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Mark Schulman Speaker

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.

David Meerman Scott Speaker

David Meerman Scott

Business Growth Strategist, Entrepreneur, VC Strategic Partner, WSJ Best-selling Author of Eleven Books, Latest is Fanocracy

 About

Click Here to Watch David's Virtual Presentation

  • Speaker on Business Growth & Entrepreneurship
  • Audiences leave with practical insights on how to turn customers into loyal fans that reinvent how they do business.
  • David is a best selling author of more than 10 books and an advisor to emerging companies who are working to transform their industries by delivering disruptive products and services
  • Past clients include: Hewlett Packard, Microsoft, Hubspot, Mynd, Harmony, YayPay, SlapFive, and ExpertFile.

David Meerman Scott acknowledges that “The shift from merely selling a product or service to building a Fanocracy is a powerful one. It starts by changing the way you think about your customers.”   David’s ideas have captured the attention of respected firms and organizations all over the world - having spoken in over 40 countries and on all seven continents. His groundbreaking strategies don’t just slap new tools onto dusty old strategies – they reinvent the way to engage the marketplace.

David helps companies and organizations generate attention and grow business in a real-time world. He spotted the online content revolution in its infancy and wrote five books about it including The New Rules of Marketing & PR, the definitive book on the topic, translated into 29 languages. Now, there’s a new inflection point. The pendulum has swung too far, creating a world of digital chaos. Tech-weary and bot-wary people are longing for human connection. There are businesses and organizations who have learned to win by tapping into this mindset by creating a Fanocracy. David’s eleventh book, Fanocracy (coming January, 2020 from Portfolio), proves that creating fandom is not something reserved just for celebrities, athletes, and authors. Creating a Fanocracy is rocket fuel used by forward-thinking companies and organizations of all sorts - including those from the most unlikely industries - to inspire and nurture true fans.

David’s high-energy presentations highlight the strategies and success stories using bold images and video to energize audiences. David inspires people to set old ideas and fear aside and use new tools to achieve measurable, no-cost results to turn customers into fans and fans into customers.

The top-selling book by David is The New Rules of Marketing & PR, a Wall Street Journal best-seller in its 6th edition with over 400,000 copies sold. It is used as a text in hundreds of universities and business schools worldwide. Real-Time Marketing & PR and The New Rules of Sales and Service have each broken new ground with fresh ideas. David is co-author of Marketing the Moon (and contributing producer of the 2019 PBS documentary it inspired, Chasing the Moon) and Marketing Lessons from The Grateful Dead. David’s next book is co-authored with his daughter, Reiko, and reveals how the power of fandom - long understood in the celebrity world - can be harnessed by business.

David is the pioneer of Newsjacking, a business growth strategy so successful that it is now listed in the Oxford English Dictionary: “In the space of a few short years, newsjacking has gone from an experimental technique to a staple in every social media-savvy marketing department’s arsenal. Its contemporary iteration, however, dates from the early twenty-first century, as first popularized by marketing and sales strategist David Meerman Scott.”

David is a globalist with real-world experience building businesses and a sharp eye for the bigger marketplace. He moved to Tokyo at age 26 to establish the Japan office of a Wall Street Real-Time economic advisory firm. He worked for global Real-Time media companies in Tokyo for seven years and Hong Kong for two. David was Asia marketing director for Knight-Ridder in the mid-1990s before moving to the Boston area where he was marketing VP for two publicly-traded U.S. companies. Losing his job following the sale of NewsEdge to Thomson Reuters delivered David the gift of reinvention as a strategist advising organizations on the new realities of agile, Real-Time business.

David is a co-founder and partner in Signature Tones, a sonic branding studio. Signature Tones works with clients to create sonic logos and original music for use perfectly in tune with their brand. Sonic branding includes original music that is used in videos, podcasts, products and services, as walk on music for speaking engagements, in TV and radio commercials.

David is an advisor to emerging companies who are working to transform their industries by delivering disruptive products and services. Besides delivering success as a member of the board of directors of NewsWatch KK (successfully sold to Yahoo Japan) and Kadient (successfully merged with Sant), and on the board of advisors of Eloqua (successful IPO in mid-2012 and sale to Oracle in early 2013) and GrabCAD (successfully sold to Stratasys in mid-2014), his current portfolio of advisory clients includes HubSpot, where he has served since 2007, (successful IPO in 2014), digital selling firm Vengreso, Mynd, Harmony, YayPay, SlapFive, ExpertFile, and InstaViser as well as non-profits including the Grateful Dead Archive at University of California/Santa Cruz and HeadCount. He is also a strategic limited partner and advisor to Stage 2 Capital, a go-to-market venture capital fund investing in and advising companies scale sustainable revenue and healthy growth.

Debra Searle Speaker

Debra Searle

British Adventurer, Television Presenter, Author and Motivational Speaker

 About

Click Here to Watch Debra's Virtual Presentation

  • Debra's inspiring presentation helps audiences understand how mindset can shift your momentum through even the most challenging experiences
  • Audiences leave feeling inspired and with specific tools to build a resilient mindset to help leaders and teams move through change
  • After 3 1/2 months spent at sea, single-handedly rowing from Tenerife to Barbados, Debra is ranked as one of the Top 30 Motivational Speakers in the world, alongside Simon Sinek & Tony Robbins, and has founded 5 companies and authored 3 books.
  • Past clients include: UBS, Nike, IBM, Nestle, Johnson & Johnson, Pfizer, Bausch & Lomb, phd.

Debra Searle first hit the headlines when she set out to row across the Atlantic with her husband. Unfortunately, he had to be rescued so Debra, a novice rower, continued alone without a support boat and rowed 3000 miles from Tenerife to Barbados. It should have taken them six weeks, but Debra ended up spending 3 ½ months at sea alone, encountering 30' waves, sharks, and force 8 squalls in her 23-foot plywood boat. Since returning from this adventure, Debra has undertaken solo & team expeditions across the globe. She has also represented Great Britain at European and World Championship level in Dragon Boat Racing winning bronze, silver and gold medals.

Yet Debra is more than your usual sports speaker. Debra has founded 5 companies including MIX Diversity Developers, a D&I consultancy and training company. She has presented 40 programmes for the BBC and had 3 books published, most recently The Choose Your Attitude Journal. Her spirit of adventure gained her an MBE from Her Majesty The Queen and she was delighted to be appointed a Trustee of The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award, spending a decade working alongside His Royal Highness Prince Philip and His Royal Highness Prince Edward. Debra has been appointed a Member of the Victorian Order (MVO) for her services to the Royal Family. 

In 2020 Debra was ranked in the Top 30 Motivational Speakers in the world, alongside the likes of Jack Canfield, Simon Sinek and Tony Robbins and the World’s #1 Female Motivational Speaker outside the US. The movie of Debra’s solo Atlantic row is currently in development in Hollywood.

