A beauty industry vanguard, Jessie Hayes-Stallings is the founder and CEO of Skinphorea Facial Bar & Acne Clinic who took her passion for skincare and manifested it into the first facial bar and acne clinic in Metro Detroit — a concept that has made waves in the industry. She has set Skinphorea apart by providing customers with medical-grade skin treatments while creating an elevated and personalized, yet convenient relaxation experience. Not only does she create experiences for Skinphorea’s skincare clients, she also creates opportunities for beauty industry hopefuls. As an investor and a mentor, she has partnered with the state to develop an apprenticeship program that offers aspiring estheticians the opportunity to train to earn their esthetic license at Skinphorea before being offered a full-time position at the company.

Never one to be bound by the limits society has set for him, Demond “Dom” Mullins is a pioneering adventurer whose remarkable feats of grit and endurance against all odds are inspiring the next generation of diverse adventurers. He is a member of Team Full Circle, which made history by becoming the first all-Black expedition to summit Mount Everest in the spring of 2022. Mullins is among the most influential voices in the outdoor adventure community known for his endeavoring spirit and unyielding tenacity, as well as his ability to impart these traits into his teams on the journey to unlocking peak performance to achieve a shared purpose.

Nick Friedman is co-founder & visionary of College H.U.N.K.S. Hauling Junk & Moving, the largest and fastest-growing junk removal and local moving franchise opportunity in North America. Friedman started the business in college with his childhood best friend Omar Soliman in a beat-up cargo van, and it has grown to over 250 franchises and $300 Million annual sales. He was named among the “Top 30 Entrepreneurs in America Under 30” by INC Magazine and was on the same list as Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates, and Michael Dell in a Newsweek article entitled “College Kid to Millionaire.” Friedman is a three-time Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award Finalist, and he won the prestigious award in 2018. He has been featured in numerous business books and textbooks, as well as Forbes, Fortune, and many other notable publications. Friedman’s company has appeared every year on the INC. 5000 list of Fastest Growing Companies and has appeared twice on the Oprah Winfrey Show. Friedman is also a TV personality, having appeared as a guest on shows, including the first episode of ABC’s Shark Tank, Bravo’s Millionaire Matchmaker, CNBC’s BlueCollar Millionaires, and CBS’s Undercover Boss. He also produced and acted in the biopic Bezos: The Beginning. Additionally, Nick is a Board Member of the Young Presidents Organization (YPO). As an author, Nick co-wrote a bestselling book entitled Effortless Entrepreneur: Work Smart, Play Hard, Make Millions.

Ever since 2002, as chairman and CEO of Johnson Publishing Company — where she became the first African American woman CEO among the top five of the Black Enterprise 100s largest black-owned companies — Linda Johnson Rice has shone a ray of positivity on the black community with her strong and resilient leadership.

Omar Soliman is an American entrepreneur, author, television personality and co-founder of College Hunks Hauling Junk, a junk hauling and moving business headquartered in Tampa, Florida. Soliman has been named Top 30 Entrepreneurs in America Under 30 by INC Magazine, Top 35 Entrepreneurs Under 35 by Bisnow.com, and was the 2018 Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award Winner as well as a finalist for Tampa Bay CEO of the Year. He has appeared as a guest on FOX Business News, MSNBC, and ABC's Shark Tank.

A globally recognized brand-building innovator and a champion both of creativity and challenging the status quo in the workplace, Marisa Thalberg is 1 of only 18 to be inducted into the Forbes CMO Hall of Fame. She is considered one of the most dynamic and versatile marketing executives in the field, displaying versatility and adaptability that has led to her being an exceedingly successful leader in a diverse portfolio of industries, ranging from luxury beauty (The Estée Lauder Companies) and fast food (Taco Bell) to big box retail (Lowe’s Home Improvement) and theme parks and entertainment (SeaWorld/Busch Gardens). Her passionate advocacy for women at work led her on the path to social entrepreneurship as the founder of Executive Moms, an organization created to connect and support accomplished women who are both professionals and moms. In this capacity, Thalberg became an early leading voice and supporter for women, and particularly mothers, in the workplace, appearing across a range of media outlets including The TODAY Show, FOX, CNN, NBC News, and many more.

