Miami Agenda
Wednesday October 28 2026
Northeastern University
230 NW 24th Street, 5th Floor, Miami, FL, 33127
08:00 – 09:00
Registration, Networking, Meeting and Connections
09:00 – 09:10
Welcome and Setting the Scene
Mark Rix
CEO, Sonas Group, (Wellbeing at Work)
09:10 – 09:30
Welcome from our Host Venue Partner
Begoña Rovira
Associate Dean and Campus Director, Northeastern University, Miami Campus
09:30 – 10:00
AI as the Driver of the Future of HR, Wellness and Performance
How will AI impact holistic well-being strategies to drive productivity, lower healthcare costs, and increased profitability? How will AI & personalization elevate engagement through data-driven wellness solutions? What impact will AI-powered coaching and health analytics have on customized well-being plans that improve employee retention and performance? How can organizations prioritize emotional intelligence, trust, and mental health support experience in order to achieve stronger engagement, lower turnover, and higher innovation?
Chris Narmi
Former Chief Strategist AI and Workflow, Hewlett-Packard (HP)
10:00 – 10:45
Leadership Panel – Driving Performance in a Changing World: From Wellbeing to Workforce Advantage
What leadership behaviours and cultural signals sustain wellbeing and performance in hybrid, AI-enabled workplaces? How can wellbeing be embedded as a seamless, data-informed experience across the entire employee lifecycle? How do organisations shift from wellbeing provision to building workforce capability, adaptability, and growth? How can wellbeing be leveraged as a strategic driver of resilience, retention, and innovation in times of rapid change?
Gayle Catropa
Chief Human Resources Officer, Perry Ellis International
Melanie Gonzalez
Chief People Officer, Behavioral Science Research Institute
Ester Gramegna
Head of HR, USA, Aventum
Paola Hernandez
Chief Human Resources Officer, United Way, Miami
Your Expert Panel Chair:
Talia Sehayik
Workplace & Health & Culture Partner, Wellhub
10:45 – 11:15
Morning Networking Break
11:15 – 11:40
Becoming the Healthiest Company in America: Lennar’s Journey to Whole Person Wellbeing. What does it take to make health and wellbeing an enterprise priority?
Leading national homebuilder Lennar shares how it evolved from strengthening its benefits foundation to building a holistic wellbeing strategy. This case study explores Lennar’s journey from the 2nd to the 44th percentile in benefits competitiveness among the Fortune 500 companies, the leadership vision behind Healthiest Company in America (HCIA), and the strategy, programs and measurement framework behind making wellbeing an integral part of the company’s Associate experience.
Drew Holler
CHRO, Lennar
11:40 - 12:05
The Desk as a Device: What 2,325 Employees Taught Us About Preventing MSK Pain
Most workplace health programs help people recover from the demands of work. What if prevention started at the desk, where the strain builds? Drawing on a 3-year study of 2,325 employees across 50 companies, this session shows what changed when a privacy-first sensor was added to desks, coaching posture and movement through the workday: reported MSK sick days fell in half, and movement breaks nearly doubled.
Simon Fiechtner
Co-Founder and Head of Business Development, Deep Care
12:05 – 13:05
Leadership Workshop Discussions
Attendees will take their pick from our expert led sessions which will be announced shortly
1 - Finding new ways to promote personal wellness that your employees will utilize
Most wellness benefits go unused. Utilization stalls and HR leaders are left defending spend they can't tie to outcomes. This session moves past the perks-and-portals era to examine what employees engage with: personalized experiences that fit real lives rather than one-size-fits-all programs. We'll explore why choice and variety work for employees. Attendees leave with ideas for auditing current offerings, benchmarking engagement, and building a wellness strategy that employees actually want to use.