 

Dr. Joel Selanikio Speaker

Dr. Joel Selanikio

Consultant in technology, healthcare, AI, entrepreneurship, social innovation, big data, and disaster response.

 About

  • Joel talks about the future of healthcare using a long range perspective: 100 years of information technology and its impact on health and healthcare.
  • Dr. Selanikio helps the audience navigate the possible futures of the industry, and how it will be affected by AI and technology.
  • Dr. Joel Selanikio bridges the worlds of healthcare, global health and technology to illustrate opportunities in the application of artificial intelligence (AI), big data, cloud computing, and mobile technology to health, healthcare, and social challenges.  He is a recognized innovator in global health, technology, and social enterprise, as well as a former CDC outbreak investigator and Ebola clinic director.
  • Past clients include: Royal Society of Medicine, Harvard, Stanford School of Business, DARPA, the World Economic Forum at Davos, and Google.

Dr. Joel Selanikio bridges the worlds of healthcare, global health and technology to illustrate opportunities in the application of artificial intelligence (AI), big data, cloud computing, and mobile technology to health, healthcare, and social challenges.  A former CDC outbreak investigator and Ebola clinic director, he also frequently speaks about the challenges of providing clinical services in “the hot zone”, and the role that technology (and humanity) can play in emergencies.

A recognized innovator in global health, technology, and social enterprise, his broad career has allowed him to observe and leverage the great technological changes of our time – including the worldwide shift from personal computers to mobile, the adoption of cloud technologies, and the growing application of big data to healthcare – as few others have done.  Named in 2009 as one of Forbes’ “most powerful innovators”, he is a recipient of both the $100,000 Lemelson-MIT Award for Sustainable Innovation and the Wall Street Journal Technology Innovation Award for Healthcare for his work in healthcare technology.  A TED speaker, he has spoken at or provided consultation to organizations including the Royal Society of Medicine, Harvard, Stanford School of Business, DARPA, the World Economic Forum at Davos, and Google – and been profiled by the Wall Street Journal, NPR, Economist, CNN, Fox News, and the BBC, among others.

Dr. Selanikio is a graduate of Haverford College and the Brown University School of Medicine, and he continues to practice pediatrics at Georgetown University.

Jason Selk Speaker

Jason Selk

Developing Mental Toughness in Sport, Business and Life

 About

While serving as the Director of Mental Training for the St. Louis Cardinals, Dr. Jason Selk helped the team win their first World Series in over 20 years, and in 2011 he assisted the Cardinals in the historic feat of winning their second World Championship in a six year period. Dr. Selk is a regular contributor to Forbes, ABC, CBS, ESPN, and NBC radio and television and has been featured in USA Today, CNBC, Men's Health, Muscle and Fitness, Shape and Self Magazine. Dr Selk's second book, Executive Toughness, is a bestselling business book and his first book, 10-Minute Toughness, is on pace to be one of the bestselling sport psychology books of all time. His newest offering is Relentless Solution Focus: Train Your Mind to Conquer Stress, Pressure, and Underperformance

Dr. Selk is considered to be one of the premier performance coaches in the United States. He helps numerous well- known professional and Olympic athletes as well as Fortune 500 and Fortune 100 executives and organizations develop the mental toughness necessary for high-level success.

Dr. Selk utilizes his in-depth knowledge and experience of working with the world's finest athletes, coaches and business leaders to help individuals and organizations outperform their competition. Dr. Selk works with such clients as professional athletes in the NFL, NHL, NBA, PGA, LPGA, MLB and NASCAR. In addition, he works with such business clients as UBS Financial, Edward Jones, Wells Fargo, Northwestern Mutual and Enterprise Holdings, to name a few.

Ross Shafer Speaker

Ross Shafer

Emmy Award-Winning Network Talk Show Host, Best-selling Author, and Hilarious Change Expert

 About

  • Ross talks about how professional and personal success follows from one's commitment to being accountable--when we are the architect of our own life, we will have more time, money and happiness.
  • Audiences learn that they can no longer blame “government regulation,” “the economy” or “the competition” – or “changes in management" -- for their discontent. Focus on what you can control. Personal growth and opportunity always emerge from realizing that nobody cares more about your career and success than YOU do. Be accountable – and you won’t have to wait for anybody to elevate your position in work and life.
  • 6-time Emmy Award Winning TV host, comedian, and writer; Author of 9 Business Books & Entrepreneur
  • Past clients include: ACE Hardware, Aflac, Hilton Hotels, Hyundai, iPipeline

Click Here to Watch Ross' Virtual Presentation

Six-Time Emmy Award-Winning Comedian, Network TV Host and Best-Selling Business Author of 10 Books on Reinvention and Resilience.

With more than 35 years of experience in show business and media, the six-time Emmy Award-winning comedian, writer, and former network TV host Ross Shafer is also a man who simultaneously began his business career at the age of 21. He subsequently rescued 23 different companies from bankruptcy and resold them.

Ross’s peculiar combination of experience led to his writing (10) popular business books (Nobody Moved Your CheeseThe Customer Shouts BackGrab More Market ShareCustomer EmpathyAre You Relevant? Absolutely Necessary, Behave Like a StartupSuccess: Its on You, No More Customer Friction, and his latest (2021) book on resilience, titled RATTLED).

Ross has spoken and consulted for 3,000+ clients including Apple, Microsoft, Chrysler, Adobe, MetLife, Hyundai, Hilton Worldwide, AT&T, Marriott, FedEx, and Toyota to name a few. His unique insights on raising customer scores became a game changer when he dismissed the notion of “WOW-ing the Customer.” Instead, he blamed low scores on the devastating impact of the POW moments (customer gut-punches by your failures). According to Ross’s research and client case studies, POWs can erase the WOW effect and cause customers to abandon a business forever. Ross believes, “The pandemic taught us we dont have to over-delight everyone. We just need to make fewer blunders. Don’t disappoint customers and your customer scores will soar. Ross Shafer offers entertaining and eye-opening perspectives for individuals and organizations to achieve resilience by paying attention to the evolving influences around them.

Rebecca Shambaugh Speaker

Rebecca Shambaugh

Leadership Development Expert, Speaker and Author on Diversity

 About

Rebecca Shambaugh is the Founder and President of SHAMBAUGH Leadership, a global leadership development organization - known for its best practices, strategies and innovative solutions for creating inclusion in today’s workplace. She is Founder of Women in Leadership and Learning (WILL) - one of the first executive leadership development programs in the U.S. dedicated to the research, advancement, and retention of women leaders and executives - and is a regular contributor to Harvard Business Review.

Rebecca is known for her pioneering and compelling vision for a unified voice - one that includes men and women together creating a better place for organizations and their employees to thrive and succeed in today’s new world.

