New Speakers
About
By his 35th birthday Mike Michalowicz (pronounced mi-‘kal-o-wits) had founded and sold two multi-million dollar companies.
Confident that he had the formula to success, he became a small business angel investor… and proceeded to lose his entire fortune. Then he started all over again, driven to find better ways to grow healthy, strong companies. Mike has devoted his life to the research and delivery of innovative, impactful, entrepreneurial strategies to you.
Mike is the creator of Profit First, which is used by hundreds of thousands of companies across the globe to drive profit. He is the creator of Clockwork, a powerful method to make any business run on automatic. And his latest, arguably most impactful discovery, is Fix This Next. In Fix This Next, Mike details the strategy businesses can use to determine what to do, in what order, to ensure healthy, fast, permanent growth (and avoid debilitating distractions).
Today, Mike leads two new multi-million-dollar ventures, as he tests his latest business research for his books. He is a former small business columnist for The Wall Street Journal and business makeover specialist on MSNBC. Mike is a popular main stage keynote speaker on innovative entrepreneurial topics; and is the author of Fix This Next, Clockwork, Profit First, Surge, The Pumpkin Plan and The Toilet Paper Entrepreneur.
Shannon Miller
About Shannon Miller – 2-Time Olympic Gold Medalist Gymnast; Inspirational Speaker on Peak Performance, Health and Fitness
About
Shannon talks about the gold medal mindset that leads to victory on the competition floor, at work, in our education and in our personal lives.
Audiences learn the importance of goal setting, teamwork, maintaining a positive attitude, and committing yourself to excellence.
7-time Olympic Medalist Gymnast (2 Gold, 2 Silver, 3 Bronze), Author, and Cancer Survivor.
Past clients include: Hewlett Packard, Morgan Stanley, NBC Universal, Novartis, Sodexo
Two-time Olympic Gold Medalist, Shannon Miller is the only female athlete to be inducted into the US Olympic Hall of Fame--twice!--Individual (2006) and Team (2008).
Shannon has won an astounding 59 International and 49 National competition medals. Over half of these have been gold. In 1993/94 Shannon became the first US gymnast to ever win back-to-back World All-Around Titles, and she is the first American female to medal in the individual all-around of a non-boycotted Olympics. Her tally of five medals (two silver, three bronze) at the ’92 Olympics was the most medals won by a US athlete in any sport. At the ’96 Games, she led the “Magnificent Seven” to the US Women’s first ever Team Gold and for the first time for any American gymnast, she captured Gold on the Balance Beam. She is the first American gymnast to win an individual gold medal at a fully-attended summer games and cemented her place as the most accomplished gymnast, male or female, in U.S. Olympic history.
After retiring from Olympic competition, Shannon received her undergraduate degrees in marketing and entrepreneurship from the University of Houston and her law degree from Boston College. She then moved from Olympic athlete to advocate for the health and wellness of women and children.
Shannon launched her company devoted to helping women make their health a priority in July, 2010. She continues to travel the country as a highly sought after motivational speaker and advocate for the health and wellness of women and children. Shannon’s seeks to empower women to make their health a priority through education and awareness.
In January of 2011, Shannon was diagnosed with a rare form of ovarian cancer. She had the baseball sized tumor removed successfully and followed up with an aggressive chemotherapy regimen. Shannon has remained open and public about her diagnosis and treatment and continues to empower women to make their health a priority. Shannon is currently cancer-free and continues to be a strong advocate for early detection.
Shannon’s book, It’s Not About Perfect: Competing for My Country and Fighting for My Life, is her inspirational memoir written to encourage and empower others to break through and overcome their own personal challenges.
Shannon remains involved with the sport of gymnastics and the Olympics as a commentator and analyst.
About
Martin G. Moore is unlike any other leadership speaker. He’s a no-nonsense communicator who has harnessed the deep experience of his 30+ year career as a corporate executive to cut through the mountains of fluff and clichés that dominate leadership today.
Going way beyond simply motivating and inspiring, Moore unravels the mystique of leadership for his audience. He challenges every individual to shift their perspective, providing practical strategies to improve their leadership performance the moment they leave the conference room.
Moore is an authoritative thought leader, with the credibility and track record to back up his words: as CEO of multi-billion-dollar company, CS Energy, he led a remarkable turnaround, growing earnings (EBITDA) from $17 million to $441 million, a compound annual growth rate of 125%.
Since leaving corporate life in 2018, Moore has established one of the top global podcasts, No Bulls**t Leadership, which has achieved over 4 million downloads in 150+ countries. His book of the same name is a Wall Street Journal bestseller, and he has trained leaders from companies like Google, Dell, Nike, slack, Disney, IBM, the LA Kings, BHP, Pfizer and Diageo, to name a few.
Gaby Natale
Transformative Motivational Speaker, Triple Daytime EMMY-Winning Journalist, Bestselling Author & Entrepreneur
About
Every individual has an opportunity to break barriers and redefine what is possible, and triple Emmy-Winning Journalist and Bestselling Author Gaby Natale is on a mission to awaken the PIONEER spirit in each of us.
Gaby is among just a few women in the entertainment industry who not only owns the rights to her TV show, but also a television studio. This unique situation has allowed her to combine her passion for media and her entrepreneurial spirit, which continues to help her break barriers. In 2021, Gaby became the first Latina author to be published by the leadership division of HarperCollins.
Her first book, The Virtuous Circle, became an instant bestseller, topping Amazon’s New Releases charts in 3 different categories (Business, Inspiration and Self-Help). What has made the book so successful is that it offers readers actionable strategies on how to channel their innate strength and abilities to best work for them.
Gaby has been featured in Forbes, CNN, Buzzfeed, NBC News, Univision and Latino Leaders magazine. In 2018, People magazine named her one of the “25 Most Powerful Latinas,” highlighting the inspirational story of how she went from a local TV show that started out of a carpet warehouse to becoming the only Latina in US history to win triple back-to-back Daytime EMMYs. In the digital world, she has a thriving fan base with over 52 million views on YouTube and 250K+ followers on social media.
A consummate entrepreneur, Gaby is also the founder of AGANARmedia, a marketing company with a focus on Hispanic audiences that serves Fortune 500 companies such as Hilton Worldwide, Sprint, AT&T, eBay and Amazon. She holds a Bachelor’s in International Relations and a Master’s degree in Journalism from the University of San Andres and Columbia University. Prior to starting her career in television, Gaby taught Communication and Journalism courses at the University of Texas.
