2026 Impact Summit

EVENT OVERVIEW

Customer First. People Led. Innovation Driven.

Building trust, growth and lasting impact in a tech-powered world

Welcome to the 2026 UPS Impact Summit. This year’s discussion explores the intersection between human potential and digital capability and showcases how UPS is pairing artificial intelligence with the power of human ingenuity to shape a more resilient future. Across the program, we’ll examine how AI can amplify human ingenuity to shape a more resilient future.

AGENDA

  • 2:30 p.m. - Opening Remarks from UPS CEO Carol Tomé
  • 2:40 p.m. - Keynote Address: Unlocking the Human Edge in the Age of AI
    Angus Fletcher
  • 3:00 p.m. - Panel: Delivering People-Led, AI-Enabled Solutions
    Kate Gutmann, Danelle McCusker Rees and Bala Subramanian
  • 3:30 p.m. - Break
  • 3:50 p.m. - Fireside Chat: Trust as the New Advantage
    Matt Guffey and Jenna Lauer
  • 4:20 p.m. - Panel: People Powering Impact
    Nikki Clifton, Jennifer Sirangelo and Captain Bill Vaughan
  • 4:50 p.m. - Closing Remarks from UPS CHRO Darrell Ford
  • 5:00 p.m. - Volunteer Activity
  • 6:00 p.m. - Event Ends

PROGRAM DETAILS

Opening Remarks from Carol Tomé, UPS Chief Executive Officer

Carol offers a welcome on behalf of more than 460,000 UPS employees worldwide and highlights how UPS is combining our greatest competitive advantage – our people – with technology to shape a more resilient future.

Keynote: Unlocking the Human Edge in the Age of AI

Angus Fletcher, author of Primal Intelligence and Wonderworks, explores how AI can complement – not outshine – human ingenuity. He examines whether AI’s undeniable data-processing power can truly replicate human qualities like imagination, emotional intelligence and narrative thinking.

Delivering People-Led, AI-Enabled Solutions

Danelle McCusker Rees, UPS Senior Vice President and Global Head of Talent, Culture and Learning, moderates a conversation with Bala Subramanian, UPS EVP & Chief Technology Officer; and Kate Gutmann, UPS EVP & President International, Healthcare and Supply Chain Solutions. Together, they discuss how UPS is driving meaningful impact by developing and deploying AI-enabled solutions paired with human insight, creativity and a deep understanding of customer and employee needs. The discussion explores what success looks like as AI reshapes the way companies grow and operate.

Trust as the New Advantage

Matt Guffey, UPS EVP & Chief Commercial and Strategy Officer, moderates a fireside chat with Jenna Lauer, The Harris Poll Chief Commercial Officer. The discussion examines why trust is harder to earn in a world shaped by rapid innovation and rising skepticism, why authenticity has become a critical leadership advantage and how companies can build trust through the experiences they create for employees, customers and communities.

People Powering Impact

Nikki Clifton, UPS President of Social Impact and The UPS Foundation, moderates a conversation with Jennifer Sirangelo, Points of Light Chief Executive Officer, and Captain Bill Vaughan, UPS Pilot and 2025 Jim Casey Community Service Award Winner. Their conversation highlights how The UPS Foundation helps unlock the power of people to create meaningful change. Panelists will share stories of service, leadership and problem-solving, while exploring how purpose-driven actions strengthen communities, culture and business performance.

Closing Remarks from Darrell Ford, UPS Chief Human Resources Officer

Darrell Ford, UPS EVP & Chief Human Resources Officer and The UPS Foundation Chairman, reaffirms that enduring success comes from the unique ability of humans to adapt, create and lead with purpose, even as the tools around them evolve.

Volunteer Activity

Join us for a volunteer activity to support Operation BackPack4Kids, a nonprofit founded by panelist and UPS pilot, Captain Bill Vaughan. We will be filling backpacks with meaningful comforts – like warm blankets, water bottles, hygiene kits and toys – to distribute to children displaced by war, natural disasters and humanitarian crises around the world.

SPEAKERS


Carol Tomé

Chief Executive Officer, UPS

As Chief Executive Officer of UPS since 2020, and a member of the Board since 2003, Carol Tomé leads the world’s premier package delivery and global supply chain management solutions company, and its team of approximately 460,000 UPSers. She is the architect of UPS’s Customer First, People Led, Innovation Driven strategy and is positioning UPS to be the premium small package provider and logistics partner for customers in more than 200 countries and territories.

Nikki Clifton

President of Social Impact and The UPS Foundation, UPS

Nikki Clifton is a purpose-driven leader who transforms social impact into business value. As the President of The UPS Foundation, she oversees the company’s global philanthropy and international community affairs, leveraging UPS’s trusted logistics network to build more resilient, safe, and healthy communities while advancing core business priorities. With nearly three decades of experience in law, government affairs, and philanthropy, Nikki is positioned at the intersection of people, performance, and community.

Angus Fletcher

Author, Primal Intelligence and Wonderworks

Angus Fletcher is a leading voice on human creativity, intelligence, and the power of story –and his newest book, Primal Intelligence, puts him at the center of today’s conversation about what humans do better than machines. In a moment dominated by automation and AI, Angus demonstrates why our real advantage lies in the brain’s ancient, narrative-driven abilities: imagination, emotional insight, flexible judgment, and problem-solving under uncertainty. His research translates these strengths into practical tools leaders can use to innovate faster, make better decisions, and unlock the human potential inside their organizations. His earlier book, Wonderworks, introduced audiences to stories as proven mental technologies – demonstrating how narrative fuels resilience, clarity, and creativity.

