Boston Vision
Alex Martin, OD, is the medical director for Boston Vision in Lawrence, Mass. Dr. Martin is an adjunct faculty member at New England College of Optometry and section editor of the Ophthalmology Journal of Medical Insight (JOMI). He was a Student Innovator Scholarship winner at the 2017 Vision Monday Leadership Summit.
Jim Rowan
Principal, Deloitte LLP
Jim Rowan is a principal with Deloitte LLP., and a leader of the firm’s Strategy and Analytics practice. He helps clients transform their businesses using data powered analytical and AI solutions that enable better decision making. Over the course of his career, Rowan has served several clients across the life sciences, health care and telecommunications industries.
James Tsai, MD
Director, Center for Ophthalmic AI and Human Health, Mt. Sinai, NY
A graduate of Amherst College and MD alumnus of the Stanford University School of Medicine, Dr. James Tsai completed his residency in ophthalmology at the Doheny Eye Institute at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles and glaucoma fellowships at the Bascom Palmer Eye Institute at the University of Miami and at Moorfields Eye Hospital and the Institute of Ophthalmology in London. He also received a master’s degree in business administration from the Owen Graduate School of Management at Vanderbilt University.
Dr. Tsai is a Fellow of the American Academy of Ophthalmology and the American College of Surgeons. He is an elected member of the American Ophthalmological Society, the American Eye Study Club, the New York Ophthalmological Society, and the Manhattan Ophthalmological Society. Dr. Tsai serves as the Founding Director of the Center for the Ophthalmic Artificial Intelligence and Human Health (COAIHH) at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.
He also serves as President of the International Joint Commission on Allied Health Personnel in Ophthalmology (IJCAHPO), Trustee-at-Large of the Association of University Professors of Ophthalmology (AUPO), and Chair of the Ophthalmology Section of the New York Academy of Medicine (NYAM). In addition, he was appointed to the Administrative Board of the Council of Teaching Hospitals and Health Systems (COTH) of the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC).
Deborah Weinswig
Founder and CEO, Coresight Research
Deborah Weinswig is the Founder and CEO of Coresight Research. Between 2014 to early 2018, Deborah served as Managing Director of Fung Global Retail and Technology (FGRT), the think tank of Fung Group. Previously, she was Managing Director and Head of the Global Staples & Consumer Discretionary team at Citi Research.
Weinswig was ranked the #1 analyst by Institutional Investor for 10 years in a row. She was named one of the Top 50 Retail Influencers by Vend in both 2016 and 2017 and received the Asia Retail Congress’s Retail Leadership Award in 2016. She was also recognized by LinkedIn as a top Voice in Retail in 2017 and 2018.
She serves on the board of directors for Goodwill Industries New York/New Jersey, GUESS?, Inc., Kiabi, Street Soccer USA and Xcel Brands, Inc. Weinswig is on the advisory board of the World Retail Congress as well as several accelerators.
She is a Certified Public Accountant and holds an MBA from the University of Chicago.
John Whyte, MD, MPH
Chief Medical Officer, WebMD
John Whyte, MD, MPH is the Chief Medical Officer of WebMD. In this role, Dr. Whyte leads efforts to develop and expand strategic partnerships that create meaningful change around important and timely public health issues. He has been a leading voice in addressing the COVID-19 pandemic, being named as one of the country’s top 20 health influencers and continues to be a part of the LinkedIn Top Voices program, an invitation-only group of experts across the professional world.
Dr. Whyte frequently speaks on evaluating digital tools and technologies, assessing their roles in the evolving health ecosystem and is the author of several books.
Prior to joining WebMD, Dr. Whyte served as the Director of Professional Affairs And Stakeholder Engagement at the Center for Drugs Evaluation and Research at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. In this role, Dr. Whyte spearheaded numerous efforts to address diversity in drug development programs especially as it relates to necessary changes in clinical trial design.
Prior to this position, Dr. Whyte worked for nearly a decade as the Chief Medical Expert and Vice President, Health and Medical Education at Discovery Channel, the leading non-fiction television network. Dr. Whyte developed, designed and delivered educational programming that appealed to both a medical and lay audience.
Dr. Whyte also served in numerous leadership roles at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. He is a recognized expert on various payment policies and models.
Dr. Whyte is a board-certified Internist and continues to see patients. He completed an internal medicine residency at Duke University Medical Center as well as earned a Master of Public Health (MPH) in Health Policy and Management at Harvard University School of Public Health. Prior to arriving in Washington, Dr. Whyte was a Health Services Research Fellow at Stanford and Attending Physician in the Department of Medicine. He has written extensively in the medical and lay press, including two best-selling books.