With a medical, scientific, and philanthropic career that spans more than 30 years, Dr. Sue Desmond-Hellmann has devoted her life to improving the human condition through innovation. Most recently, she was the CEO of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, leading the organization’s vision for a world where every person has the opportunity to live a healthy, productive life. She was formerly the first female chancellor of University of California at San Francisco and spent 14 years at biotech firm Genentech, leading the development of a number of breakthrough medicines. An innovator and leader in life sciences, Dr. Desmond-Hellmann’s diverse training as an oncologist, scientist, and business executive leads to her endless curiosity about the world and her desire to change it for the better. In speeches, she shares her unique insights not only on revolutionizing global health, but also on effective and innovative leadership. Using lessons-learned as a trailblazing female leader of one of the world’s largest philanthropies, Dr. Desmond-Hellmann inspires audiences with her unparalleled perspective on how to foster an environment of collaboration and relentless innovation to drive disruptive solutions that make an impact.

Sophia Kianni is an Iranian-American environmentalist studying climate science and public policy at Stanford University. She is the founder and executive director of Climate Cardinals, an international nonprofit with 8,000 volunteers in 40+ countries working to translate climate information into over 100 languages. She represents the U.S as the youngest member on the inaugural United Nations Youth Advisory Group on Climate Change. Sophia’s work has been featured in news outlets including Forbes, CNN, Business Insider, BBC, NPR, ELLE, TIME Magazine, The Guardian, NBC, and even on the front page of The Washington Post. She was previously a fellow with PBS NewsHour and has written for news outlets such as MTV News, Cosmopolitan, Refinery 29, and Teen Vogue. She is a prolific public speaker and has spoken at universities across the country including Columbia University, UC Berkeley, Johns Hopkins, Cambridge University, and Harvard University. She gave her debut TED Talk as the closing speaker at the inaugural TED Countdown Conference. She has been named VICE Media's youngest Human of the Year, a National Geographic Young Explorer, and one of Teen Vogue's 21 under 21.

Sandra Taylor is CEO of Sustainable Business International LLC, a consulting business that assists clients at various stages of environmental sustainability and corporate social responsibility in the food and beverage sectors. Previously Sandra was a senior executive with Starbucks Coffee Company in Seattle, where she led global responsibility and sustainability in coffee and cocoa supply chains. She is the author of The Business of Sustainable Wine, published in July 2017. Sandra received her BA from Colorado Women’s college, JD from Boston University School of Law and MBA program from the Bordeaux School of Management/Kedge Business School in France.

Amy Harder is executive editor of Cipher by Breakthrough Energy. Amy is one of the top national energy and climate change reporters in the country, having built up a reputation of being a uniquely balanced and influential journalist with respect across the spectrum. She joined Breakthrough Energy in early 2021 to help launch Cipher, a publication covering the opportunities and challenges of the energy transition.

Kathy Varol is an expert at driving profit with purpose. Kathy created the Global Purpose (corporate social responsibility) strategy for adidas, a 22 billion dollar global company. Now Kathy helps her clients use purpose to stand out in a competitive environment, attract the best talent, gain consumer loyalty, and fully harness the innovative brainpower of their employees (innovation that keeps them miles ahead of the competition). She shares her deep knowledge and “how-to” with clients, so they can skip the hard lessons and go straight to strategies that work. Kathy has 20 years of experience across brand marketing, strategy, and impact, working at established brands like adidas, MillerCoors, and Microsoft. Through her experience, Kathy has developed a repeatable 4-step process to become a purpose-led brand: The Brand Purpose Model. When businesses embed purpose into the heart of their strategy, they don’t just disrupt their industry. They also bring humanity into the workplace, shape the future, and impact the world.

Marga Hoek is a member of Thinkers50, she is that rare combination: a true visionary on sustainable business and capital and a successful, innovative business leader who understands and applies the commercial realities of business. Operating at the highest level with ministers and presidents, Marga is a global voice for G20, G7 Climate Change and Cop 23 and a regular contributor for prestigious, global media like Forbes Magazine, Fortune and The Huffington Post. Her latest book The Trillion Dollar Shift, on the business opportunities of the Sustainable Development Goals, received an international, gold medal.

