Josh Linkner | Serial entrepreneur, New York Times bestselling author, and venture capital investor

Booked by: Bank of America, Deloitte, Ford Motor Company, Intel

Josh Linkner is a New York Times bestselling author, serial entrepreneur, venture capital investor, professional jazz guitarist, and a globally-recognized innovation expert. On the business front, he’s been the founder and CEO of five tech companies, which created over 10,000 jobs and sold for a combined value of over $200 million. He’s the co-founder and Managing Partner of Muditā (mooDEE-tah) Venture Partners – an early-stage venture capital firm investing in groundbreaking technologies. Over the last 30 years, he’s helped over 100 startups launch and scale, creating over $1 billion in investor returns. He’s twice been named the EY Entrepreneur of The Year and is the recipient of the United States Presidential Champion of Change Award.

While proud of his business success, his roots are in the dangerous world of jazz music. He’s been playing guitar in smoky jazz clubs for 40 years, studied at the prestigious Berklee College of Music, and has performed over 1000 concerts around the world.

More about Josh: https://thesweeneyagency.com/speakers/josh-linkner/

Robyn Benincasa | World Champion Adventure Racer and Firefighter, Keynote Speaker

Booked by:  Allstate, Exxon Mobil, Four Seasons Hotels & Resorts, HP

When the challenges are steep and the competition fierce, Robyn Benincasa provides the tools individuals and organizations need to cross their most challenging finish lines. As a two-time World Champion Adventure racer, San Diego Firefighter, and CNN Hero, Robyn knows a thing or two about creating Human Synergy, or as she puts it, “That magic that allows ordinary people to accomplish extraordinary things together.”

Through harrowing experiences in places like the jungles of Borneo and the Himalayan peaks, Robyn has studied the good, the bad, and the not-so-pretty of Extreme Teamwork. Her refreshing and unique techniques build and foster impactful, inspired teams that succeed against all odds and turn setbacks into comebacks.

Robyn was named one of 2020s World’s Top 50 Keynote Speakers (Real Leaders Magazine), the #1 Female Speaker for Meetings.net, and is one of the Top 10 Speakers featured by Harvard Business Review.

More about Robyn: https://thesweeneyagency.com/speakers/robyn-benincasa/

Angela Oguntala | Global Authority on Foresight and Innovation

Booked by: IKEA, Hermès, Philips, Sky

Named a Future Innovator by the United Nations, Angela Oguntala is a futurist and global authority on foresight and innovation.

She is a founding partner at Greyspace, a foresight consultancy. Across the globe, she helps organizations understand and innovate for a world in transition. Over the past decade, Angela has been asked to speak on a wide range of future-facing topics. She has delivered hundreds of keynotes worldwide on themes including: innovating through uncertainty, emerging technology impacts, purpose driven innovation, leadership & organizational foresight, creativity, sustainability, as well as on specific domains from the future of work to futures of healthcare.

Angela leaves audiences with insights, inspiration, and actionable tactics to engage with significant shifts ahead, and to critically question what needs to shift to meet future demands. She is a Salzburg Global Fellow for leaders challenged to shape a better worldand has been featured as an expert on futures thinking on outlets including Sky, TED, and NPR.

More about Angela: https://thesweeneyagency.com/speakers/angela-oguntala/

Nikolas Badminton | Futurist Speaker, Advisor, and Best Selling Author

Booked by: NASA, United Nations, WM, JP Morgan CHASE

Nikolas Badminton is a global futurist speaker and Chief Futurist that mentors top executives and the highest levels of government to explore desirable futures, anticipate unforeseen risks, and strengthen strategic planning.

He has spent 30+ years working with leadership at over 400 leading organizations at the frontline of foresight, strategy and disruption.

Facing Our Futures: How foresight, futures design and strategy creates prosperity and growth – is Nikolas’ number one best selling book and has been selected for the Next Big Idea Club and as JP Morgan Private bank’s ‘Next Gen Pick’ for their prestige 2023 Summer Reading List to guide new leaders to ignite curiosity and embrace futures thinking.

More about Nikolas: https://thesweeneyagency.com/speakers/nikolas-badminton/

Mike Walsh – Futurist and Authority on Digital Trends

Booked by: American Express, the BBC, Foot Locker,  Fujifilm

Mike Walsh is the CEO of Tomorrow, a global consultancy on designing companies for the 21st century. A global nomad, futurist and author of the best-selling book, The Algorithmic Leader, he advises some of the world’s biggest organizations on digital transformation and disruptive innovation in this new era of machine intelligence.