Rebecca’s message has resonated with many audiences - based on her provocative style and storytelling that challenges conventional wisdom, overturning assumptions about the business imperative for inclusive leadership. Through her engaging presentations, she helps companies and leaders disrupt old narratives that no longer align with the new world of leadership.

Rebecca has been showcased on CNBC, TED Talks, Fox News (New York), NPR, Washington Business, ABC, and numerous syndicated radio talk shows.

Stephen Shapiro Speaker

Stephen Shapiro

International Best Seller and Innovation Evangelist

 About

  • Stephen talks about how all leaders can learn to innovate and teach their teams how to innovate to stay one step ahead of the competition.
  • Audiences leave with specific advice on how to build a culture of innovation, through practical ideas and processes.
  • Stephen Shapiro is one of the foremost authorities on innovation culturecollaboration, and open innovation. He is a best selling author and regular contributor to Forbes, The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times.
  • Past clients include: Nike, Microsoft, Staples, GE, NASA, BP, Johnson & Johnson, The United States Air Force, Fidelity Investments, Pearson Education, Nestle, and Bristol-Myers Squibb

Click Here to Watch Stephen's Virtual Presentation

Stephen Shapiro is one of the foremost authorities on innovation culture, collaboration, and open innovation.

During the past twenty years, his message to hundreds of thousands of people in over 40 countries around the world has focused on how to enable innovation by bringing together divergent points of view in an efficient manner.

Over the years, Stephen Shapiro has shared his innovative philosophy in books such as 24/7 Innovation, The Little Book of BIG Innovation Ideas and Goal-Free Living. He led a 20,000 person process and innovation practice during his 15 year tenure with Accenture. And his Personality Poker - system has been used by more than 50,000 people around the world to create high-performing innovation teams.

His latest book, Best Practices Are Stupid: 40 Ways to Out Innovate the Competition (Portfolio Penguin), has been featured on ABC News, CBS Interactive's BNET, Southwest Airline's Spirit Magazine, Investor's Business Daily, and more. It was selected as the best innovation and creativity book of 2011 by 800-CEO-READ. And it is an international #1 best selling business book.

His work has been featured in Newsweek, Entrepreneur Magazine, O-The Oprah Magazine, The Wall Street Journal, and The New York Times. His clients include Nike, Microsoft, Staples, GE, NASA, BP, Johnson & Johnson, The United States Air Force, Fidelity Investments, Pearson Education, Nestle, and Bristol-Myers Squibb.

Jacob L. Shapiro Speaker

Jacob L. Shapiro

Distinguished Geopolitical Analyst and Speaker on International Affairs

 About

Jacob Shapiro is Partner and Director of Geopolitical Analysis at Cognitive Investments. Jacob oversees geopolitical analysis at CI, working with the CI research team to integrate geopolitics into CI’s investment strategies. He also authors the “Global Situation Report,” a weekly intelligence brief on the world’s most important developments.

Jacob hosts CI's podcast series, "Cognitive Dissidents," which features interviews with a diverse array of foreign policy, technology, and global business experts. Jacob is a prolific writer and frequent keynote speaker at conferences and events, known for challenging consensus views whilst retaining a healthy sense of irony.

In addition to CI, Jacob is the founder and Chief Strategist of Perch Perspectives. Perch is a business and political risk consulting firm that works directly with global businesses, helping them to identify and plan for key global risks to their supply chains, with special focus on the technology, agriculture, energy, and apparel industries.

Prior to joining CI, Jacob was Director of Analysis at Geopolitical Futures, which he co-founded with famed geopolitical strategist George Friedman. Before co-founding GPF, Jacob was Director of the Operations Center at Stratfor, the geopolitical intelligence firm. He received a master’s degree with distinction from Oxford University and a bachelor’s degree from Cornell University in Near Eastern studies.

When he doesn’t have his head buried in a book, you can find Jacob at a random pick-up basketball game somewhere in New Orleans doing his best Larry Bird impersonation.

Peter Sheahan Speaker

Peter Sheahan

About Peter Sheahan – Bestselling Author on Innovation & Accelerating Growth

 About

  • Talks about accelerating growth through transformation that outpaces the external changes that are constant in the business environment.
  • Audiences learn how to increase operational and organizational agility by compressing the time between becoming aware of necessary changes to be competitive, and implementing them.
  • Founder of the global business growth consultancy, Karrikins Group, with employees in 23 cities across 7 countries
  • Past clients include: AT&T, Apple, Microsoft, Goldman Sachs, and Wells Fargo

Click Here to Watch Peter's Virtual Video

About Peter Sheahan - Bestselling Author on Innovation & Accelerating Growth:

Having grown his own companies by accelerating the growth and transformation for clients that include: Apple; Chick-fil-A; DeBeers; and AT&T — Peter will provoke you to get bigger, by getting better! When leaders are true to their purpose, they gravitate towards doing work that matters and solving higher-order problems. The journey to get there requires that they have the courage to tell themselves the truth, take intelligent risks, and assume ownership for driving the alignment necessary to build an organization which behaves in ways worthy of its leadership position.

In being true to his own ambitions and relentless pursuit of growth, Peter has published seven books, built three global companies and delivered more than 2,500 presentations in 40+ countries. Today he and his team at Karrikins Group are focused exclusively on inspiring leaders to do the hard work required to accelerate growth and transformation.

Alex Sheen Speaker

Alex Sheen

Founder of ‘because I said I would’, a Humanitarian, Social Entrepreneur, Leader and TEDx Speaker

 About

Alex Sheen is the founder of because I said I would, an international social movement and non-profit dedicated to the betterment of humanity through promises made and kept. Sparked by a tragedy in his life, Alex created a concept called the Promise Card, and began mailing cards to anyone who requested them at no cost. Since 2012, over 9.81 MILLION Promise Cards have been distributed to over 153 countries. In 2013, Alex left his Corporate Strategy Lead position at a leading software company to dedicate himself entirely to the non-profit.

Alex authored his first book because I said I would (Publisher: Greenleaf Book Group Press), released in January 2019. Noted as an Amazon best-seller in Philanthropy & Charity.

Alex’s unique perspective on accountability, leadership, commitment, and self-control developed both from his responsibilities in leading a global effort about keeping promises -- and his personal experience fulfilling his own promises.

