Padmaja Adusumilli is a change agent with a rare blend of strategic vision and exceptional execution skills. She has a proven record of building and developing self-sustainable teams from inception. At Pearson, she is responsible for Artificial Intelligence, Service Management, and Back-Office Applications. With her curiosity to learn, Padmaja implemented multiple technologies to support global Human Capital Management, Finance, Legal, and Supply Chain Operations. Padmaja played vastly distinct roles throughout her career as a Chief of Staff, head of Solutions Architecture team, and led Enterprise Project Management Office. She possesses strong vendor management and contract negotiation skills.

Padmaja is passionate about building diverse teams and diversity of thought to fuel innovation and excellent customer support. 

As the Senior Vice President over IT Strategy & Architecture for First Citizens Bank, Shannon Webster drives the technical vision for the enterprise to align with business needs, cultivates a scalable and flexible technology architecture, and fosters and evaluates emerging technologies and IT practices.

Webster joined the bank as an Application Development & Support Vice President for the Loan Origination Systems teams in July 2015 where she managed and delivered high-performance information technology applications and projects to address complex business problems as well as guided the teams through their Agile transformation. She counts the successful founding of an IT Centralized Application Support team and pioneering of an IT Leadership Development Program among her many accomplishments.

Prior to joining First Citizens Bank, Webster acquired over 15 years of professional services consulting experience, delivering high-profile projects with clients in diverse industries while working for boutique consultancies, a government contractor and Ernst & Young.

Webster was recruited to attend the University of Maryland on a volleyball scholarship where she earned four degrees, including a MBA and a Master of Science in Electronic Commerce & Information Systems. She holds various certifications including certified Project Management Professional (PMP) and certified ScrumMaster (CSM). She has also led a team through the NC State Innovation Program.

Webster previously served on the board of the Atlanta Electronic Commerce Forum for 8 years and has been a repeat mentor for the Pathbuilders’ Percepta womens talent development program. She lives in Holly Springs, NC with her husband and two sons.

As a 20+ year veteran of Cisco, Diana Littleton has grown her career as a business enabling, strategic thinker adept at guiding organizations from vision to execution. While there, she held many positions running the gamut, from business development to product and program management to cybersecurity strategy. In October 2020, she took early retirement with a plan to do something different with the rest of her career.

After a short stint at a GRC startup, Allgress, Diana is currently in negotiations for her next exciting opportunity.

Before her long career at Cisco, Diana worked in local NC companies (Carolina Computer and Atlantic Network Systems) focused on computers and networking in Purchasing Operations Manager and Business Development Manager roles.

Diana is exceptionally proud of being tapped to take on increasing levels of responsibility, a growing purview, and senior leadership roles in companies where she was not the typical employee throughout her career. She developed a reputation as a “universal translator” to help multiple stakeholders communicate and reach a consensus between technical and business goals. Diana was part of several hiring initiatives to build diverse teams and attract early-in-career talent.

A self-titled “creative geek,” Diana loves technology and its potential; and stays on top of what’s out there and how it can improve how we do things. It’s not about the bits and bytes to her but, instead, the positive impact that technology can bring.

Diana is a native of North Carolina who attended Campbell University, earning a degree in Government and History, with a minor in Pre-Law. She lives in Raleigh with her husband Tom and their menagerie of pets. When she is not focused on her technology career, Diana runs a pet novelty business, The Professional Napping Circuit.