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.

Bert Jacobs is the co-founder and Chief Executive Optimist of The Life is good Company. A $100 million privately held business based in Boston, MA, Life is good® spreads positive vibes with its colorful collection of apparel and accessories. Jake, Life is good’s iconic hero with the contagious smile, teaches men, women and children that optimism is fun, healthy, and empowering. Bert has appeared on CNN’s Tips from the Top, CNBC’s Business Nation, and The Donny Deutch Show. Life is good has been featured in the New York Times, on the cover of Inc Magazine, and on NBC’s The Today Show.

Erik Weihenmayer is a world-class adventurer, the first blind man to summit Mount Everest, and one of only 150 mountaineers to climb the Seven Summits. His latest and most demanding adventure is kayaking the 277 miles of the Grand Canyon. One of the most exciting and well-known athletes in the world, he never let his lack of vision interfere with his quality of life. Weihenmayer’s feats have earned him incredible press coverage and dozens of awards. He is also the author of two books and addresses leadership, teamwork, overcoming adversity, motivation, and inspiration.

Dr. William W. Li is an international expert on health and disease fighting based on diet, lifestyle, and treatments that keep the body’s blood vessels in balance. Dr. Li’s expertise extends across many health arenas including cancer, diabetes, blindness, heart disease, wound healing, and more than 70 other disease conditions. His work has been recognized by O Magazine, The Atlantic, USA Today, The New York Times, TIME Magazine, Wall Street Journal, and CNN, as well as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Clinton Global Initiative. His latest book Eat to Beat Disease was released March 2019 and is a New York Times Best-seller as well as Amazon #1 best-seller.

An adventurer, record-setter, and boundary-breaker, Darcy Gaechter is best known as the first woman - and member of the first team - to kayak the Amazon River from source to sea. The journey required her crew to paddle over 4,000 miles across the widest part of South America, a voyage that took 148 days to complete. She is also the author of The Kayaker’s Guide to Ecuador and Amazon Woman, an adventure memoir detailing her Amazon River expedition and the life challenges she faced to get there – the rights of which have been purchased to turn her story into a movie. Gaechter inspires audiences with her personal journey of overcoming obstacles and making the impossible possible – sharing useful tactics to take on even the most daunting of challenges and demonstrating how a strong belief in yourself and in your goal are key ingredients to any success.

As a motivational keynote speaker, author, and entrepreneur, Laura Gassner Otting helps innovators, idealists, and iconoclasts get “unstuck”, increase confidence, and achieve extraordinary results. Laura inspires change agents, entrepreneurs, investors, leaders, and donors to push past the doubt and indecision that keeps great ideas in limbo. She delivers strategic thinking, well-honed wisdom, and catalytic perspective informed by decades of navigating change across the start-up, non-profit, political, and philanthropic landscapes. Laura dares listeners to find their voice, and generate the confidence needed to tackle larger-than-life challenges, and ultimately leads them to seek new ways of leading, managing, and mentoring others. Excited by the audacity of The Big Idea and the larger-than-life goal you just can’t seem to shake, she's an instigator, a motivator, and a provocateur, and she’s never met a revolution she didn’t like.

