What do you stand for? And let’s be clear here. The question isn’t: What would you like to stand for? What do you actually stand for? What do you represent? Or to ask it more bluntly: when you die, what will people remember you for? For twenty years now, Brad Meltzer has written best-selling thriller novels. And non-fiction. And comics books. And starred and produced his own TV shows. Indeed, it is tough to find anyone being so successful in so many different mediums of the popular culture. But why does Brad Meltzer thrive in all these different professions? Yes, it’s because he puts out quality (President Bill Clinton was one of his earliest fans). And yes, it’s because he fills his books with incredible research (President George HW Bush recently told USA Today, “All of Brad’s books are a fascinating read. He is a master storyteller who keeps all of us on the edge of our seats.”) But still, of all the fiction authors out there, why did the HISTORY Channel decide to give Meltzer a TV show—and why do nearly two million viewers tune in for each show—making him one of America’s most accessible historians? Because people know EXACTLY what Brad Meltzer stands for. “I believe ordinary people change the world,” Meltzer says. And that is Brad Meltzer’s core belief. He doesn’t care where you went to school. Or how much money you make. That’s nonsense to him. Brad Meltzer believes in regular people and their ability to effect change in this world. And it is that core belief that runs through every one of his projects.

Rachel Botsman is an author and a visiting academic at the University of Oxford, Saïd Business School. She studies and teaches how technology is transforming trust between people and what that means for business and society. She defined the theory of “collaborative consumption” with her acclaimed book, What’s Mine is Yours (HarperCollins, 2010). The concept was subsequently named by TIME as one of the “Ten Ideas That Will Change the World” and by Thinkers50 as the 2015 Breakthrough Idea. Her TED talks on the subject have been viewed almost three million times. Rachel is a regular writer and commentator in leading international publications including the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Economist, Wired and more. She is recognized as one of the world’s top 20 speakers to keynote your conference by Monocle, one of the Most Creative People in Business by Fast Company and a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum. Recently, she joined the NRMA board as a specialist non-executive Director. She is currently writing a new book on a new era of trust to be published by Portfolio Penguin, October 2017.

Denise Lee Yohn delivers fresh ideas and clear-cut tools to build a breakthrough brand. She inspires and teaches business leaders to realize the full potential of their organizations. Blending a unique perspective, over twenty-five years of experience with world-class brands including Sony and Frito-Lay, and a talent for energizing audiences, Denise is a leading authority on building great brands and exceptional organizations. As author of the bestselling book What Great Brands Do and the new book FUSION, she cracks the code on how to achieve brand leadership.

Reflecting his interdisciplinary training in American Studies, which combined the fields of history, literature, and economics, Professor Kennedy's scholarship is notable for its integration of economic and cultural analysis with social and political history. His 1970 book, Birth Control in America: The Career of Margaret Sanger, embraced the medical, legal, political, and religious dimensions of the subject and helped to pioneer the emerging field of women's history. Over Here: The First World War and American Society (1980) used the history of American involvement in World War I to analyze the American political system, economy, and culture in the early twentieth century. Freedom From Fear: The American People in Depression and War (1999) recounts the history of the United States in the two great crises of the Great Depression and World War II.