Jim Donald – the current co-chairman and former CEO of Albertsons, and the former CEO of Starbucks, Haggen Food & Pharmacy, and Extended Stay Hotels – focuses on innovation, quality, and service. He started his career as a grocer; he was handpicked by Sam Walton to build a supermarket presence for Wal-Mart. He helped Starbucks enjoy record growth and performance and increase its social responsibility commitment. At Extended Stay Hotels, Donald utilizing his reputation for turning around ailing companies. Named one of the “Top 25 CEOs in the World,” he addresses leadership, management, the power of one customer.

Annie Duke is a former professional poker player where she has learned and refined the concepts of strategic decision making and she has learned to apply them to all facets of her life. She is an engaged activist and philanthropist and was one of the top poker players in the world for two decades. Annie writes, coaches, and speaks on a range of topics such as decision fitness, emotional control, productive decision groups, and embracing uncertainty. A regularly sought-after public speaker, she addresses thousands in keynote remarks at conferences for organizations ranging from the Investment Management Consultants Association to the Big Ten Conference.

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.

Bill Carr is a strategic business leader who has spent his career at the forefront of tech innovation. He is a former top-level executive at Amazon, where he worked for more than 15 years – much of it in the early aughts during the company’s period of unmatched innovation – launching and managing Amazon’s global digital music and video businesses, including Amazon Music, Prime Video, and Amazon Studios. Under his leadership, Amazon's digital media business grew into a global operation exceeding $1 billion in revenue as the company pushed to compete with Apple, Netflix, and Hulu. Carr is the co-author of Working Backwards, along with former Amazon executive Colin Bryar, which provides an insider's breakdown of Amazon's approach to culture, leadership, and best practices. Taking audiences inside the room, Carr demonstrates how the principles and practices key to “Being Amazonian” can be scaled and applied to any organization.

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.

Shawn Achor, author of The Happiness Advantage, spent over a decade at Harvard University where he won numerous distinguished teaching awards for his work. He graduated magna cum laude from Harvard and earned a Masters from Harvard Divinity School in Christian and Buddhist ethics. In 2006, he was Head Teaching Fellow for "Positive Psychology," which eclipsed “Intro Economics” as the most popular course at Harvard.

Originally from Kent in England, Liv Boeree is one of the most successful female poker players of all time, with over $3 million in live tournament earnings. She previously studied at the University of Manchester, achieving a first-class degree in Astrophysics, as well as being in demand as a model and TV presenter on a range of different shows.

What makes Mark Bryan one of the world’s leading futurists is his proven mastery advising organizations on the trends and tech that will disrupt their industries, and his inventive approaches for adapting to an ever-evolving business environment. He is the senior foresight manager at the Future Today Institute, a leading foresight and strategy firm founded by world renowned futurist Amy Webb. In his role, he supports leaders and their organizations in developing and implementing customized, forward-looking strategies that position them years ahead of their competitors and expedite their journeys to their desired futures. Bryan’s expertise spans across industries — having worked alongside national retail brands, higher education institutions, nonprofits, multi-family developers, and large corporate clients to evolve them from market leaders to market innovators.  

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.

Cristian deRitis is the deputy chief economist at Moody’s Analytics where he specializes in the analysis of current and future economic conditions, housing markets, and consumer credit. He publishes his analysis regularly on the Economic View website and is often quoted in publications such as The Wall Street Journal for his views on the economy. Cris is a certified risk management professional and writes a monthly column on risk management issues for the Global Association of Risk Professionals. 

Throughout his career, Mr. Oczkowski has worked at the intersection of where product development meets data science to forecast, predict, and analyze commercial markets and American elections. Prior to his work at Data Propria, Mr. Oczkowski also served as Head of Product for Cambridge Analytica where he most notably ran the team of embedded technical specialists inside the Trump Campaign that led to the scientific understanding of the eventual outcome of the election - a scenario that pundits missed. Using tactics from the worlds of: behavioral science, growth hacking, machine learning, sentiment analysis, and NLP, Mr. Oczkowski successfully connects behavioral dots together to make informed decisions about groups of people.

Mike has developed a unique perspective from 20+ years of working alongside a star studded list of world-renowned thought leaders, including: Dr. John Kotter, Dr. Stephen Covey, Tom Peters, Jim Kouzes, Hyrum Smith, Steve Farber and Chris McChesney. Mike served in senior leadership and consulting roles with Kotter International, FranklinCovey, and Tom Peters Company.