Board of Directors

Blake Moret
Chairman & Chief Executive Officer

Blake Moret is Chairman and CEO of Rockwell Automation, the world’s largest company dedicated to industrial automation and digital transformation. As CEO, Blake is dedicated to delivering the company’s strategy to bring the Connected Enterprise to life. Under his leadership, Rockwell Automation integrates control and information to help make industrial companies and their people more productive and the world more sustainable. Blake is accelerating the Rockwell Automation strategy by focusing on understanding customer needs and their best opportunities for productivity, combining our technology and domain expertise to deliver positive business outcomes, and simplifying our customers’ experience. Key to this strategy is Rockwell’s culture, the foundation for the company’s accelerated profitable growth.

Joining Rockwell Automation in 1985 as a sales trainee, Blake has built his career with the company and has held leadership positions in many areas of the business, including international assignments in Europe and Canada. In his previous role, Blake served as Senior Vice President of Control Products and Solutions, one of the company’s two business segments. Blake became CEO on July 1, 2016 and was elected Chairman of the Board effective January 1, 2018. He is passionate about workforce development and creating a diverse worldwide team of employees that can and want to do their best work.

Blake is vice chair for the National Association of Manufacturers’ (NAM) Board of Directors and Executive Committee and is a member of the Wisconsin Governor's Council on Workforce Investment. He is the co-chair of the World Economic Forum’s Advanced Manufacturing Community of CEOs and is a member of the Business Roundtable. He also serves on the board of the Advanced Regenerative Medicine Institute (ARMI) and the Georgia Tech Advisory Board.

Blake is Chairman of the Rockwell Automation Charitable Corporation and is on the boards of FIRST Robotics, the United Way of Greater Milwaukee and Waukesha, and the Boys and Girls Club of Greater Milwaukee.

Originally from Atlanta, Georgia, Blake graduated from Georgia Tech with a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering. He and his wife Cheryl have four children.

William P. Gipson
Retired President Enterprise Packaging Transformation and Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer, The Procter & Gamble Company

Mr. Gipson served as President Enterprise Packaging Transformation and Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer of Procter & Gamble from 2017 until his retirement in 2019. He joined Procter & Gamble in 1985 and held management positions of increasing responsibility including serving as Senior Vice President of Research and Development, Asia Innovation Centers in Singapore from 2015 to 2017, and beauty Care Sector Senior Vice President for R & D from 2011 to 2015. Mr. Gipson serves as a director of ManpowerGroup and as a director of several educational and civic organizations.

Mr. Gipson brings extensive leadership, innovation, business transformation and global business experience to the Board. He leverages his experience as a former top executive for a global public company to guide the Company in the areas of product innovation and market expansion. He also concurrently served as Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer for eight years until his retirement, which adds robust and knowledgeable experiences to draw from in the Board’s role in oversight of company culture and diversity and inclusion initiatives. Mr. Gipson has international management experiences having served in leadership roles in South America and Singapore supporting Procter & Gamble’s efforts in each region, in particular creating a half billion dollar business for a product new to South America. Mr. Gipson received his Bachelor of Science degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Alabama.

Alice L Jolla
Chief accounting officer and CVP, corporate finance and services, microsoft corporation

Alice L. Jolla is the Chief Accounting Officer and Corporate Vice President, Corporate Finance and Services at Microsoft Corporation. Before joining Microsoft Corporation in 2007, Jolla completed a two-year industry fellowship with the Financial Accounting Standards Board. She has a wealth of industry experience from various accounting and finance positions within Microsoft Corporation, Dow Chemical Company, and Union Carbide Corporation. She serves as an advisor or director of several professional and civic organizations.

Ms. Jolla brings to our Board extensive expertise in financial processes, including those specific to SaaS business models, leading world-class, diverse global teams, and risk management. In her role, Ms. Jolla oversees teams responsible for corporate accounting, financial reporting, shared services, business intelligence, controls and compliance, and LinkedIn and Nuance controllership. Ms. Jolla’s previous experience serving as the Microsoft Corporate Controller responsible for the Corporate Accounting function gives her critical insight into public company financials, financial reporting, and internal controls. Her leadership, financial experience, commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion further strengthen the Board’s governance capacity. Ms. Jolla holds a Bachelor of Science in accounting from Louisiana State University and a Master of Business Administration from the University of Charleston.