Alex’s personal promises include:

  • Walking 245 miles across the entire state of Ohio in under 10 days to fulfill a promise to the three Cleveland women who were held captive for 10 years
  • Volunteering at 52 different non-profit organizations in a single year
  • Promising children with cancer trips to Disneyland and personally delivering 100 tickets

Alex’s work has been featured on CNN, ABC World News with Diane Sawyer, TODAY Show, Good Morning America, NPR, Fox News, Los Angeles Times, CBS Nightly News, and many other programs. He has been featured on the cover of Spirit Magazine, and honoured as a Steve Harvey “Harvey’s Hero”. Alex’s efforts in social media have been featured in BuzzFeed’s annual “Most Important Viral Videos”, and his viral posts have made the #1 spot on the front page of Reddit.com over 10 times. As a nationally respected thought-leader who has been featured at multiple TEDx conferences, Alex has spoken at over 527 events since 2013.

Jay Shetty Speaker

Jay Shetty

Former Monk & Award-winning Digital Strategist

 About

Meet Jay Shetty the British-born, former monk & award-winning digital strategist turned captivating host, storyteller and viral trend content creator. Since launching his video channel in 2016, Jay’s viral wisdom videos have garnered over 4 billion views and he has gained over 25 million social media followers globally.

Jay was named in the Forbes 30 Under 30 Class of 2017 for being a game-changer and influencer in the world of Media. Jay aims to deliver educational and insightful content in an entertaining, uplifting format -- with the mission of making wisdom go viral. His inspirational video reach is known to skyrocket upwards of 100 million views within days of launch. He has created content for and partnered with the likes of Snapchat & Facebook and serves on the National Geographic Chasing Genius Council.

After meeting a monk at the age of 18, Jay sought to redefine personal success. He was inspired by a life of service, impact and passion as opposed to money, fame and power. After graduating with a first-class BSc (Hons) Degree in Behavioral Science from Cass Business School, he turned down lucrative job offers from prestigious companies, moved to India and lived as a monk. He traded his suits for robes, shaved his head, slept on the floor and lived out of a gym locker. Jay meditated for 4-8 hours a day and studied ancient philosophy. Half the day was spent on personal growth and the other on helping others. This included everything from personal and collective meditation, study and reflection to teaching and philanthropy. For three years, Jay helped build sustainable villages, food programs distributing over one million meals per day and coached Millennials throughout India and Europe.

Jay received a proposal from his guru who believed he could share what he had learnt if he left the path. Jay moved back to London with his parents, in massive debt with no recognizable skills on his resume. Fortunately, his friends, now working for the largest organizations in the world yet experiencing tremendous stress and pressure, invited Jay to coach them on well-being, purpose and mindfulness. Jay began sharing his experiences as a monk in the world's largest corporations including EY and Nasdaq.

Driven by a desire to share his learnings with as many people as possible, he re-engaged with the world and dove head first into learning about the tools and techniques that might allow knowledge to spread as fast as entertainment. He joined Accenture, helping them build their digital division while learning about the forces shaping the new digital landscape. He quickly became their #1 social media influencer, having advised over 150 executives on their personal brands, which provided a very broad base with which to test theories. He leveraged his findings to launch his own Facebook page in 2016.

Jay’s videos were spotted by Arianna Huffington, who asked him to create a series for HuffPost. His first four videos hit over 50 million views -- the highest HuffPost had ever received. Arianna invited Jay to New York to be a Senior Host & Producer for HuffPost Live where he created #FollowTheReader. The Facebook Live Daily Talk Show, featuring authors and life changing ideas, became #1 for audience engagement -- with themes that include passion, purpose, mindfulness, resilience, failure and communication.

These days, Jay continues to expand his brand through his viral video agency, group coaching & workshops. He's also been diligently working on his forthcoming book Think Like a Monk: Train Your Mind for Peace and Purpose Every Day (Simon & Schuster) to be released on 14-April-2020. Mark your calendars for this highly anticipated work.

Darryl Sittler Speaker

Darryl Sittler

Legendary Toronto Maple Leaf. Speaker on sports, lessons in leadership and teamwork.

 About

Darryl Sittler is one of the greatest players to ever wear the Toronto Maple Leaf uniform. The former centreman was Toronto's first choice in the 1970 Amateur Draft, and he embarked on a career that led him to the top of the Leafs' All-Time Points and Goal Scoring List.

The native of Kitchener, Ontario may well be remembered for two of the most historical performances in the history of the National Hockey League. On February 7, 1976, Sittler scored six goals and added four assists for an NHL record total of 10 points in a game versus the Boston Bruins at Maple Leaf Gardens. That spring, the team leader joined Maurice Richard in hockey history by recording five goals in one playoff game against the Philadelphia Flyers. Darryl's place among the sport's all-time greats came in 1989 with his induction into the Hockey Hall of Fame and in 1995-96, Darryl was voted by fans as the centreman on the All-Time Leafs Team.

After hanging up his skates, Darryl took on a new professional role as special consultant to the President of the Toronto Maple Leafs, in the areas of marketing, public relations, alumni relations and hockey operations. He is now a marketing and community consultant. Darryl's place among the NHL's all-time greats came in 1989 with his induction into the Hockey Hall of Fame. In 1995-96, Darryl was voted by fans as the centreman on the All-Time Leafs Team, and on February 8, 2003, Toronto retired Sittler's No. 27.

Laurie Skreslet Speaker

Laurie Skreslet

First Canadian to climb Everest, inspirational and motivating speaker on commitment and teamwork.

 About

Laurie Skreslet captivates, inspires, and entertains as he imparts his remarkable wisdom, gained from a lifetime of adventure and achievement. Enhanced with spectacular multimedia visuals, his presentations convey the importance of personal commitment, teamwork, preparation, and dedication to excellence -- keys to success on Mount Everest, and keys to success in business.

On October 5, 1982, Laurie Skreslet became the first Canadian to ever reach the summit of Mount Everest. Since then, he has revisited the challenge again and again, continuing to climb from various directions and with alternate equipment. Building upon his life as an adventurer, he has also become renowned for his spectacular presentations to corporate and professional groups. Helping individuals and organizations to uncover and explore the parallels between their business environment and that of high-risk adventure and exploration comes naturally to Laurie.

In order to attempt climbing Everest, Laurie and his team spent over five years planning and raised more than three million dollars. Still dealing with the horror of four team members deaths in the infamous Khumbu Icefall, Laurie personally had to recover from three cracked ribs incurred in a fall early in the climb. Despite these and countless other adversities he had accomplished mountaineering's ultimate achievement - and made history in the process.

Laurie brings to life the principles of personal best and beating fear of failure that enabled him to reach his Everest goals, and which can be applied by anyone trying to achieve difficult goals of their own. Participants learn that achievement is not a matter of luck or destiny, but a philosophy and a process that can be applied to any situation.

Stan Slap Speaker

Stan Slap

Corporate Culture Guru & Bestselling Author

 About

Stan Slap is renowned for achieving maximum commitment in manager, employee and customer cultures—-the three groups that decide the success of any business. When these groups form relationships with a company they become cultures and are far more self-protective, far more intelligent and far more resistant to standard methods of corporate influence. 