A prolific writer and commentator, Mike’s views have appeared in a wide range of international publications including Harvard Business Review, Inc. Magazine, BusinessWeek, Forbes and the Wall Street Journal. Each week he interviews provocative thinkers, innovators and troublemakers on his podcast, ‘Between Worlds‘.

His latest book, The Algorithmic Leader: How to be smart when machines are smarter than you, offers a hopeful and practical guide for reinventing leadership and organizations. By applying Walsh’s 10 core principles, readers will be able to design their own journey of personal transformation, harness the power of algorithms, and chart a clear path ahead–for their company, their team, and themselves.  Mike is also the author of  The Dictionary Of Dangerous Ideas, a collection of the most challenging concepts facing business leaders at the dawn of the 21st century. At the intersection of emerging technologies and new patterns of human behavior, the ideas in the Dictionary have been chosen for both their potential to transform the way companies operate, and inspire new forms of thinking.

More about Mike: https://thesweeneyagency.com/speakers/mike-walsh/

Nancy Giordano | Futurist, Corporate Strategist & Speaker

Booked by: Nestle, Brinker International, The Coca Cola Company, Sprint

Described as endlessly optimistic, Nancy Giordano is a strategic futurist and bestselling author with a drive to help enterprise organizations and visionary leaders transform to meet the escalating expectations ahead. Recognized as one of the world’s top female futurists, she has spent her career building, shaping and evolving a portfolio of $60+ billion worth of major global brands.  With growing conviction of what will (and needs to) shift, executives value her unique abilities to sense and synthesize the terrain ahead and guide those ready to build more relevant and sustainable solutions.

With a career at three of the top global advertising agencies and as founder of her own strategic inspiration company, Play Big Inc, Nancy has a rich history of advising and learning with some of the top companies in the world, including Nestle, Brinker International, The Coca Cola Company, Sprint and Acumen. In 2015 she took a leap to help shape a company of the future: artificial intelligence start-up, Lucid and later went on to build a leadership summit designed to encourage c-suite executives to explore seven of the most disruptive emergent technologies for business. Two years ago, Nancy joined Austin-based artificial intelligence services company, Kungfu.AI, to help visionary enterprise leaders better understand and harness the transformative effects of AI applications. She is also championing the work of Riane Eisler to create a movement around Partnerism, a socio-economic system that is built on partnership versus the domination models of Capitalism and Socialism.

More about Nancy: https://thesweeneyagency.com/speakers/nancy-giordano/

Kian Gohar | Founder & CEO of Geolab, Keynote Speaker on Innovation, Disruptive Technologies, & The Future of Work

Booked by: Deloitte, Dow, PPG, SAP

Kian Gohar is Founder & CEO of Geolab, an innovation research and leadership training firm. He is a master facilitator and has coached the CEO and leadership teams of over 50 companies in the Fortune 500 on innovation, disruptive technologies, moonshot thinking, leadership and the future of work.

He’s co-author of the Wall Street Journal bestselling book Competing in the New World of Work, published by Harvard Business Review and with #1 NY Times bestselling author Keith Ferrazzi. This bestselling book explores the most important leadership behaviors and team skills necessary to succeed in the post-pandemic era, and outlines how to build a successful hybrid workplaces and workforces.

Previously, Kian was an executive director at the XPRIZE Foundation, where he founded the world’s leading corporate innovation ecosystem, and was also an executive director of Singularity University in Silicon Valley. His 20-year innovation career spans venture capital, academia and startups around the world. Early in his career, he was a Luce Scholar in China.

More about Kian: https://thesweeneyagency.com/speakers/kian-gohar/

Lisa Bodell | Global Leader on Simplification & Banishing Complexity, Innovation, Leadership, Change, Collaboration, and Transforming Culture

Booked by: Google, SAP, Citigroup, Department of National Intelligence

“Complexity is crippling our organizations. It’s stifling our people and keeping them from doing their most meaningful and impactful work.” Lisa Bodell, a global leader on simplification, collaboration, and innovation, has a solution. Lisa shows organizations how to eliminate complexity and leverage simplicity – unleashing creativity and sparking the energy so essential to innovate and compete in a rapidly changing world. FutureThink, which she founded in 2003, works with leading brands worldwide and has become the largest source of innovation research, tools, and training in the world. Lisa is the author of two groundbreaking books, Why Simple Wins: Escape the Complexity Trap and Get to Work That Matters and Kill the Company: End the Status Quo, Start an Innovation Revolution. She ranks on the list of Top 50 Speakers Worldwide and captivates audiences with her energy and humor. Lisa’s keynotes leave audiences inspired to change and arms them with radically simple tools to get to the work that matters.

After earning her business degree from University of Michigan, Lisa launched her career at Leo Burnett in Chicago, where she discovered a gift for uniting strategically-driven ideas with forward-thinking themes. She went on to build two successful businesses before moving to New York and focusing on the simplification and innovation space with FutureThink.

