Kristen Byrd, Regional President, The PNC Financial Services Group, Inc.
Kristen Byrd is regional president for PNC Bank in Louisville. She is responsible for the greater Louisville, western Kentucky and southern Indiana markets. Prior to being named to her current role in March 2022, Byrd served as senior vice president and regional banking director of PNC Private Bank. Since joining the bank in 2002, Byrd has held a variety of roles in retail, business banking and private banking. A PNC-Certified women’s business advocate, Byrd was integral to establishing the Louisville chapter of Women Connect, an Employee Business Resource Group designed to support the professional development of female PNC employees. Byrd serves on the board of trustees for Bellarmine University, the executive committees of Louisville’s Fund for the Arts and Greater Louisville Inc (GLI), Kentucky Chamber of Commerce and Leadership Louisville Center. She is a member of YPO (Young Presidents’ Organization) Bluegrass Chapter and serves on the advisory board for the University of Louisville College of Business. She is a former board member of Stage One Family Theatre. Byrd earned a bachelor’s degree in Business Management from Transylvania University and Master of Business Administration from Bellarmine University. While at Transylvania University, she served as captain of the women’s soccer team.
Beth Davisson, Senior Vice President, Foundation, Kentucky Chamber
Beth Davisson is a Senior Vice President with the Kentucky Chamber of Commerce. She leads the Kentucky Chamber Foundation, the philanthropic arm of the Kentucky Chamber of Commerce, the state’s largest association advocating on behalf of business. Beth joined the Chamber in 2017 to begin building the Workforce Center as the Foundation’s only fully dedicated employee. Since then, the Foundation has grown to a team of fifteen and continues to expand its support to employers and efforts in building a stronger workforce. Beth is a lifelong resident of Kentucky, earning her undergraduate degree from the University of Kentucky and MBA from Sullivan University. She has spent the last 10+ years advocating for the workforce in Kentucky and the nation’s capital and aligning talent to the strategic plans of business. Beth was honored as a “Top 40 under 40” and named a “Top 20 People to Know in Human Resources” by Business First Louisville. She serves on the boards of KYSHRM and Goodwill Industries. Beth was appointed by Governor Andy Beshear to the Executive Committee for the Kentucky Workforce Innovation Board, leading the state’s education attainment and employer engagement efforts, and is a Workforce Fellow for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
Toa Green, Owner/Operator, Crank & Boom Craft Ice Cream
Toa Green is the owner and operator of Crank & Boom Craft Ice Cream, a beloved premium ice cream company in Lexington, Kentucky. Crank & Boom has two brick-and-mortar locations, is sold at Whole Foods Market-Lexington and other local retail partners, and ships nationwide on Goldbelly. Crank & Boom has been featured in Food & Wine, PEOPLE, the New York Times, Southern Living and the Cooking Channel.
Having grown up in Frankfort, Kentucky, she bleeds Kentucky blue through and through despite graduating from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with a degree in Journalism and Public Relations. Outside of work, Toa’s passion is community building. She currently serves as the Vice Chair of Leadership Development on the Executive Board of Commerce Lexington, is a member of the Governor’s Commission of Small Business Innovation and Advocacy, and serves as Vice Chair of the Lexington Fayette Urban County Tourist and Convention Commission. She has also volunteered with Habitat for Humanity in India, Thailand, Honduras, and various parts of the U.S.
Kimberly Halbauer, Regional President, Fifth Third Bank, Kentucky
Kimberly Halbauer is the regional president of Fifth Third Bank’s Kentucky market. Her primary responsibilities include overseeing the growth and strategic direction of the Commercial, Wealth & Asset Management, and Consumer divisions.
Halbauer started her career at Fifth Third in 1990. After completing her education, she held leadership positions in the Consumer, Commercial, and Wealth & Asset Management divisions. During this time, Halbauer worked with a variety of people and businesses ranging from small to publicly traded companies and multi-family offices. Halbauer is passionate about talent development and strategic initiatives that allow people and business to succeed.
Halbauer holds a bachelor’s degree in finance and business from Thomas More University and completed an executive leadership program at Yale University. She currently serves on the boards of several organizations including the Kentucky Chamber of Commerce, Endeavor Midwest, One West, One Southern Indiana, Greater Louisville Inc., Leadership Louisville Center, Fund for the Arts, and Thomas More University.