About
Richard Newman is an award-winning expert in Leadership Communication, Storytelling and Influence, working in advanced communication since 1995. Richard specialises in showing leaders how to speak with greater impact and influence. He is regularly featured on BBC London Radio and is the author of the best selling book You were Born to Speak and the recently launched Lift Your Impact.
Richard’s clients include CEOs, Vice-Presidents and leadership teams across many industries, including Virgin, Expedia, EE, AXA, Microsoft and 3M.
In 2014 he won the Cicero Grand Award, the most coveted award in the world for speechwriting. In December 2018 he published his book ‘You were Born to Speak’ which on launch day ranked with Amazon as #1 best-seller on both kindle and hardcover editions.
Richard began by ‘Teaching English as a Foreign Language’ living in a Tibetan monastery in India. He then studied professional acting in London for three years. Richard worked as an actor on stage and screen, whilst continuing to study communication skills. Richard has been featured on Sky TV, Channel 5 News, in the Daily Telegraph, The Guardian, Forbes Magazine and many appearances on BBC London Radio and BBC Breakfast TV.
Richard founded Body Talk in 2000 and began working with a well-known Formula 1 team. His team at Body Talk have now worked with over 120,000 clients from 46 countries around the world. Recently they helped one client win over £1.2 Billion in new business by improving the way they communicate.
Natalie Nixon
Strategy, Foresight, and Innovation Expert, Award-winning Author
About
Natalie Nixon, PhD is "the creativity whisperer to the C-Suite". She is a creativity strategist who advises leaders on achieving transformative business results by applying wonder & rigor. She is a highly sought after global keynote speaker, valued for her accessible expertise on creativity, the future of work and innovation.
Natalie was selected for Thinkers50 Radar Class of 2024; Real Leaders' "Top 50 Keynote Speakers in the World for 2022" list; and has been featured in Forbes, Fast Company and INC. She is the author of the award-winning The Creativity Leap—an honoree in the creativity category of Fast Company's 2021 World Changing Ideas Awards. Her firm, Figure 8 Thinking, was named among the top 20 women-led innovation firms in 2021 by Core 77. Clients have included Microsoft, Salesforce, Comcast, Citrix, Morrison & Foerster, Living Cities, VaynerMedia and Bloomberg.
A hybrid thinker, Natalie consistently applies her background in cultural anthropology, fashion, design thinking and dance. She is an early-stage investor at two social impact ventures, valued for her ability to work at the intersection of commercial value and stakeholder equity.
Natalie is a trustee of the Smithsonian's Cooper Hewitt Design Museum; and a former trustee of Vassar College and Leadership+Design. She has lived in Germany, Brazil, Portugal, Israel, and Sri Lanka and is proficient in Portuguese and Spanish. She is certified as a Foresight Practitioner by the Institute for the Future. She received her BA (honors) from Vassar College, and her PhD from the University of Westminster in London.
When she's not dancing up a storm in hip-hop class, Natalie is fine-tuning her salsa, foxtrot and tango on the ballroom floor. She lives in her hometown of Philadelphia with her husband, John Nixon, and is the proud stepmother of Sydney.
Eric O’Neill
National Security Strategist at VMWare Carbon Black, Former FBI Agent, Bestselling Author & Speaker on Cybersecurity
About
In 2001, Eric O’Neill helped capture the most notorious spy in United States history: Robert Hanssen, a 25-year veteran of the FBI. The remarkable true events of his life are the inspiration behind the critically acclaimed dramatic thriller Breach, starring Ryan Philippe as O’Neill, and his bestselling novel Gray Day. The film set inside the FBI- the gatekeeper of the nation’s most sensitive and potentially volatile secrets – is the story of the greatest security breach in US history.
Preceding Hanssen’s arrest, O’Neill worked with the spy within the information assurance division that protected all classified FBI intelligence. O’Neill gained Hanssen’s trust and used that relationship to slowly draw the traitor out of deep cover.
O’Neill began his career in the FBI as a graduate of the FBI’s Intelligence Program. He spent the first five years of his career as a special surveillance group field operative tasked to surveil and monitor foreign, national, and domestic terrorists and spies. He transitioned from field operative to direct undercover work focusing on Hanssen. Although his prior training had focused on “ghosting” targets from the shadows, he engaged his target in conversation in order to elicit information needed to catch Hanssen in the act of espionage. The singular nature of the assignment, one with little backup or support, required O’Neill to draw from deep reserves of courage and confidence within himself to battle Hanssen’s mind games and aggressive probing and learn to “stop reacting to Hanssen and begin acting.”
Currently, Eric O’Neill runs The Georgetown Group, a premier investigative and security consultancy, where he specializes in counterintelligence operations, investigations into economic espionage, cybersecurity penetrations, internal investigations, catching the trusted insider and security risk assessment consulting out of Washington, DC. Eric is also the National Security Strategist for Carbon Black, the leader in next-generation endpoint protection, where he provides insight and advice on strategic cyber-security issues and will work to ensure Carbon Black is an active participant in the conversation about the national strategy for cybersecurity.
O’Neill’s story is one of patriotism, of decisive action in the face of fear, and of learning to maintain confidence in ability even if it looks like success is impossible. He has told his story in national media, in print, on radio, and on television including 20/20, Nightline, Hardball with Chris Mathews, Fox News Power Player of the Week with Chris Wallace, CNN, CSPAN’s Washington Journal, NPR’s “Fresh Air with Terry Gross,” World News Now, MTV, and Access Hollywood.
A talented motivational speaker who weaves real-life experiences into a presentation that is both entertaining and rewarding, Eric O’Neill provides practical insights into real work situations relevant to many industries. In addition to his experience in the Hanssen case, he also addresses the issues of
About
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. Her clients have included IKEA, Hermès, Philips, Sky, Deloitte, The World Economic Forum, The World Trade Organization, Microsoft, Bayer and Swiss Life.
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.
Angela is an American who shares her time between the US (Atlanta, Georgia) and Copenhagen, Denmark.
