Karen Horting, CAE, is Executive Director & CEO for the Society of Women Engineers (SWE), a 41,000 member organization founded in 1950. SWE is the driving force that establishes engineering as a highly desirable career aspiration for women.

With more than 30 years of experience in sales, marketing, and fund development, Ms.Horting came to SWE in March 2004 from the New York Academy of Sciences where she served as Director of Strategic Planning, overseeing the Academy’s development activities and long-range organizational planning. Prior to NYAS, Ms. Horting worked at the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) managing both marketing and fund development on a global level for Science’s Next Wave, a ground-breaking career development website for graduate students and postdocs in STEM. Her previous experience also includes more than ten years in the paint industry.

Prior to her appointment as Executive Director & CEO, she served as SWE’s Director of Fund Development from March 2004 through July 2006 and Deputy Executive Director from August 2006 through December 2013.

Ms. Horting has a BS in Biology from Northern Illinois University. And she earned her MBA from Johns Hopkins University. In May 2008, Ms. Horting earned her Certified Association Executive (CAE) credential from the CAE Commission of the American Society of Association Executives (ASAE).

She currently serves on the FIRST Robotics Board of Directors, the STEM Ed Coalition Board of Directors, the Leadership Circle of the 50K Coalition and the Johns Hopkins Carey School of Business Dean’s Alumni Advisory Board (DAAB). In 2019 she received the Association Forum’s Inspiring Leader award

Parker-Clegg leads the global HR agenda in support of the worldwide Allison team in the continued pursuit of excellence in the people practices of the organization and support of Allison’s long tradition of commitment to innovation and quality.

Before joining Allison Transmission, Parker-Clegg served as Chief Human Resources Officer with Doncasters Group Ltd. As the CHRO Doncasters Group, Parker-Clegg demonstrated an ability to work across a complex engineering business at management board and local site levels, providing realistic solutions in a highly competitive marketplace.

Commencing in the Consumer Products Division with Bristol Myers Squibb (BMS) she was instrumental in establishing trade marketing for the group. Parker-Clegg then transferred into her first HR role leading the Scandinavia Central Eastern Europe and Russia HR team; and HR Business Partner in Paris, France at the European/Middle East/Africa HQ, supporting the creation of the new marketing organization.

Parker-Clegg then expanded her career in the US moving to a specialist Talent Acquisition leadership role with the R&D team where successfully implementing an outsourcing model and assumed a leadership role in the HR transformation process. Parker-Clegg gained additional experience in a global leadership role with the former B/E Aerospace Consumables Division in Florida as the VP Human Resources, where she established and led the global HR function concurrent with the completion of the major acquisition of Honeywell Consumable Solutions. Parker-Clegg then joined Covidien in the role of VP HR, Emerging Markets and after the acquisition of Covidien by Medtronic became the VP of HR in Asia Pacific.

Gary Johansen is currently Vice President of Engineering in the Power Systems Business at Cummins Inc. He leads a team of 1700 engineers, technicians, and support staff across India, China, Brazil, the UK and the US. His teams develop industry leading, sustainable power solutions for the Mining, Marine, Rail, Defense, Oil & Gas, Power Generation, and other markets worldwide.

He began his career as an engine combustion development engineer and has since taken roles of increasing leadership and technical scope, as a worldwide chief engineer, platform development leader, and worldwide engineering leader in the Power Generation, High Horsepower Engines, and most recently the Power Systems Business.

Known as a welcoming and empowering leader, Johansen has focused on diversity and inclusion at every step of his career, creating teams with women typically holding 50% of leadership roles. He sets high expectations for his leadership team to do the same and has mentored and championed many women engineers around the world.

Gary serves on the Board of the Courage Kenny Foundation, which supports one of the premier rehabilitation institutes in the US for people with brain stem and spinal trauma and pain. He currently lives in Minneapolis but has spent most of his career in Southern Indiana.

Michele leads investment activities for targeted opportunities aligned to strategy. She leads market scanning activities and fosters and maintains relationships with early-stage tech startup companies and technologies relevant to ag and construction industries. Michele leads the John Deere Startup Collaborator

Michele joined Deere in 2011 as Sr. Engineer responsible for EGR cooler development. In June 2013, she was appointed Engineering Manager, responsible for leadership of warranty issue resolution.

In December of 2014, she accepted the position of Backhoe Program Manager, which she held until she accepted the role of SQE Manager for the C&F Division in April 2017. Following a role as crawler production supervisor, Michele’s most recent role was Assembly Business Unit Manager at Engine Works.

Prior to John Deere, Michele worked as a team leader in product engineering at Behr, including new product development and advanced engineering in Stuttgart, Germany.

Michele started her career in engineering for Cummins, Inc. She
holds a BS degree in Engineering from the University of Dayton, a
Master of Engineering Management from the University of
Wisconsin-Madison and an MBA from the University of WisconsinMadison.

She has co-authored three technical papers and holds
one international patent.

Near three decades of professional career in automotive & commercial vehicle industries including over 21 years experience in managing global engineering cross functional teams (U.S., China, India, Korea, Japan, Europe, Taiwan and Thailand) on product, technology strategy & global organization technical capability development.
In depth knowledge & experience in Powertrain & ePowertrain, Chassis (Brake, Steering, Driveline Controls), Body Control and Interior Electronics (Audio, Cluster) products design and production launches. Near 14 years experiences focused on electrified powertrain products development and engineering services for various global OEMs and Tier Ones.
Professional experience prior to KPIT include Eaton Corporation, Ford Motor Company, Visteon Corporation, Lear Corporation and Delta Electronics Inc. Career journey started as Controls/Software engineer and progressed to various product, technology development engineering leadership roles