As the first female president of a professional sports franchise, Susan O’Malley, the former president of Washington Sports and Entertainment, is a pioneer in sports and business. Under her guidance, her company improved its bottom line, as well as its winning percentage, and the Washington Wizards experienced the largest ticket revenue increase and the highest renewal rate in the history of an NBA franchise to date. O’Malley’s illustrious career also included the creation of the MCI Center, which helped revitalize downtown DC. She addresses management, leadership, and marketing.

Amy Holmes is a familiar face with an unconventional voice in political news. As an on-air political analyst, Amy dissects and debates the issues of the day, appearing regularly on CNN, MSNBC, Fox News and PBS. She is the host of the PBS weekly program "In Principle," and the former host of the daily MSNBC morning show Way Too Early. In addition to working with TheBlaze and MSNBC, she co-hosted the Washington Times and Talk Radio Network's America’s Morning News, a nationally-syndicated morning radio show heard coast-to-coast by over 1.5 million listeners daily.

Called "the human embodiment of Twitter" by The New York Times, Adam Sharp has forged a distinctive career of more than twenty years at the intersection of media, technology, and politics. Sharp joined Twitter in November 2010 as its first hire in Washington, DC. From 2010 through 2016, Sharp was Head of News, Government, and Elections at Twitter, advising and driving creative uses of Twitter by journalists and news organizations, government officials and agencies, and political candidates and campaigns worldwide. He led the platform’s approach to the 2012 and 2016 US and more than a dozen international elections during his tenure. He was also director of media partnerships and worked closely with the media, government, and political candidates that wanted to make use of Twitter. Sharp became the longest-serving member of the company’s global media team, and its most visible broadcast spokesperson.

At 22 years old, Lauren Simmons shattered the glass ceiling and made history by being the youngest and only full-time female equity trader on Wall Street for Rosenblatt Securities. Affectionately called the “Wolfette of Wall Street,” Simmons was also the second African American woman in history to hold the prestigious title. Since Lauren’s departure from the trading floor, she is now a multifaceted entrepreneur, an author, personal finance expert, global motivational speaker, producer, and director. She was also named to Harper’s Bazaar’s “Woman Who Dare” 2019 list. Currently, Simmons is executive producing a biopic of her life story with AGC studio – starring Kiersey Clemons and scheduled to release in summer 2021. Additionally, Lauren is the host of Going Public a new financial tv series on Entrepreneur.com coming out spring 2021.

A passionate advocate for a more human way of working, Melissa Swift is a seasoned HR thought leader and consultant who serves as VP of workforce and organizational change acceleration at Capgemini Invent. Her work helping clients power their workforces for more innovative, higher-performing futures spans across industries and geographies and tackles issues ranging from attracting and retaining top talent to reshaping organizations for greater nimbleness and building futuristic capabilities among today’s employees. She leverages thoughtful data analytics, a humanist view, and a healthy dose of pragmatism to create extraordinary outcomes for organizations. She is the author of the book Work Here Now: Think Like a Human and Build a Powerhouse Workplace, which explores practical strategies to get to a more human future of work. Her research has been published in Harvard Business Review and The Wall Street Journal, and her insights have been quoted in Newsweek, The Washington Post, The Economist, Axios, and more. She has been featured as one of Twitter’s “20 Digital Transformation Leaders to Follow” and named a “Top Influencer on the Future of Work” by Onalytica.

Ashley D. Farmer is a well-known historian as well as an Assistant Professor at the University of Texas at Austin. As a contributor to The Washington Post, The Independent, The Chronicle of Higher Education, and Public Books, she is well-versed in making historical issues and concepts accessible to the general public.