About
Jeremy Poincenot is an extraordinary figure, not just as a renowned keynote speaker but also as a world champion in blind golf. Jeremy’s speaking topics often revolve around turning trauma into triumph, the power of interdependence, and seeing challenges as opportunities for growth.
At the age of 19, Jeremy’s life took an unexpected turn when he was diagnosed with Leber’s Hereditary Optic Neuropathy (LHON), a rare genetic disorder that led to the loss of his central vision. Initially viewing this as a life-limiting setback, Jeremy soon realized that every challenge comes with an opportunity for growth. With determination and the support of his family and friends, he not only adapted to his new reality but also excelled in it.
Jeremy’s prowess in golf, a sport he loved, took on a new dimension as he began to compete as a blind golfer. With his father as his guide, he won the 2010 World Blind Golf Championship, a victory that marked the beginning of an illustrious career in the sport. He has since won three World Championships, nine National Championships, an Australian Blind Open, and an Italian Blind Open. His remarkable achievements in golf led CNN to call him the World’s best blind golfer. In 2011, he was honored as the San Diego Hall of Champions Challenged Athlete of the Year.
As a speaker, Jeremy Poincenot travels the world sharing his story, encouraging audiences to take control of their lives and view obstacles as opportunities. His approach is not just about promoting independence but highlighting the greater power of interdependence. His personal narrative, combined with wit and a strong inspirational message, has resonated with many.
Jeremy’s impact has been recognized widely. He has been featured on ABC’s 20/20, ESPN.com, CNN’s “Great Big Story,” and MTV’s True Life. His ability to connect with people has led him to speak for prestigious companies such as Aflac, Honda, John Hancock, Kaiser Permanente, and Wells Fargo.
About
When companies want to drive culture transformation and increase workplace belonging, human connection, and team engagement, they call ADAM “SMILEY” POSWOLSKY.
Smiley is an internationally renowned keynote speaker, workplace belonging expert, and bestselling author of four books that have been translated into multiple languages, including The Quarter-Life Breakthrough, Friendship in the Age of Loneliness, and The Workplace Belonging Toolkit.
Smiley shares industry-shaping insights and practical tools to attract and retain top talent across generations, create a culture of belonging, and engage high-performing teams, at world-class organizations like Apple, Google, Verizon, JPMorgan Chase, and the U.S. Navy. Smiley’s TED talk has been viewed 2 million times, and he has delivered 600 keynotes in front of 250,000 people in 25 countries.
Smiley’s work has been featured in 100 media outlets, including Harvard Business Review, the Wall St. Journal, Fast Company, the New York Times, the New Yorker, and the World Economic Forum.
Dr. Sian Proctor
Space Artist, Afrofuturist, Commercial Astronaut, and Motivational speaker
About
Dr. Sian Leo Proctor is a Visionary Artist, Futurist, and Explorer who made history as the first artist officially selected to go to space with the SpaceX Inspiration4 mission, also becoming the first African-American woman to pilot a spaceship.
Born on Guam to a father who worked at NASA's tracking station during the Apollo missions, Proctor's artistic vision has been shaped by a lifelong connection to space and Earth sciences. Today, her work bridges the worlds of science, space exploration, humanity, and creative expression. With advanced degrees in Environmental Science, Geology, and Science Education, Proctor's art is deeply informed by her scientific background. As a geoscience professor at Maricopa Community College, she honed her ability to communicate complex ideas through creative expression, laying the groundwork for her unique artistic style.
Proctor's journey as a space artist gained momentum through her experiences as an analog astronaut, participating in multiple simulated space missions, including a NASA-funded four-month Mars simulation. These experiences profoundly influenced her artistic themes, exploring human adaptation, isolation, and discovery.
In 2021, Proctor made history as the mission pilot for SpaceX Inspiration4, becoming the first African-American woman to pilot a spacecraft and the first Black commercial astronaut. More significantly for her art, this mission allowed Proctor to experience the Overview Effect firsthand, transforming her perspective and artistic vision.
As the first African-American to paint in space, Proctor's post-Inspiration4 work offers a rare blend of scientific accuracy and cosmic inspiration. Her art captures the fragility and interconnectedness of Earth as seen from orbit, inviting viewers to experience our planet from this unique vantage point.
Through her company Space2inspire, Proctor creates Afrofuturist art that not only celebrates space exploration but also advocates for a just, equitable, diverse, and inclusive (J.E.D.I.) approach to space and STEM fields. Her work challenges us to consider humanity's future among the stars while also addressing humanity’s most pressing issues on Earth, from ecological stewardship to inclusion and diversity.
Proctor's contributions have earned her numerous accolades, including being named one of The Explorer's Club 50: Fifty People Changing the World. She serves on the National Space Council Users' Advisory Group under Vice President Harris, where she brings her artistic perspective to discussions on STEM workforce development and climate change.
As an international speaker and educator, Proctor uses her art to inspire global audiences, encouraging people to view our planet and our future from a truly cosmic perspective. Her unique combination of scientific expertise, space experience, and artistic acumen makes her a powerful voice in both the art world and the space exploration community.
Dr. Proctor's journey from a child of the Space Age to a pioneering space artist and astronaut embodies the intersection of science, exploration, and creativity. Her work continues to push boundaries, offering a visionary artistic lens through which to view our planet and humanity's relationship with the cosmos.
Freddie Ravel
Celebrated Performer, International Expert and Keynote Speaker on Business & Communication
About
Freddie talks about how leaders can challenge and inspire organizations to discover their untapped potential through the power of Active Listening & The Music of Leadership, using music focused stories to help leaders build stronger teams.
Audiences learn how to enhance interpersonal and professional leadership skills, amplify engagement and clarify their desired goals and outcomes.
Bilingual Speaker (English & Spanish) Freddie Ravel is a GRAMMY nominated maestro & performer, Founder of "Life in Tune," and Business Success Expert. His clients have described his keynotes & emcee services as the "ideal balance of entertainment and content."
Past clients include: IBM, Toyota, Red Bull, NASA, Apple, Blue Cross, Prudential, Google and Citi.
Click Here to Watch Freddie's Virtual Video
Freddie Ravel is the GRAMMY-nominated Keynote Maestro - who combines his expertise for business breakthroughs and virtuoso piano performances with a clear and concise application of music’s communicative and scientific powers to inspire, ignite and lift the minds, hearts and potential of audiences around the world.