Timothy M. Knavish
Chief Executive Officer, PPG Industries, Inc

Tim Knavish is Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer for PPG. He began his career at PPG in 1987 as an engineer and has since held roles of increasing responsibility, including several executive leadership positions.

Mr. Knavish was named PPG Chairman and CEO in Oct. 2023. He previously served as executive vice president with responsibility for multiple global and domestic business units, along with digital and information technology functions from Oct. 2019 until he became chief operating officer in March 2022 and then president and CEO in Jan. 2023.

Mr. Knavish serves on the boards of the American Coatings Association and the Allegheny Conference on Community Development and is a member of the Business Council.  He previously served on the boards of the United Way of Southwestern Pennsylvania and Junior Achievement of Western Pennsylvania.

Mr. Knavish’s executive leadership roles and board service with a global public company brings to our Board extensive international business and governance experience. He has global experience having lived in the Asia Pacific region and operated several international businesses, including in EMEA and Latin America.  Mr. Knavish is well versed in overseeing the enhancement of business sales capabilities and digital offerings and acquisition strategy, having led international acquisitions and integrations. He also brings to our Board valuable global supply chain knowledge having led the global supply management function at his company.  In addition, Mr. Knavish’s leadership and operational experience give him comprehensive knowledge of business strategy, operations, financial, and risk management oversight. Mr. Knavish received his Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering and Master of Business Administration degree from the University of Pittsburgh.

James P. Keane
Retired President & Chief Executive Officer, Steelcase

Mr. Keane served as President and Chief Executive Officer of Steelcase Inc. from March 2014 to October 2021. He has held several leadership roles since joining Steelcase in 1997. He served as Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer from 2001 through 2006. He was named President of the Steelcase Group in 2006, where he had responsibility for the sales, marketing, and product-development activities of certain brands–primarily in North America. In 2011, he assumed leadership of the Steelcase brand across the Americas and Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. From November 2012 to April 2013, he served as Chief Operating Officer, responsible for the design, engineering and development, manufacturing, sales, and distribution of all brands in all countries where Steelcase does business. From April 2013 to March 2014, Mr. Keane served as President and Chief Operating Officer. Mr. Keane has served as Vice Chair since October 2021 and as a director since April 2013 of Steelcase and will serve in that role until his retirement in January 2022. He also serves as a director for the Business Roundtable since February 2020 and as a director or trustee of a number of civic and charitable organizations.

As retired President, Chief Executive Officer and a current board member of a global public company, Mr. Keane brings current business experience and knowledge to the Board. Through his executive roles at Steelcase, he has extensive leadership experience and a comprehensive understanding of business operations, processes, and strategy, as well as risk management, sales, marketing, and product development. In addition, he has a high level of financial literacy and accounting experience, having served as CFO of Steelcase. His understanding of financial statements, accounting principles, internal controls, and audit committee functions provides the Board with expertise in addressing the complex financial issues that the Company manages. Mr. Keane received his Bachelor of Science degree in Accounting from the University of Illinois and holds a master’s degree in management from the Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University.

Pam Murphy
Former Chief Executive Officer, Imperva, Inc.

Ms. Murphy served as Chief Executive Officer for cybersecurity company Imperva, Inc.  from January 2020 until August 2024. Before assuming that role, she served as Chief Operating Officer of Infor, Inc., having joined the company in 2010. Prior to Infor, Ms. Murphy spent 11 years at Oracle Corporation, with responsibility for global sales operations, consulting operations in Europe, Middle East, Africa, Australia and New Zealand, and field finance for Oracle’s global business units. Before Oracle, she provided strategy, direction and counsel to clients at Andersen Consulting and Arthur Andersen. Ms. Murphy served as a director of MeridianLink, Inc from July 2021 until March 2023. She is currently a director of Visa Inc, a leader in digital payments, where she serves on the Nominating and Governance Committee and Finance Committee.

