Nithya B. Das is General Manager, Governance and Chief Legal Officer at Diligent. As General Manager of Diligent’s Governance business unit, Nithya leads product and commercial strategy for the company’s governance solutions. Nithya also leads the company’s global legal team.

Nithya also serves as a member of the board of directors and chair of the compensation committee at Outbrain Inc. (Nasdaq: OB), a leading technology platform that drives business results by engaging people across the open internet.

Nithya was previously Chief Operating and Legal Officer and Corporate Secretary at Olo (NYSE: OLO), an enterprise SaaS platform for restaurants, where she led the company through an IPO and transformation to a multi-product platform company. At Olo, she oversaw its people and culture, strategy and operations, corporate development, partner ecosystem, and shared product and technology teams. Prior to Olo, Nithya served as Chief Legal and People Officer at AppNexus where she led the company’s acquisition by AT&T (NYSE: T). Prior to that, she was an attorney at Goodwin Procter LLP and a founding contributor of Founder’s Workbench, the first online legal resource for the startup community.

Nithya is a recipient of the National Organization for Women’s Women of Power and Influence Award, the American Bar Association’s Legal Rebel recognition, and is a passionate advocate for women in leadership, diversity, equity and inclusion and corporate impact.

Nithya holds a degree in business administration from the SC Honors College at USC and a J.D., cum laude, from Brooklyn Law School. She lives in Hoboken, New Jersey, with her husband, two daughters, and her labradoodle.

Winnie Ling is the General Counsel, Head of Legal and People at Blend Labs, Inc. (NYSE: BLND), a technology company revolutionizing financial services. She leads Legal & Compliance, HR, and Strategic Operations, serving as a key advisor and partner to the Board and executive team on corporate governance, risk oversight, and operational and financial transformation.

Winnie has been instrumental in shaping Blend’s corporate strategy – guiding the company through its $360M IPO, a $500m acquisition, a $150M private equity investment, and the divestitures of non-core business. She also helped spearhead Blend’s international expansion into Mexico and India, paving the company’s path to scale and profitability.

Prior to joining Blend, Winnie was a corporate attorney at Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP, where she advised financial institutions, technology companies, and other clients on a wide range of capital markets, financing, M&A and other strategic transactions as they expanded their impact and reach. An Australian with extensive experience in New York and London, Winnie brings an international perspective and valuable cross-border expertise when leading companies and teams through key opportunities and challenges.

Recognized for combining legal expertise with strategic execution and innovation, Winnie has received honors such as “Female Trailblazer of the Year” (Mondaq), “Top 10 30-Somethings” (ACC), “Leading in Resilience” (Chief), “Thought Leadership” (ALM Corporate Counsel), “Inspiring FinTech Female – Leader” (NYC FinTech Women), and “Women in FinTech Powerlist” (Innovate Finance).

Winnie graduated from Columbia Law School as a Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar, and also earned a business degree and a law degree from the University of New South Wales.

Dottie Schindlinger is Executive Director of the Diligent Institute, the modern governance think tank and global research arm of Diligent Corporation. In her role, Dottie directs the Institute’s thought leadership on corporate governance and related topics. She also serves as a lead spokesperson for both Diligent Institute and Diligent Corporation, giving dozens of presentations to boards and executives at events around the globe. Dottie’s work has been featured in Fortune, Forbes, The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, and multiple governance and technology publications. She is co-author of the book, Governance in the Digital Age: A Guide for the Modern Corporate Board Director and she co-hosts the show The Corporate Director Podcast.

Dottie brings over twenty years’ experience in governance-related roles, including serving as a director, officer, committee chair, senior executive, governance consultant and trainer for private, public, and nonprofit boards. She was a founding team member of the tech start-up BoardEffect, a board management software provider focused on healthcare and nonprofit boards, acquired by Diligent in 2016. She served as the Vice Chair of the Board of the Alice Paul Institute until April 2020, and is a Fellow of the Salzburg Global Seminar on Corporate Governance. Dottie is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and lives in suburban Philadelphia, Pennsylvania with her husband, Ron.

Steve Wade is head of content for IR Impact and Governance Intelligence. In his role, Steve and his team are responsible for researching and producing insightful content that helps the investor relations and governance communities stay up-to-date on the latest trends and best practices in their fields.

Steve curates content across multiple platforms, including conferences, workshops, think tanks, podcasts, best practice guides, videos and websites. Steve guides editorial coverage and research to ensure they fulfill the needs of our communities and is responsible for hosting our conferences and presenting research at industry events.

Prior to joining IR Impact and Governance Intelligence, Steve’s experience has been in ESG and sustainability research, producing conferences for Ethical Corporation (now Reuters Events.) During this time, Steve was a judge for the Deloitte Green Frog Awards and presented research at the Global Sustainable Events Summit and United Nations Global Compact, World Bank & Polish Ministry of Finance events.

Steve was recently selected as a member of the 2025 Class of National Investor Relations Institute’s (NIRI) Rising Leaders Under 40.