Regarded as the “CEO-Maker,” “DEI Professor,” and the “Cubicle to Corner Office Empress,” Dethra Giles is a workplace and career optimizer who advises organizations and individuals on how to chart their unique paths to success. She is a four-time TEDx speaker who has been named a “Top 100 HR Influencer” by Engagedly, and was selected by HR Gazette’s “HRchat” podcast as one of the “Top 22 Most Influential Figures in HR.” With clients including Kaiser Permanente, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), The Army Corp of Engineers, Louis Vuitton Moët Hennessy, the National Basketball Association (NBA), and the Salvation Army, Giles shares a unique blend of advanced education and industry experience that has been described as “university-tested and industry-approved,” and can be implemented by organizations of any size, and across industries.

With a master-level understanding of what it takes to survive and thrive in the workplace and how organizations can create more equitable spaces for all, Carice Anderson is a workplace development and success engineer who empowers individuals to strategically navigate their careers and advises some of the world’s top companies on aligning their talent strategies to their business objectives. As a director in leadership and manager development for a leading, multinational asset management firm, her work sits at the intersection of talent and leadership development, workplace evolution, and diversity, equity, and inclusion — helping individuals, teams, and organizations unlock the potential within and consistently perform at the highest levels.

Early on in my career, when my company was in the aftermath of a $5B acquisition, I almost quit. Fueled by frustration and stress, I found myself on the precipice of walking out of the office and never coming back. Had I done so, I would have become another statistic. Yet another African-American female departed from a STEM-driven industry. Top talent voluntarily resigning during a time of significant organizational shift. Another change victim. But I didn’t. Instead, I woke up one day and decided to view those feelings as a signal that I was sitting in a moment of opportunity. An opportunity to transform that chemistry, that feeling into something better. To choose every day to do something, say something, behave in some way that would move the needle of my work experience towards a better feeling. I didn’t know it at the time, but I was cultivating a teachable strategy to inspire anyone to become enthusiastic about change, to find their unique power of resilience during turbulent times. Today, I help organizations disrupt ‘change as usual’. Through a practical and repeatable framework, I show them how they can transform their culture from surviving change to growing through change.

An internationally recognized thought-leader on leadership, mindset, and generational dynamics in the workplace, Ryan Jenkins is a trusted advisor helping organizations of all sizes in any industry build mission-led, high-performance teams through connection, communication, and purpose. Jenkins’ insights have played a vital role in reshaping the DNA of some of the world’s most admired companies and kickstarting future-focused workplace transformations designed to enhance individual achievement in support of collective success. In his uniquely memorable presentations, he draws from his own research and analysis of emerging workplace trends to provide audiences with actionable and customized strategies for working, communicating, and leading across generations; attracting, retaining, and engaging top talent with diversity and inclusion in mind; and strengthening team connection and workplace happiness to inspire industry leading teams and equip them for the future of work.

---What is it that pushes us to perform at our best? Which people on our teams thrive in high-stress/high-stakes environments and which are always cool, and calm under pressure? Why does this matter and how can you use it to drive peak performance? After 3 years of interviewing more than 200 people including professional athletes, military officers, poker players, and psychologists, Rafi Kohan offer insights into the psychology of gamesmanship and how mental stress can be used to drive performance and behavior. This work, which culminated into the lively and hilarious read Trash Talk, The Only Book About Destroying Your Rivals That Isn’t Total Garbage, offers anecdotes from some of the world’s top competitors and the mind games that push them to outperform their opponents.

Tripp Crosby is a comedic host, inspirational speaker, and filmmaker who is at this very moment writing about himself in the third person. It’s very, very possible that you’ve seen his most popular comedy sketch called “A Conference Call in Real Life”. This video is one of, if not the most popular workplace related comedy sketches of all time and possibly the only YouTube video to ever go viral twice: Once when Tripp first created it in 2013 and again in 2020 when the painful experience of participating in conference calls became an even more relatable topic.

Rick Smith is a serial entrepreneur, leadership strategist, best-selling author, inspirational TED speaker, and one of world’s foremost authorities on innovation, leadership, and corporate transformation through disruptive technologies such as industrial 3D printing (additive manufacturing). His latest venture, Fast Radius, is an on-demand production platform which leverages 3D printing for global distributed manufacturing. In person, print, and practice, Rick inspires individuals and organizations around the world with leading edge insights on a number of topics surrounding disruptive technology, such as the predictable patterns of technology disruption, and the behaviors that enable leaders to successfully navigate complexity and change.

Afterburner Inc is a team of elite fighter pilots who help your team pursue flawless execution and take performance to the next level. The combination of sound organizational development and combat-proven methodologies has made Afterburner Inc one of the fastest growing training and consulting organizations in the country. The Flawless Execution Model is a proven process used by elite military professionals around the world to execute missions when the stakes are high and failure is not an option. Corporate success, like success in combat, depends on execution.

Dr. Mark DeVolder tackles the thorny topics of Leadership, Diversity, Conflict, Change and Communication - and shows people how to work better together, motivating audiences to new levels of achievement.

Nadia Bilchik is a well-known television news anchor, keynote speaker, trainer and communications consultant on several continents. She has anchored for the CNN Airport Network, and was the main anchor and special assignment reporter for MNET Television, the leading network in South Africa . She has also hosted various feature programs for CNN International. Nadia currently hosts a weekly business segment on CNN International’s “Inside Africa” and is a voice talent for CNNI.

Dr. Kim Hires is an international Keynote Speaker, Strategic Consultant, and Coach who is dedicated to leadership development and helping leaders achieve their highest potential. Her work focuses on burnout prevention and cultivating cultures of well-being which she has been doing for over a decade. Her client portfolio includes individuals and organizations across a variety of industries and sectors that generate over $1 billion in annual revenue. Dr. Kim is also the host of the Leadership Antidote Podcast and author of The Leadership Innovation Manifesto. When not working with leaders, Dr. Kim enjoys spending time with her husband and son in Atlanta, Georgia, USA.

Eric Termuende is empowering category-leading brands, associations, and leaders to navigate uncertainty and build thriving places to work. A seasoned keynote speaker and best-selling author, Eric Termuende has been on hundreds of stages all over the world speaking about workplace culture and one-degree shifts that build communities at work. An entrepreneur his entire life, Eric has surveyed and interviewed thousands of people and brings a fresh perspective to workplace culture and the future of work.