Backed by number one hits and collaborative successes with Madonna, Earth, Wind and Fire, Prince and Carlos Santana to leading the teams of J Lo, Jimmy Kimmel and Lady Gaga - the #1 chart-topping composer is the Founder of “LIFE IN TUNE," a worldwide program that delivers customized peak performance experiences - to reveal how the structure of music enhances leadership, innovation and productivity for entrepreneurs to major corporations alike. Dubbed the “Keynote Maestro” by the City of Los Angeles, Ravel received the city’s Award of Recognition for creating a music-based system to “renew the national and international economy” - while his film, TV, radio and recording credits include CBS, FOX, CW, Universal, iHeart and XM Sirius. Straddling sectors across Media, Tech, Healthcare and Wellness, Diversity and Inclusion, Communications, Social Impact and Financial Services - clients refer to him as “The ideal balance of Entertainment and Content”.
These include IBM, Toyota, Red Bull, NASA, Apple, Blue Cross, Prudential, Google and Citi where he continues to serve as a captivating access point through which to transform corporations, education, entertainment and the human condition. Based on decades of entrepreneurial and corporate training, scientific research and directing and performing with many of the music legends of our time - conference planners often engage Freddie and his team in the program planning process to help design and incorporate their meeting objectives into a rich, harmonious and rewarding experience. Having performed in over eighty countries, Freddie is in tune with cultural nuances and sensitivities delivering the universal language in both English and Spanish - as well as collaborating with translators to uplift your audience to success.
Shola Richards
About Shola Richards – Bestselling Author & Expert on Workplace Culture:
About
Shola talks about the challenges we faced this recent year--a deadly pandemic is barreling through the world, there are deep divisions that have been exposed within our country, parents are being asked to balance working and homeschooling their kids simultaneously, and according to recent studies, Americans are the unhappiest they have been in the past 50 years--and strategies to become more resilient in the face of it all.
Audiences learn how creating a resilient mindset, regardless of the circumstances using strategies to build unshakable strength within themselves and within their teams.
Founder & CEO, Go Together Global, Bestselling Author.
Past clients include: the GAP, Kaiser Permanente, Microsoft, SHRM
Most organizations have a version of "joyful peak performance" somewhere in their mission statement. But how many are actually achieving it? Across the US, 65M people are experiencing some form of toxicity at work every day. Many of these employees resign themselves to the pitiful fate of spending each day dodging the bullies, accepting deep-seated job dissatisfaction, fighting back clinical depression, or worse, succumbing to it.
Shola Richards was one of them. The workplace bullying he experienced, which went unaddressed even after he complained to HR, drove him into clinical depression, and the unimaginable. Shola intentionally swerved off the interstate in an attempt to take his own life. As his car clipped the guardrail on I-405, something changed...
This catalyst has since become Go Together™ Movement - a transformational roadmap of mindset, behaviors, and tools that transform workplace cultures. Sholas mission is to help every workplace in America become one where joyful peak performance is lived every day and where engagement and satisfaction become the new norm.
Shola Richards’ life’s mission is an ambitious one: To end generations of professional suffering, simply by changing how we treat each other at work.
Shola is an advocate, a one-man counsel, and a humanitarian hardwired for positivity, who (ironically) speaks, coaches, consults, and authors books on the shadowy, often underground, and underestimated subject of workplace bullying, a pernicious reality that, when overlooked, corrodes trust, distorts communication, and ultimately usurps equity from the bottom line by using up a company’s most valuable resource: its people.
His approach is to open eyes to the staggering price we pay for normalized, toxic behavior, because we can’t address what we don’t see. His result is people equipped with tangible, doable solutions because we can’t accomplish what we can’t make actionable. His conviction is that everyone deserves a healthy work environment because the quality and meaning of our work suffers when we do.
Through his books--Go Together and Making Work Work and featured articles that have reached readers in over 160 countries, and through his presentations with institutions that range from Silicon Valley businesses to the Department of Homeland Security, Shola is spearheading a timely revolution that teaches us how to protect the professionalism of our company cultures, the preciousness of our time, the strength of our talents, the dignity of ourselves, and the mutual respect of one another.
About
Our take: Your audience will discover Sara's inspiring ideas on boosting their performance and staying focused. Empowering
Click Here to Watch Sara's Virtual Presentation
Sara Ross is on a mission to help organizations and their leaders reignite a sense of aliveness to reshape their work and refuel their life. She and her company do this by using brain science-based strategies to teach people how to amplify their vitality by strengthening their emotional intelligence, resilience, and well-being.
As a recognized leadership expert, Sara's ideas and research have earned her a reputation as a fresh and thought-provoking voice in discussions focused on the future of work. As such, Sara is called on to work with clients such as Microsoft, PepsiCo., Cisco, Wells Fargo, T-Mobile, Rogers, Bell, Allstate, United Health, Fidelity, BMO, Stanford University, and as diversely as the U.S. Navy SEALs, among others. In addition, Sara has worked with numerous government agencies, foundations, and associations as well as guest lecturing in the executive leadership program at Smith College. This broad perspective and diverse experience help explain why Sara is called on to work with some of the most senior, technically sophisticated, and skeptical audiences.
You can count on Sara to bring her trademark energy with the integration of relevant, cutting-edge science, relatable stories and idea’s guaranteed to challenge the status quo, provide new insights and inspiration, and most importantly, leave audiences with a blueprint of actionable strategies.
Before founding BrainAmped, Sara spent a decade immersed in the neuroscience of Emotional Intelligence and Performance at a leadership development company where she served as their Vice President and Global Head of Leadership Innovation, Research and Education. As head of faculty, Sara and her team led the development and delivery of award-winning leadership programs, assessments, coaching and accreditation programs that helped leaders from across the globe to be their best, even in the most complex and stress-filled moments.
Sara has a Master of Science (MSc.) from the University of Waterloo. Outside of work, she is a coffee loving, meditation rookie who can’t help but slip in the occasional Canadian “eh” at the end of a sentence. Her husband describes her career as professional eavesdropping-people-watching. She argues that she is merely a dedicated street scientist doing her professional duty to better understand why people do what they do and why they don’t do what they know they should!