Vitale Buford Hardin, President & CEO, Vitale & Company
Vitale Buford Hardin, leading expert in Perfectionism and how it permeates corporate culture and individual performance, is the President and CEO of Vitale & Company. Vitale works with organizations and leaders to transform perfectionism into excellence. She has served clients including Keeneland, Humana, NCAA, LG&E, LifePoint Health, Logan Aluminum and the University of Kentucky with a focus on leadership and overcoming perfectionism. Having led two University studies focused on perfectionism in the workplace, Vitale is a true pioneer of thought leadership in this space. This study Revealed that 85% of workplaces have cultures of perfectionism as well as 86% of leaders in these workplaces seeing their work affected by perfectionism, further solidifying perfectionism as a crucial topic to be addressed in every work environment. Throughout Vitale’s life, she has overcome struggles with perfectionism and addiction which propelled her to becoming a published author, nationally recognized speaker and iPEC-certified executive coach. She brings 15 years of corporate experience to her custom trainings, strategic advisory, culture change initiatives and performance coaching. Vitale’s proprietary program equips her clients with the tools to turn the volume down on perfectionism and learn to lead with authenticity and excellence, build resilience, improve communication and emotional intelligence. In her personal life, Vitale is a committed mother and wife. She adopted her nephew when he was 5 years old, becoming a single mother nearly seven years ago. She married her best friend, Stan Hardin, in 2021 and gave birth to their son, Lowell, in the summer of 2023.
Alice Houston, Founder/Owner, HJI Supply Chain Solutions
Alice K. Houston was educated in the Louisville, Kentucky public schools and received her high school diploma in 1964. She graduated “Cum Laude” from Baldwin Wallace College in Berea, Ohio in 1968; and received a Danforth Foundation Fellowship in Latin American History to attend graduate school at Vanderbilt University. She attended Vanderbilt from 1968-69. She left Vanderbilt in 1969 to marry Wade Houston who was pursuing a career in professional sports. The two traveled and lived in France where her husband, Wade, played and coached basketball in Strasbourg, France. Upon returning to the United States, Alice began a long and successful association and career at the University of Louisville. While earning a M.Ed. in College Student Personnel Services, she served as Assistant and subsequently Associate Director of Financial Aid at the University of Louisville. She left the University of Louisville in March 1988 to join a series of family businesses which collectively became one of the largest minority-owned company in the United States, and the largest minority-owned transportation company in North America during the 1990’s. In July 2001, Alice divested of her interests to concentrate her attention to developing HJI Supply Chain Solutions and became President and CEO in January, 2005. During the ensuing years, HJI became a preferred supplier of material fulfillment, sequencing, assembling, and logistic services. In 2011 HJI was nominated by Ford Motor Company and subsequently won the TSMSDC “Supplier of the Year Award”, and was honored in 2018 and 2019 by Yangfeng Global Automotive Interiors with their Supplier Diversity Excellence Award. In August, 2020, Alice resigned as CEO, successfully completing a six-year succession plan aimed to transition ownership to the 2nd generation.
Cynthia Knapek, President & CEO, Leadership Louisville Center
In 2012, Cynthia was named President & CEO of the Leadership Louisville Center, a leading social impact organization whose purpose is to inspire and equip leaders to BE BETTER and DO BETTER. Cynthia is particularly proud that the work the Center has done to foster inclusivity was recognized with the 2016 Champion of Diversity Award from the Urban League. Under her leadership the Center has grown beyond the boundaries of Louisville. Thru the launch of LeadingBetter™ as a new partner brand, the Center provides leadership skills development to more than 500 client companies with participants in 30 states. In 2020, Cynthia was named one of the Most Admired CEO’s by Business First. In 2023 she was named Bluegrass Public Relations Society’s Communicator of the Year. She has held several national leadership roles including having previously served as the national Chair of the Board for the Association of Leadership Programs. She is the current chair of the National Community Leadership Collaborative. Cynthia has a Master’s degree from the University of Louisville and hold several leadership certifications. She is member of Forbes Coaching Council and frequent contributor. She is an active community leader and serves on numerous community boards including the Downtown Development Corporation and co-chaired the Greater Louisville Inc. (Chamber of Commerce) Business Council to End Racism.
Annie Likins, Chief People Officer, Bamboo Health and Appriss
Annie is a dynamic, multi-faceted executive with infectious energy and a heart for leading and inspiring people through transformative change. With over 20 years’ experience in commercial and civil law and human resources management, Annie marries her legal general counsel background with strategic talent and culture initiatives in the interest of driving revenue for data and technology businesses going through rapid growth and/or change. Because she approaches strategic problems with a legal lens, she can quickly spot risk, identify opportunities that may otherwise go unnoticed, and make and recommend quick action – a unique, yet highly valuable skillset on an executive team. Annie’s value is especially evident when she is supporting global firms through leadership or culture transformation and overseeing legal counsel, governance, talent initiatives, corporate culture, and organizational communications. Annie has become a trusted advisor to many new companies and has been critical in helping them successfully navigate lofty growth and transformation goals.
