Johnny C. Taylor, Jr., SHRM-SCP, is President and Chief Executive Officer of SHRM, the Society for Human Resource Management. With over 300,000 members in 165 countries, SHRM is the largest HR professional association in the world, impacting the lives of 115 million workers every day. As a global leader on the future of employment, culture and leadership, Mr. Taylor is a sought-after voice on all matters affecting work, workers and the workplace. He is frequently asked to testify before Congress on critical workforce issues and authors a weekly column, "Ask HR," in USA Today.

Brent Gleeson, a Navy SEAL combat veteran and serial entrepreneur, has leveraged the principles of leadership, discipline, accountability, and resiliency learned in training and applied down range for building high-performance teams in the business world. He has raised millions of dollars for his organizations, built winning teams, made costly mistakes, dealt with the inevitable obstacles, and sold companies for significant returns.

With an unparalleled career that has consistently transcended the boundaries of music, culture and thought leadership, Freddie Ravel toured with Brazilian master Sergio Mendes, directed the legendary band that bridged black and white America - Earth, Wind and Fire, performed on the silver screen with the Queen of Pop - Madonna, rocked stadiums with Afro-Latin-Blues-Rock icon Carlos Santana, performed the Grammys with Prince, cut tracks with Kanye and led the teams behind J. Lo, Jimmy Kimmel and Lady GaGa to become the “Expert’s Expert” on multi-generational integration. As an author, Freddie’s published works with Deepak Chopra on how music and thought cannot exist without silence illuminated that the “pause between the notes” is essential for effective communication. Highlighting the power of listening - whether to clients, colleagues or the signals that nature sends us - would lead to an invitation from the family of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. to be a featured author alongside Maya Angelou, Stevie Wonder, Muhammad Ali and Robert Kennedy Jr. in the book, Open My Eyes, Open My Soul. Freddie would later be dubbed the “Keynote Maestro” by the City of Los Angeles for his groundbreaking Life In Tune™ system to “renew the national and international economy.” In constant demand to bring audiences in tune around the world, his clients include IBM, Toyota, NASA, Apple, Blue Cross Health, Google and Prudential Financial Services who call his “ideal balance of Entertainment and Content” essential for businesses and entrepreneurs to transform from dissonance to harmony.

Three-time Super Bowl champion and five-time Pro Bowl selection, Darren Woodson is one of the greatest players to ever wear a Dallas Cowboys uniform. The vocal leader of the defense during the Cowboys 1990’s Super Bowl teams, Woodson was one of the most popular players both inside the clubhouse and as an ambassador in the community. Upon retirement, Woodson joined ESPN as an NFL analyst. He appears on NFL Live and SportsCenter, as well as other ESPN platforms throughout the year. Woodson earned a reputation as one of the hardest hitters and most ferocious strong safeties in the NFL during his 13 seasons (1992-2004), all with the Dallas Cowboys. The quarterback of the team’s defense during its three championship runs in the 1990s (Super Bowl’s XXVII, XXVIII and XXX), Woodson registered career totals of 11 sacks, 23 interceptions and 1,350 tackles, the most in Cowboys franchise history at the time of his retirement in 2004. A native of Phoenix, Woodson was a second-round pick in the 1992 NFL Draft (37th overall) from Arizona State University, where he was a converted linebacker. He earned a bachelor of science from ASU in Justice Studies. In addition to his analyst work for ESPN, Woodson is involved in several businesses, and he remains active in the Dallas community, most notably as a board member for the North Texas Chapter of the Make-a-Wish Foundation.

Todd Henry teaches leaders and organizations how to establish practices that lead to everyday brilliance. He is the author of four books (The Accidental Creative, Die Empty, Louder Than Words, and Herding Tigers) which have been translated into more than a dozen languages, and he speaks and consults across dozens of industries on creativity, leadership, and passion for work.

In his instant Wall Street Journal bestselling book Loonshots, SAFI BAHCALL reveals a surprising new way of thinking about innovation and group dynamics, challenging everything we thought we knew about radical breakthroughs. In talks based on his book—which Nobel Laureate Daniel Kahneman calls “Not to be missed by anyone who wants to understand how ideas change the world”—Bahcall shows how we can stoke innovation, create better leaders, and support “loonshots”: the imperfect but ingenious ideas that have the potential to change the world. As a consultant at McKinsey & Company, and co-founder and CEO of Synta Pharmaceuticals, Safi Bahcall spent nearly two decades of his life bringing big, innovative ideas to fruition. Frequently, this meant assessing and developing loonshots—the widely dismissed ideas whose champions are often written off as crazy. Along the way, he noticed the obstacles that innovators came up against, which seemed to stem from “the mysteries of group behavior.” As he dynamically explains in his book Loonshots, small changes in the structure of a company, rather than in its culture, can transform the behavior of the distinct groups involved, allowing innovation to flourish. Already a Wall Street Journal bestseller, Loonshots was recently dubbed a must-read “for people and organizations who are trying to increase their ability to catalyze more innovation” by Forbes magazine. In his talks, Bahcall shows how the science of phase transitions—think water becoming ice—suggests a useful new way of nurturing radical breakthroughs. He explains the mystery of why good teams—even those with excellent people and the best intentions—can kill great ideas. With humor, history, and a dash of physics, Bahcall offers audiences the tools to become initiators of innovative surprise rather than witnesses to it.