About
Paul Rulkens is a global keynote speaker and an expert in strategic high performance: the art and science of consistently achieving big goals in the laziest way possible. His clients include companies like McKinsey, KPMG, ExxonMobil, Boston Scientific, DSM, Novartis, UBER, BASF, SHELL, Siemens, ASML, DuPont, Johnson & Johnson, Merck, Nestlé, and Canon.
His most requested speaking topics cover the secrets of consistent execution, fast innovation, effective leadership, growth focus, and seamless teamwork. His popular TED talks have been watched by more than six million people.
Originally trained as a chemical engineer and with more than 20 years of experience in various corporate leadership roles, Paul’s work is based on deep knowledge and extensive experience in the practical business applications of behavioral psychology, neuroscience and, especially, common sense.
His two business books—The Power of Preeminence and How Successful Engineers Become Great Business Leaders—are used frequently by others at professional training and development sessions all over the world.
His solid background as a scientist and corporate executive, combined with his training as a standup comedian, make his keynotes both substantive and hilarious.
Ken Schmidt
Authentic Leadership and Customer Loyalty Expert; Senior Role in Harley-Davidson Turnaround; and Author, Make Some Noise: The Unconventional Road to Dominance
About
It’s an impersonal world, where so many products and services are seen as easily-replaced, indistinct commodities. Whether you stand out or get lost in the crowd is a choice. A mindset. Ken Schmidt faced those same challenges himself and gained acclaim for his role in the extraordinary turnaround of the legendary Harley-Davidson Motor Company. That transformation was based on a change in mindset and a focus on answering three key strategic questions. While times have changed, what humans want and need from the businesses they buy from and work for hasn’t.
In his high-energy speeches, Ken inspires companies and individuals to shift their thinking and ride a path to success by becoming memorable – not for what they do or what they make, but for how they connect with people.
Ken is author of Make Some Noise: The Unconventional Road to Dominance. He’s also host of the Tailgating with Geniuses podcast and co-founder of Torque Sessions Leadership Training. In all of his endeavors, Ken brings an unconventional perspective that helps organizations and individuals reframe how they engage with their marketplace.
Ken Schmidt’s career in the motorcycle industry began in 1985 as a specialist in corporate positioning and media relations for the then-struggling Harley-Davidson. He was tasked with helping the company restore its image, improve its competitiveness, and create demand for its motorcycles. Within a few short years, sales of Harley-Davidson motorcycles skyrocketed, and the company returned to prominence as one of the most respected, profitable, and frequently reported-on companies in the world.
In 1990, Ken became director of Harley-Davidson’s corporate and financial communications, serving as its primary spokesperson to the media and the financial communities. He frequently appeared in mainstream and business media to offer insights on nontraditional communications, customer attraction, and brand-building. His expertise and success at Harley-Davidson ultimately led to consulting assignments and speaking invitations from all over the world.
In 1997, Ken left Harley-Davidson to take an ownership position with a highly successful Chicago-based marketing firm, VSA Partners. In addition to Harley-Davidson, VSA served a virtual who’s who of the world’s best-known brands. In 1999, he sold his portion of VSA to start his own business, Ken Schmidt Company, to combine two of his greatest passions, motorcycling and speaking. He uses motorcycles as a metaphor to expose people to proven ideas and concepts they’ve likely never imagined.
After all he has accomplished, Ken remains committed to his philosophy of standing out, taking risks, and having fun in both his personal and professional life. He says, “Never do what’s expected, make yourself as noticeably different as possible, and have a lot more fun than you’re supposed to.”
Mark Schulman
World-Renowned Drummer; Author; Motivator; Expert, The Secrets of Rockstar Performance
About
Mark Schulman is a monster drummer who’s toured the world with some of the greatest rock and pop performers – before crowds as big as 225,000. He’s played with P!NK, Billy Idol, Cher, Stevie Nicks, Foreigner, Simple Minds, and others over his 32-year touring career. Mark is also amazing on another stage – as a speaker, where he delivers a rock show disguised as a keynote. “I’ve learned about the importance of attitude as part of the touring family with these great performers,” Mark says as he unpacks the secrets of rockstar performance. His presentations translate lessons learned during a remarkable career into valuable tips for organizations, teams, leaders, and those who want to be their absolute best.
Mark Schulman is a brilliant storyteller and performer who inspires audiences to engage and unleash their inner rockstar. Mark's first book, Conquering Life’s Stage Fright, shows people how to harness doubt, fear, and anxiety to perform at their best when it matters most. His next book, The Attitude Equation, is slated for early 2024 release. Mark is also a judge and coach on an all-new original music competition television show called BANDED on AXS TV.
Mark Schulman grew up in Los Angeles and is a classically trained cellist. As a teen, he played with the Los Angeles Junior Philharmonic. He later even played cello on the 2009/2010 P!NK tour. During his unprecedented career over the last 32 years, Mark has been a first-call drummer for world-class rock and pop artists. He was voted “Top 3 Pop-Rock Drummers” in the Modern Drummer Readers Poll in 2014 and was the featured cover
artist in the May 2019 issue of Modern Drummer. Mark did four record-breaking world tours with P!NK over 15 years.
Mark’s resume reads like a “Who’s Who” of international rock ‘n’ roll royalty, including acts such as Cher, Billy Idol, Foreigner, Sheryl Crow, Stevie Nicks, Beyonce, and so many other world-class artists. He has drummed with Velvet Revolver at Ozzfest and for a crowd of 225,000 at Glastonbury Festival with Simple Minds. Mark has appeared on nearly every American, European, and Australian variety show including the Grammy Awards, Late Night with David Letterman, The Tonight Show, Late Night with Conan O'Brien, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, American Idol, The Paul O'Grady Show, The X Factor, Wetten, dass..?, the ARIA Awards, and more.
Mark’s fan base extends way beyond the rock ‘n’ roll stage. Fans of his other career, as a top motivational speaker, exist at companies and organizations he’s spoken for, including American Express, Microsoft, IBM, DELL Cisco, Aveda, Kaiser, NCAA, SAP, and more. To date, Mark has performed over 2,000 keynotes, 1,000 music clinics, and for over a billion people.
Offstage, Mark is passionate about teaching and helping others. He was the chairman of Create Now!, a non-profit organization founded in 1996 to help change troubled children's lives through creative arts mentoring. A cancer survivor himself, Mark has also motivated children and teens through his work doing seminars with the Ronald McDonald House and benefits for the Teenage Cancer Trust in the U.K.
