Laura Tibodeau

Global Digital Innovation & Transformation Leader Ascend Performance Materials

Laura Tibodeau is a senior IT executive with deep knowledge and experience of digital business/transformation, cyber security and resiliency and risk management. Her C-Level leadership experience extends across energy, manufacturing and high-tech industries. Leveraging her innate relationship skills, Laura has repeatedly built and led engaged geographically diverse distributed teams that delivered outstanding business results. Laura’s has most recently served as the Global Digital Innovation and Transformation Leader for Ascend Performance Materials; the Chief Information Officer for Americas Styrenics; and the Director of Strategy, Planning and Governance for Hewlett Packard. She also serves on the Board of Directors for two non-profit companies; and has served as an Executive Advisor for Darktrace, SAP and Verizon. These rich professional experiences afford Laura a unique perspective on how to digitally enable and secure business functions as well as successfully lead the requisite human changes across an organization. Laura earned a Bachelor of Science Degree from Texas A&M University in Industrial Engineering and a Master of Science Degree from Southern Methodist University in Engineering Management. She is a US Patent holder and co-inventor of the Supply Chain Operations Reference Model (SCOR). She is also a 2021 Inductee into the ASUG CIO Hall of Fame; a 2020 Houston CIO of the Year Orbie Finalist; a 2020 ISE North America Cyber Executive Achievement Finalist; leader in the Houston and US CIO and CISO communities; frequent speaker at technology conferences and a respected technology industry advisor. Outside of work, Laura enjoys hot air ballooning, travel, learning about everything related to cyber protections, artificial intelligence and promoting educational causes.

Pre-Conference Workshop Day

3:15 PM Workshop E: Generative AI 101: Introduction to the Fundamentals

While the hype around Generative AI means the business community is now aware of the technology, many people are still relative beginners to generative AI as it is a relatively new and rapidly evolving field with complex concepts and a variety of technical approaches. With that in mind, this workshop will explore the underlying principles of generative AI models and learn how to design and implement them for a variety of applications.


Participants in this workshop will:


● Understand potential applications - get to know the broad spectrum of Generative AI applications and possibilities e.g. 3D object generation, interactive image generation, and text generation

● Gain an overview of the current technology landscape – understand the tools you can leverage immediately

● Identify the best use cases for Generative AI – learn where you can apply the technology to best effect

● Discuss how to Improve datasets and models – understand the data requirements and how yours can be augmented to best effect

Main Conference Day 2

9:25 AM Keynote Panel: The Important Role of Leadership in Digital Transformation and Change Management Initiatives

● Developing a vision for change and clearly articulating the benefits for your business and workforce

● Creating a culture of innovation and experimentation that embraces failures as a learning opportunity

● Managing conflict and resistance to change through listening to concerns and addressing objections

● Establishing clear performance metrics and benchmarks to evaluate and measure success

Check out the incredible speaker line-up to see who will be joining Laura.

Download The Latest Agenda