Regarded as the “CEO-Maker,” “DEI Professor,” and the “Cubicle to Corner Office Empress,” Dethra Giles is a workplace and career optimizer who advises organizations and individuals on how to chart their unique paths to success. She is a four-time TEDx speaker who has been named a “Top 100 HR Influencer” by Engagedly, and was selected by HR Gazette’s “HRchat” podcast as one of the “Top 22 Most Influential Figures in HR.” With clients including Kaiser Permanente, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), The Army Corp of Engineers, Louis Vuitton Moët Hennessy, the National Basketball Association (NBA), and the Salvation Army, Giles shares a unique blend of advanced education and industry experience that has been described as “university-tested and industry-approved,” and can be implemented by organizations of any size, and across industries.

The first African-American woman to hold the top policing job in Seattle, Washington, Carmen Best served with the Seattle Police Department for 28 years. In 2018, Best was promoted to Chief of Police, a job she called “a dream of a lifetime.” Best quickly began efforts to diversify the police force, which had long been less diverse than the city, recruiting more than 40 new officers of color. Chief Best speaks on diversity, inclusion, and leadership lessons-learned guiding a police department during times of crisis.

A senior leadership/board advisor, educator, executive coach, and bestselling author, David Nour is internationally recognized as the leading expert on applications of strategic relationships in profitable growth, sustained innovation, and lasting change. The author of eleven books, including bestsellers Relationship Economics® (Wiley), and Co-Create (St. Martin’s Press), as well as the forthcoming Curve Benders (Wiley, 2021), Nour serves as a trusted advisor to global clients and coaches corporate leaders. He is an adjunct professor at the Goizueta Business School at Emory University and was named to the Global Gurus Top 30 Leadership Professionals and the Thinkers 50 Radar Class of 2021 lists. A Forbes Leadership contributor on the Future of Work, and an Inc. contributor on Relationship Economics, Nour’s unique insights have been featured in a variety of prominent publications, including The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Fast Company, Huffington Post Business, Entrepreneur, and Knowledge@Wharton. He’s also the host of the popular Curve Benders podcast. Born in Iran, Nour immigrated to the U.S. as a teenager with $100, limited family ties and no fluency in English. He graduated from Georgia State University with a bachelor’s degree in business management and went on to earn an Executive MBA from the Goizueta Business School at Emory University. He resides in Atlanta, GA, with his family.

Brian Evergreen is a tech visionary whose insights are sought after by the companies that are changing the world as they explore new ways to transform their own organizations. He is best known for advising Fortune 500 companies on emerging technologies, especially artificial intelligence, and the ways in which these powerful tools and resources can be uniquely integrated into their business’ infrastructure and strategy. Previously, Evergreen served as the global head of autonomous AI co-innovation at Microsoft Research. He held similar tech, AI, and engineering head of/lead roles at other top companies, including Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Accenture. He builds upon these experiences to introduce new ways to push the boundaries of what’s possible with AI in all aspects of how we work and live.

Jim Donald – the current co-chairman and former CEO of Albertsons, and the former CEO of Starbucks, Haggen Food & Pharmacy, and Extended Stay Hotels – focuses on innovation, quality, and service. He started his career as a grocer; he was handpicked by Sam Walton to build a supermarket presence for Wal-Mart. He helped Starbucks enjoy record growth and performance and increase its social responsibility commitment. At Extended Stay Hotels, Donald utilizing his reputation for turning around ailing companies. Named one of the “Top 25 CEOs in the World,” he addresses leadership, management, the power of one customer.

Linda Bernardi lives and breathes technology disruption and innovation. She is currently Co-Founder and CEO of XdMind Inc., a revolutionary company using AI to dynamically adapt music to video gaming. Today, technology is evolving like never before, and Linda is involved in creating cutting-edge technologies across all sectors, including finance, retail, healthcare, high-tech, logistics, automotive, consumer goods, and all others. Her focus is to enable all enterprises to imagine, disrupt, innovate at record pace, and make the impossible become possible. She works with startups all around the globe, as well as large companies, to enable and inspire enterprises to build a culture of mindful innovation. She loves to practice the beautiful Art of Imagination – the first step towards innovation. Linda believes that the best ideas are the ‘crazy’ ideas, stemming from a keen sense of unbounded imagination, and she works to unleash people’s imaginations.

Ramez Naam is a former Microsoft executive, entrepreneur, inventor, and the Energy Co-Chair at Singularity University. Ramez spent 13 years at Microsoft, where he led teams working on artificial intelligence, big data, and internet search. His software has touched the lives of more than a billion people. He holds more than 20 patents—including several as co-inventor with Bill Gates. Dynamic and personable, Naam speaks around the world, captivating audiences as he illustrates “what disruption looks like” and shares the eight strategies incumbents should draw on to keep the pace of change.

Described as America’s most widely recognized medical expert after Dr. Anthony Fauci, Dr. Vin Gupta, MD, MPA is a tech visionary who operates at the heart of disruption to develop solutions to the most-complex challenges in commerce, communication, healthcare, and society — now, and in the future. Close to two decades of experience as a renowned health policy expert and clinician have led Dr. Gupta to his current role as chief medical officer, Amazon Pharmacy, where he spearheads cutting-edge programs that are leading us into the interdependent futures of healthcare and technology. A uniquely public-facing figure keeping the world in the know about what’s happening now and next, Dr. Gupta’s forward-looking insights inspire leaders and their organizations to embrace change, think outside the box to break new ground, and create new inroads to innovation and success.

With a master-level understanding of what it takes to survive and thrive in the workplace and how organizations can create more equitable spaces for all, Carice Anderson is a workplace development and success engineer who empowers individuals to strategically navigate their careers and advises some of the world’s top companies on aligning their talent strategies to their business objectives. As a director in leadership and manager development for a leading, multinational asset management firm, her work sits at the intersection of talent and leadership development, workplace evolution, and diversity, equity, and inclusion — helping individuals, teams, and organizations unlock the potential within and consistently perform at the highest levels.

Molly Fletcher is a trailblazer in every sense of the word. She is a rare talent of business wisdom, relationship brilliance and unwavering optimism. As a CEO, she shares her unconventional and unique techniques that made her one of the first female sports agents in the high stakes, big ego world of professional sports and now a successful entrepreneur. As president of client representation for sports and entertainment agency CSE, Molly spent two decades as one of the world’s only female sports agents.

Rick Smith is a serial entrepreneur, leadership strategist, best-selling author, inspirational TED speaker, and one of world’s foremost authorities on innovation, leadership, and corporate transformation through disruptive technologies such as industrial 3D printing (additive manufacturing). His latest venture, Fast Radius, is an on-demand production platform which leverages 3D printing for global distributed manufacturing. In person, print, and practice, Rick inspires individuals and organizations around the world with leading edge insights on a number of topics surrounding disruptive technology, such as the predictable patterns of technology disruption, and the behaviors that enable leaders to successfully navigate complexity and change.

Nadia Bilchik is a well-known television news anchor, keynote speaker, trainer and communications consultant on several continents. She has anchored for the CNN Airport Network, and was the main anchor and special assignment reporter for MNET Television, the leading network in South Africa . She has also hosted various feature programs for CNN International. Nadia currently hosts a weekly business segment on CNN International’s “Inside Africa” and is a voice talent for CNNI.