An active educator, Mark taught at the Los Angeles Music Academy and is one of the world’s most sought-after drum clinicians, hosting clinics around the world. Mark produced his first instructional DVD in his studio, A Day in the Recording Studio; A Do-It-Yourself Guide to Recording Great Drum Tracks for Drummers and All Musicians distributed by Hudson Music. The Mark Schulman Signature Snare Drum is one of the best-selling signature products in the history of GRETSCH.
In May 2023, Mark became a judge and coach for an all-new original music competition television show called BANDED. The show redefines the “build-a-band” concept and pairs up-and-coming artists with top coaches. Besides judging, Mark will coach one of the rock outfits.
Mark is also a music producer, trained audio engineer, and studio co-owner of West Triad Recording Studio in Venice, California.
About
Rachel Sheerin is an award winning speaker on a mission to help people love their work, their lives and their communities with renewed energy and focus.
As a Certified Professional Behavioral Analyst, Rachel knows what makes people tick - paired with her background in meetings and events, she knows how to help keep your event flowing with fun and ease (no matter what happens!). As a keynote speaker and event host for some of the world’s largest companies and organizations, conferences, conventions and annual meetings, Rachel’s often tapped for her high energy and inclusive, welcoming style of speaking, storytelling and audience engagement.
Rooted in the goal of making events impactful, connective and memorable, Rachel works with meeting planner teams and organizations to strategize and deliver performances and experiences that unify and energize! As an active member of MPI, Rachel is not just a speaker but also an event partner, sharing best practices and resources from her hundreds of client events.
With her viral TEDx talk How to Burnout and Be Successful and her book BETTER: How to live, lead and succeed coming out in Summer 2023 on Hawthorn Road Press, Rachel has been featured in Inc. Magazine, USA Today, The Washington Post, Medium and more.
Erin Stafford
Speaker, consultant and expert on changing mindsets through her innovative Type A Trap concept
About
Erin Stafford helps businesses revitalize their workforce by providing them with tools and tactics to sustain peak performance without burning out. She has blazed a trail of action-oriented success fueled by trial and error, bold decisions and unwavering self-confidence. Her figure-it-out mentality has shaped her career journey from being a fledgling public relations intern to a high-powered marketing executive at a hyper-growth company.
Erin is a multi-faceted, marketing jack-of-all-trades. Her international career has stretched from Paris and London to LA and San Diego. As an MTV advertising executive, she’s worked with the world’s biggest brands including Apple, Nike, Coke and American Express. As a celebrity stylist and fashion journalist, she’s dressed celebs for the Emmy’s, Grammy’s, Academy Awards and had her work featured in numerous international publications. As the head of marketing for the largest healthcare staffing company in the country, Erin helped lead the largest deployment of healthcare personnel in history while helping to grow the company by 9x in two years.
In short, Erin has surrounded herself with some of the most motivated, ambitious, famous overachievers in the world for her entire, diverse career – people at the highest levels of success, but who often think burnout is something that happens to weak people, lazy people, those people, not high achievers like them. Yet leaders in all sectors today are suffering from severe cases of burnout as they struggle to adjust to a post-pandemic world and the pressure it puts on their personal and professional lives.
Using lessons gleaned from her distinct career, interviews with dozens of high achievers from all walks of life and hundreds of surveys, Erin shares impactful and essential mindset shifts for leaders to move from exhaustion and burnout to kicking ass and thriving again. Leaders experience renewed excitement and engagement in their work and personal lives.
Erin’s insights have been called upon by The Wall Street Journal, MSN, Vogue, Vanity Fair, The Style Network, The Orange County Register and a host of other global media outlets and organizations.
Alan Stein, Jr.
Speaker, Author, and former basketball Performance coach on helping business leaders create high-performance cultures
About
Alan Stein, Jr. teaches proven strategies to improve organizational performance, create effective leadership, increase team cohesion and collaboration, and develop winning mindsets, rituals, and routines.
In his corporate keynote programs and workshops, Alan shares real-world lessons, illustrated by powerful stories, so that every audience can immediately put new ideas into action. He has a passion for helping organizations create high-performance cultures, and his clients include American Express, Pepsi, Under Armour, Starbucks, Charles Schwab, Orange theory Fitness, and numerous college athletic programs such as Penn State Football and UConn Men’s Basketball.
An acclaimed basketball performance coach, Alan spent 15 years working with the highest performing athletes on the planet (including NBA superstars Kevin Durant, Stephen Curry, and Kobe Bryant). He transfers that knowledge to reveal how leaders and teams can utilize the same approaches in business that elite athletes use to perform at a world-class level.
The strategies from Alan’s book, Raise Your Game: High Performance Secrets from the Best of the Best, are implemented by corporate teams and sports teams around the country. His inspirational words are featured on a 12-foot mural outside the Penn State Football Training Center, so that players run past it on the way to practice every day.
Robert Swan
Renowned Polar Explorer & Transformational Leader in Sustainability
About
With his presence and integrity, accomplishments and reflections, Robert Swan has an extraordinary ability to inspire and motivate audiences worldwide. Having experienced leadership and team cooperation in some of the world’s most hostile environments, Robert applies the leadership lessons he has learned to inspire bold management practices and effective communication styles. Robert’s talks are thrilling, uplifting and stimulating – all while fostering courage, vision and teamwork. His core themes are inspiration, leadership and future thinking for business, society and the environment.
30 years ago, French ocean explorer Jacques Cousteau gave Robert Swan a 50-year mission to save Antarctica from the realities of climate change. The 2041 Foundation was founded and through perseverance and dedication, Robert has helped inspire the next generation of leaders to take responsibility for their life paths.
As the founder of the 2041 Foundation, Robert has dedicated his life to the preservation of Antarctica and the planet through promoting renewable energy and sustainability to combat the effects of climate change.
Robert Swan has been working side-by-side with his son Barney for the past 5 years. On January 15th 2018 at the South Geographic Pole, the baton was passed onto Barney Swan, who, on that day, became the first person in history to journey to the South Pole powered entirely by renewable energy. This incredible feat marked the launch of CLIMATEFORCE, a 7 year campaign to remove 326 million tonnes of CO2 out of the atmosphere through effective solutions and education to encourage personal leadership in our carbon neutral future. CLIMATEFORCE continues to build on the 2041 legacy through action and personal leadership today and in the future.
