Few people have had the influence that Elliott Harris has had in shaping economic development and policy across the globe through the course of his distinguished 34-year career in international economics. Harris is the former United Nations assistant secretary-general for economic development and chief economist who has been closely involved in the design of the global Sustainable Development Agenda and the policies aimed at reducing poverty, generating more equitable social outcomes and environmental sustainability, and creating resilient and sustainable development. He brings this unparalleled expertise into the analysis of what’s happening now and what’s ahead in the global economic landscape.

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.

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.

John Wood is the founder and board chair of Room to Read. He started Room to Read after a fast-paced and distinguished career with Microsoft from 1991 to 1999. John continues to bring Room to Read a vision for a scalable solution to developing global educational problems with an intense focus on results and an ability to attract a world-class group of employees, volunteers, and funders. Today, John focuses full-time on long-term strategy, capital acquisition, public speaking, and media opportunities for the organization. John also teaches at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and New York University’s Stern School of Business and serves on the Advisory Board of the Clinton Global Initiative.

Lauren DeLisa Coleman is part of the new technorati-to-watch. A digi-cultural trend analyst, mobile strategy specialist, author, speaker, and consultant, Lauren is an expert at deciphering and forecasting power trends and public sentiment within the intersection of popular culture and emerging tech and the impact of such on business and governance—with a unique focus on millennials. She helps brands create messaging and content that better resonates with today’s tech-savvy, pop culture millennial consumers by providing innovative communication strategies, as well as forecast, analysis, and insight into cultural trends, attitudes, and behavior as it all intersects with emerging tech usage. A successful innovator, thought leader, and entrepreneur with over 14 years of experience, Lauren has provided digi-culture intelligence and trend consulting to notable clients from Jay-Z and Snoop Dog to Microsoft execs and public policy leaders. She is an on-air commentator for MSNBC, a columnist at Inc. magazine, and a regular contributor to Forbes. She also contributes to other major media outlets, such as Daily Beast, cnbc.com, The Next Web, Business Insider, and Campaigns & Elections.

Elizabeth Gore is the Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Dell, where she drives initiatives that support Dell’s goals around helping small and medium businesses scale and prosper, fueling the expansion of global entrepreneurship. She is Chairman of the Board for Alice, the world's first AI tool for entrepreneurs, which provides founders with services to help them scale and succeed. Finally, she chairs the United Nations Foundation’s Global Entrepreneurs Council and builds global partnerships that positively affect the UN’s most pressing humanitarian issues.

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.

Nikki Greenberg is an innovation strategist and thought-leader for the real estate industry. She helps real estate owners, investors and developers build a better future by uncovering opportunities that exist at the convergence of real space and cyber space. Through her consultancy Real Estate of the Future, Nikki works with real estate executives to bring their assets into alignment with the increasingly digitised way that people live, work and communicate, by creating a culture of innovation. Nikki entered the property industry through her established career in architecture, having worked with Lend Lease and Koichi Takada Architects with a focus on luxury developments and mixed-used masterplans, in USA, Australia and China. Her ability to think laterally to find smart design solutions is complemented by her strong business acumen. She previously lead the marketing team of the Fortune-500 global developer Greenland Holdings in Australia where she launched Park Sydney, a $US1.2 billion mixed-use project in inner-Sydney. In 2017 she moved to New York to work with Brown Harris Stevens on luxury new development campaigns. Nikki is passionate and devoted to charitable and not-for-profit endeavours. She is co-chair of ULI New York's Technology and Innovation Council. She also leads Women in PropTech the leading global PropTech education and networking organization, which she founded in 2018. In 2021 she was recognised as a Top 25 Most Influential CRE Innovators, and in 2020 as a Top 100 Real Estate Professional. In 2005 Nikki could be found in Thailand rebuilding villages affected by the South East Asian Tsunami. Nikki holds a Master of Commerce (International Business), Master of Architecture, and Bachelor of Architecture with Honours, all from the UNSW in Sydney, Australia. She has received numerous honours and accolades for her work and is a frequent contributor in the media and keynote speaker at leading industry conferences around the globe.

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. 

Chrissa Pagitsas is a strategic advisor, keynote speaker, and author. She advises senior executives and boards on the intersection of environmental, social, governance (ESG) and global business. She is the author of the book "Chief Sustainability Officers at Work" (Apress, 2022) which explores the leadership strategies of Chief Sustainability Officers and Heads of ESG at Fortune 500 companies including BlackRock, The Coca-Cola Company, Duke Energy, and Procter & Gamble.

Alex Edmans is Professor of Finance at London Business School. Alex graduated from Oxford University and then worked for Morgan Stanley in investment banking (London) and fixed income sales and trading (New York). After a PhD in Finance from MIT Sloan as a Fulbright Scholar, he joined Wharton in 2007 and was tenured in 2013 shortly before moving to LBS.