“Culture” is the most overused yet often least understood concept in business. SLAP’s renowned expertise is in understanding how these three cultures actually work and how to achieve their maximum commitment.

Stan is also the New York Times bestselling author of Bury My Heart at Conference Room B and Under the Hood, which mine the path to Manager and Employee commitment, respectively. Stay tuned for Stan’s third book, The Hungry and the Hunted, which sheds much needed light on how to activate your Customer Culture.

Scott A. Snook Speaker

Scott A. Snook

Associate Professor at the Harvard Business School and Speaker on Leadership Development

 About

Scott Snook is currently the MBA Class of 1958 Senior Lecturer of Business Administration at the Harvard Business School.

He graduated with honors from West Point earning the Royal Society of Arts Award for the most outstanding overall cadet in his class. Following graduation, he was commissioned in the US Army Corps of Engineers where he served with distinction in various command and staff positions for over 22 years, earning the rank of Colonel before retiring in 2002. He has led soldiers in combat. Among his military decorations are the Legion of Merit, Bronze Star, Purple Heart, and Master Parachutist badge.

He has an MBA from the Harvard Business School, where he graduated with High Distinction as a Baker Scholar. Dr. Snook earned h is Ph.D. from Harvard University in Organizational Behavior winning the Sage-Louis Pondy Best Dissertation Award from the Academy of Management for his study of the Friendly Fire Shootdown in Northern Iraq. Until July of 2002, Colonel Snook served as an Academy Professor in the Behavioral Sciences and Leadership Department at the United States Military Academy. He also directed West Point's Center for Leadership and Organizations Research as well as its joint Master's Program in Leader Development. He is the primary author of West Point's Cadet Leader Development System - the Academy's philosophy on how to develop leaders of character for the Nation. Professor Snook's book Friendly Fire was selected by the Academy of Management to receive the 2002 Terry Award as the most influential book on managerial thinking published during the past two years. He has also co-authored a book that explores the role of "common sense" in leadership titled, Practical Intelligence in Everyday Life, available from Cambridge University Press (2000). He most recently co-edited The Handbook for Teaching Leadership: Knowing, Doing, and Being available from SAGE Publications (2011). Professor Snook has shared his leadership insights in formal executive education programs at Harvard and with numerous corporate audiences around the world. 

Professor Snook's research and consulting activities have been in the areas of leadership, leader development, change management, organizational systems and failure, and culture. He currently lives in Concord, Massachusetts with his wife Kathleen and their five children.

Dennis Snow Speaker

Dennis Snow

Disney University Teaching Alum and Speaker on Creating Magical Customer Experiences

 About

Dennis Snow's customer service abilities were honed over 20 years with the Walt Disney World Company. It was there that he developed his passion for service excellence and the experience he brings to the worldwide speaking and consulting he does today.

He began his Disney career in 1979 as a front-line attractions operator. As he advanced through the company, Dennis managed various operating areas throughout the park - learning and applying the skills it takes to run a world-class, service-driven organization.

Dennis launched a division of the Disney Institute responsible for consulting with some of the world's largest companies including ExxonMobil, AT&T, General Motors and Coca Cola. During this time, he presented to audiences in diverse locations around the world, such as South Africa, Australia, Mexico, England and Argentina. This division quickly became the fastest growing venture of the Disney Institute and experienced repeat business of nearly 100%.

He also spent several years with the Disney University, teaching corporate philosophy and business practices to cast members and the leadership team. While there, he coordinated the Disney Traditions program which is universally recognized as a benchmark in corporate training. In his last year with Walt Disney World, Dennis' leadership performance was ranked in the top 3% of the company's leadership team.

Today, Dennis is a full-time speaker, trainer and consultant who helps organizations achieve goals related to customer service, employee development and leadership. Some of his clients include American Express, Johns Hopkins Medicine, ExxonMobil, and Nationwide.

His articles appear in numerous industry publications - and he is a featured guest expert on customer service on several business news-talk radio shows. He is author of the book, Unleashing Excellence: The Complete Guide to Ultimate Customer Service, which has been used in organizations around the world as a blueprint for organizational excellence. His next book was Lessons from the Mouse: A Guide for Applying Disney World's Secrets of Success to Your Organization, Your Career, and Your Life.

Andrew Sobel Speaker

Andrew Sobel

Leading Strategist on Building and Developing Business Relationships

 About

Andrew Sobel is the leading authority on the strategies and skills required to earn lifelong client loyalty and build trusted client partnerships. The most widely published author in the world on this topic, he has written four acclaimed, best-selling books on business relationships: Power Questions, All for One, Making Rain, and Clients for Life. His newest book, Power Questions shows how to use powerful, thought-provoking questions to win new business, build relationships - and influence others. He has also published over 100 articles and contributed chapters to four books on leadership, strategy, and marketing. All for One was voted one of the top 10 sales and marketing books of the decade by a major marketing publication.

Andrew has worked more than 30 years as both a strategy advisor to senior management - and an executive educator and coach. Many of the world`s leading companies number among Andrew`s clients. These include established public companies such as Citigroup, WPP, Xerox, Experian, Hess, Cognizant, UBS, and Lloyds Banking Group; and also many privately held professional service firms, including Booz Allen Hamilton, Towers Watson, Bain & Company, Booz & Company, Spencer Stuart, Fulbright & Jaworski, Ernst & Young, Deloitte - and many others.

His articles and work have been featured in a variety of publications including USA Today, The New York Times, Business Week, the Harvard Business Review, Strategy+Business, and Advertising Age - and he has appeared on numerous television programs such as ABC`s World News This Morning and the Fox Strategy Room. One of his articles, "The Beatles Principles," was featured in major newspapers and media in over 20 countries around the world.

A former Senior Vice President and Country Managing Director with Gemini Consulting (formerly the MAC Group), Andrew lived and worked in Europe for 13 years and speaks four languages. He graduated from Middlebury College with honours and earned his MBA from Dartmouth`s Tuck School. He is President of Andrew Sobel Advisors and Executive Director of the Client Leadership Forum - a best practices consortium of international services firms.

Meg Soper Speaker

Meg Soper

Corporate Entertainer and Motivational Humorist who Speaks on Resilience and Teamwork

 About

Click Here to Watch Meg's Virtual Presentation

Meg Soper is a professional speaker and comedienne who combines a remarkable sense of humour with her unique perspective of life - to captivate her audience and provide them with a presentation filled with inspiration and entertainment. Across North America, Meg is highly sought after to energize events and inspire employees through keynote presentations, as an M.C., or through interactive workshops.

Meg has appeared as a keynote speaker and featured entertainer at conferences and corporate functions across North America and internationally. A veteran performer, she got her start at various comedy clubs across Canada, and over the years shared the stage with many leading comedy acts including Ray Romano and Ellen Degeneres.

