Melissa Harper is Vice President, Global Talent Acquisition/Diversity with Monsanto Corporation. In this role she leads global, inclusive strategies for end to end talent processes. This includes Employment Branding, University Relations, Direct and Professional hires, Diversity, as well as all the supporting strategies related to COE's (Outreach Strategies, Metrics/Reporting, Strategic Workforce Planning, Employee Referral, Proactive Talent Sourcing). She joins Monsanto from being Senior Vice President, Wealth Management Group Recruiting Manager, of the Wachovia Corporation. In this role she was responsible for developing the strategies for talent processes within the Wealth Management lines of business, and corporate infrastructure. Previously, she was Manager, Global Talent Acquisition-Human Resources for Whirlpool Corporation, before working in retained executive search for 10 years. Currently, she is a member of the Board of Directors for the St. Louis YMCA; GEM; and a member of the International Association of Corporate and Professional Recruiters.

Maggie has worked for Roche for 11 years, currently in the role of Group Head of Attraction & Sourcing which covers setting the overall framework (processes, policies, standards, systems) and building the Attraction & Sourcing strategy through the HR collaboration model with input from the A&S and HR network for Roche globally. Maggie originally joined Roche in the UK as the HR systems & recruitment manager, as well as having a Western Europe role as the regional recruitment subject matter expert. Prior to joining Roche, Maggie worked for 11 years in the Financial sector as a Business Partner, Systems & Recruitment Manager and was involved in several mergers. This is where Maggie's passion for optimizing the Recruitment process through utilization of systems & processes enabling proactive recruitment as well as making recruitment a destination position for HR began. Maggie moved to Basel with her family in her current role over 3.5 years ago and is continuing to drive the professional recruitment model throughout Roche.

Cristopher is the Global Talent Acquisition Director at Bristol-Myers Squibb. Prior to his role at BMS, Cristopher was at Biogen Idec and Morgan Howard, and he started his recruiting career in Moscow.

Pearl Freier is president of Cambridge BioPartners, an executive search and recruiting consulting firm serving the biopharmaceutical and medical technology industries. Pearl's recruiting methodologies have made her a national authority on recruiting and career strategies in the life sciences. She has appeared in publications including Science, Nature, Bio-ITWorld, The Wall Street Journal, The Boston Globe, and the Boston Business Journal and has delivered presentations for universities and scientific associations throughout North America. Pearl is also an active member of the Boston technology community and serves on the executive board of the MIT Enterprise Forum of Cambridge and sits on advisory boards for the Massachusetts Technology Leadership Council and Harvard Medical School and is a member of BIO’s Education and Outreach Committee.