This is not only an incredible story about a father and son, it is a legacy story of Robert Swan and the 2041 Foundation and their unstoppable commitment and leadership to preserve this earth for generations to come.
Hamish Taylor
Award-winning CEO and Global Keynote Speaker on Entrenching the Customer in the Heart of All Activities by Creating The Customer Promise
About
Hamish Taylor has a CV that the Times describes as “takes some beating.” His energetic, thought-provoking and humorous keynotes are based on a rare combination of real stories - and a fantastic ability to inspire audiences with tailored advice and practical tools. Regularly featured in broadcast media, today Hamish acts as an advisor to some of the world’s largest companies (and even Governments) - assisting with specific innovation projects, customer focus and/or people leadership.
Hamish is an award-winning CEO whose career has taken him from the international consumer goods giant Procter & Gamble, consultancy firm Price Waterhouse and British Airways - to become CEO of the channel tunnel railway Eurostar, and then CEO of Sainsbury’s Bank… all before he was 40! In all cases, he left behind a record of significant business growth triggered by a willingness to challenge the normal way of doing things - so much so that his advice and assistance is now sought by organizations all over the world in many different industries.
As the self appointed “chief dumming down officer” in each of his roles, his approach is simple - but highly effective in delivering breakthroughs.
- The first thing that has to change is the way you look at your customers (both internal and external) - if you look at your customers the same way, you will get the same answers and keep doing the same things
- Secondly, you need to use your customer insights to create a new leadership tool - a simple “customer promise” as a platform for ALL future activity that puts customer benefit at the heart. Your customer doesn’t care about what you do, but about how they benefit as a result of what you do - so use this as your key purpose
- Thirdly, you must look to other environments and industries if you want breakthrough ideas - for product, service, process, leadership and much more. The Inspired Leaders Network dubbed Hamish the “Master thief” due to his track record in this area
- Concentrate your major energy on changing the way you engage with the team that will deliver the customer promise
Hamish’s keynotes will demonstrate the major breakthroughs that can be achieved by changing your approach. Hamish’s message can be tailored to a variety of topics and levels within an organization.
About
Jason Tharp is an inspiration expert, best-selling author, and illustrator who inspires audiences to embrace their authentic selves and collaborate towards success. With a focus on leadership and self-leadership, Jason's dynamic speeches share his personal journey of overcoming impossibles, such as brain cancer, obesity, negative self-talk, and self-doubt. His books, including "The Best You!" and "It's Okay To Be A Unicorn!", promote self-leadership, inclusivity, creativity, and self-acceptance.
Renowned for his interactive speaking style and impactful leadership advice, Jason has delivered numerous keynotes since 2015, providing audiences with a blueprint to break their own impossibles. His speeches emphasize teamwork and self-leadership, creating a bridge of empathy through vulnerability. Jason has worked with successful organizations like Better Business Bureau, Novocure, Sonova, Nationwide Children’s Hospital, NRG, Best Buddies, and MacMillan, and has been featured on major media outlets such as CNN, MSNBC, USA Today, Washington Post, The Hill, HuffPost, CBC, and The Independent. Jason has also written many op-ed pieces for numerous media outlets.
Speech Thomas
2x Grammy Award Winning founder & lead singer of ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT
About
Speech was born Todd Thomas in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The youngest of parents Robert & Patricia Thomas. He grew up on two sides of life: the ghetto of Milwaukee (one of the nation’s roughest cities for African Americans) and (Wauwatosa) Milwaukee’s suburbia. Speech learned how to draw from the pains and beauty of both. He would absorb the plights of his people and the retreat of a middle-class black boy in a primarily white neighborhood. He lost his grandmother to a heart attack and his older brother, Terrence Thomas to an Asthma attack within the same week, and through spirituality, learned to recalibrate his inner anger through dynamic music. To celebrate the lives of those he lost, he coined his sound “life music”. Speech wrote the hit song Tennessee as a dedication to his grandmother and brother. In the early nineties, Speech and his mother started the Terrence Thomas Scholarship and to date, the scholarship has raised over a million dollars helping young black students further their educations.
Speech started and produced the hip-hop group, Arrested Development. Based in Georgia, from humble and rural beginnings; they became a pioneering force in the music world. Arrested Development received two Grammy Awards (Best new artists & Best rap single 1993) for the album, 3 years, 5 months, and 2 days in the life of…” Their second album “Zingalamaduni” was met with critical acclaim and was also nominated for a GRAMMY award.
In 1995, the group disbanded and Speech signed a solo record deal with EMI. His first single “Like Marvin Gaye Said” shot to #1 on the Japanese Tokio 100 charts for 7 consecutive weeks. Speech has released 5 solo albums since, all of which have spawned Top 10 hit singles in Japan. His album “1998 Hoopla” and Spiritual People” (2000) were certified gold. “Spiritual People” was awarded the Best black music album of the year 2000 by the acclaimed ADLIB magazine. Speech supported each album with sold-out tours.
Speech has also toured as a solo performer with the United States Vice President Al Gore, First Lady Hillary Clinton, Herbie Hancock, Chaka Khan, Youssou N’dour, James Brown, Parliament-Funkadelic, Jason Mraz, Hootie & the Blowfish, and The Roots.
In 2020 Speech partnered with Resonant Pictures and Pipeline Entertainment to release the full-length documentary “16 Bars” where Speech goes into a maximum security jail to write music with inmates. This stirring documentary has won numerous film festival awards and is now available through Lightyear Entertainment on streaming platforms worldwide
Bill Weingartner
Principal Consultant of The Table Group, Speaker on Leadership & Teamwork
About
Bill Weingartner brings a unique perspective and wealth of experience to the challenge of building healthy organizations and high performing teams. Interacting closely with The Table Group since 2013, he has had the great privilege of working regularly and directly with Pat Lencioni to positively impact organizational culture and health within hundreds of non-profits across North America. As a Principal Consultant, Bill delivers high-impact sessions that generate relevant and immediate outcomes for leaders of for-profit and not-for-profit organizations.
Bill works regularly with leadership teams in quickly and effectively applying the concepts captured in all of Pat Lencioni's books, always ensuring that consulting sessions, speeches, and workshops are practical, engaging, and actionable. His clients span a broad spectrum of various industries, including financial services, health, medical, and service outreach organizations.
