With a career devoted to understanding how humans make risk decisions, Andy Ellis is a seasoned technology executive with deep expertise in security. An advisor to several cyber security startups, including Orca, Vulcan, and Uptycs, he currently serves as an advisor at cyber security venture capital firm, YL Ventures. Ellis formerly served as the chief security officer of web and internet security company Akamai. In his 20 years with Akamai, he helped to design and bring to market several of the company’s core technologies behind its security solutions. Combining more than 20 years of security experience with insider anecdotes from his time serving as CSO, he explores how and why humans make risk choices and decisions – and their impact on security.

Judy Smith is the real-world "Olivia Pope" from the hit television show, "Scandal." After television writer Shonda Rhimes met Smith, she was inspired by the fast-paced environment that Smith operated in. Smith's work combines communication skills, media savvy, legal and political acumen to protect and save many important figure's reputations.

---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.

Dr. Sahar Yousef is a cognitive neuroscientist and faculty at UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business. After spending over a decade doing Department of Defense research on neuroplasticity and how to improve memory, attention, and overall human performance in as little as 7 weeks, Sahar now researches and teaches busy leaders and their teams how to be more productive and effective at work. At Berkeley, Sahar runs the Becoming Superhuman Lab (featured in Forbes and Business Insider) and teaches one of the most popular MBA classes, called "Becoming Superhuman: The Science of Productivity and Performance". Sahar has become one of the world’s leading experts on cognitive training and is featured as a top scientist in the Headspace wellbeing app (used by over 2 million people every day). In 2021, Sahar produced a multi-part video series with John Legend on the science of music and its impact on our focus and emotions. She was also recently selected by Thinkers50 as one of the top 30 thinkers to watch throughout 2024 and the year ahead.

Lisa Bodell is one of the world’s leading experts on innovation. She has created a unique approach to a complicated topic and helps organizations become world-class innovators. She is the founder and CEO of futurethink and the author of the best-selling book, Kill the Company. Her presentations are fun and memorable. She is interactive and includes quick exercises that are simple but amazingly effective at demonstrating how people resist change even when they think they’re open to it. Bodell leaves her audiences with the tools, tricks, and resources to start innovating immediately.

Mona Patel is a dynamic, engaging entrepreneur with 17 years experience convincing leaders at some of the world’s biggest brands to understand, value, and optimize their customers’ experiences. She is the author of the bestseller, Reframe: Shift the Way You Work, Innovate, and Think, which inspires others and offers an actionable roadmap to innovation.

William McNulty is the Founder & CEO of Team Rubicon Global and the Co-Founder of Team Rubicon USA. Team Rubicon a nonprofit that utilizes the skills and experiences of military veterans to rapidly deploy emergency response teams in the wake of natural disasters. A Marine Veteran who served for nine years in both the infantry and intelligence, he worked for the Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence, the Defense Intelligence Agency, and the National Security Council’s Iraq Threat Finance Cell.

Juan Carlos Zarate, Esq. served as the Deputy Assistant to the President and Deputy National Security Advisor for Combating Terrorism from 2005 to 2009. In this role, Mr. Zarate was responsible for developing and overseeing the effective implementation of the U.S. government's counterterrorism strategy. He was also responsible for overseeing all policies related to transnational security threats, including counternarcotics, maritime security, hostages, international organized crime, money laundering, and critical energy infrastructure protection.

From Navy SEALs to legislative and policy experts, the McChrystal Group brings a wealth of practical leadership experience in running multi-national, multi-agency, culturally diverse, and geographically dispersed organizations. From the battlefield to the boardroom, McChrystal Group has assembled the best leadership practices into a transformational leadership system called CrossLead

Vincent K. Brooks is a retired four-star general who was in command of all US Forces in Korea, where he concurrently commanded United Nations Command as well as the Republic of Korea. A graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point, he led the 4,000 cadets as the cadet brigade commander or “First Captain.” A history-maker, Brooks is the first African American to have been chosen for this paramount position. He is also the eighth African American in history to attain the military’s top rank—four-star general in the United States Army. Widely respected as a speaker and leader of cohesive, innovative organizations, within and beyond the military, his areas of expertise are: leadership in complex organizations, crisis leadership, and building cohesive trust-based teams, national security, policy, strategy, international relations, military operations, combating terrorism and countering the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, as well as diversity and inclusion.

Tall and thin, with remarkable onscreen energy and ease, the actor possessed intense malleable features that he used to good effect in both dramatic and comedic roles. Despite this gift, he surprisingly began his career with off-screen pursuits. Jones worked as writer and story editor for NBC's college-set comedy "A Different World" from 1991 to 1992. In 2000, he took on a role in a sports-themed feature set in the recent past in "The Replacements" and in 2002, Jones portrayed a band director out to prove that he has the best band/drumline that the historical black colleges and universities have to offer in the drama "Drumline." Jones has appeared in numerous television series including "Rules of Engagement," "Necessary Roughness," "House M.D." and "Pushing Daisies."

Dr. Sahar Yousef and Lucas Miller are both cognitive neuroscientists, as well as faculty at UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business. They teach one of the most popular MBA classes at Cal, called “Becoming Superhuman: The Science of Productivity and Performance”, and have been featured in Forbes, Wired, The Wall Street Journal, and Business Insider. At Berkeley, Sahar and Lucas co-run the Becoming Superhuman Lab, which conducts research on how to help busy leaders and their teams get their most important done, in less time, and with less stress. Since COVID began, Sahar and Lucas have given over 700 talks and keynotes to knowledge workers in 50+ countries, have advised executive teams at Google, JPM, Deloitte, American Express, and Visa, and have been invited to speak to the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia. Known for their fast-paced, high-energy style and their science-backed practical tactics, this dynamic duo is consistently rated as the #1 session at events, particularly within the technology, financial services, and private equity industries.