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.

Edward Lee is the chef/owner of 610 Magnolia, MilkWood, and Whiskey Dry in Louisville, Kentucky, author of Smoke & Pickles and Buttermilk Graffiti, and culinary director of Succotash in National Harbor, Maryland, and Penn Quarter, Washington, DC. He appears frequently in print and on television, including earning an Emmy nomination for his role in the Emmy Award–winning series The Mind of a Chef. Most recently, he wrote and hosted the feature documentary Fermented.

Patty served as Chief Talent Officer of Netflix for 12 years. Along with input from the Netflix management team, she helped to create the Netflix Culture Deck. When it was posted on the Web, this presentation took on a life of its own. Sheryl Sandberg has said it “may be the most important document ever to come out of Silicon Valley.” The presentation has been viewed more than five million times. From her many years working with companies that range from very large global tech companies to small very small innovative start-ups, Patty saw first-hand how companies can become slow and complacent and employees become cynics and whiners. From abolishing performance reviews to challenging the need for policies, Patty believes people come to work as fully formed adults with a desire to make an impact and be proud of what they do and she's on a mission to spread the word that we can do this differently. She is frequently in the media with interviews and articles from Harvard Business Review, NPR, Fast Company and The Wall Street Journal. She speaks at CEO Forums, Business schools and for large groups around the world.

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.

Antoinette Clarke is an author, two-time Emmy Award-winning television producer and the SVP of Branded Entertainment and Media Innovation at ViacomCBS. She is responsible for ideation, pitching, selling, negotiating, developing and activating strategic branded content and advertiser partnerships across multiple platforms for the CBS Daytime slate of shows and specials. In the previous decade, Antoinette worked as a supervising producer/producer for a variety of award-winning talk shows with hosts Montel Williams, Tyra Banks, Rachael Ray, and Nate Berkus. Throughout her career, Antoinette's contribution to producing hundreds of lifestyle-based shows including social experiments, celebrity interviews, home and personal makeovers, holiday Extravaganzas, and tentpole events have led to some of the highest rated episodes on daytime television. Years prior, she worked as the Director of Broadcast Sales Integration for Martha Stewart, where she collaborated with marketing and production teams, executed creative concepts and managed integration sales activities.

“How can you hate me when you don’t even know me?” As the only Black Cub Scout marching in an otherwise all-White parade, Daryl Davis formed that simple yet powerful question after he was pelted by rocks, bottles and soda pop cans by a handful of White spectators. This was his first encounter with racism at age ten. Pursuit of an answer led this career performing musician on a surreal journey stemming from a chance encounter with a man who turned out to be a member of the Ku Klux Klan. Seeking to understand, not to change minds or judge, Daryl actually built bridges with leaders from a group that professed hatred for him. Some came to quit the Klan and gave Daryl their robes and hoods when they did. In the process he has unearthed truths about conflict, hate, intolerance, and communication that are valuable today. His extraordinary journey is chronicled in his first book, Klan-Destine Relationshipsand the documentary about his encounters, Accidental Courtesy. As a speaker, Daryl’s impact on audiences is profound –his TEDx talk has over 10 million views.

Jessica Kriegel (KREE-GL) is a workplace culture strategist. She is a Doctor of Leadership & Management and Fortune 100 Thought Leader. She is a dynamic speaker, consultant, Co-Active coach, and is author of Unfairly Labeled: How Your Workplace Can Benefit from Ditching Generational Stereotypes and upcoming book, The Culture Equation. For 15+ years, Jessica has been guiding global, national, Fortune 100 and other organizations on how to create intentional cultures that power your strategy and accelerate performance.

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.

Betsy Myers is currently the founding director of the Center for Women and Business at Bentley University. A leadership expert and author, she speaks around the world on the changing nature of leadership and women's leadership. Her book Take the Lead, Motivate, Inspire, and Bring Out the Best in Yourself and Everyone Around You, was released in September 2011. Myers experience spans the corporate, political and higher education arena. She was the executive director of the Center for Public Leadership at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government from 2003-2007. A senior adviser to two U.S. presidents, Myers was most recently the COO and chair of Women for President Obama’s 2008 national presidential campaign. During the Clinton Administration, Myers launched and was the first director of the White House Office for Women's Initiatives and Outreach. She also served as the director of the Office of Women's Business Ownership at the SBA. She currently lives in Boston with her husband and young daughter.

Kenji Yoshino is the Chief Justice Earl Warren Professor of Constitutional Law at NYU School of Law. He is an East Coast native, now living in NYC with his husband and two children. Kenji studied at Harvard, Oxford, and Yale Law School. His fields are constitutional law, anti-discrimination law, and law and literature. He has received several distinctions for his teaching and research, including the Podell Distinguished Teaching Award in 2014, the American Bar Association’s Silver Gavel Award in 2016, an honorary degree from Pomona College in 2018, and the Peck Medal in Jurisprudence in 2021.

In a time of historic uncertainty, it's not easy to be enthusiastic about looking forward to the future. Many of us feel like we're doing so much just to keep our lips above the water, and feel powerless with what's happening around us. In Humble The Poet's talks, he shows that we don't have to wait around, and we can do more than simply survive. The new normal isn't something we have to accept, it's something we have the power to create. Reminding us that our purpose and passions come from the problems we're excited to tackle. Humble both explores and shows how to make lemons from lemonade, and encourages us to, instead of avoiding the curveballs life throws, practice our swing. Through sharing videos of his ice plunges, to describing his own adaptations and adjustments during the pandemic, as well as the 2008 financial crisis. Humble's talks aren't designed simply to get through the most challenging times, it serves as a catalyst for us to dive into more discomfort and uncertainty; because that's where all the growth the resilience lie.