Kenton Cool is one of the world’s leading high-altitude climbers and also a highly engaging and inspiring motivational speaker. He has successfully climbed Mount Everest fifteen times. Kenton was first introduced to mountaineering when he read about Hillary and Norgay’s first ascent on Mount Everest in 1953. An obsession with rock climbing developed at university and, on graduating, Kenton moved to Sheffield to pursue this further. In 1996 he suffered a fall from a rock face and shattered both heel bones. A year of surgery and therapy saw him become determined to regain his climbing form and he joined the British Mountain Guides scheme. Since then, Kenton hasn’t looked back. He has climbed extensively all over the world – establishing new routes and first ascents on peaks in Alaska, France and India. In 2003, he was nominated for a Piolet d’Or award (the equivalent of the Oscars for mountaineers) for a route on Annapurna III. Kenton is also one of the world’s most sought-after guides, his track record on Everest is the best of any leader. In 2007, Kenton successfully guided Sir Ranulph Fiennes up the North Face of the Eiger before leading him to a successful Everest summit in 2009.

Senator Trent Lott, the former U.S. Senator (R-MS) and Senate majority leader, was a formidable presence in the halls of the U.S. Capitol for 34 years – 16 years in the House and 18 years in the Senate. He helped produce the historic 1997 budget that balanced the federal books for the first time in nearly 30 years and spearheaded legislation on health care, social security, global trade, and tax policy. Lott has an unparalleled legislative legacy, and he is the author of Herding Cats: A Life in Politics. He addresses politics, leadership, transportation, energy, defense, taxes, and security.

Ken Schmidt is the legendary former director of communications strategy for Harley-Davidson Motor Company. He played an active role in one of the most celebrated turnarounds in corporate history, and his vision helped transform Harley into one of the world’s most dominant brands. He is widely known as a provocative and engaging thought leader. Funny and energetic, he shares stories of how to compete with weapons stronger than price, build a fanatically vocal customer base, create a passionately loyal corporate culture, and develop leaders who inspire and motivate.

As a cognitive neuroscientist specializing in music perception and cognition, he is credited for fundamentally changing the way that scientists think about auditory memory, showing through the Levitin Effect, that long-term memory preserves many of the details of musical experience that previous theorists regarded as lost during the encoding process. He has consulted on audio sound source separation for the U.S. Navy, and worked for two years at Paul Allen’s Interval Research Corporation, a Silicon Valley computer firm where he worked on issues in Human-Computer Interaction, and Applications of Cognitive Psychology.

As the BAFTA-nominated interviews producer on BBC Newsnight, Sam McAlister has successfully negotiated with everyone from Buckingham Palace and The White House to Facebook and Tesla. With skills honed through more than a decade in the BBC's elite news programmes, she has mastered the art and science of persuasion, as evidenced by her ability to build rapport with people and positively influence them to participate in a news programme that is renowned for its rigour and bite. Exclusives include, most famously, that interview with HRH Prince Andrew — but also interviews with Sheryl Sandberg, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, President Bill Clinton, Elon Musk, Prime Minister Netanyahu, James Comey, Stormy Daniels, Julian Assange, Trevor Noah, Amy Schumer, and Eric Schmidt — to name a few. She has the inside scoop on what interviews like this say about leadership, reputation, and communication in the modern age and knows how to avoid making terrible mistakes and deal with the media. She also speaks about the art of negotiation — honed over years and years — and “how to convince a Prince.” Described as “indefatigable” and having “silky smooth persuasive skills,” when speaking to groups, McAlister outlines best practices for developing trust and understanding, as well as mistakes to avoid for more effective communication and negotiation in the modern age.

Kim Lear is a writer, researcher, and the founder of Inlay Insights. She is known for skillfully weaving eye-opening statistics, insightful stories, and relevant case studies to make presentations come alive. Before founding Inlay, Kim was the content director at BridgeWorks, a research firm dedicated to generational and millennial trends. Kim’s interest has always been understanding the social trends shaping the future. Her undergrad research was on Baby Boomers redefinition of aging, and her post-grad work was on Millennials and social media trends. Her two most recent studies are focused on the rapidly changing world of work. The Pandemic Time Capsule, a 200-interview project, provides insight into how quarantine, work-from-home, and the “new normal” reshaped the world and our expectations. Why They Leave, a 100-interview series focused on job change trends in the pandemic, attempts to uncover why people left their jobs, where they went, and what, if anything, could have enticed them to stay.

Thirty years of mountaineering experience, exploring through more than forty countries, creating and selling both online and brick and mortar businesses, and mindset coaching for both Stanley Cup-winning and Olympic gold meda-winning teams – Jamie Clarke knows about achievement and living life as an adventure. A humorous and passionate master storyteller, Jamie mesmerizes his audiences while sharing lessons on leadership, teamwork, resilience, trust and purpose.

Nikolas Badminton is a world-renowned futurist, researcher, and media celebrity. He leads the team Exponential Minds, an expert advisory firm that helps organizations, trillion-dollar companies, progressive governments and Hollywood shift their mindset from “what is” to “WHAT IF…” The result is empowered employees, new innovative products, and incredible growth that leads to more revenues and a more resilient future.

Chrissa Pagitsas is a strategic advisor, keynote speaker, and author. She advises senior executives and boards on the intersection of environmental, social, governance (ESG) and global business. She is the author of the book "Chief Sustainability Officers at Work" (Apress, 2022) which explores the leadership strategies of Chief Sustainability Officers and Heads of ESG at Fortune 500 companies including BlackRock, The Coca-Cola Company, Duke Energy, and Procter & Gamble.

Lisa Gable is a Wall Street Journal and USA Today bestselling author of the award-winning book, Turnaround: How to Change Course When Things are Going South, and is recognized worldwide as a turnaround mastermind. As CEO of several organizations, and as a former Presidential appointee, US Ambassador, UN Delegate, and advisor to Fortune 500 companies, Lisa has orchestrated and executed the successful turnarounds of well-known private and public organizations in all industries and sectors. Lisa most recently served as the CEO of FARE, the world’s largest funder of food allergy research. In 2004, she was appointed by President George W. Bush as the first woman in World’s Fair’s 150-year history to direct the U.S. Pavilion, a 100 percent non-federally funded $33.7 million operation with more than 70 employees. She held personal rank of Ambassador.

Looking for a speaker to both energize and educate your meeting attendees? Your search is over- meet Steve Gresham. An innovative architect of today's exploding financial services world, Steve Gresham delivers a powerful one-two punch of solid market research and street-smart tactics. His high-energy sessions are packed with colorful anecdotes as he challenges the audience to better understand and serve its clients - and fight off attacking competitors.

Alex Edmans is Professor of Finance at London Business School. Alex graduated from Oxford University and then worked for Morgan Stanley in investment banking (London) and fixed income sales and trading (New York). After a PhD in Finance from MIT Sloan as a Fulbright Scholar, he joined Wharton in 2007 and was tenured in 2013 shortly before moving to LBS.