More about Lisa: https://thesweeneyagency.com/speakers/lisa-bodell/

Duncan Wardle | Former Walt Disney Executive & Speaker on Innovation and Creativity

Booked by: Apple, Coca-Cola, Ford Motor Corp., IBM, Johnson & Johnson

Duncan Wardle maintains that “we are all born creative – we are born with amazing imaginations, are full of curiosity, and carry this remarkable built-in tool known as intuition.” Duncan spent 25+ years in leadership roles at Disney – where, when he was Head of Innovation and Creativity, he led the team that helped Imagineering, Lucasfilm, Marvel, Pixar and Disney Parks to innovate, creating magical new storylines and experiences for consumers around the globe. As founder of iD8 & innov8 he now brings his extensive Disney experience delivering keynotes, workshops and ideation forums, around the globe helping companies strategize and embed a culture of innovation into everyone’s DNA.

Duncan’s talks are anything but ordinary. Sharing real world stories and lessons learned from the innovation battlefield, Duncan leaves audiences inspired, motivated, and ready to innovate for their own organizations.

On a mission to eradicate the status quo – Duncan challenges everyone to claim their own creativity, thus creating a culture of innovation never possible before. Duncan is now one of the world’s most highly regarded innovation speakers and consultants, teaching companies, brands and individuals across the globe to overcome their own expertise and get out of their own way. To think differently and creatively.

More about Duncan: https://thesweeneyagency.com/speakers/duncan-wardle/

Chris Barton | Founder and Creator of Shazam, Entrepreneur, Inventor, and Tech Investor

Booked by: L’Oréal, OPTUS, Coca Cola, SAP

Spend time with inventor Chris Barton and you’ll be inspired to believe anything is possible. His positive energy to make seemingly impossible ideas come to life is absolutely contagious. Chris’s latest venture, Guard, uses AI to detect drowning in swimming pools – a never-before accomplished effort. Chris’s best-known creation is Shazam, the app that changed the way the world discovers music and laid the groundwork for the consumer AI industry we know today. With over 2 billion downloads, Shazam is a global phenomenon and Apple’s sixth-largest acquisition. The app lets people identify songs out of thin air from anywhere they are, making it nothing short of pure magic. Chris holds 12 patents and played key roles in the early days of Google and Dropbox. He believes his dyslexia helps him uncover novel solutions to obstacles and to achieving audacious goals. In his speeches, Chris shares his Start From Zero thinking method of questioning assumptions and challenging conventional wisdom. His amazing story and storytelling completely captivate audiences and inspires them to make big things happen in their organizations – to create magic in defiance of the obstacles.

Holding 12 patents, including one found within the Google search algorithm that billions of people use, Chris has made significant contributions to the tech industry. He also invests in a wide range of start-ups, including artificial intelligence for heart health and inflammatory disease therapeutics.

Today, Chris spends much of his time building his third startup company, Guard, a system that detects drowning in swimming pools using artificial intelligence.

More about Chris: https://thesweeneyagency.com/speakers/chris-barton/

Terence Mauri | Innovation & Disruptive Leadership Speaker

Booked by: Apple, Microsoft, Netflix and Novartis

Leaders from Alibaba, HSBC and Facebook choose Terence to ignite Mindset 2.0 – a disruption mindset to break the rules and reimagine your business today.

Terence Mauri is the Founder of global think tank Hack Future Lab and is a Partner with MIT Solve, an initiative to address world challenges. He brings decades of experience and knowledge sharing cutting edge principles on the future of leadership beyond disruption. He is a Bestselling Author and his new book The 3D Leader: Take Your Leadership to the Next Dimension is an actionable and robust guide for ALL people to realize that a new dimension in personal leadership is at the core of creating opportunity. The 3D Leader is for  every person who wants to learn three winning mindsets – THINK BOLD, CHOOSE BRAVE, GO BEYOND – that will equip you with a practical set of actions for you to completely reimagine how you lead. 

Terence’s Inc. column Future Proof  has over 1M views per month, and his thinking on how to find your next cutting edge has been published in The Economist, Forbes, Reuters, HuffPost and Wired and he has delivered keynotes around the world for clients including Visa, Facebook, VMware, Capital One and HSBC, as well as fast-growing start-ups. Terence holds Entrepreneur Mentor in Residence roles at MIT and London Business School and has over 20 years experience of helping leaders bounce back from adversity and move beyond disruption. He has also been ranked by Thinkers50 as one of the top 30 management thinkers in the world. 