Ms. Murphy brings strong leadership and operational experience to the Board. She has extensive technology, cybersecurity, business development and strategy, global business, and finance experience. Her background and expertise in leading technology companies includes a wide range of responsibilities for global operational and financial functions, which aids in the provision of Board oversight in these areas. Ms. Murphy's experience with leading and building teams to sell to the manufacturing industry, go-to-market solutions, cybersecurity solutions, and leading sales and marketing functions brings additional depth to her role on the Board.

Ms. Murphy is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Ireland and holds a Bachelor of Commerce in Accounting and Finance from the University of Cork, Ireland.

Donald R. Parfet
Managing Director, Apjohn Group, LLC

Mr. Parfet has served as Managing Director of Apjohn Group since 2001. Before that, he served as Senior Vice President of Pharmacia Corporation (pharmaceuticals). Mr. Parfet is a director of Kelly Services, Inc. and Masco Corporation and serves as a director or trustee of a number of business, civic and charitable organizations.

Mr. Parfet brings extensive finance and industry experience to the Board. He has served as General Partner of Apjohn Ventures Fund, a venture capital fund, since 2003. In this role, he is an active investor in early stage pharmaceutical companies, which requires evaluating financial and development risk associated with emerging medicines. During his years at The Upjohn Company and its successor Pharmacia & Upjohn, he had extensive financial and corporate staff management responsibilities and ultimately senior operational responsibilities for multiple global business units. He is experienced in leading strategic planning, risk assessment, human resource planning and financial planning and control as well as the manufacturing of pharmaceuticals, chemicals and research instruments. Mr. Parfet has board oversight and corporate governance experience from his past service as non-executive Chairman of Kelly Services, Inc. and as a director of Masco Corporation, where he serves on its Audit and Organization and Compensation (Chair) Committees. Mr. Parfet holds an M.B.A. from the University of Michigan.

Lisa A. Payne
Former Vice Chairman and Chief Financial Officer, Taubman Centers, Inc.

Ms. Payne served as Vice Chairman and Chief Financial Officer of Taubman Centers, Inc. from 2005 to 2016. She joined Taubman in 1997, serving as the Executive Vice President and the Chief Financial and Administrative Officer of Taubman from 1997 to 2005. Before joining Taubman, she was an investment banker with Goldman Sachs & Co. from 1987 to 1997. Ms. Payne also served as Chairman of the Board of Soave Enterprises LLC and President of Soave Real Estate Group (property management) from 2016 to 2017. Ms. Payne served as a director of Taubman from 1997 until March 2016. She is a director of Masco Corporation, where she serves as Chair of the Board and as director at Leaf Home Solutions, where she serves as Chair of the Audit Committe. She is a former trustee of Munder Series Trust and Munder Series Trust II, open-end management investment companies nd former director of J.C. Penney, Inc.. She also serves as a director or trustee of several educational and charitable organizations.

Ms. Payne brings strong leadership, operational and finance experience to our Board. During her tenure at Taubman, she led the Company through key operational and strategic initiatives. Her executive experience and leadership roles give her critical insights into company operations, growth, strategy, competition, compensation plans, employee engagement, diversity and inclusion initiatives, and information technology that assists our Board in its oversight function. Her past experience as a CFO and investment banker provide the Board with financial, accounting and corporate finance expertise. She has a high level of financial literacy and accounting experience that provides the Board with expertise in understanding and overseeing financial reporting and internal controls. In addition, her board and board committee experience at Taubman, Masco, Leaf Home Solutions, and J.C. Penney give her significant insight as to governance, risk management and compliance-related matters of public companies. Ms. Payne holds an M.B.A. from the Fuqua School of Business Administration, Duke University.

Tom Rosamilia
RETIRED Senior Vice President, IBM 

Tom Rosamilia served as Senior Vice President of IBM Software and Chairman for IBM North America. Mr. Rosamilia directed IBM's product design and investment strategy, expert labs, global software product development, marketing and field operations across the company's vast software portfolio. In addition, he was responsible for ensuring operational synergies across the breadth of IBM to drive value and growth in the North America market.