With over 30 years experience in the health care industry and as a Registered Nurse in the Operating Room, she understands how your attitude affects those around you at home and in the workplace environment. Meg is co-author of the book, From the Stage to the Page - Life Lessons from Four Funny Ladies. She has appeared on the CBC Television Network, Women’s Television Network and Prime TV, as well as being featured in many radio programs and comedy festivals. Meg has a tremendous ability to connect with her audience and take every event to a higher level.

Her experiences as a staff nurse and operating room nurse - in major urban teaching hospitals and regional healthcare facilities - shaped her perspective. It taught her how humor can help us effectively deal with stressful situations in our personal and professional lives. Out of the pressure-packed environment of the hospital operating room and balancing two careers, Meg realized humor is extremely effective for dealing with stress and managing change.

And how better to motivate and entertain her audiences than through humor and inspiration? That’s why her unique brand of motivational comedy is referred to as “Humor with a Heart”. She inspires people to improve communication, deal with stress, and achieve better balance in their lives while establishing a healthy workplace and home life.

It all comes down to choices. We always have a choice about how we do our work, even if we don’t have a choice about the work itself. We choose the attitude we bring with us to work and to life, and the ability to decide whether any given day will be good or bad. If we have the ability to step back from a situation and see the humor in it, we quickly realize that life can be less stressful.

Anders Sorman-Nilsson Speaker

Anders Sorman-Nilsson

Author of Thinque Funky, Speaks on Future Thinking, Innovation, and Generational Trends

 About

  • Anders talks about what the world will look like post-COVID-19, and how organizations can prepare themselves for a world facing new technologies, disruptive innovation and new customer demands.
  • Audiences leave inspired by fascinating case studies and best practices from smart brands that understand how intelligent technologies can amplify customer service, create compelling customer experiences, remove friction and transform our lives.
  • Anders Sörman-Nilsson (LLB / EMBA) is a global futurist and innovation strategist who helps leaders decode trends, decipher what’s next and turn provocative questions into proactive strategies.
  • Past clients include: Apple, Cisco, Mercedes Benz, Hilton, SAP, Gartner and Macquarie Bank.

Click Here to Watch Anders' Virtual Presentation

Anders Sörman-Nilsson (LLB / EMBA) is a global futurist and innovation strategist who helps leaders decode trends, decipher what’s next and turn provocative questions into proactive strategies. With an average of 240 international travel days a year, Anders’ view is that the future and the now are converging in a city or start-up near you, giving the curious, the creative and the courageous a competitive and sustainable edge. At the same time, that same future contains fearsome forecasts for futurephobes.

This Swedish-Australian futurist has shared stage with Hillary Clinton, Nobel Laureates, and European and Australian heads of state. He is an active member of TEDGlobal, has keynoted at TEDx in the United States and Australia, was nominated to the World Economic Forum’s Young Global Leaders in 2015, and was the keynote speaker at the G20’s Y20 Summit in Australia.

His presentations are meticulously researched, highly energetic and always fascinating with content tailored to the audience, which is why clients like Apple, Cisco, Mercedes Benz, Hilton, SAP, Gartner and Macquarie Bank have turned to Anders over the years to help them turn research into foresight and business impact.

Anders' thought leadership has been featured in international media like Monocle, Business Insider, Sky News Business, Financial Review, CIO Magazine and Boss. He is the author of the books Seamless: a hero's journey of digital disruption, adaptation and human transformation (Wiley, 2017), Digilogue: how to win the digital minds and analogue hearts of tomorrow's customers (Wiley, 2013) and Thinque Funky: Upgrade Your Thinking (Thinque, 2009).

Nina Sossamon-Pogue Speaker

Nina Sossamon-Pogue

Award-winning Television News Anchor, and Inspirational Speaker on Resilience, Overcoming Adversity & Dealing with Change

 About

  • Nina talks about creating success after change. recover quickly, learn – and ultimately grow stronger.
  • Audiences leave understanding their role in their own success and the corporations’ success with new strategies to keep going and not just survive change but thrive and find new levels of success.
  • Nina is a hyper-growth tech executive, USA Gymnast, and Emmy-winning television news anchor and keynote speaker- who expertly blends big data, current events and brain science research into an energetic multi-media stage performance.
  • Past clients include: GM, Benefitfocus, One Connection Management Group and Ellevate

Nina Sossamon-Pogue is an Inspirational thought leader and best-selling author reframing ‘resilience’ and helping individuals and organizations thrive through tough times. A former USA Gymnast, Emmy-winning Television News Anchor and Tech Executive, Nina is known for adapting to adversity and achieving success. She expertly shares her unforgettable message of resilience and her science based, data driven, stoic philosophy infused framework to handle everything life throws at you.

Following her own success and failures in Sport, Television and Corporate America, Nina began researching why some businesses and individuals thrive during adversity while others fail. Nina’s first endeavor into writing garnered best-selling status - This is Not 'The End': Strategies to Get Through the Worst Chapters of Your Life (Morgan James Publishing, June 2019).

Nina Sossamon-Pogue is a rare find in the speaking world. A professional presenter from her years on TV, combined with her years on the leadership team at a hyper-growth SaaS technology company, give her a unique ability to connect with a corporate audience. She blends big data, current events, and brain science research into an energetic multi-media stage performance.

Nina helps strengthen organizations during this fast-paced, uncertain time of digital overload, FOMO and machine learning. She unpacks today’s stress, simplifies the complex and shares her proven framework to handle the cognitive load created by today’s technologically advancing world.

Nina adds energy to any event, using her own gripping story as a backdrop, her presentation is all about your audiences, not her. She is the ideal opening or closing keynote for your next corporate meeting or event.

Willis Sparks Speaker

Willis Sparks

Director of Global Macro, Eurasia Group and Speaker on Geopolitics & Risk Management

 About

Willis Sparks is a thought leader on risks, opportunities, and trends created by current geopolitical conflicts and political developments in major emerging market countries, as well as on US politics and foreign policy. He works directly with Eurasia Group President Ian Bremmer on a variety of macro political risk projects.

Prior to joining Eurasia Group in 2005, Willis worked at the Council on Foreign Relations, where he wrote on transnational terrorism and US national security. He regularly gives speeches on market-moving trends in international politics for investor and corporate audiences in the US and abroad. Willis holds master's degrees in international affairs from Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs, where he specialized in international security policy and the former Soviet Union, and from the Study of Political Science (Sciences Po) in Paris. He holds two bachelor's degrees from Brown University and is a graduate of the Juilliard School. In addition, Willis once worked as a stuntman at New York's Metropolitan Opera.

Tommy Spaulding Speaker

Tommy Spaulding

Leadership consultant and speaker on driving success through communication and relationships.

