Empowering Today’s Board Leaders

Cynthia Brinkley is an experienced C-suite senior executive and board director recognized at the state and national level for her accomplishments in the corporate, public, educational and nonprofit sectors.

She has over 30 years of executive leadership experience at large, global blue-chip companies. At Centene Corporation, she served in several roles including President and Chief Operating Officer and Chief Administrative and Markets officer, where she oversaw the markets (P&L for the company), international operations, business integration activities, government relations and was responsible for the transformation efforts for Centene. Prior to Centene, she served as Chief Human Resources Officer(CHRO) for General Motors, where she led the GM post-bankruptcy team in transforming the corporation’s human capital model, developing its talent strategy, and in recruiting critical new talent to lead GM into the future. She began her career at AT&T(SBC) where she held various senior roles, including Senior Vice President of Talent Development and Chief Diversity Officer. In that role, she led the creation of AT&T University and as its first CDO, rapidly advanced AT&T’s recognition as a leader in diversity. She also served as President of AT&T/SBC for Missouri and Arkansas, and Area Vice President for the Los Angeles region.

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Cathy Gonzales is the Managing Partner for KPMG’s San Diego office and is responsible for the strategic direction and growth of the local market, developing C-suite and Board relationships, leading and inspiring over 375+ professionals, delivering exceptional client care and driving the core values of the firm. She also serves as a global lead partner on two priority accounts focused on understanding the client’s business, building and expanding relationships and bringing solutions to support long-term value for clients.

Cathy also has over 30 years of experience providing Advisory services to companies across multiple industries with recurring exposure to Boards and Audit Committees. She is a market and thought leader in supporting clients with Internal Audit, Risk Management, IPO/SOX assistance services

Mary Beth Vitale is CEO and Principal for Pellera, LLC., a consulting firm that provides board training in cyber security and governance education to public, private and large not-for-profit firms.

Ms. Vitale currently serves on Luna Innovations (NASDAQ: LUNA) and G.E.H.A., a 501C9 VEBA association board. Formerly, she served on the board of Pareteum (TEUM) where she served as Chair of the board, Chair of Nominating and Governance. She was also a member of the Audit, Compensation and Strategy committees. She restructured the company and sold it in 2022.

She also served on the board CoBiz Financial, a $3.8 Billion publicly traded financial that was sold in 2018. She was Chair of Nominating and Governance and Risk and Audit committee.

Erin Dwyer is the Chief Executive Officer of Women Corporate Directors (WCD), the largest and most influential global community of women serving on corporate boards. In this capacity, she leads global initiatives and programming aimed at empowering WCD’s 2,600 members to deliver visionary board leadership.

Ms. Dwyer’s distinguished career blends corporate governance, policy, finance, and strategic stakeholder engagement expertise. She previously held senior roles at Tapestry Networks, the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB), and the Center for Audit Quality, where she convened and facilitated discussions about critical issues in governance, risk, strategy, and leadership with key capital markets’ participants. Ms. Dwyer also spent eight years as a sell-side analyst on Prudential Financial’s equity research team and served as a senior vice president of client development at Cooley LLP, an Am Law 100 law firm.

Ms. Dwyer earned her B.A. in Public Policy Studies from Duke University in Durham, North Carolina. She resides in St. Augustine, Florida.

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