2026 Center on Executive Compensation Annual Meeting

Charlie Tharp is Senior Advisor, Research and Practice of the Center on Executive Compensation. In that role, Tharp is responsible for setting overall policy positions and research initiatives undertaken by the Center and representing the Center in public forums. He is also a Visiting Professor and CES Fellow at the Darla Moore School of Business, University of South Carolina and previously held faculty appointments at Boston University, Cornell University and Rutgers University.

Tharp has over 25 years of corporate experience, including key human resource positions with General Electric, PepsiCo, Pillsbury, CIGNA and Bristol-Myers Squibb, where he served as Senior Vice President of Human Resources. Tharp also served as the interim Executive Vice President of Human Resources for Saks, Incorporated. Earlier in his career he served as an executive compensation consultant for the global consulting firm of Towers Perrin.

Tharp holds a Ph.D. in Labor and Industrial Relations from Michigan State University, an LLM in Human Rights and Social Justice from the University of Connecticut School of Law, a J.D. from the Quinnipiac School of Law, a Masters in Economics from Wayne State University and a BA from Hope College where he was Phi Beta Kappa and a Baker Scholar.

In 1998 Tharp was elected a Fellow of the National Academy of Human Resources and in 2010 was elected a Distinguished Fellow of the Academy, the highest honor in the HR profession. He previously served as President of the Academy.

Sydney Carlock is a corporate governance and executive compensation professional with over twelve years of experience. She has a diverse compensation background with experience in consulting, internal compensation design, and shareholder advisory services. Sydney engages directly with senior management leaders, board members, and high level investors to discuss issues, trends, and policy related to corporate governance and compensation. In 2021, Sydney was appointed as one of the members of the CII Markets Advisory Council.

Prior to Teneo, Sydney was a Managing Director at Joele Frank. Before her time at Joele Frank, Sydney spent 4 years at ISS and before ISS she spent 4 years at Capital One.

Caryn Steinert is Group Vice President, Global Total Rewards at GE Aerospace, based in Norwalk, Connecticut. Since April 2024, she has led the evaluation, simplification, and design of a competitive total rewards program aligned with the company’s business model and talent strategy.

Steinert joined GE in 2019 as Group Vice President, Total Rewards & People Operations, recruited to the senior leadership team charged with transforming the organization ahead of its 2021 announcement to separate into three standalone public companies in healthcare, aviation, and energy. She reported to the CHRO, co-led board compensation committee meetings, and aligned total rewards objectives with the company’s broader talent and performance goals.

Before GE, Steinert spent four years as Vice President, Global Total Rewards at Foot Locker, where she overhauled the company’s legacy total rewards programs, built a strong internal communications strategy for a diverse and dispersed workforce, reported to the CHRO, and led board compensation committee meetings.

Steinert built the foundation of her career over sixteen years at PepsiCo, progressing from Project Manager to Senior Director, Executive Compensation across corporate and divisional roles including Pepsi Beverages Company and The Pepsi Bottling Group. She began her career at Citi, first in the company’s HR Leadership Program and later as Assistant Vice President, Compensation for the Private Banking Group.

Steinert holds an MA in Industrial Relations from Cornell University and a BA in Organizational Behavior from the University of Michigan. Since November 2023, she has served as an Advisory Board Member for the Center on Executive Compensation.

Michele Aguilar Carlin is Executive Vice President, Learning of CHRO Association and its Center On Executive Compensation and former CEO of the American Health Policy Institute. Shelly joined the Association in August 2014 from Motorola Solutions, where she was Senior Vice President, Human Resources and Communications.

During her tenure at Motorola, Shelly led the HR function through a period of substantial change, from the spin-off of its consumer cell phone business to a major transformation of how HR services are delivered. She also implemented the CEO Leadership Forum, a business-driven learning program for the company’s top 20 high potential executives.

Prior to serving as the head of HR, Shelly was Corporate Vice President, Global Rewards. Before joining Motorola in 2008, she was VP of Compensation, Benefits and HR Technology for the Campbell Soup Company. Shelly’s earlier positions included VP, HR Rewards and Operations for TIAA-CREF; VP of Compensation and Benefits for Sears, Roebuck and Co.; and SVP of executive compensation and corporate unit reporting for Bcom3 Group, Inc.

Shelly earned an BA and MBA from the University of California, Los Angeles and was an Academic All-American in softball and a member of UCLA’s 1982 National Championship team.

Maria Colacurcio is a visionary founder and expert on technology’s power to reshape how we value work. As CEO of Syndio, the world’s leading pay transparency platform, she helps top companies build enduring businesses through data-driven solutions. Previously, she co-founded Smartsheet, which went public in 2018. With a background in congressional campaigns, Maria has a long history of purpose-driven work. She has been recognized as one of Goldman Sachs’ 100 Most Exceptional Entrepreneurs for two consecutive years.

Sarah Liebel is Chief Executive Officer of Nayya, a benefits intelligence and orchestration platform transforming how people choose and use healthcare. Prior to becoming CEO, she served as President and COO, leading product, technology, finance, go to market, and operations across the company. Previously, she was President at BetterUp, a leadership development and coaching platform that partners with enterprise organizations and CHROs to drive performance, engagement, and wellbeing at scale. She has built and operated high growth technology companies from the early stage through public markets. She served as an early executive at Groupon through its IPO and later as Chief Revenue Officer at 1stdibs, where she helped lead the company from its early stages through its public offering. She also previously served as an independent director of a NASDAQ listed public company.

Sarah is passionate about democratizing access to information and building intelligent systems that empower people to make confident decisions in complex moments. Her work focuses on helping employers and CHROs translate healthcare and benefits complexity into clear, personalized guidance that improves employee wellbeing while strengthening organizational performance. She holds a bachelor’s degree from Tulane University, an MBA from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management and is a member of the Kauffman Fellows Program.

Megan Wolf is the Senior Director, HR Practice and Policy for the CHRO Association and its Center On Executive Compensation. In this role, she engages with members on a variety of executive compensation and governance topics and supports the team in the development and delivery of member offerings.

Megan joins the association from Equity Residential, where she served as the Head of Compensation and Financial Benefits. She has held Human Resources and Labor Relation positions at Vertis Communications and General Motors. Megan is a graduate from the Krannert School of Management at Purdue University.