 About

Tommy Spaulding is President of the Spaulding Companies Corporation, a national leadership development, speaking, training, consulting, and executive coaching organization. A world-renowned speaker on leadership, Tommy Spaulding has spoken to hundreds of organizations, associations, educational institutions, and corporations around the globe. His first book, It’s Not Just Who You Know :Transform Your Life and Your Organization by Turning Colleagues and Contacts into Lasting, Genuine Relationships, published by Random House in 2010, is a New York Times, Wall Street Journal and USA Today national bestseller.

Tommy’s new book, The Heart-Led Leader: How Living and Leading from the Heart Will Change Your Organization and Your Life, published by Penguin Random House in October, 2015 is a New York Times and #1 Wall Street Journal national bestseller. In The Heart-Led Leader, Spaulding discusses the 18 Inch Journey which is the distance from your head to your heart.

Spaulding rose to become the youngest president and CEO of the world-renowned leadership organization, Up with People (2005-2008). Up with People is a global education organization which aims to bring the world together through service and music. The unique combination of international travel, service learning, leadership development and performing arts offers students an unparalleled experience and a pathway to make a difference in the world, one community at a time.

In 2000, Tommy Spaulding founded Leader’s Challenge, which grew to become the largest high school civic and leadership program in the state of Colorado. He is also the founder & president of the National Leadership Academy, a leading national non-profit leadership development organization. Previously, Spaulding was the Business Partner Sales Manager at IBM/Lotus Development and a member of the Japan Exchange and Teaching (JET) program.

Spaulding received a BA in Political Science from East Carolina University (1992); an MBA from Bond University in Australia (1998), where he was a Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar; and an MA in Non- Profit Management from Regis University (2005). In 2007, Spaulding received an Honorary PhD in Humanities from the Art Institute of Colorado. In 2002, he received the Denver Business Journal’s “Forty under 40 Award.”

In 2006, Spaulding was awarded East Carolina University’s “Outstanding Alumni Award,” the highest distinction awarded to an alumnus of the university. In 2009, he was appointed the university’s first “Leader in Residence.” In September 2012, Spaulding was named by Meetings & Conventions Magazine as one of the Best Keynote Speakers in the nation.

Robert Spector Speaker

Robert Spector

Author of The Nordstrom Way, Leading Expert on Customer & Employee Experience

 About

  • Robert talks about how companies and organizations can recreate the success of retail powerhouses like Nordstrom and Amazon by focusing on customer experience.
  • Audiences leave with valuable lessons and insights into the world's most successful retail brands including how to innovate and adapt to stay ahead of the competition, and leverage customer experience for an outstanding culture for consumers and employees.
  • Robert Spector is an author and regular contributor to The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, and included in the “100 Best Keynote Speakers” by DataBird Research Journal, as well as “World's Top 30 Customer Service Professionals” by Global Gurus Research.
  • Past clients include: Pfizer, Charles Schwab, J.D. Power, McKesson and Starwood Hotels and Resorts.

Robert Spector is one of America’s leading experts on customer experience and employee experience.

He is author of the business book classic The Nordstrom Way: The Inside Story of America’s Number One Customer Service Company. BusinessWeek says, “For anyone looking to understand customer service at its best, this book bubbles with insights.” The all-new Third Edition is The Nordstrom Way to Customer Experience Excellence: Creating a Values-Driven Service Culture, which Forbes magazine selected as “Top Business Book of 2017”.

Robert gives entertaining keynotes to a vast array of companies, organizations, trade associations, conventions, corporate retreats, governmental agencies, non-profits, and special meetings in 27 countries. His keynote sets the stage for creating, encouraging, and maintaining a superior customer experience built on a non-negotiable set of core cultural values. By steadfastly encouraging and employing those values, which are built on trust and respect, your organization will:

  • Cultivate a culture dedicated to customer experience excellence
  • Support, recognize and reward the achievements of the people on your teams
  • Improve communication and collaboration at every level
  • Generate a better ROI on leadership, mentoring, and employee-orientation programs
  • Earn the enduring loyalty of team members, customers, partners and vendors through trust and respect, which are the foundation of long-term relationships
  • Continually innovate and adapt in order to stay ahead of your competition
  • Encourage having fun and giving back to your community
  • Become the Nordstrom of your industry

He is included in the “100 Best Keynote Speakers” by DataBird Research Journal, as well as “World's Top 30 Customer Service Professionals” by Global Gurus Research.

His other books include Amazon.com: Get Big Fast - The Definitive Story of the Company, which has been translated into 18 languages, and The Mom & Pop Store: True Stories from the Heart of America, a memoir of practical customer service lessons learned working in his immigrant family’s butcher shop.

Robert contributes articles to many publications, including The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal. He is a guest on national and local television, radio and podcasts, and is quoted in publications throughout the world.

He is currently working on a new book, The Seattle Effect, which explains the customer-focused strategies of Seattle-based icons Nordstrom, Amazon, Starbucks, Costco, Boeing, Microsoft, REI, and Pearl Jam.

Erin Stafford Speaker

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.

Dr. Natalie Stavas Speaker

Dr. Natalie Stavas

Harvard Physician, Mentor, Runner, International Humanitarian; Runner Turned First Responder in the 2013 Boston Marathon Bombing

 About

Dr. Natalie Stavas shares her inspiring story as she takes you back to April 15, 2013 - when approaching the finish line of her fifth Boston marathon - just blocks away heard explosions, and she ran towards them. Arriving at the scene she went to work administering CPR, applying tourniquets, and triaging the wounded.

What led her to make that fateful decision to run into a terrorist attack? An expert on chaos, Natalie Stavas attacks every obstacle with the same attitude: “You run towards that which you fear, that which challenges you, that which is oppositional.” Running toward chaos actually makes chaos more manageable.

Following these actions President Barack Obama, Katie Couric, and Anderson Cooper honored Natalie for her role as a first responder. Improper Bostonian magazine named Dr. Stavas one of “Boston’s Best" and The Boston Globe awarded her with “2013 Bostonian of the Year” - an honor bestowed upon those that shape the biggest story of the year in a remarkable way.

After the bombings Dr. Stavas was so motivated that she increased her efforts in preventing childhood violence and improving the health of urban communities. She is a mentor for Sole Train - a non-profit organization guiding inner-city youth on a path towards their full potential through running. She is also the Medical Advisor for the Appalachian Mountain Club, helping improve the health of children by getting them outside.

Dr. Stavas’ work goes beyond borders - traveling to Haiti throughout the year, she provides medical care to children and helps strengthen the fragile medical infrastructure. A documentary featuring this work as a medical pioneer premiered at the 2014 South by Southwest film festival.

Dr. Stavas has written for multiple outlets including the Huffington Post, the Center for Disease Control, Self Magazine and the Medical Bag.