Molly Bloom is an inspirational keynote speaker, entrepreneur, and bestselling author of Molly’s Game. She is best known for her memoir, Molly’s Game, which was adapted into an award-winning film of the same name by Aaron Sorkin. Bloom’s memoir chronicles her journey from college student to LA waitress to building and operating the largest and most notorious private poker game in the world. Her games featured hundreds of millions of dollars and players like Leonardo DiCaprio, Tobey Maguire, A-Rod, and Ben Affleck. Bloom began her career as a world-class skier. While training as a pre-teen she was diagnosed with severe scoliosis and had to undergo surgery that the doctors said would end her athletic career. A year later, fully recovered, she was back on the slopes. She later joined the U.S. Ski Team and at 21 years old was ranked No. 3 in North America in moguls, but her Olympic dreams would go unrealized as she left the team to pursue other projects. This led her to what she thought would be a year sabbatical in LA. Bloom was finishing her degree in Political Science from the University of Colorado – Boulder, and was in the process of applying to top tier Law Schools, when her assistant job turned her into an accidental entrepreneur, running one of the most exclusive, high-stakes underground poker games in the world, pulling in as much as $4 million per year. What happened next is where her story truly begins. The film Molly’s Game, written and directed by Aaron Sorkin, stars Jessica Chastain (as Molly), Idris Elba, Kevin Costner, Michael Cera, Brian d’Arcy James, and Chris O’Dowd. Bloom has appeared on numerous shows and in media outlets such as Ellen, Vice, The Los Angeles Times, NPR, Vulture, and has been asked to speak at Fortune’s Most Powerful Women, for companies like Blackrock Financial, SiriusXM Radio, and will deliver the 2018 commencement speech at Colorado State University. Bloom is now focused on building WeWork for female entrepreneurs. For years

Steve Baskis is an inspirational blind veteran and adventurer. Just eight months into his deployment to Iraq, his squad was attacked. A roadside bomb severely wounded Baskis, but, despite his injuries, he amazed his doctors with his recovery and attitude. An “adrenaline junkie,” he was eager to test his potential and push the boundaries of what disabled people are perceived capable of doing. He has since competed in athletic competitions and summited mountains. Baskis addresses motivation, inspiration, overcoming adversity, humanitarian efforts, and pushing the limits of human potential.

Patrick Sweeney is an entrepreneur, angel investor, and world-record holder. He comes from the blue-collar suburbs of Boston and paid his way through state school, where he discovered rowing. He finished 2nd in the Olympic trials and earned a Top 5 MBA near the top of his class where he caught the entrepreneurial bug. He started three technology companies, sold them for millions, and left it all behind after battling a rare form of leukemia. He has used research to unlock the secrets of feat and peak performance, creating a framework to teach anyone how to achieve the life of their dreams. His mission now is to help people use fear to transform their lives and their organizations. Sweeney’s speeches demonstrate this framework with inspirational examples and actionable tips to power positive change using neuroscience, entrepreneurship, and adventures.

How do you turn a t-shirt brand that’s sold from the trunk of a rusty car into a global, multi-million dollar business? Johnny Earle transformed Johnny Cupcakes into one of the world’s fastest growing independent businesses. Businessweek named him America’s No. 1 young entrepreneur, and he has been profiled by the New York Times, NPR, MTV, Forbes, Newsweek, the Boston Globe, and INC. By focusing on the customer experience (he wants buying a t-shirt to feel like your birthday), he created such a unique brand that consumers would (and do) line up around the block for his shirts.

Dan Cnossen is a Paralympic biathlete, cross-country skier, and former Navy SEAL platoon commander. In the fall of 2003, Dan became one of only 16 members from his Naval Academy class to enter the Navy SEAL program. Over the next six years, Dan was deployed multiple times to Iraq and Afghanistan and rose in rank to become the officer-in-charge of an 18-man SEAL platoon. In 2009, while serving in an area of heavy combat in Afghanistan, Dan stepped on an IED, losing both legs in the blast. He would later be awarded a Purple Heart and Bronze Star with Valor. For the next two years Dan fought for his life, enduring over 40 different surgeries, while readjusting to civilian life. It was during this time, as part of his rehab, that he was introduced to the sports of cross-country skiing and biathlon. Never one to shy from a challenge, he eventually earned a spot on the 2014 U.S. Paralympic Team. In 2015, Dan returned to graduate school, earning two degrees from Harvard University. At the 2018 Paralympic Games, Dan stole the show, remarkably winning one gold, four silver, and one bronze medal over a period of eight days and earning the honor of Best Male Athlete of The Games.

Michael Corcoran is an expert on leadership and creating a productive work environment through attitude. Corcoran knows that "people will do more for their own ideas than they will for yours or mine...even if you and I have a better idea." Michael uses this powerful premise to pull information from attendees instead of pushing information to them.