Lisa Jaster is one of only three women to graduate from the first integrated United States Army Ranger program, which is one of the most difficult combat training courses in the world, and she was the first female Army Reserve officer to become Ranger qualified. Lisa continues to demonstrate that barriers are meant to be broken and exemplifies how perseverance and hard work are absolutely essential to achieving your goals. Filled with humorous stories and moving anecdotes, her talks leave audiences inspired to push past adversity no matter the cost and better their lives.

A 21-year veteran of the United States Air Force, Colonel Nicole Malachowski (USAF, Ret.) wanted to fly military jets from the moment she saw them at her first air show when she was five years old. She achieved that goal – and then some. A leader, a combat veteran, the first woman pilot on the Thunderbirds Air Demonstration Squadron, an instructor, a White House Fellow, and an inductee into the Women in Aviation International Pioneer Hall of Fame, Nicole’s Air Force career exceeded her wildest dreams.

Katie Ledecky is a 10-time Olympic Medalist (seven Gold, three Silver) and 21-time World Championship Gold Medalist, the most for any female swimmer. She has broken 14 World Records and 37 American Records in her career. Katie was the most decorated female athlete at both Tokyo and Rio Games and had the most decorated single Olympics performance ever by a U.S. female athlete in Rio. Katie’s success has earned her USA Swimming’s Golden Goggles Award as Female Swimmer of the Year an unprecedented eight times. A recent graduate of Stanford University, Katie is passionate about the importance of education, especially STEM and leadership programs for girls. Katie went home with more hardware at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics - two gold medals and two silver medals, making her the most decorated female swimmer in individual events of all time. She also made history by winning gold at the first ever 1500m women’s event.

Widely respected as an innovator in unlocking high performance in teams and individuals, Dr. Wendy Borlabi possesses expert-level understanding of the mental aspects of peak performance and works alongside the world’s top athletes to help them reframe their mindsets to reach their full potential. She is the director of performance and mental health for the Chicago Bulls where her mindset-centered philosophy to mastering your field is embedded in the team’s success and prevalent at all levels of the organization and its culture. A leading sports psychologists and performance coach, Dr. Borlabi is also an independent consultant with the NBA and is the founder of performance psychology firm Borlabi Consulting, through which she advises organizations in any industry on teamwork, elevating mental toughness, and inspiring unwavering confidence in their teams. Previously, she served as senior sports psychologist for the United States Olympic Committee (USOC), preparing the country’s top athletes for dominant performances at two Winter Olympics and one Summer Olympics.

Tracy Walder shares her incredible true story of a young woman who went straight from her college sorority to the CIA where, as a covert operative for CIA’s Counterterrorism Center, she assumed aliases, thwarted terrorist attacks, and debriefed terrorists at black sites. After the CIA, she went on to become one of the few women to work both at the CIA and FBI, serving as a Special Agent at the FBI's Los Angeles Field Office and specializing in Chinese counterintelligence operations. Walder details her riveting journey with audiences, offering her unique perspective of a woman in the male-dominated field of special operations. A TED speaker, Walder expertly discusses a range of topics including national security, foreign policy, education, and the role of women in law enforcement and intelligence and shares her impactful message: don't try to change who you are to fit what you think the job wants you to be.

Nikkia Reveillac is a trailblazing executive insights and innovation leader, business consultant, podcast host, and speaker. She has overcome significant obstacles throughout her career to deliver exceptional results at some of the world’s most influential tech, entertainment, and consumer packaged goods companies. She has drawn upon her creative background as a professional dancer, her unique multicultural perspective as a Caribbean woman, her entrepreneurial instincts, two decades of experience building global industry-leading teams, and her distinctly humane way of framing all manner of questions to bring meaningful transformation everywhere she has been. Reveillac was instrumental in helping Netflix define its first-ever brand promise, created a safer organizational culture at Twitter during the tumultuous pandemic years and 2020 U.S. election cycle, helped develop innovative oral care solutions for consumers in Sub-Saharan Africa at Colgate, grew high-performing and emotionally intelligent teams at all of her companies, and was the first to launch an online marketplace for Trinidad Carnival costumes. Today, she advises businesses of all sizes to leverage research, data, and insights for disruptive innovation and brand building, and she mentors junior and senior talent for career growth.