Today, Annie serves as the Chief People Officer for Bamboo Health, an Appriss health technology company driven to improve healthcare by providing technology solutions that identify and positively impact pivotal moments in an individuals’ care. At Bamboo Annie leads the talent and development strategy for its 400+ employees, located remotely across the U.S. and beyond. Prior to joining Bamboo, Annie served as General Counsel and Chief Human Resources Officer for Luma Financial Technologies, the leading award-winning platform for sourcing, configuring, and pricing structured products and annuities. At Luma, Annie leads the legal and people functions in the fast-growing, highly competitive, fintech industry. Annie builds teams, processes and a strong corporate culture to support high-growth tech companies as they scale in all facets.
For over a decade, Annie was involved with the publicly-traded DMGT family of companies, first as Chief People Officer for Louisville-based Genscape, an energy insights provider, and in various HR leadership roles including General Counsel, and Director of Global HR for DMGT. During her time with DMGT, she oversaw a complex personnel strategy for over 8,000 global employees and helped scale a high-tech, information insights portfolio, comprised of businesses that led the charge in artificial intelligence (AI), Internet of Things (IoT), and Big Data. Annie quickly became a go-to expert on public company nuance and complexity, ensuring legal compliance across the globe. In her last year at DMGT, Annie was critical to guiding the successful sale of Genscape to Verisk Analytics, another publicly traded insights provider.
Prior to her involvement with DMGT, Annie served 6 years on the executive team in the role of SVP of HR at Camden National Corporation, a publicly traded financial institution headquartered in Camden, Maine that provides banking services at over 42 branches. During her tenure with Camden National she ensured HR compliance, nurtured corporate culture, and encouraged high performance recruiting and employee development.
Early in her career Annie honed her legal and litigation skills serving as an Assistant District Attorney for Middlesex County in Massachusetts and as an Assistant Attorney General for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. She is a champion for people and community, and beyond her work pedigree, has served on numerous boards and associations including The YMCA, The Kentucky Science Center, Greater Louisville Inc.’s Technology Visioning Committee, The St. Francis School of Louisville, Leadership Louisville Board and Executive Committee, The Jefferson Foundation, and is a proud graduation of the Leadership Louisville Class of 2020.
Annie has a B.A. in English from Tulane University and a J.D. from The George Washington University Law School. Annie is an active member of the bars of New York, Massachusetts and Kentucky. She lives in Louisville, KY with her husband and has three adult children.
Elizabeth McCall, Master Distiller, Woodford Reserve
Woodford Reserve Master Distiller Elizabeth McCall, CSS (Certified Specialist of Spirits) is the second generation of her family to work in the bourbon industry and one of the youngest female distillers in the United States. She followed in her mother’s footsteps starting as a sensory expert and working in the quality department. McCall has a master’s degree from the University of Louisville and has been a member of Brown-Forman's R & D since 2009. She works with R & D on innovation and the development of new products within Woodford Reserve. Additionally, she interacts one-on-one with consumers through personal barrel selections and education on sensory methodology and works to define the quality sensory standard to which every batch of Woodford Reserve must comply. When Elizabeth is not using her expertise at the distillery, she is passionate about her family, horses and being involved in her community. She also enjoys spending quality time with her husband, Matt, daughter Winnie, son Ferris, and their dog Beasley.
Candace McGraw, CEO, Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport / CVG
Candace has been CEO of the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport, CVG, since July 2011. She has led the transformation of CVG into a thriving enterprise and economic engine for the Commonwealth of Kentucky, growing its annual economic impact to $9.3 billion in 2022—an increase of nearly $6 billion since she took the helm. Under her leadership, CVG has flourished with recent and ongoing investments from Amazon Air, DHL Express, Frontier, Breeze Airways, British Airways and more.
Britney Ruby Miller, CEO, Jeff Ruby Culinary Entertainment
Britney Ruby Miller is President and CEO of Jeff Ruby Culinary Entertainment where she leads a team of 900 employees across Ohio, Kentucky and Tennessee. Growing up in the family business founded by her father in 1981, she learned the intricacies of the business at a young age. She worked nearly every position over her 20 years in operations while earning a Religious Studies degree at University of Cincinnati. After that, she attended the Midwest Culinary Institute and is currently pursuing her MBA from Xavier University. In 2011, Britney joined the home office team. In only a few short years she took over operations of the company and through her leadership JRCE experienced success and growth—including re-organizing the corporate group of less than 10 people to an office now 51 members strong, half of which are women, while simultaneously doubling the business footprint from 4 establishments to now 7 steakhouses and their newest event and catering venture The Lempicka, by Jeff Ruby. Under her leadership, JRCE reached the $100MM milestone in 2023. Ruby’s restaurants have earned national acclaim including OpenTable’s highly competitive Top 100 Restaurants in America list, naming Carlo & Johnny and Jeff Ruby’s Steakhouse among Ohio’s top six foodie destinations. Deemed the Best Steakhouses in America by Travel + Leisure, Food Network, USA Today, and Business Insider, Jeff Ruby’s has no plans of slowing down. The impact she and her family are making in the community is perhaps most important to her. As a co-founder of the Jeff Ruby Foundation, they are working to continue the legacy of Jeff Ruby himself by following in his footsteps to drastically improve the lives of the most vulnerable people in the Cincinnati area—orphans and children in foster care. Simply put, their purpose is to give a fighting chance to those who have none. Britney sits on the Board of the Cincinnati CVB, The Ohio Restaurant Association and The Joe Burrow Foundation. She is a member of the Young Presidents Organization and most recently added best-selling author to her resume, with the launch of her memoir, 5 Star Life. Her greatest joy in life is being a wife to Caleb Miller and mom to Asher, Hannah, Gracie and Caden. And though she isn’t a “dog” person, she has two cockapoos and a golden doodle to keep her kids happy.
