A NASA astronaut, Joan Higginbotham is a trailblazing electrical engineer who in December 2006, flew aboard Space Shuttle Discovery to become the third African American woman to travel into space. Over the nearly 13-day mission, she joined the seven-member crew to continue construction of the International Space Station (ISS), embarking on four space walks and operating the station’s robotic arm. Sharing captivating insights from her 20-year distinguished career with NASA, Higginbotham inspires audiences with her personal journey of breaking barriers into space and beyond. Taking groups aboard the International Space Station and sharing her lessons-learned along the way, she highlights the keys to succeeding in her missions – including preparation, perseverance, and never giving up – and how these tactics can be applied to any endeavor.

Cassandra “Cassi” Chandler is an innovator, strategist, investigator, and leader who has broken barriers, led diverse teams, and built cultures of motivational leadership and inclusivity at some of the world’s most important organizations, including Bank of America and the FBI. In a career that has included many “firsts” across the U.S. government and financial services industries, she served as the FBI’s first African American female special agent assistant director as well as the Bureau’s first female national spokesperson and director of public and community affairs. In addition to defining the tools motivational leaders need to mindfully build more high-performing cultures, Chandler provides actionable insights on how to move the needle while leading with empathy.

A globally recognized brand-building innovator and a champion both of creativity and challenging the status quo in the workplace, Marisa Thalberg is 1 of only 18 to be inducted into the Forbes CMO Hall of Fame. She is considered one of the most dynamic and versatile marketing executives in the field, displaying versatility and adaptability that has led to her being an exceedingly successful leader in a diverse portfolio of industries, ranging from luxury beauty (The Estée Lauder Companies) and fast food (Taco Bell) to big box retail (Lowe’s Home Improvement) and theme parks and entertainment (SeaWorld/Busch Gardens). Her passionate advocacy for women at work led her on the path to social entrepreneurship as the founder of Executive Moms, an organization created to connect and support accomplished women who are both professionals and moms. In this capacity, Thalberg became an early leading voice and supporter for women, and particularly mothers, in the workplace, appearing across a range of media outlets including The TODAY Show, FOX, CNN, NBC News, and many more.

The first African-American woman to hold the top policing job in Seattle, Washington, Carmen Best served with the Seattle Police Department for 28 years. In 2018, Best was promoted to Chief of Police, a job she called “a dream of a lifetime.” Best quickly began efforts to diversify the police force, which had long been less diverse than the city, recruiting more than 40 new officers of color. Chief Best speaks on diversity, inclusion, and leadership lessons-learned guiding a police department during times of crisis.

A forward-thinking expert on the digital future and the possibilities new technology presents to reshape society and the ways businesses operate, Melanie Subin is a leading futurist who provides strategic foresight, insights development, corporate innovation and transformation strategies, and strategic management and design processes that help to position organizations in every industry for sustainable success. Subin currently serves as the managing director for the Future Today Institute, a foresight and strategy firm founded by world-renowned futurist Amy Webb that leverages research, signals, and trends to help businesses reduce uncertainty and prepare for plausible futures. Throughout her career, she has assessed the impact of major external forces, such as climate change, increased technological sophistication, changing consumer and business preferences, and rising connectivity on the risks and opportunities facing small, medium, and large businesses across the globe.

One of the most dynamic minds on the frontlines in the battle to keep the digital sphere safe for all, Tarah Wheeler is an information security executive, white hat hacker, and social scientist who equips organizations and individuals with the knowledge and tools they need to safeguard their data and reputations. Her experiences as a cybersecurity executive, advisor, and thought leader extend across various industries and institutions — from technology and commerce to government and academia. In her daily work, she develops and implements comprehensive cybersecurity programs at some of the world’s most important and complex organizations, advises on global cyber policy, and serves as a leading voice for the advancement of women in tech.

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.

Jane Park is the CEO and Founder of Tokki, a social & sustainable gifting technology company. Merging reusable physical giftwrap with a digital social experience, Tokki is reinventing gift giving to make the experience unforgettable.

Linda Bernardi lives and breathes technology disruption and innovation. She is currently Co-Founder and CEO of XdMind Inc., a revolutionary company using AI to dynamically adapt music to video gaming. Today, technology is evolving like never before, and Linda is involved in creating cutting-edge technologies across all sectors, including finance, retail, healthcare, high-tech, logistics, automotive, consumer goods, and all others. Her focus is to enable all enterprises to imagine, disrupt, innovate at record pace, and make the impossible become possible. She works with startups all around the globe, as well as large companies, to enable and inspire enterprises to build a culture of mindful innovation. She loves to practice the beautiful Art of Imagination – the first step towards innovation. Linda believes that the best ideas are the ‘crazy’ ideas, stemming from a keen sense of unbounded imagination, and she works to unleash people’s imaginations.

Keren Elazari is an internationally recognized cyber security analyst, author, and researcher with more than 20 years of experience in the cyber security field. Keren covers emerging security technologies and trends as an independent strategic advisor, working with leading technology providers, government agencies, innovative start-ups, and Fortune 500 companies. In 2014, Keren became the first Israeli woman to speak at the prestigious TED Conference. Keren’s talk has been viewed by millions, translated to 30 languages, and chosen for TED’s ‘Most Powerful Ideas’. Today, Keren’s TED talk is still one of TED’s most watched talks on the topic of security and hacking. Keren holds a CISSP certification and a Masters in Security Studies, and is a senior researcher at the Interdisciplinary Cyber Research Center at Tel Aviv University . Keren is the founder of Israel’s largest security research community event, BSidesTLV, part of the global SecurityBSides movement, and the Leading Cyber Ladies, a global professional network for Women in Cyber Security.

Asha Rangappa is a Senior Lecturer at the Yale University’s Jackson Institute for Global Affairs and a former Associate Dean at Yale Law School. Asha served as a Special Agent in the New York Division of the FBI, specializing in counterintelligence investigations. Her work involved assessing threats to national security, conducting classified investigations on suspected foreign agents, and performing undercover work. Asha has published op-eds in The New York Times, The Atlantic, and The Washington Post, among others, and has appeared on NPR, BBC, and several major television networks. She is an editor for Just Security and is currently a legal and national security analyst for CNN.

Sharanjit Leyl regularly anchors Asia Business Report and Newsday from the BBC's Singapore studio. She is also a reporter and producer on these shows along with World Business Report. She has filed reports for radio on the BBC World Service business and arts programmes and written features for BBC news online.