Chris Gibson brings with him over 34 years military and leadership experience. He has held leadership roles and key appointments throughout his career, serving on specialist military operations all over the world. Named International Innovator of the Year 2017-2018 by Ideas UK, Chris is currently serving as a special advisor to the Ministry of Justice as a Leadership and Cultural Advisor and speaks with various groups on applying his first-hand military practice and innovation into business leadership to formulate wining strategies.

Dr. Omékongo Dibinga is the UPstander. His life’s mission is to inspire all across the globe to take a stand when they witness an injustice, no matter how small or large. A John Maxwell Team “Top 30 speaker”, he is an international speaker, trilingual poet, TV talk show host, rapper, and professor of Inter-cultural Communication at American University, where he also serves as a faculty affiliate to the Antiracist Research & Policy Center.

37th Commandant of the United States Marine Corps and decorated veteran, General Robert B. Neller is a proven transformational leader and change agent. General Neller successfully led the United States Marine Corps through one of its most dynamic periods in its storied history including integrating women into previously restricted ground combat units, addressing and developing policy for transgender service members, infantry squad changes, implementing social media guidelines and more, all while engaged in multiple threats of combat, the whole time elevating the uncompromising high standards that the Marine Corps is known for across the globe. “A warrior, leader, and statesman,” General Neller has over 44 years of experience leading and managing global organizations worldwide, bringing a forward-thinking approach and unique voice to his brand of leadership. His uncompromising dedication to building and leading teams of virtue and character, his straight-forward, no-nonsense style partnered with his extensive experience in combat and in Washington D.C. will motivate, teach, inspire, and empower audiences. General Neller is unwavering in his commitment to the ethos “Effort Matter, Character Counts.”

Shane Snow is an award-winning journalist, celebrated entrepreneur, and a best-selling author. He is the co-founder of the content technology company, Contently, which helps creative people and companies tell great stories together, and serves on the board of the Contently Foundation for Investigative Journalism. In his talks, Shane explores human behavior and business—and helps people and organizations think differently. He speaks globally on the topics of teamwork, storytelling, innovation, and lateral thinking—customizing his keynote and interactive experiences to audiences' challenges and opportunities. Through surprising stories and thought-provoking research, Shane leaves people energized and with concrete ways to implement new ideas. His writing has appeared in Fast Company, Wired, The New Yorker, and dozens of other top publications. He’s been called a “Wunderkind” by The New York Times, a “Digital Maverick” by Details Magazine, and his work “Insanely addicting” by GQ.

Known as the Iron Cowboy, James is an endurance athlete who has breaking records for years. In 2012, he completed 30 Ironman triathlons (2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike, 26.2 mile run) in one year. No one had ever done anything close to this. In 2017, he did the unimaginable, completing 50 Ironman triathlons in 50 consecutive days in 50 different states, all while raising money to reduce childhood obesity. It was an amazing physical feat, an astounding logistics challenge and fair bit of chaos, all at the same time. You can watch the trailer here for the critically acclaimed Amazon Prime documentary; Iron Cowboy | The Story of the 50.50.50. But that wasn’t enough. In 2021, he pushed further, a lot further, beyond what doctors and physiologists thought was humanly possible, and completed the CONQUER 100…100 Ironman distance triathlons in 100 consecutive days, this time raising money to combat sex trafficking. That’s 140.6 miles per day, every day, for 14 straight weeks, for a total of 14,060 miles!

Chike Aguh (Chee-kay Ah-Goo) works across sectors on creating a future of work for all. He is the inaugural Head of Economic Mobility Pathways for the Education Design Lab where he focuses on creating innovative models to bring together higher education and employers to create a future of work for all. He is also a Technology and Human Rights Fellow at the Harvard Carr Center for Human Rights Policy where he is writing a book on the future of work and racial inequality. He previously worked as a senior principal at McChrystal Group, and the firm's director of strategy. In this role, he worked with colleagues on the McChrystal Group’s Solutions Team to create and deliver new offerings that help organizations better implement their strategies. Additionally, Chike writes and speaks nationally on the future of work and served as the McChrystal Group’s subject matter expert.