Dedicated to creating the conscious workplace for tomorrow, Virginia “Ginny” Clarke is a seasoned executive recruiter who has advised at the highest levels of corporate America for decades. A proven expert in driving diverse leadership, she is the former director of executive recruiting at Google, where she led the company’s diversity, non-tech recruiting, and leadership internal mobility teams – finding and hiring senior leaders across the company. She also built a scaled internal mobility program for Google’s senior leaders and designed much of the infrastructure that supports their executive recruiting function today. In speeches, Clarke draws on her unparalleled experience assessing thousands of executives inside corporate C-Suites and boardrooms to bring a unique, holistic five-dimensional approach to true leadership that is essential now more than ever. She delivers “no-holds-barred” discussions on the root causes that lead to a lack of diversity in organizations, and provides the integrated solutions that anyone can use to affect change.

Doug Rauch, a legendary former president of Trader Joe’s, was instrumental in leading the company’s transformation from a 7/11 knockoff to what Fortune magazine called the “hottest retailer in the U.S.” In eye-opening presentations, he shares insights on building a great business based on culture, innovation, leadership, and teamwork. He shows leaders how to push for new and better ways to perform, and audiences walk away with knowledge of how to create a self-sustaining culture of innovation, build a brand in a competitive marketplace, and lead with a purpose.

Future-of-work strategist Heather E. McGowan helps leaders prepare their people and organizations for the post pandemic world. As a keynote speaker, Heather gives lucidity to complex topics through her research rich, graphic frameworks, and powerful metaphors. In 2017, LinkedIn ranked her as its #1 global voice for education and in 2020 McGowan was listed as one of the Top 50 Female Futurists in Forbes. NYT columnist Thomas Friedman describes her as “the oasis” when it comes to insights into the future of work. McGowan is the coauthor of The Adaptation Advantage (April 2020) and the Empathy Advantage (March 2023).

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.

Susan David Ph.D. is one of the world’s leading management thinkers and an award-winning psychologist at Harvard Medical School. Co-founder and co-director of the Institute of Coaching at Harvard/McLean Hospital and an authority on leadership, organizational culture, and success, she has been named to the 2017 Thinkers50 Radar list; the thinkers most likely to shape the future of how organizations are managed and led, and is a highly-sought speaker and scientific adviser. She is the author of the acclaimed Emotional Agility, an Amazon Best Book of the Year, Axiom Business Book Award Medalist, and a Nominee for the Books for a Better Life Award 2017. Dr. David and Emotional Agility have been featured in The New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, New York Magazine, TIME, Business Insider, Fast Company, MSNBC, INC.com, Forbes, Strategy + Business, National Public Radio (Here & Now), PBS News Hour, Harvard Business Review and many other leading publications. Dr. David’s academic books include: The Oxford Handbook of Happiness (Oxford University Press) and Beyond Goals (Gower). Dr. David lives outside Boston with her family.

Kristel Bauer is a corporate wellness expert and TEDx speaker with a mission of supporting companies and Individuals on their journeys for more happiness, success & well-being. With Kristel's unique background in Integrative Psychiatry, business and media, she provides invaluable strategies to empower, inspire and motivate companies, groups and organizations. Using a blend of authenticity, Psychology & Science, Kristel provides insights to excel in sales and thrive as a team leader.

Stephanie is Owner & CEO of Asutra, where we're passionate about helping people take care of themselves on purpose so they can get the most out of life – what we call active self-care. Asutra offers magnesium-powered remedies for pain relief, sleep and mood, so you can care for yourself well. At Asutra, we’re proud to provide good jobs with career pathways at a living wage with benefits. Asutra is women-owned and women-led; 60% of our team are people of color; and 100% of our staff would recommend Asutra as a great place to work. Stephanie is an enthusiastic board member of Hope Chicago, which sends students and their parents to college debt-free; Very Asian Foundation, which amplifies AANHPI stories; and Naturally Chicago, which creates an ecosystem for natural products companies to thrive. Stephanie was honored to be named to Inc.’s Female Founders 200 list in 2023 and Beacon Award Entrepreneur of the Year in 2021. In her spare time, she’s an avid urban gardener who grows everything from tomatoes to lilacs.

Frances West is an internationally-recognized thought leader, inspirational speaker, strategy advisor, author, and women in technology trailblazer known for her work in innovation, technology, and business transformation. She is the founder of FrancesWestCo, a global strategy advisory company focused on operationalizing inclusion as a business and technology imperative through her unique Authentic Inclusion™ blueprint. Her insightful and impactful approach comes from her unique personal background as a first-generation, no-English speaking immigrant to her trailblazing professional path as one of the first women in the technology field and her experience as a global executive in sales, marketing, business development, and research as well as her ground-breaking work in accessibility as IBM’s first Chief Accessibility Officer. Frances brings a valuable business perspective to this human rights-based initiative. Because of her expertise, she was invited as the sole IT industry representative to testify before the US Senate on the need to pass the UN Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities and she holds an honorary doctorate from the University of Massachusetts in Boston in recognition of her work in accessibility, research, and digital inclusion.

Keynote speaker John Jacobs is co-founder and CCO (Chief Creative Optimist) of Life is Good, which spreads the power of optimism through inspiring art, a passionate community, and groundbreaking nonprofit work. John and his brother Bert launched their business with $78 in their pockets, selling T-shirts in the streets of Boston and at college dorms up and down the East Coast. Today, Life is Good is a $100 million positive lifestyle brand sold by over 2,000 retailers across the US and Canada. John provides the creative vision to guide the art and messaging direction of Life is Good to inspire optimism in everyone the brand touches. To inspire others to choose optimism and grow the good in their lives, John and Bert wrote Life is Good: The Book/ How to Live with Purpose and Enjoy the Ride, published by National Geographic in September 2015. 

Harry Kraemer, Jr. is professor of management and strategy at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management, where he teaches in the MBA and the Executive MBA programs. Additionally, he is an executive partner with Madison Dearborn Partners (MDP), one of the largest private equity firms in the United States where he consults with CEOs and other senior executives of companies in MDP’s extensive portfolio. Harry is the former chairman and chief executive officer of Baxter International Inc., a multi-billion-dollar global healthcare company. He was voted by the students at Kellogg as the Professor of the Year in 2008 and was a finalist for the award in 2014.