Emily Duff
Head of Global Benefits, Classpass
2 - The Wellbeing Shift: Leadership Behaviours That Transform Culture
A strategic, evidence‑based session demonstrating how wellbeing, when practiced through leadership behaviours, transforms team culture, elevates psychological safety, and improves performance. The workshop includes the real case of a Company, illustrating how small, consistent wellbeing practices can create meaningful organizational impact.
Monica Garcia, CEO & Founder, Awakening Insights
Anadel Alberti, CEO & Founder, Audaciously Authentic™
13:05 – 14:00
Networking Lunch
14:00 – 14:30
Fireside Chat: What CFOs Are Saying About Healthcare Costs and What HR Should Do Next
Healthcare costs are rising, and employers are looking closely at what this means for budgets, benefits, and employees. CFOs are asking how to control spending. HR leaders need to ask equally practical questions. How do we keep healthcare affordable for employees? How do we avoid simply passing higher costs on through premiums, deductibles, and copays? Which benefits and support services do employees actually use? Which ones make a real difference? This conversation will focus on practical steps HR teams can take now. It will cover understanding what is driving costs, using data to make better choices, helping employees find the right care, and communicating benefit changes clearly and honestly. It will also explore how HR and finance can work together to improve care, reduce employee stress and protect the value of the benefits package.
Jose Tomás
Board Director, Driven Brands and Panera Bread. Former Chief Administrative Officer, TelevisaUnivision
Mark Rix
CEO, Sonas Group (Wellbeing at Work)
14:30 - 15:15
Leadership Panel: Designing Wellbeing with Inclusion in Mind
How do you deliver wellbeing that truly works across hybrid, multi-generational and neurodiverse workforces? What does inclusivity mean for women’s wellbeing in the workplace? What means are available to better accommodate those with disabilities at organizations today? What can employers do to ensure true inclusion combines belongingness and the valuing of individual uniqueness? What should be done about culture from the perspective of inter-generational workers? How can organizations create non-discriminatory work processes and policies? How do communities in organizations help create a culture of inclusion and thriving together?
Natalie Williams
Senior Director of Education and Exhibits, Miami Children’s Museum
El pagnier Hudson
SVP, Human Resources, Florida International
Retha Boone-Fye
Office of Community Advocacy, Program Director, Black Affairs Advisory Board, Miami-Dade County
Sara Josephs
Founder/CEO, SJ Startup Solutions
Your Expert Panel Chair:
Lisa Bevill
Academic Director, Center for Health & Well-being, IE University
15:15 - 15:30
Networking Break
15:30 - 16:15
Flipping the Script on Well-Being: How and Why Some of the Most Counter-Intuitive Things Help
We need to keep doing all the things that we know prevent stress, anxiety, fear, doubt, or any other negative emotion that leads to being “unwell.” But what if there was more to the story? What if there are some other things to consider that could lead to true transformation within ourselves and our organizations? In this session, Jen, Adriene and Julie will talk about some of the most counter-intuitive things that can create lasting, sustainable outcomes for our well-being. It may not be what you typically think about, so join them for new perspective and a bit of curiosity about how to flip the script!
Adriene McCoy
SVP and Chief People Officer, Baptist Health South Florida
Chris Cummings
Founder, Sonas Group (Wellbeing at Work)
Julie Staub
Former CHRO & Author, The Limitless Mind
Your Expert Panel Chair:
Jen Fisher
Bestselling Author & Founder, The Wellbeing Team
16:15 – 16:40
The Role of Learning in Boosting Wellbeing in an Ever-Changing Environment
How do organizations provide employees with the skills needed to meet the ever-changing needs of their companies? Developing a culture of learning and development to enable employees to manage rapidly changing working conditions, Ensuring learning and development provides resilience to employees, What can organizations do now to ensure remote workers have the same access to learning opportunities?
Elyse Sitomer
Learning & Organizational Development Partner, Memorial Healthcare System
16:40 – 16:50
Closing Remarks
Mark Rix
CEO, Sonas Group, (Wellbeing at Work)
16:50 – 18:00