Previously, Mr. Rosamilia served as Senior Vice President of IBM Systems and as Senior Vice President of IBM Systems and Technology Group and IBM Integrated Supply Chain, where he led IBM’s semiconductor, servers, storage, and the system software business; all of IBM’s supply chain; and the company’s Global Business Partners organization. He oversaw the strategic transformation of IBM’s Systems & Technology Group to better align with client infrastructure priorities and high-value growth opportunities in the Cognitive Era.

During his 30-plus years with IBM, Mr. Rosamilia has held several leadership roles, including General Manager of IBM WebSphere; General Manager of System z and Power Systems; and Vice President of Corporate Strategy and General Manager of Enterprise Initiatives.

Mr. Rosamilia received his bachelor's degree from Cornell University, with majors in computer science and economics. In 2004, he completed the IBM Strategic Leadership Forum at Harvard Business School. In April 2016, he was elected to the board of directors of Rockwell Automation, the world’s largest company dedicated to industrial automation and information. Mr. Rosamilia has also served on the boards of the United Way of Dutchess County, the United Way of Silicon Valley, the Silicon Valley Manufacturing Group and the California Manufacturing and Technology Association. In 2015, Mr. Rosamilia was appointed as Economic Advisor to the Governor of Guangdong Province of the People's Republic of China and was re-appointed in 2017. In April 2018, Mr. Rosamilia completed a year-long assignment in Beijing, China, where he led the global IBM Systems business and acted as a local representative of IBM Corporate Headquarters.

Robert Soderbery
Executive Vice President and General Manager, Flash Business

Robert Soderbery is Executive Vice President and General Manager, Flash Business for Western Digital Corporation where he is responsible for all aspects of the $11B flash memory business. Western Digital serves cloud, client computing and consumer market segments, where Rob is directly engaged with the world’s largest cloud providers, enterprise OEM’s and SanDisk branded consumer channels.

Prior to joining Western Digital, Soderbery served as president of UpLift, Inc., a fintech company, where he was responsible for building a cloud based payments and lending platform enabling consumer financing on major merchant platforms and driving over $1B in consumer volume.

Soderbery previously served as senior vice president and general manager, enterprise products, and in other senior leadership roles at Cisco Systems. While at Cisco, he managed the $25B enterprise business, including all aspects of enterprise compute, storage and networking infrastructure. He drove cloud and software based architectures at Cisco, including acquisition of the now $1B run-rate cloud networking business and the introduction of the CiscoONE software architecture. Soderbery was also responsible for IoT software and hardware solutions, including the Rockwell relationship.

Prior to Cisco advanced through a series of leadership roles at Symantec Corporation, including senior vice president, storage and availability management group where he was responsible for the $1B Veritas storage and availability software business.

Patricia A. Watson
Executive Vice President, Chief Information and Technology Officer, NCR Atleos Corporation

Ms. Watson serves as Executive Vice President, Chief Information and Technology Officer at NCR Atleos Corporation where she leads the company’s information and technology team and technology leadership council. She previously held the role of President, Cloud Collaboration at Intrado Corporation. Ms. Watson is the former Senior Executive Vice President and Chief Information Officer of Total System Services (TSYS), a role she held from 2015 until 2019 when Global Payments, Inc. acquired TSYS. Before joining TSYS, she served as Vice President and Global Chief Information Officer for The Brink’s Company. Previously Ms. Watson worked with Bank of America for more than 14 years in technology positions of increasing responsibility, and spent 10 years in the United States Air Force as executive staff officer, flight commander and director of operations. She is a director of USAA Federal Savings Bank where she serves on the Member and Technology, Finance and Audit, and Nominating and Governance Committees.

Ms. Watson brings extensive technology and executive experience to the Board. She has strong strategic leadership, business, financial oversight, and technical skills. As President of Intrado’s enterprise collaboration business, she was responsible for delivering Unified Collaboration as a Service (Ucaas) for enterprise and mid-market clients leveraging cloud-based technologies. She has experience setting company enterprise technology strategy to enable future global growth. Her background and expertise in information technology and cyber security give her critical insights into new technologies, business models, risk identification and management, and talent and strategy. She has valuable experience and knowledge in the areas of audit and control and compliance. Ms. Watson holds a bachelor’s degree in mathematics from St. Mary’s College at Notre Dame and an M.B.A. from the University of Dayton.