Meet our Speakers
Pascale Sablan
Associate
Adjaye Associates
Pascale Sablan, FAIA, NOMA, LEED AP, Associate at Adjaye Associates, with over 14 years of experience, has been on the team for a variety of projects around the world. Sablan is the 315th living African-American, woman registered architect in the U.S. She is an activist architect who works to advance architecture for the betterment of society, bringing visibility and voice to the issues concerning women and BIPOC designers. She founded the Beyond the Built Environment organization positioned to uniquely address the inequitable disparities in architecture. In 2020 Pascale was voted President-Elect of the National Organization of Minority Architects, the 5th woman to hold this position in the organization's 50-year legacy. Sablan was awarded the 2020 AIA New York State President's Award and the 2021 AIA Whitney M. Young. Jr Award for her advocacy efforts and ascended to the AIA College of Fellows, the youngest African American to reach that honor. She has given lectures at Colleges and Universities nationally; cultural institutions such as the United Nations and the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture.
Raabia Shafi
Founder + CEO
Raabia Shafi Consulting
Raabia Shafi is Founder + CEO of Raabia Shafi Consulting, a firm that partners with clients to determine how their internal culture impacts the customer experience, improving things from the inside out, starting with leaders. After over a decade of directing global engagements that leverage her expertise in business strategy, design thinking, and adult learning methods, Shafi recognized that customer experience is increasingly becoming a hallmark of good corporate strategy, and leaders are seeing a positive connection between intentional culture and the bottom line. She established her boutique consultancy in 2017 to offer clients three core services that support employee-first, customer-centric cultures and develop critical professional skills: Culture Change, Coaching, Leadership Development. Shafi has witnessed just how lonely it can be at the top, especially during challenging times. Her sweet spot is helping executives figure out how they can be better leaders by empowering and holding their teams accountable to clearly defined expectations. She serves her clients as a trusted advisor, offering a nonjudgmental and affirming space to help distinguish root causes from symptoms, transition stakeholders from splintering perspectives to alignment on priorities, and co-create the solutions to move forward. Shafi is known for being insightful, adaptive, and curiously collected in times of stress (likely a result of working with U.S. Marines, trekking the globe with thousands of teenagers, and coaching CEOs across 20+ industries). She is dedicated to innovation and quality. And she genuinely believes in having fun while working smart.
Ross Thornley
Author, Speaker and Podcast Host.
Co-Founder & CEO, AQai - Adaptability Assessments & Coaching
"Entrepreneur and 'AQ' Pioneer. Author of Moonshot Innovation & AQ Decoded. Ross Thornley’s work is opening up new frontiers in HrTech and EdTech. Leveraging conversational AI and predictive analytics his company’s platform enables people, teams and organizations to successfully navigate accelerating change. His ability to contextualize diverse and complex subjects, inspire and engage audiences makes him a highly sought after international speaker." - Wall Street Journal 2020.