Bill’s 32 years of experience split between corporate America, small business ownership, philanthropy, and organizational health training underlies and drives his success as a consultant with The Table Group.
About
Dr. Paula Stone Williams is an internationally known speaker on gender equity, LGBTQ advocacy and religious tolerance. As a transgender woman, Paula brings a unique perspective to her work on gender equity. She says, "The differences between living as a man and a woman are massive. There is no way an educated white male can understand how much the culture is tilted in his favor, because it is all he has ever known and all he ever will know."
Whether a corporate meeting, women's conference, company retreat or national gathering, Paula's unique perspective and story-telling skill delights both men and women as she humbly and effectively advocates for gender equity, LGBTQ rights and appreciation for the differences among us.
Paula has been the CEO of a large religious non-profit, the editor-at-large of a national magazine, host of a national television show and a corporate consultant. With her doctoral thesis on the DiSC Personality Profile, Paula has led hundreds of corporate boards and work teams to become more efficient and productive. Paula has served as an adjunct university professor in the United States and Europe, and is the author of eight books, including She's My Dad, co-authored with her son, Jonathan.
Paula’s memoir, As a Woman: What I Learned about Power, Sex, and the Patriarchy After I Transitioned (Simon & Schuster), chronicles her transition journey and sheds light on the gendered landscape that impacts many in the LGBTQ+ community and women in the workplace and beyond. Her memoir will be turned into a limited series by Cannonball Productions.
In addition to her public speaking and corporate consulting, she is also a Pastor and Pastoral Counselor in Boulder County, Colorado. Paula has been featured in the New York Times, the Washington Post, TEDWomen, TEDSummit, TEDxMileHigh, Red Table Talk, National Public Radio, Good Morning America, ABC Primetime News, CNN, People Magazine, and many other media outlets. She has been a keynote speaker for hundreds of conferences, corporations, and universities around the world. Her TED Talks have had over six million views.
Paula lives in Boulder County, Colorado, where she also serves as a pastor with Left Hand Church.
John Winsor
Innovator, Entrepreneur, Author and Speaker on The Future of Work
About
John Winsor is an entrepreneur, thought-leader and global authority on the future of work, open talent and remote work. John’s ideas, expressed through his writing, speaking, and the companies he’s built, have placed him at the intersection of innovation, disruption and storytelling.
John is currently the executive-in-residence at Harvard Business School’s Laboratory for Innovation Science at Harvard (LISH), which studies AI and Workforce Transformation strategies, and founder and CEO of Open Assembly, a company that provides content, community, and strategic advising to organizations, people, and platforms to co-create the future of work.
Recently, he has been leading a global industry coalition made up 4000 global leaders in the open talent and innovation industry to start a non-profit trade association, The Center for the Transformation of Work with the goal of Transforming work for a billion people by 2025.
In his past life, John was the chief innovation officer of Havas, when Havas purchased his open advertising agency, Victors & Spoils, in 2015. Winsor founded V&S after introducing the advertising world to the practice of co-creation in his role as vice president and executive director of strategy and innovation at Crispin, Porter + Bogusky. Winsor had merged his company Radar Communications, the world’s leading open strategy and research company, with CP+B back in 2007. Other companies Winsor founded include Sports & Fitness publishing, sold to Conde Nast, and the Gravity Games, sold to NBC.
Winsor’s new book, “Open Talent: Leveraging the Global Crowd to Solve Your Biggest Challenges,” published by Harvard Business Press, comes out in the fall of 2023.
Winsor’s is also the author of “Beyond the Brand,” “Spark,” “Flipped,” and the best-selling “Baked In,” winner of the 2009 800-CEO-READ Business Book Award in marketing. Winsor is also an advisor to the Digital Initiative at Harvard Business School, and a regular contributor to the Harvard Business Review, The Guardian, Forbes and Digiday.
Winsor was an early digital nomad. Twenty years ago, he found a satellite dish, mounting it on his house in a village in Mexico and connecting in illegally to a network in Canada to communicate with the world. He has also worked on his skiing, surfing and climbing exploits from Fiji to Alaska.
About
Our take: Your audience will learn from Cassandra how to see change as an exciting opportunity and a pathway to success. Game Changing
Talks about how organizations can embrace a culture of change and engineer a resilient and inclusive work culture.
Audiences leave with an inspired perspective on change and the mindset, resilience, and tools to grow through change.
Cassandra has over 10 years of M&A experience and is a trusted advisor to Fortune 500 companies.
Past clients include: Procter & Gamble, Allstate, Jones Lang LaSalle, Centene Corporation, ConferenceDirect, and WeWork.
Click Here to Watch Cassandra's Hybrid Presentation
With contagious energy that radiates throughout every room she steps into, Cassandra Worthy is the world’s truly DISRUPTIVE thought-leader on CHANGE that companies need to build organizational resilience and adaptability. During times of major shift such as merger, acquisition, organizational restructure, new systems integration, and market disruption RARELY do businesses ever face the tumultuous emotional landscape of the organization head-on. Only 10% of successful change adoption is about know-how…the other 90% is squarely centered on an organization’s motivation and willingness to embrace the change. Without addressing the emotions standing in the way of motivation, any transformation journey is stopped in its tracks. This is where Cassandra steps in. She has created and cultivated the unique strategy of Change Enthusiasm® which is arming individuals around the world with the means to harness the power of emotion, a resource in infinite supply, to embrace and accelerate change and transformation journeys. Cassandra’s message nurtures highly resilient and adaptable organizations beginning at the heart of the individual.
Cassandra’s client base spans the Fortune 500 and larger all over the world including Procter & Gamble, Allstate, Jones Lang LaSalle, Centene Corporation, ConferenceDirect, and WeWork. Cassandra invigorates and inspires organizations, C-suite executives, and business associations alike going through significant change, disruption, and transformation. Cassandra’s customized keynote and workshop programs motivate the workforce to embrace Change Enthusiasm® and subsequently become self-actualized in working towards a change vision. In her leadership-centric presentations, she is not only sharing this unique strategy of Change Enthusiasm® but also 10+ years of M&A experience distilled down into the critical leadership traits required to lead with exception during high-stress times of change and transformation.