She has been featured in Runners World, The New York Times, LA Times, The Boston Globe, The New Yorker, Time and People Magazine. Described as a healer, educator, and community leader she received the 2012 Change Maker award from The Boston Foundation.

Dr. Natalie Stavas is currently a physician at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. Trained and educated at Harvard University, Natalie’s area of experience is in childhood trauma, decreasing youth violence and researching how we can better protect and serve high-risk children.

She is pursuing fellowship training in Child Protection pediatrics and obtaining a Masters in Health Science and Public Policy at The University of Pennsylvania. She was recently named The Wellbeing/Work-Life Integration Specialist for the Department of Pediatrics at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.

Keep an eye out for her upcoming book, Sole to Soul, about the transformative power that running has on high-risk youth, a simple solution to the complicated problem of childhood poverty and violence.

Mike Staver Speaker

Mike Staver

Published Author, Leadership Expert and The Architect of Training Magazine’s #1 Training Program in the World

 About

Mike Staver is an expert on leadership. You, like most people, hear a lot about leadership. You get to see examples of it (or the lack of it) - every day from the news to politics to your community, family and work. What is leadership? What is a leader’s primary job? How do leaders lead in a way that gets results while creating a great place to work? Sifting through the theory, information and experience of leadership is what coach and leadership expert Mike Staver has dedicated the last 30+ years to. A preferred tagline of Mike's, to leverage his clients in progressive development is - "Build Culture; Develop Your People; Grow Your Business."

Unlike many coaches and speakers - Mike takes noisy, often complex, leadership content and makes it immediately useful, digestible and entertaining. That combination has influenced over 200,000 people in ways that not only transforms thinking and action - but improves results. His counter-intuitive perspective and his story telling style combined with an entertaining delivery - makes the often challenging realities of work and life easier to absorb, hear and adjust to.

In his busy coaching practice, Mike encourages people to carefully and fully examine how their leadership is deeply personal and completely attainable if they are focussed and aware of who they are, what they believe - and how they influence (or should influence) others. His message is grounded in the belief that leadership is about influence - regardless of position, title or power. Understanding and applying that increases performance quickly and thoroughly.

Companies like Federal Express, Miracle Ear, Leading Real Estate Companies of the World, Mayo Clinic, Allstate - and many more have repeatedly invited him to contribute to the development of their leaders.

Mike has a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration, a Masters in Counseling Psychology - and is a Certified Speaking Professional. He has conducted industry-specific research on the traits that make leaders thrive - and has had those findings built into a one of a kind national leadership certification. Some of Mike's work was recently ranked #1 by Training Magazine on their 2018 Training Top 125 list, which recognizes organizations with the most successful learning and development programs in the world.

There’s more, but frankly…. while all of that took a lot of work - the real work has been hard earned over the last 30 years in the trenches of businesses from health care to high-end security and guiding clients through a multitude of business struggles. Mike has seen it all - has taken those experiences and used them to help others build better lives and careers.

Alan Stein, Jr. Speaker

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.

Scott Steinberg Speaker

Scott Steinberg

About Scott Steinberg – Business Strategist & Technology Futurist

 About

  • Scott talks about how even the most successful organizations must continually reinvent their products, services and solutions to remain market leaders in an age of growing change, connectivity and globalization.
  • Audiences leave with powerful ways to unleash innovation to solutions for better capitalizing on cutting-edge advancements, discover how you and your organization can flourish in tomorrow’s world – and effectively apply its most crucial success strategies and skills in context.
  • One of America's top futurists (per the BBC); a bestselling author of Make Change Work For You and Millennial Marketing; and a strategic adviser to CEOs and four-star generals.
  • Past clients include: IBM, PwC, The US Dept. of Defense, Dell, MTV.

Hailed as The Master of Innovation by Fortune magazine, and World’s Leading Business Strategist, award-winning strategic consultant, trends expert, and professional speaker Scott Steinberg is a bestselling expert on leadership, change + innovation. A go-to resource for C-level leaders, he has served as a source of thought leadership, insight, and consulting for over 1000 leading brands, and advised on household-name products found in 100+ million homes.

One of America's top futurists (per the BBC); the author of Make Change Work For You and Millennial Marketing; and among today's top business strategy + leadership training providers, the Fortune 500 calls him a "defining figure in business + technology" and "top trendsetter to follow."

A strategic adviser to CEOs and four-star generals, firms like IBM, PwC, and the US Dept. of Defense regularly seek his insight. As the CEO of BIZDEV: The International Association for Business Development and Strategic Partnerships, and management consulting + market research firm FutureProof Strategies, he helps partners stay one step ahead of emerging trends – and drive growth around them.

One of the world's 150 most influential keynote speakers + futurists, and today’s #1 generations expert and technology expert (per Google), he offers breakouts, workshops, and speeches at meetings/events, and has consulted on dozens of industry-leading solutions. A noted content strategy, social media + communications expert, his eye for business analysis has also led to work as an insider for 600+ media outlets from CNN to The Today Show. From Dell to MTV, he’s worked with many top brands to drive success. An expert witness + board member who advises C-level leaders, attorneys + investors, he also offers sales and media training, and hosts many executive summits.

Curt Steinhorst Speaker

Curt Steinhorst

Speaker on Strategic Communications

 About

Click Here to Watch Curt's Virtual Presentation

  • As the founder and CEO of Focuswise, he has consulted with North America’s top companies, such as Deloitte, JPMorgan Chase, Nike, AT&T, and many more.
  • As a leader at Venus Aerospace, he is building a future-facing workplace that proactively fights to preserve a positive workplace, defending the organization against stress and inefficiency, the relationship between focus and accountability, and productivity.
  • As a frequent keynote speaker, he addresses the theory behind these ideas, but also presents practical applications that his audiences can put to use immediately.
  • As a writer and influencer, he shares his expertise on leadership strategy, brain science, generational differences, and technology trends through his podcast and regular Forbescolumn.

Curt Steinhorst is a leading authority on workplace dynamics and productivity and author of the bestselling book Can I Have Your Attention?. With over a decade of experience researching the science of attention, he has developed innovative methods to remove distractions and improve communication in organizations.

Steinhorst is the founder and CEO of Focuswise, a consultancy that helps leaders develop focused teams. He joined Venus Aerospace as the Head of People and Culture in 2021. At Venus, Curt is at the helm of building a world-class employee experience. Steinhorst enjoys and is responsible for Venus’ commitment to innovation by forging a team that changes the world and yet still gets home for dinner - a core company value.

His unique perspective and entertaining speaking style keep him in high demand with large organizations like AT&T, Deloitte, JPMorgan Chase, Nike, SAP, Southwest Airlines, and the US Naval Academy, to name a few.

Curt is also a regular Forbes contributor and host of the Focus in Five podcast.