Shane Shaps, Professional Big Mouth, Big Voice Social
Shane Shaps has always made it her business to tell anyone and everyone she knows about a great product, brand or experience. In 2008 she began to incorporate her social skills with her social media activity and 520 East Brands was born. Newly rebranded to Big Voice Social, the company serves as an online voice for the brands it represents. By using social channels, brands can more readily listen to their community, appeal to their customers’ needs and respond to questions and feedback. She feels strongly that a brand with just an Instagram page and a Facebook feed does not equal a social media-savvy brand. Creating a real, human persona for each organization is what Shane feels truly represents a brand and the people behind it.
Big Voice Social is committed to each client by seeing engagement from the consumer’s point of view. They take the time to develop the voice, to collaborate with our clients, and to stay ahead of new technology. Known to some as the “Professional Big Mouth,” Shane starts her day early, multitasks as all great women entrepreneurs must and takes the action of “networking” to a whole new level. Whether online or face-to-face, her enthusiasm for her clients is infectious.
Renee Shaw, Director of Public Affairs and Moderator, Kentucky Educational Television (KET)
Renee Shaw is the Director of Public Affairs and Moderator at KET, currently serving as host of KET’s weeknight public affairs program Kentucky Edition, the signature public policy discussion series Kentucky Tonight, Election coverage and KET Forums. Since 2001, Renee has been the producing force behind KET’s legislative coverage that has been recognized by the Kentucky Associated Press and the National Educational Telecommunications Association. Under her leadership, KET has expanded its portfolio of public affairs content to include a daily news and information program, Kentucky Supreme Court coverage, townhall-style forums, and multi-platform program initiatives around issues such as opioid addiction, youth mental health and aging.
Renee has also earned top awards from the Ohio Valley Chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS), with three regional Emmy awards. In 2023, she was inducted into the Silver Circle of the NATAS, one of the industry’s highest honors recognizing television professionals with distinguished service in broadcast journalism for 25 years or more.
Already an inductee into the Kentucky Civil Rights Hall of Fame (2017), Renee expanded her hall of fame status with induction into Western Kentucky University’s Hall of Distinguished Alumni in November of 2023.
Among the nearly three-dozen honors and awards Renee has earned, she was named in The Kentucky Gazette’s inaugural recognition of the 50 most notable women in Kentucky politics and government.
Ashli Watts, President & CEO, Kentucky Chamber
Ashli Watts was named the President and CEO for the Kentucky Chamber, the state’s largest business association, in November 2019. Ashli joined the Kentucky Chamber of Commerce in November of 2012, and during her tenure as Senior Vice President of Public Affairs at the Chamber, she has led efforts in passing significant pieces of legislation such as felony expungement in 2016, right to work legislation in 2017, workers’ compensation reform in 2018 and reinstating arbitration agreements in 2019. As part of the Chamber’s leadership team, the Kentucky Chamber was named National State Chamber of the Year in 2017. Prior to joining the Chamber, she worked at the Kentucky Bar Association and the Legislative Research Commission.
LaJuana Wilcher, Partner, English Lucas Priest & Owsley LLP
LaJuana Wilcher was the first woman confirmed by the U.S. Senate to lead the USEPA's Office of Water in Washington, DC (1989-1993), the first woman to lead Kentucky's Environmental and Public Protection Cabinet (2003-2006), the first woman to serve as Board Chair of the Federal Agricultural Mortgage Corporation (NYSE:AGM) (2020-2022), and the first woman elected to the Warren County Conservation District Board (2011-present).
In each position, LaJuana has brought vision, energy and passion for the organization's mission. She focuses on organizational architecture, strong and cohesive leadership teams, and accountability for moving the organization toward making positive contributions and continuous improvement. She managed annual budgets of almost $2 billion in one role, and an employee roster of over 2000 employees in another.
LaJuana is a partner at English, Lucas, Priest & Owsley, LLP, in Bowling Green, Kentucky. She serves on the Executive Committee and as Vice Chair, Public Affairs for the Kentucky Chamber of Commerce.