Darrell Ford

Executive Vice President, Chief Human Resources Officer, UPS

Darrell Ford serves as Executive Vice President (EVP) and Chief Human Resources Officer (CHRO) for UPS and Chairman of The UPS Foundation. As a member of the company’s Executive Leadership Team, he leads UPS’s people and health & safety strategies, transforming the employee experience for approximately 460,000 UPSers around the world. Under his leadership, UPS has adopted state-of-the-art technologies such as artificial intelligence to improve candidate and employee experience and overall organizational efficiency. As Chairman of The UPS Foundation, Darrell leads the company’s philanthropic arm focused on delivering health and humanitarian aid, eliminating systemic barriers to economic opportunity, building local community engagement and advancing sustainability around the world.

Matt Guffey

Executive Vice President & Chief Commercial and Strategy Officer, UPS

Matt Guffey serves as the Executive Vice President (EVP) and Chief Commercial and Strategy Officer at UPS. As a member of the Executive Leadership Team, he plays a pivotal role in shaping the strategic direction of UPS – accelerating business profitability and the growth and success of customers around the world. Matt oversees UPS Strategy, Transformation, Marketing, U.S. Sales, Communications and the On Demand Network, which includes The UPS Store, Roadie and Happy Returns. These teams build a differentiated value proposition for customers and innovate to position UPS for long-term and sustainable growth.

Kate Gutmann

Executive Vice President and President International, Healthcare and Supply Chain Solutions, UPS

Kate Gutmann serves as Executive Vice President (EVP) and President International, Healthcare and Supply Chain Solutions. A member of the company’s Executive Leadership Team, Kate oversees the company’s business operations outside of U.S. small package. She is responsible for international small package operations and functions as well as global healthcare and global supply chain solutions. Kate’s leadership connects UPS International, Healthcare and Supply Chain Solutions to create greater synergy and deliver more for customers across the global supply chain.

Jenna Lauer

Chief Commercial Officer, The Harris Poll

Jenna Lauer is the Chief Commercial Officer at The Harris Poll, where she leads commercial growth and research strategy for one of the world’s most trusted consumer intelligence firms. With nearly three decades of experience spanning qualitative, quantitative, social, and mobile research — as well as agency advertising — Jenna has a rare combination of methodological depth and commercial instinct. Prior to The Harris Poll, Jenna served as a senior leader at MarketCast, where she drove growth and innovation across the company’s research practice. Before that, she spent nearly a decade as Managing Partner at Hall & Partners, an Omnicom research business, leading West Coast operations for a client roster that included top consumer brands, video game publishers, and automakers.

Danelle McCusker Rees

Senior Vice President, Global Head of Talent, Culture, and Learning UPS

Danelle McCusker Rees serves as Senior Vice President (SVP) and Global Head of Talent, Culture and Learning at UPS and serves as HR Business Partner to UPS’s Chief Digital and Technology Officer and UPS’s Chief Human Resources Officer. She is a senior human capital executive with more than 20 years of experience aligning workforce strategy, leadership capability, and culture with enterprise performance in complex, global organizations. Danelle works closely with UPS’s CEO and Executive Leadership Team, and the Board’s Compensation and Human Capital Committees on succession, executive talent, workforce health and leadership readiness. She is recognized for modernizing talent and HR ecosystems through digital innovation and data-driven decision making, and for translating workforce complexity into clear executive narratives.

Jennifer Sirangelo

President and Chief Executive Officer, Points of Light

Jennifer Sirangelo is a purpose-driven executive, whose work is grounded in the belief that everyone has a unique gift. She is passionate about helping people discover and activate their purpose. As President & CEO of Points of Light, Jennifer leads one of the world’s foremost organizations powering volunteering and civic engagement. She led an inclusive effort to shape the organization’s new strategy and, under the new Reimaginng Service 2035 platform, set an ambitious goal to double volunteering in the U.S. by 2035. This included the launch of a National Volunteer Strategy that elevates volunteering as a national priority to strengthen our society. This bold strategy champions volunteering as a transformative force: one that fuels human connection, builds trust across differences, and strengthens communities from the inside out.

Bala Subramanian

Executive Vice President and Chief Digital and Technology Officer, UPS

Bala Subramanian serves as Executive Vice President (EVP) and Chief Digital and Technology Officer at UPS. As a member of the Executive Leadership Team, he is responsible for leading the company’s digital transformation to enhance customer and employee experiences, build digital fluency and improve organizational agility. He drives the overall strategy, design, development and execution of UPS’s technology and industrial engineering functions. In this role, Bala is focused on making it easier to do business with UPS and giving employees new tools to unleash more innovation for the company’s customers.

Captain Bill Vaughan

Founder and Executive Director, Operation BackPack4Kids and Captain, UPS

Bill Vaughan is the Founder and Executive Director of Operation BackPack4Kids. A current UPS Airline Captain based in Louisville, Kentucky, Bill combines his lifelong love of aviation with a deep commitment to humanitarian service, ensuring children in crisis have the comfort, dignity and care they deserve. His professional career has spanned multiple airlines and aircraft, starting at Ram Air Freight in Raleigh-Durham, followed by Atlantic Coast Airlines, Midway Airlines, Comair Airlines, and NetJets International. Today, as a Captain for UPS on the Boeing 747, he continues to fly globally while dedicating his time on the ground to leading Operation BackPack4Kids.