More about Terence: https://thesweeneyagency.com/speakers/terence-mauri/

Phil M. Jones | Bestselling Author and Speaker on Persuasion, Influence, and Sales

Booked by:  Accruent, Citizens Bank,  DHL, Ferring Pharmaceuticals

An entrepreneurial success story and founder of 5-multimillion-dollar companies, Phil M Jones is Strategic Advisor to pioneering leaders of the world’s biggest brands. The author of 7 best-selling books including the “Exactly” Book Series with over 2 million copies sold, he is the Producer of the “Most Listened To” Audiobook of all time and Innovator of the highly coveted “How to Persuade” audible production. To date, more than 800 different industries, across 59 countries and 5 continents have benefited from his input. Phil recently joined a long list of global leaders who serve in residence at High Point University’s Access to Innovators Program. The program at HPU connects students with industry leaders for networking and mentorship opportunities. He joins Apple Co-Founder Steve Wozniak, Netflix Co-Founder Marc Randolph and many others.

Phil M Jones thinks and acts differently. His precise insights around communication, added to a proven personal pedigree of peak performance and a richness of real-world experience mean that Phil is the kind of thought-leader whose council is sought by other thought- leaders.

More about Phil: https://thesweeneyagency.com/speakers/phil-m-jones/

Ram Charan | Highly Acclaimed Business and Leadership Speaker and Advisor

Booked by: Toyota, Bank of America, Key Bank, ICICI Bank

Ram Charan is a world-renowned business advisor, author and speaker who has spent the past 40 years working with many top companies, CEOs, and boards of our time. In his work with companies including Toyota, Bank of America, Key Bank, ICICI Bank, Aditya Birla Group, Novartis, Max Group, Yildiz Holdings, UST Global, Fast Retailing (Uniqlo), Humana, Matrix, Longfor and two of the four largest digital companies in China, he is known for cutting through the complexity of running a business in today’s fast changing environment to uncover the core business problem. His real-world solutions, shared with millions through his books and articles in top business publications, have been praised for being practical, relevant and highly actionable — the kind of advice you can use Monday morning.

Ram’s introduction to business came early while working in the family shoe shop in a small town in northern India, where he was raised. He earned an engineering degree in India and soon after took a job in Australia. When his talent for business was discovered, Ram was encouraged to develop it. He earned MBA and doctorate degrees from Harvard Business School, where he graduated with high distinction and was a Baker Scholar, then served on the faculties of Harvard Business School and Northwestern University before pursuing consulting full-time.

More about Ram: https://thesweeneyagency.com/speakers/ram-charan/

Erik Qualman | Top Technology Speaker, #1 Bestselling Author & Futurist

Booked by: Sony Playstation, Stern School of Business, Nokia, Zappos

#1 Best Selling Author and Keynote Speaker Erik Qualman has performed in 55 countries and reached 50 million people.

His Socialnomics work has been on 60 Minutes to the Wall Street Journal and used by the National Guard to NASA. His book Digital Leader propelled him to be voted the 2nd Most Likeable Author in the World behind Harry Potter’s J.K. Rowling.

What Happens in Vegas Stays on YouTube helped Qualman be listed by Forbes and Fortune as a Top100 Digital Influencer. His business books are used in over 200 universities and he has received an honorary doctorate for his groundbreaking work.

More about Erik: https://thesweeneyagency.com/speakers/erik-qualman/

Rohit Talwar | Leading Global Futurist, Speaker, Author and CEO of Fast Future & Leads Fast Future Publishing

Booked by: 3M, Abu Dhabi Tourism Authority, American Express, Barclays

Rohit Talwar is a global futurist, award-winning and thought provoking speaker, strategic advisor, author, entrepreneur, and the CEO of Fast Future. He delivers keynote speeches, executive education, consultancy, research, and future-focused leadership mentoring to clients internationally. He helps clients understand the key future factors driving innovation, growth and disruptive change. He works with major corporations, governments, professional services, investors, associations, business schools, and NGOs – to help them anticipate, prepare for and create the future. He has delivered over 1,500 keynote speeches and executive workshops in 70+ countries on six continents.

Rohit leads Fast Future Publishing – delivering a series of multi-contributor books exploring the emerging future. He is the co-author of Designing Your Future, lead editor and a contributing author for The Future of Business, and editor of Technology vs. Humanity. He is also a co-editor and contributor for the recently published Beyond Genuine Stupidity – Ensuring AI Serves Humanity, and The Future Reinvented – Reimagining Life, Society, and Business. He is also working on two forthcoming books: Unleashing Human Potential – The Future of AI in Business, and 50:50 – Scenarios for the Next 50 Years.

More about Rohit: https://thesweeneyagency.com/speakers/rohit-talwar/